Geauga Lake Carousel Sign

Here are a few photos from the Geauga Lake Carousel sign ...

Star Wars Weekends 2011 Trip Part I

Well we just got back from our quick summer trip to WDW. Unlike the previous trip in January whose trip report was pre-empted by Microbiology I am bound and determine to finish this one. I am also bound and determined that it will not be 20 pages long. It started several months ago, when Jeff and I considered doing a trip to both Disney's Flower and Garden Festival and Disney's Hollywood Studios Star Wars Weekends. When April came around F&G festival was out but Star Wars Weekends looked like it was a go. I won't bore you with the details of planning, but eventually plans were set to fly down Thursday night and come back Tuesday Morning on Southwest Airlines and that we were going to be staying at Pop Century. As a side note, since the original trip was going to be over Memorial Day weekend (it was changed to the week prior for a variety of reasons), we also made plans to celebrate Jeffs birthday, since his birthday is May 28th.

The flight down was completely uneventful, as was the rental car pick up. That was a breath of fresh air compared to January when we had left my bookbag in the rental car! I didn't see it again for about a month. We had rented a mid-size this trip, because of said book bag issue, and ended up with a Jeep Patriot, not bad for $62 for five days including tax! Our problems didn't really begin until we checked into Pop Century or tried to. As in the past we decided on online check in. There was a massive line for normal check in, but no line at all (as in no sign, or separate queue), for online check-in. After checking with guest services, we got checked in, to make my point brief though it wasn't the warm and fuzzy experience I was hoping for. We were assigned a double bed room, which was another minor irritation, but set up to change to a king bed the next day. Next order of business was getting something to eat. We ended up splitting a pizza and two orders of breadsticks, the food was good. The food court... not so much. It was a little bit more disorganized then I would have expected, and they had closed all the soda refill stations except one. A lot like Worlds of Fun, not at all like Disney. After a sour 1st day, I was hoping the rest of the trip would get better...

For our first day, we had debated on what to do... Star Tours, the reboot, was due to have its grand re-opening ceremony today (Friday), but with the lack of a 12PM Star Wars parade, and the fact that everyone was expecting massive crowds (as in so crowded they were expecting park closures), we decided in the end to skip it. It made it an even harder decision when I heard George Lucas was to be in attendance... Overall though it probably wasn't to bad of a decision since everyone I spoke with said that no one except the press could see anything anyway. So we decided on Magic Kingdom for that day..

In the past we have seen a few of the MK Main Street USA "Citizens", but this was our first time meeting up with the Mayor of Main Street USA. Walt's original plan was Main Street USA was to be a re-creation of a real working turn of the century main street. In January we stopped at the Barber shop there (yes a REAL working barber shop) Here is a photo since again we lacked a trip report...

Believe it or not the haircut was only about $14 or so, and they did a really good job!

Since it was about 11AM by the time we got there (issues with getting Annual Passes processed slowed us down), so our first stop was something to eat, and we decided on a new tradition for us, Casey's. While eating hot dogs and corn dog nuggets (with cups of saurkraut on the side), we had a visitor...


After eating we strolled over to Adventureland and checked out the brand new entry way into this extremely well-themed Magic Kingdom land...


We rode Pirates, and then headed over to Big Thunder were we grabbed a fast pass for only an hour later.... We rode the WDW Railroad for a full loop, and then it was time for the wildest ride in the wilderness!

I love Disney, I wouldn't say that they don't care about safety, but they arn't like Six Flags or Cedar Fair with are so liability oriented... its nutty. Disney still allows riders to take their cameras with them on the ride!

Taking the time to smell... the cactus blooms on they way down the Big Thunder Mountain exit.

Of course our next stop was my favorite, Haunted Mansion, which had just received another major update, this time to queue line, becoming a Next Generation Queue Line, or interactive queue line pretty cool.

A "play" organ, those waiting in line can touch the keys and the organ then plays part of the Haunted Mansion soundtrack.

An interactive "bath tub", every one in awhile it squirts water at those waiting in line... That felt pretty good actually as it was about 93 degrees!


After Haunted Mansion we headed over to Fantasyland, and after I rode the carousel there (of course), we rode a ride that I don't think we have ridden in probably 10 years... Dumbo the Flying Elephant.


Dumbo had a 45 minute wait, for what as you can see is basically a carnival ride. So why did we ride it? For this view...

The New Fantasyland under construction! After the ride on Dumbo we ambled over to Tommorowland, and rode TTA, before heading out. It had been a HOT day, and we were both pretty exhausted...


After a stop at the Ticket and Transportation center, we stopped for our annual visit to our brick... 11 years old and still looks good!

