I hear you about the cost of character meals and feeling like you need to eat a ton at the buffets to get some of your money's worth. I think that is pretty hard to do with the food so it kinda comes down to the character experience to determine if it is worth it too you. Glad to see you had good interaction with the characters - definitely think having one of the later ADR times helped. I had heard of some rather poor character experiences with that meal (like 2 sec pictures, no real interactions, etc.). Love the pictures with all of them together at the end
Glad things worked out with Fantasmic! it really is a great show and just so much "Disney" in one place. Haha, poor Ariel - even sadder as she is on a boat ... in water .... you'd think if trouble came from the fireworks a mermaid could just jump in the water
Wow, if Peter Pan is a walk on you know it is empty - that is great! Ugh, 2am to 5am, even without a calculator I can tell that is not much time for sleep
A millenium falcon glow cube!!!! Not only do I love the glow cubes, I also love Star Wars. So keep making SW themed glow cubes and I'll keep handing you my money, Disney.
I mean, come on people. If the question is 'best dresser' there is no other answer than Lando stylin' Calrissian.
Pocahontas' hair was looking a bit...different? Or is it just me?
I cannot say enough good things about the Obi Wan and Beyond show. It is hosted by James Arnold Taylor (also known as JAT), who is the host of SWW. He is a voice actor.... I could sit and listen to him for hours. We stumbled on his show last year at SWW and have loved him ever since. Last year when he was doing autographs I even got him to do my voicemail in his dramatic announcer voice.
We found one! SWW has a lot of roaming characters. I kind of don't like that, because it is almost like a full body contact sport to try to meet with these characters. They usually have a large crowd and their strategy is to meet one or two guests then they move on. So people follow behind them like lost puppies and you sometimes have to be somewhat aggressive to get these characters to notice you and/or stop.
I'm not sure how often he hears that he is the favorite so he got pretty excited and grabbed a lightsaber off his CM attendant. He decided to give me an impromptu lightsaber lesson.
Mickey was enamored by Chopper...but really, who isn't??
This was not a good eating night for me. When it is very hot outside, I'm not hungry at all.
Anyone else just feel the need at the shockingly priced disney character buffets to shovel the food in to try to get your money's worth?
Oh blue milk ice cream...I love thee so.
At the end of the night, the characters all line up for last minute pictures together.
Fantasmic is my favorite nighttime show at Disney. I love the characters and Fantasmic features many. I also love the music. I always think that the best Fantasmic strategy is to see the second showing if at all possible. Usually those are half empty and we can slowly make our way inside and still get great seats. I'm really thinking for our next trip I want to see it 2 or 3 times.
I also think the Fantasmic stage looks a lot like Admiral Ackbar's head.
Or is it just me?
Even though we were having an early morning the following day at SWW again, we made the choice to get on a MK bus! They were having extra magic hours until 2 am. Our gamble paid off! The park was super empty! Every single ride was basically a walk on or a 10 minute wait. So pro tip for everyone: if you are at Disney for a 24 hour day and MK has EMH the following day, go the following day!
I've said it before, but seriously....nothing better than the MK at night when it isn't crowded. Talk about magic, you can feel it in the air.
Looks like you got a well deserved night sleep and had a great time star wars-ing it up. The Warwick (? forgive me if I got it wrong) show sounds like a ton of fun. Sorry you weren't hungry for dinner, but at least ya got some blue ice cream out of it ; )
Yay! You're back!! I thought of you when they announced Star Wars Land at D23 and wondered what you thought about it.
I also had to (sadly) reschedule our September trip to February so no MNSSHP, but I'm hoping they'll have some of the easy to get ready Star Wars stuff for us to see as a consolation.
Well, I mostly liked the announcement. I have to say first, I feel like it will take them forever to build. I want it now, hahaha. Also, I am a little bit sad they seem to be basing everything off the new movies, I'd rather have some stuff from the original trilogy.
I definitely think there will be SW stuff for you in February. I think they'll have the preview center with a few characters open, and they said they'll have that Seasons of the Force early next year. No one is quite sure what that is...but maybe you'll get to see it!!
In order:
1) Scout Trooper (sometimes also called Biker Scouts)
2) Sandtroopers
3) The guy is Starkiller & the lady is Juno Eclipse from the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
That is interesting. I wonder how starkiller and eclipse were allowed to march. I thought WDW had banned most, if not all, of the now defunct EU characters.
I love your Star Wars day! It had everything! You were able to meet all the characters, and Warwick Davis!! Super cool! I remember him from Willow! What a great day you had! Your Rebel Hangar experience looked amazing as well! Did you see Chewie? I'm never trading with a Jawa again!!
I'm going to have to find out where character palooza is...my sister found one (obviously since she's a character-radar) but I was oblivious to them.
Great Update! Love the leggings BTW.
I concur on the original trilogy, but it's still going to be pretty cool. And it is going to take FOREVER to build. My kids will be in high school before it's done, I bet!
Since there's no sign of Fantasmic on the February schedule yet, I'm hoping that means Seasons of the Force will be happening. And it would be nice to have some different characters to meet. (Not that I've met any of them, of course, since this is my first trip since I was about 8 years old but you know what I mean.)
I'm gonna have to pretend I have any idea who any of those characters are and say I can't believe you met them ; ) Think I said it before, but Star Wars is lost on me but now my hubby wants to do the new star wars half marathon next year. I'm gonna have to study your TR so I have any clue what is happening ; )