Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Rain Curse is Broken! Two Weeks of Fun in the Sun! COMPLETE

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Maybe it is the Toronto pollution that adds to the muggy summer weather.

Yup that does contribute a lot to it as well and given the "winter" we've had I think summer is coming early and will be really hot here. Hopefully we won't have to much rain this year.

 

[GeminiAngel]

Yup that does contribute a lot to it as well and given the "winter" we've had I think summer is coming early and will be really hot here. Hopefully we won't have to much rain this year.

I fear the summer we might get here in Vegas this year. It was practically a jacket free winter. I'm thinking a few 118's are in my future.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I fear the summer we might get here in Vegas this year. It was practically a jacket free winter. I'm thinking a few 118's are in my future.

Yikes!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

May 22nd

Our day at Star Wars Weekends was upon us. The alarm went off at the obscene hour of 6am. That is right, we are on vacation and we are waking up at 6am! Why so early? Well, the park was scheduled to open at 8am, this was opening weekend for Star Wars Weekends and also opening weekend for the new Star Tours. My previous experience at Star Wars Weekends informed me that the crowds are insane and that you want to get there early so you can be at the front of the line to get into the park.

I had showered the night before saving me from having to get up even earlier!

We said goodbye to Mom who was not going with us and made our way out the door.

When we arrived at the park it was not yet 7am, the parking attendant told us that we would be waiting over an hour for the park to open. That was okay, we came prepared! Alek and Erich had their game systems and I had a book.

We drove into the parking lot and there were hardly any cars there yet. Yes! My plan had worked! We had beaten the crowds!

As we were walking towards the entrance Erich said he saw the Storm Troopers out at the entrance.

I thought that was weird, they don't usually make their appearance for the pre-show until right before they are going to start letting people into the park.

We arrived at the entrance and we were first in line at the far left turnstile, there were maybe a dozen people there. We got comfortable on the ground as we knew we had a long wait ahead of us.

As we were sitting there some CM's came over and asked us and the few other people who were there if we wanted into the park. We thought they were making fun of us for being there so early so we laughed along with them. Then they said, seriously, do you guys want in? Wait, what? It was just 7am, the park didn't open until 8! Well, they were not pulling our legs, they let us in!

So the three of us and the handful of other people made our way into the park and made a beeline for the new Star Tours.

It was so weird walking through an empty park, especially on Star Wars Weekends! We had been prepared for crowds rushing towards Star Tours to rival the Toy Story Mania stampede!

We got on the first "departure" of the day at Star Tours. There were only four other people in the ride vehicle with us. To my "excitement" one of them was Linda Leia Amidala Skywalker. She is a huge Star Wars/Luke Skywalker fan that Mom and I had met/noticed at Star Wars Weekends back in 2009. After that trip I learned that she is very well known in the Star Wars fan community for being a bit unusual and is a regular at every Star Wars Weekends. Before the trip I had joked about running into her again and here she was!

The ride started and all of the sudden Alek's picture showed up in the ride! What?! Darth Vader was looking for a rebel spy and Alek was said rebel spy. It was freaking hilarious! We loved it! Made the ride much more fun, really enhanced the experience.

We loved the new Star Tours. Each ride is different. There are three segments to the ride video and they are constantly mixed up so each ride is different.

After our ride, what do you think we did? We rode it again! It was 7:20, the park was still completely empty. We walked right back on the ride. This time Erich was the rebel spy! We then rode a third time, unfortunately I did not get to be the rebel spy on that third ride, some other guest was chosen.

It was 7:45, we had been on Star Tours three times, and the park was still dead.

We decided to grab some fastpasses so we could return later and went off in search of the merchandise hut.

Still pretty dead

Deserted

We were headed over to Rock N' Roller Coaster. The merchandise tent was set up behind it.

Jabba's Hut (the merchandise tent) was set up in a "backstage" area. The fence beside Rock N' Roller Coaster was opened up to provide access.

This is the place to go if you want the limited edition "exclusive" merchandise.

It can get super busy and all the good stuff goes fast so we were pretty lucky that we had gotten there so early, we didn't have to battle the crowds.

The first thing we saw upon entering were these disturbing paintings.

The rest of the merch was the normal.

One of the voice actors for the Star Wars cartoon series has designed a line of clothing for female fans. I thought they were pretty but I would probably never wear them, I don't wear t-shirts very often.

We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to look around.

Upon exiting we saw this unique view of Tower of Terror

It was now just after 8, the park was now officially open. We still weren't seeing any crowds though...

Oh, here are all the people!

[post=44091410]Click here to continue[/post]

 

[marDgreen88]

That's awesome that they let you in so early! Talk about ... wookie dust? Hahaha.

Ahh, being the rebel spy. It's the way to go.

OMG. Those paintings ARE disturbing. Not Minnie. NOT MINNIE!

 

[stephensmum]

WOW, what a lovely surprise to get in so early. Thanks for posting.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That's awesome that they let you in so early! Talk about ... wookie dust? Hahaha.

