Silver Anniversary Trip, Day 11

[spencem]

Wednesday, January 22nd, we rise for the resistance.

OK, so the 5am alarm was not at all welcome, nor was finding the temperature was just below freezing when we headed out to the car at 5:55, but at least the wind meant there was no frost on the car windscreen. Heading over to Hollywood Studios we found ourselves in a traffic jam. At first we feared it was to get into the park, but soon realised it was actually cast members heading to work in Epcot, who’s back entrance was on our route. We were soon parked up and past security where they had every table in use.


Taken at 06:20 as we headed for the far right hand side queues to get in the park.

The queues started moving at about 6:30 and it didn’t take that long to get in the park, despite there seeming to be issues with the tapstlie we were stood behind.


Odd to be taking night shots in the morning.


Nothing was open yet, but it was all lit up.

There were announcements being made about how to join a Boarding Group and at what time. They also made announcements that Slinky Dog was not going to open with the park because of the cold. Despite this we headed over toward Toy Story Land to try and get an early ride on Toy Story itself.


The sky was beginning to brighten, but the moon was still shining.

There was a line of cast members across the path to Toy Story Land holding the crowd back, these were also telling people Slinky was late getting out of bed today. They never confirmed, but this would almost certainly have been because of the cold. Coaster have minimum track temperatures that they need to reach before their testing is valid. I’ve had problems with cold tracks before, but never in Florida.

As we got closer to the 7am park opening time you could feel the tension build as everyone stared at their phones and MDE. Brian hadn’t got the app loaded, but Sandra did and so we had her connected to the park Wi-Fi while Julia and I being on Three had our Wi-Fi turned off. As we got to 7am the constant refreshing started until a few seconds later Julia shouted she had the button active. We then very quickly had the 4 of us into group 36. With such a low boarding group we expected to be called to ride by mid-morning at least.


The magic message.


Others around us were also shouting out in triumph and a much happier crowd began to move toward the land’s attractions.

When we got to the ride it was showing a 20minute wait, so Julia rode the ECV into the queue rather than park as she does when we ride on a FastPass. It might have been showing 20minutes, but we basically didn’t even slow down walking until after Mr Potato Head.


He was only just starting his routine.

Because of the ECV we were directed down to the ‘new’ track 3 as there are no stairs that way. I know it is not really new anymore, but this was the first time we’d ridden it.


Sandra found her consultant’s advert.


There’s only one track down this way, so a smaller station.

I’ve not got a record of the scores, so they can’t have been anything special. Once back we took the long walk back out of the ride and then the even longer walk back to the land. Seriously this must be the longest attraction walk out in any park, it’s even longer than the one from Soarin’.

We took a look at MDE and were a little disturbed to see that there was no one being called to Rise of the Resistance yet. The other thing we saw was that every ride now had a long queue, all of the headliners were over an hour already. One of the problems with the current boarding group system is that the park is instantly full at opening time. Until now getting to the park early would have seen you able to get on most of the rides with very little wait until later in the morning. Sadly, at Hollywood Studios this strategy no longer works, indeed we noticed queue times now actually go down as the day moves on. For instance, I think Smugglers run was nearly two hours just before 8am but was down to 40 minutes by late afternoon.

We wanted to get some breakfast, but due to the cold wanted to eat indoors. The only place open that was indoors was Docking Bay 7 and Julia wouldn’t eat anything there. We stopped at the Guest Experience Team on the way back to the central courtyard and they confirmed that there was nowhere else inside to eat until ABC opened at 11 o’clock. We decided to get a return time for Tower of Terror and then head out of the park to eat.

Now, a quick aside while a bathroom break was taken to explain the next photo. My sister, bless her, is prone to start talking about one thing and then suddenly change the subject completely as some strange connection is made in her mind. You can be having a conversation about FastPasses in Animal Kingdom when she’ll suddenly say something like “They’ve completely changed the flavour of that thingy”. Animal Kingdom has reminded her about Rivers of Light, which connected to Fantasmic, which connected to Mickey, which connected to a new desert in Chef Mickey’s. Anyway, when she does this I’ve started saying “SQUIREL” loudly, in homage to Doug the dog in Up who will also be talking about something and then stop when he sees a squirrel.


SQUIREL! Now I have picture to show as well when Sandra goes off on an amazing tangent.


We carried on down to Sunset Boulevard.


We found a photographer on the way.


Standby was an hour, or we would have ridden anyway.


We found another photographer on the way back for a group shot.


And a magic shot.

There was still no sign of anyone riding Rise of the Resistance, if you go into the app you can see what groups are currently boarding. It did briefly show groups 10-12 at about 8am and so we’d thought the ride was just late opening. We decided that we’d have plenty of time for some breakfast and so headed over to the Skyliner station though the now very quite entrance area. On the way we also cancelled the first of our planned FastPasses in Magic Kingdom, we left the other two, hoping we’d still make our lunchtime ADR at Be Our Guest.


They made a great job of the theming on the station.

