I had entered a contest on the DisneyParksBlog to win a chance to ride the newly revamped Star Tours a whole 2 weeks before the official opening. They picked 1200 people (+ a guest) and I was one of them!! We found out on Friday May 13th and the day we had to be there was Friday May 20th!! We had to wait the weekend to see if Pat could get the day off of work. Once we knew, we scrambled to find hotel and flights for the 2 of us. We flew out on Thursday night and went straight to our hotel. (I found a cheap one that was walking distance to the park) The next morning we had to report to the check in station at the butt-crack of dawn (between 4:00 and 7:30 am). We got there about 5 am and got in line, then Pat went over to the nearest McDonalds to pick up some breakfast.
Here's the sign that awaited us in line:
They even had a fun starfield backdrop to take pictures!!
Here's a view of the crowd in front of us, News crews and all!
We slowly made our way through bag check
(again the crowd in front of us)
Then we lined up in front of the main entrance. This was around 6:30 am, and they weren't going to move us into the park until around 8am!!
So we sat and sat, and waited and waited!
It was really cool to be there at dawn and see the sun lighting up the park :)
There was a 2 man band giving us some really cool Star Wars music and some other fun dancing music to listen to. Notice the keytar!!!!!!!
Finally!!! We made it past the main entrance. Then we walked slowly down main street.
I had to take advantage of a crowd less Walt, Mickey, and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.
Tomorrowland at dawn!!!!
Our first glimpse of the new Star Tours!!!
Once we got into the actual queue, it was still another 30+ minutes of waiting.
Pat and the new Starspeeder 1000,
piloted by none other than R2-D2!
We finally got our 3D glasses and were awaiting our boarding call!
You can see Pat's excitement, we were finally on board!!!!
The ride was awesome!!!!! We were stopped by Stormtroopers, went to Tattooine, were contacted by Princess Leia, then finally ended our tour on Naboo!!
I loved every second of it!!!
They had given us wristbands when we checked in, and on our way off the ride they cut them off then gave us special buttons to commemorate the ride!
Here's Pat in the StarTrader Shop with an amazing X-Wing hanging from the ceiling.
Once we were done it was just after the park opened and the crowds started rolling in.
We immediately ran over to Indiana Jones and got on pretty quick utilizing the Single Rider line :)
While we were in Disneyland, my brother JD was in Walt Disney World!!! He and Chris ended up being in the Magic Kingdom that day and we had been texting all morning. Since both parks have a lot of the same rides we decided to go on one at the same time!! So we all headed over to the Haunted Mansion for simultaneous rides in different parks!!! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity!!!!!!
After a few more rides and lunch, we headed over to Town Hall so I could transfer my Disney Dollars onto a card for the next day and Pat started to fall asleep on a bench while he waited.
Needless to say, by that point in the day we were PRETTY TIRED!!!
We then headed into Downtown Disney and into the store D-Street!
I was super excited to go there because they sell a wide variety of Vinylmations!!!
I wish I could have a sign like this:
They had a giant Vinylmation there too!
I am so utterly obsessed with Vinyls right now.
This trip was great because there were a bunch of stores where in you could trade Vinylmations. I was able to get a bunch from a series that I didn't have :)
I love them and they make little Breanne happy :)
After the shopping, we went to the AMC theater and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 3D. I loved the movie but hated the 3D. I was too tired and it gave me a headache and it's too expensive.
After the movie we headed back into the park for dinner and more rides.
We headed over to the Matterhorn, which I haven't been on for quite a long time. It's still as jerky as ever but ya gotta do it!
Then onto Pirates of the Caribbean. It was way fun to ride this right after seeing the new movie. They added Blackbeard in the smoke and the movie even had a scene from the ride in it :)
By the time we were done it was getting dark, so we headed over to the Rivers of America to watch Fantasmic!! We hadn't seen it before and really enjoyed it. Then we picked up gifts for the kids before heading back to our hotel.
Day2:
California Adventure
We got to the park right when they opened and headed over to Toy Story: Midway Mania.
On the way we saw that there were people lining up to go on Little Mermaid, but it was only for Cast Members, I was so bummed :(
This was our first time on Midway Mania,
and we LOVED IT!!!!
Pat is Player 1 & I'm player 2.
Not too bad for the first time, right????
We went on California Screamin' (which is my favorite roller coaster of all time), Soarin', Tower Of Terror, and Monsters Inc. Then watched Muppets 3D!!!
Afterwards we headed back into Downtown Disney and saw Bridesmaids at the AMC.
Once done, we got some dinner and went to the main attraction:
FLYNN'S ARCADE!!!!!
Pat is a huge Tron fan and we were super excited to be able to experience ElecTRONica and Flynn's Arcade!
I love the recognizer on the wall :)
You could even play the original Tron game and they had the arcade set up exactly like Tron: Legacy!
Even with the outline on the wall for the secret room.
I didn't take any pictures of ElecTRONica, but we loved it! Especially LaserMan! It was the coolest thing ever!
We then got some ice cream and walked around the pier during one the the World of Color showings. During our walk we noticed that Midway Mania was open so we ran!!!! It was only a 10 min wait and we were on!
We did much better the 2nd time around.
Once again Pat is player 1 & I'm player 2.
We decided that we want to have the chair and screen in our house because this ride is super awesome!!
Afterwards we headed over to our section for our showing of World of Color.
I love how Mickey's Fun Wheel lights up :)
I loved World of Color! It was a great end to a fantastic trip!
Since the lights were down on the pier we got a good view of the loading zone and mural in the Little Mermaid ride. It's so pretty! It'll be so fun to go back and ride this one with Mara since Ariel is her favorite princess!
It was such a fun yet quick trip, but I loved every minute of it!
