Cass & Rob (no Kira) - Bright Suns, Rising Moons, 'Til the Spires!

[Timon]

February 10th, Part 5

Just for kicks and giggles, we checked the app in the hopes that there would be a decent stand by queue somewhere in the park...

Nope!

We decided to try single rider for Smuggler's Run. The posted wait time for standby was 90 minutes and I think it took us just under an hour to get into the cockpit. This is where we realized that you can request a position if you do the regular queue because when we hopped in the single rider line, they mentioned that we are not allowed to choose. Ooookay, good to know!!

There are so many details in this queue, you need to ride it over and over to see and appreciate them all!

As expected, we were both assigned to be engineers but on different ships this time...

One of my favourite details is that you can find tons of porg nests throughout the ship and queue. Since this whole outpost timeline takes place between the 8th and 9th movies, it makes total sense!

Here is Luke's training droid and blast shield from the first movie.

More details of the ship, they did an amazing job!!!

My view as an engineer...

Scored 100%

Even the exit is themed...it reads "Danger Ventilation Shaft Maintenance Only" in Aurebesh.

Waiting for Rob to get off of his ride, I took an artsy shot.

We wandered just a little more....

I showed Rob this...it's DJ-R3X's crash site. You might recognize R3X as the former pilot of the Star Tours Ride. Apparently he crashed here in Black Spire and ended up becoming the DJ at Oga's Cantina. More on that tomorrow.

These are out of order, from our first and second time riding SR, sorry

Thought this sign was cute...at this point, we had been stuck in front of an entire Brazilian dance group of teens for 45 minutes, who broke out in song every 5 minutes so I was contemplating checking it out.

And here's a close-up of our credentials from our first spin on SR...

I had to make a call, which ended up being much longer than it should have been so Rob just walked around, looking at stuff, taking some pics...

If you look hard enough, you can see some battle droids in that cage, from the prequel trilogy. Roger, Roger!

Everyone seemed to love the character interactions here, they are so fun!

Rob popped into Droid Depot again...

And then it was time for him to build his Lightsaber at Savi's!

Of course, they don't actually say "lightsaber", they use the term, "scrap metal" since you are in the First Order part of Black Spire and storm troopers and Kylo Ren are constantly walking around. And good luck trying to find Savi's Workshop if you don't know where to go because it is not advertised or listed. Same with the other stores and areas, some have names on the outside but it's in Aurebesh so good luck with that too. And if you ask most cast members a question, they will answer as if they are actually from Batuu and don't understand the lingo. Depending on what you're asking and how they answer, it can be fun and totally immersive or a pain in the butt because you just want to know where the bathroom is and they don't understand that term.

I saw some CM's really into their characters and tell elaborate stories and I also saw some that openly mentioned a character from Universal Studios, so I guess it depends on the cast member and their dedication. I also heard a CM say something out of character and had the CM right next to them quickly correct them.

While he was checking in, Rey and Vi Moradi, a resistance spy, were trying to get away from Kylo Ren and his henchmen.

Some details and "scrap metal" outside of Savi's...

Here are the parts from the four main themes you can choose when building your lightsaber...

Rob checking in and figuring out what he wants...

You pay for it here, get your pin indicating which theme you chose and then you wait outside until they call you in.

At my image limit so I will tell you all about his experience tomorrow.

 

[bcwife76]

The theming is just mind blowing!!! Your photos are amazing, it must feel SO immersive (esp with the CM's staying in character!) Can't wait to see the lightsaber Rob built!

 

[Timon]

February 10th, Part 6

After they group you together, you follow the cast member, single file, builder then guest, into this room. The lighting is dramatic, there is music and voice-overs by a very familiar character and you are introduced to this group of people called "the gatherers".

The main gatherer gives a nice long speech about who they are what they do and why you're all there. It's a little cheesy, especially if you're not into Star Wars but even as a bystander, knowing how exciting Rob was to do this, I was getting chills. I know...I'm a total dork but I was so happy for him! I would never do this, personally but this was like a childhood dream of Rob's and to watch him have this experience made me so happy.

Choosing his Kyber crystal....

He chose purple, no surprise there as it was one of our original wedding colours

He had a bit of a hard time hearing the gatherer give instructions because the room is loud and he has lost part of his hearing due to being a DJ for 30 years but he enjoyed every second of it. He took his time switching out parts to figure out exactly what he wanted.

The best part is when they first switch the lightsabers on.

If you want to watch the entire experience, you're in luck because I taped it, of course.

