Star Wars Nightastically Delicious! ~ Updated 10/24: Nov PTR Started...Link in Siggie

[praisehisname]

I had heard it was crazy on SWW, but...wow... I'm trying to think if there is anything I like enough to brave those crowds...

You got some great pics around Pop! It was so quiet!

Is the Disney cult food a turkey leg?

 

[Goofy442]

Can you get more than one autograph, or did they say one per person? How hot was it when you were done there. My DS said yesterday it was 95 but with the humidity it was 105.

 

[karebear23]

Can you get more than one autograph, or did they say one per person? How hot was it when you were done there. My DS said yesterday it was 95 but with the humidity it was 105.

The heat index here has been crazy...it's been around 95ish...but with humidity it is 104 .

 

[Jennifer48]

I was just trying to think who I'd love to get an autograph so bad that I'd wait in that kind of line and I couldn't think of anyone!

Note to self, don't go to WDW during SWW!

Cult food...hmmm...maybe a Mickey bar?

 

[Dugette]

I had heard it was crazy on SWW, but...wow... I'm trying to think if there is anything I like enough to brave those crowds...

You got some great pics around Pop! It was so quiet!

Is the Disney cult food a turkey leg?

Yeah, the lines were pretty crazy--I can't believe I stood there for an hour and 45 minutes. Of course, we didn't know we'd have to wait that extra hour until we got there (regular park open time, not EMH open like we thought).

Yes, it was so empty at Pop that early in the morning!

Good guess on the cult food, but nope. We had a turkey leg on our first trip. Think about the time of day it was...not meal time yet.

Can you get more than one autograph, or did they say one per person? How hot was it when you were done there. My DS said yesterday it was 95 but with the humidity it was 105.

Only one person/autograph with a Fast Pass. When we went to get the autographs, I had to wait outside of the line that Dug was in. But it worked out fine for us, as I didn't care whether I got to meet the people or not. I got to do the picture-taking instead.

As far as the weather, I believe it was around 90 degrees with super-high humidity each day of our trip. Very humid!

I was just trying to think who I'd love to get an autograph so bad that I'd wait in that kind of line and I couldn't think of anyone!

Note to self, don't go to WDW during SWW!

Cult food...hmmm...maybe a Mickey bar?

Yeah, I don't think I know anyone I'd wait that long for either. I really was just waiting as it was my trade-off for this Disney trip. And later, I'll be repaid for it by having total control over our MK touring.

Good cult food guess, but already had one of those on our first trip too. I love that smiley!!

 

[praisehisname]

Good guess on the cult food, but nope. We had a turkey leg on our first trip. Think about the time of day it was...not meal time yet.

Butterfinger cupcake???

 

[karebear23]

Butterfinger cupcake???

Aww you took my guess! So....I will say carrot cake cookie yum!

 

[Dugette]

Butterfinger cupcake???

Aww you took my guess! So....I will say carrot cake cookie yum!

One of these guesses is correct! I'll leave you in suspense until the next update...hopefully tonight.

And, for the record, the next day we'll have something very similar to the other guess!

 

[jc040404]

Sooo glad you took care of the icky stuff right away! My oldest had impetigo a couple years ago. His pediatrician told us he had chicken pox at first though. It got bad and we had some doctor switching to take care of after. Hope you didn't have any more issues like this on your trip!

I almost thought we were there at the same time! Checking my calendar, we didn't do anything that week at all. Oh well! Can't wait to see more SWW stuff! I think I spent all of our SWW time in character lines!

 

[Dugette]

Sooo glad you took care of the icky stuff right away! My oldest had impetigo a couple years ago. His pediatrician told us he had chicken pox at first though. It got bad and we had some doctor switching to take care of after. Hope you didn't have any more issues like this on your trip!

I almost thought we were there at the same time! Checking my calendar, we didn't do anything that week at all. Oh well! Can't wait to see more SWW stuff! I think I spent all of our SWW time in character lines!

