Jedi Training Academy - Photopass

First the training:

 This boy used the Force on the Stormtroopers: 

 Then it was the last little padawan's turn!

Will took on Darth Vader: 

 

 And with Darth Vader defeated, the students collected their certificates:

 

Hollywood Studios - Photopass

Now that I've received my Disney Photopass pictures, I'm going to add some of them up alongside the original posts of our trip.  This picture is one of my favorites from our entire trip and it was the very last one taken.  I had fun adding borders on the Photopass website, too.  This was one of our Christmas cards this year.

Can you get a feel for the crowd at the Lights now?  It was a lot of fun, but it was a strange feeling with it being nearly 80 degrees and wall-to-wall people and fake snowing!

Jedi Training Academy

Star Tours was the only 40 inch ride we tried to get Will on in May.   He wasn't tall enough.  This trip he was, and he (and Jason) rode it 5 or 6 times!  I think I rode it 4 times with them.  Will knows the stories now since Jason bought the DVDs of all the movies after our last trip, and they watched them together all summer!

In addition to riding the Star Tours ride, Will participated in the Jedi Training Academy for 4-12 year olds.  We had to go straight from our breakfast to the sign-up at park opening.  Even being there that early, he was in the 1:20 performance time slot.  Will was the shortest kid by several inches and his "Yoda-sized robe" was still too long.   We were a little worried that he was going to back out (see shy, short kid below), but he didn't.  We just tried to keep our distance so he could focus on the trainers.

Since he was the smallest, he got to stand in the front of the stage which was great for picture taking.  The kid whose back is to me in this picture did start crying during the practice and was escorted off.  

Darth Vader made his appearance to get the kid to join the Dark Side.  But they all bravely battled him with their light sabers and passed their padawan training!  I have a video of Will's 30 second fight.  He was the last kid to go, and it was very cute.

After the training (and a long time in the gift shop picking out toys for Jason, uh, I mean, Will),  they couldn't resist a "ride" on the cruiser. 

And now our house is about all things Star Wars.   Jason bought Will a little bag of Star Wars Legos for being such a great traveler on the way home from Orlando.  They assembled the fighter together the first time, and now Will has taken it apart and re-assembled it himself a half dozen times.  So proud to see my little engineer in action.  And that smile!

Hollywood Studios

We spent all of Sunday - our last day in Orlando - at Hollywood Studios.  I was able to get this almost entirely empty street picture as we walked in for our breakfast an hour before the park opened.  This park has some of our family's favorite rides: Toy Story Midway Mania and Star Tours; and my favorite roller coaster (Aerosmith's Roll 'n Roller Coaster).  And, finally, it has an awesome "spectacle" of lights for the holiday season that we enjoyed seeing. 

The highlight of the day was Will's Jedi Training and all thing Star Wars, but I'll cover that in a separate post.  Since we had such a big breakfast, we ate a late lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby's newly opened lounge on their patio.  Our wait was zero and the people watching fantastic!  They serve bar foods, but also signatures from their menu.  I tried two of the signatures:  Cobb salad (fantastic!) and Grapefruit cake (kinda gross!)

They also have a margarita flight that they serve at the lounge.  I had pre-screened that on blogs in advance of the trip, but the heat was getting to me that day and I didn't want any alcohol.   Next time!  After we  finished our lunch around 4, we rode Star Tours again (5th time?  6th time?) and then watched Indiana Jones Stunt show.  Just as we were leaving the show, we heard the roar of the crowd of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights being turned on. 

The lights "dance" to music and fake snow falls from the sky.  We got a few good pictures of us on the Photopass that I'll have to upload after I get the CD.  I'm glad we got to see this. I'm also glad they turned them on a half hour earlier than I was expecting.  Because we were exhausted after getting to the park at 7:45 a.m. and having sunny and 80 degree temperatures.  We left the park at 6:45 p.m:  exhausted but pleased with another great trip!  I was up at 5 a.m. on Monday morning to fly to Dallas for work for the week.  I left the guys sleeping since their flight home wasn't until closer to noon. 

EPCOT and Animal Kingdom: Photopass

Our EPCOT time was rainy, but we made the most of it.  We also made the most of our pre-paid photopass by taking lots of silly pictures!  Jason was sure a good sport!

