angai379
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2014
Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself. I’m Erika, a nerd with a particular love of Star Wars, theme parks, and Disney. I mostly go to the parks alone. It’s difficult to find trip partner’s at my stage of life, but traveling solo has its own perks. Thankfully I am an introvert so I don’t mind traveling solo too much. I do have times where I turn to point out that super minute detail in Galaxy’s Edge, only to have that random person in line I forgot to befriend before tugging on their sleeve look at me strangely. Ah those moments are so special.
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I adore Star Wars, Disney, and as you can see by my title Lord of the rings. I was lucky enough to plan a trip to the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and Disney World. I was encouraged to write a blog about my adventures to Disney. Mostly because my friends are tired of their eyes glazing over after I get to the part about how hard it is to get a California Brunch reservation. I wanted to start the blogging journey here at the Dis, because I’ve received invaluable info here and if my ramblings help someone a little I’ll be satisfied. I realize this trip report is extremely late, but quarantine seems like a good time to remember what the wind feels like on my face as I speed walk down main street.
Disney World is my home park and the one I’m most familiar with. I have been to Shanghai and Tokyo as well. On top of visiting Disneyland for the first time I was visiting for the opening of their newest land. Timing and planning was everything. I’m not a hardcore spreadsheet Type A planner. I’m a secret small notebook Type A planner. I broke out a new one for this trip and scribbled down any tidbit I heard about Galaxy’s Edge. Should I have been just as obsessive, I mean interested in Disneyland proper? Yes, yes I should have. I freely admit that I missed some of Disneyland's charm in chasing after my Star Wars adventure. I also admit I’ve been back to Disneyland after the initial trip. I didn’t request the trip. Pinky promise. I was in the area (an hour away) from Disneyland on a business trip. My boss turned to me the night before at dinner and said “Why don’t we go to Disney tomorrow?” Did my eye start twitching at the lack of time to plan? Yes. Did I happily go anyway? Also yes.
View attachment 504674
Bear with me I’m going to tell you how this trip came about and all the super fun planning I did to get there. I’m not being sarcastic. I enjoy planning a Disney trip. Any trip really. I get this euphoric slightly crazed look on my face when I pull out my secret notebook and write down my latest bit of knowledge. In the initial stages of planning I heard that Disney would be holding a shareholders call. The buzz at the time was that we would be getting opening days for Disneyland. I set my alarm for the proper time and waited, and waited, and waited a little more. I was at work during the shareholders meeting so I had to listen with headphones. Not a problem for me as I listen to podcasts when I’m not in meetings or on calls. I was only half listening until those magical words were spoken. Iger gave me opening dates May 31st at Disneyland and suprise suprise August 29th at Disney World.
I had all that I needed; I immediately hung up and called the Disney World reservations line. What possessed me to call instead of jumping online I’ll never know. I’m a millennial and an introvert, online reservations are my bread and butter. Fastest mouse clicking skills win. I’m comfortable with that world. Soon the delightfully perky automated system picked up and started asking me the usual litany of questions. I got a live cast member and in a sing-song voice I told her I bet she knew why I was calling. She said no, why? Sadness. I gave her the opening dates for Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyworld and she said she hadn't heard anything yet. Double sadness. I was slightly panicking thinking I’d heard wrong or the past 30 minutes were a dream. The next words out of my mouth were facepalm worthy. I said ok I guess I’ll call back. Why??? What would possess me to say those words. Thankfully one of us was using our brain and the wonderful guardian angel on the other end of the line persuaded me to book anyway just in case. I gave her August 28th to September 3rd for the Port Orleans French Quarter. While we were finalizing my reservation she told me to hold on, because her supervisor was updating everyone. When she came back to me she was laughing so hard. She confirmed I already knew the contents of the update. It was official; dates were rolling out to the call center CM’s. The type A planner in me was doing flips Simone Biles would be proud of. She was kind enough to send me an email with her contact information in case I wanted to make any other changes. I think she knew what holding in a long queue would do to my poor nerves. We were done, I had my hotel reservations to go see my new home. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
View attachment 504678
I'm still playing around with post length. I have warned you I'm a long winded writer. I'm happy to go longer or shorter and I'm open to feedback. I also know I just described getting reservations for WDW. I promise the rest of the story on how my DL reservations came together in my next post. Stay tuned!