Yes, the impetigo that Dug had on our previous trip was terrible, so we weren't taking any chances on this one. It's really no fun!

That would have been cool if we'd been there at the same time! We spent a lot of time in lines during SWW also...some for characters, some for autographs, some for shows, and even a few for rides!



I'm thinking the next update is not going to get done tonight. The cat is sleeping in the chair of the computer that has our pictures on it. And the dog is sleeping on me. And I'm getting tired. I'll try to get an update done tomorrow!

 

[Nermel9]

Welcome! You may have missed SWW, but I bet you saw the F&G stuff. We really wanted to do a low-budget, short, spontaneous trip to see the topiaries and such, but it didn't work out. Oh, well, whatever you miss out on just gives you a good excuse to go back, huh?

Lol, definitely, I love how Disney has different events going on throughout the year so you always have an excuse to go back!

I LOVE that Darth Hello Kitty...2 of my favorite things combined!

I had no idea that is how they do autographs for the celebs at SWW. I honestly think I'd skip that part of it...I would just want to see the Disney characters dressed up like Star Wars characters and the Ewoks! Oh, and Darth Vader, of course!

Love your pictures of Pop, I've never stayed there, but I would like to someday! And I love the new rooms!

 

[Dugette]

Lol, definitely, I love how Disney has different events going on throughout the year so you always have an excuse to go back!

I LOVE that Darth Hello Kitty...2 of my favorite things combined!

I had no idea that is how they do autographs for the celebs at SWW. I honestly think I'd skip that part of it...I would just want to see the Disney characters dressed up like Star Wars characters and the Ewoks! Oh, and Darth Vader, of course!

Love your pictures of Pop, I've never stayed there, but I would like to someday! And I love the new rooms!

Yes, the different events have been a great way to justify all of our trips this year! (SWW, F&W, Holidays)

I just thought that Darth Kitty backpack was so cute. I think the girl may have made it herself...I heard her telling someone she worked at Build-a-Bear when they asked about it.

The Disney characters (and Ewoks and Darth Vader) were cool, but had very, very long lines in the hot sun! Seeing them in the parade was cool, though.

We really like Pop! Even though we've managed to swing some heavily-discounted stays in moderates and deluxes, I would have no issue staying at Pop in the future. And I loved the refurbed rooms!

 

[Dugette]

So, we left off at 8:55am, after we’d procured autograph Fast Passes. We were a little concerned about getting into the park, as Dug’s Annual Pass hadn’t been working at the end of our last trip. Luckily, it worked now (although both our APs proved to be temperamental throughout this trip). We had 5 minutes of morning EMH left. Surprisingly, the park looked more like it was still 8am:

We split up. I did the TSM dash (without a crowd) and Dug went hunting for an autograph book. I got both our APs to work in the machine and got FPs for around 12:30pm, I believe. Then I headed over to meet Dug near Tatooine Traders.

He took this picture at some point:

Dug couldn’t find any sort of Star Wars themed autograph book, so decided to just keep an eye out. We saw the Writer’s Stop and decided to check for one in there. No luck. However, we were getting hungry for a snack and this was the home of a Disney “cult food”: the Carrot Cake Cookie. Dug also wanted a decaf cappuccino. So, we got in line. There were a couple little old ladies working the counter and they were not speedy.

We did get a Carrot Cake Cookie, but we were also distracted by the beauty of the Seasonal Muffin, a mixed berry one:

We ate the muffin first, sampled the Carrot Cake Cookie, and saved the rest of it for later. We forgot to take a picture of the cookie until we pulled it out of the backpack later, half eaten and pretty mushed up, so that’s all I’ve got for you:

We liked it, but probably wouldn’t get one again. Nice to cross off the “must try” list, though. It was pretty heavy on the frosting in the middle. But tasty. The muffin was yummy, too!

