I *think* I made DH a lifelong Disney Fan! A June 2017 TR (the end 7/19)

[MissMaryQC]

it will give us 3 extra FPs per person

IDK if it's still happening but we also got a $100 gift card for the tour in September. Those FP they give you aren't good at the top locations either; we couldn't use them at PP, 7DMT or to meet Mickey, kind of a bummer. But they could work for Splash or Buzz, or something!

So there may be future changes, fingers crossed!

 

[ArielSRL]

I haven't posted much on my report but Michelle started a report for our February trip. The link is in my report, or look for Blended Ohana.

Will do!

Saw your post on a new SW thread today and noticed on your sig that you're returning in June. It appears that you'll be staying at the WL, my first and favorite resort as a CM nearly 22 years ago. Looks like you have your planning well under control. It's too bad you're visit is not a few weeks later during the possible DVC TSL previews.

Fastpasser! Thank you for coming over to my TR. Just an FYI, you are mentioned in it a few times!
Yep, we rented points to stay at WL last June and fell in love! So we bought a resale contract there! As far as our trip, we were supposed to take this year off and couldn't stay away so that's why we are doing a shorter trip with just one park day (at MK) so we would have missed TSL anyway, had it opened sooner. However, we will be back in October for another short trip and we will be hitting up DHS...so hopefully we will see you if you are around! We will be back to our regularly scheduled 8 night trip in June 2019! With APs...so I doubt it will be our only 2019 trip.

IDK if it's still happening but we also got a $100 gift card for the tour in September. Those FP they give you aren't good at the top locations either; we couldn't use them at PP, 7DMT or to meet Mickey, kind of a bummer. But they could work for Splash or Buzz, or something!

Thanks for the info! We booked PP and 7DMT already so the extra ones would still be nice. However, when I talked to a DVC person on the phone he said he didn't think we would get them since we already own. I'm still going to check when we arrive. If not, no biggie...we will be fine.

Thank you!

 

[FastPasser.]

Fastpasser! Thank you for coming over to my TR. Just an FYI, you are mentioned in it a few times!

I will check it out.

we rented points to stay at WL last June and fell in love!

Not hard to do. It's also hard to believe that it started off as a Moderate resort, talk about a good deal back then. And it was popular with the celebs. I parked John Denver's car at Valet and while at the Bell Cap desk, saw the Village People checking in. I know, who are they?

we will be back in October for another short trip and we will be hitting up DHS...so hopefully we will see you if you are around!

Absolutely, if I decide to hang around. But as I'm able to annoy and harass Guests at all WDW Guest areas, don't limit it to just DHS.

We will be back to our regularly scheduled 8 night trip in June 2019! With APs...so I doubt it will be our only 2019 trip.

You'll be here and I'll be up there by then.

 

[ArielSRL]

I will check it out.

If you have time. I am sure you are very busy here on the Dis and at work!

Not hard to do. It's also hard to believe that it started off as a Moderate resort, talk about a good deal back then. And it was popular with the celebs. I parked John Denver's car at Valet and while at the Bell Cap desk, saw the Village People checking in. I know, who are they?

At 44 years of age, I do actually know of who you speak! LOL. And that is cool that you experienced those things.

Absolutely, if I decide to hang around. But as I'm able to annoy and harass Guests at all WDW Guest areas, don't limit it to just DHS.

Good to know!

You'll be here and I'll be up there by then.

You will be missed and if it is family and rest time you'll be enjoying, it is well deserved!

 

[ArielSRL]

Day Eight 6/10/2017 ~ DHS (part 1)

Okay, so today was our last park day and we were starting out early. We had scheduled an 8:15 PPO ADR at H&V so AJ could get signed up for Jedi Training before the breakfast. I know we arrived before 8 and they hadn't let anyone in yet but when we walked up, they verified we did indeed have a reservation. We did not wait very long before they did start allowing us, along with the other waiting families with reservations, inside the park. Once inside, I immediately took AJ to sign ups and, unlike the year before where I did not do a PPO ADR and waited about 40 minutes, we were done with the sign up within 5 minutes. I went ahead and signed him up for the first show because the show the year before had gotten rained out, so I figured lets just go ahead and get it done, during a cooler part of the day to boot.

