Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Our planning may seem insane, (or, more likely, may in fact BE insane) but it leads to cool outcomes many times. On this day, we set a family record. Thanks to Anabelle’s shirt gridding, (and the fact that we all have some level of addiction to fandom related clothing) all nine of us were matching and wearing some kind of Star Wars Shirt.
YAAAAAAAAAY!
I woke up a little extra early beyond our usual extra earliness to log in for the Pay Per Ride on Rise of the Resistance. Given our Disneyness and our Star Warsness, it was a worthy investment to skip what could frequently reach a four hour wait.
I was fully connected at seven sharp, and saw a 10:30 ride opening. Score!
In the time it took to load when I clicked on it, the availability changed to 3:00 pm. Given the length of time we spent in the Plaza and Tusker House, and the general levels of chaos surrounding us at meal time, I hesitated a moment, worrying if we’d be done with our 1:40 lunch.
That hesitation got us booked for a ride between 5:00 and 6:00 at night.
At least we got one.
For the second day in a row, we all assembled on our bench on time and made it to the bus a half hour before a nearby Park opened.
Huzzah!
Our arrival at MGM…
(I know, shut it.)
Our arrival at MGM featured usual security shenanigans and then we were in the Park.
YAAAAAAY!!!
We followed our plan (I was completely stunned as well) and ignored the masses running to StarWarsLand and ToyStoryLand. Instead we targeted Mickey’s Runaway Railway, the usurper of the Great Movie Ride.
These new trackless rides are wicked cool. This one allowed starting and finishing in a line of train cars. (After walking into a movie screen, which was wicked cool on its own.) However, for most of the middle of the ride, the cars went in all kinds of unpredictable directions, and moved to the beat of the different themed areas.
We didn’t have an overall plan for the day, but figured the Star Wars lines would shoot up immediately by the time we finished going on Not the Great Movie Ride.
They didn’t! YAAAAAAAY!
Smugglers Run had a low wait, leading us to wander past the Muppet Theater, through the tunnel….
AND INTO STAR WARS!
I had concerns that a Star Wars Themed land would seem out of place in Disney, that the overall immersivness would feel weird and un Disney Like, and that it couldn’t REALLY capture Star Wars.
Boy, was I wrong!
IT WAS GLORIOUS!
Yes, I am mixing my fandoms by using a Star Trek quote to praise StarWarsLand, but it is accurate.
I was in a childhood brain daze from the moment we entered and traversed through the land, surrounded by buildings and ships all looking straight out of the film franchise that has infected my soul since age seven. Then we passed through a small overhang and saw THE MILLENNIUM FALCON!
*MANLY TEARS!*
The kids formed the original plan of our riding groups for the Millennium Falcon. I am proud to say they all wanted me with them as the grand Star Wars geek I am. Since, unsurprisingly, other adults in our family wished to share this experience with their children we did not follow the children’s plan.
Kim’s family of five went together, drafting in an extra Engineer from the single rider line. Grandma came with the three of us, placing two strangers in the Engineer position.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy
Not really philosophy this time, but more of a detailed explanation to enhance the ability of following the narrative when I talk about Smugglers Run.
And I will talk about it a lot because it was GLORIOUS!
It
instantly jumped to the “Favorite” spot for Anabelle in MGM. However, the
endless excited explaining of what happened to us on the multiple trips on this
ride will make no sense without background. (Not like anything in my life makes
sense.)
The line is equally as immersive as Star Tours, and has windows allowing a view of the Falcon outside as preparations are made to board. Then, it is into the ready room where a phenomenal animatronic Hondo Ohnaka (voiced by Jim Cummings!) provides a greeting and an explanation of the mission to steal some Coaxium. He’s helped by a graffiti covered R5 astromech and Chewbacca on the video screen.
The line is equally as immersive as Star Tours, and has windows allowing a view of the Falcon outside as preparations are made to board. Then, it is into the ready room where a phenomenal animatronic Hondo Ohnaka (voiced by Jim Cummings!) provides a greeting and an explanation of the mission to steal some Coaxium. He’s helped by a graffiti covered R5 astromech and Chewbacca on the video screen.
Aside 2- Coaxium containers! Looks like Solo had some lasting effects on the franchise after all. YAAAAY!
Once the idea of the task as well as the various positions in the Falcon are explained the recruits enter the ship.
And it looks like ENTERING IN THE MILLENNIUM FALCON!!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!
(Yes, Anabelle, the chess board. Let me have my moment.)
Groups are lined up in sixes. The first two are Pilots, the second pair Gunners and the third group Engineers. Cast Members explain the positions at random levels of detail.
In my flights, Pilot was by far the most fun, but it’s a great ride in any position. Engineer is more of a challenge than Gunner, which makes the single rider line well worth it, since that’s where that crowd always ends up.
Over comms, Hondo lets the crew know what to do throughout the entire mission, with varying degrees of emotion depending on how things are going. We were witness to a highly agitated Hondo on more than one occasion.
The Engineers are responsible for fixing the damage everyone else causes. This translates into pushing the buttons and switches that light up. The more objects flown into, or TIE Fighters missed, the more they light up. Engineers fire the grappling cables to capture the “space trains” with Coaxium in them. They also have to keep hitting that button to send charges down the cable to get the train car to release. It would be nice if this was mentioned anywhere on the ride. We found out by experience.
The Gunners fire the blasters to take out the TIE Fighters getting in the way of Hondo’s plan. They also launch concussion missiles for a “distraction.” They can fire MULTIPLE concussion missiles. It would be nice if this was mentioned anywhere on the ride as well. Also the Cast Members gave us mixed messages. Some said to shoot as much as possible, and others said Hondo charges per shot, therefore we should endeavor to make them count.
The front two seats are the Pilots. (Or more accurately for us Star Wars nerds, the pilot on the left and the co-pilot on the right. AKA the Han seat and the Chewie seat.) Han pilots right and left, and fires the booster for sub light speed bursts. (And, theoretically anyway, hits the brakes.) Chewie steers up and down, and pulls the giant resistor that engages the hyperdrive.
All six people have a series of buttons to press to restart the ship’s systems after an inevitable crash and shut down…
This is the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy” we’re talking about.
Back to our personal experience FLYING THE MILLENNIUM FALCON!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry. I’ll pull it together.
Dave engineered with the stranger in their group, Kim and Morgan were the gunners and Aurora and Veronica flew. I’m guessing their experience was similar to our first time trying, but with more shots fired. Veronica took the Chewie position, as she has the family issue with confusing her right and left. The standard piloting configuration of “pull back to climb, push forward to dive” confused her anyway, though. Kids today do not spend enough time playing simulator video games with joysticks.
When asked who wanted to do what, while Anabelle and I jumped to say Pilot, Grandma answered, “Nothing.” We, and the Cast Member, tried to explain this wasn’t an option but apparently, it was.
Anabelle learned the right to left control stick was veeeeeeeeeery sensitive, leading to a lot of weaving. I learned the up and down control stick wasn’t all that sensitive, and, more importantly, there were limits to the extent of travel allowed. The Falcon was supposed to stay down low- meaning soaring over the various rock formations and bridges wasn’t an option. After flying through several of them, that finally sunk in. Oopsie!