We met Donald is Mexico while we were waiting for our table for lunch.  I believe this was shortly after Will broke a trinket in the gift shop that they were very generous to not make Jason buy.  I was in the ladies room, so this was just relayed to me later.

We were excited to find a short line for Santa Goofy and Will's favorite friend, Pluto, at Animal Kingdom later that afternoon.  This was going to just be a Will picture but Jason walked up from his ride right when it was Will's turn and the photographer insisted we all pose.

After dinner back at EPCOT we saw that Mickey and Minnie were no wait.  Whoo hoo!  I wouldn't have encouraged the characters so much but for the prepaid pictures and the fact that we had two character meals already planned and autograph book to fill.  I'll be curious to see if our future trips involve autograph books or if he got it all out of his system this trip.

We took two laps on Test Track.  We learned on the first ride that we needed to wait to ride in the front seat - otherwise Will couldn't see anything!

EPCOT and Animal Kingdom

Saturday was rainy from the time we woke up until 3 p.m.  Luckily we didn't have to be there for rope drop since we had FastPass+ for the attractions we wanted (Soarin', Test Track and Illuminations), because we were tired after being at MVMCP until almost midnight.   EPCOT had a huge Christmas tree dividing Future World from the World Showcase, but that was the extent of the decorations that I noticed.  We started the day at Soarin' around 9:30 before hitting up Starbucks for coffees and cupcakes for breakfast.  Then we rode Will's favorite ride at EPCOT:  Test Track!  We used our room keys to another set of Fast Passes for later in the evening so we could ride again.

We did rider swap on Mission Space (can you say claustrophic?!) and then rode Ellen's Energy Adventure before lunch.   Will fell asleep in our booth in Mexico, and then kept sleeping after we moved him back to his stroller once we finished eating.  We walked around a bit since the rain had mostly stopped and then decided to go to Animal Kingdom for a few hours. 

Animal Kingdom also had a huge tree outfront.   The next day we'd see our third of these trees at Hollywood Studios.   We arrived just as the Jingle Jammin' Parade was going by.   After it passed us, we followed it toward Dinoland where we rode Dinosaur and then Tricerotops spin (Dumbo with dinosaurs) to cheer up Will after the scary Dinosaur ride.  Then Jason and I each rode Everest once before we headed back to EPCOT.

At EPCOT we rode Spaceship Earth (the big ball) then had dinner.  We had FP+ for Illuminations that night, which I had never seen before.   On our way, I noticed that the Character Spot was walk-in, so we said a quick hello to Mickey and Minnie before claiming our spot by the water for the show.

Wishes at Magic Kingdom is my absolute favorite thing about Disney World.  I can't say I was as impressed with Illuminations.  Not sure if I was tired, or if the "Reflections of Earth" theme just doesn't wow me as much at fireworks with the backdrop of Cinderella's castle.  Glad I saw it but I will choose Wishes over it or Fantasmic anytime!

Hollywood Vine & Dine

At Hollywood Studios we had our second character breakfast -- this time with Will's favorite pals from Disney Junior:  Special Agent Oso; June from Little Einsteins; Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates; and Handy Manny.  Will's current favorite show is Octonauts, but there is nothing in the parks themed to them.  My favorites are Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First.   Will wouldn't let me to go the Sofia meet and greet though.  :-)

Will collected four more signatures in his book.  I need to print all the character pictures now to put into his book across from the signature.  Fear not, Will also met Handy Manny, but he came while I was in the restroom, so his picture is on Jason's phone instead of mine.

Better than Handy Manny or any of the characters was the food!  I'd read mixed reviews, but I love breakfast food and thought all of it was delicious: frittata; biscuits and gravy; fruit; yogurt; cinnamon rolls; banana bread; pick your own omelet; and the list goes on.  The grand finale was my creation of Mickey waffles with warm strawberry compote and soft serve vanilla ice cream.  I made one for myself, but once Will saw it, I just gave him the first one and went back to make myself another.  Yum!   We could have stayed to continue a leisurely breakfast longer but we had to get moving on pulling more Toy Store Fast Passes and getting Will signed up for Jedi Training. 

MVMCP: Photopass