View attachment 504672 View attachment 504673
I adore Star Wars, Disney, and as you can see by my title Lord of the rings. I was lucky enough to plan a trip to the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and Disney World. I was encouraged to write a blog about my adventures to Disney. Mostly because my friends are tired of their eyes glazing over after I get to the part about how hard it is to get a California Brunch reservation. I wanted to start the blogging journey here at the Dis, because I’ve received invaluable info here and if my ramblings help someone a little I’ll be satisfied. I realize this trip report is extremely late, but quarantine seems like a good time to remember what the wind feels like on my face as I speed walk down main street.
Disney World is my home park and the one I’m most familiar with. I have been to Shanghai and Tokyo as well. On top of visiting Disneyland for the first time I was visiting for the opening of their newest land. Timing and planning was everything. I’m not a hardcore spreadsheet Type A planner. I’m a secret small notebook Type A planner. I broke out a new one for this trip and scribbled down any tidbit I heard about Galaxy’s Edge. Should I have been just as obsessive, I mean interested in Disneyland proper? Yes, yes I should have. I freely admit that I missed some of Disneyland's charm in chasing after my Star Wars adventure. I also admit I’ve been back to Disneyland after the initial trip. I didn’t request the trip. Pinky promise. I was in the area (an hour away) from Disneyland on a business trip. My boss turned to me the night before at dinner and said “Why don’t we go to Disney tomorrow?” Did my eye start twitching at the lack of time to plan? Yes. Did I happily go anyway? Also yes.
View attachment 504674
Bear with me I’m going to tell you how this trip came about and all the super fun planning I did to get there. I’m not being sarcastic. I enjoy planning a Disney trip. Any trip really. I get this euphoric slightly crazed look on my face when I pull out my secret notebook and write down my latest bit of knowledge. In the initial stages of planning I heard that Disney would be holding a shareholders call. The buzz at the time was that we would be getting opening days for Disneyland. I set my alarm for the proper time and waited, and waited, and waited a little more. I was at work during the shareholders meeting so I had to listen with headphones. Not a problem for me as I listen to podcasts when I’m not in meetings or on calls. I was only half listening until those magical words were spoken. Iger gave me opening dates May 31st at Disneyland and suprise suprise August 29th at Disney World.
I had all that I needed; I immediately hung up and called the Disney World reservations line. What possessed me to call instead of jumping online I’ll never know. I’m a millennial and an introvert, online reservations are my bread and butter. Fastest mouse clicking skills win. I’m comfortable with that world. Soon the delightfully perky automated system picked up and started asking me the usual litany of questions. I got a live cast member and in a sing-song voice I told her I bet she knew why I was calling. She said no, why? Sadness. I gave her the opening dates for Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyworld and she said she hadn't heard anything yet. Double sadness. I was slightly panicking thinking I’d heard wrong or the past 30 minutes were a dream. The next words out of my mouth were facepalm worthy. I said ok I guess I’ll call back. Why??? What would possess me to say those words. Thankfully one of us was using our brain and the wonderful guardian angel on the other end of the line persuaded me to book anyway just in case. I gave her August 28th to September 3rd for the Port Orleans French Quarter. While we were finalizing my reservation she told me to hold on, because her supervisor was updating everyone. When she came back to me she was laughing so hard. She confirmed I already knew the contents of the update. It was official; dates were rolling out to the call center CM’s. The type A planner in me was doing flips Simone Biles would be proud of. She was kind enough to send me an email with her contact information in case I wanted to make any other changes. I think she knew what holding in a long queue would do to my poor nerves. We were done, I had my hotel reservations to go see my new home. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
View attachment 504678
I'm still playing around with post length. I have warned you I'm a long winded writer. I'm happy to go longer or shorter and I'm open to feedback. I also know I just described getting reservations for WDW. I promise the rest of the story on how my DL reservations came together in my next post. Stay tuned!
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