We learned things about Piloting very quickly, but not quickly enough that we didn’t give our two Instant Disney Friend Engineers a lot of button pushing to do.
Rosa fired when Hondo told her to, and tried to protect her back from her family’s erratic flying. This is, at most, a “once a trip” ride for her, not even a “once a day.” Grandma sat behind me and fulfilled her chosen role as “Nothing.” Not a single blaster bolt or concussion missile came from my side of the ship. Somehow, we did get a Coaxium container and make it back to base. If we combined both family’s performances we got 22% (and a gripe filled Hondo times two). Not an auspicious start but an excellent training run.
The line stayed short, but Grandma and Rosa were quite finished with the experience. The kids still wanted to come with me. (YAAAAAAAAY!) Therefore, Dave volunteered to go on the single rider line. He went and gained intel on the ride when he Engineered twice, with mostly British strangers, while the other six of us waited on the stand by line for our own journey. It is a testament to how fun this ride is that Kim returned to it more than once. In The City, she will not step on a grate in the sidewalk under any circumstances. Much like the area the climax of Terminator 2 takes place in; massive sections of this line are all made of grates.
I used the force!!!
Really!!!!
I knew it would work eventually!
YAAAAY!
Morgan and Kim took the pilot roles. We gave Morgan some intensive visual training on how the “reversed” up and down control stick worked. There was still a lot of directional related yelling from them and the rest of us, but it’s that kind of adventure.
Veronica and I were the Gunners. We pushed buttons to shoot things. It’s more about timing as there is no aiming. It’s a good thing they didn’t have the actual swivel rig seat matching the Falcon’s movie gunning positions, or I would have NEVER left that line, and likely had to fist fight several other members of my family for that position.
Still, it was fun blasting the TIE fighters…
PEW PEW PEW!!!!
Aurora and Anabelle Engineered. Aurora was not a fan of repairing the collision damage her Mother and Brother caused, because the seat in the rear of the cockpit hurt her back, (Old Man Bones) but she did well. Anabelle enjoyed it a great deal, and prided herself on response time. They scored 100% for their role at the end!
Overall, we got a 31%. We wouldn’t be invited into the Imperial Academy for pilots any time soon, but it was still a dramatic increase in quality.
“I’ve been waiting to do this since I was seven years old! Please take our picture?”
Outside the Falcon…
GLORIOUS!
We collected everyone together.
(Like…in this specific case, she’s known I am an all-around fool most of her life.)
Kim’s family tried samples of both, and allowed us to taste the Green Milk. I was correct in thinking the citrus was not a good match for my preferences. However, Anabelle and I greatly enjoyed the Blue Milk, and she probably would have gotten a second upon our return if that day was less weird. I liked the coconut flavored concoction but felt one glass a trip was sufficient. Rosa also liked it, but given we couldn’t be 100% certain it was Gluten Free, she stuck with a sip.
YAAAY!
The PhotoPass line near our location was fairly short. Rosa knew how it worked, having photos taken while we flew a second time. (As she does.) She also confirmed the line had less people than the one upstairs.
Given that:
A) As mentioned (Gridding, people, Gridding) we all had Star Wars shirts on.
B) MGM Can’t seem to make up its mind about what its icon is.
C) It was the MILLENNIUM FALCON! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
While we were on line, Chewbacca and the blue haired original Park Batuu character -whose name I should know but don’t- came out near the ship. Because they were smarter than we were, they spent a very short time in the Florida heat and went back inside.
Having been short changed on our previous vacation, and with rain forecasted in the afternoon…
Well, every day in August…
We planned to make the first Indiana Jones show to ensure we saw a full one.
Knowing the excessive likelihood of my being distracted on Batuu we split up to wander around and see ALL THE AWESOME STAR WARS STUFF!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!
There were ships!
(Or, the same model anyway, given the time and location of Batuu…sorry over geeking once again.)
Which should have made people notice Anabelle’s Droids Rights shirt that she drew herself and Rosa made into a shirt, but they didn’t.
Not like we’re bitter or anything.
During her wandering when we took the second GLORIOUS Falcon flight, Rosa had seen Rey passing through the area. Kim’s family sighted the same during their exit from Batuu.
Alas.
As predicted, when we started to think about meeting the rest of our family, I got distracted. In this case, it was remembering we saw Kylo Ren’s ship on the way in but never getting a close look at it.
Anabelle grabbed some pins in a store we peeked in to get a look at the well beyond our budget droid purchasing area
The pins were from a “blind buy” droid set.
The force was with her yet again, she got the two she wanted, Chopper and C-3PO!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
We left Star Wars Land.
Alas.
The way to Indiana Jones was blocked by the Pixar Pals Cavalcade.
Our family, who were less distracted by Batuu since I’m the only one who was seven when Star Wars was released, stayed outside the Indiana Jones entrance to see the mini parade as well.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Another set of odd changes was the removal of Indy shooting the big swordsman, and the mechanic getting cuisinarted by the propeller.
I guess it does make sense leaving those out of an all ages, family friendly show.
Some Nazis got machine gunned and blown up, but honestly- shooting and blowing up Nazis in any form should always be considered family friendly and a great lesson for children of all ages.
Since we had walked by it twice without entering, the call of Muppetvision 3D was too strong to resist. The call of the rest room was also too strong to resist for many of us, leading to much running back and forth.
The three of my family were about to get a PhotoPass in front of the Muppet fountain, but the Cast Member at the entrance called out that the show was starting, leading everyone to run in. They meant the in theater show was starting, and if we’d gone, we’d have missed the wonderful foolishness of the pre-show. Dave took Morgan out for an unanticipated bathroom run, and the three of us ran back out to get our PhotoPass picture.
The five of us had to get on a twisting but short line and everyone made it back in for the start of the pre-show!
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Since MGM specialized in shows, we went to the Frozen sing along next. Shortly before we started the trip, the “Performers touching each other” ban was lifted and we were able to see the usual version. On the way in, we passed the ENORMOUS sound board. I said, “I can sit here, I run Christine’s little IPod for Moving Company, this would be the same.”
No one believed me.
Much like the previous trip, I had forgotten what makes this show the magnificently loopy experience it is. It isn’t a normal Disney jukebox of songs stage show. It is instead narrated by two utterly mad Arendelle Historians that make the whole experience worth it.
I am firmly convinced their explanations were the inspiration for Olaf’s recap of the original film in Frozen 2.
Aria was fine and decently funny, but Eric was a brilliantly gifted comedian that had us all in stitches the whole time.
Example- learning that Anna and Elsa’s parents die, he freaked, “THEY DIE!?!?!?!” and then went on a litany of Disney parent deaths:
“What is this, Bambi?
What is this, Cinderella…?
Etc.
Finally finishing up with-
“What is this Coco?
*pause with evil grin, followed by stage whisper*
“Spoilers”
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Thanks to jaw corrections, Kim now sings bass, and Dave has a natural falsetto. Therefore, they sang along to “Love is an Open Door” in the reverse parts prompting a triple take from the little girl in front of them.
