The Wave takes over the spot formerly occupied by the 'grab and go' Food and Fun Center.

Just opened this past weekend, after a whirlwind design and construction phase of only six months, the Wave represents a very fast turnover for a new Disney eatery. That activity extended also to the workers, most of whom came from the Concourse Steakhouse on the fourth floor of the Contemporary. The Steakhouse closed on Saturday, the workers all took Sunday off, and then they moved down to the first floor of the Contemporary on Monday to start training in the Wave. By mid-week, they were serving meals to Cast Members in their soft-opening, and that Saturday, they welcomed the first public visitors.

Hiccups and service interruptions were common. The computers weren't really working, so servers would punch in orders and only later discover the kitchen or bar never got their requests. Our child's meal came out with no sides on it at all. The table next to us sat for sixty minutes (so they say) after being seated, with no waiter taking ownership of their table and no one visiting at all.

The atmosphere is upscale, but not snooty.

That having been said, the place is phenomenal in other ways. The look is ultra modern, and a bit glitzy. It seemed more of a subdued nightclub than Disney restaurant with no dress code, yet indeed there is no particular dress code (just avoid baseball caps, swimwear, and torn clothing, and you should be good). The entire first floor of the Contemporary Resort recently underwent some facelifts - some of it is still going on - and it looks quite good. Modern and appealing, almost Japanese in some senses. This is much improved over the old look, which until recently really made it seem like you exited the monorail doors (or exited the taxi) and had travelled back to the 1960s.

That’s not neon everywhere; it’s the same bright tubing with LEDs inside as in Epcot’s Soarin’

The Wave is primarily great, though, for the food. Our dinner entrees were uniformly tasty, they came with enough food on the plate to satisfy all our hunger, and they weren't priced to break the bank. Things were expensive, of course (this is Disney, after all), but values were in keeping with other Disney restaurants. We found surprising flavor in the flank steak, the pork tenderloin (especially its sauce), and oddly, even in the child's mahi mahi plate, which I would normally have assumed was overpriced. Not so. This was among the best fish I've tasted anywhere. Needless to say, we'll be back.

As you might expect, the wave motif figures prominently in the design.

The old theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios behind the Big City sets, once used for a Hunchback of Notre Dame show, has been under construction for some months to enclose it, pump it full of air conditioning, and use it for special events at this park (since it seems likely this park will house as many special events as it can, such as Grad Nite, Night of Joy, Star Wars Weekends, ESPN Weekends, Super Soap Weekends, and who knows what else!)

The Premier Theater is somewhat unthemed from the outside.

Redubbed the Premier Theater, the facility is enclosed as promised, and it's got one heck of a powerful air-conditioning system. I'm glad the dead real estate has been given new life; this is a step forward for DHS.

Not much to report about the newest iteration of Star Wars Weekends at DHS. The line-up of celebrity visitors is pretty much fixed, and not that different from year to year. I wonder why they don't change around actors? My guess would be that the other actors simply aren't interested (or perhaps Disney doesn't pay enough?)

The Wicket's Warehouse temporary shop of Star Wars merchandise was located, like previous years, in a cavernous warehouse behind the former Meet-Mickey stage. There are construction walls up in the area, though, so this entrance is almost completely hidden. And once you're inside, you'll be disappointed to see there is no full-size X-Wing this year. Cutbacks, I wonder?

Half the banners in the park are from the live action movies, half from the upcoming cartoon.

The stage show this year highlighted the upcoming Clone Wars animated feature (which was originally a TV show, I think), and showed several previews. That was nice and all, but it was narrated by Warwick Davis… on video. No live host. That seemed particularly pointless. They did bring in a youngish guy from Lucasfilm to host a tiny part of it live, but he didn't do much. They also had this one laughable moment where the new jedi character is introduced, and an actress comes on stage to swing around her lightsaber, then disappear again. Um, guys? Pretty pointless. Trying to hype it up made it even worse, and embarrassing.

Inside the Premier Theater, the stage wasn’t used extensively for the Star Wars Weekend.

Star Wars Weekends is always a mixture of great and banal. I love the parade, and heaven help me, I love the cheesy Hyperspace Hoopla fake talent show (at least I did last year; I didn't see it yet this year). But there's a definite staleness to the event. Hopefully Clone Wars gives it new life by next year's iteration. They need to plan for something other than the usual.

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© 2008 Kevin Yee