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

[Dugette]

Hi,
Your title brought me in, love Star Wars.

The pics r fantastic. I hope one day to make it down for a SW weekend.

The video from the Fireworks show with the glasses was neat, thanks for posting.

Really enjoying the tr.

and thanks for posting! If you love SW, you'll be happy when I get around to the next update, as it's another dose of SWW!

Thanks for the compliments...glad you are enjoying!

 

[Dugette]

Sorry for the lack of updates recently! Our external hard drive, where all our pictures are saved, decided to quit working! We're awaiting delivery of a new power cable, which hopefully will fix it. If not, we do have it remotely backed up. So, once I have access to our pictures again, I'll get this show back on the road!

To hold you over for now, here's what I did this afternoon:

*Wandered around with crowds in the hot, humid weather
*Had a Dole Whip
*Found a Hidden Mickey
*Saw Cinderella

No, I wasn't at WDW...wish I was! Dug is very busy this weekend, so busy that he (semi-jokingly?) told me I could go to WDW this weekend if I wanted, since he'd be gone all the time! Unfortunately, 50 hours of driving and $600+++ flights make that impossible.

However, one of the things Dug had to do today was help out at a booth at our county fair. I stopped by, lured by a promise of a Dole Whip and cheese curds (ok, not very Disney, but I LOVE cheese curds!) We wandered around a bit. They really had a Dole Whip booth! Although not as tasty as the ones at Disney, we still enjoyed. The Hidden Mickey was on the pavement. Some sort of liquid spill had made a perfect 3-circle Mickey head! And there was a cardboard cutout of Cinderella at one of the booths...don't ask me why!

Just like WDW, huh? Best I could do today, at least. Also, on the bus ride home from work the other day, we passed a Disney-themed motorcycle! The license plate was "Disney", but missing one letter. There was some sort of Magic Kingdom decal on the back. And the Fab 5 characters were all hanging off of the antennas! Very cool!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[praisehisname]

Sounds like a fun afternoon! You can find a little Disney in anything!

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a fun afternoon! You can find a little Disney in anything!

Exactly! It was making the best of a non-Disney day!

 

[Dugette]

Two items for you all:

*Looks like the new power cord for the hard drive fixes our problem! I won't have access to the TR pictures until Dug remotely backs up some video that's only on the hard drive. I'm not touching it until that's done. In the meantime, since I'm stalled on updates for this TR, I have something else to amuse you:

*We leave for WDW in 10 days! What's that, you don't remember hearing anything about this trip? Oh, yeah, that's because we just planned and booked it late last night! Yes, we are crazy spontaneous...

I've started a PTR for it. You can find it here:

"The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip"

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning this TR. I just might have two going at once for awhile.

So, enjoy the PTR!

 

[jc040404]

OMG!! I totally missed your update on here. (Umm..perhap I'm reading a few too many of these right now? ) How awesome!! Running to your new PTR now!

 

[Dugette]

OMG!! I totally missed your update on here. (Umm..perhap I'm reading a few too many of these right now? ) How awesome!! Running to your new PTR now!

I know what you mean about reading too many of these! I'm following a ridiculous # of them myself! Thanks for jumping over to the new PTR!

 

[karebear23]

Soooo Jealous!!! I'm hoping to go for the day in the next week or so! The heat & dd is starting preschool next week...that is holding me back!

Two items for you all:

*Looks like the new power cord for the hard drive fixes our problem! I won't have access to the TR pictures until Dug remotely backs up some video that's only on the hard drive. I'm not touching it until that's done. In the meantime, since I'm stalled on updates for this TR, I have something else to amuse you:

*We leave for WDW in 10 days! What's that, you don't remember hearing anything about this trip? Oh, yeah, that's because we just planned and booked it late last night! Yes, we are crazy spontaneous...

I've started a PTR for it. You can find it here:

"The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip"

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning this TR. I just might have two going at once for awhile.

So, enjoy the PTR!

 

[Dugette]

Soooo Jealous!!! I'm hoping to go for the day in the next week or so! The heat & dd is starting preschool next week...that is holding me back!

I hope you get to go for the day soon!

 

[Dugette]

The new trip report is started: "The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip TR"

Enjoy! Don't worry, I'm not abandoning this TR. I hope to get the short trip done quickly and I'll be back to this one. Still lots more to come here!

