Star Wars Weekends 2014 - Part 3

The Magic Kingdom has had a lot of changes made to it over the past several years what with all the construction that's been underway in creating New Fantasyland, an expansion of the existing Fantasyland section of the park. (There's still construction happening but it's at the front of the park near Cinderella's castle; the project there is geared towards adding more walkways so as to alleviate congestion as well as to give more room to spectators for viewing parades and fireworks.) The final piece of that effort is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster attraction, which we were able to ride even though the official opening date for it wasn't until May 28. If we're going to be guinea pigs, at least we were guinea pigs for Disney!

Truth be told, we weren't sure we were going to be able to ride the Mine Train. We got in line as soon as we entered the park because we didn't think FastPasses were available for it - low & behold, after we'd been in line about 30 minutes, FastPasses became available. (If you don't know what FastPasses are, please do your own research; the system is much too complex for me to quickly surmise here!) We quickly grabbed a pair of them for later in the afternoon. When we returned and entered the FastPass queue we got turned around because the ride had a malfunction and had to close. We were told to come back in about an hour and that our FastPasses would be honored at that time (Jill became immediately paranoid at this). Sure enough, about an hour and a half later, the ride re-opened and we were able to get on.

[SIDE NOTE: While we were waiting for the ride to re-open, we ventured over to Gaston's Pub to cool off with some of LeFou's Brew. No, it's not an alcoholic beverage, it's a frozen beverage made from apple juice that's topped with a passion fruit foam. The result looks kind of like a beer but of course it tastes nothing like it.

A lot of people compare LeFou's Brew to Butterbeer which is available at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter inside Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure park. Personally, I think Butterbeer is better as I love butterscotch and that's the primary flavoring behind Butterbeer. That's not to say LeFou's Brew is bad, though, as it was quite tasty & refreshing on what was an extremely hot day.

Speaking of heat, that is my one complaint with how New Fantasyland is arranged. There are almost no areas where someone can go to get some shade to try and cool off. There are few trees and what seating areas are available are either concrete made to resemble stone (meaning that sitting on them is like baking your tush on hot rocks) or too few & far between to give fair service to patrons.]

Jill & I both feel like we've watched this ride come up out of the dirt as we can remember when it wasn't much more than a hole in the ground. The area around the Mine Train is so intricately decorated that you truly lose track of the fact you're in a theme park. Disney does an amazing job of making their experiences immersive and this is another great example of the kind of work the Imagineers do.

I almost wish we had been in the standby line instead of the FastPass queue because there are interactive elements in the standby line to which the FastPass queue apparently doesn't get access. Even so, I think we waited in line about 20 minutes, tops, before we were on the ride.

I'm a bigger guy and I always have concerns about getting on rides like this because I have long legs and the lap bars won't conform to my anatomy. Case in point, I can't ride Space Mountain. I can get in the car but when the lap bar comes down it hits my knees and won't go any further. There are a few rides at Universal Studios Orlando I've hesitated to get on because they, unlike Disney, offer tester seats outside certain attractions so you don't waste your time waiting in line for a ride you may not be able to get on. The Mine Train presented a challenge to me because the lap bar is a U-shaped. The tips of the bar connect at the floor of the car then the restraint swings forward to hold you in place. Your knees/legs have to fit into the restraint and I had a real time forcing mine into the gap. (I had to squeeze my legs together as tightly as I could then pull down on the bar to get it in place.) It made for a very uncomfortable ride and the sides of my knees are sore as a result. I don't know why these ride vehicles can't be made larger. It boggles my mind that the designers seem to think most people are 5'6", weigh less than 200 lbs., and have rear-ends that are less than 18 inches wide.

My personal issues aside, the ride itself was fun but very short. The portion where you see the Dwarfs inside the mine seemed especially quick. By comparison, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Everest are at least twice as long as the Mine Train, so in terms of bang-for-your-buck I would say there are better rides out there. Regardless, it was quite cool to be able to partake in a brand new ride that wasn't even technically open.

The other big event of our day at the Magic Kingdom was Jill's visit to Princess Fairytale Hall to meet Anna & Elsa, characters from the hugely popular Disney animated film Frozen. Fairytale Hall is another relatively new addition to Fantasyland; the presentation therein is that guests are invited inside to meet any number of Disney princesses (or queens as is the case with Elsa). Anna & Elsa have been residents at Fairytale Hall for a number of months now and you need no further proof of their popularity than to look at the standby line wait times - it's not uncommon to see 300 minutes on the signage outside the attraction. I'm not sure if that means it's a legitimate 5 hour wait or if that's just as big of a number as the sign can display. We wouldn't have to worry about that, though, because we had FastPasses which Jill had booked several months (yes, months - they get snatched up that quickly) in advance.