Ahh, being the rebel spy. It's the way to go.

That it is! I was so glad we didn't know about it ahead of time, the surprise was so fun!

OMG. Those paintings ARE disturbing. Not Minnie. NOT MINNIE!

WOW, what a lovely surprise to get in so early. Thanks for posting.

It was a lovely surprise!

 

[IheartDDuck]

How awesome! I would have been the same as you, like, "what, you makin' fun of me for being here so early?!" That's so cool. I would have freaked out.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Just one question what was wrong with the paintings of Minnie as slave girl leia?

 

[englishrose47]

Wow to get in an hour early !!!I remember the Star Wars weekend we were there in 2009 !!I have a Special Edition Pin from it !!! Stood in line quite a while for it !!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

How awesome! I would have been the same as you, like, "what, you makin' fun of me for being here so early?!" That's so cool. I would have freaked out.

It was awesome! It made getting up ridiculously early so worth it. It also saved us so much time! Instead of having to wait in long lines for Star Tours and the merchandise tent we were able to get both out of the way (several times!) before the park even officially opened!

Just one question what was wrong with the paintings of Minnie as slave girl leia?

You are kidding right? Leia in her golden bikini has been the teenage (and no longer teenaged) boys wet dream material since the 70's? 80's? Putting Minnie Mouse, a cartoon animal, into that outfit and posing her "seductively", that just screamed wrong to me and my brothers. Just really weird and icky.

Wow to get in an hour early !!!I remember the Star Wars weekend we were there in 2009 !!I have a Special Edition Pin from it !!! Stood in line quite a while for it !!

You should have got to the park before 7am.

 

[Lidian]

That's awesome they let you in so early!!!! We were just arriving that day.

That's really cool that Erich and Alek got selected to be the spies! (Maybe you got selected later that day or weekend? Guess I'll just have to keep reading to see.) I love your DHS-Ghost-Town pictures!

 

[GeminiAngel]

Super Mojo that day!
Minnie as Leia slave girl? just wrong.

 

[ddstratton]

Absolutely AWESOME!!!! How super cool that you guys got in early. What a great start to your day!

 

[oOJulieOo]

It's SO super cool that you got to go into the park early! What a great pay-off for an extra early wake up.

 

[UGAFan0829]

So amazing they they let you and the brothers in early...so very, very cool!! I bet you're really glad that you decided to get there when you did--it definitely paid off!

I love the shot of Tower of Terror from the normally unseen angle!!

What an awesome way to start the day!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

How cool to have been let into the park so early! I cannot wait to try out the new Star Tours...it sounds so cool!

Now I really am hoping we can make our 3rd trip happen this year and head down for the last Star Wars Weekend!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That's awesome they let you in so early!!!! We were just arriving that day.

That's really cool that Erich and Alek got selected to be the spies! (Maybe you got selected later that day or weekend? Guess I'll just have to keep reading to see.) I love your DHS-Ghost-Town pictures!

It is kinda funny. Back during our "first" trip in 07 we saw a deserted DHS at night, super creepy. We walked out of Mama Melrose and there was NOBODY. We walked through the Streets of Amerca, nobody, walked to the hat, NOBODY, everybody was at the Fantastmic theatre. This was the same but early morning!

Super Mojo that day!
Minnie as Leia slave girl? just wrong.

It was super mojo, it continued throughout the day.

Absolutely AWESOME!!!! How super cool that you guys got in early. What a great start to your day!

It was an excellent start!

It's SO super cool that you got to go into the park early! What a great pay-off for an extra early wake up.

Definitely worth the early wake up and I don't usually say anything is worth an early wakeup.

So amazing they they let you and the brothers in early...so very, very cool!! I bet you're really glad that you decided to get there when you did--it definitely paid off!

I love the shot of Tower of Terror from the normally unseen angle!!

What an awesome way to start the day!!!!

The day was definitely off to a good start. It was so fun going into the empty park and riding Star Tours three times in a row with no wait!

How cool to have been let into the park so early! I cannot wait to try out the new Star Tours...it sounds so cool!

Now I really am hoping we can make our 3rd trip happen this year and head down for the last Star Wars Weekend!

The new Star Tours is so fun! Don't tell the family about the rebel spy surprise, it is such a fun surprise if you get picked!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

You are kidding right? Leia in her golden bikini has been the teenage (and no longer teenaged) boys wet dream material since the 70's? 80's? Putting Minnie Mouse, a cartoon animal, into that outfit and posing her "seductively", that just screamed wrong to me and my brothers. Just really weird and icky.

I guess it must look worse in person. It really didn't look that bad to me. Now if it was Daisy, I don't think she could pull it off as well.

 

[teachermommy78]

All caught up from Universal to present!!! I've been away from the boards for a bit! What an awesome trip thus far. Your pictures are so detailed. Thank you for keeping such good notes!