The Big Summer Blowout (YOOHOO!) A June and July 2014 TR

[Tiffany507s]

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Welcome to my VERY FIRST trip report!!

My name is Tiffany and I am your slightly nervous but very excited host. This trip report was not planned until last night and I hope I don't do a terrible job.

Here is your CAST:
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DH aka Adam aka Hamm, Peter Pan, Han is pictured on the left!
Favorite Theme Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Counter-Service Restaurant: Casey's Corner or Tortuga Tavern
Favorite Table-Service Restaurants: Shula's Steakhouse
Favorite Rides: Toy Story Midway Mania, Space Mountain, Rockin' Rollercoaster
Favorite Disney Characters: Grumpy, Jafar, R2D2
Favorite Disney Movies: Aladdin, Emperor's New Groove, Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Disney Songs: One Jump Ahead, Prince Ali, Under the Sea,

Tiffany aka Wheezy, Wendy, Leia
Favorite Theme Park: Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom
Favorite Counter-Service Restaurant: Les Halles Boulangerie & Pâtisserie
Favorite Table-Service Restaurants: Via Napoli
Favorite Rides: Toy Story Midway Mania, Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror
Favorite Disney Characters: Belle, Ariel, Rapunzel, Villains in general
Favorite Disney Movies: Emperor's New Groove, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story
Favorite Disney Songs: Belle, Part of your World, Be Prepared

We are AP Holders and this trip will be our 8th since our Disneymoon in 2009 (we know we have a problem).

Here is the WHEN:
The adventure begins when we start the 15 hour drive on June 4 and (currently) ends July 7...but WHO KNOWS WHEN THIS ADVENTURE WILL END!
....Well I know for sure it has to end by July 22 because DH will have to be back to work by then.

DH and I got jobs with our local school system and we both have summers off. However DH will move to a year round contract this coming school year.
We knew this would be the only time for a long while we would have a long period of time off together so THE BIG SUMMER BLOWOUT WAS BORN!

Here is the WHERE:
We will be at an off site condo located about a mile from WDW.

Here is a little bit of what this trip report will include:
-A LOT OF DISNEY WORLD
-STAR WARS (We will be at the last two SWW)
-Universal Orlando (the dark side)
-HARRY POTTER...(hopefully soft opens of Diagon Alley!!)
-Maybe some Sea World (spoiler: Seaworld didn't happen)
-LOTS of Food...some off site food will be consumed!
-Golf (spoiler: no golf here)
-Water parks
-Beaches (spoiler: beach didn't happen until our trek home)
-Star Wars
-The World Cup
-Star Wars
-NBA Finals
-Star Wars
-Going with the flow/spontaneous Disney

Here is what this trip report WILL NOT include:
-A lot of preplanning
-ADRs made 180 in advanced (or two weeks in advance for that matter)
...Go ahead and ask how many ADRs we have, or maybe you shouldn't because you may pass out.

So as you see this won't be your average trip report, but I still hope you tune in.
I want to keep it as live as possible and if I disappear I want you guys to bug me about it.
This is the trip of a lifetime and I want to remember ALL OF IT!

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. I will likely be posting stuff a lot! My user name is: tiffanystroman

If I forgot anything or you want to know anything about us feel free to ask. I've got a long 4 days of waiting ahead...oh a packing...because I haven't packed a thing. ​

 

[Tiffany507s]

Introduction

June 5th
The Adventure Begins
The Adventure Begins Pt. 2
June 6th
SWW Day 1
June 7th
SWW Day 2
SWW Day 2 Pt 2
June 8th
SWW Day 3
June 9th
Universal
Universal and beyond
June 10th
Mission Soccer Jersey
VISITOR!

 

[Aristocath]

Sounds awesome! Looking forward to your adventures.

 

[Tiffany507s]

Sounds awesome! Looking forward to your adventures.

Thank you!! We are pretty much finished packing which is miraculous and probably personal record for being packed so soon, haha!

Looking forward to all the updates and sharing the fun!

 

[courtneybelle]

Had to click on this because I love the title and I also have a July trip planned! We will get there the afternoon of the 5th and are staying until the 13th so maybe we will run into each other

 

[Tiffany507s]

Had to click on this because I love the title and I also have a July trip planned! We will get there the afternoon of the 5th and are staying until the 13th so maybe we will run into each other

So I was definitely reading your latest TR yesterday and LOVE it so I'm glad you stopped by! I hope to meet some Disers while we are down there so if you see us say hi. We will most likely be at POP after July 5th!

 

[courtneybelle]

So I was definitely reading your latest TR yesterday and LOVE it so I'm glad you stopped by! I hope to meet some Disers while we are down there so if you see us say hi. We will most likely be at POP after July 5th!