I wanted to go and see what was available in the way of cupcakes at Art of Animation or Pop Century. The problem was I couldn’t remember which of the two resorts has the reputation for having the great selection. We settled on Art of Animation and headed there. We never did find any cupcakes, but then realised they probably weren’t out anyway for breakfast at either resort. I think Julia just had some cereal and a tea, while I had some berry pancakes which were far too large to finish.

We kept our eye on the app, but no other boarding groups were called. In fact, at some point it just went back to the default look, with no boarding groups showing. We talked about what to do, with Julia wanting to go back to the resort to get warm and have a nap while Sandra and I pointed out the ride could open at any moment and we’d soon be called to board. In the end we decided to return to the park.


The Big Blue Pool looked lovely, but unsurprisingly was completely empty.


It might have been cold, but the sky and water both were amazingly blue.


The views on this line are not amazing.

We all enjoyed our flights on the Skyliner and would happily use it again. I’m sure it will add to the value of the two value resorts it links to the parks. We didn’t wait very long at all on either leg, but with the disabled cabins only departing every 90 seconds at best I can see it could be slow at peak times.


We were back in the park about 10:30.

The first thing we wanted to do was to use that return time for Tower of Terror. Well, I say we all wanted to use it, but Brian changed his mind and didn’t want to ride so soon after eating so he just walked the line with us and then took the chicken exit. It always amuses me that the chicken exit for this ride is an elevator. I hope there is a flight of stairs somewhere as well for those too traumatised for the elevator?


Waiting for our ride.


Julia forgot to change her glasses, as normal.

There was still no sign of anything happening over in Galaxy’s Edge and so we started a run of indoor attractions to keep ourselves out of the cold as much as possible. Despite the bright sunshine the temperature hadn’t climbed very much at all and was still very much in single digits. I suggested we start with a new attraction to us, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy as it was next door.


Have they changed the car, or just re-painted it? I’m sure it used to be pink.

I did have a look at the single rider line for Rock’n’Roller Coaster on the way past as I’d be the only one riding, but it was out the door and so didn’t bother. Luckily there were only a couple of minutes wait before they started loading the next Lightning show.


The theatre looks great.


The animatronic is amazing to see.

We all enjoyed the show, I’m not sure that I’d rush back especially but I’d certainly watch it again. There was still no sign of boarding so we cancelled our other FastPasses in Magic Kingdom and the Be Our Guest ADR. Our next indoor attraction was to be Voyage of the Little Mermaid.


I’m sure this is set in a warm sea somewhere.


The walk-in state is quite good here.

This is a great show, with some lovely effects and scenery. We all enjoyed it and would happily return. The next indoor activity we could think of was the Star Wars Launch Bay and so we headed over to get a warm seat there. We watched the film show and then had a poke around the models and the gift shop.


Thankfully Julia already had her droid, I’m not sure how I’d have got this one home or indeed pay for it.


Sadly we don’t have room to display this one.

It was about 1pm now and Julia wanted her lunch, the rest of us weren’t too bothered having had far too much breakfast and just had a snack while Julia had another chicken sandwich in ABC. We also saw that there was some movement over at Galaxy’s edge at last, only 6 hours after park opening. We were told later that the ride didn’t like the cold morning. As we said Disney would have spent millions on cooling systems for it, but probably not so much on heating.


As close as we got to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Train.

Lunch didn’t take long as we used mobile order again to bypass the huge queues for the registers. Boarding still seemed to be progressing nicely and we worked out we probably had time for a quick trip to see the Muppets 3D before our group 36 got called.


There was of course a restroom break before the show, the name made me chuckle and take this picture.


Miss Piggy must have been frozen in the spray.


These two never get old.

I must have seen this show dozens of times and yet it still makes me laugh. It’s one of the best 3D shows, despite being the oldest I think? As it finished we saw they were now calling groups into the thirties and so it was time to head into Galaxy’s Edge.


I WhatsApped this to our office manager saying I’d found a particularly annoying customer’s US office, she quickly replied that there were nowhere near enough Muppets for it to be so.

Continued Below

[spencem]

As we entered Galaxy’s Edge it just started to spit with rain a little, which caused us some nervousness as the stroller parking is not under cover. In the end we decided it would be ok and took the risk. Happily, the shower was a light one and also cleared away quickly.


Our boarding group was called at 10 minutes to 3.


The outside queue is quite lush already.


The inside queue is beautifully done.


I’ve often wondered how these plot boards are supposed to show 3D space.

As we got nearer the front of the queue it started to move quicker and quicker until suddenly we were being waved straight through the briefing room and outside. I thought this was a bit odd, thinking “I’m sure we have stopped there and seen BB8 and Rey”. When we were ushered away from the troop transport and into what was obviously a backstage corridor I knew something was properly wrong. The next thing we saw was the hanger deck, entering through a normal door to the left but we were being ushered through there quickly as well.


Just time for some pictures on the run.


I let the rest of the group go in front to try and get an empty room shot.

We found a queue in the corridor and made our way slowly to the prison deck. Here there were a group of Disney managers having a chat in the middle of the room, which rather took away from the theming.


These animatronics are great, such subtle movements.

