jdrum3
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2010
So, my DS17 was supposed to have a high school band trip to Disney this year and our DD13 was supposed to have an 8th grade trip to D.C. this year, but Covid. So, we planned a trip to Orlando. The only time our kids have been to Disney is when our DD was 3 and our son was 7, so DD doesn't have much memory of anything and our son has snippets. Our kids love thrill rides, so with only 1 day at Disney planned and a love for Star Wars, the choice was obvious, HS! I was excited to learn about the new rides and lands created since our last trip, but then a little anxiety crept in after reading about Rise and the BG procedures
Me trying to explain Disney planning to my family!
I honestly didn't have high hopes for getting a BG and it was a bit overwhelming, but I encourage others to go to the ROR subforum under strategies/Galaxy's Edge and start practicing. I am a person who really likes to save $ when possible, but I came to the realization that I didn't want to exchange any type of paper ticket or deal with guest services, so I bit the bullet and just bought one day tickets straight from Disney in enough time to ship to my house. side note: I actually made dining reservations before we purchased the tickets and made park reservations. I snagged a Sci-Fi Drive-In for 11:40am and an Oga's Cantina for 3:40pm. I just stayed patient and checked open times a few times a week. I did not get Oga's until a week or 2 before the trip! When you make that ticket purchase, you can also make your park reservation right away, then upon arrival go straight to the gate. We stayed at Universal, so we left around 7:30, took Lyft to the Swan hotel, walked to a line already in formation to get to temp check, arrival to that line around 8:10am (park official open time 10am).
The line started moving when the Skyliner started moving, temp check started maybe 9am, straight to the gate, scanned in, and boogied our way to MMRR and fortunately for us, they were already running the ride an hour before official open, so we walked on and really enjoyed that cute little ride. I would not have had same enjoyment after waiting 1+ hrs. Then we headed to Andy's Backyard for Slinky Dog. This was around 9:30, wait was 25 min, cutting it close to that 10am BG, I alerted family we may have to do it while riding! We got off SDD 9:57 and just made our way to a spot avoiding people outside the ride. I got an error message and my hear sank, but that was because DD spam pressed the last join button and got BG7! We needed a little break and lines were getting long, so we decided on Muppets, enjoyed some AC and rest, then it was time to head back to GE and board for ROR! It was an awesome ride, but kind of funny when you think about basically the same car used for MMRR, used for ROR, unique experience, but I can see why the ride goes down as there are so many moving parts, it is pretty complex! It was then time to check-in for our Sci-Fi lunch. You check-in on the app, then you receive a notification when your table is ready. It is a weirdly quiet place to eat. It is dark and cool, large screen, but no sound. It was cool, and food was fine as burgers and fries can be, but it was pricy, like Scrooge McDuck pricy! 3 burger/fries, 1 buffalo chicken salad, 4 waters, with tip just under $100. It was a cool experience, but would've rather had purchased another park ticket rather than have that experience. If I had some kind of free dining plan promotion, maybe would feel different. It was nice to get out of the heat and remove the masks.
After lunch it was time to head to my favorite attraction TOT, but we decided to hit RNR first due to line times. Galaxy's Edge times were getting crazy. Wait times for the rides we chose were never listed more than 60 min and we didn't wait that long on anything even though the queues looked crazy. I think the longest wait of the day was our first ride on TOT at about 35-40 min! I just love those rides and so did my kids! My daughter noticed that the 3rd "O" that's out in "Hollywood" on TOT is also the "O" that you go through on the Hollywood sign on RNR, who knew!
Next, we headed back to GE via TSMM, very short wait there, into GE, walked around and soaked in a little more of the immersive environment and wish we had more time! Then it was time for Oga's reservation and without a crowd in there, your server can really make or break your experience, fortunately we had our most amazing CM of the day in "Pham." We were just planning on drinks here and he made the experience amazing with such a fantastic attitude. We were torn on some of the drinks, he asked us a few questions, then said "I got you!" We just trusted him to make the right call and man, he knocked it out of the park!