The nice thing is that they provide you with a heavy duty holder for it. It was kind of a pain to lug around for the rest of the evening but well worth it.

He ended up having many interactions with the characters once he was toting his saber around. They were bugging him about it, it was hilarious!

Of course, he had to get a couple extra kyber crystals for it. Back to Dok-Ondar's we went!

He already wants to go back to Disneyland to get a blue and a yellow one because those are the two he didn't get. And when we finally make it back to DL, Kira will build her own lightsaber and droid, so we're excited about that! Maybe 2021, I hope!

He also made a few purchases at the Marketplace.

And then we bought these...water for me, Diet Coke for him and a Sprite for Kira. If you fly home with these, I would recommend putting them in your checked luggage in a ziploc bag and removing the detonator cap from the bottle and place it elsewhere.

Standby for Smuggler's Run was now only 55 minutes so we decided to do it again, this time as pilots.

I pointed out the game of Sabacc to Rob in the queue. This is the game that Han Solo beats Lando Calrissian in, to win the Falcon.

Left pilot for Rob, right pilot for me

Like I said, this ride makes you want to ride it again and again.

Pilots again!

This last time we rode, we went down a hallway I had never been down...it has way more detail than the other hallway...

Right pilot for Rob, left pilot for me.

I will say that left pilot is way harder than right pilot. The left/right motion seems way more touchy than the up/down motion and you really have to be on the ball when you're in that left pilot seat.

Since we had gone down that new-to-us hallway, we also exited down a new hallway with details we hadn't seen before.

Hidden Mickey-ish? I say yes!

After our fourth and final spin on Smuggler's Run, Rob got himself into even more trouble.

I wanted to get some pics of him at night with his lightsaber on, in front of the MF, so we headed that way, he unsheathed his saber and then Rey approached him. This was the best character interaction because he went on and on about her grandfather and Kylo etc., but as I said before, this timeline of Batuu is between the 8th and 9th movie so "this" Rey had no idea what the heck he was talking about. After he's all done, she comes over to me and says "Does he always ramble on like this, talking this nonsense?" and I replied "Alllll the time!!!"

After Rey left, this boy approached Rob to ask him if he could look at his lightsaber so Rob, the kind soul that he is, let him hold it and had his parents take some photos. He also then let his sister hold it and get pictures too.

Then he posed for me so I could get some photos of him.

Smuggler's Run was down to 35 minutes and I think we both wanted to go again but we also needed a bite to eat and we wanted to watch the Star Wars Fireworks show and we were quickly running out of time. So good tip, visit Galaxy's Edge later in the day if you can as it seems to clear out as the evening progresses.

We quickly took a few more pics on the second level...

And then we grabbed a regular ronto wrap to share. Rob preferred the breakfast one but I really enjoyed this one! It was, by far, my favourite thing I ate in Galaxy's Edge!

We had just enough time to head over to the Chinese Theatre to grab a spot for the show.

Good-night Hollywood Studios, it's been a blast!

I loved the moon over the Tower as we got back to our room...

Here's Rob's purchases for the day.

I am at my photo limit but I will post a photo of his lightsaber hilt in the next post so you can see the details.


Yay, you made it through our very first, and very long day at Galaxy's Edge, congratulations! I don't think I've ever had a part 6 before

 

[Timon]

Rob's lightsaber, close-up of the hilt....

The kyber crystals up close...the green was gifted to Rob (along with a Jedi holocron) by a friend of his.

And Kira having fun with the red lightsaber...red is her favourite colour.

 

[tammy]

OMG!! This is AWESOME!!! Your pictures are amazing. I cannot wait to see this in person in May. So excited!!

 

[juniorbugman]

He also made a few purchases at the Marketplace.

Here's Rob's purchases for the day.

I am glad to see that his purchases don't include the weird frog looking thing in the first picture. I was wondering what you would use that for.
Is the one item a blanket?
Glad he had a good time.

 

[Laura353741]

Whoa y'all really made the most of Galaxy's Edge! Love it! Love all of Rob's goodies too, and Kira looks uber grown up in that pic. Can't wait to hear about the rest!

 

[acndis]

Savi's looks really great! We have not done it yet despite my husband being a superfan. We actually purged our house of a lot of SW stuff recently and thought it might be crazy to get ANOTHER lightsaber. However, Rob made it look like an absolute blast. We may have to give it a try next December.

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, so freakin' cool!!! Esp at night, those are some awesome photos! I love the interaction with Rey Awww and Rob letting those kids hold his lightsaber and take photos, how sweet! I think I've officially lost track of how many times you two rodes SR that day lol

 

[ADLFAN]

I'm loving your sweet trip report and watching the two of you act like a couple of kids! I really enjoy your Marketplace picture, so many details in just that one shot! GE is definitely amazing!

