Plan It Florida

In 2017 we headed back to Florida as a family and as always we wanted to book something different and as a suprise for the lads. I was talking with another Florida mad man at work and he mentioned the Star Wars guided tour he had seen mention of, that was it, we were off an running.

All wired up with our Star Wars badges and tags

This Star Wars Guided Tour is located at Disneys Hollywod Studios where all of the Star Wars elements are located. We completed this tour in 2017 BEFORE the opening of the new Star Wars land (Galaxys Edge) and so it did not include anything to do with the new locations. This said they were ramping up hard on the theming and getting people excited, so we got to do basically everything there is to do Star Wars at the park.

The first thing is of course to book the tour. This was done by calling the Disney hotline which is the same one we used when we booked the Surfing at Typhoon Lagoon that I have already written all about but there has been mention this would be stopped once Galaxy’s edge opened.

There are a number of different things that came as part of the experience which was spread over an afternoon and evening. We checked in at 1pm to start the day which is done within the Star Wars section of the land. At this time you are asked to select your meal from the menus so that it is all ready for you when we make it to the food location. As part of this introduction we were all handed out our name badges which were written in both English and a weird alien language and these also determined if you were a goodie or a badie! This was set at the time of calling and booking so many months before, we decided it was only right that the kids be the bad guys and we be the boring good guys 🙂

We then met our Star Wars Guided Tour guides and were all handed ear pieces that we would wear for the duration of the tour. This meant that as we walked around the park we were always being told loads of interesting information about the story, the filming as well as bits of information of the park. We had 2 guides as one would stay at the front and one at the back to not lose anyone and we became that typical sightseeing group as we marched around following the lady with the light saber.

For those of us with children we were able to sign them up to take part in the first of the Star Wars shows where they train to be a Jedi and then take on Darth Vade which you can see in the photos. Both our lads took part in this althogh Leo the older one was more hesitant as he was not that keen and being a tall lad when he put on the costume cloak it waved around his knees and so looked more fitting for Harry Potter than Star Wars but off he went to help support his brother who loved it.

Jake on stage with Darth Vader — Jakes fights Darth Vader infront of a crowd

Then off we went for the day, here we managed to cover off

Star Tours Ride (walked to front of queue VIP Style)
Lunch at the Star Ways Themed Quick Service – But this included a visit by 2 Storm Troopers which was rare
Lads to join in the Star Wars production which we have some videos of below
Join the Star Wars parade up the main street. We then had reserved standing location in front of the stage to see all the characters as the show and day time fireworks were set off.
Never ending amount of information through the guides on Disney and Star Wars
Evening Dessert Party and light show

It was a busy day that took us up to about 6:30 and then we came to the evening part of the event which is that it included the Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party. This is a great way to end the evening. With this you get to join into the Dessert party where there are weird and wonderful deserts of all kinds of colours and flavours for you to help yourself to, along with strange bubbling drinks. You have about an hour or so to get some of these deserts but also this is when you can visit the 3 characters that are available which was BB8, Kylo Ren and C3P0. At this time BB8 was the trendy and most popular character and so off we went to visit him. As you can see from the second video on the playlist above, that was just awkward for the lads as there is no interaction as such – But hey, we can say they met him.

Once the desserts are done and you have taken off the ear phones of information you are walked across to the Light Show to a reserved location to stand and have a great view of the lights and fireworks among the many people that had been waiting for the event. This was a great way to finish the tour and the day.

We were all full of Star Wars, we had learnt a lot and even taken part in a march with Storm Troopers. Now, with Galaxy’s Edge open there are some trully amazing new rides and locations to explore which we are dying to go and experience but this was something special that we did as a family. This tour is sadly no longer available but there is still the Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party element available. The desserts are great to see but didnt love them to be honest and the character meets are fun (Kylo Ren was more interactive) but these are available through the day as well. The cost for just the Dessert Party is about $70 each (family of 4 that gets expensive), which I would do if you wanted to maximise time and ensure good positioning for the event but if you are able to just wait for a good location for the fireworks then I would likely say it isnt worth the money particularly now that Galaxy’s Edge is open and you can buy any fun foods you want directly.

The star wars guided tour was a great experience as all Disney ones are. A shame that it is has gone now with the new land but I am sure there will be new ones for Galaxy’s edge soon as there must be a WORLD of information and options that they can offer.

Surfing at Typhoon Lagoon is something special! An awesome experience for those who love of water, the warmth and trying new fun things, and this is something we as a family fall into. Each time we are fortunate enough to go back to Florida, we try and come up with something different and new to surprise our lads with and this time we had 2 things and one of them was surfing at Typhoon Lagoon (you can read the other thing in a coming post). This is not just surfing but surfing at Typhoon Lagoon before the park opens in the morning, before anyone else is allowed in!

Typhoon Lagoon Entrance At 6am — Typhoon Lagoon at 5:45am

One thing that still sticks with me now is how peaceful it is to walk through the park when it’s empty, as the sun is coming up, knowing we had the park to ourselves for a couple of hours. The first video below is just a bit of walking into the park, to the location for the surf training on land next to the lagoon. So calm, so peaceful but still warm. Love it all. This is a fantastic time of the day as long as you can get up in the morning which I must admit was a challenge for 1 lad in particular.

