Monday 23 September

No rest for the wicked! After our late night at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party where we didn’t get to sleep until about 2 it was another action packed day today, this time at Hollywood Studios.

For quite a while this has been a mainly show-orientated park with rides kept to the minimum.  However all that changed recently with the opening of Toy Story Land which brought 2 new rides to the park (including Slinky Dog Dash – "He-e-e-e-ere we go"!). 

To follow this year was the much anticipated Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, with Disney giving the vague opening date of Fall/Autumn 2019.  When we were planning our trip we figured that we would be there too early to see the opening of this new ‘land’.  Then Disney brought the opening date forward to the end of August (well, for an opening of the land and one ride with the 2nd ride to open in December) so we were in. Hurrah!  Well, we were in as long as the queues for it didn’t reach the expected levels of 1 million-billion hours of waiting!

Our late night on Sunday meant that we didn’t get to Hollywood Studios for opening as we’d planned to.  Instead we made it there in time to do our first fastpass for Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster (the Aerosmith ride).  This is the only rollercoaster in WDW that goes upside down so it is on the slightly more intense list.  It also shoots you off at 60mph to start the ride – fun!  We had to queue for about 20 minutes but the standby line was horrendous at nearly an hour so thank goodness for the fastpass.

Hollywood Studios’ new fastpass policy is that you’re allowed 1 fastpass for a ride and then your other 2 pre-booked ones have to be for shows.  Therefore we had to use up our final 2 passes on shows.  Well, what better show to use it up on than Indiana Jones.  

On the way we went to meet Olaf (Andrew’s absolute favourite...or not!) for some warm hugs in the sunshine.  Then, as it was yet another hot, sunny day we went over to the Indiana Jones theatre to get some much needed aircon.

I won’t spoil the surprise for those of you that haven’t seen this show, but it’s great and still really popular with guests - lots of tricks, pyrotechnics, audience participation and laughs.  Cooled down, we had a bit of time to kill before our next reservation.  So we went back over to the Star Wars Launch Bay (which used to be the animation studios in the old days) to hang out with Chewbacca (squeal! – Catherine) and get some wookie hugs.

This also gave us our first experience of our photos being taken with the new photopass machines, rather than a photographer (don’t get me started on this – Catherine).  It did feel strange not having that interaction with a cast member taking the photos and hopefully this is a trick that Disney will realise is a negative for guests (in our opinion).

Now, when the opening date for Galaxy’s Edge was announced they held off on allowing reservations for the restaurants until August.  We’d managed to get a lunchtime drinks booking in Oga’s Cantina so that we could fully experience this.   It meant that we could also guarantee getting in to the land to see it, so not wishing to be late we decided it was time to get over to it.

Well, folks, it’s huuuuuuuge!  It’s also like a completely different world.  All of the cast members are in character, Chewbacca and Rey wander round and try to avoid the clutches of the patrolling storm troopers who challenge guests randomly & ensure they have pledged allegiance to the First Order.

We had a couple of photographs taken and tried to find our way to Oga’s but all the signs are in Batuu’s native language so it’s tricky.  Eventually we found it & joined the queue with other guests who had a reservation.  This also allowed us to get a look at the menu and also be briefed by a local on the etiquette of the cantina (basically, 90% of the cantina is standing room so make sure you don’t move from the spot we put you in or your server won’t find you!).

It seemed to take ages for our names to be called but eventually we were summoned in and shown to our spot (even if you’re standing you do get space at either the bar or high tables so you don’t have to hold your drink/snacks) and our server came & took our order for drinks.  Chris also ordered some cantina bar snacks for us to try.

You are limited to 2 drinks each due to the popularity of the location but our server didn’t rush us through at all.  It is a little bit cramped & you have to share your table with others but it adds to the atmosphere & it does feel like you’re in the films!  The drinks were interesting, from the fairly tame Jabba Juice to the more adventurous Fuzzy Tauntaun which does to your mouth what it says on the tin.

The snacks were basically air-fried vegetable slices with a dip very similar to the sauce in Saag Alloo for those of you that like a curry.  There was even a blue milk cocktail.  Once we’d got through our two drinks each we had to pay our bill, the most expensive drinks bill that we’ve ever paid but that’s Disney for you!  At least we can say we’ve done it once.   Chris got a blue milk to try which wasn’t bad.