We’re always entertaining to have around!
Aurora’s sunglasses from her 5th Grade end of year celebration fell into another dimension. We looked all over the rows around us and couldn’t find them.
Alas.
She and Kim checked at the entrance and exit about lost and found procedures and there were various rest room runs. (With nine of us, feel free to assume the line “There were various rest room runs” occurs any place there’s a pause, and often times when there isn’t one.)
On the way to and from said rest room, Anabelle and I both noticed guests could enter the exit room of where they showed the new Mickey shorts. It was here they had mock ups from the cartoons.
The kids were all thrilled
to get their picture taken in “Potatoland!” There are reasons for this which I do not have the time, or frankly the
detailed knowledge to fully explain.
Following Potato themed fun and a rapid stop in Yodelberg, we planned to circle Echo Lake to explain how we needed to combine two reservations into one yet again.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Yes, we’re all kids in Disney World. Yes, our children are all getting older and Anabelle is legally an adult. I don’t believe anyone seeing the four of them interacting and goofing around together in the Parks would begrudge me still referring to the four youngest members of our group as “the kids” - especially seeing all of their excitement at things like “Potatoland.”
On the way, Rosa found
Chip and Dale having a picnic on the grass because she has some sort of built
in radar for them.
We checked in early, explained the situation and the Cast Member lied to us about how it was going to take a long time to get seated and we probably wouldn’t be at the same table.
Five minutes later, and still before our reservation, we were all sitting at the same table.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!
The adults all sat on the inside bench and the kids were all on the outside chairs, to allow the characters to traumatize them more easily. The characters were in their summer garb. (We missed Halloween costumes by a only week once more, this time on the other side.)
Goofy showed up at the
table as soon as we sat down. Greetings with him were as fun as usual. The kids
spent some extra time “goof”ing around with him, and reaped the benefits of not
needing multiple autographs.
In the middle of the drink orders, Pluto wandered by and loitered about until the waitress finished. Being seasoned Disney professionals, the kids realized they’d have more interaction time at the Garden Grill, therefore even though this was the first Pluto sighting, they all agreed to wait on his autograph.
As soon as the waitress
left, Pluto assaulted our children nearly knocking a couple out with his massive nose
and slapping Anabelle with his ear. He basically blocked his way through the
gang and glommed onto each one for a huge hug.
Good times!
Mickey was far shorter
than usual. Minnie was taller than he was. This gave him extra stealth
capacity. He snuck up behind Anabelle and scared the living daylights out of
her. Aurora was caught within the blast radius Anabelle’s startling was so absolute. 
Aside- For reasons that will never become clear, sometimes the kids give characters extra nicknames. Occasionally they would refer to Mickey as “Mickimald Mousington.” They decided the extra cheeky Mickey we dined with on this day was the true “Mickimald T. Mousington” where the T stood for “tiny.” I have no other explanation. There was apparently a Minnie version using their extended naming called “Minimald K. Mousington- the K stands for 'kill your family' (because Minnie wouldn’t.)" However, Minnie is always far too nice for this to ever be a needed reference.
Sometime during this confusion, we ordered, but Mickimald’s surprise assault was so effective that the waitress left before Aurora chose her meal. Mickimald popped up behind the adults to continue startling those of us on the other side of the table. Following that shock, Minnie came by in her bathing suit for a high speed visit, and after that Aurora was able to place her order.
Then Mickimald popped up behind Kim causing her to jump out of her chair at one head of the table, just in case she wasn’t caught in the sneak attack on the two sides.
I was good for a change, stuck with the salmon and was rewarded for my goodness with an excellent meal. Rosa continued discovering new and tasty variations of beef with Gluten Free sides. Anabelle had the Macaroni and Cheese with Shrimp, which was excellent, but also ENORMOUS. I’m not sure what everyone else had. Sorry, there’s limits to my note taking ability. I’m pretty sure Grandma had the beef too as I ended up with some fantastic rare sirloin on my plate, and Rosa orders her’s burned to a crisp. (But, we love her anyway.)
It was quite difficult to tell they ordered the same thing.
Mickimald spent a good amount of time hovering around our table, choosing targets. He snuck up on Anabelle a second time and spent a while teasing Rosa.
I remembered this happening when we had a Disney Junior character meal here. That is, the gang coming by our table multiple times, not being psychologically assaulted by a character. Minnie passed by again and kissed Morgan on the head.
Mickimald’s dance moves during the Celebration were…
A sight, and I’ll leave it at that.
Goofy and Pluto both had
far less traumatizing drive by visits than their boss.
The waitress brought over a Happy Birthday cupcake for Grandma during dessert time. She apologized for there being no candle, leading Anabelle to ask, “Where were you at Chef Mickey’s?” Then my daughter explained how she was set on fire by candles twice there. The waitress responded:
“You see? And people don’t believe us when we say it’s a safety issue.”
I have no idea what anyone
else got for dessert. I know there were debates, but I also know, since I was healthy
with the entrée, I was far too focused on my mousse filled s’more concoction to
pay attention to anyone else’s food. My weakness for Disney mousse will
continue to pop up for the rest of the trip, and likely, the rest of my life.
Mickimald wasn’t done
terrorizing my daughter, but she was in the rest room. He sat in her seat for a
while. Rosa was hysterical. On the other side, Aurora was not pleased. She
texted Anabelle ensuring she’d stay away until the coast was clear.
A full two months later, when Anabelle was wearing the same Mickey shirt she changed into specifically for lunch, (since we do that) she realized why Mickimald may have targeted her. She has the same ability to completely forget what she meticulously planned to wear as I do.
That’s my girl!
Oh no, I lost The Grid!
Wait, here it is.
(I was certain to have this exchange with myself about fifty-seven times a day.)
After lunch, and mental trauma, was over, Kim and Aurora went back to the Frozen Theater to check for the Sunglasses. No one had turned them in.
Alas.
We went over to the Star Wars Launch Bay (which is not in StarWarsLand, adding to the confusing layout of the smallest Park) and found the Disney Visa Photo Op. Since it used to be Kylo Ren, we were hoping it would be an extra Darth Vader experience. (Aurora didn’t have her Darth Vader dress on, therefore we knew we’d be returning to the Dark Lord of the Sith on MGM Day Two. One does not fool with Shirt Grid relevance.)
After a brief period on line, we realized we could see the Photo Op Area, and it was in front of a Star Wars poster. We did not want to miss Chewbacca before he left, as this was Star Wars Shirt Day for everyone. (One does not fool with Shirt Grid relevance.) We hopped off that line and went inside.
The line for Chewbacca (and everyone else in the Launch Bay) had television screens showing Star Wars trivia. Based on when Launch Bay first opened, there was a heavy slant towards Rebels themed questions. Having rewatched the series that she counts among her favorites in the franchise shortly before our trip, Anabelle did excellently. Having never watched it but surfing a lucky streak, Veronica got many of them correct by guessing wildly. As Aurora was trying to methodically figure them out, and failing, she did not have the most enjoyable of waits.
