Tom Yawkey at Disney?
DW went with DD#1 to get the Fastpasses while DD#2 and I caught up. Unfortunately DW ended up behind someone who had all the tickets for a cheerleading group, so our FP return time wasn't until 10:15am! There was already a 30 minute standby wait as well. We got in the standby line which reached down the street. It only took us a few minutes to reach the entrance (it was 9:09 at that point), and the standby time was up to 55 minutes, and the FP return time was 10:45! Just to get an idea how fast Fastpasses went for TSM today, at 11:25 the return time was already 6:30pm, and at 12:40pm it was 7:55pm and a standby wait time of 70 minutes. We really didn't expect it to be so crowded - but we had picked one of the few days that week that had a Fantasmic show - which makes the park much more crowded. If you aren't planning to go to Fantasmic, you are better off going on a day where they don't have one.
After riding TSM the first time, we stopped for some breakfast food at Starring Rolls Bakery, which we had never gotten food from before. The food items were good, but it was rather confusing as to how you are supposed to get drinks.
Next we did Tower Of Terror, and then on the way out grabbed Fastpasses to ride it again - actually the first time we've really grabbed Fastpasses with the intent of using them after the return window on them - which you can do 99.999% of the time...from there it was time for our TSM Fastpass, so we did that again.
We went into The Magic Of Disney Animation, so the kids could get their pictures taken with Bolt and Rhino. The Incredibles and Frozone were there too, but we skipped them. Before that we went through the little presentation on animation, and I remembered the story a cast member told me a couple years before about former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey (you can read it as part of my December 2007 trip report), and snapped a picture of what I believe is the photo of Mr. Yawkey. I didn't see the cast member that day though.Tom Yawkey at Disney?
We then stopped for lunch at the Backlot Express, and headed towards the Jedi Training Academy. We got there early enough that DD#1 was able to stand right up at the line, towards the left side of the stage but not far down from the front. On our last trip, she really didn't try hard to get noticed, but she really wanted to do it so she knew to show enthusiasm (plus a brightly colored shirt helps). What we completely didn't expect that DD#2 might want to do it as well - she was just 4 1/2 years old, and hadn't really said anything. Even waiting for the show to start, she stood back with us behind DD#1. When the Jedi Master came out and began the selection of kids, DD#1 raised her hand and jumped up and down a bit. While she was doing that, DD#2 ducked under her arm, poked her head out and raised her hand as well - and they BOTH got picked! I wasn't sure how well that might turn out - she can demand the attention of someone. Not in a bad way - but if she has something she wants to tell you (that SHE thinks is important!), she will tell you. But I was very surprised to see that she took the instruction well and did a great job, along with her sister!
The Jedi Master was good - I've seen pictures of him going back to last year so I don't know how long he has been around, but we was very good with the kids, especially for one young boy who seemed to suffer from a bit of shyness once he was up there, constantly swapping the boy's lightsaber (which he never figured out how to extend) for the Master's "lucky" lightsaber. All the kids got to battle against Dark Vader and did well, although it looked like one boy swung and hit his fingers against Vader's lightsaber and hurt them slightly as his own lightsaber went flying across the stage, but he picked it up and continued.The Jedi Master instructing the Padawans
I now have two official Jedi Padawans - and we hadn't even told DD#1 yet that her birthday present was a trip to Star Wars Weekend in June...
Note that Photopass is handled differently here - it would be near impossible for the photographer to track photopasses for every kid, so instead they will give you a tag with a number of the JTA session. You can then go to the Photopass kiosk near the front of DHS (I forgot the name of the shop, but if you are heading out, it is one of the last ones on the right before you get to the courtyard where the stroller rental is) or any other kiosk (I believe most Deluxe resorts have them now), and they will call up all the pictures of that session and you can pick and choose which ones go into your Photopass. This can take a bit of time though.The Bad Guy
After that we did Star Tours and then the Backlot Tour. The Backlot Tour is a fraction of what it used to be, and bit by bit it seems to be dwindling further. The "tunnel" you go through where the costume shop seems a bit less interesting now - most of the area on the right is now tire storage for Lights, Motors, Action. Recently they also installed an automated audio system so the cast members don't need to describe everything, but it also means that the one "acting" part they did for Catastrophe Canyon has also been cut.
We then caught the High School Musical 3 show on the newly built stage in front of the Sorcerer's Hat. It would be nice if they could tell you where you can sit/stand a bit earlier though - we (along with a lot of others) were trying to stay out of the sun and waited a while, only to be kicked out of where we were to move behind some imaginary lines that the cast members didn't seem to want to tell you about at that point, because apparently most of it takes place in FRONT of the stage, not on it. They eventually put down tape lines for people to attempt to stay behind. As for the show itself, we've seen it - won't need to again.High School Musical 3 show
We figured we finish the day with Rock'n'Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror again - DD#2 is still too short for RNRC, so the plan was that DW would take DD#1 on RNRC while we got a Rider Switch pass, and I would take DD#2 on Tower of Terror in the meantime. Plus, we still had 4 Fastpasses to use at TOT. At 5:00pm when we got there, the standby wait was 55 minutes, and Fastpasses were gone, so we figured we'd all ride TOT together first, which we did, hoping the wait time on RNRC would go down abit. We we wrong though. At 5:20pm, the wait time was now 80 minutes! DW and DD#1 got in the standby line anyways and DD#2 and I went back to TOT, rode, and came out - and they hadn't even made it up the ramp yet. Shortly after they rounded the bend and went inside, it was now up to 110 minutes - and it seemed even longer. In the meantime, because we had planned to be back at the resort to grab dinner, I took DD#2 to get something to eat, grabbing some pizzar for Catalina Eddie's nearby. And we still had to wait. Finally they came back out, and DD#1 and I used the Rider Switch pass, and we still had to wait a bit to get in. However we were able to make it back out before DW and DD#2 got through TOT again.
Lastly we took a spin on the Great Movie Ride, and then headed back to AKV with a quick dinner at Mara.
Previous Page
- Index - Next Page
