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S02E11: Swiftly Soaking Up Season of The Force!
21 Plays25 days ago
It's Star Wars party time at Disneyland, and I'm here to tell you all about it! Join me as we hit Star Tours, Hyperspace Mountain, and of course Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Plus... learn how to mix your very own Oga's Cantina cocktail!
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Discord: https://discord.gg/a89TD3XdFX
Email: SFASpod@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Host
00:00:01
Speaker
It's season of the force. We're going to talk about it real quick. Hello and welcome back to short for stormtrooper, 15 minute Star Wars podcast.
00:00:13
Speaker
hello and welcome back to short for a stormtrooper a fifteen minute star wars podcast I am your host, Bob Gerard, and I am here to tell you about Season of the Force.
Season of the Force Overview
00:00:27
Speaker
Season of the Force is a seasonal, get it, seasonal celebration at Disneyland, which once again proves that that Disneyland is the far superior castle park to all of the other castle parks around the world. And if you're a Disney theme park fan, you know what I'm talking about. And you're probably gritting your teeth at me, or some of you are.
00:00:52
Speaker
I bet my brother is. But sorry, Jim.
Potential Disney Theme Park Podcast?
00:00:55
Speaker
Disneyland far superior. You might even agree with me on that. Actually, you know what? I got to tell you guys. um Disneyland by far my favorite. It's the best in many ways. so Best design castle park?
00:01:07
Speaker
Disneyland Paris. Come fight me if you don't like that. We'll talk about that later. Maybe I'll do that on my... Disney theme park podcast, which I'll start when I become a full-time podcaster.
00:01:19
Speaker
Anyway, you don't
Event Timing and Attractions
00:01:20
Speaker
want to hear about all this. You want to hear about Season of the Force. And if I sound a little salty today, if I sound like I have a little bit of a cold, it's because I have a little bit of a cold. I'm a little bit stuffy.
00:01:31
Speaker
Anyway, let's talk about Season of the Force. It comes around once a year. It's early this year. It usually is a shorter time and it starts right around May the 4th for May the 4th be with you.
00:01:44
Speaker
But I think they're getting it in a little bit earlier this year because there's a big Disneyland 70th anniversary celebration coming later that they don't want to interfere with.
00:01:55
Speaker
So it's starting a little early. It's going to last through may the 4th. And conveniently, this means it overlaps with the Disney's California Adventure Food and Wine Festival in a delightful way, which I'll tell you about in just a minute.
00:02:10
Speaker
So let's talk about all of the goodness that they do for Season of the Force. So the first thing is they usually... change some of the Star Wars-y rides. So Star Tours for this year. We'll start in Tomorrowland and we'll move our way around the park.
00:02:27
Speaker
Star Tours this year, last year for Season of the Force, is when they added scenes from Ahsoka, they added scenes from or at least a hologram message from Mandalorian and from Andor.
00:02:40
Speaker
This year, I read online that they had gone back to the original, completely random version of Star Tours. When I went on just this last Saturday, it was back to what I would call the Rise of Skywalker mode of Star Tours, where...
00:02:56
Speaker
You start off and you visit the wrecked Death Star on whatever planet it is instead of Endor, Kefbir or something like that. I don't know. Still makes me mad.
00:03:07
Speaker
um But it's pretty cool. You might get a little seasick on that one. i got a message from Lando Calrissian and then we ended up in Exegol and we took out the um the Final Order Star Destroyers. And it was really fun. And we landed on Batuu at the end.
00:03:22
Speaker
So Star Tours shaking up a little bit. lot of fun. one of my favorite things and in fact the thing that makes me feel the most like i am piloting an x-wing fighter even though i'm really not hyperspace mountain this is where they take space mountain and they put an overlay over it so you get star wars projections and music and special effects and like i said it feels like you're flying a freaking x-wing it's amazing love hyperspace mountain was glad to get on it the other day
00:03:55
Speaker
and we just love it.
Character Meet and Greets at Galaxy's Edge
00:03:57
Speaker
All right, let us move around to actual Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. The first big news is Luke Skywalker is now available for meets and greets.
00:04:09
Speaker
Now, I'm kind of medium on the meets and greets. I am a little cynical about them but then when i get in front of the characters I kind of get a little goofy and sometimes I role play with them and they can be really fun.
00:04:21
Speaker
So Luke is there now. It's interesting. He is dressed in his all black outfit. And what it seems to be is that he can show up in two places. He can show up in in front of the Millennium Falcon.
