National Lampoons Aussie Vacation - 12/12/16 to 25/1/17 Universal - 40+ Days at Disney World

[wsssup]

DAY 30 - 10TH JAN : MAGIC KINGDOM EARLY MORNING MAGIC PART 1

Up bright and early, it was still dark outside but we had a mission this morning and had to get ready and get going on our way. Not a soul was in sight this morning, as we made our way to the car. Early Morning Magic was on the cards. An event held on certain mornings from 7:45am to 10am. With a few New Fantasyland attractions open for early morning magic guests only. This was going to be fun.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom, and not a soul was here, just alot of workers arriving for their day. The paking was a little confusing so I just parked anywhere. Turns out later we realised we were parked in the preferred parking area hahaha. Oh well. We made our way over to the Monorail. No one was around so Bec asked a lady worker who was close by. Bec came back and said she doesn't know when the Monorail would be open. Hmmmm. Another guy came over and we asked the same thing. He was much nicer and said hold on I will find out.
He then walked over to the same woman Bec had spoken to and then came back and said, Monorail is having problems and wont be leaving for a few hours. Would have been nice if the lady had said this in the first place, pretty rude.

Well it looks like we may have made a boo boo in driving to Magic Kingdom for our Early morning magic haha. A monorail driver arrived and we explained we were here for early morning magic. He said sorry the Monorail wouldnt be going for awhile but suggested we walk to the Polynesian resort and would be able to catch the bus from here.
So onward we marched, still pretty much dark we made our way over and caught the bus to Magic Kingdom. It was a little bit of a mess up but hey we knew know better and just went with it and still arrived in time.

A quick bag check and then we lined up for the Early Morning Magic. Plenty of other people were there as well in another line, but this was for early reservations for breakfast. The early morning magic line was not that big at all. We checked in and were let in but held just before entrance underpass.

7:45am we were let in. There was lot's of pushing going on, people need to settle down and realise your not going to miss out on anything. We stuck to the path to get away from the Disney shuffle. CM's were not doing a real great job of directing people, we made our own way around the back of the castle into New Fantasyland. Seven Dwarfs mine train here we come.

We walked right on, up to the front. At this stage it was just sit where ever you want. There was only a handful on the first go around. Heigh Ho Heigh Ho. You cant help but sing on this one. So smooth and such a great ride, Bec was loving this.
Off we jumped and walked right back onto it for round 2.

More people were slowly rolling in now but it was still a walk on, so back to it we went. Heigh Ho once again.

And again....

And then we........ oh again....

And again 2 more times. 7 times one after the other. Not eating any breakfast I was starting to feel a little seedy, so was Bec. India on the other hand could have just lived on the Mine train. She was loving it, and dont get me wrong so were we, but 7 times in a row was starting to hurt, haha.
We decided on having a break from the Mine train. We opted to go quickly check out Peter Pan. No one was on this one, everyone was really only here for the Mine train. On we jumped for Peter Pan. When we did this at Disneyland we loved it so we were excited to see what this was like.
Wow, that was a let down. This was a pretty bad attraction, it looked so run down and dirty, it was not dark enough that's for sure. Ah well, I am sure lots of people love this Peter Pan but it just was not for us.

After Peter we still had a fair amount of time left for early morning magic. Bec and I thought lets get a quick bite to eat. Pinocchio's Village Haus was the place for the special early morning magic feast. No one was really in here so we grabbed a plate and started chowing down some delicious breakfast goodies. Mmmmm bacon galore, so good. French toast more bacon tasty juice, oh this was a breakfast feast.

It was pretty well set up and this made it more than worth the price for this event. And this was all open until 10am, so even when the park opened for everyone else, you could still come in and grab more food or drinks. With our bellies satisfied it was time for ...... yes... more Seven Dwarfs... oh dear.

Thats 8 times now..... how about we go again said India..... hmmm

uh ohhhhh, I think Daddy is done, hahahaha. Yep 9 times, I was pulling the plug on this. It was starting to hurt now. Bec and I still had colds, but we did power on and 9 times on Mine Train was a mission but we did well. Bec and India had gotten their Snow White fix and were very happy. It was getting close to 9am, and people were already lining up for Mine train, but were being held so early morning magic guest could still ride. Not for us though, that was it. Time to go for round 2 of food.

So we headed back in for more refreshments and a little snack. It was a little busier now but still not alot of people for the event. We sat down and relaxed and just enjoyed each others company, talking about the Mine Train and what we thought about the morning. We all agreed it was worth it. We had the little mess up in the morning but we still got here on time and had a wonderful morning. The sun was now shining, yes this was going to be a wicked day, the best cure for our cold blues again.

With our Early morning magic officially over it was time to step outside and see what other awesome things we could make happen today......

