TheFloatingBear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2016
Here's my belated report about the 1/19 event. I have a timeline of sorts and some random thoughts (I apologize in advance for my rambling)...
7:30 - 8
I had popped over to Epcot and met my family (DH, DS14, DD12) inside HS a little later than planned. We got our wristbands and just walked around Hollywood Blvd and made our way to Star Tours.
8 - 8:30 (before event started, just to be clear with different start times and such) After Star Tours, we headed over to Sunset Blvd. We tried to get some waters at the kiosk near the Path of the Jedi area (is it still called that?), but it was 8:27pm and covered and the CMs said no water until 8:30 and start of fireworks! We were antsy for TOT and figured we'd pick up water later...My ungrateful children did not want to meet Olaf!
Star Tours 2x - walk on
8:30-9:30 Walked upstream on Hollywood Blvd. Discovered that RRC was down (about a half hour) and headed to TOT. They did pre-show both times. I asked about it and they said it was up to management! After 2nd ride, went to RRC - shorter line and no pre-show the first time, longer wait and pre-show the 2nd time. We headed to TSL, stopping at the kiosk at the end of Hollywood Blvd for snacks/water. We also stopped for a photopass photo on Hollywood Blvd.
TOT - 2x
RRC - 2x
9:30 - 10:30 I had read that TSMM was mostly a walk on at previous events, but it was more like 20-25 minutes for us, which was a little unexpected. I knew we'd have a wait for SDD at this point, but we hadn't been on it yet and I wanted to make sure we got multiple rides in case it shut down or something. It was listed at 20 minutes and we waited the full 20 minutes.
TSMM 1x
SDD 1x
10:30 - 11:30 We finished strong! Did SDD two more times with slightly shorter lines, then tried AS2 and did TSMM one more time. My husband doesn't like spinny rides and thought he might not like AS2 (we'd never ridden it yet, so weren't sure what it was like). He went on a fruitless quest for water a few minutes after 11, he said he tried 3 different kiosks, some of which were just covered at this point. He rejoined us at TSMM, where my son finally beat my score and was quite pleased with himself - triumph! I blame the de-hydration.
SDD 2x
AS2
TSMM
Snacks - @HatboxHaint, we may be the reason they were opening up boxes of ice cream at the Sunset stand at the end of the night! After my DH tried to get drinks/ice cream at 11:10, we tried on the way out at Animation Courtyard and they were shut down - they said they haven't had water for a while. We stopped at the Sunset kiosk, although at this point, it was officially a few minutes after 11:30. They didn't have anything, but a manager CM apologized, and I politely said we wouldn't have asked post-event, but that we'd been trying to get water for a while and that for a three hour event, we didn't want to spend time walking to the front of the park, especially if they could be out of stuff there too. He agreed and brought us over to the Secret Stash and busted out sodas and boxes of ice cream (no water) - the people coming up Sunset Blvd started to swarm!
Buses - Great! We saw our bus pulling away as we closed in on our stop, so I thought we'd be in for a wait - and at this point, my DD was an exhausted mess! But another bus came along in just a couple of minutes. We were CR and shared with WL.
Wristbands - The CM told us the only place they were available was at the front of the park. I meant to check down by Brown Derby but forgot, so if anyone else knows, please chime in! Don't forget to get your wristband! There were a lot of people floating around between Fantasmic and the fireworks, and there were quite a few that tried to go on rides afterwards not knowing about the event, so the CMs were checking the wristbands (all night, really). Also, we saw two different groups that appeared to have tickets but forgot their wristbands - one group wanted the CMs to scan their Magic Bands to see the tickets but they were sent to the front of the park, which I'm sure was a pain!
Pre-shows - It seemed like in our experience, whether or not there was a pre-show for a ride was based on wait time, so maybe it ebbs and flows?
We had a blast! If I did it again, I might do things a little differently since there wouldn't be the same need to see TSL (not that we wouldn't want to do those rides, but it wouldn't be the "first" time pressure!). I wanted to do the M&Gs too, and do a photo pass picture in TSL as they looked really cute, but my kids were too focused on getting on SDD! Buzz seemed to be walking around for a while, interacting with people, which looked fun. My only other advice would be to keep your eye on the wait times on the app just in case there are closures! Have fun!
