This is the droid you were looking for.

Star Tours, the popular Star Wars ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World, will be opening version 2.0 today (May 20, 2011). It is also opening day for the 2011 Star Wars Weekends held in the park, which means it will be crazy crowded, but still fun.

Rumor has it that the new Star Tours ride is in 3D, features multiple destinations and numerous characters spanning all of the Star Wars films. Yes, even Jar Jar. (Check out this new Star Tours commercial via our friends at The Disney Blog.)

The Disneyland ride will reopen on June 3, 2011. They don’t have Star Wars Weekends at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, which is bunk, but expect the park to still be insanely busy for the 2.0 launch.

For more family-friendly travel photos visit DeliciousBaby’s Photo Fridays.

This is the first in a series of posts about my family trip to Walt Disney World that will be running periodically over the next few weeks. It’s full of tips, fun and lots of stress. Also, the proverbial Disney magic.

Our hosts.

Like many families that visit Walt Disney World (WDW), we planned it for years. Okay, months. We had books. Lots of books.  We visited websites. Daily. We had countdown apps on our phones and desktops.  We set aside a fund to pay for the trip. We thought we had it all figured out. Top of the world, Mickey!

Here’s what we learned — we didn’t allow for everything. Shortly after we made all of the major purchases required for a trip of this magnitude my wife and I lost our biggest account at work, roughly 80% of our household income (that’s what this is about). It was, obviously, unexpected. Did I mention that the major purchases we made were non-refundable?

We had airline tickets, park tickets and a hotel room bought and paid for, all without a paycheck in sight. The money that we had saved toward the trip now had to go toward bills. Suddenly, our air of anticipation was replaced with the foreboding of fear.  For the record, the anticipation was a lot more fun.

Luckily, we had already taken some steps to ensure that our trip was relatively sound, financially speaking. Relative being that we were planning a cross-country family vacation for four to Walt Disney World, quite possibly a once in a lifetime trip, and some corners couldn’t be cut.

How we did it: Read More »

The best part about extra hands...

Did you know that The Empire Strikes Back came out 30 years ago? Hurts, doesn’t it? Okay, you’re old, but you look great. Let’s move on. The anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back is just one of the Star Wars celebrations happening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios during their Star Wars Weekends.

Star Wars Weekends are celebrated at Disney’s Hollywood Studios starting today! That’s right, if you want to go you need to find a ship that can get you there in less than twelve parsecs.  Or you can go next weekend.  Here are the dates: May 21-23 and 28-30, June 4-6 and 11-13.

Perhaps you are wondering what Disney has to do with Star Wars.  The two pop-culture powerhouses have been friendly since the Star Tours ride opened at Disneyland in 1987.  It’s a relationship that has continued to grow and blossom over the years — apparently, and I speak from experience, there is a lot of crossover appeal between Disney and Star Wars fans. Go figure.

Star Wars Weekends celebrate the six films as well as the current animated series The Clone Wars (which, IMHO, is pretty awesome). In addition to everything you would normally expect from a Walt Disney World vacation you are also able to join Jedi Knights, Sith Lords and the rest of your Star Wars favorites for shows, parades, presentations, autographs (FASTPASS available outside front gate entrance for celebrity autographs) and anything else the Force has in store. Read More »

The park that started it all...

Are you a fan of the Disney parks? Of course you are.

For several years people have had the option of buying annual passes, aka “passports”, to the Disney resort of their choice (Disneyland Resort in California or Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, respectively) and the people were happy.

Last week Disney outdid themselves and introduced a new premium annual pass, the Disney Premier Passport, that allows access to all parks within BOTH resorts.  Yes, BOTH resorts. Read More »