It looks like lots of rich white people for sure.

My boyfriend is there three months Now and he says anyone living there is running away from something. It looks like paradise tho. Meaning where he is, island called koh Rong.
I go over next month

oh sure, its european guys with lots of money enjoying everything is cheap for them there. I knew some guys that were there totally drunk and high for 3 months and never went to Ankor. It was awful. They treated locals like garbage. Awful.

I was really happy when they kicked their assess off from the hostel.

You get that anywhere I guess. You should visit Dublin any given weekend. Flooded with English toursts. All drunk and acting abysmally

Dime that Wuhan Coronavirus is spreading pretty quickly throughout Asia. Another reason not to go to Cambodia.

I saw that. And what they think caused it.

Fuckin hell

Who even eats bats????

Havent thought of that.

I read that they think cobras caused it.

I’ve watched a couple videos showing the new Star Wars hotel. $6000 for two days or something. It gives off pretty heavy corporate retreat team building vibes with the activities. All the employees being in character made it feel like you had to constantly be prepared to play along with their skits. For whatever reason whenever I run into a cast member in Disney who acts in character it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and it looks non stop at this hotel. There was a pretty neat interactive Kylo/Rey fight show that was fun for a while but went on and on. Not for me.

And he went anyway. And brought Covid back to Ireland with him, single-handedly introducing Europe to the pandemic.

OK, so the B clan made it to Galaxy's Edge this week. Couple of experiences ...

We were able to rope drop the Millennium Falcon ride (go there as soon as the park opens). That was great, but hard to get a picture sitting around the game table. Later, my son and I figured out we could ride as single riders, and get on with absolutely no wait.

Rise of the Resistance was really great. It's a multi-level ride where you're going through a long story. The actors are fantastic. The New Order officers were so mean and sarcastic. My 10yr old daughter got out of line and the dude made her cry. He stepped back and let me calm her down, but he never broke character.

Oga's cantina was a great experience. Reservations are short. They normally chase you out after 45 minutes, but for us, there was a fire alarm right after we got our drinks, so we had to leave. By the time we got back in, they were willing to remake our drinks, but we had two little ones that wanted to build droids. So a few of our group stayed behind to get the drinks, while others went to build droids.

Now the droids, this is a pain in the ass. The droids go to sleep when they're not used, and you have to turn them off and on to play with them. The BB units have that button inside their globe and it is HARD as fuck to open them. I feel like they should lead with that. "Hey, you're about to build a $100 droid that your kid is going to have to disassemble and reassemble every time they want to play.

Overall, Galaxy's Edge was amazing. So immersive. You absolutely believe you're in star wars. Even the bathrooms are themed. 4/5 stars.

Glad it was mostly a positive experience, B. Sounds like a blast. I really can't wait to check it out one of these days.

Just got back from Disneyland.

Rise of the Resistance is great! We did it twice (on different days) and the second time was a million times better. I was able to really look at the details, and there are so many.

Smuggler’s Run is great as well. Actually, the lead up to the ride (being on the Falcon) is better than the ride. The problem with the ride is it’s a video game so you miss a lot trying to do well. I was a gunner once - boring - just spamming buttons - and a pilot once - so fun, and you get to throw it into light speed. I was never an engineer. No idea what they do.

Oga’s Cantina is fun to be in. Wish they’d maybe made Max Reebo here instead of a droid deejay. The drinks look cool, but the 4 we tried all basically tasted like Powerade, orange juice, or pineapple juice. My kids had the blue milk on the street. They’re just delicious slushies.

Just walking around the area is the best. No one does detail like Disney. Characters are common as well. In a short period of time we ran into Rey, Fennec (super hot), Boba Fett, Kylo, R2-D2, Chewie, and multiple stormtroopers and First Order officers.

My youngest built a lightsaber instead of a droid. Hella expensive, but he’s been buzzing about it for a week, and I got to say, “I see you’ve constructed a new lightsaber.”

My one complaint about the park is it leans hard into the Disney movies. There is no Darth Vader to be seen, and that’s a shame. Jabba should be in this as well.

Star Tours still exists in Tomorrowland, and it’s still the best. We rode it once on three separate days. Each time you ride you get two scenarios. We only had 1 repeat (Kashykk), so 5 different scenarios to enjoy. Vader was part of one.

I imagine Orlando is overwhelming. Anaheim is not. If Star Wars is your goal, I recommend going there instead. I hope they continue to expand on the number of rides. Having just two, great as they are, feels weak. It’d be nice to see some kind of roller coaster akin to Big Thunder (still my favorite ride in the park) and Space Mountain. I’m thinking speeder bikes through the forest moon or the second Death Star run.

I don't think Orlando was different in any way.

The Star Wars part specifically, no, but I think the Magic Kingdom averages around 13k more visitors a day. I read 57K for Orlando and 44k for Anaheim. I also read around a quarter million people are daily in the 4 Orlando parks. Anaheim just has 2 parks.

We did not pay for lightning lanes and 70 minutes was the longest we waited for a ride (Splash Mountain in the early afternoon of a 100 degree day). I’m sure Rise was higher then, but we did it in the morning and walked right on.

My biggest beef is that they undersized the cantina. We had to reserve a spot 6 months in advanced, and we still ended up standing at a table in the middle of the crowded Cantina with little kids who could barely reach the top. And we still had to wait for admission at our reservation time. This is Disney World. People make reservations so they can sit the fuck down for an hour.

Granted, I'm not an architect, nor am I privy to exactly how much land Disney owns in the back of Hollywood Studios, but they could have built a bigger Cantina or had 2 or 3 hidden behind one entrance. It was fun being in there and getting pictures of yourself drinking in a Star Wars cantina, but it was a little underwhelming.

I could also be pissed that we hiked across the park in a torrential rainstorm only to wait for entry and then had to evacuate for a fire alarm as soon as our drinks arrived.

We had no reservation. We made one on the app and were in 30 minutes later. We had made the lightsaber reservation just two weeks in advance for an evening slot, and when we went to check the place out after doing the two rides, they said we could walk right in now if we wanted at 9 in the morning.

Far less people. That said, my youngest son and I did just test positive for Covid (wife and other son had it in May). I assumed he and I would get it there.

This post has aged.

I’m in no position to determine whether it has aged well or aged poorly, but it has aged.

We all told him not to go and he single-handedly infected Western Europe when he came home.

I forgot that dime was patient zero.