Everyone was just super happy with our drinks that he chose, my wife with Jedi Mind Trick, I had the Gold Squadron Lager, DD13 had Jabba Juice (popping pearls were a hit, pro tip: pour your water in after drink is gone and it will still bubble), DS had the Blurrgfire, he did not recommend tasting the spicy powder on the rim Pham even set up this Instagram picture for us, he was definitely a pro! You get 45 minutes in the cantina per reservation and even though we were just doing drinks, the service and timing were excellent, we never felt rushed or abandoned.
We came out of Oga's and proceeded to Docking Bay 7 for Ronto Wraps. This is where you can get them after the stand closes at 3pm during the week. I was really impressed with the seating/theming inside and the wraps are super delish! We took a quick visit to antquities shop to browse, hoping a little wait time reduction would happen. We then proceeded to knock out MFSR with less than 30 min wait and good ol Star Tours with a very minimal 15 min wait. MFSR is like a next level video game, we let the kids be the pilots and my wife and I were the gunners. Definitely wouldn't want to wait over an hour for that ride honestly, but the detail that has been utilized in GE, all of the props as you walk around or in the queues is just awesome. It boggles my mind how many little pieces of metal and parts that have gone into making this land a reality. We had no desire for Mermaid or Alien Saucers, so the only thing left to do was to head back to the original big baddies of RNR and TOT. Final rides on each of those with about 15 min wait times. Park closed at 7 and that's when we headed out. We didn't want the magic to end, so we decided to hit the skyliner and just go for a ride. We watched the sunset on the skyliner, rode to Epcot, walked to Boardwalk, got some tasty treats at the bakery, sat and ate while we just relaxed from the day. Headed out to lobby to call Lyft and on to the Universal leg of our journey. I maybe should've played Vegas that day because luck was on our side! My take aways are wait times are getting longer, but get there early, go with a plan, and most of the time the wait times listed are exaggerated. You feel much better if you get in line and wait time is 60 min, but it only takes 45 rather than the other way around, which brings me to my next trip report. Keep those wait time statments in mind as I'll be writing my Universal experience later this week and will post it in those forums. Thanks for reading!
Me trying to explain Disney planning to my family!
I honestly didn't have high hopes for getting a BG and it was a bit overwhelming, but I encourage others to go to the ROR subforum under strategies/Galaxy's Edge and start practicing. I am a person who really likes to save $ when possible, but I came to the realization that I didn't want to exchange any type of paper ticket or deal with guest services, so I bit the bullet and just bought one day tickets straight from Disney in enough time to ship to my house. side note: I actually made dining reservations before we purchased the tickets and made park reservations. I snagged a Sci-Fi Drive-In for 11:40am and an Oga's Cantina for 3:40pm. I just stayed patient and checked open times a few times a week. I did not get Oga's until a week or 2 before the trip! When you make that ticket purchase, you can also make your park reservation right away, then upon arrival go straight to the gate. We stayed at Universal, so we left around 7:30, took Lyft to the Swan hotel, walked to a line already in formation to get to temp check, arrival to that line around 8:10am (park official open time 10am).