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

I think it's great you got to do SDMT so many times in a row. It reminds me of the early days- no FP, then FP-where you could ride again and again. I think we got lucky-my 2ds were younger then (now18 and 21) and got to enjoy it before it became so much more structured and crowded. I don't think I could do so many trips of a rollercoaster. My head is wobbly just thinking of it!

I am guessing your daughter is out of school on break -but how did you guys get so much time off? Is that common? Hope I am not being too nosy-I can not even find a way for DH to take 2 weeks.

 

[bcwife76]

Catching up.

Ok what was with the crazy lady and her kid trying to pick pocket your bag? Stupid woman. Man....just because it's the happiest place on earth, you still run into some freaks

Too bad BOG was such a let down re:food but sounds like the decor and atmosphere made up for it

Woohoo, more Hot Topic shopping, way to go guys

Cannot believe you rode Mine train 9 times!!!! Before noon That's gotta be a record

 

[wsssup]

I am guessing your daughter is out of school on break -but how did you guys get so much time off? Is that common? Hope I am not being too nosy-I can not even find a way for DH to take 2 weeks.

Howdy, it can be pretty common in Australia. Being so far away 4 to 5 week holidays happen all the time when travelling overseas.
School holidays was 12th December to 3rd Feb for our daughter so it was a good time to go. Plus work for both Bec and I was no problems as we were owed a large amount of time off. It's a long way to Florida from Melbourne Australia so we wanted to make it worth the while.

Catching up.

Ok what was with the crazy lady and her kid trying to pick pocket your bag? Stupid woman. Man....just because it's the happiest place on earth, you still run into some freaks

Too bad BOG was such a let down re:food but sounds like the decor and atmosphere made up for it

Woohoo, more Hot Topic shopping, way to go guys

Cannot believe you rode Mine train 9 times!!!! Before noon That's gotta be a record

Haha, yes you are always bound to have a run in with someone no matter where you are. Just have to move on and not let it ruin the fun. We were addicted to Hot Topic thats for sure, we had a full day coming up soon of Toys r Us and nearly every Target in the area toy hunting.
Mine train was fun, I think we got enough rides on it haha. Well I did anyway.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 30 - 10TH JAN : MAGIC KINGDOM EARLY MORNING MAGIC PART 2

It was just after 10am, and what a great morning we had with early morning magic. Time to keep the fun going with a ride on The Haunted Mansion.
I could sit on this over and over again and still pick up on little things you miss. There is so much to look at, and we loved the hitchhiking ghosts at the end. Australia or Bust was a favourite from the Ghosts.

The crowd level was pretty low still, and the sun was beaming down. We couldn't get over how awesome the weather had really been since being here. A few showers here and there but mostly hot sunny weather. As we walked out of Haunted Mansion a Photopass photographer was taking snaps, so we waited in line to get a few snaps.

This was probably the only good pic that was taken. Everything else was just out of wack, half the Mansion or just zoomed in to the max.
Now it was time to go get something that was on our must do list. We walked all of about 10 meters into Memento Mori. Yes we were going to go get our pictures taken that changed into ghosts. We were shown into the room and we all had our picture taken. Bec and I had serious no emotion faces, but India just had to smile as she was laughing alot. We had a great chat with the lady who was taking the pictures, she was very funny and was telling India we would now have to wait as the ghost spirits would create our pictures for us.

It was a good 15 minutes or so, India was getting very excited as we waited for them to be delivered by the ghosts into the cabinet. Finally a knock was heard and our pictures were delivered. We opened them up to have a look and a big laugh. These were worth the wait and we decided that we would get the frames for them another day. Here's a quick few pics of them hanging back up at home.

We were a little disappointed the frames are not glass covered, they are just a clear plastic and get dusty pretty easy. Still a cool thing to look at and remember the awesome Haunted Mansion. The guy who was doing our pictures came up and apologised for the long delay and said he wanted to give us an extra fastpass. We thanked him for the kind gesture but let him know we already had 5 a day and we were struggling to use them all the time.

With our Haunted Mansion fix satisfied India was in charge of the next attraction. So it was really hot , and well kids love water don't they. There was only one place we were going to end up.

Yes good old Splash Mountain. What a fun one haha. Bec and India got pretty wet this time being closer to the front haha. The happy couple up the front got drenched, oh what fun. How can you not like this attraction, it always brings a smile and lots of laughs. A very nice way to cool off indeed.
Being a little thirsty we quenched our thirst, and spent a fair while window shopping and just enjoying the park again. There was never any mad rush really to constantly go go go which was working out well for us. I mean going on attractions is cool and fun but so is just being here. Every now and then we would still be in awe of where we were and this made the day even more enjoyable.

Eventually we were back out in front of Cinderellas Castle, and the stage show was about to begin. We stuck around for a bit of the fun. It wasn't that crowded but the sun got to us in the end, it was really burning a hole in my head.

