We rode Rise of the Resistance on Walt's Birthday on our first Mother/Daughter Trip! December 2019! Updated September 19th!

[buzzrelly]

How is that even possible! He was everywhere just a few years ago! It couldn't be that long ago!

I guess I was wrong because I asked her yesterday and she knows who he is from How I Met Your Mother. I knew him more from Doogie Houser…because I'm that old.

That looks good! (Even without the meatballs.)

It wasn't bad for kind of fast food.

I wasn't very interested. Then again, I didn't realize there were so many trees!

I loved it. I would have gone a couple times if we were there longer

Funny... get up at 4am for a ride? Sure! Get up at 4am for work??? Are you crazy????

Priorities!

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 4, 2019
ALL STAR MOVIES 4950


We must've borrowed @pkondz 's bus pass because luckily,
the ASM bus was pulling up as we were walking to it.
We quickly stopped to get our bags and some hot tea,
which is my nighttime routine even at home,
and headed to our room, 4950-


It was in the Dalmations area, Building 4, 3rd Floor,
so it was fairly close to the Food Court/Front Desk area.
I believe this was one of the "Preferred" locations, and it was fine.
Nothing great, but a clean place to sleep for a couple nights.
We did get a refurbished room that has the pull down bed
which is nice in theory because it should give you a little more space,
but we tended to leave it down all the time so for us,
it wasn't necessarily a big space saver.



The pull-down bed up...


The bathroom sink area. This was nice because it was split off from both the room and the toilet shower area so we could both get ready at the same time.



Looking back into the room from the sink...


The shower with the wall-mounted soaps/shampoo...

I'm not a fan and brought my own to use so didn't even try these out.

We had actually picked up some cupcakes at Sprinkles while at DS,
so we snacked on these while we got ready for bed and over the next couple of days



I forgot to get a pic of the pull-down bed empty, but here's Allie in it
She thought it was very comfortable.




Also, now that I'm looking at this picture,
I see that this was the night we bought these super cute sweatshirts
that we ended up wearing to MVMCP.
You'll see them again later, but she was freezing and ended up wearing it to bed.

It was after 11 when we finally got to bed and we had our alarms set to 4 am…eek!
We were so excited and I was trying to read up on strategies of how to go about the morning, but honestly, aside from arriving early,
I was super unprepared for how it would all go down!

Our Rise of the Resistance morning is next!​

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 5, 2019
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WALT
OH, AND IT'S OPENING DAY OF RISE OF THE RESISTANCE!


Our morning started out great.
Can you see the joy coming out of this picture?

No? Well, at least she was up and half-awake.
This was at 4:35 am and we were literally the only people in the lobby
while we waited for our Uber.




4:49 am, and look, hardly any people

behind us!
Because they were all in front of us!


There was a lot of nervous excitement that morning.
I had NO idea what to expect.
Being in WDW for the PREMIER of a new attraction was a first for me,
and this was no ordinary attraction!
I tried to just stay calm and follow along with what everyone was doing,
so when they let us in at about 5:20, we just tried keeping up with the crowd...


Once we came to a stop, I noticed that everyone was on their phones.
Now up until this point, I don't think anyone knew exactly
how the Boarding Groups would work.
Or maybe that was just me
I think I knew enough to have my phone ready,
but it took me a minute to figure out the timing of everything
until I saw everyone else doing it.

I'm a fast learner though, and once I saw everyone on their phones,
we went on MDE and after a couple clicks, we got...


Yay!

Of course, we had no idea how long it would take to be called.
It could be a minute or hours and hours.
We decided to just go with the crowd into SWGE
since we had never been there anyway.




Just a couple people in front of us...


Luckily, the Stormtroopers were out to keep everyone in line...


CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...​

 

[Lesley Wake]

We had considered going to EPCOT this night because Neil Patrick Harris was narrating the Candlelight Processional, but after talking it over with Allie, we decided to skip it. She didn't even know who he was and I had seen the CP in 2015 but had never been to the Christmas Tree Trail. Plus, we didn't have a dining package and with such a short trip, we wanted to see as much as possible, not just go stand in a crazy long line.

yeah, that could have been a long line! I thought NPH was good, but not absolutely amazing...especially with a 4am wakeup! Josh Stamos...now, he's someone I would have waited for!

We both loved this!
And it's a perfect Christmas-sy thing to do!

I love it so much too!

Now up until this point, I don't think anyone knew exactly
how the Boarding Groups would work.
Or maybe that was just me
I think I knew enough to have my phone ready,
but it took me a minute to figure out the timing of everything
until I saw everyone else doing it.

