Before I start this blog I just want to say part two of my last blog is still very much on the way. I've been dealing with some serious life things and have not had much the time nor the drive to really work on it over other things. Today though something big happened. We got the first teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker. These are my initial thoughts on the teaser! If you haven't seen the trailer yet, obvious spoilers ahead.
Rey leaping over the first order TIE Interceptor looking ship looks awesome. It looks like they may be heading back to Jakku or possibly Tatooine? J.J. Abrams is apparently going to be revisiting Rey's parents so it wouldn't surprise me to see them return to where the new trilogy started. Kylo Ren is seen attacking a wooded area. Will we finally see the Knights of Ren? Or is that something that'll just be a leftover and unexplored thing from The Force Awakens? Those are just a couple throw them out there questions I have from the teaser. More importantly...
We see the return of Lando Calrissian! Lando is seen back at the helm of the Millennium Falcon as it travels at light speed. Who knows how significant of a role he'll have, but it was awesome to see him back, especially since it's Billy Dee Williams portraying him once again. We hear Luke Skywalker's voice presumably speaking to Rey telling her it's her fight now. He says some other things as well and we get to see a very emotional both in and out of movie embrace between Leia and Rey. Then Luke speaks a final line that ends in a big haunt. He says "No one's ever really gone". The screen cuts to black and an all too familiar laugh is then heard. Emperor Palpatine has returned.
So, how will all this play out? December cannot come soon enough to figure that all out. Will Palpatine actually be back? Will it be a clone as was done in the old extended universe? Will he be back as a force ghost? It'd be conceivable that he'd appear to Kylo Ren as force ghost possibly? Right? Or is the guy who orchestrated the Clone Wars and took over the entire galaxy actually revived and back at the helm now leading the First Order? Most importantly... How did his presence on set not leak at any point during production?!?!?!
One thing that seems pretty clear to me from this trailer is that the series is not picking right up from The Last Jedi. The Last Jedi, probably the most divisive movie in the franchise ended seemingly with the rebirth of the Rebel Alliance. It also ended with Kylo Ren taking over the First Order and Rey basically becoming a Jedi. J.J. Abrams has said that there is a significant time skip between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Rey's origins are also believed to be retconned in Rise of Skywalker, though we have no idea what those origins may be. How much will the events of The Last Jedi really impact this movie, time will tell.
I can't help but have a nervous excitement over this teaser. The footage in the teaser itself looks great and really doesn't expose much about the film at all outside of revealing Lando and hearing the voices of Luke and Palpatine. It's a great first teaser, but I can't help but feel nervous because I was so hyped for The Last Jedi's initial teaser, but the movie itself I remain torn on.The subtitle Rise of Skywalker I think is a little silly, but depending on what happens in the movie, it could be quite significant. Is it referring to Rey? Could she be a Skywalker after-all? Is it a reference to Kylo Ren? Or is it something else completely? I won't judge the teaser or movie based off the subtitle, but from browsing the web, it sure seems like a lot of people are. Let's all settle in and see what future trailers reveal and what the movie itself has to offer. It's the end of a nine movie series. J.J. Abrams is at the helm. It's probably going to go out with a bang!
Friday, April 12, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
Parks Review From My Most Recent Trip To Walt Disney World 3/6 (Epcot and Hollywood Studios)
Welcome and welcome back to my blog. In my last blog I did a full review on my first experiences in Toy Story Land and what I thought of the land as a whole. If you're interested in that check out the blog right before this one. March 6th turned into a crazy four parks challenge day. I had planned for the day to be four parks since I planned the trip to keep myself as busy as possible the day after the wedding. Roughly a week or so before I was going to Florida, my dad asked me if I wouldn't mind him joining me for a day in the parks. He had never been and happened to be going to Florida around the same time, so I took advantage of it and shown him all around.
There were no morning extra magic hours that day so I decided that Epcot would be where this journey would begin. We arrived at the park nearly an hour before opening, got through security and ticketing pretty quick and were up towards the front of where the rope would be dropped. About twenty or so minutes before the park opened a street band known as the Jamitors (heheheh) came out and played some music on trash cans.
It was fun to watch and certainly helped to keep the ever growing crowd occupied. The day also marked the opening day of the Flower and Garden Festival. I'll go into more detail on the Flower and Garden Festival on a later day as today's focus was really trying to show my dad as many things as I could in a day. When the rope dropped we headed right over to The Land pavilion and were some of the first people on Soarin Around the World.
