I woke up a little later that I had been planning, but before I caught the bus to HS I went to the front desk of our complex to put in a maintenance request - our air conditioner wasn't working properly (being Canadian in Florida in the summer, I almost considered it an emergency worth 911. I was sure we were going to die of heat stroke over the night.) But I woke alive and well, albeit a tad but warm. Our thermostat would reset itself every few minutes back to 80 degrees or so. Yuck. When I told the front desk guy that it kept resetting to 80, he asked if that was too warm or too cold. I simply looked at him and said "I'm Canadian", and he laughed and said, "alright! too warm then!" But when I was out today, someone came by to fix it and it seems fine now :) Yay!
As soon as I arrived at HS at about 11:10am, the motorcade was happening! This is the processional of fancy cars carrying the guest stars who were here for the weekend - I heard the names over the loudspeaker, but didn't get a good spot on the opposite side of the HS hat until it was too late and they were already on stage. As they finished up the introductions though, I found out that I was right in front of where they would walk off stage and drive past! Before they got off stage though, Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar) did, in fact, say 'It's a TRAP'. My life is basically complete. It was amazing. The entire crowd was nerds losing their minds. It was awesome!
As they drove out, I had the best photo opportunities and made the most of them! Tim Rose, Warwick Davis, Sam Witwer... I love you all. A couple of the voice actors from Star Wars: The Clone Wars were there as well :)
I wandered for a few minutes, bought myself a slushie and then I made my way over to the temporary store they have set up behind the Rockin' Roller Coaster:
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| Possibly the best marketing team on the planet. |
Before I could go waltzing off to find Boba, I did some more looking around Darth's Mall, and found Luke Skywalker doing photos! I checked out the length of the line and decided it was too long to stand in :( When I got back to try and snap a photo of him anyway, Leia had also arrived! They were brilliant! I got a couple good shots from behind the rope with no one else in them :) I spent some time looking around the Mall, got a photo with Lego Darth Vader and debated buying Dad and 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi pin... but it was about as big as my hand, so I opted against it.
I went back out into the heat, and was passing by the gates to Beauty and the Beast just as they were opening for another show. I couldn't help myself! The beauty of park hopping alone and having no where to be all day is that you have no one to meet and no one's opinion to take into account but your own :) I got a beautiful center seat, only three rows up, with a perfect view of the stage. It was beautiful again, and again I felt like there were serious parts missing, but I'm sure watching the movie soon will help relieve that. ;)
After the play, I went to the Starring Rolls Cafe; their cinnamon rolls are uh-maz-ing! It was absolutely delicious, probably made more so by the fact that it was 1:30pm and I hadn't had anything to eat yet, but delicious all the same. I went to the Pixar street where I knew the Empire/Neutral characters would be milling around, and sure enough, as soon as I arrived there were four or five storm troopers just chilling in the street. People were taking pictures and getting autographs, but there were no lines and the troopers did whatever they felt like. Strangely, there was also no chaos - once guests had their picture, they moved on and it was relatively calm and moved very quickly :)
I saw a fairly short line with no character, and so I asked the attendant who was going to show up. Jango Fett! I jumped in line very pleased that it would only be a 20 minute wait or so, instead of the hour that many characters would be. Sure enough, 5 minutes later, Jango walked out and started posing for photos with the families in the line ahead of me. A Gamorrean guard was walking around (one of his buddies was eaten by the Rancor!) and he came really close to the family in front of me, even eating some of the kid's offered popcorn! I made friends with the two ladies in line behind me who were from Seattle and we chatted a bit about Star Wars and the heat. Where there were about 5 or 6 families left ahead of me, my ear caught a few words about Boba Fett. So I craned my neck and the character attendant was asking the families ahead of me who they'd rather see. Most didn't care, but the ladies behind me started discussing how they had already seen Boba, and they wanted to meet Jango. I told them that if there was a chance that Boba was coming out, I'd give them my place in line. When the character attndent go to me, I told them I'd rather see Boba, but these ladies would like to see Jango, and that we would switch places.
