I had very solid nights sleep and was happy to be awake at 4.30am to given my pain meds time to kick in and to catch up on my blogs (which I did). I also enjoyed quite a few cups of Christmas tea before waking Christy up at 6.30am to give her plenty of time to get ready for the day.
We left at about 7.50am (10mins before our target) and walked over the skyliner. To get to Hollywood Studios you need to change lines. Again we had no waits in the morning. And since we arrived between the early entry opening and official opening, there was no line to get into the park either.
We were keen to get our magic bands and managed to find a pretty good selection in one of the stores here. Though none of us especially wanted a Magic Band Plus, that’s what we all ended up with since we liked the designs the best. And I must say having the bands made getting onto rides super easy (though you can use your watch or ticket).
I’ve always loved the main street of Hollywood Studios, especially when it’s decorated for Christmas. After checking out the shops and stopping for some photos
we had a DAS pass for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. It was our first time riding this and though we’d seen some spoilers, we had tried to avoid them. This ride was so cute and fun. A big improvement over The Great Movie ride that used to be here (and was very dated). We are all keen to do this again.
From here we made our way into Toy Story Land. Today was all about the NEW as everything we rode was new to us. Toy Story Land is so fun. I can only imagine how magical it must be for kids. So bright and colourful and large (to make us feel toy sized).
At this stage we were only passing through on our way to Galaxy’s Edge (or Star Wars Land as we keep hearing it called). And oh boy, were we impressed. Seeing it in videos did not do it justice. So many details. In fact, ALL the details. Like the Harry Potter areas at Universal, this is a fully immersive area. Even Christy, who has never seen Star Wars (what bad parents we must be) was impressed (and now keen to go watch Star Wars :-)).
We had managed to get a DAS pass for Rise of the Resistence. Now we had seen some spoilers for this but there were PLENTY of surprises in stall. Kevin and I agree that that is the most immersive ride we’ve been on. It is so well done.
We explored some shops. Kevin, even though he’d had breakfast, wanted a Ronto Wrap so we had a rest while he enjoyed that.
Then it was back into Toy Story Land (there was quite a bit of back and forth today) to ride Alien Swirling Saucers (with our Advance DAS). I’m so grateful we have this pass. The standby line said 120mins !! This was a fun ride.
We then got to ride Slinky Dog for the first time and it is a very fun little coaster. I imagine kids must especially love it.
It was then time to head back to the resort for an afternoon break. We had been going to view One Man’s Dream but Kevin had just bought a HUGE cup of coke that he wasn’t able to take it. Never mind – we’ll come back later.
Back in our room Kevin had a nap. I sat outside on the balcony to work on blog posts and finish up a vlog (only just uploaded our travel day to Orlando). I had some Gardein Chick’n tenders and microwaved mini potatoes for lunch. Kevin didn’t want anything after his ronto wrap earlier.
Around 3.30pm, when Kevin was awake we headed down to the quiet pool for a swim. The water temperature is devine, though the pool here is quite shallow. We had a nice float/relax and then got out to dry off in the sun. Such a nice way to spend some time. I really should have spent the whole downtime here. Next time.
By 5pm, right on golden hour, we were back in the park. We walked around the 40s style area which I think is just so fun. They do an amazing job of decorating this area at Christmas.
We then walked all the way around to Rise of the Resistence (where we had another DAS pass) but it was down (ie. not working). Apparently this happens quite a bit on Rise. So we continued walking through to Toy Story Land where we had mobile ordered Christy’s dinner from Woody’s Lunch Box. We were a bit early and there is definitely not enough seating in this area of the park. Eventually I found a seat. Christy just sat on the ground.
Finally it was time for Christy’s dinner to be prepared. It was done in no time since it was just two tubs of potato gems (or potato barrels? as they called here). Then we had to walk ALL the way back through Galaxy’s Edge and into the Muppets area to get our dinner from The Backlot Express. As we passed by Rise it must have just reopened as a great crowd of people moved towards it, making the area much less empty than it had been.
Kevin and I both had Tofu Rice Bowls which were pretty good and a really nice option for a theme park. Unfortunately by now Christy’s dinner was pretty cold and the gems were way more crunchy/crispy that she likes.
I was struggling with my feet/legs a lot more this evening so was glad of another rest.
After dinner it was back into Galaxy’s Edge to find that Rise still up and running and the crowds much lower now that it almost 7pm. We enjoyed our second ride on this. Still so many little details we are picking up on.
It was full dark by now and we got some more photos with a photographer – we and trying to get as many of these as we can.
We had a lesiurely walk/wait through to Smugglers Run and still had to wait a few mins for our advance DAS pass to be active. I wasn’t too sure about this ride as it is interactive. Both Kevin & I were pilots and Christy was a gunner. It was much more fun than I expected, though Christy felt as a gunner she was too buy pressing buttons to pay much attention to what was actually happening.
Kevin finally got himself a blue milk (which is really just a tropical flavoured slushy. He really enjoyed it. I thought it was quite nice but not really worth $9!! He was happy though. And compared to the lightsaber or droid that he wanted this was a bargain :-).
Both Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land are just so beautiful at night and definitely need to be experienced. We had a second ride on Slinky Dog as our final ride of the day and this was even more fun in the dark with all the lights around. Certainly a very cute, fun coaster and I can see why it is so popular.
As we headed back to the main area we caught the very start of the projection show Disney Movie Magic.
We then joined the hoards leaving the park, and it wasn’t even closing yet. When we got the skyliner there was a VERY long line and none of feeling up to waiting in line to board. So we had seat as per our SLOW holiday guidelines, and waited for the line to get shorter before we joined it. Two short skyliner rides and we were back at the Riviera. I have to say it was a bit of a painful walk for me back to our room. I definitely did more than I should of (in regards to my fibro) today. Thankfully we already decided not to go to Blizzard Beach tomorrow (mainly because we don’t feel it will anywhere near as good at Volcano Bay) and have a quiet day.
I was very much looking forward to my cup of Christmas tea when we got back, which I enjoyed in bed with Kevin while we watched some YouTube. At 10pm I crashed without even reading a page of my book.