The huge blast doors opened, and the Cast Member asked how many we were.
We answered, “Nine.”
The huge blast doors closed again.
Shortly afterwards, the door re-opened. Chewbacca was thrilled to see us in our shirts. (Shirt grid, YAY!) Especially since Grandma, Morgan and I had Chewbacca shirts on. He gave Anabelle a stiff, commending handshake and large hug after seeing her Droid Rights shirt. Wookies in general - and Chewie in particular - have always been radically anti-slavery. There were many hugs for all and a bit of Chewie organizing those with him on their shirts to be near him for pictures. This was one of our largest PhotoPass ninja excursions and once more, we impressed the Cast Members with our planning and efficiency.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
Since the automatic PhotoPass thing was broken…per usual, a Cast Member used my phone. I kinda wished he just filmed it. I asked every member of our little horde how many pictures they thought he took. No one was even in the ballpark.
It was NINETY-SEVEN. Sixty of those were before we started to pose.
This may explain phone issues I had later in the day.
Between our Star Wars meetings, I have a note stating, “Safe for apples. Safe parabolas.”
Was someone commenting on the art shapes on the wall?
Was someone singing the Wiggles, “Apples and Bananas” song and there was a typo or parody involved?
Was someone making geometric calculations for the shortest path to a snack?
No one has any idea. Apparently, with this crowd I need to take notes that are more detailed.
The line for BB-8 was always short, for low interaction reasons. We told the Cast Member we’d be heading to a “Not FastPass” shortly after this. Following a discussion where everyone called it “Not FastPass” for a bit she reminded us it was Lighting Lane. We started going through the entrance, Morgan saw one of the buttons on the wall light up, and conditioned by Smugglers Run pushed it, closing the door on us. After some general panicked yelling by everyone, we went in.
BB-8 was fun and cute, and
he shook his head in trepidation since some of the kids had Vader on their
shirts. He also had extra beeps and warbles of excitement seeing Anabelle’s
Droid Rights shirt.
YAAAAAAAAAY!
Out in the Animation Courtyard some of the gang needed a rest room stop. Others of the gang needed to meet Disney Junior characters.
We have very specialized definitions of “need” in Disney.
And elsewhere, I guess.
Vampirina danced with the
kids who chose to meet her. Dave and I had a discussion after he accidentally
said, “Vampirella” about how that would be a WHOLE DIFFERENT type of meet and
greet that the two of us would happily wait on line for.
Vampirina liked Anabelle’s ever present little Donald.
While we were there, and
Rosa was in another section of the courtyard, Chip and Dale walked right by
her. Kim yelled, “HOW DO YOU DO THAT?”
We were about to leave, until we noticed there was only one person on line for Doc McStuffins.
Then we noticed that was because she was about to go on break and we left anyway.
Alas.
We thought we had time to
squeeze in a Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy show before our “Not FastPass.”
After a couple quick pictures with Cruz Ramirez
(and DJ, “Do NOT disrespect DJ”- Aurora)
We stood in the waiting
area…
And waited…
She and Kim checked at the entrance and exit about lost and found procedures and there were various rest room runs. (With nine of us, feel free to assume the line “There were various rest room runs” occurs any place there’s a pause, and often times when there isn’t one.)
On the way to and from said rest room, Anabelle and I both noticed guests could enter the exit room of where they showed the new Mickey shorts. It was here they had mock ups from the cartoons.
Following Potato themed fun and a rapid stop in Yodelberg, we planned to circle Echo Lake to explain how we needed to combine two reservations into one yet again.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Yes, we’re all kids in Disney World. Yes, our children are all getting older and Anabelle is legally an adult. I don’t believe anyone seeing the four of them interacting and goofing around together in the Parks would begrudge me still referring to the four youngest members of our group as “the kids” - especially seeing all of their excitement at things like “Potatoland.”
We checked in early, explained the situation and the Cast Member lied to us about how it was going to take a long time to get seated and we probably wouldn’t be at the same table.
Five minutes later, and still before our reservation, we were all sitting at the same table.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!
The adults all sat on the inside bench and the kids were all on the outside chairs, to allow the characters to traumatize them more easily. The characters were in their summer garb. (We missed Halloween costumes by a only week once more, this time on the other side.)
In the middle of the drink orders, Pluto wandered by and loitered about until the waitress finished. Being seasoned Disney professionals, the kids realized they’d have more interaction time at the Garden Grill, therefore even though this was the first Pluto sighting, they all agreed to wait on his autograph.
Good times!
Aside- For reasons that will never become clear, sometimes the kids give characters extra nicknames. Occasionally they would refer to Mickey as “Mickimald Mousington.” They decided the extra cheeky Mickey we dined with on this day was the true “Mickimald T. Mousington” where the T stood for “tiny.” I have no other explanation. There was apparently a Minnie version using their extended naming called “Minimald K. Mousington- the K stands for 'kill your family' (because Minnie wouldn’t.)" However, Minnie is always far too nice for this to ever be a needed reference.
Sometime during this confusion, we ordered, but Mickimald’s surprise assault was so effective that the waitress left before Aurora chose her meal. Mickimald popped up behind the adults to continue startling those of us on the other side of the table. Following that shock, Minnie came by in her bathing suit for a high speed visit, and after that Aurora was able to place her order.
Then Mickimald popped up behind Kim causing her to jump out of her chair at one head of the table, just in case she wasn’t caught in the sneak attack on the two sides.
I was good for a change, stuck with the salmon and was rewarded for my goodness with an excellent meal. Rosa continued discovering new and tasty variations of beef with Gluten Free sides. Anabelle had the Macaroni and Cheese with Shrimp, which was excellent, but also ENORMOUS. I’m not sure what everyone else had. Sorry, there’s limits to my note taking ability. I’m pretty sure Grandma had the beef too as I ended up with some fantastic rare sirloin on my plate, and Rosa orders her’s burned to a crisp. (But, we love her anyway.)
It was quite difficult to tell they ordered the same thing.
Mickimald spent a good amount of time hovering around our table, choosing targets. He snuck up on Anabelle a second time and spent a while teasing Rosa.
I remembered this happening when we had a Disney Junior character meal here. That is, the gang coming by our table multiple times, not being psychologically assaulted by a character. Minnie passed by again and kissed Morgan on the head.
Mickimald’s dance moves during the Celebration were…
A sight, and I’ll leave it at that.
The waitress brought over a Happy Birthday cupcake for Grandma during dessert time. She apologized for there being no candle, leading Anabelle to ask, “Where were you at Chef Mickey’s?” Then my daughter explained how she was set on fire by candles twice there. The waitress responded:
“You see? And people don’t believe us when we say it’s a safety issue.”
A full two months later, when Anabelle was wearing the same Mickey shirt she changed into specifically for lunch, (since we do that) she realized why Mickimald may have targeted her. She has the same ability to completely forget what she meticulously planned to wear as I do.
That’s my girl!
Oh no, I lost The Grid!
Wait, here it is.
(I was certain to have this exchange with myself about fifty-seven times a day.)