00:04:37
Speaker
And when he does, he is likely to interact with R2-D2 and and he's kind of Luke just after Return of the Jedi. But then he also will appear out in the marketplace, and he will show up with the Mandalorian.
00:04:51
Speaker
And when he does that, it's like it's six years later, and you know some of the scenes that we saw in ah Season three of the Mandalorian with Luke and some of their interaction. So I don't know. You know, what's nice about this is they're relaxing the Galaxy's Edge is stuck in one day at time.
00:05:11
Speaker
um Groundhog Day style that they used to do for Galaxy's Edge. And they're just being a little looser for the timelines and letting people see what they want. So I'm cool with it. I'm glad that Luke is there.
00:05:25
Speaker
I did not get to see Luke last time I was there, but I will be back many times before the end of the season. And I am sure I will tell you when I get to see Luke and how cool he is. um Sherry thinks, Sherry, my wife, thinks that the guy looks just like Luke. I think he looks nothing like Luke, but that's okay.
00:05:43
Speaker
Hey, it's fine. um Okay, let's move to Oga's Cantina.
Oga's Cantina New Offerings
00:05:48
Speaker
couple new things in Oga's Cantina. The things I want to highlight are you can now buy Netregal Ale, which supposedly is a little bit of a mix or a blend of of beer and some other things.
00:06:01
Speaker
When I had it, it just tasted like a hoppy IPA. It was fine. But the really cool thing is it comes in a souvenir Mandalorian mug. So it's got, you know, the full on mythosaur skull on one side.
00:06:17
Speaker
And on the other side, it's got some Mandoa language, which... I took a picture of it and I sent it to chat GPT and I asked chat GPT to translate it and chat GPT promptly hallucinated some garbage about the Sith.
00:06:33
Speaker
And I'm like, Mandalorians don't care about the Sith. What the heck? This can't be right. It must be faking it. Well, it was, I've looked it up and it actually is some pretty cool, you know, more Mandalorian sounding stuff.
00:06:47
Speaker
So ah it's a good souvenir. It wound up on my Tiki bar shelf. Mandalorian mug. ah They also have a new drink there called the High Republic, which I did not have at Oga's. But remember, I said delightfully that this was a mashup with the Food and Wine Festival.
00:07:06
Speaker
Just yesterday, i attended a seminar as part of the Food and Wine Festival. That was a mixology seminar hosted by two of the bartenders at Oga's.
00:07:17
Speaker
They were very fun, very delightful. ah They stayed in reasonable, you know, Disney cast member who works at Galaxy's Edge character. They said they they lived in Batuu, but they didn't live in the outpost. They lived in Pika. The other one said they lived in Galma. yeah That type of stuff. It was kind of fun.
00:07:38
Speaker
They taught us how to make... a really good drink called the High Republic. The High Republic. And i got to to make it and I got to taste it and I really liked it.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I'm gonna even tell you right now what the recipe is, if I can bring it up on my phone. So take notes if you're interested in this. High Republic is really easy.
00:08:02
Speaker
You take one ounce of tequila, a quarter ounce of triple sec, three quarters ounce of lime juice, a half ounce of simple syrup. And then this is the thing that might be a little difficult to procure, ah half ounce of habanero lime syrup. I suppose if you don't like the hot, you could just do a little more lime juice with it.
00:08:24
Speaker
ah but the habanero gave it just a nice little kick. So it sounds like ah like a margarita, kind of like a spicy margarita, doesn't it? And that's really what it is.
00:08:35
Speaker
You shake it up with a shaker, you strain it, you put it in a glass, but then here is the coup de grace. You take... um One ounce of red wine and you layer it on top of this drink. So it winds up with this beautiful red on top of the white.
00:08:53
Speaker
And it's really, really good because, you know, most of the drinks at Oga's Cantina are a little too sweet. The people I was sitting with, we were joking about how whatever we made, we didn't know what it was going to be going into it.
00:09:05
Speaker
Whatever we made, it was probably going to be too sweet. But the wine kind of cut that a little bit and made it very palatable. ah Some people were mixing it in. i would not recommend that. Just drink it the way it is and let it stay pretty.
00:09:17
Speaker
That was the High Republic. So I had that yesterday. And because I made it, I really enjoyed it I think there's a couple other food items in Oga's Cantina. They have the Oga's Obsession Jell-O with ah boba and and pop rocks in it, but this time it's strawberry flavored. And I'm going to try that at some point. That sounds good.
