After a full travel day and 2 full theme park days, the kids were all dragging a little by our Hollywood Studios day. They struggled waking up, Briggs was complaining of his stomach hurting (which thankfully subsided once we entered the park), and as we were waiting in the long line to enter the park, I was second-guessing my decision to bounce everyone out of bed early in order to get to the park for opening.
Thankfully, things looked up as soon as we entered the park.
Hollywood Studios is the most frustrating of the Disney parks. It is the smallest park, but it has a lot of the most popular rides without many smaller rides or other things to round out the day. Therefore, it gets long lines, can feel very congested in certain areas (like Toy Story Land), and can be difficult to navigate and get things accomplished without getting frustrated.
We had decided to purchase Genie + for our Hollywood Studios day, which is the new paid line skipping service that replaced Fast Pass. However, I was super frustrated when I woke up before 7 in the morning to try to get reservations for our first and top priority ride, Slinky Dog Dash. Disney's app had some issues and by the time I got things working about 30 seconds after 7, all the reservations for the day were gone. Thankfully I found a very helpful guest services lady at the park who gave us an any-time reservation for the ride.
We started our day riding the new Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad ride at park opening while the line was not too long. It was lots of fun! Then the kids and Zach went to the Lightening McQueen show while I tried to work out our Slinky Dog Dash issue with guest services.
There are no full parades at Disney right now, but they have pop up calvalcades, which are just like mini parades with a few characters. We enjoyed seeing the calvalcade with the Incredibles, Edna Mode, and Sully from Monster's Inc while we were having a snack and putting on our sunscreen.
Because of the long lines for all the rides, we did rides with our Genie + reservations and then filled in our free time with shows, characters, and exploring the new Star Wars land. We went to the Frozen Show and the Beauty and the Beast show. And Zach enjoyed the Indiana Jones show, although the kids chose not to go to that one.
Slinky Dog Dash was a favorite for all the kids, although Adelie was in tears before the ride, not sure she wanted to do it. But Staley was very caring, held her hand through the ride, and Adelie said it was a favorite of the day. We also did Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers with Genie + later in the day as well.
Hard to tell with the hair in her face, but it looks like a smile.
Briggs liked it so much that he and I were able to do it a second time using Zach's Genie + reservation that he didn't use.
The new Star Wars land was a highlight for Zach. Although we are not a big Star Wars family, the detail and immersive experience of the land was still impressive.
We all did the ride Milennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. It made Zach feel motion sick, but the rest of us thought it was fun. Each person had a job on the flight. Zach and I were pilots (I don't think I was very good at it, which might be part of the reason Zach felt sick), Staley and Briggs were gunners, and Adelie was an engineer. I think having a job gave the ride a more fun and different feel from many of the other simulator-type rides.
Zach treated himself to a fun Sprite in a round bottle as his Disney souvenir. He really enjoyed checking out Star Wars land, seeing all the ships and droids, watching the Storm Troopers, and just enjoying the incredibly themed and immersive land. Zach is the only one in the family who has watched all the newer Star Wars movies.
And we had to get our traditional Chewbacca and Briggs picture, even if it was different from our previous trips. Chewbacca has always been one of Briggs' favorite characters to meet, even when he was just an infant.
And we met lots of characters during the day too, like Minnie...
Olaf...
Fancy Nancy...
Pluto...
and even Doc McStuffins. There were absolutely no lines for most of these characters so the kids were happy to meet them, even if they aren't favorites anymore.
While filling time in our day waiting for our Genie + reservations, we also took the opportunity to ride the skyliner from Hollywood Studios to Caribbean Beach resort and back. Riding the skyliner was one of Briggs' top requests for our entire week. It is a fun and relaxing way to travel.
We packed a lunch for our Hollywood Studios day, enjoyed a mid-afternoon snack of mickey ice cream treats, and then had yummy sandwiches from Woody's Lunchbox for dinner.
By late afternoon, Staley hit a wall. She was exhausted, didn't want to eat her dinner, and was in tears about just wanting to go back to the townhouse. We rested in the shade, coaxed some dinner into her, calmed her down, and then just walked around the park a little as she decided whether or not to stay or just head back.
Staley felt better with a little dinner in her, rallied, and decided to stick it out so we could go on Rockin Roller Coaster while Zach and the littles watched the Lightning McQueen show again.
We had the opportunity to ride it twice in a row (using the fast passes from the rest of the family), but Staley changed her mind right before we got on the second time. She felt a little woozy after the first ride and she decided getting right back on again might not be the best idea.
With about an hour before park closing, Zach took the opportunity to jump in line for Rise of the Resistance, the premier ride experience in Star Wars land. The kids didn't want to go, but Zach thought it was amazing!
Zach said the ride was just like being plopped down in the middle of a movie. He said it was incredible! Since there are many things we enjoy at Disney that Zach can't do, I was so glad that he had the opportunity to experience this.
The kids were all getting tired, but were troopers while waiting for Zach to do his ride. We played with glow sticks, looked at pictures from the trip so far, and just chilled out in a quiet spot at the edge of Toy Story Land.
After 12 hours in a theme park for the third straight day, things are bound to get a little crazy!
When Zach finished his ride, we had enough time left to jump into line for Toy Story Mania as our last ride of the day.
By the end of the day, we were all exhausted! We had walked 10-13 miles every day for the past 3 days, spent full days from park opening to park close at theme parks over the past 3 days, and experienced way more sun and warmth than we had in months. It had been another good day, but we were all happy to have a rest day the following day where we could sleep in, relax, and recoup so we could be ready for the remainder of our trip.