I don't think anyone really knew what the situation would be! But Group 24 was awesome!

 

[pkondz]

We must've borrowed @pkondz 's bus pass because luckily,
the ASM bus was pulling up as we were walking to it.

You're welcome. I'm going to need that back when the border opens up and I can go again, though.

and it was fine.
Nothing great, but a clean place to sleep for a couple nights.

Yup. That's about it. I tend to GO! GO! GO!, so the room isn't that important.
But clean and a place to sleep is what I want.

We did get a refurbished room that has the pull down bed
which is nice in theory because it should give you a little more space,
but we tended to leave it down all the time so for us,
it wasn't necessarily a big space saver.

Huh. That's a good point. I guess for a solo traveler like myself, it would be great, but I know I'm the exception, rather than the rule.

3 out of 4 of those really look great!
(the 4th has coconut and therefore should be banished.)

I forgot to get a pic of the pull-down bed empty, but here's Allie in it

Yes, she does look cozy, but I really like the graphic behind her!

Can you see the joy coming out of this picture?

4:49 am, and look, hardly any people

behind us!
Because they were all in front of us!

Being in WDW for the PREMIER of a new attraction was a first for me,

I bet! And... really... how cool is that???

Once we came to a stop, I noticed that everyone was on their phones.
Now up until this point, I don't think anyone knew exactly
how the Boarding Groups would work.
Or maybe that was just me

Can you imagine if you hadn't looked?????

after a couple clicks, we got...

Yuss!!!

 

[buzzrelly]

yeah, that could have been a long line! I thought NPH was good, but not absolutely amazing...especially with a 4am wakeup! Josh Stamos...now, he's someone I would have waited for!

I would love to see John Stamos too! The only time I've seen the CP, Merideth Viera was the narrator. She was okay, but it was the choir that I really loved.

I don't think anyone really knew what the situation would be! But Group 24 was awesome!

I didn't even realize how lucky we were at the time!

 

[buzzrelly]

You're welcome. I'm going to need that back when the border opens up and I can go again, though.

I'll be happy to return it, and I hope that's very soon!

Yup. That's about it. I tend to GO! GO! GO!, so the room isn't that important.
But clean and a place to sleep is what I want.

I really do prefer the Deluxe/DVC resorts for a longer trip, especially when I go with my mom because we need to take mid-day breaks on those trips and we will often sit and relax by the pool. But this was such a quick trip and kind of unplanned, so ASM was perfect and super affordable.

3 out of 4 of those really look great!
(the 4th has coconut and therefore should be banished.)

I think that was my favorite!

I bet! And... really... how cool is that???

So cool! Something I will be telling my grandkids years from now!

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 5, 2019
STAR WARS GALAXY'S EDGE



We were excited to finally see SWGE for the first time, but we were kind of swept up with the crowd so I took some terrible pictures of our first ever views while we were walking...








Honestly, I had no idea or plan of what we were doing at this point,
but we literally walked straight onto MFSR with no wait.



I got Gunner and Allie got Engineer...








I had heard that being the Pilot was more fun and I can see that,
but we had no clue what we were doing anyway and thought it was a cute ride
but nothing we'd rush back to.
I was really hoping for more from RotR!

Continued in next post...​

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 5, 2019
NOW BOARDING



When we got off MFSR, it was finally getting light out.
This was 6:53 am...


We had been up for nearly three hours and I hadn't had my coffee yet
and I was starting to feel it so we went in search of some.
Now this is the kind of stupid on my part,
I was kind of anxious and didn't really want to leave SWGE lest our number got called, even though in reality, we were still a couple hours away from that.
We did briefly think about heading out to other rides…and we really should have,
but I didn't know that then and looking back now it seems so weird to me
that we just sat around there to wait.

Anyway, we wandered around SWGE and finally found some coffee in Docking Bay 7...


but we didn't like any of the food choices…
neither one of us eats sausage so we definitely weren't feeling the Ronto Wrap.
We just got the coffee and wandered around some more.




At 7:39, they were boarding groups 10-20 so I though we were close,
but we were confused by the estimated wait saying, "Evening."


I think this is when the ride went down and all the people that had been ready to board at that time were being evacuated and given fast passes for later in the day.
But it was all very confusing and everywhere you looked,
people were getting angry at the Cast Members.
I felt bad for some of them but I was super impressed
that they all seemed to somehow keep it together.
We were just trying to eavesdrop and find out what was going on,
but when I think back to that morning, it was a little chaotic.

