After nearly twelve years of often off the beaten path travel, we decided to indulge our inner child and break with our more traditional travel plans and headed down to Disney World for a combination twelfth anniversary celebration and to see the new Star Wars rides and attractions.

To state that everything Disney is pure commercialism and regulation is an understatement. From the beginning of our planning there were endless hurdles to circumvent. Their electronic infrastructure is horrible for a company of this size. There were countless challenges to book the activities we wanted. Their website was frequently sluggish, buggy, and overly restrictive. Phone support was rarely an option with hold times over an hour. We tried contacting Disney’s media relations and although all we wanted was information (we probably could have requested free passes) that was like pulling teeth. They blatantly didn’t read our initial emails and returned canned one liners. When they did respond with some detail, they give incorrect information. It was easy booking our trip to Mongolia for the summer than a “simple” trip to Disney World.

Given the nature of what we were shooting, we decided to step up our game and modify the wedding dress (which typically you cannot wear at Disney) into a Star Wars inspired R2D2 outfit. We flew in and got to the hotel at 1:AM and really couldn’t rest because if you aren’t at the park before opening you have no shot at getting onto the Rise of the Resistance ride.

So, heading down we had a bit of apprehension about what obstacles we might run into with our plans for our 300^th wedding dress shoot. However, we are pleased to say that once we got to the “Happiest Place on Earth” we were floored with the staff who couldn’t be more accommodating, flexible and friendly.  

Our first rite of passage was trying to get a boarding group for the new “Rise of the Resistance” ride. You have to be in the park at 8:00AM. Then everyone taps on a button on the Disney app hoping to get a boarding group. I waved my Jedi hand over the park and somehow managed to get us group 22. Typically, they can get through 100 or more boarding groups a day. With no specific time, we headed over to Oga’s Cantina. Although our reservation was for later, they took us early and when we mentioned what we were doing let us select the spot in the cantina we wanted. The first shots didn’t come out the best, so we actually went back a few days later. Here are the best photos for Oga’s and Star Wars Galaxy Edge in general.

Jennifer also convinced me to take my stomach in hand and ride with her on the Rock and Roll Coaster. It was fast, dark, upside down and nearly hurl producing. As the day progressed the wait for the Millennium Falcon ride became reasonable and we hopped on it as two pilots. Let’s just say it’s harder to fly the fastest piece of junk in the galaxy than it looks.

Getting on the Rise of the Resistance required two tries. The first time when our boarding crew was called we got about 1/2 in and it broke down for most of the day. Disney was on top of it though, they gave us a Fast Pass for it when it reopened. The ride was beyond intense, fast moving and epically orchestrated. Sadly, no dress photos. It was too dark and we were moving way too fast.

On our second day, we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We got there for rope drop and joined the hundreds of people dashing for the Avatar ride. We are not sure how we did it, but we were among the first riders of the day. We also took in the Lion King show before meeting up with some old friends for lunch and a walk around the park. Somehow Jennifer convince me to go on the Everest roller coaster. While not as bad as the Rock and Roll variety, it was brutal on my stomach. I have zero tolerance for motion ☹ We finished the day with going on a safari with our friends and then an amazing dinner in Epcot at Marrakesh.