No way!! We will be at POP! Let me know if that ends up being definite and we can schedule a DISmeet

 

[Tiffany507s]

No way!! We will be at POP! Let me know if that ends up being definite and we can schedule a DISmeet

I will definitely let you know!! I am in the nervous stage now!! We leave tomorrow to drive and ahhhhhh...I gotta make sure I have all the important stuff!

 

[Tiffany507s]

WE ARE HERE!!! I'll spare you the boring drive details and say tonight we are going to....

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[IheartDDuck]

Holy smokes. That is indeed a big summer blow out. I'm in!

 

[Tiffany507s]

Holy smokes. That is indeed a big summer blow out. I'm in!

WELCOME!!

 

[Tiffany507s]

Last we left off we had just entered the most Magical of Kingdoms ...
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The first stop was to get Sorcerer's of the MK Cards...somehow all ours have disappeared so the fun task of recollecting begins. After that we had FP+ for Space Mountains but we hadn't eaten since noon and it was around 8:45 so we needed food STAT! So off to...

PECOS BILLS! A favorite of ours. Now let me premise this with...you will not get great food reviews from the two of us. We are not "foodies" or people of refined palates. However, we do appreciate the fine dining experience and you may see some nice restaurants make an appearance.

I ordered the "Deluxe" Angus Burger
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Notice the onion ring in the background no longer where it is supposed to be. No bueno to the onion ring.
Burger was good, it was your basic Disney burger but never the less enjoyable.

DH had the pulled pork sandwich.
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It looks pretty disgusting in that photo, but it was surprisingly tasty. I expected to hate it...mainly because I feel like I have read it is terrible, but we both enjoyed it. We may very well be the only two to ever enjoy it, but who knows.

While we were eating we could see the MSEP from the window, which was pretty cool.
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Confession: I used to despise this parade...probably because of my intense love for Spectromagic (RIP), but now I kinda of like it. I'll maybe even dance around to the music every once in a while.

After dinner is was time for....drum roll please...
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Before I get into the pictures I wanted to say that we just happened to start riding the Mine Train during wishes and it was the most MAGICAL THING EVER. So I recommend doing that at least once!

​

 

[disneyquilter]

You had me at World Cup and your husband is wearing Arsenal gear (My husband and I are HUGE Arsenal FC supporters...well, just huge football fans all around, as well)...so I am IN Your adventure sounds like a blast!!! You are one lucky lady to go to WDW for so long

 

[Tiffany507s]

You had me at World Cup and your husband is wearing Arsenal gear (My husband and I are HUGE Arsenal FC supporters...well, just huge football fans all around, as well)...so I am IN Your adventure sounds like a blast!!! You are one lucky lady to go to WDW for so long

I read Adam your post and he got a big goofy grin on his face, he LOVES "meeting" Arsenal fans...they are few and far between where we come from.

 

[Tiffany507s]

SPOILER ALERT on the Mine Train...so if you don't want to know anything about the Mine Train scroll really fast through these terrible quality photos.
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I'm not going to lie I really wasn't even all that excited about this ride until right before it was time to ride. I was probably managing my expectations since I knew it was basically a very beautifully themed kiddy ride. However, I really enjoyed it. It was longer than I expected it to be...the animatronics were great but I wish there was more and thought that section should have been longer or gone slower at least. I will say that I very well could have been so enamored by watch wishes while riding this thing that I liked it more than I normally would...so if my opinion changes, I'll let you know.

After Mine Train we watched the Wishes Finale by the MT exit
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Then we decided to see how long The LM ride was and it was walk on so we went Under The Sea for a bit.

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Hey there, Ariel.

The final thing of the night was riding BTM and the we headed out!

 

[Tiffany507s]

Today started out not as expected (FORESHADOWING: that is the theme of the weekend). The original plan was to wake up early to get to Star Wars Weekends before open. WELL…when we got to the condo Thursday, apparently something was up with the cable and long story short….nothing was really wrong with it (none of this was our fault or doing either). So we had to wait until the cable company came inbetween 10-12. Thankfully they came at 10:30 and we dealt with that situation and were on our way to Hollywood Studios.

The drive from our condo was amazingly easy and we were there quickly. We walked into the park and the motorcade was coming back down Hollywood Blvd. Next thing I knew Billy Dee Williams and Mark Hamill were RIGHT BY MEEEEE. So that was a pretty dang good way to start the day.

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Next stop was DARTH'S MALL. Had to check out the SWW Merch!!
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For those of your who don't know...they moved the SWW Merch to the "Hot Set" in between the Backlot Tour and TSMM. It used to be in a tent they would put up over behind Rock 'n' Roller coaster.