After signing up, we checked in for our breakfast and we either briefly waited or were sat almost right away. While AJ really isn't into these characters too much, Will is still a Disney Jr fan so he did get some enjoyment from the meets. Chad and I got some enjoyment from a couple Bloody Marys! I also did manage to get one photo of the food here:

I think the breakfast food here is fine. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to turn my nose up at either. We mostly book the breakfast for strategy purposes but at least the food is of decent fare and the drinks are delicious, albeit a bit spicy. Here are the photos I have of the characters:

AJ refused to meet with Sophia, though he does like Doc.

Both boys definitely like Handy Manny and Jake though.

I have no idea why I do not have photos of Jake and Doc but like I said, this breakfast is booked mostly for the strategic value.

We finished up with breakfast rather quickly and headed out because AJ had to check in for his Jedi Training:


I was able to secure him a spot where I knew he would fight Vader! At that time, the other opponent was Seventh Sister and my boys don't know much about her so we wanted Vader. Now it is Kylo Ren so they would be okay with either.

Anyway, while the Storm Troopers were patrolling the trainees:

Chad and Will were chillin':


Finally it was the trainees time to head over. I will be honest and tell you that I have 48 photos between mine and the PP ones, so I will probably just post the PP ones because they are much better quality and I don't want to drown you too much. I will also admit that this was such a cool experience! AJ absolutely LOVED it and this year, we will plan to do it again in October and Will will be able to participate, as well.

Onto the photos:



Continued in next post...

 

[ArielSRL]

Day Eight 6/10/2017 ~ DHS (part 1) con't

And even more photos:










Continued in next post...

 

[ArielSRL]

Day Eight 6/10/2017 ~ DHS (part 1) con't

Just a few more...



The end! LOL

Like I said, this really was the coolest experience! We are looking forward to doing this for years to come, hopefully!

After this, Chad headed for Star Tours to ride. I had booked AJ a FP as well, but he didn't want to chance it. So I took the boys to meet Olaf for the second year in a row. I love this meet! Olaf decided to do some hiding himself (like Mickey had done at AK):

So fun!






The boys loved it, just like the previous year!

Okay, I will stop here. I apologize for the photo heavy update, but they can probably tell the story better than I can. Hope you enjoy!

Up next: It is Almost Time (June 2018)
and Day Eight 6/10/2017 ~ DHS (part 2)

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I love all of the photos! We always want the girls to do Jedi Training but they just can't handle fighting the bad guys. Way to do AJ!

 

[mommaof3boys]

Anyway, while the Storm Troopers were patrolling the trainees:

That's cool. They didn't do this last month when we did Jedi training. I agree it is a cool experience. My kids fought Kylo Ren.

 

[ariane37]

As a non-SW fan I've always thought Jedi training was so cool, and I love watching the kids do it! The pictures of A.J, are great, I'm glad he had a good experience. One year way back we thought we might get Ricky to do it even though he didn't know who anyone but Darth Vader was, but then he chickened out lol.

Still haven't met Olaf! I tried talking the boys into it last month to no avail and while I'll do meets alone I prefer being with someone.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I want to meet Olaf so bad, but I'm afraid I might start crying, because he's my fav!

 

[ArielSRL]

I love all of the photos! We always want the girls to do Jedi Training but they just can't handle fighting the bad guys. Way to do AJ!

My boys want to be the bad guys! LOL

That's cool. They didn't do this last month when we did Jedi training. I agree it is a cool experience. My kids fought Kylo Ren.

Awww, maybe they don't do it anymore.

One year way back we thought we might get Ricky to do it even though he didn't know who anyone but Darth Vader was, but then he chickened out lol.

Oh no!

Still haven't met Olaf! I tried talking the boys into it last month to no avail and while I'll do meets alone I prefer being with someone.

Girls trip!

I want to meet Olaf so bad, but I'm afraid I might start crying, because he's my fav!