 

[Timon]

February 11th, Part 1

Today started out exactly as it did yesterday with us getting up early and getting ready to leave by 7am. It was a foggy one this morning, you can barely see the Tower as we left Coronado!

Here is one of those trees that I fell in love with that we got to pass at least twice a day since it was near the parking lot.

Back to the Studios...

The lines didn't seem as bad today...

We soon found out it was because they had already started to let people in, so still busy just better traffic flow.

We had plenty of time to kill and I wanted a pic of MY tower in this fog.

So, here's a better photo of the sign that directs you where to go...

And we made our way down to the herd...

This time I made sure to open my app a full minute before the park officially opened and again we both tried for a boarding pass. Today, I would be the triumphant one with boarding group # 4

We joined the mass of people walking very slowly into Galaxy's Edge and our boarding group was called shortly after we made it into the land. Can't beat that!

Ready to be part of the Resistance!

We were first in this room and then about a dozen people joined us, so, a very small group this time!

Rob's like...look at all this space!

Into the briefing room...

There's our shuttle waiting for us...

And into the shuttle, this time we went all the way in the back for a different view. Front is better, especially the first time but seeing the back is a good experience too.

Once again, we got captured.

We lingered in this room as long as we could every single time. It has the best ambiance

And looking back at our shuttle....so cool how they do this!

We were last in the whole group and when we got up to this part, they all went right and we went left and it was just us!

See, they went right...we went left...

We waited a few minutes but no one was coming so the CM's (less in character than before, probably because it was just us) sent us to the end all by ourselves.

We followed orders and waited here, where they normally put you into two groups of 8, for a minute or two and still, no other guests.

So they sent us into the interrogation cell all by ourselves!!!

Rob was having fun with it!!

Kylo and General Hux tried to intimidate us but we knew we were about to be rescued so bite me, Kylo!

Did you know Hux's first name is Armitage? I totally didn't know that!

And with no one in the way, we got a great view of said breakout.

How cool is that?!

So, while they did keep in character, it was toned down a little because, well, there's only two of us. Normally they are rushing the 16 people here, getting seated and belted and then explaining how they are going to get us out. They told us to sit wherever we wanted so we grabbed the front row of the first vehicle and sat on the ends so that the R-5 unit wouldn't be in our view.

This was FANTASTIC!!!

No peoples!

Since I had taken video of my first ride, I was going to just enjoy this second ride and not take any photos but I couldn't resist since no one else was with us


This is another great room....

And this time, we both spotted Finn!

This is a great part of the ride because Finn tells us to get out of here and then our vehicle starts going up and he says something like "Don't go up! Up is bad!"

Then we see Kylo and Armitage on the bridge, different side this time as we were in the first car...

This is where Kylo spots us and starts coming after us...

So we escape into the room with the cannons. This was also a great room

Dang nabbit, that was 35 images, which is all I can post in each post so I will continue with our private tour of a First Order Star Destroyer in the next chapter

 

[Timon]

February 11th, Part 2

We continue with our solo journey to help the resistance...back up has finally arrived!

But Kylo cut us off and used the Force on us to get us to tell him where the secret base is located. We will never tell you!

Suddenly, a hole is blasted into the wall and Kylo is almost sucked out into space. This is a VERY cool effect, by the way, and it happens so fast so it was a total fluke that I captured the moment it happened. You can kind of see how the effect is done if you look closely.

This gives us the opportunity to head into an escape pod

We watch as two other pods make their escape and then, in a very cool, quick downwards motion, we also drop down and escape. This is a very small drop, nothing like Tower of Terror and is super fun and only lasts a couple of seconds. I was secretly wishing it was a bigger drop.

We make our way back to Black Spire Outpost...

And make a crash landing, like the other two pods before us.

We round the corner and see Bek's pod that had crashed just before us.

He welcomes us back and then we exit the ride.

All those ride vehicles and no people! Hahaha, that was amazing!!

This time, just two very big thumbs up, no tears!

Well, that was fun! And it's only 8:30am! What a way to start the morning! Let's check out how busy the rest of the park is...

Yeah, no thanks! Too busy for us!

We decided to explore BSO a little more, to check out things that we missed...

I love how there's an R2 unit here being used as a grill

Some cool carvings...

You can even buy a Kowakian Monkey Lizard, the same kind of creature as Salacious Crumb, Jabba the Hutt's little pet from Return of the Jedi.

