A Shining New Era is Tiptoeing Nearer for the TCD Gang

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Just about a year ago, the TCD gang spent Memorial Day weekend at the Fort.

 

The visit was memorialized in the TR titled "It's the End of the World as We Know It."

 

At the time, the TCD twins were about to graduate High School and head off to two different Universities.

 

And they did.

 

I thought that meant our days at Disney would be fewer and far between.

 

But what do I know?

 

Twin #2 began at FSU last summer, and just completed her Freshman year.  She is not going to school this summer.

 

Twin #1 began at UF in the fall, and is currently on a month-long trip to Paris and London as part of the beginning of the summer semester.  She will have some time off in June and will then take some more classes in July and August to complete her Freshman year.

 

They both have done great.

 

Oldest TCD DD has finished the first year of her two year Master's Degree program at Auburn.  With an A average.

 

Things are clicking along nicely for the TCD gang.

 

But, things are about to go in a new direction that I frankly didn't see coming a year ago.

 

Twin #2 and I just visited WDW over the past weekend.  And I didn't come home with her.  Instead, I came home with this:

 

 

But, I am getting ahead of myself.

 

Let's back it up.

 

Twin #2 and I headed over to WDW early Sunday morning, May 18, 2014.  We took two cars.  Because only one of us was coming back. 

 

I had my truck full of the contents of her dorm, which I would be moving in to a new apartment in Orlando on Monday.  And not just any apartment.  It's a Disney apartment.

 

I booked a last minute room at Port Orleans Riverside.  Twin #2 had to check in at 7 am on Monday morning, so we decided it would be better to spend the night and avoid the grueling 1 1/2 hour drive on Monday.  Actually, the ride is not grueling- but we didn't want to risk having any problems and not arriving on time.

 

We left super early because we planned to be at DHS for rope drop.

 

Star Wars Weekends have started, you know.

 

And, Rope Drop is a good thing on Star Wars weekends.

 

We rolled onto WDW property at about 6:45 am.  And ditched the truck at Port Orleans.  Then drove over to DHS in Twin #2's car.  While I'm a big fan of the WDW transportation system, I don't trust it to get me to rope drop.  So we drove.

 

We were directed to park in what is normally the CM parking area.  I guess the CM's must all park elsewhere on SWW days.

 

So far, I hadn't taken any photos.

 

This is the first one from this trip-taken at 7:07 am as we stood at the Hollywood Studios scanners.  You can see the sun is just rising:

 

 

You're probably thinking that I'm stupid.

 

Why show up that early, when the park isn't scheduled to open until 8?

 

Keep reading.

 

Looking over to the right of where we are standing, you can see that there aren't very many other people here at 7:07 am:

 

 

There are just two guests in front of us at this scanning station- they were part of the group standing to the right of the other station.  By eavesdropping on their conversation, I learned that they intended to make a beeline to the Jedi Training Academy sign-up. That is good:

 

 

After a few guests got in line behind us, and the order of things was kind of set, Twin #2 and I took turns visiting the restroom.  Of course, when it was my turn, I took a detour out to look at the geeks who had waited overnight for a chance to get a FP to meet one of this weekend's celebrity guests:

 

 

The people you see there near the front of the line more than likely spent the night waiting.  They really lucked out, as the weather was amazing on Saturday night- it was clear and actually cool.  Not bad at all.  And, it wasn't nearly as crowded as I've seen in the past.  Everyone must be waiting for when Luke visits in a couple weeks:

 

 

I headed over to the front of the line to get a photo of the signs they have marking which celebrity each line is there for, but the sun was reflecting off of the signs, and the CM in front was giving me the stink eye- like he thought I might be trying to jump the line.  So, I just snapped this photo and left.  Fail:

 

 

Don't worry- if you really want to know who the celebrities are, we will be seeing them all a little later in this report.

 

I also wanted a photo of the geeks who actually spent the night waiting to meet the celebrities.  This is what I got:

 

 

I call it Sunrise over Geeks.  The sun could have turned it down a notch for me, but if you look carefully, you can see a lady with some very sweet Star Wars tights, and a couple of folks who were smart enough to bring chairs.

