D23 2019 UPDATE 3/9 This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end.

New droid in hand, we were starving so it was off to find food!

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Land was so delightfully empty.

But we got lost and then got distracted by Dok Ondar's.

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Now you see her:

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Now you don't:

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I'm actually not sure what this creature is.

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Not sure why Dok needs the cage. Kind of ruins the picture. He's up above the guests so not sure why it's there, I don't think anyone could touch him.

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I do know this creature, this is an infant sarlaac. He was in the comics I mentioned we read on the plane.

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After asking about Ahsoka's lightsaber and discovering that it was sold out, we decided we had to eat and left.

We finally found Docking Bay 7, there was a bit of a line but we just mobile ordered instead. Mobile ordering is so nice. We did it many times during the trip and it saved us a lot of waits.

We had the smoked kaadu ribs, Ithorian Garden Loaf, Moof Juice and a water.

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The Moof Juice was just ok. It was no butterbeer, but refreshing enough.

The garden loaf was delicious.

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The ribs were really good too, but not as good as the garden loaf. The little blueberry corn muffin thing with the ribs was good though.

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Not only was the food really tasty, but I felt it was an actually healthy meal. I hope this menu doesn't get 'theme parked down'.

After we were done eating we were feeling pretty worn out. But we wanted to go and keep exploring.
 
We noticed that these light shades were droid heads.

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Poor Gonk.

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Our friend thinks this looks like a hidden Roz from Monster's Inc.

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I can see it.

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We decided to get in line for the Falcon, wait time said 45 minutes and it turned out being almost exactly accurate.

I do enjoy the lines when there is no fast pass. There is a big difference between a 45 minute wait when you're constantly moving versus a 45 minute wait when you stand still for 10 minutes at a time.

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I agree with @skier_pete , I think the queue could use just something, some je ne sais quoi.

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ISonia already answered your question, but I'll just add in that having the backpack is pretty essential. The cardboard carrying cases were not that convenient, and you couldn't see your droid interact with the land. We are going to take ours back to WDW when we go in October. Now that we got the backpack, we'll see how it interacts with the land.

The backpacks are amazingly handy. I totally see myself bringing BB9N with me on every WDW and DLR trip from now on. Kind of like we bring our wands on every Universal Orlando trip. Unfortunately, BB9N is much bigger, and I don't feel comfortable putting him in the checked luggage. The backpack will come in handy for carrying him on the plane. Plus, you can actually fit some other stuff in there, and it fits below the seat.

SO wait, it interacts with the land but then they don't let you take it out in the land?? Not sure what I think about that.

I know that they don't want you putting them on the ground and using the RC with them. I have heard some people were told by CMs to hide them from the First Order, kind of like the lightsabers. However, I don't think they have a problem with them being in the cardboard boxes or backpacks, or even possibly carrying it.
 
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We weren't too worried about getting pictures at the gaming table since we knew we'd be back here with friends later.

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Brian and I were last in our group so we both got engineer.

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This was one of my favorite details, how the pre-show graphics are done in New Hope style. Also a good picture of the hidden Mickey, though I didn't notice it at the time.

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Our pilots ended up being terrible. I didn't get to watch too much of the ride at all, my buttons were constantly flashing. So my first thoughts of the attraction were not great. Brian and I are super competitive and play a lot of video games at home. Failing on the Falcon was not fun for us.

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We walked around a bit more and finally decided it was time to leave Batuu.

I do like these enlistment pictures:

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We slowly headed out and Brian was getting tired. I wanted to stay a bit longer since it was Disneyland. At night (night is the most magical) and there very short waits.

So we got in line for Storybook Canal Boats. We had about a 5-10 minute wait which was fine because we just walked our beloved Main Street Electrical Parade.

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I know people seem to love or hate the parade, but we both love the music and I love the turtle with the hat. I call him the gentleman turtle and I thought he'd actually been cut from this parade because I wasn't seeing him. I got very worried but then he eventually showed up. Love him.

Our canal ride was just so so. The skipper wasn't really into it.
 

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Brian finally convinced me to leave and we slowly headed out.

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I think it was around 9 pm (11 pm in our time). That 5 minute walk to the hotel was soooo nice. I think we turned on the tv a bit but were both soon conked out since we'd had a long day.

I always like to list my step counts and sleep totals since I have my nice fitbit that records them.