A quick bite to eat was next, just a hot dog or 2. A few more attractions were ridden and of course we had to relax on our new favourite the People Mover. Disneyland needs to bring this back.
As we looked up in the sky the beautiful weather was slowly turning to black clouds with rain looming in the distance. We had one last thing to do before we would end the day. India led the way and was excited about this one. So was Bec for that matter.

Waiting and waiting, well it wasn't that long a wait. India was getting really excited now as we were in line.

Yes it was time to meet Ariel. This was a fun meet, India and Bec were having a great old chat. We told her we swam all the way from Australia then got onto chatting about the Great Barrier Reef. The girls had their autograph books out and then it was time for happy snaps. One of the better meets, it never felt rushed at all, even after the photo's were taken there was still plenty of chat going on between everyone.

When we walked out the sun had gone, and it was becoming our time to leave as well. It was a busy morning and all of us felt a little sleepy at this stage.

As we waited for the ferry it started to trickle down a little, nothing too heavy and it was still hot anyway , so getting a little wet was no problems.

Here's a tip. Always take the ferry. Its quicker than the Monorail and at least you can breath fresh air. The monorail can be very stuffy and stinky, as well as being much slower than the ferry.
We boarded and went up top to say bye to Magic Kingdom for the day. It was not a long walk to the car as we parked really close , in the preferred parking area haha, whoops. The legs were sore and we were glad to see the broom broom.

Back home to Pop. More medicine to take, and more rest to be had. Bec and I were feeling better but still trying to knock the cold away. Another big day was coming up soon, a day all of us were hanging for.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 31 - 11TH JAN : EPCOT AWESOMENESS PART 1

Top of the morning everyone. We had a day planned for relaxing, but something strange happened. We all woke up pretty early and sort of had all this energy to burn. With a quick look at MyDisney app I was able to get a few hard to get fastpass+ pretty easy. It was time to get going, still feeling not the best but pumped up for some reason. Best go to a park and let it loose. Our pick was Epcot again, with a few meets we wanted to tick off our list today. So lets get cracking.
Out the door , in the car , down the road , through the gates into EPCOT. Oh such a glorious site to see Spaceship Earth again. We made use of the Annual Pass line only, these had opened up over the last few days at all parks and was a much quicker way to get in. We were through the gates just after park opening, and our first point of call was a fella we all loved. I had been waiting for this moment the whole trip, I was a little nervous haha.

Ever since we knew that this guy had come back, there was much excitement. A year of waiting to do this, haha. Oh I'm such a big kid.

Oh yes, hello Baymax. I was greeted with the fist pump, oh better not stuff this up. Wow, he was huge and looked so cool. Those eyes blinking when I said hi and our fists connected for the awesome fist pump.

Haha, you can see how nervous I look, oh i did not want to stuff this up. We hugged it out after, and as i turned around India was just staring in amazement. The look on her face was priceless. I could tell what her little brain was thinking, wow he is real.

Lots and lots of hugs for India, he was moving around a fair bit at this stage but once India grabbed on she did not want to let go, and either did Baymax for that matter. His eyes kept blinking as he was looking at India. I felt like a big kid watching this, so awesome and a favourite movie of ours by a long shot.
Bec was taking happy snaps and finally made her way over to say hi. He stopped as if to scan her, then Bec kinda disappeared inside hi arms.

Becs turn for a fist pump went down a treat with Baymax, then time for some more pics. This was a pretty cool meet and greet. He may not talk and some say not do much but I think it depends on you yourself getting the most out of Baymax. He deserves a much better area, and they were expanding it while we were there so fingers crossed it gets bigger and better. Satisfied with our care we bid farewell to one of our favourites.

We were lucky to line up pretty much after park opening as the line was massive now for him. Back out into the sun we ventured and needed to quench our thirst from the excitement. Where else but club cool for some free drink action and hopefully have Melon Frosty available.
Yes, it was back so we drank, lots of it. We sat just outside in the sun for a little break while finishing off our drinks.

Even the drinks make you smile. I can't remember what we were all laughing about here, but it went on for a fair while. A few people were looking at us funny thinking what the hell are they laughing at. Life can be funny so just go with it I say. Time for another meet, I got the old trusty map out with the times on it, and we started making our way around world showcase to get in line for the meet.

Our destination was this little place. And no one was in line with only 10 minutes before they were due to arrive. We stood around and took in the scenery and joked amongst ourselves. Out of the blue I hear a voice saying whos this fella on your back. She scared the crap out of me.

Who else but Alice. The first in line to meet her, and she had snuck up behind us and scared the crap out of us. This was one funny meet, just watching back the video of the whole thing is pretty darn funny. She kept walking up to the camera and staring right into it. She was having a great old chat with everyone and loved Becs shirt. Bec is a huge Alice fan so she was extremely excited, which was cute to see. She signed the autograph books then somehow the conversation turned to what shirt I was wearing, which was a Krusty Krab shirt. Somehow that became you are what you eat and more jokes were flying.