The experience at Fairytale Hall is definitely geared towards those young at heart and Jill fits that bill. She and I are still kids even though we look grown up, and you need look no further than her reactions to getting to spend time with Anna & Elsa for proof of this.

And yes, she took a selfie with them as well (Anna & Elsa referred to it as an "us-sie")...

No, I didn't get my picture taken with them. Why? By that point in the day I probably smelled like the inside of a gym locker, and if I had gone to meet them I'd have probably spent the whole time pestering Elsa with questions about how she's way more powerful than anyone seems to realize.

We had dinner that evening at Tony's Restaurant, an Italian eatery taken directly out of Lady & the Tramp. I have to share with you that our waitress there (who was an Asian woman named Jing) did something I've never had any other member of the service industry do. I ordered the New York strip and asked that it be cooked medium as I like a warm, pink center on my steaks. A member of the kitchen staff delivered our food and our waitress arrived not long thereafter but before I'd had a chance to cut into the steak. She looked directly at my steak and I could tell by her expression that something was wrong. She said that the steak had been butterflied to speed cooking and that it was more than likely overdone. This was the plate in question.

I am not one to send food back unless there's something clearly wrong. To her credit, she was 100% correct in her statement as the steak was overcooked (not horribly so, mind you, just more than I would've preferred). I allowed her to take it back as she wanted us to have the best experience possible. The second steak she brought out could not have been more perfect.

The meat was tender, succulent, and juicy. The herb butter it was basted with added to the flavor but the beef was still the real star of this show. I haven't had many steaks in my life that could top this one and I have eaten a LOT of steak in my day. It goes without saying, though, that I greatly appreciated our waitress's effort. She is a shining example of what a top quality server should be and I felt privileged to have had her assistance.

We finished off our meal by sharing two deserts, the chef's special cheesecake (the plate was adorned with an image of Lady & the Tramp made from powdered cocoa) and tiramisu.

By this point in the day the weather had started to sour, not only with rain but with thunder & lightning. Instead of trying to wait out the storm to try and get a few more rides in (it was in the area of 9 PM but the Magic Kingdom typically doesn't close until at least 1 AM) we spent some time wandering through the shops along Main Street. Inside the Crystal Arts Shop, we found an example of hidden things there are to do and see around the Magic Kingdom (and all the Disney parks, for that matter) in the form of an artist who was giving a demonstration on glass blowing. In less than 30 minutes, he completed a Frozen-themed vase from nothing more than raw materials right before our very eyes.

The ride back to our hotel that evening was a little sad, truth be told. That's the disappointing thing about vacations, at some point they come to an end. The reality of the matter just hurts a little more when it's a Disney vacation that's ending, I guess. We made the long drive back home the next day.

So much of what makes Disney appealing, to me, is the fine details. The little things that add so much to whatever it is you're being a part of in the moment. When a Make a Wish child is allowed to go to the front of every line. When a waitress goes out of her way to make sure your experience is memorable. When Minnie Mouse leans in to give you a kiss and you can hear a smooch sound come from the character. Okay, I admit that last one's a little creepy but you get the idea. There aren't many other companies that go to the lengths that Disney does to make magical memories for their customers - I, for one, am a huge fan of how they do business and I can't say enough about how amazing this trip was. It was too short, that's for sure, as Jill & I both have said to each other in the days since we returned "When are we going back?"

I don't know but I'd bet it will be sooner than later.

Star Wars Weekends 2014 - Part 2

Unfortunately for us, our neighbors in the hotel weren't all that kind in maintaining a quiet atmosphere. We could hear children running and yelling outside (this shouldn't have come as a surprise since the Magic Kingdom was open for 24 hours that day) and it sounded as if there was a baby crying in one of the adjacent rooms. I know we were both up until at least midnight and I was up at several points during the night. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that I ever got into a deep sleep. I knew it would make things tough on us the next day since our wake-up call was at 6 AM, but we were going to make the best of it regardless.

One of the best things about staying on property at the Walt Disney World Resort is that as a guest you're provided with transportation all around the resort. You have access to buses, the monorail, boats, and probably other methods of conveyance I don't know about. Point is, you never have issues getting from where you are to where you want to be. The buses typically run on a schedule to where you can expect to see one roughly every 20 minutes.