 

[Dugette]

This trip report is back in action! Sorry for the long break! A quick refresher as to where we left off: We are doing a not-overly-ambitious 4-parks-in-1-day this day. We went to AK in the morning (after a delicious breakfast at Boma) and rode Safari, Dinosaur, and Everest. Took a break at AKL lodge to swim, nap, and eat. Now we’re off to DHS for more SWW.

Once we arrived at DHS, we had a little bit of time to kill before the “Visit to the Maul” show that we wanted to see. We (well, Dug) decided to use this time to meet some characters that didn’t have super-long lines. First, Dug got to meet Asajj Ventress:

Next up was Jango Fett:

After these meetings, it was time to get in line for the show. We were back in the Muppets overflow area. Luckily, we arrived in time to still be under the roof, so we were able to wait in the shade. People getting in line later had to stand out in the hot sun! The line was patrolled:

After a bit, we were let into the theater:

We were in the middle section, right next to all the kids that had been selected to be in the show:

Actually, a lady next to us in line was telling us about how her son was selected to participate, I think to make up for some sort of not-so-magical experience they’d had…I can’t remember the details.

Jeremy Bulloch was host. Dug tried and tried to get a decent picture of him, but it wasn’t working out too well:

That guy kept walking across right as he snapped the picture! Finally, success:

This show was featuring Ray Park/Darth Maul and was a martial arts demonstration.

Lightsaber:

Action shot of Ray:

The stars:

Ray gave a great demonstration of his impressive skills.

The end of the show was a lesson for the kids. Lots of kids on stage with lightsabers. You can imagine the fun! Here’s the group:

Some kids needed cast member assistance in things like not injuring other kids. And some kids were adorable. There was a little girl dressed like a princess that was awesome at all the moves.

Fun show, overall. Ray was great with the kids. And Jeremy was funny as host.

Up next: Hyperspace Hoopla!

 

[Dugette]

This was the last big SWW event for us to attend. We'd heard all kinds of things about it being a can't-miss show, but really weren't sure what to expect. We headed over to the venue, which was the same place they do Jedi Training Academy, plenty early. The JTA was still going on. We watched that, then did our best to move up closer to the stage when it finished. This venue was a poor choice for a popular show like this. All crowded standing room and very hard to see over everyone else. To give you an idea, here are the views around us while waiting for this show to start:

I felt bad for a family that I overheard. The father was by himself with his two children. He told them that they would have to leave, because they couldn't see unless they sat on his shoulders and he couldn't hold them both and wouldn't choose one over the other. And they did leave. Kinda sad.

There were also incidents of separated families, including a little girl who couldn't find her family in the crowd. They were eventually reunited, though.

It was hot and sweaty in that crowd. Thank goodness for our handy-dandy little misting fans:

Finally, it was time for the show to begin! I tried to videotape it, but my camera battery gave out within the first few minutes. (I'm sure someone out there has put it on YouTube, though, if you want to see it). Dug took plenty of pictures instead. This turned out to be a really fun show. Essentially, it was a dance competition between the SW characters. Dancing to popular music of the 80's, 90's, and today. Hilarious! I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story:

That show wrapped up our SWW experience. Now it was time for the rest of WDW! We still had two more parks to visit that day. So, we headed off for the boat to Epcot.

Up next: Le Cellier! And late night at the MK! And we break some more rides!

 

[jc040404]

Wow!! Those crowds are NUTS! I wanted to check that out, but we never stayed at DHS long enough for it. I'm really glad I didn't try now. That's insane and so sad about the father you overheard. They really should think about moving this somewhere else.

Glad you're back to updating!!

 

[reelmom]

We didn't do the Hoopla either. I had heard how crowded it was and your pictures backed it up. However, after seeing the pictures, we might try it next time. That's right, after DH said,"Never again in June.", we have a trip booked for June 2-8, 2011.

 

[Dugette]

Wow!! Those crowds are NUTS! I wanted to check that out, but we never stayed at DHS long enough for it. I'm really glad I didn't try now. That's insane and so sad about the father you overheard. They really should think about moving this somewhere else.

Glad you're back to updating!!

We didn't do the Hoopla either. I had heard how crowded it was and your pictures backed it up. However, after seeing the pictures, we might try it next time. That's right, after DH said,"Never again in June.", we have a trip booked for June 2-8, 2011.

Those crowds were just insane! We thought they should have held the Hoopla in the Premier Theater, where they had all the other SWW shows. Not sure what they were thinking. It was a really enjoyable show, though.