Since today was a short day we only did 13,703 steps, and I'd got 6 hours and 3 minutes of sleep the night before.

Next day was going to be a memorable one. Our friends would start to arrive and it was Club 33 day!!
 

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Due to the 2 hour time change, we were actually up right around our alarms and able to make it to DCA right before it opened to everyone at 8 am.

7 hours and 37 minutes of sleep, not bad for a Disney trip.

There was no wait at security and we were soon into DCA. There was a bit of a lineup near Carthay Circle.

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As soon as we were able we went right to Soarin. They were playing the California version and we were very excited to ride it again.

I love this area:

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The attraction had just opened to day guests, before getting in line we got a fastpass. We were going to do maxpass this day, but were holding off since it had been so empty the day before.

Absolutely love the California version. I have wanted about the World version before: basically, it comes down to the completely fake Taj Mahal, the CGI animals, the bending views. Just bad.

I was so happy to see the original version, though I don't think they had the gliders moving as much as they did before. I noticed less movement when the fighter plans buzz by and at the end with the firework.

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We decided to go the back way to Parade Pier because we really enjoy this whole area.

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We were making our way to TSMM.

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I just realized we didn't get to ride Jessie's Critter Carousel this trip :(

Instead of waiting in the 20 minute line, we pulled fast passes that would be good in three minutes.

After our short wait, it was time to ride. I always like to take a picture of which character we get:

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Me on the left, Brian on the right:

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When we exited the ride we saw that Bo Peep was out meeting with only one group ahead of us.
 
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I thought Bo Peep was a bit creepy, but she isn't that bad. I did like her in the movie.

I wanted to check out the new Emotional Whirlwind ride.

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Before we went on, Sonia arrived and we talked on the phone for a bit.

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We only had to wait for one ride through before it was our turn.

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It's a re-themed Bug's Life carnival ride, but I liked the theming well enough. I'd rather have them add (or move) an attraction, so I was happy enough.

We started to head back to Soarin to use our fastpass.

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Along the way we made a quick stop for Little Mermaid since it was a walk on.

My favorite scene:

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Basically any dark ride nighttime scene is my favorite.

We did our second ride on Soarin for the day and it was just as good. Tons of people clapped at the end of this one.

It was around 10 am at this time and we wanted to back to the hotel and change and pack up before check out.

But first we made a stop at Monster's Inc. since there was no wait.

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Then it was time to go after a very successful DCA morning. I liked these banners:

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I see you, hotel!

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Up next: checking out of the Del Sol and Club 33.
 


We breezed right through security and made a beeline to Disneyland. It had never been our plan to buy MaxPass for this day, since we wouldn't even be in the parks a whole day. We quickly discovered that we wouldn't need it anyway. The parks were dead. I'm talking, POTC 5 minutes walk on dead. I hadn't seen Disneyland this empty since our first trip, which happened right before Carsland opened.

We had been planning to head straight to Galaxy's Edge, but I became distracted by the lack of waits in my favorite land, Adventureland.

So first ride was a literal walk on to Jungle Cruise!

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It was a decent ride through. I liked the skipper better that we'd have later on in the trip, though.

Jungle Cruise is so my type of humor. We made our way through the rest of Adventureland and around the corner to POTC. The wait said 5 minutes, and no way could I pass that up. It ended up being another literal walk on.

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Pirates is just such quintessential Disney. The soundtrack, the smells, the boat ride, the animatronics. Love it. This is one of the handful of rides that would be very high on my 'if I could teleport onto any ride at any time' list.

Also couldn't pass up a ride on Haunted Mansion. This attraction would end up featuring heavily during the rest of the trip.

After that, we finally had to go to Galaxy's Edge. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. The promise of walk on attractions couldn't delay us any more. We took the walkway back by Hungry Bear. Brian questioned if this was the right way. I mean...come on Brian. He should know better than to question my Disney knowledge.

I was careful to listen to the sounds as we transitioned from Critter Country to a different planet. I didn't take a lot of pictures at first, I just wanted to take it all in.

Turns out, the first picture I took was of some droids:

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I love Gonk droids. That's the fellow to the right in the picture above. They walk super slow and say GONK. They can be found in A New Hope.

We were a little early for our droid building appointment but we decided to duck in anyway. Pretty sure it took us about 10 minutes to find the place.

