Day 14: Patrick’s 18th Birthday at Hollywood Studios

Summary: Patrick’s 18 today! A full Star Wars day planned at Hollywood Studios. Rise of the Resistance, Smugglers Run and Star Tour done multiple times, breakfast drinks at the Cantina and lunch at the Sci-fi cafe and the piece de resistance, building our own lightsabers at Savi’s workshop. Such an epic experience so glad we were able to get the chance to do it.

So today was a very important one that has been a long time in the making. It’s going to be emotional, exciting, full of wonder and surprise, yes, today is the day I build my first lightsaber! Oh yeah Patrick turns 18 today too… 😛

So today’s alarm call was to the tune of Star Wars (Main Title) followed by the number 1 song when Patrick was born - Maneater by Nelly Furtado. It had to be done and will not be played again.

We had to be up early even though last night was a late one as our reservation for the Cantina was at 09:30. And everyone got up and ready quick smart, Patrick opened his cards and presents and we were out of the room before 08:30. Picked up some energy drinks as we left and set off for Hollywood Studios.

Cocktails for breakfast

When we got into the park we had to go to the Cantina right away. But not before we picked up a Birthday badge for Patrick. And entering the Cantina is excellent, right style and atmosphere though they had droid called R-3X as the DJ instead of the alien band from Mos Eisley, so looks like Droids are allowed in this one.

We all order different drinks, I got an alcoholic cocktail called Jedi mind trick, all blue and glowy like Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi. Patrick got the Cliff Dweller (in a souvenir Lolth cat cup) and the others got Jabba Juice, The Blurgfire and Hyperdrive. All very nice and tasty and no one lost any arms whilst at the bar. The Cantina band song also came on while we were in which was pretty cool! The bar staff also interacted with us in character - it was a great experience and good start to PG’s birthday.

We had time to ride Rise of the Resistance before our next activity, Savi’s workshop! I filmed most of the walkthrough which I had missed out on from the previous time we were here and we were front row first time too so made for a better experience.

I am a Jedi, like my father before me

And then the lightsaber build, there was four of us doing it with Ann being a spectator and coincidentally there were four styles we could choose from. We each choose a different style which was great as we would then have all of them.

- I went for Peace and Justice, which are based on Republic-era designs
- Robert for Power and Control (used by the Sith, boooo)
- Grace opted to go Elemental Nature (made from natural living force materials like bark and teeth)
- And Patrick went for Protection & Defence based on the ancient and mystical force.

They had a great thematic introduction and went into details about the lightsabers and khyber crystals, which give the lightsaber its colour. We got to choose a colour (but you could buy additional colours too). I went for green, Patrick for blue, Grace for purple and Robert for red (like a sith, boooooo). We then built our lightsaber piece by piece choosing from a selection of components from our given style. It was such awesome experience. And then finally the activation, such a great feeling. I didn’t expect the lightsaber to be so heavy in the hand but it felt great to wield (oh and we purchased stands for each of them which also weight a tonne so Im not looking forward to seeing what our overall luggage weight is). All of them looked great and we bought a bunch of extra khyber crystals including white and yellow! The extra red ones you purchase also have a very small chance of it being a black, so we’ll see if we managed to get one when we get back.

We dropped the lightsabers and extras off at the car so we didn’t need to carry them about for the remainder of the day. Once back in the park we headed to Star Tours, always seems to have a low wait time so we walked straight on. It’s a great ride to do multiple times to as they randomize characters, locations and events. This time around we got Vader trying to stop us from escaping, then off to Tatooine for some pacing (like last time). We then received a communication from Mando and Baby Yoda (who was more interested in a frog) and finally a battle over Coruscant. Great ride and walkthrough (starting at the feet of a huge AT-AT).

Then on to Smugglers Run. The only role I hadn’t fulfilled yet was that of Engineer - responsible for repairing the ship when it gets damaged. Managed to keep the ship at 92%, failed at the last leg of the journey but still scored higher than previous times with a score of 6224 and rank of Marauder.

This is a tasty burger

After that was lunch at the Sci-Fi cafe - a drive thru experience were the tables are old style cars from the 50’s facing a huge “outdoor” screen playing classic B movies from the era. Menu was burgers and shakes, more or less and me and the boys went for a pastrami burger (I previously had a Reuben in this restaurant, which they no longer do and this was the closest thing to it). Chicken Salad Sandwich on a croissant for Grace and a BBQ burger for Ann. I did opt for a vanilla milkshake too, to double down on the experience. The burger was huge and really really good and we all struggled to finish. Well I did finish Graces as hers to was tasty (and it a salad sandwich so its good for you, right?). I thought we would need to go out for dinner later as this was an early lunch, but now Im not so sure.

Lunch was well timed as we missed most of the rain that had come on while we were inside, and once we exited we were ready for our next ride, Slinky Dog Dash. Probably not the best idea to ride a coaster after a big lunch, though it was only a smallish one, so we thought it would be ok. A up and down and up motion was a little much but we survived!

And then across from Slinky Dog in Toy Story Land, was Toy Story Mania. I believe I triumphed last time at this so the others had another change to become the champion, but alas my trigger finger was well primed and I came top on the leaderboard again (only just however). Scores as follows:

- Gerry: 172,900
- Ann: 134, 200
- Patrick: 147,000
- Robert: 160,000
- Grace: 114, 800

Although we’d done a few rides in Toy Story Land today, our primary focus was Galaxy’s Edge so we done Star Tours, Rise and Smugglers again in succession. In Star Tours I was the rebel spy and Master Yoda send us a communication after visiting Kashyyyk, the planet of the Wookiees (us green light sabered Jedi need to stick together). And on Smugglers Run, I was the pilot again and we did the best we have even done so far with a score of 7444 and managing to capture two containers instead of one - I think we’re starting to get the hang of the smuggling business y’know!

We could have done them all again but didn’t want to burn out and we’ll be back here in a few days to do them again and maybe try some non Star Wars related stuff! Picked up a Starbucks on the way out of the park and they got my name wrong (no surprises there), but was the first hit of caffeine since this morning so was overdue.

No one felt like eating tonight so we just headed back to the hotel and hit the pool for a wee while to relax after a hectic day. It’s been tough going this week so everyone is looking forward to a rest day tomorrow but as Tianas is now open at Magic Kingdom it may not be the rest day we had hoped for, we shall see.

We’ve also broke 100 walking miles on the clock as we close off our second week. Will be interesting to see how many more miles we rack up going into our final stretch.

Todays Stats

- Step Count: 17.9k
- Starred Rides: Rise, Smuggles Run
- Total steps: 252k
- Total miles: 107 miles