We ended up back at Pop, and after doing a quick room change, (see previous nights issues), we settled down for a break from the days heat (it was REALLY hot). About 6PM Jeff was checking the WDWLines App on his Iphone and for the sake of argument checked the wait time for Star Tours... it posted a 45 minute wait... WHAT?! only 45 minutes? What are we waiting for lets head to MGM. err Hollywood Studios.

So breaking our original plans (which was to hit Hollywood Studios at opening the next day), we took the bus to the park, and headed immediatly for Star Tours. It was about a 45 minute wait... the queue line was amazing, the ride which basically now had 56 different ride possibilities (the beginning, middle and end, had about 20 different possibilities). For our 2 rides that night we visited the Death Star, Hoth, Coruscant, and Tantooine. if you have no idea what I am talking about... Shame on you. Go watch a few Star Wars Movies.

After riding we decided to check out Jabba's Hutt, the obligatory Star Wars gift shop for Star Wars Weekends. Since it included several one of a kind collectibles (from what I had heard atleast), it was supposed to have a massive line just to get into it. Our luck we found was holding, the place was pretty much dead. We exhibited significant self control, compared to previous experiences. We walked out with one collectible pin, a book on lightsabers, and a "I was There" 2011 Star Tours Opening Weekend t-shirt. Later on that night I did succumb and buy a build your own lightsaber. What can I say... I am weak minded.

Since there were no plans for the evening, we basically stumbled into the nightly showing of Hyperspace Hoopla, about 15 minutes before showtime. Our view wasn't that great, but even with our lousy view it was enough to make sure we came back later in the weekend for a close up spot. Amazing!

After taking a bus to the park we were worried about how long it would take to get back... Amazingly, and I DO MEAN AMAZINGLY, there were 3 buses in immediate sequence that showed up and hauled the long queue of people waiting back to the resort within just a few minutes of us lining up. It was a relatively quick trip back to Pop, and we went straight to bed... We had a date again with MGM and Star Wars Weekends early the next morning...

Saturday Morning, 6AM... yes we were up and getting ready for another fun filled and sweat filled day at Star Wars Weekends. Originally the plan was to be at the gate an hour before park open to catch the Storm Trooper mini-show, and to get to the front of the (supposably) extrodinarly long line for Star Tours. Since we had ridden Star Tours the night before the importance of early entry wasn't as important. Still we were there at about 7:45, a few minutes before park opening. I found out though they actually opened the gates at 7AM so I missed the Storm Trooper show... but did get a photo with one of the many storm troopers milling around the gate area...



I was trying to look angry.. you know to match the "theme"... didn't work so well. I kind of just look irritated.

Even though the lines never appeared, MGM was prepared for said lines... here is a look at the extended queue lines prepped... I give them credit, they were PREPARED.

With Star Tours not being top priority we moved onto our (who am I kidding MY) #2 priority, Darth Vader. We headed for his queue line, and after standing there, with already 5 people ahead of us, we were advised he wouldn't be out until around 9AM. Keep it mind this was an hour away... So we decided to bail and come back closer to 9AM, and instead headed to Toy Story Mania. A ride that usually (almost always) has a 60+ min wait, had a queue line that looked like this.

EMPTY! Though you have to love the queue line. Its themed to all those old games and toys those of us of the pre-computers generations grew up with. Candyland on the floor, view finder reels, gigantic tinker toys, building blocks and dominos.

After a quick no wait line, and ride, we checked out our favorite exhibit at MGM, One Man's Story (a tribute to the life of Walt Disney), and then headed back to Darth's queue line. It was now about 8:45, and the 5 people in line had turned into about 40 or so. So we got in line... and waited, and waited, Vader then came out... and begin his photo shoots. For being a bad guy he is pretty popular! I am not suprised for a bad guy, he is pretty dang cool. After all he was #1 on my character meet list. Our wait was about an hour, not bad considering.

Next Stop was the queue line for the Disney characters dressed up Star Wars style, Jedi Mickey, Minnie Leia, Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald. They all swamp out, 20 mins on/off. So we had Darth Goofy and Donald. Jeff was excited Goofy is his favorite character! This worst part of this was the 30 minute wait in the direct sunlight... Even at 10AM it was already exceptionally hot!

Our last character greeting was a quick one, I had discovered while waiting in line for Goofy and Donald that there was an Anakin Skywalker, character. Anakin, is my absolute FAVORITE character in the Star Wars universe, so the moment I heard this my antenna went up and I was bound to find him. Found out he was in a grouping with other Jedi Masters, so he didn't have his own line. Like the Disney characters you didnt' really know who you were going to get when you got in line. When we got to their meeting location we decided it was worth the chance, it was only about a 10 minute line. We were the last people to meet Anakin... We also meet with Mace Windu, the Jedi Master played by Samuel Jackson. (notice this was NOT Samuel Jackson, if it was it wouldn't have been a 10 minute wait!)