When we got put in our groups on the colours and were awaiting our cells our guard was walking up and down the line being his usual sarcastic self when he noticed my anniversary badge. Having just witnessed him telling the person opposite off as if they were a particularly slow child for standing next to his colour rather than on it I knew we were in for some fun.
He opened with a haughty “It is your anniversary? With whom?”
I took a step sideways revealing Julia cowering behind me and said “Her”.
He gave a gasp and jumped backwards exclaiming “Where did you come from?”
He then looked us up and down before asking me “Who’s idea was this union?”
When I told him it was Julia’s idea he simply replied with “My condolences” before moving on to bark at another group.
All of the cast members we found playing First Order guards were excellent, but this one stood out. I wished I had got his name to let guest services know how well he was playing his part.

The rest of the ride went how it should and was absolutely incredible, the interrogation screen is stunning, the trackless cars move really well, the physical sets huge and so detailed, the shooting effects are amazing and the Kylo Ren animatronics the best I’ve ever seen.

As soon as we got back I said to the others that we’d missed a huge chunk of the ride out. Both Sandra and I went to speak to cast members and mine straight away said yes, they were aware and offered to send us straight back in via the FastPass line as the first half of the ride had been restarted. We quickly rounded the others up and did exactly that.


We took a different path this time.


BB8 was back from his break.


I’ve no idea how this is done, it is not a Pepper’s Ghost for sure.


We got to ride our transport this time.


And had time to check out our escort.


This time we got the full effect of the hanger deck, seeing it face on.

When we got to our cell there was a bit of a delay breaking us out and then once we were in our transports there was another delay. The cast members covered it well, talking about waiting for a signal, but you could see the two of them exchanging glances. I thought we were going to just get half a ride again, but suddenly we were in motion. This time we took a different path through the ride, going up the side of the AT-AT rather than in front of it. It is well worth ridding this attraction more than once as there are several alternative paths.

Brian said afterwards that the ride really hadn’t made any sense to him at all the first time through and was a much better story the second time. He’d had no idea why we were being put into a cell on a spaceship, having been in rocky tunnels immediately before. He was glad that I’d watched some videos and knew we’d been short-changed the first time through. I wonder how many people just thought what they’d experienced was how the ride should be?


When we went to retrieve the ECV Rey took a walk past us.

We were supposed to have been meeting with our local friends this afternoon and had been exchanging messages with them about our delays. We sent them another message to say we were at last on our way back to the hotel and they could head over. We just had time to drop some stuff back in our rooms before meeting up in the Scat Cat Café in the lobby of French Quarter.


The locals were bundled against the cold.

We sat for a while chatting in the lobby before moving into the club lounge where someone would get our drinks for us. Julia was fading fast and said her goodbyes at this point. There were several rounds of drinks ordered and eventually some food as well. The food menu is quite limited in here, but what there is was excellent.


The brisket sliders were amazing.


Brian said the chicken and waffles were also very good.

We sat chatting about our holiday so far, as well as anything and everything for a fair few hours, but it was far too short as ever. The Plan had been for us to go out to enjoy Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom tonight, but with the cold and the excellent night Julia and I had had the night before we were all much happier in a nice warm bar.
All too soon it was time to say goodbye, our friends as normal needed to get away to get some bits of work done before bedtime. Anyone who thinks working for yourself is an easy life needs to have a chat with these two. It was just before 10pm when they left us and they still had stuff to do before they could finish for the day.

Back at the room I realised I’d not taken a picture of the artwork in the room and so corrected that.


This looks like the never built Rivers of America to me.

Very soon after we were tucked up in our thankfully warm bed.


Back to the index.

[Tinkermom]

I’m so impressed with the stamina! Another busy filled day with some great photos.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

I’m so impressed with the stamina! Another busy filled day with some great photos.

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This one did feel like a long day. If the ride had behaved itself we wouldn't have spent so long in Hollywood Studios.

[mick]

That was a very long day ! But glad in the end you got to do the ride twice


Joan

[spencem]

Originally Posted by mick

That was a very long day ! But glad in the end you got to do the ride twice


Joan

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It certainly was a long one with such an early start and no afternoon nap.

I'd say we got to ride one and a half times, rather than twice.

[prettymiarose]

Long day but great you got to ride. The Star Wars ride looks amazing! On my must ride list. I love Star Wars. We have the old toy sets 1977 era which I still get down for my daughter to play with & she loves them, especially the Ewoks set.
Squirrel! Lol we shout this to my parents dog. He loves to chase a squirrel but he’s blind as a bat now so when we shout it he’s all over the show trying to look for one! Hope the weather gets warmer!

[spencem]

Originally Posted by prettymiarose

Long day but great you got to ride. The Star Wars ride looks amazing! On my must ride list. I love Star Wars. We have the old toy sets 1977 era which I still get down for my daughter to play with & she loves them, especially the Ewoks set.
Squirrel! Lol we shout this to my parents dog. He loves to chase a squirrel but he’s blind as a bat now so when we shout it he’s all over the show trying to look for one! Hope the weather gets warmer!

See more...

Rise of the Resistance is an incredible attraction, it's so much more than just a ride with a themed queue.
My sister's conversational tangents are legendary.
It did warm back up, but not as hot as our first week.