Disneyland! It's been a while. This was my second visit of the year, but first time experiencing the winter events! I realise I called the winter events "spring events" in my last post... I tend to think that it's time for spring once December is over... wishful thinking.
I went and saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi recently, so it felt like a good time to check out all the Star Wars stuff happening at the park currently.
My first stop was the Pan Galactic Pizza Port. I tend to forget about this place, and I'm always taken aback by the animatronic show over the counter. Not to mention the videos and endless singing.... I grabbed a seat outside, the sun was warm enough to not make it completely miserable.
The official name of this menu item is DARK SIDE CALZONE. It's a fun thing to order.
The details in this simple menu item, though... it's speckled with little gold flakes, which makes it sparkle to imitate a galaxy far, far away. (The dark side likes sparkly stuff, noted.) Biting into it revealed its golden center - a deliciously spicy chicken curry filling.
By the way, why does the dark side get all the fun food items? Dark side calzone, stormtrooper mochi... where are the Jedi snacks, hm? Or do Jedis not need food...? I guess the lightsaber churro is on the light side, since it's green? .......
Anyway, off to the main event
The Star Wars event is called Feel the Force, and it ends March 19th. During this time, Star Tours is running a special version where you're guaranteed the Jakku scene (chasing after Finn in the Millenium Falcon) from The Force Awakens and a new scene from The Last Jedi.
I guess I was feeling it, because I ended up riding this three times today. I got a different opening sequence (before the Jakku scene) on my last mission, so I guess the opening and ending is randomized somewhat.
I think this combination of scenes worked really well, but I'm glad I'd seen The Last Jedi before riding! The scene doesn't really contain any spoilers as such, but you get to see Crait and its creatures, and some of the action that happens there. If I'd walked into the film with this scene in mind, I would have been impatiently waiting for it...
I'd almost go so far as to say that I preferred the attraction version of this scene to the one that's in the film. It worked so well, and was amazingly fun, I wondered whether they originally wrote it with the attraction in mind.
I'm honestly very surprised, and I guess this is a sort of spoiler, but here I go anyway, THAT THERE WERE NO PORGS. Haaaahahahaha. How did they avoid that? Amazing. Considering their actual screentime in the film, I'm baffled they've become so popular. I guess it's because they were featured in the trailer...?
Did you know that the row in the very back of the Starspeeder 1000 has taller seats than the front rows? It makes sense, it would have been hard to see over the heads of people in front of you otherwise, but wow. My feet didn't touch the floor when I was sitting in the back row! That definitely made the attraction feel different. Floating through spaaaace.
Everyone riding Star Tours were handed a Tomorrow guide (pictured at the top of this post). A clever play on the regular Today guides that's handed out at Tokyo Disneyland. The Tomorrow guide includes information about the Starspeeder 1000, the craft you board on Star Tours. There's info about the films and characters, and even a papercraft! You can build your own Starspeeder 1000 (though you need to destroy the guide to do so). Unlike the regular Today guides, the Tomorrow guide is both in English and Japanese, so it can be enjoyed by everyone.
I love the look of these dorky photo spots.
There's still one thing left on my todo list for the Star Wars event, and that's their special Star Tours Recruiting challenge. It's like a Star Wars quiz that you do around the park, they estimate an average completion time of 2 hours. I saw a bunch of people scratching their heads and looking up stuff on their phones while filling out the quiz booklet, it looks hard! I've given the sample questions a go and was able to answer them correctly (with a little help).... maybe I'd do okay? There's only one way to find out. There's still plenty of time. I might want to pick up a name tag too.
