Today we braved cloudy skies and high winds to head to our new favorite park - Hollywood studios.
I mean Christmas trees and even floating ornaments are great, but a Dino with a Santa hat is just awesome. It’s the Christmas decoration I didn’t know I needed!
We immediately booked it over towards the new Star Wars land, which is one of the few areas new to us. Arron is the resident Star Wars expert and I knew Ally liked Star Wars, but I had no idea the extent of her passion. She is her father’s daughter. I could barely keep up (walking on wet slippery pavement) as we booked it over to the settlers run.
Yes, it starts under the millennium falcon, and I thought her head was going to explode. Notice the rest of the group and their vague interest....
I liked getting a group shot in line because I am rarely able to get us all in!
Ally’s theory seems solid - the distancing markers seem to be colored differently for each park (with one left to try...)
Evan liked all the slanted walkways because he really wants to be taller....
This is right before you “enter the ship” after walking down a walkway that feels like you are boarding a plane (with bouncy, noisy metal walkways and everything) and her eyes tell you how crazy excited she was. It was like magic.
This is boarding the falcon, and the theming is ON POINT. Like, we just walked into the millennium falcon y’all!
I took stupid photos everywhere but I’ll spare you.... for the ride, everyone gets assigned a job. Arron and I were pilots, Evan and nana were the gunners, and Arthur and Ally were the engineers. I think I picked the wrong job because we hit like everything....
In place and ready to go!
It was amazing, although a little rough. Glad that was the Star Wars ride we hit first though.... we had a “boarding pass” for the other Star Wars ride (rise of the resistance) but we had some time to kill so we went to toy story land.
Theming-wise, this is hands down my favorite. Between the shiny lights and the bright colors, I could live here. I just love it... the only ride with a “short” wait time was Toy Story mania. Short meaning the line still started about 1/2 a mile outside of the toy story area because of social distancing.... but still about 40 minutes which has been good for this trip. As we walked back in towards the ride I took a pic of the one ride we have never done - the slinky dog dash. With wait times over 100 minutes long all day, it still sits on our “maybe next time” list...
Just funny because they play uno all the time...
How cool is this? They want you to feel small like a toy...
But man do you feel tiny next to this giant door. Seriously love this.
Plexiglass between rows but we are starting not to even notice. New normal I guess...
I got to ride with Ally because she figured she could beat my score.
And she was right.... she killed me!
Still with a little time to kill but not wanting to go far, we went back to Star Wars to do the old Star tours ride. My favorite part is all the droids on the way in.
And the cool lighting.
Seriously, I could do entire photo shoots in here and have a ball with these lights....
In the ride ready to go. In-laws to the left of me...
Jokers to the right. Here I am stuck in the middle, pew pew. (Im writing for my own amusement, so keep your groans to yourself...)
Still had a little time to kill and we were all getting hungry. Baseline tap house was nearby with pretzels and snacks but also THIS:
And it looked cool inside. But I’ll drink anything with rum AND A GLOW ICE CUBE!?!!?!
Christmas on the beach. It was delicious.
And the kids were happy to finally eat something.
FINALLY it was time!
They don’t mess around with this one. They scanned our tickets to make sure we hadn’t jumped the line twice while walking to the ride? We had no idea what we were walking in to, but the scenery was BEAUTIFUL.
and this was just in the beginning!
LOOK AT THIS!
And THIS! Seriously, I could have played in line all day with just a camera....
Even inside. It felt like you were really there....
We were the A team, and we were ready to go!
The B team was less enthusiastic....
OMG this is the best ride I’ve ever been on. It was so amazing.... I forgot to take pictures it was so stunning (like this one which would have been much better like 30 seconds sooner....)
That look says it all. Awestruck.
Like, real at-at walkers!!!
I can’t describe it, so I’m not going to even try. Just put it on your bucket list - it was amazing. And as soon as we got off, the sky opened up..... loving the umbrella I bought yesterday. When it slowed, we all split up. Arron, the kids and I all went to the new ride in the Chinese theater since it was also new to us.
My family loves me. Because I’m the one who really wanted to do this ride and convinced them to wait 80 minutes outside in the rain to try it. And at least twice it POURED. Three of us had umbrellas, and we were still pretty wet. As for Arron (who didn’t want to share), he could have jumped in a pool fully clothed and still been less wet....
The theater was similar but different from the original ride until the que - then it was a totally new place.
And the cars were pulled by a train on a trackless floor.
Again, this ride was way better than we expected and this look of wonder just says it all. If you want to check it out, look on YouTube - it was just really cool.
And the rain had let up when we left. Just in time for a “Minnie” parade of two cars.... so it was mini and Minnie.....
How fun would it be to have a Christmas tree umbrella on your deck for the holidays?!?! I so want one!!!
Evan’s only request all day was the tower of terror since he has chickened out every other trip. God, I hate this ride. But I reluctantly agreed, especially to make up for the 80 minute rain wait....
Holding up 1 finger for his first time.
And then at the last minute I backed out. I have good excuses (like my back has hurt all week) but really I just didn’t want to get thrown to the ground today... they all went without me and I was happy.
And the last thrill ride of the day with our usual photo:
And a version with me in it!
Not my favorite - I’m so self conscience.... so I took a line family shot instead.
This might be my favorite picture from the trip because it’s a shot I would never ever have been able to get on a normal trip. This room is right before you get on the ride, and it is usually jam packed with people. The preshow (like every other ride) was turned off but we had all the space in the world in this area for a really cool picture.
One final thing I learned on this trip - if you don’t like the ride to be rough, don’t sit in the last car.... I can’t remember a time when I got off the ride feeling drunk without the help of any alcohol!
Since we are being graced by tropical storm Eta, we should have more rainy pictures for you tomorrow from the animal kingdom!
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