Star Wars Weekend

I will start out by saying that we were only there to take in the sights and sounds of Star Wars Weekend. We were by no means approaching this like hardcore Star Wars fans do. The main attractions of the weekends are autograph signings and panel discussions featuring actors and artists from the Star Wars universe. In order to participate in these, you must get to the park hours before the 8 am opening and wait in line to get special FastPasses. I've heard that folks start queuing at around 2 am, and it's one pass per person so you can't bring your families' tickets and get one for everyone. The other major attractions include meeting costumed characters and shopping for collectibles in extremely crowded tents. Both of these activities also require massive wait times. It's just not practical for us right now, but Jonathan and I agreed that we would have done it if we were there without the kids. Our plan was to just walk around and see everything and to hopefully pick up FastPasses to ride the newly redesigned Star Tours ride.

But I have gotten ahead of myself because our morning started with breakfast reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. I love going to this resort. It is so beautiful. The breakfast here isn't a buffet but they do offer an all-you-can eat skillet breakfast. Jonathan and I got that. Turns out all we can eat is one big skillet of food plus an extra skillet of just bacon for me. It was your breakfast basics of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and biscuits with gravy. And our first ever Mickey waffles. I have to admit I thought those little mouse-shaped waffles were fantastic. I almost ordered more but that would have taken belly space away from my bacon. I enjoyed the breakfast a lot despite rotten behavior from the boys (Sean was mad we weren't at "Mickey" and Eli was a typical two-year-old this whole trip). I would eat here again.

We got to Hollywood Studios about a half hour after opening. I had heard they would start letting people in about 45 minutes before the official opening and that the crowds would be pretty bad until after opening. We had a little wait, not too bad. There were Stormtroopers on the roof of the entrance gates and you could hear their communications back and forth. It was amusing.

It was about 8:50 am when we got through the gates and started walking around. There was to be an opening ceremony at 10 am and huge crowds of people were lining the main thoroughfare already. We headed straight for Star Tours. We got our FastPasses for 8:15 PM. That's right, for nearly 12 hours later. We had expected that (actually I was surprised we got passes at all). Unfortunately, a lot of other people did not understand how it was going to work and they chose to stand on the sidewalk for hours for a good spot to watch the morning parade from and missed out. We heard a fair amount of grumbling.

We spent another hour just taking in the sights. The lines to meet any of the characters were outrageously long so we just did a little filming as we walked by. I walked over to get some video of Darth Maul "sizing up" some kids and when I turned around, I pretty much walked right into Bobafett. I'll admit to being pretty excited about it. Jonathan and I had a life size cutout of Bobafett in our apartment for 3 years during law school.

We saw guests dressed as their favorite characters. Quite a few Padawan, some very detailed Jedi costumes, a couple Bobafetts and Stormtroopers, and some women dressed up as characters from the animated Clone Wars series. It wasn't as many as I expected but that may be because of the extreme heat.

We went back to the resort and went swimming which was very popular. Then, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a late lunch at Casey's Hot Dogs. Also, popular. We rode a few rides, climbed the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse at Sean's insistence and enjoyed some Dole Whips. Then, we went back to Hollywood Studios. We had dinner at the Backlot Express. It's a typical Disney park hamburger joint but it has some extra stuff going for it. You can sit outside and have a great view of the Jedi Training Academy. This is where little kids get to learn some fancy light saber moves from a Jedi Master and then try them out on Darth Vader, himself. It's a fun show. The Backlot Express is also the only Disney restaurant I have come across with self-serve drinks. You could theoretically hang on to your cups, say in your stroller cup holders, and refill your drinks throughout your day at Hollywood Studios. It's a small park-you're never too far away from a refreshing refill.

Jonathan took off to ride Star Tours and I pushed the boys around. It was very eery. Everyone in the park that night was either in line for Star Tours or hanging out around the entrance to hold a spot for the closing ceremonies. I walked down the part of the park called "Streets of America" and didn't pass another soul. I took the boys to the Chinese Theatre and asked Sean if he wanted to do the Great Movie Ride. He shook his head vigorously and told me "bo, bo, bo." (His "n" sound needs work.) It's a pretty loud ride in places and he obviously remembered that he did not like it.

We met back up with Jonathan. He said the ride was great, but he confirmed my suspicions that it might be vomit inducing for me. I wasn't feeling up to trying it, so I found a nice old couple getting ready to wait in line for over an hour to do the ride and gave them my other FastPasses. They were very appreciative. They reminded me of Jonathan and I in many decades, and I left feeling very "magical."