Look here two updates in a row!
DHS will probably take a handful of updates because it was a BUSY day!
The park hours were 10-8 but we wanted to get there plenty early to make sure we were in the park and ready for the ROTR queue attempt.
We woke up around 7 and mobile ordered Contempo Cafe breakfast. We ordered two bounty platters and two full sized waffles.
The waffles have optional fruit topping on the side, I chose caramel bananas. OMG amazing! 5 stars, totally recommend. Lindsay got hers without fruit and I wished I had gotten her fruit too
After breakfast we put it in hyper drive and headed to DHS.
We arrived about 9:15, we parked in the second row of cars and quickly went through security. We really liked the new security, hopefully after Covid they will keep some of the faster procedures.
We headed straight to Batuu! We were so excited for grandma to see Galaxy‘s Edge, she and grandpa have always been huge fans. HUGE! We actually played the Star Wars main theme at the end of grandpas funeral. His last outing before his passing was to see Episode 9.
So I hope that shines light on how much Star Wars means to her.
This is our first visit to Batuu.
They let us on Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run straight away, it was about 9:30. We walked right on and soon enough were headed into space.
Finally we boarded the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.
They no longer add extra people so unless you’re a party of 6 there will be empty seat(s). We were a party of 5, so the girls were Pilots, Grandma and I were gunners and Eric was our lone engineer.
This ride was very cool, I know ROTR is the big draw, but MFSR is really fun too!
After this we headed to find a quiet corner to attempt a boarding group. It was approximately 9:50. I took the time to make sure we were linked on
MDE, that we were on LTE and that everything else was closed on our phones. We were trying from 3 phones, mine (IPhone XR), Eric’s (iPhone XR), and Lindsay’s (iphone 11) . Lydia had an atomic clock up on hers so we could monitor the time. Janet sat this out because technology is not her forte and we didn’t want her to accidentally mess something up
Previously I had pared down my Friends and Family to the 5 of us and my friend with an AP that I was getting my photopass pics sent to. Eric and Lindsay only had our travel party linked.
I had also coached Eric and Lindsay that they should select all, and keep moving forward if any glitch happened and screen capture as needed.
Time was ticking and we decided I would try when Lydia’s phone said 10:00:00, Eric at 10:00:02 and Lindsay at 10:00:04. We were ready!!
Deep breath.....Finally it was go time...
I go and when I select all my father in law appeared in my list. Admittedly that stunned me as I had him removed after his passing, this glitch delayed me so the passes were gone
I think grandpa was trying to ride with us.
Eric gets some other bad message
Lindsay goes and this happens.
(Ignore the time I took the screen cap much later)
Well good news, she amazingly got Group 1
but...... butttttttt..... look closely it’s for 1 person.
The MDE had glitched and only had herself one the boarding group.
( FYI Guest Services is far, far away from Batuu, so stick to the front of the park around 10 am. )
Panic Ensues. This was the most stressful part of our trip, so I will skip ahead a bit and just give it to you in a nutshell. There were tears, a long GS line, a panic attack, a rude manager CM that caused the panic attack, a wonderful CM named Liz and finally success.
Liz added us to Lindsay‘s boarding group and explained to my distraught daughter that her scoring the BG actually saved us and didn’t mess anything up at all (the rude manager insinuated Lindsay would just have to go alone #notafan.)
Because those fast teen fingers got Group 1, we headed back to Batuu, because it was already boarding!!! We stood outside very briefly before we were in the real inside line...
I‘m going to stop here for now, but hopefully will add more today or tomorrow.