The first ride experience my dad had in Walt Disney World ended up being one of his favorites. In a previous blog I made note that Soarin Around the World is my favorite ride at Epcot (barely beating out Spaceship Earth), so I found it kinda cool for it to be his without knowing it's mine. For those of you who do not know, Soarin Around the World is a high tech IMAX experience. You sit in what looks like a big hand glider and are lifted into the air as the movie beings. Throughout your journey the ride vehicle will gently tilt and move to simulate a smooth flight. The massive IMAX screen in front of you will have you traveling to various places around the world including the pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall of China. Along the way you'll feel a gentle breeze and pick up all kinds of scents from the countries. The ride concludes with you flying over Epcot as fireworks burst all around.
All in all Sorain Around the World is a very pleasant and relaxing experience. The music score is very much Epcot and makes no use of music from any Disney movie which I think is great. The scene transitions are probably the weakest part of the ride. The majority of them involve with a splash of water, light, plane, or animal nearly colliding with you. It's adds a little bit of excitement to the ride the first time, but after that it just seems overdone. The actual footage that Disney has of places around the world is incredibly good looking, but there are so many computer generated images in them that it takes away from it just a bit. It's still an incredibly enjoyable ride and I'm on the side of Soarin Around the World makes more sense at Epcot than Soarin Over California did.
After Soarin we walked back to the front of the park and got in line for Spaceship Earth. Spaceship Earth is another favorite of mine in Epcot. The ride is situated inside the giant ball that is the park emblem for Epcot. The posted wait time was 20 minutes, but we waited all of 5. I should have mentioned earlier, but it was cold for Florida again on this day. Temperatures were in I think the low sixties in the afternoon. This is significant to the line at Spaceship Earth because on this day it was a wind tunnel. I had never been cold in Florida, but I found myself legitimately cold in that line. Anyway, the ride was great as always.
Spaceship Earth is a trip through time. It's a slow moving, educational, and important ride. The ride system is continuous in that, unless there is a reason for it to, the ride does not stop moving, even as you board and get off the ride. Throughout the ride are different scenes featuring animatronics representing people through the ages. The ride begins as you travel back to the dawn of man fighting the Woolly Mammoth and doing cave paintings. As the ride progresses through ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. the theme of the evolution of communication becomes the main focal point. You get to see scenes from around the time the printing press was developed, telegraphs, right up to the beginnings of the internet. As you make your way back to the station you get to create your own tomorrow by answering some questions. It's a nice little way to keep the last few minutes of the ride interesting as there is really no further scenes and just some hanging lights representing the stars.
This is for another blog at another time, but I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the end of this ride. It is pretty dated in the technology used and what has come to be since the latest version of this ride came on. Overall though Spaceship Earth is a must ride for me on every vacation. I feel like it's incredibly important to know how, communication wise, we got to where we are today. From Spaceship Earth it was food time!
We debated a bit as to where to eat in Epcot and decided in the interest of time we would grab something quick at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion. On a side note, there are literally tons of places to eat at Epcot. If you are in a rush though, Sunshine Seasons is pretty decent in value and is certainly a quick in and out. I had the breakfast platter which consisted of scrambled eggs, french toast, potatoes, sausage, and bacon. The meal cost a little over 10 dollars and was worth it I thought. It's not that it was anything special, but it was very filling. The eggs were good with some added pepper. The french toast I had was fresh, but I'd imagine that can be hit or miss considering it's a quick service location. The potatoes though were really good. The bacon was a little undercooked for me as I love it nearly burnt, but still good and the sausage was fine for a breakfast sausage too. The nice thing about Sunshine Seasons is much like the Garden Grill, the location makes use of the vegetation grown in the Living With the Land attraction.
After breakfast we made our way over to the Seas. I had hoped to get on The Seas With Nemo and Friends, but the line at the time was 40 minutes and I just cant justify waiting that long for that ride. So we went through the gift shop and checked out the aquarium in The Seas. Do yourself a favor, if you have never taken time to look through The Seas, build some time into your next trip. It's not a big aquarium, but there is some amazing animals in there. The big stars in my opinion is the manatees. You can learn all about them, their amazing story, and more. They also have a massive exhibit containing what has to be thousands of fish, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. There is also an area for kids to play and Turtle Talk With Crush I hear is great for kids as well. If you like sea life, seriously try to build a little bit of time to check The Seas out.
