After two great days at Universal, we headed over to Disney World. We had four days of park tickets (not hoppers) so planned one day per park. Based on the crowd calendars, there were two different options that had us hitting one of the recommended parks on each day. I told the boys to pick Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios for the first day and then the rest of the schedule fell into place based on the crowd calendars. They chose Hollywood Studios.
Unfortunately the picture perfect weather that we had at Universal Studio was scheduled to take a drastic turn. We knew that going to Florida in the summer would likely mean some passing storms but we weren’t prepared for the forecast for each of our Disney days to be 90% chance of rain and “locally heavy rainfall”.
My husband had been sick just prior to our trip and decided that he needed a break after our first two park days. So the boys and I headed over to Hollywood Studios. Since we weren’t staying at a Disney resort, we drove ourselves. And as soon as we parked, the skies opened up. We waited a few minutes until the torrential downpour passed and a parking tram pulled up and then we made a break for it.
We were hopeful that the rain would lessen the crowds a little. After being spoiled with two days of Express Passes at Universal, we knew it would be a rude awakening to wait in the Disney lines. We decided to head straight to Tower of Terror – the boys first time on the ride!
We probably waited about 45 minutes – most of it in a light rain. But the boys really liked the ride. I love that the drops (and lifts!) on this ride are randomized so there is no way to anticipate when the next one is coming or how long it will last.
We planned to head over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster next but were disappointed to see that it was temporarily closed for refurbishment. This had been one of the “big” rides that the boys did on our last visit when they were 7 and 9 so they were disappointed not to get to ride it again.
Hollywood Studios seems to be the park that has changed the most between our visits. At our first visit in 2013, the park’s iconic landmark was a giant Sorcerer’s Hat at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. By the time we returned 4 years later, it had been removed and a stage had been built in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre to host Star Wars shows. On this visit, the stage was gone and we were thrilled to see that the theatre now hosts a ride based on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The boys had become obsessed with these cartoons on our Disney cruise and were so excited for this ride.
We loved the ride! In the queue, you wind through the theatre and get to see all the movie posters that are from actual episodes of the cartoon. (Potatoland is one of our favorites!)
The ride starts when everyone piles into an auditorium where they start to play Perfect Picnic, an animated short. In the short, Minnie and Mickey are driving to take a picnic in the park. Goofy is driving a train next to them and when Mickey hits a bump in the road, a pie from their picnic basket flies up and lands on top of the train’s smokestack, causing the train to run out of control and eventually crash into a barn.
The resulting explosion causes an actual hole to burst open in the auditorium wall. It was an amazing and unexpected effect. Everyone then walks through the hole in the wall to board the train for the start of the ride.
The technology behind this ride was so cool. The individual train cars aren’t on a track but glide across the floors in a carefully choreographed route (even performing a waltz with Daisy Duck!). And they utilize “2.5D” technology, essentially using projection technology to create 3D effects without the glasses. After the ride, you walk back out through the same hole in the theatre wall that you walked through to board the train.
We were super impressed with this ride, although I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we re-rode it with my husband when we returned that evening and the technology wasn’t quite as flawless. The trains stopped randomly in the middle of Daisy’s waltz and the scenes we watched on individual screens skipped some parts. Still, we thought this was a really unique ride and loved that it was both classic and modern Mickey at the same time.
From there we headed to the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge section of the park. This land was all new to us and the boys were blown away by the detail. It felt like walking through a Star Wars movie. We enjoyed just wandering the village (on the planet Batuu) and exploring the marketplace.
And then the skies opened up. We ran through the downpour to get on line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Thankfully the line for this ride was fully under cover so we grabbed the lunches we had packed in our backpack and settled in to wait out the rain and the ride’s line. Little did we know what a wait it would be! Shortly after we got on the line, they announced a delay due to technical difficulties. We didn’t think much of it and figured since it was pouring, we’d either be waiting out the rain here or somewhere else so we might as well stay on line. But the delay announcement was repeated again and again, as minutes turned into hours. We ended up waiting over 2 hours for the ride – probably the longest I’ve ever waited for a ride in my life. And after all that… I didn’t think the ride was that great. A motion simulator ride, you board the Millennium Falcon and are given a specific role based on where you sit (a pilot, engineer or gunner). Your mission is to steal cargo from TIE fighters and of course it doesn’t go smoothly. The concept of each person having an interactive job to do is neat but this just wasn’t my kind of ride. And spoiler alert – I am not a good pilot. At all. Ask anyone in the cockpit with me. 🙂
After that lengthy ride experience, we rode Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. We had ridden this one before (another flight simulator ride), but the ride has 26 different story segments, 4 of which are randomly used for each ride. Again, I like the idea that every ride is different (there are over 1500 possible combinations) so you don’t know what to expect or feel like you are truly repeating a ride. Plus it’s always fun to see C-3PO and R2-D2! (And we didn’t have to wait 2+ hours to ride it!)
After Star Tours, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and then returned (plus a husband but minus one kid) at 8:00 to hit a few more rides. My husband really wanted to go on Rise of the Resistance so we headed straight there. We were hoping that since there were only two hours until close, the line wouldn’t be terrible. And it wasn’t! This was a super interactive queue and it was hard to tell when the ride itself was actually starting but we were probably through the whole thing in a little over half an hour. Quite a change in fortune from Smugglers Run!
This ride was awesome! It combines a lot of different ride technologies – a trackless ride, motion-simulator, and a drop ride all in one. The details and effects are amazing. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not, entering a room with 50 Storm Troopers lined up will take your breath away.
With another hour before park close, we decided to hit a family favorite, Toy Story Mania. This one is always fun and brings out the competitive spirit in the family. After that we briefly considered waiting on the line for Slinky Dog Dash (which hadn’t opened yet on our last visit) but my husband really wanted to do the Runaway Railway so we headed back there.
When we walked out of the Runaway Railway, we quite literally caught the nighttime show, Wonderful World of Animation. A projection show on the Chinese Theatre, we walked right out into the middle of it when we exited the ride. Projection shows aren’t my favorite but it was neat to see.
All in all, we had a really fun day at Hollywood Studios. The rain was a bummer but didn’t keep us from anything we wanted to do. And the wait for Smugglers Run was an even bigger bummer but it did keep us from the rain so we’ll chalk it up as a net neutral. Galaxy’s Edge, the new-to-us Star Wars land, is incredible and well worth a visit, whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not.