Dug stopped into another little gift shop (on Sunset Boulevard) and asked about autograph books. Apparently they don’t make any Star Wars-specific ones. So, Dug got himself the standard Disney autograph book. He ended up getting the matching pen later:

Time for more shopping. Went to the Dark Side Depot. If you read my last TR, you’ll recognize this “ton of bricks”:

Boba’s Bounty was next. This store has a line, then they let a few guests in at a time to check out the stuff. We only had to wait a couple minutes. They ask if you want limited edition or general merchandise. We opted to check out the limited edition stuff. So, once inside, they have a roped off area with tables staffed by CMs and each had a display/inventory of the merchandise. Dug found a few things he wanted. He debated on getting the SW throw, as it was available at a discount with his order, but decided to pass on that. He got a mug, a Donald Fett print, an Emperor Stitch, and an Annual Passholder t-shirt:

(Sorry the shirt's so wrinkly...this is what it looks like after wearing it.) We also got 10% off for being Annual Passholders. We had the items shipped to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so that we wouldn’t have to lug them around all day.

Shortly after exiting the store, we saw something I’d been looking for on our last trip (but never knew where to look for it):

I made it rain!

Around the corner, Dug found a photo opp of his own:

It was around quarter to 10 or so, I think, and time to get our first autograph. The autograph tents were set up around Echo Lake. Dug gave me the camera and he went to get in line for Dave Filoni. I played with the camera while waiting:

Even though only the person with the FP can go through the line, they have it set up well for other family members to take the photos. So, once Dug got near the front of the line, I lined up by the rail in front of the tent. I apologize in advance for the out-of-focus-ness of some of my pictures (Dug normally takes our photos):

The next Fast Pass time had already come and gone while Dug was in line for Dave. This one was for Ray Park. They had already started letting people with Standby passes in, but they let Dug in. Out of all the celebrities, I was most interested in Ray, as I recognized him from Heroes:

Both of those guys were very nice. Although he didn’t get to meet him, Dug managed to snag a picture of Billy Dee Williams meeting other people:

It was about 10:45am now, with an hour to go until the parade. We found a nice parade spot, shaded, under the American Idol awning (right side of photo below). Turns out that it was too good to be true and was reserved for parade family members. We moved to this spot (left side of photo below) instead, sitting on the top row, to the left of the trash can:

Dug saved our spot (not many people were in that area yet, although the good front-row spots on the wall down the street were all taken). I went to obtain Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Fast Passes for us. Apparently, I walked too fast, as I put Dug’s AP in the machine and got an invalid Fast Pass—turns out our window hadn’t quite opened yet! It had been slightly less than two hours since I’d gotten the TSM FPs. I had about 3 minutes to kill. Hung out a few feet from the machines, watching the time. When the correct minute hit, I was back at the machine. Got my FP. Stuck in Dug’s pass, which had worked on the first try getting the invalid FP. Now it didn’t want to work at all. I believe it finally worked on the 5th try. APs are so low quality. I had to replace mine on our last trip, only a couple days after getting it!

Fast Passes in hand, I made my way back to our parade spot. High School Musical was going on. I must say that I know next to nothing about this show, but I did see a Saturday Night Live parody skit of “Night School Musical” that was hilarious. So, I kept seeing/hearing that in my head as I was walking by this. Due to the show crowds, I ended up walking by Starring Rolls on my way back. I had planned that we’d split a turkey sandwich from here for lunch this day, so I called Dug to ask if I should just pick it up now. There was no line and I figured we could eat it while we waited for the parade to start. However, Dug had it in his head that Backlot Express was good and wanted to go there. So, I made my way back to our spot empty-handed.

When I got back, Dug had done some research with his iPhone and realized that Backlot Express did not have as good of reviews as he thought. So, he decided to go get us Starring Rolls, after all. I held our parade spot. Dug was gone for a long time. Apparently there were lines now. He thought this Butterfinger Cupcake was pretty insane:

He didn’t see any of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes that I had on my “must try” list (I don’t like Butterfinger, but I love chocolate and peanut butter!)

