Friday 12th – steps 20396
Today was our main Star Wars day and we had booked the premium package. We arrived at Hollywood Studios at around 930 and headed over to check in, we managed to get a pass to see the Frank Oz show later that day (which I wasn’t expecting!)
We decided to get a locker so that we could store the goody bags (containing prints of the stars attending the weekend) and some other bits and pieces that we would collect along the way.
We got in line for the parade viewing area at around 10 and were shortly let in, we got ourselves a drink each and a Mickey Ice cream. We found spots in the second row behind the children’s viewing section.
The parade was great, the 501st legion really added to the length of it…not sure what Disney would do without them! We had a good view of the parade, only a couple of people in front of us and it felt much more comfortable than standing all crushed together.
After the parade has passed we were able to follow up to get a view of the stage for the show. James Arnold Taylor has a ridiculous amount of energy!
We decided to get an early lunch at the backlot express, I’m pretty sure we both had turkey sandwiches – Rob with fries and I had carrots.
Whilst we were in the area we also picked up the free Yoda posters that were available to DVC members. We were getting quite hot so we headed into the Muppets show to cool off.
Next we thought we would go and check out Darths Maul, we were expecting it to be busy but we didn’t have to wait at all. We looked around and I got a couple of pins and a cuddly toy!
We also met a clone trooper wandering around so I got a quick picture.
We then realised that we could see the back of the Lights, Motors, Action show so we stood to watch for a few minutes. We got a wave from one of the drivers and he posed for a picture – we were a little far away so it is hard to see in the photo.
It was getting close to our first show of the day – Stars of the Saga hosted by James Arnold Taylor with Ray Park and Peter Mayhew – so we grabbed a drink before heading over. The FP line was open much earlier than the time listed in My Disney Experience but we arrived quite early and so got quite a good central view.
It was still mega hot, although it rained during the show and it was noticeably cooler afterwards, the show was really interesting even from a casual fan of the movies.
Afterwards we decided to get ourselves some drinks before the next show, we didn’t really have time to do any other rides – I had dropped my Toy Story fast pass earlier in the day because it clashed with the Frank Oz show.
We got better seats for A Conversation with Frank Oz, nicely in the centre and lower down in the theatre.
We did have a slightly odd experience whilst waiting for the show to start, there was a guy a couple of rows in front of us who obviously had some special needs. For some reason he got really annoyed about something (it was not clear what) and became really aggressive – he was with his family and they really struggled to calm him down. He was quite loud and his language was really inappropriate for all of the children that were around him. They did eventually manage to calm him down but it was slightly unsettling.
The show got underway and Frank Oz was brilliant, he was very engaging and had lots to say about a variety of topics including The Muppets and Star Wars. I’m glad we managed to get a pass using our package as the standby line started very early in the day!
After the show it had cooled down a little so I got a coffee and Rob had a cookie from Starbucks.
We headed back to the theatre again for Visit to the Maul which was really entertaining, Ray Park can still do some fantastic stuff even though he is getting a little bit older. As it was the last of the Star Wars weekends the children got to keep their lightsabers which was nice.
Most of the rides had quite long lines by now (and a couple were getting ready to close in preparation for the fireworks) so we had a leisurely stroll around the park and found somewhere to sit before the dessert party started (as we knew we wouldn’t have seats for the party.)
We headed into the dessert party at around 830 and got a couple of plates of dessert (including the special Star Wars cupcakes) and some drinks.
I had read reports online which suggested that the party area might be too crowded, I thought that it was actually quite a good space. We shared a table with 3 other people which was nice, we had a little chat whilst listening to the music before the fireworks.
We had selected a table at the back of the dessert party area to get a better view of the fireworks. We could see the stage quite well and the fireworks were brilliant.
Once the fireworks were over we waited for everyone to leave and were the last people to leave the party area (I picked up a couple of waters on the way out).
It was great not to get squished on the way out, there was a bit of a queue leaving the parking lot so again we waited for a few minutes before heading out.
Costs:
Parking $17
Locker $7
Frozen raspberry lemonade and soda $7.44
Cookie and cappuccino $6.69
2 x pins and cuddly toy $41.07
Lunch at backlot express $28.18
SWW package (paid in advance) $138
Today was our main Star Wars day and we had booked the premium package. We arrived at Hollywood Studios at around 930 and headed over to check in, we managed to get a pass to see the Frank Oz show later that day (which I wasn’t expecting!)
We decided to get a locker so that we could store the goody bags (containing prints of the stars attending the weekend) and some other bits and pieces that we would collect along the way.
We got in line for the parade viewing area at around 10 and were shortly let in, we got ourselves a drink each and a Mickey Ice cream. We found spots in the second row behind the children’s viewing section.
The parade was great, the 501st legion really added to the length of it…not sure what Disney would do without them! We had a good view of the parade, only a couple of people in front of us and it felt much more comfortable than standing all crushed together.
After the parade has passed we were able to follow up to get a view of the stage for the show. James Arnold Taylor has a ridiculous amount of energy!
We decided to get an early lunch at the backlot express, I’m pretty sure we both had turkey sandwiches – Rob with fries and I had carrots.
Whilst we were in the area we also picked up the free Yoda posters that were available to DVC members. We were getting quite hot so we headed into the Muppets show to cool off.
Next we thought we would go and check out Darths Maul, we were expecting it to be busy but we didn’t have to wait at all. We looked around and I got a couple of pins and a cuddly toy!
We also met a clone trooper wandering around so I got a quick picture.
We then realised that we could see the back of the Lights, Motors, Action show so we stood to watch for a few minutes. We got a wave from one of the drivers and he posed for a picture – we were a little far away so it is hard to see in the photo.
It was getting close to our first show of the day – Stars of the Saga hosted by James Arnold Taylor with Ray Park and Peter Mayhew – so we grabbed a drink before heading over. The FP line was open much earlier than the time listed in My Disney Experience but we arrived quite early and so got quite a good central view.
It was still mega hot, although it rained during the show and it was noticeably cooler afterwards, the show was really interesting even from a casual fan of the movies.
Afterwards we decided to get ourselves some drinks before the next show, we didn’t really have time to do any other rides – I had dropped my Toy Story fast pass earlier in the day because it clashed with the Frank Oz show.
We got better seats for A Conversation with Frank Oz, nicely in the centre and lower down in the theatre.
We did have a slightly odd experience whilst waiting for the show to start, there was a guy a couple of rows in front of us who obviously had some special needs. For some reason he got really annoyed about something (it was not clear what) and became really aggressive – he was with his family and they really struggled to calm him down. He was quite loud and his language was really inappropriate for all of the children that were around him. They did eventually manage to calm him down but it was slightly unsettling.
The show got underway and Frank Oz was brilliant, he was very engaging and had lots to say about a variety of topics including The Muppets and Star Wars. I’m glad we managed to get a pass using our package as the standby line started very early in the day!
After the show it had cooled down a little so I got a coffee and Rob had a cookie from Starbucks.
We headed back to the theatre again for Visit to the Maul which was really entertaining, Ray Park can still do some fantastic stuff even though he is getting a little bit older. As it was the last of the Star Wars weekends the children got to keep their lightsabers which was nice.
Most of the rides had quite long lines by now (and a couple were getting ready to close in preparation for the fireworks) so we had a leisurely stroll around the park and found somewhere to sit before the dessert party started (as we knew we wouldn’t have seats for the party.)
We headed into the dessert party at around 830 and got a couple of plates of dessert (including the special Star Wars cupcakes) and some drinks.
I had read reports online which suggested that the party area might be too crowded, I thought that it was actually quite a good space. We shared a table with 3 other people which was nice, we had a little chat whilst listening to the music before the fireworks.
We had selected a table at the back of the dessert party area to get a better view of the fireworks. We could see the stage quite well and the fireworks were brilliant.
Once the fireworks were over we waited for everyone to leave and were the last people to leave the party area (I picked up a couple of waters on the way out).
It was great not to get squished on the way out, there was a bit of a queue leaving the parking lot so again we waited for a few minutes before heading out.
Costs:
Parking $17
Locker $7
Frozen raspberry lemonade and soda $7.44
Cookie and cappuccino $6.69
2 x pins and cuddly toy $41.07
Lunch at backlot express $28.18
SWW package (paid in advance) $138
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