We went to the opening weekend of Star Wars weekend and completely enjoyed our time in Hollywood Studios as well as the other Disney Parks.
We arrived early afternoon at Pop Century Resort on Thursday. We were pleasantly surprised by the awesome themeing of a value resort. We had never stayed at a value before, but we instantly fell in love.
We decided not to go with the preferred room on a good review of a friend, which was really great advice. We were able to request a room in the 50's building and close to parking when we did our online check-in. We got exactly what we wanted and we also had a room pointing towards the parking lot which was extremely quite. People stayed in the pools all through the night into the early morning so I am very glad we did not have a room facing the pool and we were a short walk to the pool, laundry, and main building.
Lady by the pool at the 50's building! My favorite Movie!
When we checked in at noon our room was already ready, so we parked our car and took our bags to our room. We chacnged and went on our way to the parks.
We decided on Animal Kingdom first and then hop to Magic Kingdom.We used the bus system and when we got to Animal Kingdom it was dead. Everyone had left and we had the parks to ourselves. We got Kali River Rapid fastpasses first, then went to Everest it was marked at 20 minutes and we waited about that, we then went over to DinoLand and went on Primeval Whirl. It was our first time, it has been on refurbished status every time we have gone. We really enjoyed the carnival type ride. Our wait was less than 5 minutes.
Here is a cute picture opportunity near the entrance of DinoLand
We then went to Dinosaur were we waited about 10 minutes and when we got off the ride we witnessed many kids crying to their parents. This ride can be hard to handle for young ones. We then went back over to Everest and rode it again with a shorter wait this time, about 5 minutes.
We then were near our window for Kali so we headed in that direction. The wait was about 20 minutes so we decided to go and then go again and use our fastpasses the second time, since this is our favorite Animal Kingdom ride.
We waited about 20 minutes, went on Kali and had a nice British family in line with us that we really enjoyed talking with. They really enjoyed the ride as well.
The first ride we didn't get to wet, but the second time we were soaked to the bone.
So instead of hopping we decided to return to our room and change our clothes.
We then took the bus to Magic Kingdom for the night. I needed to see the Fantasyland expansion progress and was dying to ride the new Dumbo and Great Goofini.
I was amazed by this new area! I love the colors and the themeing is awesome! I can't wait to see the new Fantasyland! We then watched Magic, Memories, and You and Wishes.
We then did some shopping and went back to Pop Century to get a good nights sleep for the next long day to come.
Friday we spent the majority of our time from 6:30am-8pm at Hollywood Studios. We got most of the main SWW characters, rode a ton of rides, and attended characterpalooza at the animation building. We saw part of the parade and some of hyperspace hoopla.
Picture of us at Characterpalooza at Hollywood Studios
We arrived at the gates around 7am. We drove our car and parked in the first lot with no waiting. They were not checking room keys and not charging for parking. We went straight to the front gates. We got in the center line which seemed like the shortest line, but then another turnstile opened and we moved into that lane.Around 7:15am two storm troopers appeared on top of the entrance roof and played a little opening show. They released the turnstiles at 7:30am. That was 30 minutes early.
We then headed straight for Toy Story Mania since we did not want fastpasses for the celebrities. The line for celebrity fastpasses was almost to the charter bus stop at 7am.
It was posted as a 30 minute wait but it was really more like 5minutes. We got fastpasses first and then rode, we rode again right after. I had never seen this area so quite and not crowded. There was no line to get fastpasses the entire day. The fastpasses did not run out until almost 3pm on Friday.
We then ran over to Star Tours and had no wait again. We saw the line for Chewy so we decided to get in line and wait.
Our first picture with Chewy
Our Fastpasses for Toy Story mania were almost up and we were in line waiting so I decided to give it to a little boy and his mother. He was super cute and dressed like Yoda with green face paint and all!
We saw Chewy, Vader, Darth Maul, Luke, Commander Cody, Storm Troopers, Leia Minnie, Trooper Donald, Jedi Mickey, Queen Amidala, visited Characterpalooza, rode rockin' rollercoaster. We had heard all day that Darth's Mall was crazy busy so we decided to try for later in the night. When we went at 6pm it was totally dead and we were able to get a few exclusives from Star Wars Weekend including John's Chewy Lanyard that sold out on Saturday!
We left when it started to rain and decided to go to Downtown Disney. We did some shopping, ate at Earl of Sandwich, and enjoyed the night.
We went back to Pop and did some laundry and enjoyed the pool.
On Saturday we went to rope drop at Magic Kingdom. We meet the new Disney character from the new Movie Brave, went on Peter Pan, and Splash Mountain. We grabbed a fastpass for splash mountain, then ran over to peter pan (We were lucky enough for my friend Kerri to give us some fastpasses you can use anytime) so we walked right on, We then back tracked to Splash and then left the park.
Picture of the awesome present Kerri gave me!
We took the monorail over to Epcot and went on Soarin', also used a special fast pass. The fastpass was good for up to 5 people so we looked for a family of 3 to spread the Disney love with. This family walked up and were discussing how long the wait was and if they should grab a fastpass. You could tell they looked unsure of the whole process, I went over and asked if they want to ride with us. Their eye's lit up and they said "Sure!". We had a short wait were we discussed their trip and other must see things in Epcot. We went on the ride and we all had a blast! It was so great to share that experience with a Disney newbie family!
After we went for a cool down at the Coke Cool Station. We had never been there but have heard the horror stories of the "Beverly"! So I played a trick on John and made him take it like a shot!
It says it helps with digestion and he really did eat well that day! LOL
He he is pulling a Homer Simpson!
Here are the different flavors they have right now. I was upset that they didn't have the lemon soda from Mexico that I heard everyone raving about.
We then went to France where we had to try Orange Grand Marnier Slushie and Lemon Grey Goose Slushie! I have heard about these for years and I had to try both so we split. I really loved the Lemon Grey Goose but the Orange was very good as well.
We then walked to the ferry boat near the France Pavilion to take the ferry to Hollywood Studios. I have never used this route before but really enjoyed the down time and quite boat ride! I almost fell asleep!
When we arrived at Hollywood Studios for our second Star Wars day. We knew we needed to meet a few more characters and wanted to do some more rides.We first headed over to see Vader Goofy, Anakin Skywalker, Kit Fisto, and Shaak Ti. We had an advanced reservation at 50's Prime Time Diner. We always enjoy the crazy waiters and waitresses ad great food.
After we ate we went to ride rockin' roller coaster and waited to go into Fantasmic. We had never been and we were so glad we went. It was a great show! We went to the 10:30pm show and it was dead we had great seats and we got wet from all of the water!
To be continued for Monday and Sunday......
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