Now that the Twilight Saga movies have completed, events for
fans are a rare occurrence. So
when The Twilight Forever event was announced for November, WolfGirl808 and I
jumped at the chance to sign up. Unfortunately
it looked like we were too late!
We were wait listed. And
the more it looked like we couldn’t go, the more we wanted to! Luckily for us, a few days before the
event we got emails saying that we had spots reserved for us. Now we just had to make this trip
happen! Getting out of work wasn’t
easy, but luckily we had vacation time socked away (hey that’s what vacation is for). We packed our bags and were
on our way flying overnight to JFK!
When we landed we hit the ground running, first up a cab to
the hotel. But….whoops! I had given the taxi driver the wrong
hotel address! We got it right on
attempt 2 though and were quickly on our way to the Times Square Regal
Theaters. We got there around 9am
and the line was already building.
It felt so good to be around so many Twilight fans again. You could feel the excitement in the
lobby. They let us into the movie
around 9:30am. The event was
actually not as crowded as we had expected. We were kind of curious as to why there had even been a
waitlist. The theater was about
half full of fans. We camped out
towards the front, we wanted to be close by in case the rumors of guest appearances
were true. They gave each fan a
Twilight Forever lanyard, a $25 GC to the concession stand, and a breakfast
bag. The lanyard was numbered 1-5
on the bottom. Our event hose Dean (who has an adorable Aussie accent) welcomed
us and explained that at the end of each of the 5 movies, we could get a hold
punched in our lanyard. And if we
came to the Planet Hollywood event the next night with our completed lanyard we
could get first access to the Twilight exhibit.
Watching all 5 movies on the big screen for what might have
been the last time ever was amazing and immediately made the flight there worth
it. We weren’t even as tired as we
thought we would be considering we hadn’t slept on our flight. Luckily we had brought our Twilight
blankets and pillows with us. We
didn’t take a nap until Eclipse (which I will admit was my least favorite
movie). Between films Dean asked
fans trivia questions and gave away prizes. And WolfGirl808 won the best prize! An actual petal from the wedding scene
in Breaking Dawn Part 1. The petal
was mounted and framed in Plexiglas.
I tried really hard to win a Stepehenie Meyer red and black tote bag,
but I was never called on for trivia.
But I really wanted to win that bag and show off my Twilight knowledge!
The most amazing part of the evening was when the rumors
about a special guest appearance turned out to be true. Jackson Rathbone entered the theater
and turned on his charm. He
thanked us all for coming and talked about how much he loved working on the
films and loved the fans. We had
hoped that he would do autograph signing and take pictures with us. But instead he opted to take a group
picture with the entire crowd, which he later tweeted. WolfGirl808 and I thought that we might
be able to catch him outside the theater so we hurried out there, and sure
enough Jackson had a small crowd of fans surrounding him, asking him to take
pictures and sign autographs.
Luckily WolfGirl808 and I were able to sneak in a picture with him. Man will you look at that smile? Jackson signed and took pictures for as
long as his security team would let him before disappearing.
Watching Breaking Dawn Part 2 WolfGirl808 and I found
ourselves becoming very sad. It
felt like the saga was ending all over again. As the photomontage of all the cast members rolled over the
screen, we found ourselves applauding, squealing, and crying. We had been sitting in the theater for
13 hours but it really felt like much less.
After the movie marathon we walked back to our hotel and
hunted down food on the way. We
hadn’t eaten anything other than our bagel breakfast bag in the last 17
hours! Luckily there was a nice
little restaurant right across the street from our hotel. After eating our plan was to go
straight to bed so that we could get up early and enjoy the city. That did NOT happen. We awoke around noon, wondering how we
could have missed several alarms on both of our phones. We must have been more tired than we
thought we were.
We sought out food, and then headed to the Times Square
Planet Hollywood event. We got in
line at 4pm. And it was COLD! We did a quick head count and saw about
30 people in front of us. We heard
that the person at the front of the line was in line at 8am. What a super fan! Around 6:00pm staff members came
through the line handing out more prizes and raffle tickets. At 6:30pm they started letting us into the
exhibit. They let us through the
doors in small groups, checking our badges to make sure they were fully stamped
from the movie marathon the day before.
Once you entered the exhibit the first thing you saw was Jacob’s New
Moon outfit and his motorcycle.
Then 2 Volturi cloaks and a throne.
Under a white flowered archway were Edward and Bella’s
wedding dress and tuxedo.
There
was also the Breaking Dawn Part 1 chess set, which we were very disappointed
by. The chess pieces were black
and white. In the movie the game
pieces were white and red (paying tribute to the Breaking Dawn book
cover). This was obviously not the
same chess set used on set of the movie.
Inside the wedding arch was a larger set of displays including a Forks
town sign, graduation caps, vampire outfits and a stage complete with benches
made of the same wood and leaves from the wedding scene.
Serving the event were cloaked members
of the Volturi, who looked really very convincing!
After we did a quick loop around the display we found a spot
near the stage where Dean was again hosting. Dean brought out the special guests, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki
Reed, and Peter Facinelli. The
crowd was so excited to see some of our favorite Cullens. The cast member’s appearances can be
seen on our You Tube page HERE.
Dean had Jackson pull raffle numbers and pass out prizes. My number was pulled and I was so
excited because I finally won the Stephenie Meyer tote bag that I wanted! I was literally jumping up and
down. After the prizes were handed
out and the Ultimate fan was determined, Nikki Reed and her husband performed 3
musical numbers with her husband Paul McDonald. You can see our video of their performance HERE. They were wonderful!! We loved that they performed their song
from the Breaking Dawn Part 2 soundtrack.
Before they left the cast signed a few autographs, which luckily
WolfGirl808 and I were able to get (with a lot of reaching!).
We took our time looking around the rest of the exhibit and
visiting the gift shop to purchase the Planet Hollywood exclusive Twilight
Forever t-shirts. Then we took
more pictures, and were literally the last fans to leave. We really wanted to soak up every last
moment we could.
Our last day in New York we spent soaking up the city. There really is just too much to see
and do (and eat) in just one day.
We took an open topped tour bus around the city and took a detour stop
in Central Park. It was cold! Luckily we had brought our Twilight
blankets with us to keep wrapped in.
Central Park was absolutely beautiful and a great way to conclude our
Twilight New York City adventure.
Some may think that flying across the Pacific Ocean and the
mainland United States might be too much of a trek for a movie marathon and
exhibit, even if it’s for something they are a fan of. But those people haven’t seen
dedication like a Twilight fans. I
know that WolfGirl808 and I would make the trip again for another chance
celebrate our love for the Twilight saga.
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