After spending much more time than anticipated in The Seas pavilion, we made our way towards The World Showcase. Time was starting to become an issue so we mostly just did a lap around the world. I'd check out some of the countries more later in the trip, so stay tuned for that. As we looped back around we hopped on the ferry boat by the France pavilion and were off to our second park, Disney's Hollywood Studios! I had considered taking the walk from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, but after walking from the Boardwalk Resort to Hollywood Studios three times two days ago and knowing we still had three parks to go I decided against it. Before I shift this blog towards Hollywood Studios, check out a little bit of the beauty that is Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival!
The ferryboat is a great way to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios or vice versa. The boat does stop at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, Beach and Yacht Club Resort, and the Swan and Dolphin Resort before getting to Hollywood Studios. If you are in a time crunch the boat may not be the fastest way to get around. If you want a relaxing trip, the ferry is great. If you're trying to show someone as much as you can, the ferry is great since the person you're with gets a good view of three very different resorts. We got off the boat and made our way into a pretty busy Disney's Hollywood Studios.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios a little before 1pm. I had fast passes scheduled at our third park starting at 2:15. With time very limited we took a walk around the park. We went down Sunset Blvd. and I showed him the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and told him the story of how much I would never go on it again (I hate drop rides). Getting him on the ride was impossible as the wait time was over an hour. We walked through Toy Story Land just so he could see it as those rides all had over an hour wait as well. I explained to him everything that has been going on in Hollywood Studios over the past couple years as we walked. It's pretty crazy just how much in that park has changed since the first time I went. We went around past the Sci-Fi Dine In and into Muppets Courtyard where I told him about the former Streets of America and what was beyond the giant wall leading into Galaxies Edge. We needed to hit one ride while we were at Hollywood Studios so I left it up to him. Muppetvison 3-D or Star Tours. His pick was Star Tours.
Star Tours is a motion simulator ride that brings the rider to various places throughout the eight Star Wars movies. Before getting on the ride you go through a pretty awesome queue line. At first you are on the set of a movie as you pass through an Ewok Village. Once inside though you'll be in a spaceport. Flight statuses are shown on a huge screen, droids are checking baggage, and C3PO and R2-D2 are doing some maintenance on a ship. Once you don your 3-D glasses and buckle in the ride begins. The scenes are all at random each ride features four scenes. With over fifty something possible combinations it is incredibly hard to get the same ride multiple times which is great! The ride system itself is that of your typical motion simulator. You'll get slammed around a bit and be rocking forward, backward, and side to side as you travel through the galaxy. If you get motion sickness easily, I would consider passing on this ride as it can cause motion sickness.
With one ride down in Hollywood Studios and the others having long lines, we made our way towards the exit, but not before seeing the First Order march towards the Chinese Theater. It's pretty cool to see a legion of storm troopers led by Captain Phasma march through the park. What's not so cool is seeing it happen pretty much every hour. It's a short march really and sadly the closest thing to a parade that Hollywood Studios has to offer. With it getting close to fast pass time, we left Hollywood Studios and boarded the bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Before wrapping up this blog I want to throw something out there. Until he was going to Florida my dad was never really interested in going to Walt Disney World. The crowds, the price, it being "for kids", the lines, and well... the crowds again were all reasons he had no interest. By the time we left Epcot he was already saying that it was not what he was expecting. Of course he was expecting the characters to be all over, and everything being a fantasy. So far what he has seen is respectable attempts at recreating architecture of different countries, incredible technology, and a small amount of fantasy in being shrunk down to the size of a green army man. How that fantasy of being shrunk seemed so real surprised him and really, he was having a good time. He wished we had more time to spend at Epcot, and liked the feel of Hollywood Studios despite only being able to get on one ride. The park's old theme of being on the set of the movies interested him and much like me, he wished The Great Movie Ride was still a thing.
We are two parks into what was a four park day! In my next blog we will be looking at Disney's Animal Kingdom and wrapping the day up with Magic Kingdom. Thank you all as always for reading and stay tuned!
There were no morning extra magic hours that day so I decided that Epcot would be where this journey would begin. We arrived at the park nearly an hour before opening, got through security and ticketing pretty quick and were up towards the front of where the rope would be dropped. About twenty or so minutes before the park opened a street band known as the Jamitors (heheheh) came out and played some music on trash cans.