Maybe it was just my anticipation of wanting to get to Hollywood Studios as early as possible, but on the morning of May 24 it felt like they were running more than a little late. We were in line outside the hotel by 6:45 AM; I believe the bus arrived near 7:15 AM and we were dropped off around 7:40 AM. By the time we got there a sizable crowd had already gathered at the front gate, however it wasn't as huge of a crowd as I'd expected. Again it seemed like it took forever for us to get through admissions - I take the blame for that as I picked the ticketing lane we got into. Fortunately we were inside the park for the first treat of the day, "Storm the Gates"!

We immediately headed for Pixar Place so that we could get in line for Toy Story Midway Mania. If you didn't know, TSMM is arguably the most popular ride in any of the Walt Disney World parks. It's not unusual to see wait times for it upwards of 90 minutes. We had a FastPass for the ride later in the day but we wanted to get on it first thing so we could do it twice. I think we may have waited 10 minutes, tops, which boggles my mind.

Next we went to Darth's Mall (Get it? Darth Maul - Darth's Mall?), a pop-up shopping mall filled with - you guessed it - Star Wars merchandise. You'll find apparel, toys, and plenty of accessories therein, most of which was emblazoned with either the SWW logo or the logo for the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels animated show. There is a character meet & greet area in Darth's Mall and we were able to spend time with Darth Goofy as well as Jedi Mickey and Princess Minnie. Also in Darth's Mall is Ackbar's Snack Bar (as in Admiral Ackbar), an eatery offering themed beverages & snacks. This year the hot item was a Storm Trooper stein, which they were sold out of when we were there. They also had popcorn buckets shaped like Darth Vader's helmet, churros, cupcakes, frozen beverages, and a pair of specialty drinks called the Dark Side and the Force which could be served with or without alcohol. Not only was it too early for vodka and rum, it was also much too hot which is why we sampled the non-alcoholic versions.

Both were quite refreshing but I enjoyed the Force more so than the Dark Side. (Side Note: The Dark Side came with a glowing Death Star "ice cube" and the Force came with a light-up lightsaber.) I can't say that they paired too well with our cupcakes, however I will say that the Vader cupcake was amazing. It was like a German chocolate cupcake with a combination of chocolate and peanut butter flavored toppings.

The great thing about SWW is that there's a lot going on throughout the day, and yet the horrible thing about SWW is that there's almost too much going on throughout the day. What I mean by that is it felt like we were running from one area of the park to another for the rest of the day so that we could try to make it to certain events. The scorching heat only made matters worse (local news outlets were reporting that the days we were in Orlando were the warmest they've seen so far in 2014). I don't believe I've perspired as much as I did that day in a very long time. To Disney's credit, there are water fountains everywhere and park guests can bring canteens in from outside (which we always do), so they have obviously realized they have an obligation to protect their customers from heat-related injuries by offering water.

We rode a several more rides (Star Tours, The Great Movie Ride, and the Tower of Terror) and saw a special preview of the upcoming film Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. We didn't get to some of my favorites like the Back Lot Tour, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, or Lights, Motors, Action, but we definitely had a full day. There were an assortment of meet & greet spots set up throughout the park so that fans could interact with a number of characters including Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Storm Troopers, Clone Troopers, and more. My favorite moment of the day, though, was getting to see Stars of the Saga, a live variety show of sorts hosted by James Arnold Taylor (the voice actor who gave life to Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Clone Wars animated series) and featuring appearances by Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and Warwick Davis (Wicket).

We waited in line for almost 90 minutes to be assured that we'd get a seat in the theater for Stars of the Saga and I'm glad that we did. It's a one of a kind show and those three made for a very entertaining combination of personalities.

For supper that evening we dined at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is a real hoot of a dining experience I'd recommend to anyone who might visit Hollywood Studios. The gimmick is that the interior dining rooms are all decorated to resemble kitchens or diners from the 1950s. The staff take things further by addressing everyone as "you kids", the kitchen staff are collectively known as "Mom", and you better eat your vegetables and keep your elbows off the table else you won't get any desert. Jill & I started off our meal with an order of beer battered onion rings served with horseradish sauce. (I've noticed the kitchens at Disney use horseradish regularly; you won't find any complaints from me about that as I love the flavor.) We both selected the Mom's Favorite Recipes sampler as our main course. It comes with fried chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans, and collard greens.

I don't eat fried chicken often (all the KFCs in our area closed last year, believe it or not) but that there was some of the best fried chicken I've ever had!

Our day at Hollywood Studios ended with the Symphony in the Stars fireworks show and a ride on the Tower of Terror. I get a kick out of that ride regardless of what time of day I ride it but it's especially awesome at night. (PRO-TIP: If you want to feel what it's like to free fall, leave a little bit of slack in your seat belt.) I think Rod Serling would be impressed with it.