He said that was perfect, and Jango would leave right before it was my turn. I smiled, because I knew what that really meant - I would be the first to meet Boba Fett. Heck yes. Jango left right after a photo with the two ladies, and we were told that Boba would be out in a few minutes. While we were waiting, suddenly I looked up and the bounty hunter Zam Wesell was standing there. She 'played' for a minute with the little kids behind me and I got a few photos of her right up in the kid's faces.
When Boba arrived, I pointed out my pin and told him that we were fellow bounty hunters. I'd leave him alone, if he left me alone, and all that good stuff. We took one photo, and for the next he got a little flirty, taking my chin in his hand and... well, I'd say looking into my eyes, but he had a helmet on. So, I was looking at his helmet, and I have no idea if he was even awake in those two seconds. Yeah. But I was on cloud nine anyway :) He's my second favorite meet so far this trip - Gaston is still on the top :)
After I met him, I realized that the line to see Darth Maul was deceptively short! I looked like it wound its way around a building, but not so much. Five minutes later, I was crossing my arms next to a Sith Lord and being terrified by colored contacts. That was fun :) When I was finished Zam Wesell was there again! A few people were taking pictures, but when they were done, I managed to get her attention and get a selfie with her... which was super awesome and I felt soooo geeky but had to do it anyway! :)
I kept walking down the street where three Tuscan Raiders were milling around - the storm troopers were mostly gone and these guys were terrorizing unsuspecting guests. I saw one chase a guy down the street. So good!
The Darth Vader line was over an hour long, so I didn't stay, but instead snapped a picture from behind the rope when he was between families; as long as I get a picture I'm okay with it :) I knew the Rebel Alliance characters were further up by the Star Tours ride, and on the way there I stopped for a quick nostalgic break in the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play set. I only took three pictures and didn't stay for more than a minute, but it was nice to see!
The character up by the ride was none other than Chewbacca! Again, the line was ages long, but I got a few good snapshots of him! I went up to have Lunch/Supper at the Backlot Tour restaurant, and halfway through my lunch I realize I am right beside the jedi training academy; and Darth Vader has just arrived to turn the young ones to the Dark Side. Each kid has a chance to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul with the moves they just learned and the instructor (a jedi master) helps them along the way.
The jedi master asked one small child (probably around 5 years old) if he had anything to say to Darth Vader, and all the kid could say was "I'm frightened!" But when the jedi master told him to tell Vader he wasn't afraid, the first "I'm not afraid of you" was very quiet, the second a bit louder and the third a very loud "I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!" The look on the kid's face was priceless when the jedi master told him to Force push the two storm troopers and they fell over when he did! Yoda's voice comes ove rthe speakers when every child has had a turn and tells them how great they did. It was an adorable show!
As I left, I had just about decided to head home for the day, when I walked past the entrance to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular; they were seating people and it was going to start in 15 minutes! Again, I was so glad to be park hopping alone! First, because the only opinion that mattered was my own, and second, because it is so much easier to find a good center seat in the front few rows for one person instead of five! I got an excellent seat, and the show was wonderful :) A few good stunt, explosions, and jokes later and I was on my way back out.
I headed home and had time to decompress and skype/facetime my family (and show my brother his new name tag) before most of my roommates arrived back. When Emily came home though, she had been so badly sunburnt that it was both scary and comical. She and Sam went out to the grocery store to buy aloe vera, but the lightning storm had them very quickly deciding not to go after all, and they were home within minutes. Emily and Elisa and I spent a few minutes outside watching the heat lightning and then came back inside where the cool air welcomed us. Sam looked up homemade sunburn remedies and we found a few that would hopefully at least stop the burning. Hopefully things will look better for her tomorrow!! I'm glad we were here to help her take care of it though, because a really bad sunburn can leave you loopy.
So now, after a long day, time for sleep! Tomorrow I have some things to do around home, and I will get to talk to my love, Tanya!! Whom is home from her vacation - and I can't wait to hear all about it :) :) Goodnight all!
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