Galaxy's Edge and Festival of the Arts Figment Brush with the Master's Scavenger Hunt

Just in case you are a little nostalgic for Walt Disney World, here are three videos from our January trip.

These videos, as well as many others, can be found on our Youtube Channel.    You can subscribe and get updates of when a new video is posted.   We are closing in on 1,000 subscribers and would love to get over that hump.

Video 1:  Walking Around Galaxy's Edge with a stop in Oga's Cantina and a ride on Smuggler's Run

 


Video 2:  Galaxy's Edge Rise of the Resistance full experience with portions from the queue and full ride video
 


 
 Video 3:  A tour around Epcot's World Showcase playing Figment's Brush with the Masters scavenger hunt game.

Never Homevember: 2019 Walt Disney World

Our travel schedule for November got full quickly.   Our traditional Thanksgiving vacation to Jamaica was booked in the summer of 2018 when we found a crazy cheap promotion for one of our favorite hotels.  We booked a short Disney World trip centered around the Swan and Dolphin Hotels’ Food and Wine Classic event and our wedding anniversary.   This summer a friend suggested we should join him in Las Vegas for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon - which of course was the weekend between the other trips.   We were on the fence about Vegas but when we canceled our Labor Day trip to Florida, due to Hurricane Dorian, we used the airline credit and budget from that trip to book the Las Vegas trip and then drowned our sorrows in Milwaukee (an hour from our house) over Labor Day Weekend.  That meant we would not be home 4 weekends in a row.  Of course this came at extreme busy times at work so lots of time was spent on the laptops at night during the work weeks.

Disney Highlights

Stayed at the Polynesian using our Disney Vacation Club.  We booked a lake view room which offers a view of the Magic Kingdom from the 2nd and 3rd floors.   We of course ended up on the first floor with no view.  Oh well...  One benefit of our location was the quick walk to the Transportation and Ticket Center to grab the Monorail to access to Magic Kingdon, several resorts, and Epcot.  Another plus was access to Trader Sam's Tiki Bar for the chance to get the Hat Box Ghost mug.

Checking out the new land in Disney's Hollywood Studios:  Galaxy's Edge.   We were really looking forward to experiencing the land, especially after missing opening weekend.  Since the land’s opening crowds at Disney World were low....but not on Veteran's Day Weekend.   The place was packed with lines out-the-door to get into shops.

We experienced a lot in a short amount of time thanks to Holly's tenacious attack on Disney's online reservation system.   The morning started with cocktails and beer at 10am in Oga's Cantina. "Fortunately" they still had all the collectible tiki glasses including the Rancor tooth flight glasses and tray.  Next we went to build our custom remote control R2-D2 style droids. Around noon we finally got in the 105 minute long line for Smuggler's Run - the Millennium Falcon simulation.  Holly let people go ahead of us at role assignment time so we could be the pilots.    2pm:  Time for more cocktails since we had another Oga's reservation.   4pm: Build light sabers.

Overall the world was very well thought out, just wish we could have had the non-crowd experience of the prior months.   Dave felt it needed a little more nods to the old era like having the Jawas trade with guests and more random creatures walk around the area.

Food:  This whole trip was supposed to be centered around eating, but we had to cram all the Star Wars stuff in after cancelling the September trip.   We had a great night at the Swan and Dolphin's Food and Wine Classic.  The event gets better each year with more offerings and themed areas.  Epcot was still hosting their Food and Wine Festival.   Our original wish list of 75 items was created in August when we had two trips to spread the eating.    We culled that down a bit before the trip and maybe ended up skipping a 1/3 of what we wrote down.    We enjoyed the new night time show - Epcot Forever. Too bad it's temporary.

We grabbed a drink at the new Enchanted Rose Lounge in the Grand Floridian. The bar is a lightly themed to Beauty and the Beast and replaces Mizner's Lounge in a much larger space.   It will be nice to spend some time on their outdoor deck during a longer trip.

We decided to celebrate our anniversary dinner at The California Grill.   Food was good as always, but we had some issues with the check-in desk.  They had us wait a 1/2 hour past our reservation time in some dank corner of the Contemporary 2nd floor and weren’t sure they would have called us if Dave didn't check on the progress.   We had it noted all over the place it was our anniversary - so where do they sit us?  A booth in front of the chef's pass.    Not cool.   We told them we were not happy and were reseated a few minutes later.    Kinda put a damper on the mood and we left 5 minutes before the fireworks.    We did catch them at TTC - good spot for them.   

We scored a Mickey's Christmas Tree popcorn bucket.   It's our Christmas Tree this year.  Dave was really tempted to buy more for ebay after seeing the after-market price, but we believe in letting people have a chance to get one in-park.

