SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! For one day only, the Dickerson family faced the terrible crowds and humidity at Disney MGM Studios! See people wearing inappropriate Star Wars themed garments ill-suited for the weather! Gasp, as hundreds of people try and get Kenny Baker’s autograph! SUNDAY!
OK, sorry about the hyperbole, but it matched my expectations. I just finished up a day on vacation in Orlando. It was the final portion on my Star Wars 30th Anniversary party. Last weekend, in order to celebrate the official anniversary I watched all six films… hell, I even bought Episode One on DVD for the first time.
I don’t want your pity.
This weekend, the Star Wars Weekends began at Disney World in Florida. For a month various actors from the films appear to sign autographs, special activities are put on, Star Wars characters inhabit whole sections of the park, and dozens of officially licensed exclusive Star Wars items are put on sale. Ah yes, Georgel Lucas, always giving back to the fans.
Arrived with family (three sons and wife alongside) at 8:15 Sunday, and immediately saw three REALLY BIG lines to the far right. What were they? The autograph lines, of course. What they have started this year is set up three park entrance lines and those people are allowed into the park “early” to get the fastpasses for the autographs. Well, from the looks of it anyone who arrived after 8:30 was out of luck – did I mention it was a HUGE line? These visitors got no extra perks save for that they were in the park before rope drop (and, of course. they got the autograph fast passes). Disney did this to prevent the mad hordes of the past who ran to Indiana Jones (and to help those pour souls who did not know how the autograph/fast pass system worked). No idea if it helped…
I won’t explain that last paragraph. If you know enough to interpret what I wrote, welcome to the tribe brother! Our secret Disney coven meets every other Sunday at Dennys. After a month you can learn the secret handshake…
Anyway, we were swept away by a crew member on entry – we would be the first people to ride Rock N Roller Coaster! Yeah! Except for the fact that only my wife and my middle son like Roller Coasters! Oh well, it was able to give us a unique look at the park near-empty which is cool. You are able to catch a glimpse the machines rolling away with all the amusement park robots that need repair from the previous days activities (they are still having problems with that Yul Brenner “gunslinger” model, I hear).
After half of us did NOT ride the roller coaster we split up, My youngest son and I dashed over to the Star Wars alley – or at least we tried to dash. We go lost – and yes, this was my fourth trip to MGM, and my second Star Wars Weekend… I think that Disney needs to improve their signage directing users to this main section… Or, I’m getting senile. Let’s go with the signage thing.
We got Darth’s autograph and picture (my five year old LOVES Darth Vader, which concerns me – look at the character’s actions in Episode 3; It’s like wanting to collect Hitler action figures) and then went shopping in Jabbas Hutt, which was half the side of last years “store” for exclusive merchandise. Not very crowded at 10:00… was able to spend way too much money in an incredibly efficient manner. Thanks Disney! Be sure to put a sign dedicating that new wing of the Contemporary hotel in memory of my donation! Ok, I’m exaggerating. A little.
After my wife roller her eyes at my purchases and I got several crew members to help me load them in the van (“But honey we can ship our dirty clothes home if we need the room! Or put Hunter on a bus!”) we… went to buy more stuff. But now it was 10:45 and Jabba’s Hutt was now… well, the best description I can think of is, you remember that episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Spongebob got really sick and expanded to fill his whole coconut house? It was like that. Only instead of sponge, it was geeks. Less absorbent.
So we went to the Star Wars parade, which was impressive. Most impressive. Two of my sons did not care for it and were already complaining about the humidity and the wetness and the tired and the cranky KLAVEN!Ahem.
After we beat our sons into submis… Err, I mean, comvinced them of how exciting and fun they were going to be, we realized that it was time to feed them and, to placate the crankiness, spend more moeny on plastic toys they would tire of witin an hour. So we went back to the backlot tour store and bought such items. After the food and the nonbiodegradable treats, they were right as rain! Well, OK, they weren’t trying to kill each other anymore…
We caught Star Tours, they rested as I went to the Legends live talk show, where Kenny Baker (who was the soul inside R2) and Bonnie Piesse (who played the young Aunt Beru) were interviewed by Jay-Captain-Typho (sadly, I can’t remember his last name for all the money in the world, but I remember his character’s name. Geek Card automatically renewed for another year).
The storm trooper banter at the beginning was probably the exact same as last year (didn’t catch it then) but whether it was recycled or renewed, it was still funny.
Then, the Legends of the Force talkshow started.
And I got kinda sad.
More later….