I had to fend people off of our spot while I waited. It was filling up fast. I put our backpack, misting fans, etc. on Dug’s seat. But, then I realized I needed to keep my feet down on the low step to keep people off the rows below. I could squeeze my legs in behind people, but I was pretty sure Dug couldn’t comfortably sit like that. And I was starting to wonder how many people he would have to climb over to get back up. He finally made it back just a few minutes before the parade. He had this yummy turkey sandwich for us to share:

It also came with an apple. And we each got a glass of ice water. BTW, that was one of the best WDW summer tips we’ve ever gotten: any CS place with a fountain drink machine will give you free glasses of ice water from it! We took advantage of this more than once on this 90-degree vacation! It was refreshing and even tasted good (unlike the drinking fountain water).

We ate quickly and got ready for the parade. The area had really filled up. Here was our vantage point (to the left and right):

Up next: The Star Wars Parade! Also, which sweet-smelling character do we hug? And will we ever ride something? Answers coming up soon!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Fun updates! Looks like your EMH day was a lot less insane than ours! I was wondering if people had slept in the celebrity lines...guess they did

All my trips to POP, I've never seen the 80s section. Thanks for all the pics

SOOOO not what I imagined Darth Maul to look like without his makeup. He's handsome!

 

[Dugette]

Fun updates! Looks like your EMH day was a lot less insane than ours! I was wondering if people had slept in the celebrity lines...guess they did

All my trips to POP, I've never seen the 80s section. Thanks for all the pics

SOOOO not what I imagined Darth Maul to look like without his makeup. He's handsome!

Yes, our EMH day was busy with a lot of waiting, but not as insane as yours! I got the impression that the people who'd been in line all night did their sleeping at their hotels, just in shifts. I can't imagine doing that, though!

You're welcome for the Pop pictures! We didn't plan to stay in the '80's section, but since it was just one night, we went wherever they could put us. I'm really glad we ended up there!

Agreed, Ray Park is much prettier to look at than Darth Maul!

 

[Dugette]

The parade began. Dug took lots and lots of pictures:

Continued in next post…

 

[Dugette]

After the parade wrapped up, we had about 20 minutes to kill before our TSM Fast Pass time. We decided to cool off in the Animation Building’s character greeting area. This is where we met Dug (the dog, not the DH) last time!

This time, we saw the new Toy Story character, Lotso. Dug decided that he could use a bear hug, so we got in line. Décor in the queue:

We got to the front of the line and got our hugs from Lotso. The group pic:

Dug said that Lotso smelled delicious, like strawberries and cream! I can’t say that I noticed.

On our way out of that area, we spent some time in the shop. Dug struck up a conversation with some Disney artists that had a table set up to display their creations. Jason, on the left, was very talkative:

We had asked him about his Disney animation career path. It was interesting to spend some time just chatting with a CM. His current job was creating the art for the merchandise.

Finally, it was 12:30pm and the time had arrived to hit Toy Story Mania. A new game involving a volcano had been added since our last trip! We found that the wait, even with Fast Passes, was still about 15 minutes. At least we were in the nice air-conditioning. Soon, we were to the loading area:

We did okay: I got 110k and Dug got 116k. We made the volcano explode, however we think there’s got to be more of a “secret” to that game that we don’t know yet. We also seemed to be in a car that had over-used shooters. We both had problems with them not always shooting for us (and we’ve ridden this many times before and never had an issue). Oh, well. Still fun!

Up Next: Another celebrity autograph! Some rides! A roaming Star Wars character! The Behind the Force show (featuring a wacky kid from the audience)! Dug can’t find his sunglasses! And, as the #50 Standby, do we get to meet Jeremy Bulloch?