We decided to just stick it out…I really didn't think it would take until the evening, and we had already invested quite a bit of time and effort so we wanted to see it through.

We were rewarded for our patience when our BG finally got called at 9:13 am...


We had been sitting on a curb right near the entrance so we hopped right in line!


I feel like we are beyond the point of "Spoilers,"
but if you don't want to see any of the queue, skip past these next pictures.









Continued in next post...
​

 

[PlutosRHM55]

There was definitely a lot of confusion on that day, even for us cast members so people coming at our throats just made it worse. Savi's was especially difficult since we are on a very strict appointment system where if you miss your time, usually it means you miss your appointment, which with the new Rise system... it happened a lot so we were constantly having to reconfigure. I got pulled aside as soon as I walked in that day to be briefed on what we're doing. It was crazy. Not a fun day for CMs at all. Some day people will realize sometimes we are just as in the dark as the guests are and when we have to put our foot down, usually it's just because we have to do our jobs.

That's too bad you didn't realize about how you would've been fine leaving the land, but in the end probably still better off just to keep up-to-date on what was going on. Again, very VERY confusing day all around. (Also, you should give Ronto Wraps a chance... )

I'm excited to hear your thoughts on Rise!

 

[olafofwarmhugs]

We had considered going to EPCOT this night because Neil Patrick Harris was narrating the Candlelight Processional, but after talking it over with Allie, we decided to skip it. She didn't even know who he was and I had seen the CP in 2015 but had never been to the Christmas Tree Trail.

I actually do know who he is...

 

[pkondz]

I'll be happy to return it, and I hope that's very soon!

That'd be nice! But... it sure doesn't look like it'll be any time soon at all.

I really do prefer the Deluxe/DVC resorts for a longer trip, especially when I go with my mom because we need to take mid-day breaks on those trips and we will often sit and relax by the pool. But this was such a quick trip and kind of unplanned, so ASM was perfect and super affordable.

And I completely understand all of that.

I think that was my favorite!

we literally walked straight onto MFSR with no wait.

Nice!

I got Gunner and Allie got Engineer...

Really? They sat you in different categories? I didn't know they did that when there were even pairs.

We had been up for nearly three hours and I hadn't had my coffee yet

Now this is the kind of stupid on my part,
I was kind of anxious and didn't really want to leave SWGE lest our number got called, even though in reality, we were still a couple hours away from that.
We did briefly think about heading out to other rides…and we really should have,
but I didn't know that then and looking back now it seems so weird to me
that we just sat around there to wait.

Nah. Not stupid. You didn't know the game yet, so you waited to see.

neither one of us eats sausage so we definitely weren't feeling the Ronto Wrap.

What about hot dogs?

At 7:39, they were boarding groups 10-20 so I though we were close,
but we were confused by the estimated wait saying, "Evening."

uh, oh...

everywhere you looked,
people were getting angry at the Cast Members.

Yeah, because that will definitely help.

We were rewarded for our patience when our BG finally got called at 9:13 am...

Yuss!!!!

Seen that photo a time or two. And love it.

I actually do know who he is...

Yeah, mom!

 

[buzzrelly]

There was definitely a lot of confusion on that day, even for us cast members so people coming at our throats just made it worse.

It was crazy. Not a fun day for CMs at all.

I cannot even imagine The good news is, I don't see another crazy opening like that again anytime soon…or at least until the Star Wars hotel opens, right?

That's too bad you didn't realize about how you would've been fine leaving the land, but in the end probably still better off just to keep up-to-date on what was going on.

We totally could have gotten in a couple rides elsewhere, but I was wholly focused on Rise of the Resistance!

 

[buzzrelly]

I actually do know who he is...

Sorry

Next time I have a question about something I'm writing in here, I'll wake you up to ask

 

[buzzrelly]

That'd be nice! But... it sure doesn't look like it'll be any time soon at all.

Really? They sat you in different categories? I didn't know they did that when there were even pairs.

I still really have no idea how that works

We were next to each other but I wasn't dong anything right…Allie kept telling me to push some buttons!

What about hot dogs?

Me-no, Allie-sometimes.

Although if we get out to DL next July, I may make an exception and try a corn dog nugget

Yeah, mom!

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 5, 2019
RISE UP



Before I go on, let's take a closer look at a couple of pictures I posted above…
Notice anything?



Yup, somewhere along the way, the app was glitching
and ended up showing as a Party of 1 instead of a Party of 2.
I was slightly worried, but figured I had my screen shot to show
if they gave us any trouble boarding. They didn't.