You can also buy some of the games featured in the movies here...

We made our way down to Toydarian Toymaker. This store is owned by Zabaka, who is the same species as Watto from The Phantom Menace.

If you stand and watch long enough, you will see her outline as she tinkers in the window.

I love the details!!

Here's a better view of the cargo ship atop Docking Bay 7, with the numbers 77 and 83 on the containers...which reference the years the original trilogy movies came out. I previously posted the one with 80 on it that you can see from inside of the restaurant.

Another view of the petrified tree that this outpost is named after, which is aptly located on the outside of Dok-Ondar's den of Antiquities.

A look at the crowds near the Millenium Falcon and the crazy-long line for the ride...

Rob was getting hungry but was not wanting another breakfast ronto wrap. We debated on other options but sadly, there aren't many here at DHS. He was hankering for some pancakes or a waffle but other than a sit down character meal at Hollywood Vine, I couldn't think of any place that offered what he wanted. We decided to explore Launch Bay for a bit while we waited for our Fast Pass for Rock "N" Roller Coaster...

I spotted a Rise of the Resistance ball cap in here that we hadn't seen anywhere else. We made a mental note to come back to get it for Rob if we didn't come across it anywhere else.

Rob toured the gallery, taking many photos while I happily sat in the A/C while hatching a plan for us.

It was time for our FP and Rob suggested taking a photo of me with the lovely Tower behind me. I love this ride so much! Not as much as Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout in Disneyland but it's a close second.

Before getting in line, I needed a bathroom break and just as I was washing my hands, I received a notification that the ride was down. Okay, well, that just sped up our plan for next couple of hours, which totally worked out for us.

I knew Rob would totally be up for Keke's so we hopped in the car and drove over to Dr. Phillips to enjoy our fave!

Rob and his Florida Waffle.

And we even got to sit in Lauren's section, she's our favourite server

Although she had just seen me on Sunday, with both of us now together, she had recognized us from our many visits last summer, as well as the summer before that.

We enjoyed the food very much and the service was top-notch, as usual. She even hooked Rob up with a coffee to go, which seems like the norm here in Orlando but is not something usually offered where we're from.

 

[Laura353741]

Love the ride recap!! When we went on it obviously some areas were down because we missed some of what is apparently in the complete ride. But it was still awesome!

 

[Timon]

February 11th, Part 3

After our delicious brunch break at Keke's, we headed back to Disney. Since we were going to end our night at Epcot, we decided to park there to make it easier for ourselves at the end of the night.

Epcot is a huge mess right now with all of the construction going on. Test Track was down and Festival of the Arts was going on so the park was busy and the queues were long.

Crazy long line for Spaceship Earth.

It was weird not seeing the fountain here

We hadn't planned on doing anything at Epcot until later but as we passed by Canada, I was starting to overheat and Rob suggested we stop by and see the new movie, Canada Far and Wide.

It was definitely an improvement over the previous one but I didn't care for the fact that during two parts of the movie, the voice-over by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara mentioned one part of the country when the video was clearly showing a different part. Oh well, it was better than the silly cheesy one with Martin Short.

I was able to cool down so by the time we were done, we headed out of International Gateway and over to the Skyliner. I got to ride the entire line and back the week before but this was Rob's first experience. I really loved the Skyliner! It was quiet and peaceful when you are not stuck with strangers and I enjoyed the motion and the heights. I can see how this might not be for everyone and I would probably skip it in the summer as I felt a little warm at times in February but I really enjoyed it. I found out the week before that a friend of mine works at the Skyliner so I kept looking for her every time we went on it but sadly, I never spotted her.

You get a great view of the construction at the France pavilion...

Rob seemed to enjoy it too.

We connected at the Caribbean Beach Club resort and then headed onto the DHS line...

Great view of my favourite hotel.

This was our first time entering the park from this side...

We had Fast Passes for Star Tours so we headed in that direction. Rob ran into another 501st member and got to exchange coins this time. This was the only time he got to do this and they both were happy with their new coins.

The FP line was unusually long but we enjoyed the ride

We also had another FP because RNR broke down earlier so we ended up back over there for our second attempt.

This time we were successful and we asked to ride the front.

They made us take off our fanny packs, which was weird. We've been riding RNR with fanny packs since 1999 and we've never been asked to take them off.