Alice was chatting to us for a fair while as her line was not very long at this stage. We got lots of great pics, and she was admiring India's BB8 dress. Finally we said our goodbye's and off we went. Just as we walked off I thought to myself I dont think I got my magic band scanned for the photo's. I had, but silly me thought hmmmm I didn't. As I went back it was clear from the photographer I had, and well Alice being Alice, came over once again for more jokes while the camera was rolling. She gave a big goodbye for us to remember on video for years.

With weird and wonderful Alice done, our fastpass+ was ready to go. Well it was actually almost time up for it and I had not realised that yet. It was a long trek to Norway, but we had energy to burn and we wanted to Let it Go. Arriving at our destination we headed into a gift shop where I checked the time. This is when I saw that we had 10 minutes left before the fastpass ended. Whoops. No biggie , as the Attraction was right outside.

Yes that ride made of nightmares and long lines. Today though it did not look too bad. Magic bands at the ready we got the magical green glow and in we went. Now this is seriously one franchise I despise, one of the worst Disney movies ever in my books. India was never really a big fan either, but we were here to see what the fuss was about. It was pretty cool inside with the theming. Very well done indeed. Our line was moving at a fairly quick pace. The fastpass line was long which they realised and were trying to shorten it as quick as possible.

Not too much longer and we were on the boat, right up the first row. We requested it and had to wait a little bit, all in the hopes of getting wet. We jumped in up the front and the seats were pretty wet. Wooo, this is a good sign, get us wet please. Away we went into the world of Frozen. Right now I was thinking god help me.

First impressions were pretty good. The animatronics were very impressive indeed. I found myself singing along with Olaf and cheering when Elsa was singing and the boat went backwards. What was happening to me, oh my. Backwards we went, a few splashes of water made their way onto our laps, wooo. The one thing I did not like about the attraction was the boats themselves. The seating felt tiny, and I already had a sore back. Plus it is rough as guts, especially when the backwards sections comes to an end and the boat locks in and moves ready for the forward drop.
So this was it, time for the small drop. Down we went cheering on the way down..... yes, water everywhere, it was a pretty big splash for us up front. For a minute then I was not feeling safe on that drop. Once again this is a clunker ride, and even the drop was making banging and clunking noises.

One last farewell, and it was all over. I felt sad it was over, haha. Bec and India loved the ride, and well I had been totally converted to Frozen in 1 ride. A big thumbs up from everyone, especially from the guy who did not like Frozen. All this excitement had dried up the throat and vocal chords. The only fix for that was going to be Cub Cool again.

PART 2 NEXT

 

[elcmum]

The ghost pictures are FANTASTIC! I had no idea they could even do that!

Do they freak anyone out when they come into your house? I know that I would probably wee my pants if I wasn't suspecting it!

 

[elcmum]

BAYMAX BLINKS? How did I not know this? Love, love, love this detail!

This photo is hysterical! Love that your Alice interaction was so fun. That is pretty darn cool!

And you're killing me that you don't like Frozen. BOOOO! (Actually, you will probably say the same about me when it comes to Star Wars. Hahaha!)

Looks like the weather was amazing, too!

 

[Beccybooboo]

The ghost pictures are FANTASTIC! I had no idea they could even do that!

Do they freak anyone out when they come into your house? I know that I would probably wee my pants if I wasn't suspecting it!

Haha we had a pretty funny response from the grandparents when they saw these photos. They are so cool and creepy.
Feels like we are part of the haunted mansion family now.. awesome.

 

[Beccybooboo]

BAYMAX BLINKS? How did I not know this? Love, love, love this detail!



This photo is hysterical! Love that your Alice interaction was so fun. That is pretty darn cool!

And you're killing me that you don't like Frozen. BOOOO! (Actually, you will probably say the same about me when it comes to Star Wars. Hahaha!)

Looks like the weather was amazing, too!

You just want to take baymax home with you. Which we did haha we had to get a baymax plush.

Alice is so much fun. This interaction was unreal and very fitting to her character, so glad we have it on video thanks to my talented Hubby. We had a surprise interaction at DL with Alice and Mad Hatter they came from nowhere and surprised us randomly in the park we chatted for a while which was so cool, feel very lucky to have had so much fun with her being a big fan.

Maybe star wars land will convert you like frozen did for us haha.
There is hope for you yet

 

[mikepdc]

Love the Baymax visit! When we visited EP last year, we didn't know Baymax had a M&G. We were literally walking by and just happened to see him from outside the building. I yelled to DS6, "WE HAVE TO GO SEE BAYMAX!!!!!" It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 31 - 11TH JAN : EPCOT AWESOMENESS PART 2

Oh that delicious Melon Frosty. I just had to treat my taste buds to this wonderful beverage. Club cool was our go to place for refreshments. You really save yourself having to buy drinks in Epcot. We needed to get those energy levels back, it was hot yet again.