Adam had to get a Darth Vader cupcake he had been dying for one for ages so we get in line for the ACKBAR SNACKBAR. TEN points to whoever came up with that...I can't remember if that was the name last year, but I don't really care. I'll never not love that.

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I decided that I wanted to try "the dark side" drink. I don't remember what was in it (and I didn't take a pic). All I remember was it basically tasted like Coconut Rum and lemonade. Not strong and not worth the money...plus they didn't give me the Death Star glow cube that was supposed to come with it. Just got a "lightsaber" which I wasn't super happy about. I NEEDED THE DEATH STAR! *crys*
Adam loved the cupcake...no surprise there. I got to eat the chocolate Darth Vader so that was a win.

So we begin to look at the merch and honestly didn't find much. I feel like a negative Nancy but I just wasn't impressed. The amount of merch wasn't as much and there just wasn't anything that got me excited. Even the Her Universe stuff made me sad, mainly because most all the stuff was sold out.

I wanted to get SOMETHING so I went with:
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Photo taken from: Heruniverse.com
Imperial Army...can't help it. I love Vader.​

After the (disappointing) trip to Darth's Mall we needed real food but nothing too much...so he headed to Backlot Express and got some chicken nuggets!

After food is was time to RIDE:
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HELLO BEAUTIFUL!!!
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We are adorbale...I KNOW!
You'll get a lot of these gems in the coming weeks.

It was time to do some more Star Wars stuff after our thrilling drop. TO THE PREMIER THEATER (get used to the Premier Theater...it'll will be appearing A LOT)

Today we were Visiting the Maul..
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This really was an awesome show. Ray Park, who plays Darth Maul in Episode I is the "star". He does martial arts for us, talks about his time as the Sith Apprentice. He even brought some kids up stage and taught them a little routine. It was highly entertaining.

After the show we needed to go to the store to get some food for our stay so we headed out and got some dinner at Pei Wei (it was DELISH) and then headed to PUBLIX! I heart Publix.

We did find this store on our way to Publix...
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SO NEVER FEAR ORLANDO, you will be safe in a zombie apocalypse!​

 

[Tiffany507s]

Today was a "big" day. We had Mark Hamill FP+ and the Feel the Force Premium Package booked! So we were up bright and early to get to Hollywood Studios!

We got there abour 7:15 and there were a lot of people already there so I was a little worried we would have to wait longer than anticipated for our first stop.... VADERRRR!

They let us in around 7:40 for the Stormtrooper pre-show, which is super cute. It didn't change from last year but it was still very enjoyable!
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So after the show we briskly walked (ran) to Vader...a long with what I thought was half the other people in the park. Luckily, they were all running to get Mark Hamill stand by wrist bands and we were the only ones going for Vader, LOL!
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Sorry for the poor quality, I don't want to download our Memory Maker photos just yet so I'll input these bad photos for now.

Next we wanted to meet Darth Maul, he didn't come out until 9 though so we killed some time in his Mall...

We lined up after about 20 minutes of browsing and waited for about 20 minutes to see him. He was intense but wasn't near as interactive as last year, it's okay though I was hungry and wasn't overly worried about the interaction...mainly getting food, LOL.

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After we met Maul we wanted to go meet Chewie, but I knew we wouldn't make it...Chewie's line had to be at least an hour. We didn't have much time before we needed to check in for the Feel the Force Premium Package so we decided to just go sit in the shade and wait for check in.
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We had A LOT of success with the motorcade portion of the package. A lot of people didn't and really hated the set up. I had read on the Dis it was best to get by the kids section of the area and that's exactly what we did. We had the perfect view of the parade. The pictures are on my camera not on my phone and I haven't uploaded any of those so I'll do an update with just parade photos.

Before the parade we drank lots of cokes and water and pigged out on Mickey Premiums bars and it was fantastic!

After the parade we decided one cannot live on Premium Bars alone so we needed food, and the closest place with AC was The ABC Commissary.

Adam got the burger:

I got the chicken sandwich:
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You will likely see a lot of these burgers, sorry people. Adam really likes burgers and burgers are my go to when I just can't decide what I want.

The chicken sandwich was just okay...the chicken was juicy to that was really the most important thing. However, it just didn't taste like much.

After lunch it was time to go TO THE PREMIER THEATER for...

We were going to use our Fastpass+ and we are crazy people and went a lined up about an hour before we were supposed to.

You see, I am a HUGE Batman/Joker fan (not so much a Luke Skywalker fan...SORRY) and I was basically dying to just hear Mark Hamill mutter a word in the Joker voice.
PSA: Hamill voiced the Joker for 19 years, he retired after Batman: Arkham City (a video game)...and if you have heard the Joker in the past 19 year...it was Hamill HE IS THE JOKER and will forever be the best Joker with the best laugh.

