September 2024 Trip Report - Day 4 - Disney Hollywood Studios
Due to Lightning Lane selections that were available in advance, this day was to be a full Disney Hollywood Studios day. This is because I couldn't find a morning time for Slinky Dog Dash at all even during pre-booking, so we had an evening time and other lightning lanes in the same park in the morning.
Despite having a late night the night before, we still arrived at Hollywood Studios in time to rope drop early opening at 8:30. People were already lining up for regular park opening at 9, but we were allowed in through a turnstile on the side of the crowds, which was nice. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was an easy rope drop and worth it.
After this ride, we were feeling a bit hungry, so we went to Ronto Roasters and got Ronto wraps. Galaxy's Edge was very quiet at around 9 AM, surprisingly, but probably because Rise of the Resistance is at the edge of this land, and you'd have to pass it to get to where we were, so we sat and enjoyed the view of the Millennium Falcon and had a lovely breakfast. While the Ronto wrap was fine, it wasn't anything exceptional for me. My mother seemed to really like hers. After breakfast, we went on Star Tours. Over the years, Star Tours has gone from a least favorite ride (It used to make me motion sick) to one I do several times each trip. I don't know if I've gotten better with motion sickness, but I didn't take dramamine once on this trip... not even for Flight of Passage or Guardians of the Galaxy, and those can be intense, and I enjoyed Star Tours several times and on a full stomach no problem. I love that Star Tours has random sequences of videos so no two rides are the same. On this ride, we had a sequence of Kashyyk, Yoda, Naboo, and Galaxy's Edge.
Breakfast Ronto Wraps. They felt a tad uninspired to me, given the cheese clearly had attempted to melt but hadn't. I think they needed salsa or something.
After Star Tours, we rode Rise of the Resistance, followed by Toy Story Mania where I used a new method to score my personal highest score ever, but not the highest in the car. Don't worry. I would redeem myself. It was time for coffee (actually, well past time for coffee) and Studios has one of the better, if busier, Joffrey's coffee stands right outside of Toy Story Land. I had one of the fall special drinks which I think was a pumpkin pie frozen latte, and it was just okay. We also got a Num Num cookie at the stand next door, which is the only place I know of at Disney World to get one. They aren't as good as the ones in Disneyland, but they're still pretty darn good. Everything you might want from a chocolate chip cookie.
Rey, informing us that our outpost was no longer safe.
With our coffees, we made our way out of Studios around noonish as the pavement started heating up and took the boat once again to EPCOT, then the skyliner to Riviera resort. We love Bar Riva and knew we wanted to stop there at some point this trip, and we decided this was the day. We had a lovely meal of our favorite vegetable skewers with chicken and some drinks. I had an Il Tramonto and I think mom had an Almonde Grog. She didn't love hers. I really liked mine a lot. Our server, who I want to say was named Antonio, was so personable and fun to talk to. I always say Bar Riva is 5/5 and that was true this time as well.
Unfortunately, it started to rain after lunch, so we went upstairs to the gift shop off the main lobby, and then to La Petit cafe to grab something sweet and wait out the rain and while there, the rain did stop, so we continued, through deep puddles, back to Caribbean Beach resort for a little rest.
We headed back to Disney Hollywood Studios via skyliner probably near 5 o'clock ish. We went into One Man's Dream to have a look around in the heat, and when we came out, we could hear guests already panicking because it was started to rain. It wasn't even a very hard rain, but guests do tend to panic for some reason. We popped open our umbrellas and spread a shower cap over the ECV motor and carried on past the panicked crowds to Smuggler's Run. I honestly don't recall if I had a lightning lane for this or if the wait was just low. I do remember a lot of wait times went very low about this time because it was the tail end of the day, rain was hitting, and a lot of guests who had been in the park all day were "noping" the heck out of that once it started to rain, which was nice for us. After Smuggler's Run, it was a little difficult leaving the exit of the ride because everyone was stopping right before they were outdoors, in the doorway, and putting on ponchos and standing there for as long as they possibly could as if they might melt in the rain. Poor Cast Members were asking people firmly to move along.
Disneyworld: Where you can find people sheltering from the rain under the Millennium Falcon.
Hot tip: If rain is something that you can't let touch your body, don't go to Florida in September.
It was raining fairly steadily and Slinky Dog Dash was down due to lightning in the area. My lightning lane came up and became one of those magical "extended experience lightning lanes" because Slinky was "down". The way those work are that I could redeem my lightning lane at any other ride on the list during my window or anytime for Slinky that same day, if it came back up. Knowing it was just a lightning delay, we found an umbrella and stood under it for a while and waited. The rain let up, and soon they started running empty cars on the track. About 10 minutes after that, they started letting guests back on and at that point, it was practically a walk on for us.
I love the queue for Slinky Dog Dash because of all the details from the toys and their boxes to Andy's drawing planning Slinky Dog Dash's course. But I took this picture before realizing it's an Easter egg! On Rex's box, notice the price tag. Toy Story came out on November 22nd, 1995.
After Slinky Dog Dash, Alien Swirling Saucers had a posted 5 min wait, so we walked right on that as well and had a little ride. At about this point, it was 7:30 or so, and we wanted to leave the park before fireworks ended. The original plan had been to consider Fantasmic but with the rainy night and unpredictable weather with lightning still in the area from time to time we didn't really want to deal with it, nor did we want to deal with another skyliner situation like we'd had the night before after Luminous. We were, however, hungry, so we went over to Docking Bay 7, found a seat inside, and mobile ordered. We shared smoked kaduu pork ribs (mom said they weren't as good as at Geyser Point and I said they were better), Black Spire mousse, which was amazing, and I had a surly sarlacc because I felt drinky. It was delish. And we got to see Galaxy's Edge at night, though on a pretty rainy night, unfortunately.
Black Spire mousse at Docking Bay 7. Photogenic and delicious! And this is quick service food! Well done, Disney!
We then high-tailed it out of Hollywood Studios, exiting the park just as Disney Movie Magic was playing in front of the Chinese theater, which is the same time Fantasmic starts up. Got on the skyliner with only a short line, and back to the resort in no time.
Next time, we do an almost completely perfect 4 park day -- on a Saturday, no less! I say "almost" because there were injuries involved. You'll have to stay tuned to find out more! Until next time....
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