It was fun to watch and certainly helped to keep the ever growing crowd occupied. The day also marked the opening day of the Flower and Garden Festival. I'll go into more detail on the Flower and Garden Festival on a later day as today's focus was really trying to show my dad as many things as I could in a day. When the rope dropped we headed right over to The Land pavilion and were some of the first people on Soarin Around the World.
The first ride experience my dad had in Walt Disney World ended up being one of his favorites. In a previous blog I made note that Soarin Around the World is my favorite ride at Epcot (barely beating out Spaceship Earth), so I found it kinda cool for it to be his without knowing it's mine. For those of you who do not know, Soarin Around the World is a high tech IMAX experience. You sit in what looks like a big hand glider and are lifted into the air as the movie beings. Throughout your journey the ride vehicle will gently tilt and move to simulate a smooth flight. The massive IMAX screen in front of you will have you traveling to various places around the world including the pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall of China. Along the way you'll feel a gentle breeze and pick up all kinds of scents from the countries. The ride concludes with you flying over Epcot as fireworks burst all around.
All in all Sorain Around the World is a very pleasant and relaxing experience. The music score is very much Epcot and makes no use of music from any Disney movie which I think is great. The scene transitions are probably the weakest part of the ride. The majority of them involve with a splash of water, light, plane, or animal nearly colliding with you. It's adds a little bit of excitement to the ride the first time, but after that it just seems overdone. The actual footage that Disney has of places around the world is incredibly good looking, but there are so many computer generated images in them that it takes away from it just a bit. It's still an incredibly enjoyable ride and I'm on the side of Soarin Around the World makes more sense at Epcot than Soarin Over California did.
After Soarin we walked back to the front of the park and got in line for Spaceship Earth. Spaceship Earth is another favorite of mine in Epcot. The ride is situated inside the giant ball that is the park emblem for Epcot. The posted wait time was 20 minutes, but we waited all of 5. I should have mentioned earlier, but it was cold for Florida again on this day. Temperatures were in I think the low sixties in the afternoon. This is significant to the line at Spaceship Earth because on this day it was a wind tunnel. I had never been cold in Florida, but I found myself legitimately cold in that line. Anyway, the ride was great as always.
Spaceship Earth is a trip through time. It's a slow moving, educational, and important ride. The ride system is continuous in that, unless there is a reason for it to, the ride does not stop moving, even as you board and get off the ride. Throughout the ride are different scenes featuring animatronics representing people through the ages. The ride begins as you travel back to the dawn of man fighting the Woolly Mammoth and doing cave paintings. As the ride progresses through ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. the theme of the evolution of communication becomes the main focal point. You get to see scenes from around the time the printing press was developed, telegraphs, right up to the beginnings of the internet. As you make your way back to the station you get to create your own tomorrow by answering some questions. It's a nice little way to keep the last few minutes of the ride interesting as there is really no further scenes and just some hanging lights representing the stars.
This is for another blog at another time, but I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the end of this ride. It is pretty dated in the technology used and what has come to be since the latest version of this ride came on. Overall though Spaceship Earth is a must ride for me on every vacation. I feel like it's incredibly important to know how, communication wise, we got to where we are today. From Spaceship Earth it was food time!
We debated a bit as to where to eat in Epcot and decided in the interest of time we would grab something quick at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion. On a side note, there are literally tons of places to eat at Epcot. If you are in a rush though, Sunshine Seasons is pretty decent in value and is certainly a quick in and out. I had the breakfast platter which consisted of scrambled eggs, french toast, potatoes, sausage, and bacon. The meal cost a little over 10 dollars and was worth it I thought. It's not that it was anything special, but it was very filling. The eggs were good with some added pepper. The french toast I had was fresh, but I'd imagine that can be hit or miss considering it's a quick service location. The potatoes though were really good. The bacon was a little undercooked for me as I love it nearly burnt, but still good and the sausage was fine for a breakfast sausage too. The nice thing about Sunshine Seasons is much like the Garden Grill, the location makes use of the vegetation grown in the Living With the Land attraction.
