Welcome to part 2 of my Disney World Star Wars Weekend trip report. In this post, I will mainly talk about things that we did or saw at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. A quick note, we are two adults that love Star Wars, so we skipped some of the regular rides and shows to spend as much time as we can on Star Wars related events.
The first main Star Wars event of the day was the "Legends of the Force" motorcade and celebrity welcome. In the motorcade, you will see most of the characters from the movie series and from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We didn't know that the motorcade was so popular, so we didn't get there in time for a good spot for photos and videos. Nevertheless, it was a very nice 15-20 minutes parade.
We took advantage of the FastPass+ and use it to save our wait time on the rides. We also used the My Disney Experience app to check wait time on the other rides and change our FastPass+ selection thru out the day if necessary. The main rides and shows that we did at Hollywood Studios were The Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Studio Backlot Tour, Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, Toy Story Midway Mania!, and Fantasmic!, These were all great ride and shows. In between the shows and ride, we went to several character greetings including Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Anakin Skywalker. Each line was about 30 minute wait except for Darth Vader, which of course was the most popular one and we waited for about an hour in line for photos. We also visited the Darth's Mall, which had a lot of cool and limited edition merchandise. They also served Star Wars themed food and drink inside the Darth's Mall, such as popcorn, cupcake and soft drinks. Around 5pm, we head over to our Star Wars Dine dinner reservation at Hollywood & Vine. We made our reservation 2 months in advance, and it was already over 75% booked at that time. If you are interested in doing Star Wars Dine at Hollywood & Vine, make your reservation EARLY! We used 2 of our table service meals for each person from our dining plan on this theme character dinning. It was definitely worth it! When we were called to be seated, we got to take a photo with Chip and Dale dressed as ewoks, and was given a photo card to download that photo for free on-line. Hollywood & Vine provides an American buffet style dinner. The food was decent and there were a varieties of Star Wars themed desserts (Please see photos in the next video). There were 4 characters going around to your table for photos, Jedi Mickey, Princess Leia Minnie, Storm Trooper Donald, and Darth Vader Goofy. Overall, it was a great dining experience, and I would definitely recommend to any Star Wars fan.
We ended the night with the Fantasmic! show and firework. I personally think Fantasmic! is one of the must watch show at Hollywood Studios with great visual and sound effects. Overall, we had a blast at the Star Wars Weekends event at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We will probably consider doing it again after Star Wars: Episode VII come out, and hopefully, there will be more Star Wars rides or shows added. Thank you for visiting and reading my post! Part 3 of this trip report will include our trip to Magic Kingdom and Epcot!
Welcome to part 1 of my Disney World Star Wars Weekend trip report. This is my first trip to Walt Disney World, so I was super excited. Due to limited amount of vacation days we had, we were only able to stay for 4 days and 3 nights, which mean, we really had to pick and choose what we do or see. We decided to stay at one of the Disney resort to save time from traveling back and forth between hotel and the parks, and take advantage of the extra magic hours to do as much as possible in our short trip. All of the Disney resorts looks great, we decided to pick Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside because the deluxe resorts were out of our price range and the moderate resorts like Port Orleans Resort offer more dining options and recreations options than value resorts.
I booked our vacation thru Disney World's website and took advantage of one of the special offers at that time (I think it was 25 or 30% off for stay of 3 nights or more). It was a simple and easy process to book everything on their website, including hotel room, tickets, dining plan, and magical express (airport shuttle). For the dining plan, we got the regular dining plan with 1 table service, 1 quick-service, and 1 snack per day for 3 days. We decided to do the dining plan since majority of our time would be spend in the park and resort. With the purchase of the dining plan, we also received resort refillable mug for unlimited refills during our stay at the resort, including soda, tea, water, and coffee. We used all of our table service meal for character dining, 2 for Star Wars Character Dining for dinner and 1 for The Crystal Palace for lunch. The dining plan is very flexible to use that you can spend all your meals in 1 day if you want. With the whole vacation package, you will also get some additional perks (arcade card at the resort, admission to DisneyQuest, discount on select Disney World tours, etc.).
About 3 weeks before our trip, we received our welcome booklet and personalized magic bands. The booklet gave an overview of each park and the use of FastPass+. The magic band served as our ticket to the parks, key to our resort room, dining plan meals, and credit card for purchase at Disney World. I also made our FastPass+ selections ahead of time which could be change at anytime during the trip. You can pick up to 3 FastPass+ each day. I also downloaded the My Disney Experience app on my iPhone ahead of time, which actually turned out to be quite useful. On the app, it provides you the park hours, real-time wait time for each ride, show times, and park map. Due to the length of our trip, we decided to skip Animal Kingdom and do Hollywood Studio (which was where all the Star Wars events and attractions are at), Magic Kingdom, and Epcot. We are planning to go to Animal Kingdom in our next trip when we are in Orlando again for conference.
On day 1, we arrived at our resort around 5pm. We spend rest of the evening at Downtown Disney. Here is a short slide show on our resort - Disney World Port Orleans Resort - Riverside.
In general, it is a very beautiful resort to stay at. The only little complain that we had was the wait time for the boat to Downtown Disney. The line for the boat were usually long during dinner time. We wished they have more boats for peak hours.
Thank you for visiting and reading my post! My Disney World Star Wars Weekend trip report will continue in part 2 and 3!
