Saturday, January 30, 2021

DISNEY WORLD, DAY THREE - HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Day three of our prize trip had us venturing off to Hollywood Studios. Our resort is on the Skyliner route, which meant we were able to glide off to our adventures for two park days instead of taking the bus. The bus is a perfectly fine option, but the Skyliner was a fun change of scenery. It's not the best picture, but you can see the gondolas approaching and departing the station. 

Six Ws traveling by air. Sorta. Because we're attached to a cable attached to a building attached to the ground. 

I'm not sure why, but Hollywood Studios was the only park that didn't have a photographer at the entrance when we arrived. So we acted like normal people and took one of ourselves. And, yes, there are multiple Ws who incorrectly think wearing a mask means no one can tell if they aren't smiling. Despite non-smiling Ws in various pictures throughout the week, I promise all Ws had fun. 


We headed straight to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and cranked out three Star Wars rides. Actually, we did two right off the bat - Millenium Falcon: Smuggler's Run and Star Tours. Then we posed for some pictures. 





We may have been on vacation, but that doesn't mean we weren't still being responsible people thinking about the obligations of regular life. Proof? During a snack break, Silas found a perfect mother of the groom dress for me to wear when he and Natie get married. Pink ruffles for his tomboy-ish mom. Perfect, right?

One of Naomi's goals for the week was to try blue milk, per the recommendation of her youth pastor. Mission accomplished. 

Bad lighting and we were on the move, but we had a quick character sighting of Chewie and Rey. Full disclosure: I have no interest in Star Wars and have never watched any of the movies, so I had to ask Tyler who the girl was. 

The third ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, was a little later, as you have to reserve a spot in advance and there are only two times each day that boarding passes are released, both of which have all tickets claimed in about ten seconds. No exaggeration. Thanks to Tanya's tips, Devon's suggestion to use multiple devices, and Tim's participation, we were able to do that ride mid-morning. The way it starts had us all wondering what the big deal was, a reaction I heard from others, but it turned out to be really cool.

Finished with all the Star Wars rides, we ventured over to Toy Story Land. 



Photobombed by a toy soldier.


It was at this point that we split into smaller groupings. Tim and the big boys took off while I waited for Naomi and Tyler to do Alien Swirling Saucers, as spinning rides ceased being fun for me about a decade ago. We did a couple rounds of Toy Story Mania! before walking over to join the fam for lunch.

Dine-in restaurants require reservations and this was one of two days we opted for a scheduled meal, so we all met up at 50's Prime Time Cafe to eat. Oh, goodness, it was delicious! I don't remember what everyone else got, although I know it involved things like fried chicken and pot roast and apple crisp, but I ordered a crab cake on succotash salad (don't ask me what succotash is because I have no idea, I just know it's yummy) as an appetizer, salmon caesar salad as an entree, and what turned out to be a gargantuan slice of chocolate peanut butter layered cake as dessert. 

We did another split after lunch, which involved me, Devon, and Tyler going on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Devon had already done it with Tim and Silas earlier, but it the first time for Tyler and I. Turns out my youngest roller coaster lover doesn't like big drops. He didn't regret doing it, but had no desire for a repeat occurrence. Devon, on the other hand, liked trying to see if his water bottle fell as fast as he did each time he went. Ha! These pictures from the ride were taken at different points in the day.



We connected with Tim after the ride and all four of us went on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster together, but Tyler and I wanted a picture with the giant guitar in it before we got in line.


Silas and Naomi also did the ride at some point, so these pictures caught all of us. The difference between Devon and Tim in the first one cracks me up. 



Time for another split that gave me and Tim some time together on Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards. 



Meanwhile, the kids went off to do various rides, including Slinky Dog Dash, the only roller coaster of the week I didn't do.



Isn't this a gorgeous sky? The nice thing about later park closings is we were that we saw some pretty sunsets and enjoyed the parks being lit up in the dark.

That view was from the line for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, a new ride at the park. We also posed for some pictures outside the building.



Parade time!



Waiting for the different pairings of kids to meet Tim and I at the end of the day, I just stood by the water and enjoyed this pretty tree for a few minutes before we headed back to our suite.

Parade time!


Because masks have to be on at all times in the parks and in public places of the resort, I asked the fam to pose for a group picture in our room with our faces showing. 


And just like that, our trip was already half over. Two parks down, two to go! 


*****

Here are links for all the posts about our Disney trip.  


The trip was a prize from our orthodontist's office, Senestraro Family Orthodontics, as our name was drawn from all the established patients who referred new patients to their office in 2019. We've loved that office for over three years now and highly recommend them to anyone within driving distance of their three offices in Sherwood, Wilsonville, and Woodstock. Initial travel information was provided by Kristy and all travel arrangements, as well as really helpful daily tour plans for us to use as suggested launch points for our days, were provided by Tanya, both from Incredible Memories Travel. I'll definitely use their services if we ever get to travel again and recommend them to anyone who'd like someone else to do all the background work for their next vacation. 

1 comment:

Desiree said...

I was hoping that you'd get at least one picture with no masks. Great idea to do it in the hotel room. That's an awesome suite!