How sweet!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Aww the pictures of Jedi training are so cool! I hope my nieces and nephews will do this one day before they get too old!
Although none of them are into Star Wars...yet, lol.
I enjoyed dinner at Hollywood and Vine. Haven't had breakfast there yet but I guess we don't have any interest in Disney Jr.
Love the pictures with Olaf! How cute he played hide n seek with your boys!

 

[ArielSRL]

Aww the pictures of Jedi training are so cool! I hope my nieces and nephews will do this one day before they get too old!
Although none of them are into Star Wars...yet, lol.
I enjoyed dinner at Hollywood and Vine. Haven't had breakfast there yet but I guess we don't have any interest in Disney Jr.
Love the pictures with Olaf! How cute he played hide n seek with your boys!

It is such a fun thing! My boys aren't too into Star Wars either, though their interest in growing with the new movies.

Yeh, the breakfast is fine, but its more to get signed up for JTA early than anything else.

The Olaf meet was so fun. I loved that two character meets we had, the characters played hide and seek.

 

[vamassey1]

So happy your morning strategy worked. The pictures of AJ in Jedi Training are great. I don't have a little one to do this, hopefully it will still be around when JP gets old enough. Your pictures with Olaf make me want to meet him too. I'm sure JP would have loved him.

 

[cstorm65]

Ok so from your PTR I think that we will both be at MK on the same day! How fun!

Also, I’ve heard about the OK teacher strike. How are you guys faring?

We are very excited about this summer. The strike is over. There were some concessions made by our legislature, probably not enough, but they new teachers would have to go back to work at some point. The strike lasted about two weeks. They did end up increasing education funding by about 500 million a year, but even with that we are still one of the lowest in the nation. But, hopefully the support our state has shown educators during that makes some changes for the future. I'm just glad we are still going on our vacation. If we had been out much longer school days just kept getting added to the end of the year and we were going to have to cancel. That would have been no good!!

Love the last update too. Jedi Training looked so awesome for him!! Our DS5 wouldn't do it last summer. He is super shy about getting up in front of people. He's a complete clown most of the time, but when it comes to being in front of people he wants no part of it. Maybe that will change, who knows??

 

[ArielSRL]

We are very excited about this summer. The strike is over. There were some concessions made by our legislature, probably not enough, but they new teachers would have to go back to work at some point. The strike lasted about two weeks. They did end up increasing education funding by about 500 million a year, but even with that we are still one of the lowest in the nation. But, hopefully the support our state has shown educators during that makes some changes for the future. I'm just glad we are still going on our vacation. If we had been out much longer school days just kept getting added to the end of the year and we were going to have to cancel. That would have been no good!!

I'm glad it worked out (somewhat) in your favor and that you can still go on your Disney trip!

Love the last update too. Jedi Training looked so awesome for him!! Our DS5 wouldn't do it last summer. He is super shy about getting up in front of people. He's a complete clown most of the time, but when it comes to being in front of people he wants no part of it. Maybe that will change, who knows??

Maybe he will. I'm hoping my oldest will change his mind about his ban of the Disney roller coasters!

 

[kastoney]

Loving all the pictures of AJ and his jedi training. He clearly had a blast and has a mother much smarter than I as I didn't know where to line Casey up for Vader. So glad Will will be able to join in the fun on the next trip. Great idea to get a dining reservation too!

 

[ArielSRL]

has a mother much smarter than I as I didn't know where to line Casey up for Vader.

OMG you will not believe how stressful that was though. I kept studying up hoping I would get it right when we got there...thank goodness I did. But I think I have heard that the procedure has changed now...so more studying!

 

[MissMaryQC]

I wish I could do Jedi Training, lol! The kiddos looks so cute and are having such fun! I’m so glad AJ loves it so much.

And Olaf is adorable! I love those pictures too! Just such a cute post!!

I want to meet Olaf so bad, but I'm afraid I might start crying, because he's my fav!

Same! I still get misty when I meet my main man Mickey, he’s my fave. I say do it girl!