More ride photos ahead, so don't look if you are still avoiding spoilers...






We were happy that we were seated in the front row...




The ride was so incredible in such a surreal sort of way.
We were stunned at each new scene and couldn't believe how many actual different scenes there were before the actual "ride."
And then the ride part was amazing too.
Once we got off, we both agreed that it was simply amazing
and we were so happy we got to experience it that day!

The only thing we were sad about was thinking that Nicholas,
being the huge Star Wars fan, would have LOVED it
and would have loved to have been there with us that day.
Of course we kept talking about how we can't wait for him to see it
when we go in July…and then, sigh, that didn't happen
But of course, we didn't know that then
and were just so happy in that moment to have gotten to experience this!

When we got off, we finally left SWGE after one last picture of the Millennium Falcon...


It was almost 10 and we decided to head back to ASM to eat breakfast and rest a bit
since we were heading to MVMCP this night.
Oh, did I not mention that?
Yup…we got up at 4 am and had plans to stay up until midnight, or later.
Smart right?
With such a short trip, this was just the way it worked out.
YOLO, right??

On our way out, I couldn't help myself from taking pictures
of the DHS Christmas decorations.
They are literally PERFECT and totally make me nostalgic for my youth,
even though they are supposed to be from the 30s or 40s, and not the 60s or 70s.

Those pictures next!
​

 

[suse66]

We had actually picked up some cupcakes at Sprinkles while at DS,
so we snacked on these while we got ready for bed and over the next couple of days

Yum! I would devour the coconut one.

I forgot to get a pic of the pull-down bed empty, but here's Allie in it
She thought it was very comfortable.

I really like the remodeled rooms.

There was a lot of nervous excitement that morning.
I had NO idea what to expect.
Being in WDW for the PREMIER of a new attraction was a first for me,
and this was no ordinary attraction!
I tried to just stay calm and follow along with what everyone was doing,
so when they let us in at about 5:20, we just tried keeping up with the crowd...

So exciting to be there for the first day! I was there a week later but didn't even attempt SWGE.

I'm a fast learner though, and once I saw everyone on their phones,
we went on MDE and after a couple clicks, we got...

Amazing!!!

I had heard that being the Pilot was more fun and I can see that,
but we had no clue what we were doing anyway and thought it was a cute ride
but nothing we'd rush back to.
I was really hoping for more from RotR!

Can't wait to hear what you thought of it!

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 5, 2019
DHS CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS


It had been freezing this morning, but by the time we were leaving,
it was warming up and turning into a gorgeous December day...















We considered taking a ride on the new Skyliner
but we were kind of beat and really hungry,
and we just wanted to get back to our resort quickly.
We called an Uber and sat for about 5 minutes until it arrived.
This may be my one regret about this trip
because we never did get a chance to ride it
and still haven't since our following two trips were cancelled.
If we go in October, we are definitely riding!


Back at ASM, we stopped at the food court for a super yummy breakfast...

Mine...

those cheesy hash browns were so good,
I ended up getting them a couple more times this trip

And Allies...


Sorry for the upside down pic, I can't seem to straighten it out.
This is her favorite thing in all of WDW so she was a happy girl.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room to take a nap.
This may be the one thing that sucked about being at a Value Resort…
the whole time we were trying to rest,
the doors all around us kept opening and slamming shut
with the Mousekeepers going in and out.
It was super annoying and I didn't sleep much because of it.
I feel like the inside corridors of the Deluxe Resorts are much quieter
for taking a nap in the middle of the day.

With all the noise and lack of sleep,
would we be rested and Merry enough to make it to MVMCP?

That's next!
​

 

[buzzrelly]

Yum! I would devour the coconut one.

You'll have to fight @pkondz for it!

So exciting to be there for the first day! I was there a week later but didn't even attempt SWGE.

It was! And yet, we did go back to DHS a couple days later and didn't even try to get on again.

Can't wait to hear what you thought of it!

We must have been posting at the same time because my thoughts are above your post

 

[PlutosRHM55]

So glad to hear you enjoyed Rise. It's really so incredible. I'm so lucky to have done it all the times I have. Also, yes, front row is truly the best.

I've said it before but Studios wins for Christmas decorations. Again, I wasn't born until the late 90s but all those decorations give me nostalgia too. I guess nothing much has changed or everyone just has some version of those decorations passed down to them. Who knows?

I'm sorry to hear you weren't able to get a good nap in. The All Star resorts definitely are the most active in the day time and nobody seems to remain all that quiet. Hope you still had a good night at MVMCP!