This week in Passhole land…

The world of “passholes,” has had a busy few weeks. At Disney, California had the opening of Galaxy’s Edge, they announced a preview for the one in Orlando, and they also gave us an increase on all Florida annual pass-holder prices. Universal Orlando had Hagrid’s Magical Creatures motorbike adventure opening to amazing reviews, and they had to update their operating procedure for it. Busch Gardens has new animal encounters and Discovery Cove is offering a Florida resident discount now. Lets get into the details!

So for Disney, everyone loves Galaxy’s Edge in California. They had a system for return times for people staying on site and for people going to the parks during the first month that gave people four hours to explore the land. In Orlando, they announced they are going to schedule passholder previews for the top three tiers and will probably do something similar for the rest as well and announce it as we get closer to the opening date of August 29th. Personally, I cannot wait to see what we have in store. They also made an announcement that each pass had an increase overnight from between $9 for the water park pass to$225 for the Passport that covers California and Florida. The price change varies between what kind of pass you have, so go to Disney’s website and it will go into further detail about how much each pass increased.

For Universal Orlando, it has been a magical week. They opened to rave reviews on Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. It has been opening with lines out to the Port of Entry and Seuss Landing with a 600 minute wait opening day. They had to make an announcement this week that they will no longer be opening Hagrid’s for the entire day and only opening it in the afternoon in order to make sure the ride maintains its performance because it is such sophisticated technology. Overall, people will have to be patient while they sort out the technical and weather factors for this coaster.

At Discovery Cove, Florida residents receive a 30% discount of their ticket if they book for 2019-2020 between now and June 30th. Visit the Discovery Cove website to book now and get more details on pricing. Busch Gardens Tampa has new animal tours as well. You can see the “Sloth Encounter,” which is a 30 minute tour and “Rhino Encounter,” which is a 45 minute tour. They now have 10 experiences for you to get up close with animals now and these new tours cost $59.99/ person. Book on Busch Gardens website or call 813-884-4FUN (4386) to get more details.

So as you can see, all of the parks have a lot going on and there is fun to be had by all! Thanks for reading my post and getting the updates. I cannot wait to review the rides for myself very soon! Until next time, see you in the parks!

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Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

As we have 3 days until Galaxy’s Edge opens over in California, I decided tonight I would try and talk about what we have heard about this new land. I have not gone in to much detail about it before this, so now is a good a time as any!

Our backstory to this land is that we are along the galaxy’s outer rim on a planet called Batuu where explorers, traders and smugglers alike will have places they can hide out for a bit. Throughout the 14 acres the land encompasses, you will see a lot of familiar faces from the entire series and cast members will be dressed as Batuuans as well so they will be fully involved and immersed in the story. There will also be two rides, food, drinks, shops and your Disney parks app will have a part to play in the experience as well.

The first ride “Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s run,” will have you taking control and flying the falcon and you will be interacting and based on how you respond, the outcome changes. You will have the chance to be pilot, flight engineer or gunner. The second ride “Star Wars: Rise of the resistance,” will be you joining the resistance and fighting the first order in a battle where you will go inside a star destroyer and full-size starships. In both cases for these rides, Disney says they have never done anything like this. Between the interaction and guest cooperation, they truly believe these will be fully immersive experiences.

Now lets talk food, drink and shops. For drinks, Black Spire Outpost Market has your Blue Milk at the milk stand and Oga’s cantina is where you can get your alcoholic beverages from the Fuzzy Tauntaun to the Yub Nub. It also will have non-alcoholic drinks like the carbon freeze and cliff dweller so everyone can go in and enjoy Oga’s, but be mindful of her rules! Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo will be where you can get food and a few drinks as well and Ronto Roasters will be your other option too for food.

For Shops, you can get a pet at Bina’s Creature Stall. Need a lightsaber? Savi’s Worshop has you covered with personalized features with kyber crystals in the core. You can even stop at droid depot for a droid of your own. Dok-Ondar’s den of antiquities is also where you can get all of the best black market merchandise. The den is an amazing museum as well in case you want to just see what he has.

You also cannot forget the Star Wars Datapad on the Disney parks play app. It will help you interact with droids, scan objects to translate messages and codes and even translate Aurebesh which all of this can help you hack into devices, control panels and even the droids you were looking for. It will work throughout the entire land so make sure you have it handy and ready when you go in for the first time so you get the best experience!

So there seems to be a lot to do when you are on the edge of the galaxy. I hope everyone enjoys the lands as they open and that it is as amazing as the previews seem to be making it. We will see it open on May 31st in Anaheim and on August 29th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios so pretty soon we will have even more details as people go. May the force be with us as Disney gets all of us through to experience this.

That is going to be it for this week, so thanks for reading! Until next time, see you at the parks!