 

[Dugette]

After TSM, it was around 1pm and time for Dug to go meet Ashley Eckstein. I took a few pictures while he waited in line:

That morning, while we’d been in our celebrity FP lines, I thought I’d heard somebody say that Ashley used to be a Disney CM. I told Dug he may want to ask her if that was the case. Turns out that it was true! She used to work at DHS doing something with the parades. Here are the pics from Dug meeting her:

It was a little after 1:30pm by now and about time to use our RnRC FPs. On the way, we stopped off to take a look at ToT:

It had a very long wait and we figured that maybe the new “Summer Nightastic” drop sequence was in effect. I’d heard a CM talking earlier, while waiting for the parade, that he thought it might be running the new drop sequence already, but he wasn’t sure, as he’d been out of town. We decided to skip ToT for now and go on RnRC.

We got on quickly and enjoyed the ride. Normally, our photos from the rides aren’t interesting enough to spend more than a second looking at, but I found this one so hilarious that we had to redneck it:

Dug was not faking this expression. Notice how everyone in the vehicle has their mouth wide open, except for me, smiling for the camera! I remember thinking, “They’re going to take our picture here, I’d better smile for the camera!”

At this point, I was dying of thirst, so we decided to keep an eye out for a place with fountain drinks and no line. Toluca Legs fit the bill. Zero line and we each got a nice, big, free glass of ice water! It hit the spot! Refreshing! This made up for their DDP-dessert-skimping on our September trip!

It was close to 2pm now and, being we were nice and rehydrated, we decided to ride Star Tours. Surprisingly, since it was SWW, there wasn’t really much of a line. We were on in a few minutes. It was fun, but it will be neat to see it once they re-do it and open again in 2011. We saw Jedi Training going on afterwards:

Next, we wandered a little, as we had a bit of time before we needed to get in line for the Behind the Force show. We spotted a roving Clonetrooper. People would stop him and get pictures and autographs:

Every time Dug tried to catch him, he started wandering off in another direction. Finally, Dug managed to catch him for a picture:

Being the Minnesotan that I am, I decided to build a snowman:

(Or maybe I just copied this pose from other people’s trip reports I’ve seen it in )

Being that I inexplicably love the little green aliens from Toy Story, I wanted to stop into Pizza Planet just to look around. Look, there’s one:

We also found their master, The Claw:

We used the restrooms in Pizza Planet. It was close to 3pm, so we went to get in line for the Behind the Force show. The shows are in the nice, air-conditioned, cushioned-seated Premier Theater, but the wait takes place in the outdoor overflow Muppets queue area (I can’t imagine the Muppets ever having a line long enough to need this area!) At least most of the area was covered. We sat in the shade and used the handy-dandy mini misting fans I’d gotten before the trip. This poster was in the queue area:

Around 3:30pm, we were let into the theater. Got good seats (close to the front, on the left side of the center section) and waited for the show to start:

Soon enough, it did. The hosts of the weekend, Jeremy and Ashley:

Ashley introduced her director (on Clone Wars), Dave Filoni. Then, she did a little interview session with him:

He actually did some sketches of Clone Wars characters on the spot, which he gave away to lucky audience members. Next, they headed over to the microphones to show us how they record voice acting for animation:

They had a few members of the audience voice various creatures. The hit of the show was a kid who was picked to do the voice of a Godzilla-like creature from the Clone Wars TV show:

His monster voice was terrifying! And he was hilarious! Pictures can’t really do justice to how the celebrities’ jaws were dropping! Fun end to the show!

As we were leaving the theater, Dug realized that he couldn’t find his sunglasses. He checked the backpack and his pockets. No luck. We went back around to the entrance of the theater and asked to look for them. They let us back in and we searched around where we’d been seated, but couldn’t find them. We’d been in Pizza Planet beforehand, so went over there to look. We inquired about lost sunglasses, but they hadn’t found anything either. Dug decided to check the restroom he’d used. I used the restroom while he did so. When I came out, he had the sunglasses! Turned out that they were in the backpack after all, wrapped up together with the remainder of the Carrot Cake Cookie! Whew!

