Day 17: Early morning!
Yesterday I decided to set my alarm at 5:30am. Yes you read that right, and know I don’t really like it anymore. But let’s just continue with the plan I’m awake now anyways.
At 5:55am I’m in the car towards Disney’s Hollywood Studio’s to score a boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This a is a brand new ride, open since just over a month and apparently the best theme-park ride in the world at this moment.
But why wake up and what is a Boarding Pass you might think? A Boarding Pass is a virtual ticket from a virtual queue system. To get a boarding pass you need to be inside the park, this is known the moment you use your ticket or magic and to enter the park. The park opens before it’s official opening time of 7:00am but the distribution of boarding passes starts only at 7:00am the parks official opening time. To get a virtual boarding pass you need to use the app or stand in line with guest experience. And then cross your fingers to be within the first 96 boarding passes as only these are guaranteed access.
I parked my car at 6:10am, entered the park at 6:15am found a nice spot to sit a bit covered the wind. Here I finished writing yesterday’s blog before it was 7:00am. At 6:59 I was fully prepared and less then a Minute later I got boarding group number 16. People around me got way higher numbers and a couple even got backup boarding group numbers (97 and up).
Now that I had my boarding pass with a low number and the park officially opened I followed the crowds into Galaxy’s Edge on the planet Batuu, also known as Star Wars Land.
What an unbelievable detail, it really looked like being somewhere else. I decided to directly step into the line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, the other new ride in Galaxy’s Edge.
At 7:30 I stepped out the ride again, I was the right pilot and we actually made it to our target location. Beautifully done, from the queue to the exit of the ride everything is very detailed with many interactive elements. I loved it.
After the ride I walked around a bit and got a Photopass picture taken.
Now I started to feel a bit hungry after all this excitement, but I was also completely disoriented in this land. I went for Mobile Ordering in Ronto Roasters, the Ronto Wrap. Delicious.
The moment I finished the wrap, a notification came in. It was 8:06am and it was time for Boarding Group 16, my group. Way earlier as I thought actually.
And I won’t put any ride spoilers in this post but it was amazing. I had only seen one picture so far, so most of it was a surprise. And I fully agree with the reviews, it’s the best ride I’ve ever been on. It’s also more an experience as a just a ride. Disney is just great at story telling. Too bad I can only ride it once.
I took one more Photopass before I left the park to pick up Daniëlle and Emily. But not before I got Daniëlle a Flat White from the Starbucks inside the Target besides our resort.
I got “home” around 10:15 and at 11:30 we got back to the park for some more excitement. First stop was the Disney Junior area where Emily met with Pluto an Vampirina.
Next stop was Mike & Sully’s meet and greet. Before we got something for lunch at the ABC Commissary.
When our lunch was finished we continued with out Fastpass+ for the Voyage of The Little Mermaid, a musical. Before we got inside the heather we found a cool sweater for Emily: “I speak fluently Disney”.
After the musical we went by Mickey and Minnie Mouse for some pictures in their Red Carpet outfits.
Time for our second Fastpass+ of the day, Toy Story Mania. Emily loved this Shootings ride, this time I had the highest score among us with 158600 points.
We know walked through Galaxy’s Edge. The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run had a wait time from just 40 minutes and a single rider line, Daniëlle needed to take this opportunity. She got to be engineer and nailed itu with a 100% score (pirate).
Emily and I tried out a restroom on Batuu and they work the same, lucky us. Then I decided that we should try Star Tours, another 4D simulator ride.
I was a bit scared that Emily would not like it and would start to scream/cry. But she actually like it a little bit, the part she didn’t like was that where we went underwater.
We went to meet Doc McStuffins next, and we also found the stroller we parked here earlier again. Daniëlle joined us here too.
We went to the Starbucks and here we decided to fly to the International Gateway with the Skyliner, the second entrance to Epcot. During the ride we talked about going to Canada in Epcot’s World showcase to see the new film.
When we entered the park we walked directly into Mickey Mouse and a couple steps later Goofy.
Then we quickly went to Canada to watch the new movie, and back again to the Skyliner station. A very short visit to Epcot, just to make sure we’d be back in the Studios for Fantasmic on time. We easily made it back and shared Chicken Nuggets and frites at Rosie’s All-American Café.
At 7:25 we walked into the Amphitheater. We picked seats close to the exit to make sure we could get back to the car quickly after the show. Emily loved it, her highlight was seeing Moana in board of the ship at the end of this fabulous nighttime entertainment show.
The show ended close to 8:30pm, and we made it back to our Airbnb by 8:56pm. Emily fell a sleep during the ride but woke up again while we put her PJs on.
And at 11:15pm I’m really exhausted now and decided to upload the blog tomorrow morning as I still need to add pictures but I can’t keep my eyes open.
Soon we go again…
Last May we where on the Disney Dream cruising in the Bahamas. We loved it a lot and as you might remember we booked a placeholder on board, this means you get a discount on a future cruise next 2-years. Before we got home from our last vacation we found a very nice cruise on for later this year.
After a couple of weeks we booked the 7-Night Halloween on the High Seas Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral and we will celebrate Halloween on board! And today it’s just 8 weeks until we are sailing away for an itinerary taking us to Cozumel in Mexico, Falmouth in Jamaica, Georgetown on Grand Cayman in Cayman Islands and not to forget Castaway Cay!
We’ll be cruising on the Disney Fantasy, the sister ship from the Disney Dream. Funny enough this is not the first time we will see this cruise ship as we were on a city trip in New York the day the Fantasy for its christening. The first picture we took from the top of the Empire State Building while it was sailing in to port. The second picture we took a couple of days later when it was actually docked.
But before we sail away we fly to Orlando from Pearson a day before to stay in a Walt Disney World Resort for the first time ever. After we land we will take the Magical Express to Port Orleans French Quarter. Here we will stay one night till the Disney Cruise Line bus will pick us up and drive is to the port to embark the Fantasy. After we disembark we’ll be taking a the Disney Cruise Line bus back to the Airport where we’ll be renting a car from SIXT for the last part of this vacation.
This time we did not rent a villa but a townhouse in Windsor Hills a gated community very close to Walt Disney Resort. The house has a private pool and the resort itself has a lot of interesting amenities including a huge zero entrance pool, that’s what Emily likes a pool she can just walk in…
We can’t wait to get back to the magic of Disney and see how much the experience with Emily is different this time.