After breakfast we made our way over to the Seas. I had hoped to get on The Seas With Nemo and Friends, but the line at the time was 40 minutes and I just cant justify waiting that long for that ride. So we went through the gift shop and checked out the aquarium in The Seas. Do yourself a favor, if you have never taken time to look through The Seas, build some time into your next trip. It's not a big aquarium, but there is some amazing animals in there. The big stars in my opinion is the manatees. You can learn all about them, their amazing story, and more. They also have a massive exhibit containing what has to be thousands of fish, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. There is also an area for kids to play and Turtle Talk With Crush I hear is great for kids as well. If you like sea life, seriously try to build a little bit of time to check The Seas out.
After spending much more time than anticipated in The Seas pavilion, we made our way towards The World Showcase. Time was starting to become an issue so we mostly just did a lap around the world. I'd check out some of the countries more later in the trip, so stay tuned for that. As we looped back around we hopped on the ferry boat by the France pavilion and were off to our second park, Disney's Hollywood Studios! I had considered taking the walk from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, but after walking from the Boardwalk Resort to Hollywood Studios three times two days ago and knowing we still had three parks to go I decided against it. Before I shift this blog towards Hollywood Studios, check out a little bit of the beauty that is Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival!
The ferryboat is a great way to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios or vice versa. The boat does stop at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, Beach and Yacht Club Resort, and the Swan and Dolphin Resort before getting to Hollywood Studios. If you are in a time crunch the boat may not be the fastest way to get around. If you want a relaxing trip, the ferry is great. If you're trying to show someone as much as you can, the ferry is great since the person you're with gets a good view of three very different resorts. We got off the boat and made our way into a pretty busy Disney's Hollywood Studios.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios a little before 1pm. I had fast passes scheduled at our third park starting at 2:15. With time very limited we took a walk around the park. We went down Sunset Blvd. and I showed him the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and told him the story of how much I would never go on it again (I hate drop rides). Getting him on the ride was impossible as the wait time was over an hour. We walked through Toy Story Land just so he could see it as those rides all had over an hour wait as well. I explained to him everything that has been going on in Hollywood Studios over the past couple years as we walked. It's pretty crazy just how much in that park has changed since the first time I went. We went around past the Sci-Fi Dine In and into Muppets Courtyard where I told him about the former Streets of America and what was beyond the giant wall leading into Galaxies Edge. We needed to hit one ride while we were at Hollywood Studios so I left it up to him. Muppetvison 3-D or Star Tours. His pick was Star Tours.
Star Tours is a motion simulator ride that brings the rider to various places throughout the eight Star Wars movies. Before getting on the ride you go through a pretty awesome queue line. At first you are on the set of a movie as you pass through an Ewok Village. Once inside though you'll be in a spaceport. Flight statuses are shown on a huge screen, droids are checking baggage, and C3PO and R2-D2 are doing some maintenance on a ship. Once you don your 3-D glasses and buckle in the ride begins. The scenes are all at random each ride features four scenes. With over fifty something possible combinations it is incredibly hard to get the same ride multiple times which is great! The ride system itself is that of your typical motion simulator. You'll get slammed around a bit and be rocking forward, backward, and side to side as you travel through the galaxy. If you get motion sickness easily, I would consider passing on this ride as it can cause motion sickness.
With one ride down in Hollywood Studios and the others having long lines, we made our way towards the exit, but not before seeing the First Order march towards the Chinese Theater. It's pretty cool to see a legion of storm troopers led by Captain Phasma march through the park. What's not so cool is seeing it happen pretty much every hour. It's a short march really and sadly the closest thing to a parade that Hollywood Studios has to offer. With it getting close to fast pass time, we left Hollywood Studios and boarded the bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Before wrapping up this blog I want to throw something out there. Until he was going to Florida my dad was never really interested in going to Walt Disney World. The crowds, the price, it being "for kids", the lines, and well... the crowds again were all reasons he had no interest. By the time we left Epcot he was already saying that it was not what he was expecting. Of course he was expecting the characters to be all over, and everything being a fantasy. So far what he has seen is respectable attempts at recreating architecture of different countries, incredible technology, and a small amount of fantasy in being shrunk down to the size of a green army man. How that fantasy of being shrunk seemed so real surprised him and really, he was having a good time. He wished we had more time to spend at Epcot, and liked the feel of Hollywood Studios despite only being able to get on one ride. The park's old theme of being on the set of the movies interested him and much like me, he wished The Great Movie Ride was still a thing.
We are two parks into what was a four park day! In my next blog we will be looking at Disney's Animal Kingdom and wrapping the day up with Magic Kingdom. Thank you all as always for reading and stay tuned!
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