We started off with dinner which was stunning, and we got to know a lot of people as multiple people (from different VIP groups)Z came over to my daughter and I super impressed with our outfits. We were then given a guided tour from event to event and honestly it was fantastic as we would have otherwise done the equivalent of what we did at Disneyland and stayed at one theme (eg Disneyland we did Star Wars all day and night, we would have only done Star Trek and BTTF without our tour). Lasted 5 hours and then we were free – which we smashed things until 2am on the dot (the very last ones going through Star Trek). Hit the merchandise until around 2:30 and then made our way back to the hotel.
The second visit on Sunday we smashed things like Jurassic World during the afternoon, which we didn’t want to do in our uniforms on the Friday night, and Mario Kart. Wait times were about half hour again, though not relevant as that wasn’t FFN. When early access started we hit Star Trek immediately given we were general admission this time – wait times were about 10 minutes for the first 1.5 hours. It wasn’t until 6:30ish that we encountered the said “no wait times” and literally just looped over and over and over like we had done with VIP to get as many in as we could. In fact the final walk-through minutes before the 7:00pm opening was with only one other couple so I took the opportunity to film without anyone else being (mostly) visible.
From that point lines went insane, leaping straight to 30-40 minutes with people everywhere. I don’t like crowds or lines and after VIP/express this was a setback, so we went and had dinner to pass time. This reduced the lines to around 20-30 minutes which we endured thereafter for the remainder of the night. However, we did only stay until 10pm that night as we needed to head to Disneyland early the next morning so I would suggest it would have died off after that.
We had a blast. We really did. The event was so well run. It was epic. Even where there is high criticism of things such as Star Trek I can vouch as an utterly obsessed fan that they invested a mindboggling amount into creating phenomenally authentic sets. The only thing I could really nitpick would be the size of the warp core but there’s a level of practicality here. The grey wall panels, all the Okudagram stickers, LCARS panels, everything was top notch this was no amateur hour they went above and beyond. Even the changes to the bridge, and there were a LOT of them to a level I’ve not seen anyone anywhere commenting on, where a reality of the event and tied in with the storyline being directly after Picard Season 3 and therefore the D is now a museum ship. My only disappointment was the ship’s dedication plaque is not the real one – it’s a knockoff. A good knockoff, but a knockoff. A shame as it was the one and only original piece on that set, but understand why there is no way it would have been risked. Can I also add that the tension and effects were amazing – having done Star Trek 40 times we saw many different people, fans and non-fans alike, and were amused by some of the reactions. Some actually fell back, looked around, etc when you “felt” the entity come through the force field and saw the effects of it travel to the rear. When the turbo lifts vibrated as they moved, and even changed direction, many people were balancing themselves… one lady in particular my daughter and I had tears as, I kid you not, her eyeballs were poking out of her sockets she was utterly stunned that the turbolift was moving. It was done so well.