After lunch, and mental trauma, was over, Kim and Aurora went back to the Frozen Theater to check for the Sunglasses. No one had turned them in.
Alas.
We went over to the Star Wars Launch Bay (which is not in StarWarsLand, adding to the confusing layout of the smallest Park) and found the Disney Visa Photo Op. Since it used to be Kylo Ren, we were hoping it would be an extra Darth Vader experience. (Aurora didn’t have her Darth Vader dress on, therefore we knew we’d be returning to the Dark Lord of the Sith on MGM Day Two. One does not fool with Shirt Grid relevance.)
After a brief period on line, we realized we could see the Photo Op Area, and it was in front of a Star Wars poster. We did not want to miss Chewbacca before he left, as this was Star Wars Shirt Day for everyone. (One does not fool with Shirt Grid relevance.) We hopped off that line and went inside.
The line for Chewbacca (and everyone else in the Launch Bay) had television screens showing Star Wars trivia. Based on when Launch Bay first opened, there was a heavy slant towards Rebels themed questions. Having rewatched the series that she counts among her favorites in the franchise shortly before our trip, Anabelle did excellently. Having never watched it but surfing a lucky streak, Veronica got many of them correct by guessing wildly. As Aurora was trying to methodically figure them out, and failing, she did not have the most enjoyable of waits.
The huge blast doors opened, and the Cast Member asked how many we were.
We answered, “Nine.”
The huge blast doors closed again.
Shortly afterwards, the door re-opened. Chewbacca was thrilled to see us in our shirts. (Shirt grid, YAY!) Especially since Grandma, Morgan and I had Chewbacca shirts on. He gave Anabelle a stiff, commending handshake and large hug after seeing her Droid Rights shirt. Wookies in general - and Chewie in particular - have always been radically anti-slavery. There were many hugs for all and a bit of Chewie organizing those with him on their shirts to be near him for pictures. This was one of our largest PhotoPass ninja excursions and once more, we impressed the Cast Members with our planning and efficiency.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
Since the automatic PhotoPass thing was broken…per usual, a Cast Member used my phone. I kinda wished he just filmed it. I asked every member of our little horde how many pictures they thought he took. No one was even in the ballpark.
It was NINETY-SEVEN. Sixty of those were before we started to pose.
This may explain phone issues I had later in the day.
Between our Star Wars meetings, I have a note stating, “Safe for apples. Safe parabolas.”
Was someone commenting on the art shapes on the wall?
Was someone singing the Wiggles, “Apples and Bananas” song and there was a typo or parody involved?
Was someone making geometric calculations for the shortest path to a snack?
No one has any idea. Apparently, with this crowd I need to take notes that are more detailed.
The line for BB-8 was always short, for low interaction reasons. We told the Cast Member we’d be heading to a “Not FastPass” shortly after this. Following a discussion where everyone called it “Not FastPass” for a bit she reminded us it was Lighting Lane. We started going through the entrance, Morgan saw one of the buttons on the wall light up, and conditioned by Smugglers Run pushed it, closing the door on us. After some general panicked yelling by everyone, we went in.
YAAAAAAAAAY!
Out in the Animation Courtyard some of the gang needed a rest room stop. Others of the gang needed to meet Disney Junior characters.
We have very specialized definitions of “need” in Disney.
And elsewhere, I guess.
Vampirina liked Anabelle’s ever present little Donald.
We were about to leave, until we noticed there was only one person on line for Doc McStuffins.
Then we noticed that was because she was about to go on break and we left anyway.
Alas.
(and DJ, “Do NOT disrespect DJ”- Aurora)
And waited…
And sat down...
And waited.
And they told us it
broke…again.
At least they didn’t evacuate the whole section of the Park.
It was time to experience Rise of the Resistance, the most immersive, most impressive, longest stand by line attraction in all of Disney World.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
Except Kim was starting to suffer from massive sun poisoning because her necklace scraped the sunscreen off her neck, and also suffer some medication reactions.
And Rosa was realizing the “Gluten Free” salad at lunch wasn’t as free of gluten as advertised.
And Anabelle, due to a lack of spoilers, wasn’t ready for part of the line to be a stand up simulator, followed by entering a room FILLED with animatronics, which still gave her the Heebie Jeebies.
In the words of this franchise that has been such a huge part of my life,
And waited.
At least they didn’t evacuate the whole section of the Park.
It was time to experience Rise of the Resistance, the most immersive, most impressive, longest stand by line attraction in all of Disney World.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!
Except Kim was starting to suffer from massive sun poisoning because her necklace scraped the sunscreen off her neck, and also suffer some medication reactions.
And Rosa was realizing the “Gluten Free” salad at lunch wasn’t as free of gluten as advertised.
And Anabelle, due to a lack of spoilers, wasn’t ready for part of the line to be a stand up simulator, followed by entering a room FILLED with animatronics, which still gave her the Heebie Jeebies.
In the words of this franchise that has been such a huge part of my life,
“I have a bad feeling
about this.”
Anyway, the ride was
AMAZING, for the two thirds of us who could fully enjoy it and remember what we
saw. It was totally immersive, the line is a normally impressive Disney Star
Wars line, leading to a pre-show area with a rolling BB-8 and a Hologram Rey explaining
the evacuation plan. The line continued by Poe Dameron’s X-wing, which can
only be seen there.
(There is another X-wing
in Batuu proper, but it isn’t Poe’s. Yes, Anabelle, I am still talking about
this. Allow me yet another, or in fact many other, geeky moments.)
YAAAAAY!
In the hall we were led to, one officer asked Grandma, “Are you all right ma’am?”
When she answered, “Yes,” he said, “You won’t be.”
At this point, the Resistance rescued us and told us they would be taking control. The First Order still loaded us into the sit down portion of the ride, further traumatizing Anabelle since they insisted she take off her Donald augmented fanny pack instead of just adjusting the way it faced like every other ride loading Cast Member did. The vehicles zoomed all over the interior of the Star Destroyer under the direction of the Resistance (It was awesome!). Trackless vehicles again allowed complete surprises as they found ways to go that didn’t look obvious based on the Imperial craft’s layout. Regular communications from Finn (inside the ship) and Poe (flying outside it) guided us. It ended with the vehicle getting into an escape pod and flying back to Batuu.
Anabelle did some background reading for this one and informed us that seeing Kylo Ren in his ship outside the big window of the craft meant his high end animatronic was broken once again.
Alas.
Rosa, who can’t ride Star Tours at all, and can only ride Dinosaur and the new Mickey attraction once a day, had no issues with the movement on this one.
There was still a definite need for recovery time following the ride. The rest of the gang hung around StarWarsLand for a bit while Kim got her bearings. Once settled, Grandma went with Kim’s family to see the Lightning McQueen show, which was (amazingly) working again.
I stayed with Anabelle while she walked around ToyStoryLand to focus herself while Rosa addressed her unexpected Glutenness. The three of us met up back in StarWarsLand to check out the other store connected to the one with the lightsabers that are outside of our budget. They were sold out of Sith Holocrons but had plenty of Jedi ones. People are dumb.