Welcome to Part 2 of my Disney Dream 3-night Bahamian Cruise post. In this post, I will share details on our Disney Cruise trip. Just a FYI, we are 2 adults going on Disney Cruise, so I don't have a lot information or details to share on the activities or details on board for kids. As part of Disney, they do have plenty of activities and events for kids. We arrived at the Orlando Airport (MCO) around 11am. We went down to level 1, side B to check in for the Disney Cruise Line shuttle, which share the same desk as Magical Express to Disney World. They assigned you to different group to get on separate shuttle. After getting on the shuttle, the driver played a introductory video on the Disney Cruise. The ride was about 45 to 55min. When arriving at the port, you will be guided into the check-in lobby where you will check-in and receive your room card. The room card need to be kept with you at all time. It can also be serve as your credit card while on board on the ship. As you step on board the ship, they will announce and greet each family separately. If you arrive early, the state room might not be ready yet. Therefore, we went to Cabanas to grab our first meal and enjoyed a nice drink. As soon as the stateroom was ready, we went to our room to drop the luggage and freshen up. Before departure, there is safety drill that everyone need to attend. A quick video here to show our trip from Airport to the Cruise and our stateroom.
Everyday that you are on board of the cruise, they will give you a Navigator which include all the shows and activity on board. They will also provide you with Nassau map and Castaway Cay map the day before your arrival. The night before returning to US, a Welcome Home instruction sheet was also given.
Depending on your dining rotation assignment, you will also have different time assigned to watch the nightly Disney show. I highly recommend you to not miss these truly entertaining Disney shows. All 3 of main dining are pretty decent with different theme at each restaurant.
Since it was our first time at Nassau, we decided to take the Nassau and Atlantis tour. It was nice tour around Nassau in their shuttle and a nice trip to Atlantis resort and it's aquarium. I would recommend the tour to all first-timer.
For the 3rd day, we arrived at the beautiful Castaway Cay, Disney's Private island. It was very nice with no pollution. You can rent varieties of equipments to play on the beach. We also signed up for para sailing which was a great experience and definitely worth it. It was a very relaxing day at the beach.
For people who are not interested in beach activities, there are plenty to do on the ship also. There is a nice movie theater that plays Disney movies from early morning to midnight. The movie schedule is included in the daily Navigator and there is a few showing for 3D movies. I would also highly recommend to try out Aqua Duck on Disney Dream both during daytime and nighttime (as the tube light up at night). Bottom line is you will never be board on Disney Cruise! It was an awesome trip and I would definitely do it again!
Thank you for visiting and reading my post! I don't want to bore you with a lot of details, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment! (Or if there is any other photos you would like me to post)
Welcome to Part 1 of my Disney Dream 3-night Bahamian Cruise post. In this post, I will share some booking and planning information as well as what to prepare for the cruise. This Disney Cruise was my first cruise ever, so I was very nervous about it and did not know what to pack. Luckily, Disney Cruise is there every step of the way!
Some people might wonder "Why Disney Cruise?" I started by looking online to check out what each cruise line offer and their reviews. Of course, Disney cruise tend to be on the pricier side, but out of all the cruise lines, Disney cruise seems to have one of the best reviews on their food, shows, and rooms. After all the considerations, we picked Disney Cruise for 3 main reasons: 1. More food varieties on board, and different theme restaurant every night (Yes! I am a foodie) 2. We love Disney shows! (Different show every night sounds awesome!) 3. Out of all the Norovirus incidents, we didn't see any Disney Cruise on the list. After deciding on Disney Cruise, I went on Disney Cruise Website first to check out the itinerary and dates that will best fit us. I also requested a free DVD planning tools on their website that will give you more information. If you have AAA membership, you can also go to one of their office and pick up a Disney Cruise booklet that has the current year itinerary and ship layout.
After selecting the date and itinerary, I checked price with and without flight package on a few website (ie. Expedia, Priceline, Disney Cruise website, and Costco). We ended up booking our Disney Cruise on Costco Travel website and flight separately. Thru Costco Travel, I was able to get free Costco cash card while paying for the same price. Once I finished booking flight and cruise, I called to book our Disney Cruise Line ground transfer, which was $70 per person roundtrip. If you book your Disney Cruise on their own website, you should be able to add ground transfer online. While you might think you are done with the planning, I highly recommend you book your shore excursion as early as possible online. This website also provide a lot of good information on Disney Cruise planning and booking if you need additional information! About 10-14 days prior to departure date, we received a welcome booklet from Disney Cruise which include a lot of good information that walk you thru each step especially if you are a first-time Cruiser. I made a quick slide show of what's included in the booklet.
You can choose to fill out most of the forms in the booklet online prior to departure when you do on-line check in. If not, when you check-in at the port, the staffs will help you.
The last part before the vacation is packing, which varies from person to person. Make sure you know what items are not permitted on board. Here is a good packing list to consider. I would definitely recommend you bring plenty of sunscreens and motion sickness medications (Dramamine, Bonine, or Sea-Band). I did not have any motion sickness issue for the majority of the cruise, but it's good to be prepared.
Thank you for visiting and reading my post! Part 2 will be coming soon!
Thank you for visiting my blog! In this blog, I am going to share my travel plans and memories with you. As much as I love to travel, I also enjoy the planning process. As an extreme cautious person, I often like to check out other people's blog or travel website to get a better idea of the hotel, attractions, or foods. Therefore, I am hoping by posting my travel plans and memories, including photos and video, will help out many others like me to plan their vacations!