Then it was back to the ‘real’ world, the Disney world, for our next fastpass for Frozen Ever After.  If you like panto and Frozen then this is your bag (Andrew really, really loves Frozen and slept through most of the show!).  However, having a fastpass for this really isn’t worth it as it basically means that you get to queue by the doors to the theatre for an extra half an hour with minimal air conditioning.  The little videos that they play in the holding area are amusing (the first time you watch them) but after the 3rd run it gets a bit tedious.

The show is great though, with gags for the kids and also jokes that go straight over their heads to the grown-ups.  It also means you can ‘let it go’ and have a good sing (although the very large lady who sat next to Catherine really didn’t appreciate her singing, just as Catherine didn’t appreciate being squashed by someone who wanted half of her seat in addition to the one allocated to her!).  Going to a frozen Arandelle also means fantastic aircon to cool you down.

While we’d been in the queue for Frozen Chris had managed to book a fastpass for Tower of Terror which the boys then went off & did while Catherine had a seat in the shade & then we had a spot of late lunch/early dinner from the pizza stall near the ride.  The pizzas are a decent size for the money & you get a cup of Caesar salad on the side.  Our plan had then been to see the new Cars show near Rock n Rollercoaster but it was down so we went over to Toy Story Land to queue up for Slinky Dog Dash.

Most of the queue for this is in the open air so it can get really hot.  The wait time was meant to be an hour but we were off the ride within that time & it’s as good as ever (hang on......here we go!!).  We then went to Alien Swirling Saucers next door as the wait time wasn’t too bad, or so we thought!

While we were queuing half of the ride went down so the line moved very, very slowly.  We persevered though and the ride did come back on stream so we could get on.  Not sure we’d do it again as it’s a bit jolty and although it’s similar to the teacups at Magic Kingdom in format you can’t control the saucer in any way (so the boys couldn’t attempt unconsciousness again from swirling).

Until the opening of Galaxy’s Edge the Toy Story Land only had 1 entry/exit point.  It now flows into one of the entrances to Batuu so isn’t as much of a bottleneck as it used to be.  The queue time for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was down to under an hour so back into Galaxy’s Edge to ride it.

The line is really engaging for this ride and moves well so it didn’t feel like we were waiting ages to get on.  Once inside a very realistic looking Millennium Falcon (it’s like being on the film set), you are allocated a cockpit (in groups of 6) and assigned a role of either pilots, gunners or engineers.  Andrew & Chris got pilots and Catherine was a gunner.  It’s a simulator ride but the experience very much depends on the quality of your pilots (bad pilots equal a very bumpy ride!).  It’s not one for the easily queasy but so much fun to blast through hyperspace like Han Solo & Chewie do in the films.

When we got out of the ride it was starting to drop dark so we stopped to get a coffee (or at least tried to, it seems they don’t do coffee in Batuu!).   We had to settle with water and Chris tried a green milk.  It was nice to sit and watch the world go by, with Storm troopers harassing passing babies in pushchairs to check their loyalty and then discussing whether they should get one as a pet.

Chris had booked the highlight of his trip, building a lightsaber, for 9pm so we killed a bit of time looking in the different shops and also the droid building workshop (where you could buy a replica R2-D2 for $25,000 – we passed on that one because, let’s face it, how would we get it home?!).  As Chris was only allowed to take 1 guest with him to build his saber, Andrew went with him & Catherine went back to Hollywood Boulevard to have a look in the shops.

With the lightsaber build a success we decided to end the night by watching the Star Wars projection & firework show in front of the Chinese theatre.  This is brilliant and we were really looking forward to it.  When we got there, a lot of the visitors were sitting down (strange, but it can be a long day & people like to rest their legs) but there was no show for another 10 minutes so we assumed that they would stand up when it started.  We stayed standing and then got heckled by a large group behind us telling us to sit down.  

As there was nothing to see yet we pointed out that they weren’t missing anything and that if everyone was still sitting when the show started we would sit down and not block their view.  They were very unpleasant in their response, calling us stupid and swearing at us (in front of their kids, classy!).  However, English clearly wasn’t their first language so we’re not certain they understood all that we’d said.

The show started & almost everyone in front of us stayed sitting down so we obliged and got mock clapped & cheered by the clan behind us.  However, the family a few rows ahead of us stood for the whole show so our view was really restricted.  This put a massive dampener on what had been a really great day.

Back at base, we decided after a couple of late nights t go a bot easier on things tomorrow.  It was meant to be Universal Studios but we switched things round to do that on Wednesday instead.

photos to come ....