The line started moving when the Skyliner started moving, temp check started maybe 9am, straight to the gate, scanned in, and boogied our way to MMRR and fortunately for us, they were already running the ride an hour before official open, so we walked on and really enjoyed that cute little ride. I would not have had same enjoyment after waiting 1+ hrs. Then we headed to Andy's Backyard for Slinky Dog. This was around 9:30, wait was 25 min, cutting it close to that 10am BG, I alerted family we may have to do it while riding! We got off SDD 9:57 and just made our way to a spot avoiding people outside the ride. I got an error message and my hear sank, but that was because DD spam pressed the last join button and got BG7! We needed a little break and lines were getting long, so we decided on Muppets, enjoyed some AC and rest, then it was time to head back to GE and board for ROR! It was an awesome ride, but kind of funny when you think about basically the same car used for MMRR, used for ROR, unique experience, but I can see why the ride goes down as there are so many moving parts, it is pretty complex! It was then time to check-in for our Sci-Fi lunch. You check-in on the app, then you receive a notification when your table is ready. It is a weirdly quiet place to eat. It is dark and cool, large screen, but no sound. It was cool, and food was fine as burgers and fries can be, but it was pricy, like Scrooge McDuck pricy! 3 burger/fries, 1 buffalo chicken salad, 4 waters, with tip just under $100. It was a cool experience, but would've rather had purchased another park ticket rather than have that experience. If I had some kind of free dining plan promotion, maybe would feel different. It was nice to get out of the heat and remove the masks.
After lunch it was time to head to my favorite attraction TOT, but we decided to hit RNR first due to line times. Galaxy's Edge times were getting crazy. Wait times for the rides we chose were never listed more than 60 min and we didn't wait that long on anything even though the queues looked crazy. I think the longest wait of the day was our first ride on TOT at about 35-40 min! I just love those rides and so did my kids! My daughter noticed that the 3rd "O" that's out in "Hollywood" on TOT is also the "O" that you go through on the Hollywood sign on RNR, who knew!
Next, we headed back to GE via TSMM, very short wait there, into GE, walked around and soaked in a little more of the immersive environment and wish we had more time! Then it was time for Oga's reservation and without a crowd in there, your server can really make or break your experience, fortunately we had our most amazing CM of the day in "Pham." We were just planning on drinks here and he made the experience amazing with such a fantastic attitude. We were torn on some of the drinks, he asked us a few questions, then said "I got you!" We just trusted him to make the right call and man, he knocked it out of the park!
Everyone was just super happy with our drinks that he chose, my wife with Jedi Mind Trick, I had the Gold Squadron Lager, DD13 had Jabba Juice (popping pearls were a hit, pro tip: pour your water in after drink is gone and it will still bubble), DS had the Blurrgfire, he did not recommend tasting the spicy powder on the rim
Pham even set up this Instagram picture for us, he was definitely a pro! You get 45 minutes in the cantina per reservation and even though we were just doing drinks, the service and timing were excellent, we never felt rushed or abandoned.We came out of Oga's and proceeded to Docking Bay 7 for Ronto Wraps. This is where you can get them after the stand closes at 3pm during the week. I was really impressed with the seating/theming inside and the wraps are super delish! We took a quick visit to antquities shop to browse, hoping a little wait time reduction would happen. We then proceeded to knock out MFSR with less than 30 min wait and good ol Star Tours with a very minimal 15 min wait. MFSR is like a next level video game, we let the kids be the pilots and my wife and I were the gunners. Definitely wouldn't want to wait over an hour for that ride honestly, but the detail that has been utilized in GE, all of the props as you walk around or in the queues is just awesome. It boggles my mind how many little pieces of metal and parts that have gone into making this land a reality. We had no desire for Mermaid or Alien Saucers, so the only thing left to do was to head back to the original big baddies of RNR and TOT. Final rides on each of those with about 15 min wait times. Park closed at 7 and that's when we headed out. We didn't want the magic to end, so we decided to hit the skyliner and just go for a ride. We watched the sunset on the skyliner, rode to Epcot, walked to Boardwalk, got some tasty treats at the bakery, sat and ate while we just relaxed from the day. Headed out to lobby to call Lyft and on to the Universal leg of our journey. I maybe should've played Vegas that day because luck was on our side! My take aways are wait times are getting longer, but get there early, go with a plan, and most of the time the wait times listed are exaggerated. You feel much better if you get in line and wait time is 60 min, but it only takes 45 rather than the other way around, which brings me to my next trip report. Keep those wait time statments in mind as I'll be writing my Universal experience later this week and will post it in those forums. Thanks for reading!
