Disney Followup

 So, Im back from Disney, and I spend all my gift card money and then some. I'll add photos after I get my camera unpacked.

Our first full day on property, as they say, was last Sunday. We went to Disney Springs, the one part of Walt Disney World you dont have to pay to get in. It's just a large outdoor mall. I bought some Christmas ornaments, three from an all Christmas store, one from a Marvel themed store. Two of the ornaments are the same, with a reason. It's the Partners statue, from the parks. Walt and Mickey. In both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, it's in front of the castles. And I have a monorail setup that I try to do at Christmas. (It didnt get up last year, for lack of space.) It has a monorail system, Disney's Contemporary Hotel, EPCOT's Spaceship Earth, and in the middle, Cinderella's Castle. (There have been other add-ons, but since they dont make them anymore, they're very expensive on eBay.) I also added a die-cast parking lot tram. And now, it will have the Partners statue. The other ornaments I bought were Baymax from Big Hero 6 and Star Lord's Awesome Mix cassette.

Also at Disney Springs, they recently opened up a shop selling items preveiously only available in Galaxy's Edge. This was my first large scale purchase of the trip. Two holocrons (one Jedi, one Sith), 5 of the 6 available Kyber crystals (Which can be used in the holocrons), a bag of chance cubes (the red and blue dice Watto used in Episode 1) and a decorative piece with part of Galaxy' Edge, including the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. That was just over $200. I still had plenty to spend.

Monday was Animal Kingdom. It was s short day, mainly due to rain. I, personally, spent no money.

Tuesday was the big day. The first of two days at Hollywood Studios, and my first visit to Galaxy's Edge, First order (no pun intended) of business was to get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. We got group 44, so we has time to kill before then. We rode a longtime favorite, Toy Story Mania, before heading into Galaxy's Edge to try to fly the Falcon. It was not a successful flight. After lunch and a quick Star Tour, it was back into Galaxy's Edge. Our boarding group was ready. Rise of the Resistance is ground breaking. If you dont want to be spoiled, I wont go into details. If you dont mind being spoiled, you can check it out on YouTube. By the time we got off the ride (which took a while due to down time while we were in the queue, it was raining. Not as torrential as the previous day, so we donned our ponchos and carried on. After all, I had my droid reservation, and wasnt leaving without that. So, we headed over to the Droid Depot, where I would build my little friend. I made him look as much like R5-D4 as possible. (Minus the bad motivator.) Once he was built, I bought the add-ons for him. Tool attachments, personality chip, rockets and lasers. I didnt feel the need to get the serving tray. I also got a magnet that looks like a restraining bolt. But I wasnt done shopping for the day. I also bought a sabbac deck (the card game Han and Lando played in Solo), the last Kyber crystal I needed, and a flash drive that looks like a data storage unit. By then, the rtains were picking up, so we left for the day, knowing we would be back tomorrow.

Wednesday, back to Hollywood Studios. We were in the park early enough to ride the newest thing in the park, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, before trying for our boarding group. It's a nice calm ride, suitable for all ages. (No height requirements.) Then we got our boarding group. Number 46 this time, close to what we had the previous day. I still had over $300 on my gift cards (closer to $400), and they had just started up the custom lightsabers recently. So, I was lucky enough to get in as a walk-up. The building is an experience in itself. A bit of a show, along with a $200 souvenir. I gave my saber a purple crystal, like Mace Windu's. After the saber was built, and lunch, I still had time before our boarding group. I went to the creature stall, to adopt a new friend. Specifically, a Kowakkian Monkey Lizard, like Salacious Crumb from Jabba's Palace. I also tried some Blue Milk. (Not as good as Butterbeer from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.) After that, we rode Rise of the Resistance again. This time, no down time. Straight through the queue. By then, we were getting tired, so we left. I hads about $40 left on my gift card, and one park left.

Thursday was a but of an earlier start, since we had a breakfast reservation, at The Wave... of American Flavors, in the iconic Contemporary Hotel. After breakfast, I rode the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom, while the rest of my part drove. And the GPS got them lost. I was waiting for about 30-45 minutes. We made a clockwise circle of the park, from Adventureland to Tomorrowland. We picked the appropriate day to go, Walt Disney World's 49th anniversary. There were no special celebrations, but we did ride several opening day rides (Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion) and saw two opening day "shows". (Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and The Country Bear Jamboree. I had a turkey leg for lunch. If you havent had a Disney turkey leg, you havent had a real turkey leg. They use the legs of the tom turkeys, not the hens. So they're larger than your Thanksgiving drumsticks. Unfortunately, I couldnt find anything worth buying. Dinner that night was at the Grand Floridian, in the Grand Floridian Cafe. I had a steak, but couldnt eat it all, thanks to the earlier turkey leg.

Friday, we had to leave Disney World, but not Florida. We went to a Disney outlet, which we had tried yo go to on Sunday, but couldnt get in. I didnt find anything there. So, we went back to Disney Springs for lunch, and I went back to the Star Wars store I shopped at on Sunday. Because we had limited room, I shopped small. Two magnets and another ornament. Now, I had exhausted my gift cards.

We didnt leave Florida until Saturday morning, and began a two-day drive back home, stopping for the night in Chattanooga. (Didnt see the Choo-Choo.)

Now, I just have to find places to put everything I bought.