No harm in making us work for it, though. I was all about Animal Kingdom's original direction, which was...no direction. Rhode didn't want it to have any maps or sign posts. He wanted it to be about a journey of discovery.

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We finally did find the place. Turns out there was no line at all inside, and I don't think our reservation was very necessary. Once inside, I realized that the awesome gift cards were in stock. I told Brian we should buy one. You needed to put at least $100 on the card to be able to purchase. Since we were going to spend that much on the droid anyway, I thought it was a no brainer. Brian put up some fuss and was like...why should we buy a dumb gift card? Then once he saw it he understood and thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's actually very nice. It has a considerable weight to it and it came in a cool envelope. It's basically like a little free souvenir (free if you were going to spend $100+ anyway). Oh yeah, and you can use it all over Disney property. Brian took great pleasure in putting all our money for Club 33 onto it so he could use it in there.

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We got a short explanation and moved quickly to the conveyor belt.

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OMG, I really wanted one of those gift cards! UGH! I thought they were sold out!
 
Boy, you are moving so fast - I am still on the morning of day one! (I have written quite a bit yesterday - so the next post is coming soon.)
 
Our son has two R2-D2's

Star Wars Interactive R2D2 Astromech Droid Robot by Hasbro
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And does not play with it... at all! It was fun for like an hour and he hasn't touched it since.

And there's this little gem,
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Lego 10225 - Which he knows nothing about as it's being hidden. He'll receive it once he's ready to know more about Star Wars and can appreciate it.

One step at a time as he just discovered Harry Potter! :rolleyes:
 
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Boy, you are moving so fast - I am still on the morning of day one! (I have written quite a bit yesterday - so the next post is coming soon.)

I was watching the Steelers last night. Game did not go well, so I really wanted a distraction.

Plus, I'm eager to get into the actual D23 stuff.

Our son has two R2-D2's

Star Wars Interactive R2D2 Astromech Droid Robot by Hasbro
View attachment 434500
And does not play with it... at all! It was fun for like an hour and he's hasn't touched it since.

And there's this little gem,
View attachment 434501
Lego 10225 - Which he knows nothing about as it's being hidden. He'll receive it once he's ready to know more about Star Wars and can appreciate it.

One step at a time as he just discovered Harry Potter! :rolleyes:

Well Harry Potter fandom can span a long time, hahaha. So it might be a while before he is ready for something new.

I have that R2 up at the top, I have 2 like that, one is larger. Got them from my parents for Christmas several years apart.
 
I'm enjoying reading about your excitement about Star Wars, even though I don't understand a word of what you're staying. I went last week and thought it was amazing, but wish I could appreciate it more. I should really watch the movies.

Excited for more!
 
I'm enjoying reading about your excitement about Star Wars, even though I don't understand a word of what you're staying. I went last week and thought it was amazing, but wish I could appreciate it more. I should really watch the movies.

Excited for more!


I think everyone should watch the original trilogy at least, if nothing else, you'll finally understand all the references and parodies you've probably seen.

We watched the original Frankenstein movie last nigh to prepare for Halloween Horror Nights. I felt like I'd already seen most of it because of all the references to it in pop culture. I think Star Wars would be the same way.
 
Our son has two R2-D2's

Star Wars Interactive R2D2 Astromech Droid Robot by Hasbro
View attachment 434500
And does not play with it... at all! It was fun for like an hour and he hasn't touched it since.

And there's this little gem,
View attachment 434501
Lego 10225 - Which he knows nothing about as it's being hidden. He'll receive it once he's ready to know more about Star Wars and can appreciate it.

One step at a time as he just discovered Harry Potter! :rolleyes:

We have a big R2D2 from Sphero and the Lego one sitting in my son's room. Not to mention the 2 BB8 Spheros and my new BB9N from SWGE. We are definitely not short in the droid department at this house :rotfl2:
 
OK! We finished our droid.

This is him as we built him:

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This is what we wanted: (264 from the Rebels cartoon)

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And here he is!:

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Even though he looks like an Imperial droid, he is not. He has a secret Rebel phoenix logo tattoo:

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I think I've found my new hobby. Painting Star Wars props/stuff. I already made that Han Solo blaster from an orange and white Amazon plastic blaster, and I also did Leia's New Hope blaster. In case anyone cares, here is Han's:

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Anyway, pretty pleased with how 264 turned out. Now he's all ready for his October trip to Batuu East.

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