Reelmom-that's awesome that you're going back again!

 

[Dugette]

We boarded a friendship boat from DHS to Epcot and enjoyed the ride and all the pretty views:

We had hoped to get in a boat ride or two in World Showcase (Mexico, Norway), but we were pretty short on time, as our Le Cellier ADR was at 8:50pm and it was after 8pm by the time we arrived at Epcot. We also had a mission to get some souvenirs from Mexico for one of Dug’s co-workers. So, we hustled over to the pyramid and did some shopping.

I think we took this picture inside of Mexico:

Then we had to speed-walk back to Canada for our long-anticipated Le Cellier ADR. I think we made it there right around on time:

We were seated at a table in the back, near the restrooms. We had a great server. Dug also saw the server he had last time (in January, when we had our original ADR for Le Cellier, I was so sick that Dug had to go himself…but that server had been nice enough to send home some bread and dessert for me).

We started off with some drinks. Dug had a Canadian beer and I had a Niagara Refresher (mango smoothie with a splash of cranberry):

Next was the bread (mmmm….pretzel bread…..) and a bowl of the Cheddar Cheese Soup. Apparently we enjoyed it so much that this was all we managed to take a picture of:

So, I’ll borrow one from Dug’s January meal:

We also did something totally spontaneous and ordered the Poutine. Anytime someone says cheese curds, I have to say yes (I was born in Wisconsin, I got the Dairy Gene). The only other time I’d had poutine was on a trip to Ottawa a few years ago. It’s basically French fries, gravy, and cheese. Sounds gross, but not too bad:

We probably should have skipped ordering this, though. Not the best thing at Le Cellier. We didn’t end up finishing it, as we were getting too full off of our other food. Speaking of other food, we decided to split the New York Strip Steak. Dug had the Mushroom Filet last time and enjoyed it, but wanted to try something different. Based on advice of other Dis-ers, we substituted in Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes as the side dish:

Yum!!!! Sooooooooo good! I actually ate so much that I started to feel sick and found myself grateful we were near the restrooms. Even in that state, though, I could not stop eating those mashed potatoes!

I’d really wanted to have the Chocolate “Moose” for dessert, but given that I was about to explode, we had to pass on dessert. Oh, well, guess we have an excuse to go back…

Here’s a random pic from our table:

By the time we were done eating, it must have been fairly late. The place had really cleared when we left:

By the way, as we were getting ready to go, I noticed that Dug had scattered his things all over the table (iPhone, camera, etc.). So, I reminded him to, “pick up all your things scattered about…I mean, a-boat!” See, I remembered that I was in Canada, eh?!

After we waddled out of Le Cellier, I think we sat down on a bench outside for a few minutes, as I wasn’t feeling so great. And we were both just exhausted! But, we had another park to go to! So, we forged on. Made our way over to the monorail to go to the TTC, then the Magic Kingdom:

Here are a couple of Dug’s tweets from that experience:

Dude, we just broke the monorail. Again. Our theme of the weekend: We can break just about anything.

Official trip title: We ate all the food and broke all the rides. I would add: And we got no sleep.

The story is this: We got on the monorail at Epcot. Got into the front car. One of the monorail cast members walks by and pops into our car for a second, I think to clean up some spilled chocolate. As he steps out, we hear the sound of something plastic-y hitting the ground. We didn’t think a lot of it right away. Until we noticed that the CMs were now in a panic over it. Apparently, the remote that has the emergency stop button for the monorails, which this CM was carrying, had fallen apart. And one part of it, containing the button, fell down into the abyss between the monorail and the platform. We sat there for a few minutes with the doors open. They must have figured out some sort of solution, though, because we did get going eventually.

Once at the TTC, we hopped onto the Express Monorail to the MK. We had an entire car to ourselves. So, what does one do in this circumstance? This:

Naptime on the monorail!

Although refreshing, we were still wiped out, so we had a mission. Here are some more tweets from this time:

Hoping we can take nap on TTA until they shut it down. Take note, @WaltDisneyWorld, an authentic Sleeping Beauty ride would be much loved.

You know you're tired when you make mad dash to TTA before it closes at 11 so you can nap... & are delighted it's open for EMH & ride again.