Next up was our reservation for Oga's Cantina. This was not something we were super looking forward to but still wanted to try since we wanted the complete SW:GE experience. We don't drink (for medical reasons) and we're not big fans of loud, crowded, small spaces but we were game for it. ☺

If you're not a Star Wars fan, you probably won't understand the lure of wanting to try this place. Originally, this was meant to be a first stop bar that led to what looked to be a dinner show restaurant in the original concept art but with cutbacks, it got nixed and the Cantina was the only thing opened.

The Cantina is meant to harken back to the original cantina seen in Star Wars A New Hope so it's very popular. You need a reservation to get in and there are many rules you need to follow. You have a maximum of 45 minutes allotted, you have to stay wherever they seat you, you can't leave your spot to tour until you are done and headed out, you will most likely be seated with others and I think there's a 2-drink limit per person. Most of the spots are standing room-only so be prepared for that too.

We got in line and they came around and asked us if we had a reservation. This is where the CM mentioned our last name and asked if it was like Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter. I was like yup, but that's an Earth thing, so how do you know about that? She just smirked and carried on.

We didn't wait long before being called...

We had perused the very expensive menu while waiting in line...

We were led to a table that held 6-8 people standing around it. When we first arrived, there were two other small parties sharing the table, which was just fine. We stayed to the very edge and didn't feel crowded.

Our waitress arrived and took our order. We hadn't tried the blue milk yet and we didn't really care for any other drinks and we knew we had wanted to try the blue milk anyway so this was a good opportunity.

Rob also wanted to try a snack so I recommended the Oga's obsession because everything else didn't seem the get the best reviews.

It's basically jello with some weird crunchy bits and a small piece of cotton candy. The jello was pretty decent but this was way overpriced, even for SWGE, in my opinion.

I took one sip of the blue milk and almost barfed. This was not my kind of thing. Rob enjoyed it a little more than I did but we left with more than half of the milk still in the glass. He did enjoy the cookie, however. Just as we were being served our order, our shared table was vacated and they "sat" a party of 6 with us. There were 5 adults and a kid who was maybe 10 or 11 and he was clearly exhausted because he basically collapsed his entire body over the table. They pretty much took over the whole table and we started to feel very uncomfortable. We tried making friends with them since they were so close to us anyway but they were not the friendly type and we were feeling very awkward, so we cut our time short, paid the bill, walked around to take a few pics and then left.

DJ-R3X, who used to be the pilot of Star Tours, is now spinning tunes here...

I wasn't expecting much since this wasn't really our thing anyway and it basically met our expectations. We both have zero desire to go back but we're glad we tried it. We would probably visit the one in Disneyland if we go next year () just so that Kira can experience it, if she wants to, but it definitely won't be a priority.

 

[Timon]

Cass,

I was so angry to read your first post. I agree that it has everything to do with jealousy. There are so many on here who love your reports and love keeping up with your adorable, wonderful family. Please know that the fans outnumber the critics! The happier you seem to be; the more people want to tear you down. I love those mean tweets on Jimmy Kimmel. They show you how ridiculous and petty people are!

I can't wait to dig into this report. We had dinner and Toledo during our trip and it's one of my new favorite places. And can't wait to hear Rob's review of SWGE.

Remember, don't let the jerks get you down!

I guess that's what I need to do, focus on the people who do like to read my reports and aren't so petty that my baggy eyes don't bother them.

Yes, those mean tweets are so funny! Ridiculous but funny!

Might have to try Toledo next time!

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. The pics are beautiful and your report is so entertaining. I also enjoyed your last Universal trip report. I should have told you over there, but alas, I’m a lurker of the worst sort. I was sorry to read you have to deal with lupus - hope you’ve been feeling well. Thanks again for the awesome report so far.

That's okay, I'm a lurker too!! Thanks so much!

First off I think you and your family are beautiful, second I love reading your trip reports! The nasty person who made that site is probably some fat ugly 50 something who lives in their mom's basement whose too lazy to get a job so sits around looking for people to pick on to make themselves feel better.

Hahahaha! Thanks for the kind words!

I love your reports! I can't believe people actually took the time to write such nasty things about your family. I am thankful that you take the time to write your reports and share them. I've enjoyed watching how your daughter has grown and how each trip is a little different. I'm looking forward to following along on your adult only trip. Please keep writing and don't let the haters bring you down.

They say a lot of nasty. petty things about a lot of DISers.

Thanks for reading and for taking the time to post such nice things.

My son and I did the single rider line for SR... It went by fast but we missed some of the cool queue stuff that you posted. We were both Engineers in the same ship because someone traded with him so we could be together We didn't ask, just had made some nice friends in the line I am not a star wars aficionado so I love your trip reports with all of the details that I missed or didn't notice!