 

After that detour, I headed back to our spot in line.  It's 7:12 now, and not very crowded at all.  Maybe we overdid it on the early arrival time?:

 

 

So, we stood and waited for a while.  By 7:27, just 20 minutes after our arrival, this is how things looked:

 

 

 

I don't know about you, but for me, it was worth waiting those 20 extra minutes to be at the front of the pack.

 

Remember how I said the park doesn't open until 8?

 

That is technically true, but the scanners come on at 7:30 for SWW, and they did this morning.  Fortunately, the family in front of us had no issues scanning their Magic Bands, and in we went.  There are CM's all along the way here telling guests to walk, not run.  We walked fast.  Other knuckleheads, including an idiot mom with a stroller, ran.  But, we have an advantage since we know what we're doing, and we did just fine walking fast.  At 7:35, we were here, looking at this:

 

 

This is the view to my right- as you can see there is an actual rope- and the idiot mom with the stroller must be proud of herself for making it to it.  She made the mistake of thinking that she will have some advantage being over there near the edge of the rope.  But we knew that it is better to be in the center of the street, right in front of the flag on the rope.  You'll see why in just a minute:

 

 

At 7:37 am, I took this photo to show all the people who we were now in front of. Notice none of them are happy.  Except for the kid on the right:

 

 

Not too long after I snapped that photo, an audio track began to play on the loudspeakers- it was a message from the Rebel Alliance warning us of the evil Empire, and suggesting that we join the rebels:

 

 

Right after that, a Storm Trooper came around the corner on his tall Storm Trooper scooter-or whatever that thing is:

 

 

Then another one joined him, and we can hear them talking to each other as they come toward us:

 

 

One of the Storm Troopers suggests to the other than he take out the speaker playing the message from the rebels.  And he does.  This is a pretty good shot of the flare shooting out of the Storm Trooper's fake gun toward the speaker-and I also got the moon in that shot:

 

 

The Storm Troopers then drive right up to us:

 

 

There is some funny banter as they try to figure out their controls and what we are all doing here:

 

 

 

 

After we endure the "humorous" banter, the Storm Troopers order the CM's on their side of the rope to let us in.

 

Note the time on the CM's watch as the rope is unclipped-also note that the rope has been unclipped right in front of us:

 

 

So, the park doesn't open until 8, but here we are at 7:45 on Hollywood Blvd. about to enjoy a good old fashioned rope drop stampede.  Just like the good old days.

 

After the unclipping, we are told not to move.  CM's line up across the road right in front of us, and there are more CM's stationed down the road to make sure no actual running takes place.  Notice that those Storm Trooper scooters are blocking access to the dummies who are standing to the left and right of us.  Including the idiot mom who ran with her stroller to get her spot. Ha. Ha.:

 

 

And then the stampede is on!

 

Since we were right in the center, we were good for the first stretch, and stayed right behind the CM's in front of us, walking swiftly up to the second row of CM's.  Note that the folks to the right of us are about to run into another obstruction:

 

 

This is where it gets good.  Guests start shoving and jostling for position.  The aggressive A-holes in the bunch show themselves at this point, and as you can see, have successfully fought their way in front of us.  This is stupid, and not a big deal.  We are all still near the front, and that behavior is not necessary.  That is Twin #2's shoulder there on the left, and you can see we're no longer at the actual front of the pack- but still we're close enough:

 

 

Hey, look who it is!  The idiot stroller mom.  She has no idea what she's doing, but she is bound and determined to push that stupid stroller of hers into as many people as she needs to to get to wherever it is she thinks she is going in such a hurry:

 

 

One of the things I like about SWW is seeing how some of the real Star Wars geeks in attendance dress.  And, as we are moving forward in the stampede, I spied a guest in a home-made costume.  I guess this is a slave Leia:

 

 

I took this second photo specifically for FWG, since I know he's a big Slave Leia fan:

 

 

Ordinarily, I am strongly opposed to Moms in Slave Leia outfits.  But, this mom wasn't too bad at rocking her Disney side.

