My Best May the 4th: A Look Back

As a lifelong Star Wars fan, May the 4th has long been a fun way to celebrate the movies and the fandom, but it’s usually a more personal thing. Watching the movies with the kids, maybe some games, but nothing too over the top. That was until four years ago, when I found myself in the middle of a Star Wars celebration that I could never have imagined for myself. 

I was invited to take part in a media event at Walt Disney World to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary and to preview Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. It was extra special because it was the first international media event that Walt Disney World had hosted since the pandemic, so they rolled out the red carpet for us. We arrived on May 3, and while I knew we would be crossing over the 4th while at the event, it wasn’t until I got a look at the itinerary that I realized how I would be spending it.

I didn’t have any expectations going into the media event. I had never attended one before and was just excited to be a part of it, but while perusing the itinerary, I found out I was going to have a once in a lifetime experience. First, we were going to be treated to an amazing buffet dinner on the floor of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular among the sets, with live performances and more. Following the dinner, after the park had already closed, we were going to have the entirety of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge all to ourselves.

To have such exclusive access to an incredibly popular area of the park was amazing. To share it with members of the press from all over the world was a special honour. The fact that this was how I was going to experience Galaxy’s Edge for the first time? Mind blowing. In the course of 24 hours, I met Jeff Vahle, the President of Walt Disney World, my wife and I were honoured with a little anniversary present (yes, I was allowed to bring Carrie for the event) and we experienced Cirque De Soleil’s Drawn to Life, all before Galaxy’s Edge.

Now while Carrie was allowed to accompany me to the event, she wasn’t able to come with us to the event, which I felt incredibly guilty about, but she was fine. She was living her best life with margaritas and pizza back in our room at Disney’s Boardwalk Inn. She made an attempt to go check out the May the 4th festivities at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but as one would imagine, it was simply too busy so she thought better of it.

After the amazing dinner, we were led en masse to Galaxy’s Edge by our, for lack of a better term, handlers, composed of the PR team and Cast Members ranging from Engineers to Executives who were assigned to small groups of the press to help us get around from day to day. The walk is short, passing places like the Sci-Fine Dine In Theater and the now defunct Muppets Courtyard as we passed through the threshold, taking us from Hollywood to Batuu.

Now, there is no better company on the planet when it comes to a theme park transition. Walk between lands at the Magic Kingdom and tell me when you stopped hearing the music from one land and started hearing music from the other. It’s so subtle, yet natural, to keep you immersed for every second. But to take us from a theme park to a living, breathing part of the Star Wars Universe was extra special. Even though it wasn’t a land that you’ve seen in a movie or TV show, it felt like such quintessential Star Wars. It was undeniable.

One of the members of the Canadian team responsible for me and press from all over the country caught wind that I was more than a fairweather fan of the franchise, and she knew right where I needed to go first. She led me straight to the other end of Galaxy’s Edge (the edge of the edge, if you will), to see the most iconic set piece of the entire area, the one and only Millennium Falcon.

To set foot in Galaxy’s Edge for the first time is special. Seeing ships and droids that you recognize, and Aurebesh writing on the signs, it’s an emotional feeling to be invited to be an active participant in something that you’ve only ever experienced passively. But, to lay eyes on the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, lit in the night like it came from the heavens, I felt quite outside myself. If you could see me in the moment, a little force ghost of my childhood self would have been standing beside me, equally in awe, wondering how we got there.

Before I even finished taking it all in, my phone was taken from me to take pictures of me in front of the Falcon. This is what makes Disney Cast Members, at any level, the most special people. It wasn’t her job to take photos of me, but she saw me in that moment and knew it was a moment that should be captured, and I will never forget that act of kindness nor will I cease being grateful for it.

Keep in mind, Carrie is still back at the hotel. I felt guilty about that again, but in the moment, a more selfish Joe was too focused on where he was and what he was doing.

Next up was a ride on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. As I power walked through a queue that is designed to hold hours worth of waiting guests, I did my best to take in the details all the way through. Storage for Resistance accessories dug into the tunnels all the way until we got to the room where BB-8 and a hoplograph of Rey were waiting to receive us and send us on our adventure.

It’s worth pointing out, at this point, how great they really are at making large parts of a queue into part of the show. You’re not in a holding room, you are receiving a message from Rey, you aren’t in another holding room, you are on a ship headed off-planet, you aren’t in another line, you are captives awaiting interrogation. This isn’t unique to Rise, of course. Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion are also great examples, but no ride system does it better than Rise of the Resistance. There isn’t a close second.

Experiencing the attraction itself was more thrilling than I could have hoped for. I avoided hearing about some of the twists and turns on the ride so I had a particular blast on it. There is no place on this planet or any other that I would have rather been in that moment. That proved doubly true when I met back up with the PR team and we went on it again.

This isn’t a day that I only think about on a day of the year that is a Star Wars pun. I think about it a lot. It was a day that brought a significant part of my childhood to life for the very first time. It was transformative. The very place where you are reading this now wouldn’t exist without that day. One could say that it is the unofficial birthday of MisCast Members, a platform conceived not just by me, but the amazing people who helped bring this day to life and continued to support my dream well after the event.

May the 4th be with all of you, and thanks for joining me on the ride.

If you’d like to read more about my experiences at this event, you can check out CGM for my review of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and my preview of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.