That was nice that you got to ride together with your son!

We made a few friends in the regular line for SR, since we had waited so long. It's nice to chat with friendly people.

Thanks for posting.

LOL. My Mom still has her coffee mug with the same thing! Has to be 30 years old!

HAHAHAHA! Too funny!! I've had that sticker for 35 years now, I even remember what store I bought it at. Man I'm old.

Hi joining in. I always love reading your trip reports. I'm glad you didn't let those others bring you down and stop writing. So many of us enjoy what you do.

I'm glad you found me again! Thanks for always following along and posting.

I have read all your reports but never commented, keep up the good work. I enjoy reading about you and your family.

Well, thanks for coming out of lurkdom to post here!!

The theming is just mind blowing!!! Your photos are amazing, it must feel SO immersive (esp with the CM's staying in character!) Can't wait to see the lightsaber Rob built!

It's amazing!! There were times I had forgotten we were in a theme park! It's kind of like Diagon Alley times a hundred!!

OMG!! This is AWESOME!!! Your pictures are amazing. I cannot wait to see this in person in May. So excited!!

Thanks so much! Oooh May! That's not very far away!!

I am glad to see that his purchases don't include the weird frog looking thing in the first picture. I was wondering what you would use that for.
Is the one item a blanket?
Glad he had a good time.

Hahaha! Yeah, that's a worrt! That's ugly and did not come home with us! They keep lots of items on all of the tills. Kind of like putting chocolate/candy near the tills at Walmart or other stores I guess

Yes, it's a throw for Rob's office chair. He bought two of them, a light side one and a dark side one for when him and Kira watch movies together.

Whoa y'all really made the most of Galaxy's Edge! Love it! Love all of Rob's goodies too, and Kira looks uber grown up in that pic. Can't wait to hear about the rest!

LOL, we certainly did! We mainly visited for SWGE so we made sure to enjoy every second.

Thanks for posting.

Savi's looks really great! We have not done it yet despite my husband being a superfan. We actually purged our house of a lot of SW stuff recently and thought it might be crazy to get ANOTHER lightsaber. However, Rob made it look like an absolute blast. We may have to give it a try next December.

He LOVED that experience! Definitely made for our kinds of husbands The lightsaber was very high quality, unlike anything else we have seen.

Wow, so freakin' cool!!! Esp at night, those are some awesome photos! I love the interaction with Rey Awww and Rob letting those kids hold his lightsaber and take photos, how sweet! I think I've officially lost track of how many times you two rodes SR that day lol

The area where the Falcon is definitely amazing at night. Sadly, the rest of GE wasn't as cool as I thought it would be at night.

We rode it four times but could have ridden it four more if we had more time.

I'm loving your sweet trip report and watching the two of you act like a couple of kids! I really enjoy your Marketplace picture, so many details in just that one shot! GE is definitely amazing!

Awww, thanks so much for reading and for your kind words.

Love the ride recap!! When we went on it obviously some areas were down because we missed some of what is apparently in the complete ride. But it was still awesome!

Oh no!

I did read about how some things are different if a certain part of the ride wasn't working, like when Kylo almost gets blasted out, if that scene isn't working, you see him on screen in his ship. There's so many facets to that ride, I can imagine it must be hard for it all to work perfectly together. I can see why it goes down a lot!

 

[tammy]

I feel like I was there with you. I love your perception of this. I was at St Pete Beach this weekend and we took a road trip over to Disney World. We didn't have time to hit the parks but we did tour the new resorts and OMG are they beautiful. We also were able to ride the Skyliner which I think is a great addition to transportation options. I can't wait see how warm they get in summer because it was a little chilly this past weekend. But I toured the Gran Destino based on your review and it is jaw dropping. I had a mocktail at Dahlia Lounge and got a glimpse of Galaxy's Edge. Super duper excited. Thank you!

 

[Timon]

February 11th, Part 4

Next up was Rob's reservation to build a droid at the Droid Depot. We showed up a little early and the CM was kind enough to let us build early. If you have reservations, the line to stand in to register and pay for it is a lot shorter than the one you use if you just show up.

Rob was eyeing all of the droid pieces so he could figure out what he wanted to build. He knew Kira would want a BB unit when she builds her own so he chose to do an R3 unit., which is the same as an R2 unit but with a transparent dome.

They didn't have the blue personality chip which was Rob was bummed about. We will have to try to get one in Disneyland if we go next year.

Once he paid for the droid package, they gave him a little droid shopping basket

The bottom of it shows you what parts you need to get and then you go to the parts belt and choose your pieces you want. He was having way too much fun with this.

