For our third anniversary, my husband and I were supposed to go to Seattle and Portland. However, the pandemic threw a wrench in our plans. We still wanted to travel and celebrate, so we asked ourselves what state is open and won’t shut down. Florida is the state that came to mind. Therefore, two weeks in advance, we were planning a Disney World trip.
I first checked to see if our desired parks were available for reservations. My husband and I wanted to go to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom because Magic Kingdom is very similar to Disneyland. Also, we knew that the rides at Epcot were not as thrilling, and Epcot is more about the food and drinks. Therefore, we came to the conclusion of Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom for our reservations. We bought our airplane tickets and hotel through Expedia, and a few short weeks later we were flying out of LAX.
We arrived in Orlando late on a Thursday Night. We ate at Cafe Tu-Tu Tango, which was delicious, and then went to sleep. Our plan for the weekend was Hollywood Studios Friday, Animal Kingdom Saturday, Universal Studios Sunday, and fly home Monday. In this post I will only be talking about our day in Hollywood studios:
Our day started at 6:45 AM when we woke up anxious to get our Rise of the Resistance boarding group. We waited on the my Disney Experience App staring at the phone until it changed to 7 AM. We quickly did the process and got our boarding group. We definitely were a high up boarding group and didn’t board until around 1-2PM, but we got the boarding pass. I am so glad we could get the boarding pass while in bed instead of having to be in the park. After getting the boarding Pass, we got ready, had Starbucks near the hotel, and prepared to leave for Hollywood studios.
Since we did not rent a car and we were not staying on property, we ubered to Hollywood Studios. We got there 5 minutes before 8 AM (The park opened at 9 AM). I wanted to make sure we were there right when the parking opened so we could rope drop some rides. We were stuck waiting until almost 8:05 before they let us in. The Uber driver dropped us off right in front of the park. When we got out, we went straight to the lines for temperature checks. The lines were already long to be checked, probably due to people staying on property not having to wait for the parking lot to open. Next, we went to scan our tickets from our phones like we do at Disneyland, but YOU CANNOT DO THIS. You have to get in the ticket line and get printed tickets to enter, unless your cool and know about the magic bands (we didn’t).
Finally, we entered the Park. We went straight for the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway. This is something new in the park and something they don’t have at Disneyland. I felt, however, it was overrated. It would be a ride I could skip and not feel bad for missing it. After that ride, we went to Star Wars land to ride Smuggler’s Run. This ended up being my favorite ride of the day and we rode twice. We were the only people on the ride because of Covid protocols, so we were both pilots. I loved how interactive it was, and even though I was terrible, it was still a lot of fun.
At this point we were hungry and decided it was snack time. We decided to try the Blue and Green Milk and the Ronto Wrap. To my dismay, the Blue and Green Milk were not very tasty, and my husband and I could barely finish them. However, I believe it is definitely an experience you should have once. Next, we ate the Ronto Wraps. They have a pork sausage, roasted pork, and coleslaw on a pita. We added BBQ sauce to it. We liked it, but didn’t love it.
Our Rise of the Resistance group was almost up at this point, so we stayed and shopped a bit. Then, we went to the ride. It turns out it was broken down, so we went to Tower of Tower. The ride started working again once we got in line so we chose to leave and go back to Rise of the Resistance. This ride was awesome, and it was my husbands favorite ride of the day. The lead up to the ride was probably my favorite part. I have never been so uncomfortable as when I walked into that room full of storm troopers. This ride made you feel like you were truly a part of the movie.
Our next choices of rides were Rockin’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. These rides are arguably the most thrilling in the park. The roller coaster is fast and has 2 rollover loops and a corkscrew. The Tower of Terror is a drop ride with a twilight zone theme. Ours, in California, recently changed to guardians of the galaxy and is more bouncy, so I loved having the original theming and drops again.
By this point, we were getting tired, so we chose to walk through Toy Story Land. Since we are 30 and 35, this land did not appeal to us much, and we chose to skip slinky dog and the rest. We did take some cool pictures tho! After our pictures, we went to baseline for a snack and some drinks. I got a margarita and a Bavarian pretzel. My husband got a Beer and snacked on some chips he brought. With our bellies full we decided to go on a couple of rides before the park closed. We chose to go on Star Tours and Smuggler’s Run for the second time. By that time, the park was closing, but I ran into a store and got an Ewok I had my eyes on. He’s so cute, and soft, and fluffy, and I love him! I definitely recommend these big-footed plushies!
We left the park, which closed very early for theme park usual hours, and headed to our hotel. We went to dinner at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium at City Walk, and that concluded our Hollywood Studios day. We were tired, our feet hurt, but we ended the day knowing we did absolutely everything we wanted to do!
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Baby Yoda Shirt: Walmart
Jack Skellington Mickey Ears: https://amzn.to/2O3oRFU
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Nike Shoes: https://amzn.to/2MxKg9V
Ashleigh Marie: Teacher to Mommy 