By this point due to the heat, the humidity, or possibly the helpful beyond providing actual help Cast Member that took NINETY-SEVEN Chewbacca Pictures, my phone was acting much more like a brick than a communication device.
Anabelle and I were approaching hungry but not for a full meal. She decided it was time to get back on plan and try a Ronto Wrap at Docking Bay Seven. I decided to help her.
When we entered, there
were odd-looking fruits in cases. Anabelle was half excited because she thought
they looked like Meilooruns, the running gag fruit from Rebels Then she became fully excited when she looked them up and
discovered Meilooruns DO come in different colors. 
The Ronto Wrap was mighty tasty!
The official description was, however, a little off:
“Roasted Pork, Grilled Pork Sausage, Peppercorn Sauce, and Tangy Slaw wrapped in Pita Bread and served with a side of Chips.”
The slaw and sauce were both excellent with a little pork mixed in. The Pita was toasted perfectly. The “pork sausage” was…
A hot dog.
However, not just any hot dog. It was an excellent Sabrett’s style dog, flame grilled until it just started to burn. (Note - this is the only meat I like well done.)
It was wonderful. (“GLORIOUS!” – Anabelle.) Anabelle was also excited to see Gonk droids all over, and took a picture hugging one. It’s not just a shirt, she takes Droid Rights seriously.
Oh, and the chips were banana for a taste twist. Anabelle had a Sprite and I had a Coke Zero, which later in the trip would be the fuel carrying us through several days.
Anabelle was fully recovered, the Smuggler’s Run line dropped a bit and we decided to go single rider. Rosa stayed in the docking bay to finish her Sprite, and would meet us there. The one downside to Single Rider is it skips the fantastic Hondo animatronic. Anabelle does not see this as a downside. This is not only because animatronics give her the Heebie Jeebies, but more so because she does not like Hondo…
Or Han…
Or Lando…
Or Jack Sparrow.
In summary, she doesn’t like scoundrels. While this is certainly problematic for fictional enjoyment, it is clearly an excellent life choice overall.
I made an Instant Disney Friend from England who was also caught in the bucketing rain from the heavens in the Magic Kingdom on the first night we were there.
Aside- The start of our trip coincided with the post plague return of British tour groups, hence the large number of English folks we met. The end of our trip coincided with the return of Brazilian tour groups, who were similar to the English ones, except they were tanner, had different accents, and less clothes.
I was taking a photo of the Dejarik board, and my new friend offered to take a picture of me sitting there.
THANK YOU INSTANT DISNEY FRIEND.
We Engineered with a family of four. There were Gunner problems, but not quite as bad as Grandma. On my Instant Disney Friend’s side was a three year old. I found out later he transferred from being the Pilot on Anabelle’s run, when they realized he couldn’t reach the controls. Close one for her there.
My Instant Disney Friend had to lean over the kid’s head to fire the concussion missile switches.
Anabelle
definitively proclaimed this her favorite ride in MGM, loved being the Engineer
and took a second single rider ride following our separated one. We switched
phones since mine was still acting brick like. She got a photo at the Dejarik
board this time. She also found brand new switches to flip. She did these
things with her new British Instant Disney Friend. He was more fun because he
was wearing a Ducky Mo Mo shirt, and was the source of information about
pressing the cable button repeatedly after firing it to send the energy surges
down it.
The need for the new repair switches may be due to the Pilots she was given. She claimed she didn’t think they had ever seen a Star Wars film…
Or a button.
While she did that, I ran out of Batuu because there was no line on Star Tours. (Which is also not in StarWarsLand, adding to the confusing layout of the smallest of Parks.)
I still love that one. We were attacked by Kylo, got a message from Poe, and flew through Jakku and Krait for the full Sequel Trilogy experience.
Magically, in spite of medical conditions, me not knowing how to unlock Anabelle’s phone, my phone being a brick, and Kim’s family originally saying they were coming to meet us and then not being able to leave, we all met up together.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
They enjoyed the Lightning
show, and Aurora texted Anabelle (as the kids remained in constant contact)
that she would have absolutely no problem seeing it again if we went next time.
(We did! YAAAAAAAAAAY!)
Afterwards they all did the single rider line on Rock N Roller Coaster.
(Except Grandma and Dave, duh.)
Dave got his coasters confused and forgot it did the inverted corkscrew. (A feature that has a significant effect on the rider and should not be forgotten, especially when one who is not riding is describing it to one who is riding.)
(“YEAH!!!!”- Morgan)
The single rider line meant everyone sat separately. Luckily, Morgan ended up sitting next to an Instant Disney Friend and Guardian Angel, who noticed how nervous he was, and that Aurora was in a nearby seat trying to calm him down.
When no one was looking, the woman swapped seats with Aurora, meaning Morgan wasn’t alone during, and more importantly after the experience, when he needed support.
They were eating pretzels and still calming him down by the time we reached them.
That is except for Aurora who wasn’t in the mood for food, and was therefore good and crazy for the rest of the night. (Um…YAAAAY?)
The Terror o’ Tower line had dropped to manageable levels for the end of the day. Many of us love that one. Rosa is not one of them, and since no other attraction enticed her, it was her turn to make an excessively rare choice of sanity for our family in Disney and go back to the room.
As we started working our way through the line, Uncle Dave suddenly blurted out, “Why am I here?” This is because he remembered that he was the other one in the family who doesn’t “love that one.”
He went to rest with a couple of bags, likely near a beer cart. Kim maintains, even after his Disneyness upgrade, the availability of alcohol in all Parks now may be the only reason he didn’t kill all of us by the end of the trip.
She is likely not wrong.
Possibly due to how they set it up, but more likely due to our exhaustion we went back and forth through some extra chains on the line.
I also may have stuck my tongue out at the snooty people using Genie Plus to pay extra money to skip lines, but it was dark and I was tired making it very hard to tell.
The atmospheric hotel
innards in the pre-show always add to the mood. Having recently completed their
pretzel stop, Veronica was concerned the rapid up and down movement of the
elevator would cause some rapid up (and out) and down movement of her pretzel.
Her helpful siblings and cousin advised her to make sure she turned to throw up
on me.
Lovely children we have.
(She didn’t…YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!)
Kim and I both confessed we were terrified the first time we were in the library, not because of the scary Rod Serling narration, but because we illogically believed that was the room (with no seats, handrails or restraints of any kind) that was going to have the drop.
(“So did I!” – Anabelle, “Yeah, me too.” – Aurora
You can tell we’re all related.)
We got to sit in the front row of the car.
yay.
Kidding, I love this thing.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!
There were two first time
experiences for me on this amazingly fun attraction.
1) I figured out that much of what is seen early on is a projection on the “doors” in front of us, which explains how the images disappear and then “turn into” the hall we travel down. I am such a fool.
(Kim upon hearing this realization- “OH!” Grandma shortly after- “What? Really?”
We are so related.)
2) On one of the upward flights, a large bug smashed all over the top of my head.
Ew.