Speaking of impressions, I can't say enough about how much fun the whole day was there at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. It would've been nice to have had more than one day there to get the full experience of all there is to do at the park normally plus all there is during SWW. That's as good of a review as I guess anyone can give of something like this - to emphasize that it would've been great to have been able to stay longer.

Trust me when I say we didn't have any issues sleeping that night. We took luke-warm showers to wash off the grime of the day (a rather grotesque mixture of sweat residue, body oils, and sunblock) and I'm fairly certain we were both asleep by the time our heads hit our pillows. Good thing, too, because we had another busy day ahead of us, this time at the Magic Kingdom.

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES IN PART 3!

Star Wars Weekends 2014 - Part 1

Like most people who grew up in the 80s, I am a huge fan of Star Wars. I had the toys when I was a kid, I still have replica armor from the various classes of Imperial troopers, and I have multiple copies of the movies - you know, because there was that awkward moment in time where George Lucas thought he should go back and "improve" the original trilogy. I've been to a few fan conventions in my life but one event that I've always wanted to attend yet never had the opportunity to get to is Star Wars Weekends, an annual month-long celebration of all things Star Wars running from mid-May to mid-June held at Disney's Hollywood Studios located in the Walt Disney World Resort.

SWW has been something I've wanted to check out for a very long time. It's Disney and it's Star Wars, who wouldn't want to be a part of that? The event was first held back in 1997, way before LucasFilm was sold to Walt Disney (it was not held in 2002 but has been ever since 2003). Hollywood Studios was the natural choice to host SWW seeing as how the park features a Star Wars-themed ride called Star Tours which has been in operation almost as long as the park itself (the original version of Star Tours was taken offline in 2010 so that it could be updated; the ride re-opened with its current configuration roughly half way through 2011) and the park also hosts the Jedi Academy, an interactive live show where young prospective Padawans can train with a Jedi Master. There have been rumors that Star Wars' presence at Hollywood Studios could expand even further in the future but whether or not that will ever come to fruition remains to be seen.

A few months ago, my loving wife caught me off guard when she hatched a plan for us to make a trip to Walt Disney World on Memorial Day weekend during the 2014 edition of SWW. Suffice to say, I was surprised - when someone does something for you because they love you is the best kind of surprise.

We've become seasoned veterans as it pertains to making trips to Walt Disney World (see my previous entry "10 Things That Will Help You Survive a Walt Disney World Vacation"), and we were both looking forward to spending more time in the Mouse's House. This would be a shorter trip than our previous visits, though, with only 2 full days at the Disney theme parks. We anticipated that this trip would be a whirlwind of an adventure, packed to the gills with memories, and that's exactly what we got!

Having packed the car, we departed from our base of operations in Saint Matthews, South Carolina after work on the evening of May 22. Jill was behind the wheel, I had shotgun. We got hungry not long after we crossed over into Georgia so we stopped in Pooler, GA for a bite to eat. We didn't intend to go there but we wound up chowing down at a pizzeria called Stevi B's, which is a chain neither of us had ever heard of. It's like Pizza Inn or Cici's Pizza in that there's a buffet but you can also request a custom-made pizza or order one of their specialty pizzas. I don't know that we'll be near one of their locations again any time soon but the hot wing pizza is enough to make me want to return.

To split up the drive into more manageable segments whenever we make this trip we've gotten into a habit of stopping in Kingsland, Georgia, a town that is literally half way between our home and our destination in Orlando, Florida. We've stayed in a number of hotels in Kingsland and for this occasion we'd booked a room at the Red Roof Inn.

I don't know what it is about staying in hotels but it's something I enjoy for whatever reason. Maybe it's because I feel like I don't have to worry about messes we may make or that it reminds me of sleeping over with friends. This particular Red Roof Inn was perfectly adequate - no frills but it presented all we needed for an overnight stay while on the road.

We awoke Friday morning and went down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. (There was a Shoney's in Kingsland, which we ate at on one of our first stops there, but for whatever reason it has closed.) Freebies are never easy to turn down, even on something that can be a toss up like a continental breakfasts; sometimes you luck up and get a selection of hot items with proteins, then sometimes you feel lucky because you got the last box of Fruit Loops. That morning we had your typical continental affair, that being a ton of carbohydrates. I had a waffle and a bagel while Jill had cereal (much to her chagrin, there was no fresh fruit to be had). We choked down our food with what little bit of juice & milk was available as the coffee maker had gone kaput at some point during the morning (truth be told, I'd made a cup of black sludge that passed for coffee using our in-room coffee maker while Jill was getting ready). Several patrons complained and the staffer at the front desk didn't seem to know what to do.