So, Disney...

 You know how I said in my New Crushes Blog that I would be going to Disney World in five months? Well, obviously, that didnt happen, because the whole world fell apart. 

But, it's still going to happen. in fact, it's happening later this month. Four weeks from today, I will finally get to see Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Ive already got a reservation to build a droid. (They arent doing the custom lightsabers right now.)

And I will have plenty of spending money for the trip. Ive been saving up points at MyPoints.com. You earn points by shopping, or taking surveys among other things. When I cashed in last month, I had around 70,000 points. That was enough to get me $400 in Visa eCards, which I used to buy $400 in Disney gift cards. Plus, I have a Disney Rewards Visa, which earns me points every time I use it, so I can redeem another $125. Plus a $25 Disney gift card I got for Christmas, and at least $300 in cash, and I can shop till I drop.

Ive already got some things planned. that I want to buy. As I stated earlier, I'll be building a droid. I plan on doing an R-series droid (As in R2-D2 or R5-D4), and that has plenty of add-on extras they sell. Arm attachments, colored stickers full customization, Personality chips, Simulated jets and lasers, even the serving tray and drink dispenser from Jedi. So, my droid and everything that goes with it will be about $200, after tax.

The Annual New Crushes List

Happy New Year. Let's hope 2020 sees the end of our long national nightmare, either through the impeachment process or by an election without foreign interference. But that's not why we're here today. As I do every year, it's time to introduce a new batch of Capper Crushes. This is the biggest group in sometime. 30 new live action crushes, two illustrated Crushes and one new Crush-in-waiting.

But first, a bit of a Crush conundrum. Since last year, two of my previously declared Crushes, Ashley Benson and Cara Delevigne, have begun a relationship. With each other. Now, I wont say that being my Crushes brought them together, but, since they have yet to state if they are actively bisexual or fully lesbian, leaves them in a state of Crush Limbo.

Anyway, onto the new blood.

Starting with a lovely young lady celebrating her 19th birthday today, from Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, Angourie Rice.

From Fighting with my Family, and the upcoming Black Widow, Florence Pugh. (Who can also be seen with fellow crush Emma Watson right now in Little Women, but, since I don't plan on seeing that one, it doesn't count,)

A double dose from Shazam, who played two versions of the same character, Grace Fulton...

… and Michelle Borth, who has also appeared on Hawaii Five-0.

Also from Hawaii Five-O, Meghan Rath.

From Disney's live action Aladdin, plus voice work in Despicable Me 2 and Dr Seuss' The Lorax, Nasim Pedrad.

These next two ladies earned their Crush status from the same movie, Fast and Furious presents Hobbs and Shaw. 

First, also to be seen in this year's Godzilla vs Kong, Eiza Gonzalez.

And, previously seen in Mission Impossible: Fallout, Vanessa Kirby.

Another double dose from the same source, the Maleficent movies.

First, from both of the Maleficent films, along with The Dark Knight Rises, the 2011 version of The Three Musketeers and Year One, Juno Temple.

 And, just from Maleficent< mistress of Evil, Jenn Murray. 

(Who, FYI, did not look that hot in the movie. She looked almost androgenous.)

Yet another double dose, from DC Universe's Titans.

Conor Leslie...

...and Minka Kelly.

(There's one more Titan still to come, but that's a different section.)

Yet another double dose, from the not-so-well receievec Terminator movie, Dark Fate.

Mackenzie Davis...

...and Natalia Reyes.

And one last live action double dose, from Knives Out/ (If you haven't seen it yet, you really should.)

Ana de Armas (who will also be seen in the next Bond movie, No Time to Die.)

and Katherine Langford. (who can also be seen in a deleted scene from this year's biggest movie, Avengers Endgame.)

From Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji The Next Level, Madison Iseman.

Going back to the DC Universe streaming service, from DC Daily, Amy Dallen.

And from Doom Patrol, April Bowlby.

From the CW;s Batwoman, Nicole Kang.

From a few episodes during Peter Capaldi's run as The Doctor, the (hopefully) upcoming movie The New Mutants, and that show with the dragons, Maisie Williams.

From Transformers: The Last Knight, and that live action Dora the Explorer movie, Isabela Moner, or, as she's now going by, Isabela Merced. (Not because she got married. She changed her name to honor her late grandmother.)

From Arrow, and a rumored spin-off, Green Arrow and the Canaries, Katherine McNamara.

From Moana, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and the somewhat poorly received The Little Mermaid Live, Auli'i Cravalho.

A recent addition to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Jamie Gray Hyder.

From The Orville, Jessica Szohr.

And last, but certainly not least, from Deadpool and the Disney+ hit series, The Mandalorian, former MMA fighter Gina Carano.

Next, the two illustrated Crushes for this year, both from Dragon Ball Super, and both Saiyans from Universe 6.

Kale...

...and Caulifla..

This year's YouTube crush comes from the Disney World centric YouTube channel, All Ears.net,  Margeaux Jordan.

And finally, this year's Crush-in-Waiting, from DC Universe's Titans, Teagan Croft.

So, that's it for the Crush class of 2020.  Will next year's class be bigger or smaller? We'll know fir sure in one year.

In Non-Crush news, this year, I'll be heading back to Walt Disney World, to take my first visit to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. But that's five months away. Who knows what the rest of the year will bring.