With Club Cool done again, it was time for some more meets just around the corner. This was to be a pretty interesting meet, and I warn you now, it turns into an Adult level meet with a certain someone. That place was to be the Character Spot, and on deck was Mickey , Goofy and Minnie. This was going to be a fun one. Our fastpass+ was ready to go so in we went. Fairly big queue line for standby but for fastpass there was pretty much no line at all.
In we walked to see the mouse himself again. Ahh one can never get tired of seeing this fella.

India got another autograph and we had a pretty large amount of time with Mickey as there was a hold up with Goofy. We got more than enough pictures with Mickey and he as well was pointing out India's dress, he was thumbs up with the Krusty Krab shirt as well, must be a Spongebob fan as well. You just can't fault the Mouse himself, and when you meet or see him you will always be smiling. Thumbs up for the main mouse. Ok so Goofy was ready for us and this is where it got weird.

Warning : Adult content
Don't worry I will keep it PG and just describe enough so you get the idea what was happening. And sorry Goofy it was all caught on video as well.
So in to meet Goofy, wow he is so big, like a giant. I gave him a high five and India came in and got a big hug from him. He was pretty lively thats for sure. More autographs and happy snaps were taken.

We were all having a ball with him. I commented on how bloody tall he was and he pointed at my shirt, and we started joking and comparing belly sizes. It seems we both have a love for burgers and his little belly was a little bigger. The joking around went on for a fair while as the next family in front were still with Minnie. This didn't bother us as Goofy was entertaining us well. This is when it got a little naughty. Funny for us as we are adults but probably something you shouldn't be doing.

The picture really shows whats going on. Goofy had become obsessed with my Stormtrooper backpack. He was slapping it around and playing with him a fair bit. However he then found the gun of the Stormtrooper and well, lets just say started doing a gesture with the gun. I wont say anymore as it was bloody obvious. Being a silly adult I was laughing and so was Bec, which only encouraged him more. The photopass lady was laughing but called him out to settle down.

Goofy had been a bad Goofy and he knew it.

Ahh poor goofy. He knew he was in trouble and he walked over and hugged the photographer. He put his hands over his face as if to say sorry. We were all having a laugh though, I think Goofy had a great personality and well was just being Goofy. We were still waiting for Minnie so Goofy was still interacting with us. We got a few more pics with him while waiting which was awesome.

With Goofy all done, i was still laughing at what had just gone down. Goofy was kind enough to even walk us over to meet Minnie. Aww Minnie, so good to see her again.

Ahh Minnie, she was great with the girls. Lots of laughs were had. The photopass guy on this one was pretty bad. Didn't say hi, took a few pictures and just stood there. When I asked oh is that it your done, I was greeted with a blank stare. He scanned my magic band and yes I was being smart but threw in the comment , awesome great job mate. That was greeted by another stare. I thought to myself why are you working here, but left it at that. Our meet and greets had come to an end, what an experience that was, especially from good old Goofy.
We had done what we had wanted to do and all with no long waiting. A few more rides were snuck in, and of course Spaceship Earth was one of them again. Ah nothing better to rest your legs and take in an awesome attraction. The your future photo was not working today so we all just got the generic faces. That's ok we would be back again for sure, Epcot was becoming a favourite of ours and each time we went new things were being found to look at and enjoy.

Our park day was coming to an end so we headed in to see what goodies we could find. I really wanted a Baymax plush but the size of it was small and it was a heft price tag. I almost purchased him but at the last minute thought they might have something better and Toys r Us or somewhere else. I really wish they still had Big Hero 6 clothes but there was nothing here anymore. India was after a new bag, and wanted something that was going to go well with her Star Wars attire.

She found what she was looking for and India was over the moon. So cute. Chewbacca was coming home with us. I grabbed a few more baseballs and NFL balls to go with the collection and Bec found an awesome Snow White picture Record. Still pretty disappointed with the mens clothes, really plain looking stuff. I really wanted something from Epcot but all the prints looked really bad and not my thing. Oh well not to worry, Walmart and Target had been serving us well.

Our awesome day was done and we made our way back to home base at Pop. Being so hot there was a bit of afternoon swimming. A perfect way to end the day relaxing together in the sun. For tomorrow was going to be another action packed day as the excitement for our super special day was coming up very soon.

 

[wsssup]

Love the Baymax visit! When we visited EP last year, we didn't know Baymax had a M&G. We were literally walking by and just happened to see him from outside the building. I yelled to DS6, "WE HAVE TO GO SEE BAYMAX!!!!!" It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

Lucky you spotted him, awesome that you got to go meet him. I would have yelled out too hahaha. He is underrated I think, people just assume he stands there and does nothing. If your a fan you know the fist pump gets him excited and throw in a I'm satisfied with my care at the end and he will re act. A highlight of our trip as well thats for sure.