We had to be at the park at 5:45 to meet the people to sign in and go into the park. It is a little eerie as you arrive and there is NO-ONE there and so you check the date and time and read the email a couple of times but then someone else arrives, hoorah 🙂 The groups normally go up to about 12-15 people in a session but one group dropped out or just didnt turn up and so there was only our family of four and 1 other family of a dad and 2 sons. This meant more waves for us all and a nice small group.

The surfing session is run by a surf training team from Ron Jon Surf shop who are located there. The people that we had training us included the main lady who had won numerous competitions, and 2 other instructors who would happily list off all the locations that they have been to and surfed along with the competitions they have competed in. For me this felt a bit like the moments in Point Break where we could sit with these 2 sun drenched surfers who now had the challenge to try and get our family of 4 to try and stand on a surfboard! Good Luck to them.

The 4 of us along with our Ron Jon Surfers

The session starts with introductions and being taught the basics of how to get up onto a surfboard from the lying down position to feet without the standard wobble, knees part and fall off. We all had 10 mins of working on that process and trying not to loose too much skin before we got to talk about getting in the water! The first step once you are in the water is to show you are comfortable to swim with the board and that they are comfortable of your swimming, there is still always lifeguards so not to worry but a sanity check from them. Our lads are both pretty strong swimmers as we spend so much time in the pool and so even Jake at the age of 6 was able to take out a board. When you do the surf you have to always finish each wave by going to the shore at the bottom of the surf pool and then walk back up with the board to the top side where you start. We each got assigned a board and swam it to the shallows and walked it back up and so all was well. IT WAS TIME TO SURF!

The park is able to control all kinds of things about the waves from size, frequency and even if it breaks on the left or the right. For this experience the wave machine is set to create 1 large wave followed by a smaller wave and this happens every 90 seconds. This gives you that time to get into place, then ride the wave and then continue down to the shallows.

As part of the day you are provided with some basic snacks and drinks (it is suprisingly hard work) and so they want to keep you powered up. This is also located next to the starting point so that all people are in the same place and when you are not surfing you are encourage to pull out the phone and take photos and videos as we did.

As there is a large and small wave this means you can decide which one you want to surf based on your confidence, and in my element the arrogance level of ‘Of course I can do it!!’ I would always do the larger wave (made sense to me as I am the largest) but Mel (the mrs) would prefer the smaller one for less speed and more control. The boys varied based on how they felt the previous wave had gone.

There was 7 of us on our day and so you take turns in 2’s to go onto the wave with one on each side of the lagoon. There are 2 of the Ron Jon Surfing tutors out in the locations to swim out to, once you reach them they will help point you in the right way and give tips based on the last wave and hold you in place ready for the wave. Once the wave arrives they will push you off to help make sure you “Catch” the wave and off you go…….

A Day at Typhoon Lagoon Surfing is TIRING but ours more than usual as there was a missing group of people which would have meant less waves for us and more time to get the boards back. The surfing time in the water is about an hour – But this is an hour of swimming out, surfing, then swimming into the shallows and then picking up your surfboard (these are not light) and carrying it 100 metres or so back to the starting place. My younger son Jake was 6 at the time and although his board was smaller it was a lot to carry and everyone ‘including the people not in our family’ were helping him to carry it up. The boards can be quite rough as well and so our son was getting a pretty good rash where it was catching him as he carried it.

I must admit by the end of the session I was glad it was over as I was exhausted with all the walking and carrying and was quite glad for some calm. When you finish there are people starting to be let into the park but held at the lockers as the start of the normal water park day begins. When we were there we were made to go all the way back to the entrance to scan our park entry tickets and then join the masses to re-enter, which was a real shame as would have been nice if they had let us scan in where we were and find some seats to await the start of the day. I am told this is done sometimes as they bring out a mobile scanner and just scan the magic band. They have to supervise you if you are allowed to stay in to make sure you are not in the water before the parks open to ensure there is lifeguard coverage but I hear this is sometimes done and so maybe when we were there they didnt have someone to spare to let us stay which was a shame.

Would we do it again????? YES. It was hard work but to be there before the park opened and spend some lovely family time doing something special was AWESOME. It is hard work but that isnt a bad things after all as we all need some exercise. The Disney person that oversaw the event and the Ron Jon Surf shop people that taught and shouted encouragement were all awesome.

THE COST – Well, it is not a cheap experience that is fair to say (this is still Disney and it is all or nothing). This was a few years ago and so exchange rates have changed etc, but it cost $130 per person and so for the family of four it is $520 or roughly £400 (1.3 exchange rate) and so for 2 -3 hours it is a lot but it was meant to be a one off experience and one of the special items of the holiday. I must admit that the cost of a Florida holiday in general is so high that I will accept Typhoon Lagoon Surfing as almost acceptable for the memories it made, I dont know anyone else that has done it….

If you want to learn more, check prices and availability have a look at the official Typhoon Lagoon Surfing page from Disney which also has the phone number on it. To make a booking you must call them in the US and this can often result in a delay queuing but once you are through all can be done in one call and they can send an email confirmation.

Another great video is from the great Tim Tracker who is a great florida Vlogger and so worth a subscribe but he went to do the surfing and vlogged it all and so well worth a watch. You can see his video here.

When we booked this experience we also booked the ‘Star Wars Guided Tour’ which I will be writing up seperately. For now, I hope you enjoyed this review and found the photos and videos interesting. For more information just drop me a comment or email admin@planitflorida.com and like our facebook page to get notifications when new items come out.. Also feel free to leave a comment and we will do our best to respond.