We got off, and wandered the store a bit while Veronica ran to the bathroom. We didn’t know where Dave was. Someone noticed the wait time on the new Mickey ride had dropped significantly. All we had to do was make it there up Sunset Boulevard before the end of night projection show started on the building it was contained it.
Somehow, we all found each other, and sped up Sunset toward the Chinese theater.
On the way, Grandma went to step up on the sidewalk to get around a slow moving crowd and tripped, falling over the curb.
We all panicked and ran to help her up. At which point she tore into us.
“She’s yelling at us, she must be OK,” Kim and I said simultaneously,
and we all kept moving toward our goal.
We made it there in time to dodge the projection show and join the short line.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Aurora in CrazyHungryLand dragged the rest of the kids down with her. Their dancing in the pre-show got the Awesome Happy Cast Member to join in, laughing hysterically.
As we went through the ride, in the dance school portion, Daisy froze. Luckily we had a car load of exhausted to the point of loopiness kids with dance experience.
They all danced on their
own for a while.
Then Daisy joined in and they kept dancing for the rest of the ride.
As the Park closed around us, we planned to make the bus before the “fireworks” crowd went out.
However, we split up again, because it’s us. (This reason happens a lot doesn’t it?)
Kim, Aurora, Anabelle and I stopped at Guest Services on the way out to ask about the Lost and Found. The Awesome Happy Disney Lady helped them fill out the now digital form, and we joined the throng leaving the Park. Out of nowhere, Anabelle whipped out a near perfect Minnie impression. Aurora begged her to stop talking, but that continued throughout the rest of the trip along with the ever growing list of “traditions.”
Grandma and the gang were at the front of the line and she was saying we should join them, or they wouldn’t get on the bus if we didn’t make it.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Back at the hotel, we pointed out Grandma refused to do either of these things (cut the line, or let us skip a bus) when the situation was reversed on a previous trip and in fact yelled at us for suggesting it.
Grandma made some comments to Kim and I that are not printable in polite company.
(I've frequently stated the George Awards were genetic.)
We did make it onto the bus. We were the last ones, in fact, and had to stand. Standing on a bus, especially when exhausted (and flashing back to the stand-up simulator earlier) is something else that gives Anabelle the Heebie Jeebies.
She was saved by two things.
1) The person standing next to her was sending hilarious texts updating her budget plan in Spanish to someone.
Rosa, who can’t ride Star Tours at all, and can only ride Dinosaur and the new Mickey attraction once a day, had no issues with the movement on this one.
There was still a definite need for recovery time following the ride. The rest of the gang hung around StarWarsLand for a bit while Kim got her bearings. Once settled, Grandma went with Kim’s family to see the Lightning McQueen show, which was (amazingly) working again.
I stayed with Anabelle while she walked around ToyStoryLand to focus herself while Rosa addressed her unexpected Glutenness. The three of us met up back in StarWarsLand to check out the other store connected to the one with the lightsabers that are outside of our budget. They were sold out of Sith Holocrons but had plenty of Jedi ones. People are dumb.
By this point due to the heat, the humidity, or possibly the helpful beyond providing actual help Cast Member that took NINETY-SEVEN Chewbacca Pictures, my phone was acting much more like a brick than a communication device.
Anabelle and I were approaching hungry but not for a full meal. She decided it was time to get back on plan and try a Ronto Wrap at Docking Bay Seven. I decided to help her.
The Ronto Wrap was mighty tasty!
The official description was, however, a little off:
“Roasted Pork, Grilled Pork Sausage, Peppercorn Sauce, and Tangy Slaw wrapped in Pita Bread and served with a side of Chips.”
The slaw and sauce were both excellent with a little pork mixed in. The Pita was toasted perfectly. The “pork sausage” was…
A hot dog.
However, not just any hot dog. It was an excellent Sabrett’s style dog, flame grilled until it just started to burn. (Note - this is the only meat I like well done.)
It was wonderful. (“GLORIOUS!” – Anabelle.) Anabelle was also excited to see Gonk droids all over, and took a picture hugging one. It’s not just a shirt, she takes Droid Rights seriously.
Oh, and the chips were banana for a taste twist. Anabelle had a Sprite and I had a Coke Zero, which later in the trip would be the fuel carrying us through several days.
Anabelle was fully recovered, the Smuggler’s Run line dropped a bit and we decided to go single rider. Rosa stayed in the docking bay to finish her Sprite, and would meet us there. The one downside to Single Rider is it skips the fantastic Hondo animatronic. Anabelle does not see this as a downside. This is not only because animatronics give her the Heebie Jeebies, but more so because she does not like Hondo…
Or Han…
Or Lando…
Or Jack Sparrow.
In summary, she doesn’t like scoundrels. While this is certainly problematic for fictional enjoyment, it is clearly an excellent life choice overall.
I made an Instant Disney Friend from England who was also caught in the bucketing rain from the heavens in the Magic Kingdom on the first night we were there.
Aside- The start of our trip coincided with the post plague return of British tour groups, hence the large number of English folks we met. The end of our trip coincided with the return of Brazilian tour groups, who were similar to the English ones, except they were tanner, had different accents, and less clothes.
I was taking a photo of the Dejarik board, and my new friend offered to take a picture of me sitting there.
THANK YOU INSTANT DISNEY FRIEND.
We Engineered with a family of four. There were Gunner problems, but not quite as bad as Grandma. On my Instant Disney Friend’s side was a three year old. I found out later he transferred from being the Pilot on Anabelle’s run, when they realized he couldn’t reach the controls. Close one for her there.
My Instant Disney Friend had to lean over the kid’s head to fire the concussion missile switches.
The need for the new repair switches may be due to the Pilots she was given. She claimed she didn’t think they had ever seen a Star Wars film…
Or a button.
While she did that, I ran out of Batuu because there was no line on Star Tours. (Which is also not in StarWarsLand, adding to the confusing layout of the smallest of Parks.)
I still love that one. We were attacked by Kylo, got a message from Poe, and flew through Jakku and Krait for the full Sequel Trilogy experience.
Magically, in spite of medical conditions, me not knowing how to unlock Anabelle’s phone, my phone being a brick, and Kim’s family originally saying they were coming to meet us and then not being able to leave, we all met up together.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
(We did! YAAAAAAAAAAY!)
Afterwards they all did the single rider line on Rock N Roller Coaster.
(Except Grandma and Dave, duh.)
Dave got his coasters confused and forgot it did the inverted corkscrew. (A feature that has a significant effect on the rider and should not be forgotten, especially when one who is not riding is describing it to one who is riding.)
(“YEAH!!!!”- Morgan)
The single rider line meant everyone sat separately. Luckily, Morgan ended up sitting next to an Instant Disney Friend and Guardian Angel, who noticed how nervous he was, and that Aurora was in a nearby seat trying to calm him down.
When no one was looking, the woman swapped seats with Aurora, meaning Morgan wasn’t alone during, and more importantly after the experience, when he needed support.
(Note- artificial composite photo)
They were eating pretzels and still calming him down by the time we reached them.
That is except for Aurora who wasn’t in the mood for food, and was therefore good and crazy for the rest of the night. (Um…YAAAAY?)