Once again we were able to squeeze a lot into a short amount of time and had a great trip.   

The video below is our experience making custom light sabers in Galaxy’s Edge.  Dave gets to show some Star Wars nerdiness when a cast member asks him a question.

2016 Disney World RunDisney Star Wars Dark Side Race Weekend

Disney grabbed us for one more RunDisney race series. In January we participated in another Star Wars themed race weekend - The Light Side. Florida's Disney location offered a companion series in April with the kicker of a bonus medal for doing the half marathons on both coasts. Like January, we were both signed up for the 5K and10K while Holly had the half marathon. The combination of the 10K and half marathon earns a challenge medal.

We arrived Thursday night, the night before the 5K. We did not have a chance to go to the expo so we were hoping our race bibs would be available at the start area. We checked in at the Boardwalk and figured we had enough time for some quick dinner at Epcot's Flower and Garden food booths. We split four booth offerings before meeting up with friends to watch Illuminations (Epcot fireworks). After the show we headed back to Boardwalk, enjoyed some time in BelleVue talking to one of our favorite WDW bartenders, then went to the room and fell asleep around midnight.

At 3:15 the wake-up call arrives the same time our phone alarms go off. Ugh! The race started at 6:00 but Dinsey logistics demands runners to arrive early. We drove to Epcot vs. taking the resort shuttles and arrived early enough at 4:15. We got our bibs no problem. With time to kill we decided to take advantage of the new character photo op setup that was available all three days (before and after the race). There were different Star Wars character/scene sets lining the stage area. You could have photos with Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Captain Phasma, First Order Troopers, BB-8, Jabba, and rattarps. Disney photographers were on-hand to take photos for the runners (posted online and free to download for Annual Passholders and Memory Maker subscribers). Since we were early we could knock a few out with little wait. After that it was hang out with friends, wait on bathroom lines, and then wait in corrals.

The above statements can be applied to the other race mornings except for the race times. Each morning the start was a half hour earlier. The alarm went off around 2:15 on Sunday for the half. Dave stayed in bed that morning and met up with everyone later.

5K

We entered Corral A (first to start the race) about twenty minutes before the race. Almost as soon as we crossed in race staff announced they were closing the corral. So many people were still milling about and using bathrooms. Our corral ended up having less than 500 participants of a 7,500+ person race. As we were starting we noticed the family of a friend waiting at the side of the corral for their left behind family member using the bathroom. The course was the usual Epcot Course 1st mile parking lot, other miles Epcot.

The 5K is the only distance we can do together because of our separate paces and tolerances for intervals. We saw R2-D2 was the first character stop passed mile marker 1. We skipped it. The World Showcase was lit a bit differently for the race and Star Wars music was playing over the speakers. Fun! The characters from Rebels were at the American Pavilion and Chewbacca was by the Friendship dock by the International Gateway. We skipped both. The final character stop were Some New Order Stormtroopers on a platform by the Future World Fountain. Yep, skipped it. We crossed the finish line, collected our drinks and goodie boxes, took a picture with Boba Fett, and left.

Having Photo Pass was a nice touch. By entering a code and your bib number into the My Disney Experience App we had access to the race photos within a few hours - for free (with our pass). This helped to offset the ridiculous cost of RunDisney races.

Overall the 5K was "same race, different overlay". Seeing people in Star Wars outfits was fun, but nothing on course was different than expected. An appearance by Kylo Ren would have been nice. It was humid as expected this time of year.

10K

"Let's wake up earlier than yesterday". The worst part of race weekend is the early start. Being back in the room before the first firework show starts is a miserable feeling. We carpooled over to Epcot with our friends Lee and Laura. We were still pretty early so we killed time with character photo lines. We met up with more friends and eventually shuffled the almost 1/2 mile to the start line. Shuffle is literal. They opened the gates and we all slowly moved our way to corrals. Dave was the lone Corral B member of our group. Since he's slower he decided to take the head start and figured we'd finish around the same time. To make things worse - we were finishing the race at Wide World of Sports which meant we had to rely on busses to take us back to Epcot or the resort's.

Here's the race from Dave's POV:

"Somehow I ended up too far in the front of my corral. Once we crossed the line we were all really packed together for a while. Then came the off-ramp that narrowed to accommodate a single car - going from 4 lanes to one was crowded for me. It was warmer than the day before and I wasn't feeling it. Adding to the fun was I kept burping up the nasty Clif Bar I ate before the race. This was going to be slower pace than yesterday, even though I had a faster first mile (Likely caused by the push of the crowd and search for isolation).