 

In case you didn't guess, we were headed to Toy Story Midway Mania.  We arrived there at just before 8, and were admitted.  That first bunch of A-holes who pushed their way to the front got to ride 30 seconds before we did.  I guess they were happy.

 

We were on and off quick, and then headed over to the new Darth's Mall location. For all the prior SWW we have attended, the Darth's Mall gift-shop (which has had other names, BTW)  (one that I remember is Jabba's Hut), was located in a giant tent in the backstage area next to Rock N Rollercoaster.  But now Darth's Mall is located in what is normally and empty sound-stage next to TSMM.  Apparently, they have had big crowds back here, as we had to walk through a long winding queue to just get in the building.  But there was no crowd here yet this morning- we waked right in.  Had we wanted to, we could have met Jedi Mickey and Minnie with a short wait, but we wanted to look around the shop and get to another meet and greet queue instead.  Here's Jedi Mickey and Minnie in case you want to see what they look like:

 

 

I took that photo at 8:07 am.  We had already ridden TSMM, and were about to take a look around this gift shop that people will later be waiting in line just to get into all day long.

 

So, maybe getting there at 7:07 wasn't so stupid after all.

 

Next up, we will look at the goods they are trying to sell in the gift shop, and then move on to meet a few of the special characters who only come out for SWW.

 

And- believe it or not- we run into the mom in the Slave Leia costume again. 

 

TCD

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

First?

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

First!

 

Darn it Aaron!

 

Disney internship? Is that the same as the CP? Either way, congrats to your daughter! 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Third is the new first.

[The Troll 67]

Is there another photo of the girl in the slave Leia outfit? I would like to see the front side of her...um, costume.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Nice job on the rope drop decision.

Stupid rude people SMB.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Hey, you know what DIT would do right now?

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Count me in. I wasn't sure when she was starting. I hope she has a good time!

[jmaul 65]

I'm in. First page on a TCD TR.

Congrats to twin #2.

Is that a slit on the other side of Leia's skirt up to her badonkadonk? You should have gotten a pic of her other Disney side......

Seeing all the pushing and shoving, it looks like I'm glad I didn't partake in any rope drops. Not that my family would have given me the chance.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm in!  And please tell us more about this internship!

[BigTom 76]

Congrats to your DD.

[TurkeyPants...Nicole 92]

I want to do a Disney Internship!

[Beckers 1,136]

In!

Congrats to your DD!!! That's fantastic

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I want to do a Disney Internship!

 

Me too!

[PoorGABoy 4]

First page....May the force be with us!

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Congrats to your daughter, friends daughter just started the college program this week, are the programs the same thing or something different just curios.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

I'm in!

Congratulations to Twin #2!

Actually congratulations to all your girls on their accomplishments.

[caveat lector 181]

A new and exciting turn for the TCD crew. Congrats and I'm excited to hear.

[Beckers 1,136]

Hey, you know what DIT would do right now?

Hmm, would it be fill up page 1?

[Santa ... Shannon 160]

First page? Me?! Awesome...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Seals 111]

One twin goes to Paris/London and the other one gets to live at WDW? I'd say it's great to be TCD twins.

And possibly, page 1  which would be AWESOME because I've never been on p. 1 of a trip report before, except my own.  But I also never really try because all those other people seem to get such pleasure out of being on p. 1 and I am content to be on p. whatever.

 

LOL -- Hit post and I see I'm on page 2. Story of my life!

Edited May 21, 2014 by Seals

[Beckers 1,136]

But hey you are first on page 2!

[Lou... 3,118]

I want to do a Disney Internship!

 

While you can't do an internship/CP, you could become a CM for 6 months.

If only you were going to be at WDW in the near future, you could start the process.

[Santa ... Shannon 160]

LOL -- Hit post and I see I'm on page 2. Story of my life!

If it makes you fell any better, you're page one when viewed through Tap-A-Talk!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Page two is good enough for me.

 

I am another one whose friend's daughter started the CP this week.

 

Really hope to work at WDW after the kids are grown.