I had heard he did a dialogue and did the laugh on Friday (of course when I wasn't there) and I was just praying he would do it again....

WELL HE DIDN'T So I proceeded to pout for several hours after the show (BIG BABY I KNOW).

All that aside it was a completely awesome show and Mark is absolutely hilarious.

​

I decided I wanted to try to get into Stars of the Saga that was right after Mark's show, mainly because I was cranky and didn't want to do anything besides pout and pouting seemed more enjoyable in the AC...

 

[Tiffany507s]

Stars of the Saga ended up being awesome and just what I needed to lift my mood. Ray was great, once again...and I got to experience the fabulousness that is Billy Dee Williams.





Before the interviews there was an HILARIOUS pre-show with the Stormtroops (those Stormtroopers...they are great). They even "sang" Let it go, haha!
YouTube it...it'll be worth it!


We were pretty far from the stage, so sorry the pics are a little fuzzy!

After the show it was time to ride ToT!!
Found this baby on the way to the ride...

It always surprises me when I find the survey markers in places I've been a thousand times.

Tower photo:


We decided last minute we wanted to see James Arnold Taylor's show (voice of Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars, and he is the voice of SEVERAL other well known "characters"...Strawberry Mini-Wheat I'm looking at you)

So we had to go to...100 POINTS IF YOU CAN GUESS....

Premier Theatre....bahaha


I know I have said this about all the show...but this show was just awesome. SO inspirational and JAT is just the coolest dude. I wouldn't hesitate to see the show again. His voice acting is so so so so impressive.



When the show was over it was time for the portion of the evening I was looking forward the most...DESSERT PARTY!!
They had to move it into the Disney Junior building because of the chance of rain.


Here are some of the desserts:







There were more desserts than this...but this is all the pictures I got and for a very good reason. Two words: Open Bar.

I went to the bar and decided to be cute and ask for one of each alcoholic drink (there was just two "The Force", and the "Jedi Mind Trick")...and crap if he didn't give me BOTH, and that is the exact moment this night went down hill people... Let me tell you that bartender, I love him and hate him. He put SO MUCH alcohol in that drink (60% alcohol...not even kidding). I proceeded to have about 6 of those very potent drinks...and that is where my evening ends.

I did manage to get a few drunken pictures though...




I then went back to the condo and died....​

 

[Tiffany507s]

Soooo...this day was supposed to go very differently than it did (see last post for reason).

The great plan was to get up super early, go get Mark Hamill standy wristbands and SEE THE MAN DO THE DANG JOKER LAUGH.

THAT DID NOT HAPPEN

I slept until noon and laid in bed feeling like DEATH! for a little while after I got up.

So yeah, open bar BAD IDEA!

So I drug myself out of bed determined to at least watch Mark on the TV screens they had set up...so we got to Hollywood studios sometimes after noon. I decided to go over to the (you guessed it) Premier Theater to see if I looked pathetic enough someone would take pity on my and magically let me see Mark Hamill. Didn't happen.

We did discover the "standby for the standby" line aka "A New Hope Line"...where desperate people wait in line for 2 hours in hopes they will be let in if all the wrist bands don't show up. So I decided I was basically going to get ZERO things done so I would sit on the ground and try my luck at getting it.

AND DANG IT WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't have any photos because I was so excited but let me tell you about this...

HE DID THE JOKER VOICE and he talked about the Joker for TEN GLORIOUS MINUTES. I fangirled hard and almost cried and LIFE WAS GOOOOOOOD.

Can't you tell by all those CAPSLOCK that I'M STILL EXCITEDDDD.

After Mark I was on cloud 9 and I didn't care what we did...we had FP+ for Stars of the Saga so we did that again.

It was basically the same show but entertaining still.

I was still on cloud 9/feeling hungover so we went into Darth's Mall and just looked around.




Now taking donations for these

It started raining after the Mall...so we needed to find something to do and I was finally starting to get hungry. We figured everywhere would be pack but we wanted to try to eat at Tune-in-Lounge, a favorite of ours.

We lucked into two chairs and ordered our favorites!

Pot Roast

Fried Chicken

Both were absolutely delicious, like always!

It finally stopped raining and we had something very important to do...
WATCH THE MIAMI HEAT PLAY! (We still have no cable and won't have any until Wednesday)
So we went to the Poly...they have a comfy lounge and we love it there.
With all the construction though, it was kind of depressing.




Even though I had just eating...I couldn't resist the sticky wings...they are just too amazing.




The HEAT WON! YAY! And then we went back "home" to bed!​

 

[Marsheliz]

Love the title!! Super jealous of such a long trip!! Have to get caught up but got to go finish getting ready for work!! We will be arriving @ Disney on Friday- I think I can- I think I can.