 

[bcwife76]

Oh my goodness, bad Goofy!!!! He's a naughty boy

Love the Baymax interaction! Such an underrated movie, I love Big Hero 6 oh so much! I guess we lucked out when were at Epcot in January (we were there one day only, January 13th, in the middle of your visit as it happens! As we were sailing on the Fantasy the next day). I was desperate for the Inside Out photo op and coming out of there we saw Baymax had no line so we lucked out and spent a good amount of time with him. Although my youngest daughter was told off ever so slightly as she kept punching Baymax in the stomach

You've mentioned this 'super special day' a few times now so I'm very curious to find out what it's all about

 

[wsssup]

Although my youngest daughter was told off ever so slightly as she kept punching Baymax in the stomach

You've mentioned this 'super special day' a few times now so I'm very curious to find out what it's all about

Hahaha, this made me laugh. He is pretty spongy the old Baymax, so I could see people punching him softly. I remember hugging him and kind of bouncing off him.

Don't get too excited about our super special day haha, the next few posts are going to be a Star Wars overload, so if your not into Star Wars you could be bored for a few days haha.

 

[bcwife76]

Are you kidding? I'm loving your report, I'm not missing a single entry

 

[wsssup]

DAY 32 - 12TH JAN : THE DARKSIDE

Early morning walk for Bec. What a great pic of Pop while everyone sleeps. Pop does look pretty cool at night with everything lit up. But this was not night this was 5am in the morning, what the heck are we doing up so early? Was it because our holiday was coming to end soon, or was it a burst of energy? It was kind of both, we had been here in Orlando for 32 days, wow. We did not want to leave, there were many chats on how can we stay here forever? I'll sell Hot Dogs or cook people Vegemite on toast haha, anything to live here. Just a pipe dream for now. Time to just get up and go go go, energy was abundant between all of us, even India was dressed before us and ready to go.

We were having Star Wars withdrawals so there was only one place to go to get the cure. Hollywood Studio's of course. Time to gear on up, our plan was today at least say hello to Ben, whoops sorry Kylo. So we jumped into our beastly rental car haha, and headed off to the park. Hollywood Studios is like 2 left turns from Pop, it seriously takes under 5 minutes driving. Being a little early we got a park pretty close so was able to walk to the entrance.

Insert over the top security tool. Now on our travels Bec and I for 32 days, even at Universal , pretty much always walked through the detectors. There was never any issue with this at all, we were always more than happy with bag checks and security. However today was super tool security day. I was first through bag check, with India behind me, Bec was in another line waiting for the check. I got through bag check and turned to wait for our daughter. Super tool security man came up and said just a random security check please sir and pointed to the metal detectors. I said no probs mate, but was still waiting for India. He then proceeded to yell louder "I said security check now". Well this peed me off, my answer was I am waiting for my daughter then I'll go. His response was now again. And this is when Daddy got grumpy. I am waiting for my daughter you tool. He was not happy with this and India was finally through security and joined me. I was then waiting for Bec to get through to look after India, then I was more than happy to go through what we had be doing for 30 days no problems. Mister security tool was looking jacked up and continued on with a rant as I walked to the scanning area where I was greeted by a much friendlier fellow. I let the security tool know that he should settle down a bit mate and maybe take a coarse on human relations. The friendlier security fellow could see what was going on and nothing needed to be said. Scan complete I was on my way, but a little bit grumpy after what had just happened. Do your job thats fine, but don't get a power trip over nothing in front of a child as well.
Anyway thats my only security rant for 32 days so I think we had done alright.
Lets get in the park shall we......

When we got in, we were able to see the ending of March of the 1st Order. It was a good way to start the day, they were out earlier than expected and took a few by surprise. It would be hard work in those costumes in this heat. I have trouble with just a few minutes of my Kylo Ren and Stormtrooper replica helmets, so this would take a bit of discipline walking around in the Orlando heat. Captain Phasma was a favourite of India, and she always got pretty excited seeing her march. If only they had a Phasma meet. One can wish one day maybe they will. They continued their march to the awesome music and we just sat back to take this morning awesomeness in.

Time for a few fastpasses to use up. This is where we were to split up. Bec was off to ride Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster. Yes I was too chicken to ride any of those, they were not on the Dad friendly ride list. India and I were off to get a few rides in on Toy Story. So on our way we went. First India and I off to Toy Story.
It was a pretty long line already but we had a free fastpass+ to burn before using our reserved fastpass+. Magic bands at the ready we got that awesome green light of goodness and away we went.