He was waiting for one particular part that just wasn't coming around so I asked a CM about it and she said that part was just restocked but they were having issues with it so she went in the back and found the piece and also loaded the belt with more. The lady next to us had been waiting for it too.

Tons of familiar-looking droids and parts in here. They have this belt way up in the ceiling, with different droid parts hanging off of it. So many easter eggs there!

Once he had all of the necessary parts, he headed into the line to wait for the next available build station. This experience was pretty much the opposite of the lightsaber one. This was loud and busy and rushed and not very much room to maneuver in. It was still a great experience and he loved every minute of it but I much preferred the pace, ambiance and intimacy of Savi's.

Notice Rob's shirt? More on this later..

Once you have it all built, you put your droid in the activation chamber and press the button and watch as it comes alive.

They pair your droid with a remote control and then you play around with it to make sure it works.

Once he was done with his droid, he headed over to the other side of the store to purchase some accessories for it.

All done! Here is R3-0NY, in her little travelling case.

He named her after the handle I used on a BBS when we met 24 years ago. We met online, way back before that was a thing

Just as I was taking the pic above, a stormtrooper came up to him, seemingly out of nowhere, and got super close to him and said "Thank you citizen, for your support"

Rob is wearing a shirt with a 501st Legion, Galactic Empire symbol with the saying "Got armor?" on the back. It's too bad I didn't get that on video! He was so quick too and just appeared, I didn't even get to snap a pic!

Once he arranged all of his stuff properly (they didn't pack it very well in the bag when he bought it all) he posed with R3-0NY one last time before we headed back over to Epcot for the night.

Every once in awhile, 0NY would beep and spin her head a little, it was super cute! The droids interact with their surroundings, mostly inside of GE but even around Epcot, she would make noise now and again

Rob took all of our purchases back to the car while I waited for him in the Land Pavilion.

When he got back, we rode Soarin' with a FP and then Living with the Land before heading over to ride Spaceship Earth. On the way, we stopped to watch a gorgeous sunset.

I tried and failed with this photo... I didn't have my glasses on to see my screen properly.

After SE, Rob was getting hungry so we stopped at Electric Umbrella and got him some chicken strips. I nibbled a little but I was saving myself for something else later.

We stopped in to peruse the temporary Mouse Gear location...

And then Rob was going to ride Mission Space but the line was now 40 minutes and he didn't want to make me wait that long. I was totally okay with it but he felt bad so we walked over to the Epcot preview center to check that out...

Then we slowly made our way around World Showcase to France to get what I wanted, my jambon beurre!

I had gotten one of these in 2018 when we were last here and it was soooo good so I was really looking forward to having it again! Sadly it wasn't as great as last time but it was still good and I got the chance to use my french

Rob got a chocolate croissant and enjoyed that.

We had stopped at a few booths along the way to admire the art work.

Epcot Forever was about to start. This was the first time seeing it for both of us. We almost didn't make it so we couldn't be too picky about spots, we just grabbed the first decent one we could.

It was a good placeholder show. I'm looking forward to seeing the new permanent one next time though.

Even though Epcot had extra magic hours that night, we were done and headed home! This was the day that I ended up giving Rob my cold so we were both feeling exhausted now.

Here's our haul for the day...there's actually three items there for me

Rob had some fun playing with his droid before getting some sleep

 

[bcwife76]

I can't believe you got to ride RotR by yourselves!!! You guys are having SOME LUCK this trip Jelly!

What a packed day, I feel like you got about 10,000 hours worth of park time in in one day AND a stop at Keke's

Rob definitely looks like a kid in a toy store building his droid, how fun! And it has it's own carrying case....WE FANCY

 

[JenLovesMM]

I am amazed at how much you managed to pack into that day! Seemed like you guys really enjoyed it, Rob seemed like a kid in a candy store! So many beautiful pics you took but I have to say I just love those sunset pics in Epcot, the colors are just amazing!

 

[Timon]

February 12th, Part 1

Today was our last park day of the trip. We were originally going to start the day in Animal Kingdom so Rob could ride Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest but the night before we had decided that we both want to try for ROTR one more time.


So back to DHS we went!

They were letting guests in by the time we got there.

I went to scan my band and...BLUE!

Tried again, and once more...still blue!

