Farewell Dry January - Hello Lapu Lapu!

[MusicalAstronaut]

Hi everyone! Welcome to the pre-trip report for my celebration of the end of Dry January. Let’s be honest, I don’t really need an excuse to go to WDW, but this is a good one! I’ll be heading down the afternoon of Friday January 31st & returning very late on Sunday February 2nd.

A bit about me!
I'm Lauren – I’m a microbiologist from Atlanta GA. I've been a passholder for 8(?) years now. My favorite things to do in Disney are ride Tower of Terror, Mission Space, and Space Mountain as many times as humanly possible. Fun fact, on my last trip I rode Everest 8 times in a row in less than an hour (single rider). I also like snacking my way through the parks instead of eating real food and posing with every PhotoPass Photographer I can find.

Don't mess with me when I've got the Infinity Stones! My first trip to DLR.

Why this trip?
I was in Disney for opening day of ROTR (my 3rd trip to SWGE since it opened) and this trip is mostly about going back to ride it again. I’m going to BatuuBound on this trip, which will make packing super light to fly Frontier airlines interesting.

The other half of the reason for this trip is to visit the Festival of the Arts. This is my busiest time of year for work, so I haven’t made it down for this festival yet and I’m super excited!

This rose flight calls me like the ocean calls Moana

Friday
I’ll land at MCO 4:30pm. After dropping my stuff at the hotel (cheap, offsite, quite close to the parks) the plan is to go to MK. I have some evening fastpasses booked so I can hit my favorites before the park closes at 8pm for DAH. It’ll be close though – my Space Mountain FP+ expires at 6:15pm. Once the park closes I’ll hop the monorail to the Poly to get a Lapu Lapu to celebrate making it through Dry January. I can’t wait!

Oh yeah

Saturday
Now for the reason I’m here. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge! Each time I visit, I like it more. I really want to spend some time exploring this land, playing on the app, and BatuuBounding. I’ve never gotten any of the characters roaming the land to interact with me, so maybe being in costume will help? Have YOU ever had a fun interaction with a character in SWGE? Tell me about it!

Why won't they talk to meeeeeeeee

Once I’ve (hopefully) secured a boarding pass for ROTR and ridden my favorite rides, I’ll park hop over to Epcot for Festival of the Arts. I have a big list of delicious snacks I want to try! I’m looking forward to the Decadent Delights and Painted Panda booths the most, I think.

This guy is definitely on my list

That evening I’ll return to DHS and go to Oga’s Cantina. I’ve never bothered to make an ADR for this one, but I did this trip. We’ll see if I end up keeping it or winging it that day. I try to stick to a budget (especially during festivals), but Oga’s somehow always suckers me into buying a few drinks.

What's your favorite concoction from Oga's?

Sunday
Honestly, the plan for Sunday is roughly the same as Saturday, complete with Oga’s reservation! I know I’ll be back soon, so I don’t think I’ll be making a huge effort to get over to AK or back to MK on the weekend. I fly home Sunday evening so wherever I start I’m going to buy a locker so I don’t have to lug my bag around with me the whole time, which makes park hopping a little more annoying (because I’d need to hop BACK to grab my stuff before calling a Lyft to the airport). So DHS, Epcot, DHS, and a sad sad ride to the airport.

Hopefully this treat in France will help beat the Last Day Blues!

My trip report should be filled with fun BatuuBounding selfies and lots of delicious food & drink, so stay tuned!

Update #1: 3 Days To Go!​

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more. I am also from the Atlanta area

 

[suse66]

Sounds like an amazing trip! I am looking forward to seeing your Batuu bounds!

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Three more days until Friday!

When do you guys start packing for a trip to Disney? I used to pack WAY in advance, but now I'm so used to doing quick weekend trips that I don't stress about it anymore (plus I have a small packing list that I've perfected/memorized over the years). That being said, my problem is over-packing. I can't do that this trip! Besides the fact that I'm flying Frontier, I know I'll at least be bringing home one of these babies:


But seriously, what am I going to do with this thing?

I have a friend who's a local so she grabbed me one. In retrospect it may have been a bad idea - the largest your Personal Item can be on Frontier is 18x14x8, and she said it measures 17x13 at its largest. Fingers crossed I can get it home with me! I'd also love to bring some art home from the Festival of the Arts, but we'll see. Maybe I'll end up mailing my stuff home instead.

Anyway, I have my Batuu-Bounding clothes laid out with some other stuff I'm bringing (like my travel pillow & GoPro) so all I have to do is toss it in my backpack & go on Friday morning. I need to narrow down my shirt options - right now I have 3 long sleeve & 3 short sleeve ones ready to go, and I'll only be there 2.5 days. The thing I'm worried about is being cold at night. I know it's warmer there than at home, but with a low of 48 on Saturday, will just a long sleeve shirt cut it? Probably not, but I really don't want to carry around a sweatshirt with me the whole weekend.


It'll all fit in my bag, but will it fit with the Millennium Falcon?

Speaking of not over-packing, any opinions of which MagicBand I should bring? I'm leaning towards my SWGE one, or maybe Snacks, since I do plan on snacking a lot.


The far left one is the 35th anniversary band for EPCOT, and definitely my favorite

Also in preparation for my trip, I put a new Patched sticker on the back of my phone case. I rotate these out every now & then and I thought the "Treat yo self" one was appropriate for this trip.


Though I was very tempted to use the donut one

And that's about it as far as updates! My lunch break is nearly over so I'd better get back to work and earn that $$$ for Disney. ​

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

I am back! What a jam-packed trip! I can't wait to update you all with my trip report & share all of the pics & videos I took. I got home at 2am though so when I get home from work, I'm going straight to sleep, so the report will have to wait a day or two.

 

[ljcrochet]

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Have YOU ever had a fun interaction with a character in SWGE? Tell me about it!

I have 2. The first was when we went for the galaxy's edge preview. My daughter was on her phone as we waited to get in to olga. The storm trooper came up and asked what she was doing. We were all cracking up it was too funny.

Last trip we did ROTR and when were in the room before we got on line, DH got pulled off and was made to go stand in a corner. Then made us take a "holoscan" of him.