The line was empty until we it joined up with the regular line, however it was not long before we were seated and ready to battle it out. I always forget how fast this thing can take off sometimes, especially the first time we rode it at Disneyland. Once again Disney World wins for better line queue, and the ride itself is basically the same. Our first ride took longer than normal. A few glitches seemed to be happening this early, plus slow loading was making pauses at every screen almost. No worries because as soon as we finished this one we walked right back into the fastpass line to use our reserved fastpass+. They seemed to have fixed the problems and the line and loading was much quicker this time. My hand was still sore from the last one and I could not match my score, India and I both loved this attraction. It was just as we had remembered it. We checked out the Toy Story Merch after the ride and was a little disappointed again. Nothing new from when we were even at Disneyland. Now it was time to wait for Mummy... I wonder what she was up to?.....

Mum had made her way down to Tower of Terror, a favourite from Disneyland , so Bec was keen to see what this version was like. Even looking from the front she was impressed with it. The big difference here was the Disneyland's version just goes up and down, where Disney World's goes up and slowly forward through the story before the drop. Bec was a bigger fan of this version and said she loved it all. Even inside was better themed and just felt bigger. I was glad she loved it, and it sucks she had to go on it herself but she didn't mind at all and had a great time.

Now Bec was off to Rock n Rollercoaster. This ride was another one she was excited about. Bec loves rollercoasters and will go on anything so this needed to be ticked off her list.

The queue line was pretty cool, and it did not take very long for her to get on. She had asked for the front row and had no drama's in having to wait. She said the guy who was sitting next to her up the front was pretty nervous, and well you only have to look at the photo on launch his eye's were closed just as Bec said. She loved the ride and said it was pretty darn quick, and a little rough, but wanted to do it again another day.

Haha such an awesome picture . Bec had a great time thats for sure.
India and I had made our way over to the Launch Bay area to wait for mummy. Bec came around the corner with some drink goodies. Scotch and coke for us and frozen coke for India. Oh what a delicious beverage and it wasn't even lunch time yet. Oh well we had to celebrate just being here so an early morning drink was ok for us. We headed towards Launch Bay to see what the wait time for Kylo Ren was like. It was a pretty short wait so we thought what the heck, lets go see the master.

The line was going fairly quickly, the 1ST Order Stormtroopers were out and about messing with people in the line. They had some pretty cool display's showing Light Sabers and Helmets. Oh i would like to take these all home please.

The Captain Phasma helmet looked awesome, oh I wish they sold this one. It was like a kid in a candy store again, both Bec and I were drooling once again. The queue was moving fast and I was starting to get nervous about meeting Kylo, he is a pretty imposing figure thats for sure. But as India said he's just an angry teenager haha.
We were inside and waiting to go next. The people in front left and Kylo came to say hello....well not hello just a stare down.

Holy crap....hahaha. Notice the real happy photopass girl. Insert grumpy girl here..... Now we know it's the Darkside and we love it over here, and the other CM's were acting out the part well of the Darkside. They were happy with my Stormtrooper backpack, but not with Bec and India's BB8 and Chewbacca backpacks, but it was tongue and cheek banter which was fun. This photopass girl was just pure misery and just looked grumpy straight off the bat.
So Daddy was about to make her real grumpy.

In we walked to meet Kylo, he was pretty big and yes I was scared. But Daddy had to pay his respects to the Darkside so Daddy got down on his knees to give himself to the Darkside.

Kylo was pretty happy with this. He came up and put his hand close to my head and said, Control your feelings... I said sorry buddy your just so awesome.
I heard a grumpy photopass girl yelling out, STAND UP.... STAND UP.... STAND UP..... hahaha. sorry Im not standing up yet and Kylo did not mind. Even Bec was looking at her thinking how about you just take some pictures. The rest of the family came in to meet Kylo. He was asking us if we choose the light side or the Darkside, of course we all love the Darkside, its just cooler. He had a good stare down of India, it was pretty funny.

India was smiling and loved every minute of it. Most of these pics are stills from video we were taking, as the Photopass girl was not taking any pictures. She took one picture which was a pretty poor effort. Kylo was satisfied with our choice of the Darkside and he posed for our happy snap.

I think Bec was the only one ready for it, India and I were in have you taken a picture yet mode. And that was that. A pretty poor meet due to the great human relations of the photopass girl. She scanned my band for the 1 photo and thanked her for the fun times. A blank stare and sadness is all I got. Wow, don't work here then. This is Disney Worlds biggest downfall. We never experienced anything like this at Disneyland, CM's are all happy to be there.. here there are some that are not and just going through the motions.

So with Kylo over with there was only one thing to cure the grumpy photo girl blues.
Jawa time. Utinni!!!!!.

It was a little crowded again, so we hang out at the bar again to let them do their thing. It wasn't long before we were approached again.

I felt a tugging at my backpack and looked around. Ah our little friend was back. He was wanting my bag, I took off my backpack and handed it over. He was pointing to his other Jawa buddy, I said you want to show your buddy. The head was nodding up and down. He then saw my car keys and was interested in that as well. I said you want to trade, it's a rental car we dont care you can have the keys. There was lots of laughter going on.