In the days since we've returned from this trip, I received an email from Red Roof Inn with a link to a survey asking for my input on our experience. I relayed what happened with the coffee maker and also suggested that it would be great if they offered a wider selection at breakfast beyond various types of bread. This was the response that I received.

I don't know quite what to make of that other than I am almost certain whoever wrote it doesn't have English as their first language.

With our bellies full of dough, we returned to the interstate, heading south on I-95. We weren't on the road for long, though, as Kingsland is only a few miles from the Florida state line. You can't enter Florida without making a stop at their welcome center because they offer free samples of fresh orange and grapefruit juice. I don't drink grapefruit juice that often but I always get a cup when I'm there - I love that sweet, tangy, peppery flavor.

Jacksonville can be a tricky area to get through and I expected it to be especially so seeing as how we were traveling on a holiday weekend but it wasn't all that bad aside from a few construction zones. Construction was an issue as we got onto I-4 past Daytona as well. It seems as though that stretch of road has been a construction zone for several years, though, and likely will continue to be for several more from the look of the terrain.

For us, driving to Orlando could be summed up like this: Drive south for 4 and a half hours then turn west and drive for 2 and a half more. That's really all the route is until you get close to where we were going, in this case the Pop Century Resort.

[SIDE NOTE: When last we were at Walt Disney World, we stayed at the All-Star Sports Resort. The food court at the hotel was undergoing refurbishment while we were there so we would go to breakfast at either the All-Star Movies or All-Star Music Resort. It was during this stay that my wife developed an affinity for Minute Maid Lite Pomegranate Lemonade. Apparently this is a product that's made exclusively for the Disney parks as you can't find it anywhere else. Trust me, we looked! As such, my wife had a plan to get herself a stash of it when we returned - the plan involved a sanitized gallon milk jug and some skillful pouring. Unfortunately it turned out that the Pop Century food court did not have the drink on tap at their soda fountains. Such is life, but I have a feeling whenever we book our next trip we'll be back at one of the All-Star resorts.]

We arrived at the hotel around 1:30 PM. This would be our second stay at Pop Century, a hotel that is classified as a value resort by Disney standards. That may make it sound cheap but believe me when I tell you that a cheap Disney hotel is nicer than most any hotel you will ever stay in. The rooms aren't palatial and there's no mini-bar but the beds are comfortable, the air conditioning works great, and the showers are hot. What more do you really need from a hotel, especially when you're only going to be in your room long enough to sleep and bathe?

Not our room but an example of one at Pop Century

After we got checked in (a process during which we managed to witness a patron get into an argument with a member of the concierge staff and I unwittingly gave a stiff hip check to a 7 year old resulting in bar-b-que sauce on my pants), we dropped off our stuff in our room then went over to the Blizzard Beach water park to play a round of miniature golf at Winter Summerland, where Santa & his elves go to get away from the chill of the North Pole. We played the Winter course and, somewhat unsurprisingly and despite my having hit several holes in one, Jill won.

We came back to our room to freshen up a bit after our golf outing as we didn't have much time until our dinner reservation was due. This night we would be dining at Raglan Road, an Irish pub and restaurant in Downtown Disney. I got a real kick out of the experience at Raglan Road as it is definitely a scene where a party could break out at any moment, although I will say that if you want to have a quiet evening with the one you love this probably isn't the place to go. Between the music, dancers, and crowd the noise inside was just this side of deafening. Be that as it may, the food and drinks were fantastic. We started off with an appetizer that could've been a main course, a combination they call Appetizers D'Lirrah - sausages, fried scallops, wings, and ribs. For her dinner Jill chose the Mighty Mixed Grill, a platter loaded with several different meats and mashed potatoes. I had the braised beef, which was similar to traditional pot roast only this was so much more tender than any pot roast I've ever had. It was served with roasted carrots & parsnips and a big dollop of horseradish mashed potatoes (my new favorite kind of mashed potatoes). Finishing up the meal with desert (as if we needed more to eat by that point), we each ordered a unique dish so that we could share and each get a taste of something different. (This became a trend at supper over the next few days.) Jill ordered the Ger's bread pudding and I had Dundon's Delight, a pavlova with raspberries and vanilla ice cream. The bread pudding was amazing - like eating a bowl of sweet, buttery fresh bread - and the Delight was great even though I had no idea what it was when it was brought to our table (good thing I like meringue).

When we were done eating we wandered through the gift shop where we picked up a Raglan Road magnet and a print of the Truesdale family coat of arms. It was too cool looking not to bring home. The shops at Downtown Disney are nice but they were extremely crowded that evening and we needed to get some rest - for in the morning we would have to be up bright & early so that we could be at Disney's Hollywood Studios!

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES IN PART 2!