The Terror o’ Tower line had dropped to manageable levels for the end of the day. Many of us love that one. Rosa is not one of them, and since no other attraction enticed her, it was her turn to make an excessively rare choice of sanity for our family in Disney and go back to the room.
As we started working our way through the line, Uncle Dave suddenly blurted out, “Why am I here?” This is because he remembered that he was the other one in the family who doesn’t “love that one.”
He went to rest with a couple of bags, likely near a beer cart. Kim maintains, even after his Disneyness upgrade, the availability of alcohol in all Parks now may be the only reason he didn’t kill all of us by the end of the trip.
She is likely not wrong.
Possibly due to how they set it up, but more likely due to our exhaustion we went back and forth through some extra chains on the line.
I also may have stuck my tongue out at the snooty people using Genie Plus to pay extra money to skip lines, but it was dark and I was tired making it very hard to tell.
Lovely children we have.
(She didn’t…YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!)
Kim and I both confessed we were terrified the first time we were in the library, not because of the scary Rod Serling narration, but because we illogically believed that was the room (with no seats, handrails or restraints of any kind) that was going to have the drop.
(“So did I!” – Anabelle, “Yeah, me too.” – Aurora
You can tell we’re all related.)
We got to sit in the front row of the car.
yay.
Kidding, I love this thing.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!
1) I figured out that much of what is seen early on is a projection on the “doors” in front of us, which explains how the images disappear and then “turn into” the hall we travel down. I am such a fool.
(Kim upon hearing this realization- “OH!” Grandma shortly after- “What? Really?”
We are so related.)
2) On one of the upward flights, a large bug smashed all over the top of my head.
Ew.
We got off, and wandered the store a bit while Veronica ran to the bathroom. We didn’t know where Dave was. Someone noticed the wait time on the new Mickey ride had dropped significantly. All we had to do was make it there up Sunset Boulevard before the end of night projection show started on the building it was contained it.
Somehow, we all found each other, and sped up Sunset toward the Chinese theater.
On the way, Grandma went to step up on the sidewalk to get around a slow moving crowd and tripped, falling over the curb.
We all panicked and ran to help her up. At which point she tore into us.
“She’s yelling at us, she must be OK,” Kim and I said simultaneously,
and we all kept moving toward our goal.
We made it there in time to dodge the projection show and join the short line.
So it was kind of a fiasco, but somehow it worked out anyway.
Aurora in CrazyHungryLand dragged the rest of the kids down with her. Their dancing in the pre-show got the Awesome Happy Cast Member to join in, laughing hysterically.
As we went through the ride, in the dance school portion, Daisy froze. Luckily we had a car load of exhausted to the point of loopiness kids with dance experience.
Then Daisy joined in and they kept dancing for the rest of the ride.
As the Park closed around us, we planned to make the bus before the “fireworks” crowd went out.
However, we split up again, because it’s us. (This reason happens a lot doesn’t it?)
Kim, Aurora, Anabelle and I stopped at Guest Services on the way out to ask about the Lost and Found. The Awesome Happy Disney Lady helped them fill out the now digital form, and we joined the throng leaving the Park. Out of nowhere, Anabelle whipped out a near perfect Minnie impression. Aurora begged her to stop talking, but that continued throughout the rest of the trip along with the ever growing list of “traditions.”
Grandma and the gang were at the front of the line and she was saying we should join them, or they wouldn’t get on the bus if we didn’t make it.
Jeff’s Disney World Philosophy:
Back at the hotel, we pointed out Grandma refused to do either of these things (cut the line, or let us skip a bus) when the situation was reversed on a previous trip and in fact yelled at us for suggesting it.
Grandma made some comments to Kim and I that are not printable in polite company.
(I've frequently stated the George Awards were genetic.)
We did make it onto the bus. We were the last ones, in fact, and had to stand. Standing on a bus, especially when exhausted (and flashing back to the stand-up simulator earlier) is something else that gives Anabelle the Heebie Jeebies.
She was saved by two things.
1) The person standing next to her was sending hilarious texts updating her budget plan in Spanish to someone.
2) She was comforted by
“Shosty.”
Explanation- Because Fantasia 2000 is a big part of the All Star Movies decorations- busses going there often play the Tin Soldier selection. This is by Shostakovich. Anabelle’s band friends always called him “Shosty” for reasons that will remain in the mists of high school.
We reached our hotel, and on the way through the cafeteria, I grabbed some peanut butter and jelly packets. When I got to the room, I found out Rosa did the same.
Addictions need to be fed sometimes.
While Anabelle cleaned up, I went on the mug run. Now that I knew where everything was, getting her Hot Chocolate was easy. I guzzled my PowerAde while I made her drink and filled my mug up with Coke Zero for the next day. I also got Rosa’s Sprite with ice.
I have absolutely no idea why I got ice, since in the over twenty years we’ve been married, my wife has never taken ice in her soda.
The beverage part of my brain must have already gone to sleep.
The rest of me joined it soon thereafter.
22486 steps 8.7 miles
Explanation- Because Fantasia 2000 is a big part of the All Star Movies decorations- busses going there often play the Tin Soldier selection. This is by Shostakovich. Anabelle’s band friends always called him “Shosty” for reasons that will remain in the mists of high school.
We reached our hotel, and on the way through the cafeteria, I grabbed some peanut butter and jelly packets. When I got to the room, I found out Rosa did the same.
Addictions need to be fed sometimes.
While Anabelle cleaned up, I went on the mug run. Now that I knew where everything was, getting her Hot Chocolate was easy. I guzzled my PowerAde while I made her drink and filled my mug up with Coke Zero for the next day. I also got Rosa’s Sprite with ice.
I have absolutely no idea why I got ice, since in the over twenty years we’ve been married, my wife has never taken ice in her soda.
The beverage part of my brain must have already gone to sleep.
The rest of me joined it soon thereafter.
22486 steps 8.7 miles
I love Annabelle's T-shirt! And it's a very good cause as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you, she's always been really outraged by this kind of thing, even in fictional settings. Makes me proud.
ReplyDeleteAnd yay for Chewbacca being anti-slavery and appreciating anti-slavery shirts. And quadruple Yays for Annabelle being outraged about that sort of thing!
ReplyDeleteNot to be difficult but I sort of wish you had more confusing notes. They're entertaining in a nice mix of comedy and mystery.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Star Wars has always had a strong "good vs evil" message. Although to do that, there are always fascists, organized crime, and slavers around for the good guys to fight.
ReplyDeleteMy life is an unending source of comedy material.
So I adore your mom doing 'nothing' on the Star Wars first ride. I myself am too chicken to even attempt to ride, so props to her ! I love how you all manage to go on all these rides and not bother with the ever-changing and maddening Disney Genie Plus. Your descriptions, as always, are witty and entertaining Jeff!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yeah, for her and Rosa, that was a once a trip ride because of it being shaky, but it it incredibly fun.
ReplyDeleteMom's always preferred to watch the ride on Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear as well.
Thanx much for the compliments. I think us all being willing to exhaust ourselves let us catch the late night and early morning short lines.