00:09:39
Speaker
Over at Ronto Roasters, they have, I think it's called the Thalumpset Cheese Snack. And, you know, Thalumpset is, it's kind of like a ah cattle type animal in Star Wars. I think it's the thing that...
00:09:56
Speaker
ah that in episode one, when Jar Jar steps in the poodoo, ah that the full-ump set has left it. i think that's a full-ump set. Anyway, if that's not it, it looks something like that.
00:10:08
Speaker
The full-ump set cheese snack, it looks like full-ump set doo-doo. it's It looks so bad, folks. But let me tell you what it is. It is a food on a stick,
00:10:19
Speaker
ah It is basically like a big fried cheese stick with little chunks of potato in the batter.
Nighttime Shows at Disneyland
00:10:29
Speaker
And then it's got a dipping sauce and it was good.
00:10:32
Speaker
It was really, really good. So I recommend that if you check it. Okay, here is the last part though. that I saw at least, and I can't tell you how cool this was.
00:10:44
Speaker
They now have, and I talked about this earlier, they now have at night when the fireworks are going on, they have the Fire of the Rising Moon show where they choreograph the fireworks with Star Wars music.
00:10:57
Speaker
And that's always really cool. Now they also have a projection show. So the really high-tech projections that go up over the spy onto the spires over the Millennium Falcon.
00:11:11
Speaker
And this is show is called Shadows of Memory, a Skywalker Saga. the ah The conceit here is that the storyteller, the Tale Weaver, I think he's called, and I forget what his name is, but he is telling the story of the Skywalker saga, really the first six episodes.
00:11:31
Speaker
And it is projected, as he's telling it, it is projected up on the spires. The artwork that they use, it doesn't use like film clips. It's using still photos, right?
00:11:43
Speaker
Not photos, still illustrations. So it almost looks like good cave drawings of the different characters and the different scenes. But what they do with the projections is they enhance those images with the projections. So for example...
00:12:01
Speaker
When they're talking about Naboo and Padme, they use the projections to make Batuu look like Naboo. And it's all flowery and there's waterfalls and it's absolutely beautiful. And then they go to Dagobah and they changes to Dagobah. And then there's some really, really cool scenes when the dark side is rising where some lightning hits the spires and it blows up the spires and you see Darth Vader inside.
00:12:30
Speaker
It is so cool, you guys. It was great. Just a 10-minute show, like most of these shows are. But I couldn't recommend it enough. If you get the chance to get to Disneyland, make sure you stick around.
00:12:42
Speaker
If you go on a night where there are fireworks, you can watch both shows. They'll still do the Fires of the Rising Moon, but then they will do the projection show either before or after or both before and after it.
00:12:55
Speaker
Definitely make it a point to go see it. So...
Plans for Star Wars Celebration in Japan
00:12:59
Speaker
All right, that is my first rundown of Shadow, a Shadow, Seasons of the Force.
00:13:06
Speaker
I will, like I said, I will be back. I will give you more highlights as I encounter them. But hey, we are getting ready. It's just a week from the day I launched this on Tuesday.
00:13:19
Speaker
Next Tuesday that I will be leaving for Japan for Star Wars Celebration. And so my recording schedule is going to get a little bit off.
00:13:29
Speaker
My plan is to record an episode to cover every day of the convention. And i just might not actually, you know you might not get it actually on that day because of travel and things like that. It might take a little bit of time for me to post it and you know who knows about internet or whatever. But I'm gonna record for next week an episode for every single day of the conference. So expect at least three episodes of Short for a Stormtrooper.
00:13:59
Speaker
If you happen to be at Star Wars Celebration and are a short trooper and you come find me and you tell me that you actually subscribe and listen to the show, I am going to give you a short for a storm trooper t-shirt.
00:14:12
Speaker
And you know what? i I would be thrilled if there's anybody who is listening to this podcast who actually shows up. I know that one person from Japan regularly downloads this podcast. If that is you, come find me. I'll be wearing my short for a Stormtrooper short t-shirt.
00:14:30
Speaker
Come find me. I would love to meet you. In the meantime, ah make sure you listen in next week. Make sure you hit like. Make sure you hit subscribe. Make sure you tell all your friends. And we will be back next week with coverage of star Wars Celebration.
00:14:46
Speaker
you then. Until then, may the Force be you. Bye-bye. Aren't you a little short for a smart trooper? Aren't you little short for a smart?