Epcot looked the same as the day before and it was fun to go counterclockwise to UK pavilion. This was a good place for the bathroom. The Boardwalk was fun to go through, but then the narrow path to the Studios was not. At the front of the Studios there were a few members of the 501st out for photo ops. It was nice, but nothing like the California half marathon. I took a few pictures in the Studios and took advantage of the Tower of Terror restrooms. Since the rest of the course was not through parks or resorts I decided to take advantage of the familiar. I'm not one to stop for character photo opportunities, but they had Palpatine's chair at the 1/2 way point. Just had to wait on line.

The rest of the course was not much fun. Concrete and Trees. Right before Mile 5 participants crammed onto a narrow dirt paths for almost a half mile. That was really fun. Near the end of the course a few more members of the 501st were out, including a Darth Vader. Since I had a Darth Vader shirt on I decided to stop for a picture. I knew through text messages Holly and crew were nearby. I stood off to the side before crossing the finish to see if they were coming into sight, but then figured they may be stopping for pictures with the characters and moved on. I got some poor finish line photos because I was chatting with Rudy, the greatest race announcer in the world, as I crossed. He asked if Holly was close by. So much fun to know a race announcer.

I'm in the minority of my friends when I say I wish it was the race was on the traditional 10K course of Epcot-Boardwalk-Yacht-Beach-Epcot. There was not enough to engage me on this course passed the half way point. I really hated the fact that we had to wait on line 30 minutes for a bus back to Epcot. Apparently the wait was up to 70+ minutes later that day

Half Marathon (Holly's Report)

This is now the third morning wake up in a row for me. It was the earliest one yet at 2:15 am! Lee and Laura were driving this morning and I knocked on their door at 3 am. We made it to Epcot in no time at all and we now just had to wait two hours until we would actually start running. This was when it finally sunk in that I was done with runDisney. I love seeing and running with my friends but we are all so tired from getting up so early, that I would like to pick another race weekend that doesn’t require such early alarms, or just go to Disney with everyone and not run.

We once again had a long slow shuffle to the corrals and waited around for our turn to go. It was the same entertainment as the previous two days. The course would be a new one again so I was excited for that. We started in Epcot and ran along the Beach Club today to get to the Studios (Dave came out to see us along the Boardwalk path). Ran through the Studios and then out to Osceola Parkway to Animal Kingdom and back on Osceola to finish again at Wide World of Sports. It was a cooler morning this morning and we had a group of nine of us running together today. We all had fun and I think we were running a bit faster because it was cooler. We did slow down at the half way point because we were getting tired after three days of running! As with the first two days the characters on course were lacking. The 501st did save the day and I enjoyed running through three parks.

The medals were great, especially the Kessel Run medal that I got because I did the half marathon in January at Disneyland. We were all disappointed to learn that there was no beer available after the race due to the fact that the race ended in Osceola County and you can’t sell beer in the morning in that county. Something tells me that they will be changing the course next year or getting a special permit. They left too much money on the table, which is something that Disney does not do.

 

My overall feelings on the race weekend are that they are a fun weekend if you like Star Wars. They are way overcrowded however and the magic of running at Disney is over for me due to the overcrowding and the overall process of getting to the races so early to sit around and wait to start.

 

 

501st Legion at the 2016 Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon

Lee, Laura, Stan, and Holly with the cosplay characters on the 2016 Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon course. Characters are part of the 501st Legion. As mentioned in our half marathon report the 501st is an international organization of Star Wars fans that create accurate Star Wars costumes and Star Wars inspired characters. They are heavily involved in charitable efforts.

 

 

 

 

2016 Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon Race Bulletpoints and Photos

Dave here....

I asked Holly if she wanted to do a race report for the Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon. Her response was "Not really". I of course wanted to showcase some photos so I asked her for some bulletpoints I could include. Almost all the photos are from the 501st Area of the course. The 501st Legion is an international group of Star Wars fans that create true-to-character costumes. There were also some steam punk mash-ups and other Star Wars inspired characters. These folks were standing around Mile 8.5.

I didn't go with Holly to the start area as usual. This time I slept in an extra 90 minutes, drove to a Starbucks and had breakfast, then went to the estimated area for the 501 - it was the same place as last year. There must have been 100 folks in costumes here. I snapped some photos while waiting and talked with friends as they went by.

Once Holly and Stan arrived I followed them along the line of characters and snapped any picture they wanted. After that I got out of there and (visited Starbucks again) went back to the finish area to meet Holly.