I knew I had one more park day left, what the heck was going on???!!! They brought a CM over with an ipad to scan my band and she told me I had no park days left on my pass. I assured her that I had one day left so she did some more digging and found the issue. I had a non-dated three-day hopper to use for my days with Rob and I had also purchased a 1-day hopper that was dated for February 5th for my VIP tour that I did with my co-workers. Since my 3-day hopper was valid for ANY date and my 1-day hopper was good ONLY on February 5th, when I scanned in on the 5th, I assumed that the system would use the correct ticket, the one that was purchased for THAT date. Well, I was wrong! The system scanned in the first day of my 3-day hopper, which meant that ticket was no longer valid and it showed the February 5th ticket as expired now!.

Seriously???

I'm sorry but that's dumb!

The CM escorted me over to Guest Services, where I joined the very long line. Thankfully they had extra CM's come out to help the guests who were needing assistance.

I want to say it took about 20 minutes so thankfully we came early.

The thing that irked me was when she fixed it, she made it seem like she was doing me a big favour. She even made sure to tell me that even though there was a huge price difference, she had it fixed for me. Well, there wouldn't have been a price difference if your system had taken the proper ticket on the 5th. Maybe I am being nit-picky here but if you buy a ticket for a certain date, regardless how many other tickets you have in your account, the system should be able to recognize that dated ticket and use that one, no?

Hey, I am actually making that face here!

Oh well, we got it fixed, scanned into the park and then power-walked over to our spot. We had about 5 minutes before park opening.

This is where we stood every day, right next to the taped line on the ground, away from as many people as possible.

Whatever we were doing, it worked...#3 baby!

Our number was called before we even made it into Galaxy's Edge.

We lingered so long, we saw the next group coming in

Just around the corner from here, the ride went down and we were evacuated out of the building. There was someone at the exit to scan our MB's, which would give us a Fast Pass for the ride to use anytime today when it was back up.

Rob perused the ROTR stuff with other SW super fans.

Our only goal that morning was to ride Rise of the Resistance and then we were going to leave the park so we were debating on how long to stick around. We went over to Launch Bay to get that ROTR hat, which we couldn't find anywhere else and then I think we checked out a few more stores. We actually exited the park but as soon as we did, I just had this feeling so I checked the app and it was back up!

The line to get back in was very short thankfully so we walked back over to GE and went for try # 2

Here we go, into the resistance base.

Bek told us not to give up the location of the secret base. Keep it secret, keep it safe

Once more in this lovely room!

When we were getting put into groups of 8, there was a slight delay so a CM came over to me and asked me about my shirt "What's this thing...your happy place?", to which I replied "It's this magical place called Walt Disney World, it's filled with rides and happiness, you would love it!"

He scowled and said "It sounds dreadful!"



Eventually, when we were told to head into the interrogation room, he came up to me and said "THIS is your happy place now!"

Of course, the resistance broke us out and we were about to escape again. Here's a cool look of the back side of where they break you out...

Probe droid, AT-AT's and a crash landing later...what a wickedly fun ride!

We popped into Dok-Ondar's one last time...

Rob took a peek at the character lightsabers for sale...

And he was eyeing the robes....

And then we headed out. We were thinking of doing Keke's again but I didn't feel like tackling the I-4, instead we went somewhere closer...Cracker Barrel!

It was delicious but we didn't even eat half of it!

We knew that we wouldn't make it to the Magic Kingdom without a rest since we were both feeling a little run down with these colds.

We took the back way to our hotel, where we passed the McDonald's that they are refurbishing. For some reason, I thought they had already finished this!

And back to our resort...

We had a 12pm fast pass for Mine Train so we had to make sure we were in the park by 1 pm at the very latest. We really enjoyed the rest and while we laid there in our air conditioned room in the very comfortable king-sized bed, I had secretly wished that Mine Train would go down so we could use the FP later and get more rest but it didn't so we headed back to the parks. We parked and then took the tram. The CM on the tram was very funny and very entertaining. When he told us that he was stopping here to let us off, I actually thought he was joking, as did most of the tram! We've parked closer than where this tram let us off!

I felt bad for the guests who had a hard time walking because it was still a pretty big walk just to the TTC! I hadn't heard about this anywhere! Usually stuff like this is all over FB and YT.

This is the little overpass where the trams go down under the road that takes you to the Poly...it was all under construction.

Tons more construction at MK too.

And finally, the best castle in the world.


It was right around then that we got a notification on the Disney app that Mine Train went down.

Seriously?

Okay, new plan!

We both needed a pit stop so we headed to the bathroom around the corner from Casey's.

Casey's was so busy, they had these high top tables set up all the way down to the bathroom! People were literally eating at the entrance to the bathrooms.

They really need to add some more chairs and tables to the front of Casey's.

I will give you one guess as to where we were heading first.