We ended up trading a small badge I had and we got another droid part. Then the Jawa was off with my bag. No rush I said, I'll be around in the area somewhere. But he was long gone running over to his fellow trader. You gotta love the interaction with these Jawa, every time we had a funny experience.

They were having a good time with the bag. I think the one who took the bag was trying to say, where do I get one of these, and look how awesome it is. Their antics went on for a fair while, some people looked frustrated as they were not getting any attention but I wasn't one to ruin their fun. People were trying to trade with them but they were fixated on the bag still. Finally after a good 5 minutes they handed the bag back. But these little guys were not done yet by a long shot. Bec was their next target and well you know what happens next.

Yes it's time to play with Becs bag for another 5 minutes. The other Jawa like this BB8 bag very much. We couldn't stop laughing, they were obsessed. I asked them if they were the Jawa we had seen before, and their were nods. They liked the bags and I told them you can't get them in Disney. Both their heads went down. But we made them happy. Bec told the one who liked the BB8 bag that you can order it through Think Geek, and they were just in Florida mall. He seemed happy with this knowledge and gave Bec her bag back. I spoke to the other one and said this Stormtrooper bag is a little harder to get. You could try ebay as a few Aussie sellers sell it, or order it from the australian store Popculture. There was a hi five and they both seemed happy. We said dont worry you will be seeing us again, we still had some time left on our holiday and we were coming back for more Star Wars awesomeness thats for sure.

What another great day, we were really loving Hollywood Studio's and it was my favourite park by a mile. We are Star Wars nuts though, so for us just sitting around in Launch Bay is as much fun as you could have. And more Star Wars was coming in a big way in a few days.

 

[bcwife76]

I don't understand how you can be so rude and grump at DisneyWorld! I mean, come ON it's a dream job...pretty much. I mean, I guess you might get a bit tired of taking photos but still....fun times!! The security guard sounds like he was annoyed because he wasn't a real cop

Despite these two douchecanoe's it looks like a fab Star Wars day at HS!! Love the Jawa's, they used to scare me but now I find them quite fun!

 

[wsssup]

I don't understand how you can be so rude and grump at DisneyWorld! I mean, come ON it's a dream job...pretty much. I mean, I guess you might get a bit tired of taking photos but still....fun times!! The security guard sounds like he was annoyed because he wasn't a real cop

Despite these two douchecanoe's it looks like a fab Star Wars day at HS!! Love the Jawa's, they used to scare me but now I find them quite fun!

Security I could understand being a douche hahaha but the photopass girl was just rude. Bad day or not, surely could have gone about it in a better way. Yeah you get a little annoyed but you cant let it get to you too much, just have to power on and have fun, and soon you forget about it.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 33 - 13TH JAN : REST AND WALMART

Well the last few days had been pretty eventful, and today was not going to be one of them. A rest was needed and a good sleep in was had. The weather was perfect again. India and I headed out for a morning swim. The Hippy Dippy pool was getting some work done to it so we had to walk over to one of the other pools. The water was pretty warm, but it was only a quick swim. It was going to be another trip down to good old Walmart to see if we could find anything.

This time we would drive a bit further up north to a different Walmart we had not been to yet, to check out if had anything else. So in the car again and off onto the lovely i4. It's really not that bad driving on the i4 and we were not going that far really. Our exit was coming up with Walmart just around the corner.

We arrived at Walmart and in we went to check it out. This one seemed much bigger, and of course it was off to the Toy section again to see what Star Wars goodies they had. Pretty much nothing at all. Off to the clothes section then to see if anything good was there. We all found a few new things that were summer run outs. Walmart in Florida should just sell summer clothes non stop, but because it was winter it was all pants and jackets. Who buys this stuff? Its so bloody hot here all the time. I could not even find any shorts anywhere.

Off to the food section we went to grab a few items, oh delicious Diet Mountain dew, how we miss you. Time for the checkout , and back to the car to head home to Pop. Relaxing for the rest of the day, and catching up with family back home on skype was about it.

I forgot to mention that once getting back to Pop and being on with customer support for Gopro we decided it was time to take the new Hero 5 and Karma Grip back.

It just wasn't doing what it was supposed to. Sound was crackling and even cutting out completely. Even with everything completely updated support for Gopro was pretty poor. They were aware of the issue as it was common but had no fix and were still selling it. Being a long time user of Gopro I was disappointed. Back to Best Buy with it, for a full refund. Best Buy are pretty good with their returns, no questions asked just a full refund.
We had gone through 2 cameras on this trip, it was time to just stick with the S7 edges for picture and video.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day so rest was needed. The Star Wars guided tour was on the cards for tomorrow and we were excited.