I should explain the Sleeping Beauty comment. I think that there needs to be a Sleeping Beauty ride in Fantasyland that is a continuous-loader, like Peter Pan, but instead of Pirate Ships, there are Beds. Real beds! All the best mousekeepers would be re-assigned to this ride, so they could change the linens for each new rider. The interior of this dark ride would contain all sorts of peaceful scenes and sounds that lull you to sleep. I think it would be a popular ride!

Anyway, the napping continued for two rounds of the TTA:

Between the two rounds, when we asked to stay on, the CM said something to the effect of, “You’re smart, take a nap!” Although nice, it kinda freaked me out that they must have been watching us nap on their cameras (we sit up nice when we come into the station). Oh, well, back to sleep!

It was close to 11:30pm now and we were feeling a little better. We went over to Space Mountain and grabbed Fast Passes for later. A tweet that Dug made later that night:

After getting Space Mountain FPs, it apparently broke down for an hour, proving conclusively our ability to break any ride.

Due to this, those FPs we got were super-valuable later on!

Next, we headed over to Buzz to make yet another attempt at 999,999. Again, it was not meant to be. Here’s how we fared (Dug’s is higher):

Next, we headed over to Fantasyland and rode Snow White. Rides without lines was the goal for the night!

Next up was Jungle Cruise. Dug really likes riding this one at night. We had a good captain on this ride!

After that, we went to one of my must-do’s: Pirates! We got one of the red time-cards to bring with us through the walk-on line. Loved the ride, as usual.

Time to hit some mountains now that the lines are short! First, we got soaked on Splash (darn water cannons!), then dried off on Big Thunder.

We made a quick stop in Fantasyland to bounce with Tigger (and ride Pooh).

Finally, just before the 2am park close, we were back in Tomorrowland to redeem our Space Mountain Fast Passes. Because the ride had been down earlier, the line was actually really long! I was SO glad that we’d gotten those FPs. Normally, at 2am, it’s pretty quick to use the standby line, but not this night! It was out the door! We strolled by everyone, Fast Passes in hand, and were on the ride pretty quickly.

We were exhausted as we made our way out of the MK and back to AKL. 4 parks in one day with a 4 hour break at our resort! Granted, we didn’t actually go on any rides at DHS or Epcot, but we were in all 4 parks!

Now it was time to get our 4.5 hours of sleep before our last day and our trip home!

Up next: What ride can we break on a rainy morning at Epcot?

 

[jc040404]

You look so comfy on the monorail! I love all your little naps. I've come close to falling asleep on TTA once with Andrew. He kept talking so it didn't happen. I wonder what they'd do if you were in a really deep sleep when it came to the end? Wake you up? Assume you were only riding for a nap and let you go around again? I'm betting they'd try to wake you, I guess. I wonder if they were watching you, too.

So where are all these Buzz cheats? I know I'm hitting them sometimes because I've maxed it out a couple of times. I'm just not sure how. DH claims that you're not really getting points for hitting anything, but that can't be true. He'll turn his around to face me and try to shoot us to prove it. It seems I'm only worth 100 points??

Thank goodness for those Space Mountain FPs! I love that you were able to accomplish all this in one day!

 

[karebear23]

WOW! The Hoopla was crazy! I saw the dance off on YouTube. It's pretty funny. I can't imagine dancing around as Darth Vader. He must be super hot!!

Ahhh what a nice nap on the monorail & and relaxing ride on the TTA .

[FONT="Comic So where are all these Buzz cheats?[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
There is a video on you tube about the different targets. The different colors are worth points.
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEb7VahAiA8"]HERE[/URL] is the link. He talks about Disneyland's ride...but I assume the targets still are the same amounts .

Everytime we ride the kids control the car so we just end up spinning around I never hit any targets.

 

[Dugette]

Here's the link to the Buzz cheats I used:

http://www.disneyeveryday.com/buzz-...spin-cheats-video-secrects-to-scoring-999999/

The only one I can get is the hand at the beginning. Dug can get the volcano sometimes.

 

[jc040404]

There is a video on you tube about the different targets. The different colors are worth points.
HERE is the link. He talks about Disneyland's ride...but I assume the targets still are the same amounts .

Everytime we ride the kids control the car so we just end up spinning around I never hit any targets.

Here's the link to the Buzz cheats I used:

http://www.disneyeveryday.com/buzz-...spin-cheats-video-secrects-to-scoring-999999/

The only one I can get is the hand at the beginning. Dug can get the volcano sometimes.

Awesome! I'm wishing I could hop in the car right now to go try these out. The only one I knew about before was the hand in the beginning.