7:30 - 8
I had popped over to Epcot and met my family (DH, DS14, DD12) inside HS a little later than planned. We got our wristbands and just walked around Hollywood Blvd and made our way to Star Tours.
8 - 8:30 (before event started, just to be clear with different start times and such) After Star Tours, we headed over to Sunset Blvd. We tried to get some waters at the kiosk near the Path of the Jedi area (is it still called that?), but it was 8:27pm and covered and the CMs said no water until 8:30 and start of fireworks! We were antsy for TOT and figured we'd pick up water later...My ungrateful children did not want to meet Olaf!
Star Tours 2x - walk on
8:30-9:30 Walked upstream on Hollywood Blvd. Discovered that RRC was down (about a half hour) and headed to TOT. They did pre-show both times. I asked about it and they said it was up to management! After 2nd ride, went to RRC - shorter line and no pre-show the first time, longer wait and pre-show the 2nd time. We headed to TSL, stopping at the kiosk at the end of Hollywood Blvd for snacks/water. We also stopped for a photopass photo on Hollywood Blvd.
TOT - 2x
RRC - 2x
9:30 - 10:30 I had read that TSMM was mostly a walk on at previous events, but it was more like 20-25 minutes for us, which was a little unexpected. I knew we'd have a wait for SDD at this point, but we hadn't been on it yet and I wanted to make sure we got multiple rides in case it shut down or something. It was listed at 20 minutes and we waited the full 20 minutes.
TSMM 1x
SDD 1x
10:30 - 11:30 We finished strong! Did SDD two more times with slightly shorter lines, then tried AS2 and did TSMM one more time. My husband doesn't like spinny rides and thought he might not like AS2 (we'd never ridden it yet, so weren't sure what it was like). He went on a fruitless quest for water a few minutes after 11, he said he tried 3 different kiosks, some of which were just covered at this point. He rejoined us at TSMM, where my son finally beat my score and was quite pleased with himself - triumph! I blame the de-hydration.
SDD 2x
AS2
TSMM
Snacks - @HatboxHaint, we may be the reason they were opening up boxes of ice cream at the Sunset stand at the end of the night! After my DH tried to get drinks/ice cream at 11:10, we tried on the way out at Animation Courtyard and they were shut down - they said they haven't had water for a while. We stopped at the Sunset kiosk, although at this point, it was officially a few minutes after 11:30. They didn't have anything, but a manager CM apologized, and I politely said we wouldn't have asked post-event, but that we'd been trying to get water for a while and that for a three hour event, we didn't want to spend time walking to the front of the park, especially if they could be out of stuff there too. He agreed and brought us over to the Secret Stash and busted out sodas and boxes of ice cream (no water) - the people coming up Sunset Blvd started to swarm!
Buses - Great! We saw our bus pulling away as we closed in on our stop, so I thought we'd be in for a wait - and at this point, my DD was an exhausted mess! But another bus came along in just a couple of minutes. We were CR and shared with WL.
Wristbands - The CM told us the only place they were available was at the front of the park. I meant to check down by Brown Derby but forgot, so if anyone else knows, please chime in! Don't forget to get your wristband! There were a lot of people floating around between Fantasmic and the fireworks, and there were quite a few that tried to go on rides afterwards not knowing about the event, so the CMs were checking the wristbands (all night, really). Also, we saw two different groups that appeared to have tickets but forgot their wristbands - one group wanted the CMs to scan their Magic Bands to see the tickets but they were sent to the front of the park, which I'm sure was a pain!
Pre-shows - It seemed like in our experience, whether or not there was a pre-show for a ride was based on wait time, so maybe it ebbs and flows?
We had a blast! If I did it again, I might do things a little differently since there wouldn't be the same need to see TSL (not that we wouldn't want to do those rides, but it wouldn't be the "first" time pressure!). I wanted to do the M&Gs too, and do a photo pass picture in TSL as they looked really cute, but my kids were too focused on getting on SDD! Buzz seemed to be walking around for a while, interacting with people, which looked fun. My only other advice would be to keep your eye on the wait times on the app just in case there are closures! Have fun!
.
. Have fun!!!