That crisis averted, we made our way over to Jeremy Bulloch’s line. We had the #50 Standby pass for him. We had big, exciting plans of going to AKL to check in and take a nap, so Dug asked a CM how likely he’d be to actually get a chance to meet Jeremy. She really couldn’t give him an answer. He asked a few times, as we didn’t want to waste valuable nap time on waiting in a line for nothing. After wandering around and determining that they were only on the single-digit Standbys, Dug decided it was unlikely he’d get in. He gave the Standby pass to the CM and asked her to give it to someone who needed it. It was close to 5pm by now.

We made our way to the bus stop and were lucky enough to catch an AKL bus right away! We were excited to be on our way to our resort and a nap! It had been a long, tiring morning and afternoon on very little sleep. We needed some relaxation!

Up next: A few hours at the Animal Kingdom Lodge!

 

[Dugette]

As we got off the bus at AKL, it was just starting to sprinkle a bit. We stayed dry on the sheltered path from the bus stop to the lobby. We had not been able to do online check-in, as we’d been having technical difficulties with it for some reason. We think that ended up being because everything somehow was put under my name, even though Dug made the reservations and used his name. Our regular check-in had no wait and went quickly, though.

We had put in a room request based on the advice in our 2010 Unofficial Guide: 3rd-4th Floor, Zebra or Kudu Trail, facing toward the central savanna. We also asked for a King bed, but figured the likelihood of everything combined wasn’t great. Turned out that we got everything but the King bed. Which was fine by us. Although the room was a little trek away, it was a great location. Dug took a picture of the lobby ceiling and the bottom of the bridge across it:

Once we had our KTTW, we split up. Dug went to bell services to request the luggage be delivered to the room (and he went up to the room to meet them there). I went directly to The Mara to obtain a crucial vacation supply….Zebra Domes :

We met up at the room, #4531. We checked out the balcony immediately and had a nice view of a giraffe:

We also saw these Guineafowl:

And this Red River Hog:

Me enjoying the view of the savanna :

Then we checked out our room. It was very nice:

We snacked on a couple of Zebra Domes and stored the rest in the fridge. I grabbed my video camera and went back out to the balcony. It was nice that the balcony was covered, as it was raining fairly hard at this time. While I was videotaping some Red River Hogs, I saw some Zebras walk into view. I called Dug out to take pictures, as the rain was dying down:

Looks like we also saw a Roan Antelope getting a drink from the pond.

Dug turned on the TV with Stacy’s “Must-Do”s and relaxed. It was about 6pm and time to take our long-anticipated nap!

We slept soundly. I believe we were up again around 8pm, as we had an ADR at ‘Ohana for 9:05pm. I had foolishly forgotten to pick up some milk (for my morning cereal) earlier at Mara, so I had to make another run back there. Luckily, it wasn’t far away. Just had to go to the elevator and go outside briefly. Got my milk and put it in the fridge. We unpacked then. On our last trip, even though it was 10 days, I really never unpacked much for some reason. This trip, we wanted to settle in, even though it was only for a few days.

Once we were unpacked, we headed out. Dug took a picture of this display in the elevator lobby:

We waited for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. It almost felt like this was a new day to us, since we’d had such a full day already, gotten some sleep, and were now embarking on another 7 hours of activity! Day 1.5 of our trip.

Once we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, we saw a Poly boat at the dock. Hopped on and we were off :

We actually were able to watch a bit of the Electrical Water Pageant from the boat:

We arrived at the Poly slightly late for our 9:05pm ADR.

Up next: ‘Ohana dinner! Will we get a fireworks view? Will I get to enjoy the food more this time? And will we make it to 2am at the Magic Kingdom?

 

[Goofy442]

Wow you both got alot done in one day. Love the update!
We love Ohana's food and watching wishes by the window.