Playing it up with Jeff, who was wearing his Birthday Button... Jeff was told with 44 years of training he would be a Jedi Master soon. :)

A more straight on view... did I mention before Anakin Skywalker is my favorite character?



We were both pretty hot at this point, (I can't even imagine the people in the character costumes YIKES!), so we decided an airconditioned ride would be the ticket. So we stopped next door and rode the Great Movie Ride, which was only really a So-So Movie Ride. It seriously needs an update.

The Star Wars Weekends parade was one of the major attractions that I knew I wanted a good view (at 5'3" good view means front row), of, so I knew we had to stake out our spot about an hour before. Well we did, in the 95 degree heat, direct sun, hot pavement... we waited the 60 minutes to parade time... You ask was it worth it... 100% absolutly! Here are some photos...

Leading off the parade is this X-Wing/Pilot float, with Jedi Mickey on board!


The 501st, a group of Star Wars fans that actually own their own Storm Trooper/Empire uniforms, and volunteer for these types of special events.
The 501st is also known as Vader's Fist, as it is commanded by Darth Vader.

Emperor Palpatine (Palpatine with a "T"), flanked by the Imperial Guards.

I was sweating buckets in shorts and a t-shirt, I can't even imagine these guys... BTW these are Stormtrooper Tie Fighter Pilots.

Regular Stormtroopers.

R2-D2!

One of the "stars" at the 1st weekend of Star Wars Weekends, Anthony Daniels. He played C3PO in all 6 Star Wars films.

Chewie... with Wickett in front of him (Ewok). Behind them is Jedi Master Mace Windu.

Quite easily the coolest character to come out of the prequels, Darth Maul. To bad they killed him off in the 1st movie.


Boba Fett, I have found it absolutly amazing that characters with such brief screen time, and even shorter lines can become so popular. Boba Fett I think had three total lines, his famous being "He's No Good to me Dead" From The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lord of Darkness Himself.

Even though the heat was worth it for the parade, I was still pretty worn out by the end of the parade, and was SO GLAD I had followed everyone's advice on the Star Wars Weekends websites I had visited prior to the trip, to make a lunch ADR. We had to change the time the night before since the parade was at 12:45PM instead of the previous years 11:45. So we headed towards 50's Prime Time Cafe for our lunch reservation.

The theme to this restaurant is basically you are in mom's kitchen, so no elbows on the table, and eat all your vegetables, or terrible things can and DO happen. I won't say anymore... I plead the 5th :)

Food was good though, and was filling, even though it wasn't exactly a quiet meal, it wasn't obnoxiously loud, and was a good time, in an air-conditioned environment. It hit the spot!

Refreshed, full, and cooled down we were ready to hit the park for an hour or two longer now, and we finished up with a few of the characters we still wanted to meet.


Padme Amidala (Anakin's wife, Leia/Luke's mother), was next... Perfect that she was right there on the front of my shirt too. Amazingly right before the trip I had found a lady that designed Star Wars shirts for girls and women! To think it took only 33 years for someone to realize women liked Star Wars too.


Jeff's one pick, Darth Maul, from Star Wars I (or the 4th one depending on your view), Phantom Menace. Jeff borrowed Maul's famous stare, for his portrayal of a deranged doctor in our own Worlds of Fun's Asylum Island. So of course he had to repeat his portrayal... I think its a great photo.


Me with a Tusken Raider... (Sand People), from Tantooine. They were doing a pretty good acting job, my expression shows I was a bit intimidated! (For those who need a reference, refer to Star Wars: A new Hope, were Obi-Wan refers to the Sand People stating "The Sand People are easily startled, but they will return soon, and in greater numbers")


Last I really wanted a photo with C3PO and R2D2, so we headed back over to Jabba's Hut (also the gift shop) were they were situated. Again this was a rotating character situation, and Leia was taking photos when we arrived. I was hoping that she would switch out by the time we got up there, as Leia... well for some reason she is just not my favorite character. Luke, (or a stand in for Luke, as obviously this is NOT Mark Hamill) was who we meet. I was happy, and by this time (it was about 5PM) I was dead tired and really didn't want to wait anymore.

After meeting Luke we headed out and back to Pop Century. I took a nap when we got back (I was EXHAUSTED). We stayed in the rest of the evening, I did jog a bit while there, for some reason all the walking and sweating wasn't enough exercise...
That let me check out not only the timeline of events Disney has set up at Pop Century along Hourglass Lake, but also check out the construction of the new value resort, Art of Animation. We chilled out the rest of the evening.

To be Continued...