Holly's Comments

• Same stuff, different day: the pre-race skits, trivia questions, video clips, etc were the repeats for the previous two days. Mile one, including its character stop, was a rerun of the last two days. Character experiences in the parks were repeats.
• Crowding: the corrals were jammed tightly as compared to the last two days. This made some of the early parts of the race difficult to maneuver around and get your pace going.
• Dark: parts of the course, mostly in Disneyland Park, were super-dark. Same thing the earlier races but with the crowding it became more of a danger.
• The race improved once they left property and hit the streets of Anaheim and Garden Grove. Roads were wide and allowed for spreading out.
• The 501st area was the single highlight of the race. The characters were into it and were very supportive and cheering during the race. If this area did not exist Holly would have considered this a poor RunDisney event.

Get it?

Our friend Laura in Rey outfit with Cosplay Finn and Steam Punk Lady Fett in background

I will eventually have some video from this experience uploaded and posted. I've been busy trying to find the last collectible items in Far Cry 4 before moving onto Assassin's Creed: The Syndicate.

In April we will go to Disney World for its version of the Star Wars Half Marathon. We are guessing the 501 won't be in attendance since the whole race is on Disney property. We will see.

 

Video: Star Wars Weekends Legends of the Force Parade and Show

This video is most of the Legends of the Force Parade and scenes from the post-parade show.  Thanks to the Feel the Force Premium Package (costs extra) we had a nice curb-side view and were escorted to the front of the stage for the show.   Poor camera work is a result of trying to take photos of R2-D2 and Chopper (from Rebels) together.

Other Star Wars Weekends Posts:
Star Wars Weekend 2015 Day 1
Star Wars Weekend 2015 Day 2

Star Wars Weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios Day 2

The second day of our Star Wars Weekend was going to be spent at more add-on/reservation-only experiences: The Rebel Hangar Lounge and the Jedi Mickey's Star Wars Dine at Hollywood and Vine.

We started the day in Epcot since our first reservation was a bit later in the afternoon. Our Epcot time was spent riding the headliners in Future World, enjoying a few drinks (except La Cava seems to have changed some of their margarita recipes for the worse), and having lunch at Via Napoli. We finally had a chance to enjoy the new musical act in Morocco and recommend spending some time watching their performance.

We walked to The Studios from Epcot and made it on time for our first reservation: The Rebel Hangar. This is a new bar/lounge experience designed for Star Wars Weekends in the Backlot Express. The theme is a catina on a rebel outpost on Sullust - where Nien Nunb is from (disneyfoodblog.com does a better job capturing the details and they took pictures of the menu with backstory). The usual counter service was still available, but the dining section near Jedi Training Academy was closed off in order to house this experience. When we arrived at the podium we were immediately escorted to a nice corner table with a statue of Luke in his pilot outfit decorating the table. From time-to-time characters wandered around. While there we saw a cantina band member, a Jawa, and Ezra and Sabine from Rebels. For whatever reason, the Rebels characters only visited one table.

Our waitress was ever-present, but never rushing us. I think they wanted you to take your time and enjoy, but also did not want to miss the opportunity to turn a table. We both ordered speciality cocktails for the first round so we could complete our Star Wars Glow Cube collection. Between in-park drink kiosks and The Hangar we had pairs of Death Stars, X-Wings, and Falcons.

For food we tried the pork wings (Thermal Detonators) and fries (Pilot's Pommes Frites). The pork was tasty and a good size for one to enjoy and the fries were darn good. The garnish on the fries was a flat bread with a picture of Chewy.

The Rebel Hangar was nice. The Studios could use a few more lounges since Tune-In is now crowded at all times of the day. Having a Star Wars overlay was great, but really not a priority over having a comfortable place to take a break while in the park.

A few hours later we took part in Jedi Mickey's Star Wars Dine at Hollywood and Vine. This is a buffet character dining experience in the restaurant that regularly features the Disney Jr. characters. Needless to say we've never dined here before because 1) we don't care about Doc McStuffins and 2) We typically avoid the buffets. When you enter the restaurant you are sent over to meet Jedi Mickey for a photo opp. After that we went to our table (and tables are packed in) and got the orientation from our server. We hit the buffet and found a few OK salads, veggie offerings, and entrees. While dining we met with Stormtroopers Donald, Leia Minnie, Darth Goofy, and Ewok Chipmunks. There were a few themed desserts - like Jawa cookies and Blue Milk soft serve. Overall this wasn't a horrible food experience like the Sci-Fi breakfast from the previous day. However, our bill for the meals and one drink each cost more than our superb meal at The Brown Derby the previous night (and no Zellwood corn to be found here).

After dinner we ducked into the Tune-in Lounge for some Dad's Lemonade to enjoy while we waited for another showing of Symphony in the Stars fireworks. This time we chooses a spot much further from the main stage so we could try to get more of the panoramic experience. We shot video from this location and the Premium Package location we had the night before to create the video below: