Day 2 - 5/22 - Star Wars Weekend
About a year before our trip, DD started getting into Star
Wars. I don’t remember how it started, but over that period of time we watched
the original trilogy together, she watched most of the first season of Clone Wars,
as well as the Clone Wars movie, and I found some old Star Wars toys on ebay
that she enjoyed playing with. Santa even brought her a lightsaber and some
Star Wars books.
When I told her that Star Wars Weekends would be happening
when we were at Walt Disney World, she had no idea what I was talking about.
After I explained what Star Wars Weekends were, she got crazy excited. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s a fantastic site
that will have all the details:
http://sww.studioscentral.com/main/.
In preparation for our trip, we made a couple of Star
Wars-themed shirts for DD.
And so, appropriately dressed, we made our way to Disney’s
Hollywood Studios. We got there about 7:15, 45 minutes before parks were
scheduled to open, anticipating huge lines. Not only was this the opening
weekend for SWW, it was the opening weekend for the refurbished Star Tours
ride.
We were confused when they let us through the turnstiles –
apparently they had made the decision to open the park early. DW took DD into
the long line for Jedi
Training Academy
sign ups, while I got Fast Passes for Star Tours. Because of the especially
large demand for JTA during SWW, they do signups in the Indiana Jones theater,
and run JTAs about every 30 minutes, using the normal stage, where participants
battle Darth Vader, as well as the space in front of the stage, where
participants battle either Darth Maul or Ventress.
DD was really excited to do JTA, but as we got closer to the
front of the sign up line, she started to explain that she only wanted to do it
if she could fight Darth Vader. She said Darth Maul would be too hard to defeat
because he has a double-sided light saber. We explained that there wasn’t any
way to guarantee who she’d fight, and that if she didn’t want to do it, she
didn’t have to. And that even if she changed her mind at the last second and
didn’t want to do it, it would be OK and we wouldn’t be upset.
So with that anxiety behind us, we headed over to the new
Star Tours. The standby line was posted as only 5 minutes long, so we got right
on, and when we were done, we rode it a second time. They did a fantastic job
with it. Not only are the effects and sound better than ever, they have a
randomized experience. Each ride, there are three separate segments, separated
by two mini segments. When you calculate all of the possible combinations,
there are 54 unique rides you can experience.