3/25/23: Our Day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

After two days each at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, our next park was Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was set to be a big day for us – our family is full of Star Wars fans, several new attractions had opened since our last trip to this park, and a brand new table-service restaurant that I was hoping to try had just opened the day before – and I had managed to snag a reservation for that afternoon.

Leaving the Hotel

Before we headed to the bus stop, I went to the front desk to see about resolving a small issue we had. The Goofy hat we had just bought the toddler at EPCOT two days before (that Goofy himself had signed) had an ear hanging on by a thread, and we were trying to figure out if there was any way we could get it fixed. They ended up asking us to leave the hat at the desk, and they’d take it to the tailor and bring it back to the room later. As we were finishing up, the rest of the family caught up to us. My daughter chose to Disneybound as Megara from Hercules that day (I did mention our family is on a Greek Mythology kick, right? LOL). She even decided to carry around a stuffed Cerberus plush. The cast member told her that her choice of outfit was PERFECT and pointed over to the lobby TV, which currently was playing Hercules for guests. She got a kick out of that, and had to pose for a picture by the TV.

Arrival at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Disney Junior Play n’ Dine Breakfast

We made it to Hollywood Studios by 9:45, after taking a few minutes outside the park watching the Skyliner gondolas zoom into and out of the station. I chose to use my rollator for this park day, because Hollywood Studios is a much smaller park than the others, and I wanted to save the money for the next day’s rental at Animal Kingdom (which is notorious for causing my dysautonomia to flare). We arrived to Hollywood & Vine for the Disney Junior Play n’ Dine Breakfast just before our 10:00 am reservation. A full review is coming of this restaurant, but the kids had a great time here. The middle kid even got his first, and only, character hug of the trip. (For those of you who don’t know, this kid has some sensory issues and tends not to get into character interaction. Every once in a while he’ll do a high-five or something, but he’s very much hands off when it comes to characters.) Vampirina was the exception to his no-hugs stance this time.

For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration

At 11:00 we were finished eating and decided to go to the Frozen Sing-Along. It was a short walk to the theater, and they were wrapping up seating when we got there, but we were able to get in for the 11:30 show. With my rollator, I was either going to be seated in the front or the back, and I asked for the front specifically. A cast member led us to our seats. (Usually in shows with theatre seats like this one, cast members will tell everyone to fill in all available seats, move all the way across the row, and kind of “pack in”, but in the sections for guests with mobility devices, they typically have a CM tell guests in that row where to sit. I believe the “assignments” are based on the number of guests in the party.) The show was fantastic, as always. This is one of my family’s longstanding favorite shows on property. The Royal Historians are so funny. They had a Lord of the Rings reference that had the oldest kid, my wife, and I cracking up. (This was the first trip since the 12-year-old had seen LOTR.)

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Rise of the Resistance

After “For the First Time in Forever,” we decided to get DAS return times for Rise of the Resistance. We were super psyched up to see Galaxy’s Edge, and the kids were really hoping to see Mando and Grogu wandering around (but we had no luck with that one). I managed to get discombobulated and almost ended up in a meet and greet queue while trying to get over to Batuu, and it was a much longer walk than I was expecting. Even the sun just felt hotter that day. I was positively melting.

We had to do a rider swap for Rise, so I took the kids on first. My rollator was able to go through the whole queue. It had transport shuttle situation that was a little like riding the metro or a monorail… then you’re captured by the First Order. There’s a cool photo op with a ton of Stormtroopers, before you’re sent along through the remainder of the queue and divided up into ride vehicles. The First Order guard assigned to our group discreetly mentioned that he noticed the middle kid had ear defenders on, and wanted to let me know about some of the loud noises, flashing lights, and sensory moments on the ride. I really appreciated that information. I was able to park my rollator right next to the ride vehicle before we boarded.

The ride was really fun. I had avoided watching any ride videos for the stuff that had come out since my last trip because I wanted to have a completely unbiased first impression. The ride has a lot of fast turns and directional changes, including a moment where you go up in an elevator and a drop.

Unfortunately, when my wife and the kids went into the line for the rider swap, the ride ended up breaking down right as they finally got to the prisoner transport vehicle. We decided to head into Toy Story Land (after getting a return time for Millenium Falcon: Smugglers’ Run) because our lunch reservations were only about 90 minutes away at Roundup Rodeo BBQ.

Toy Story Land and Roundup Rodeo BBQ

The standby line for Alien Swirling Saucers was only 15 minutes, and we had some time to kill. The toddler was enamored with the giant Buzz Lightyear in front of the ride, and I decided to take him on. The oldest wanted to come too, and so we put the toddler’s backpack harness on him, and we entered the standby line. Some of the line here is in the shade and it has a few powerful fans, but not all of the queue area is covered, and it was HOT. The ride kind of reminded me of a mix between the Scrambler ride that you see at carnivals and fairs and the Mad Tea Party ride at Magic Kingdom. It definitely whips you around. The seatbelt here was plenty long and all three of us fit in the one car. This was a favorite ride for the kids that chose to ride it. I got a little jumbled up trying to exit, though, and had to yell to the cast members to ask where the exit was. Whoops.

As we left the Green Army Men were marching, playing their drums, to perform closer to the entrance of the ride and we paused to watch before continuing on our way to Roundup Rodeo BBQ. We were a solid 30 minutes early for our reservation, but I was absolutely MELTING at this point, and I asked if it was okay if we sat on the bench area outside the restaurant until our reservation time. (It was.)

At 2:50, we headed inside to the bench in the entrance as they got our table ready, and we were seated just before 3:00. A full review will be coming, but the short version here is that we didn’t make it out of Roundup Rodeo BBQ until close to 6 pm. The food was great, the chef was fantastic, the environment was super fun… but it took a WHILE (I think this was likely a combination of it being opening weekend and trying to iron out the details, and the allergy-safe prep taking extra time.) And when we were done, we had to get a whole new outfit for the toddler, who was an absolute mess. Of course, this was the only day we forgot to pack a spare outfit for him, so while the kids and I stayed sitting outside the restaurant my wife ran to one of the stores at the front of the park and bought him something to change into. The big kids spent the time chatting with an awesome cast member about Percy Jackson and Minecraft.

Back to Batuu

Once we had him cleaned up, we headed back to Galaxy’s Edge for our Smuggler’s Run DAS return. Since my wife hadn’t been able to get on Rise of the Resistance, I let her go first. The middle kid went with her. While the other kids and I waited, one of those signature Florida rain storms (the downpours that come on fast out of nowhere) kicked off, and we took cover under an overhang with dozens of other visitors.

It was still storming when they came out. The oldest kid and I covered up as best we could and walked, as quickly as possible, over to the entrance for the ride. We got paired up with a couple kids, and my daughter was so excited to be pilot. I personally was hoping to avoid the hardest role to succeed at, but the cast member “encouraged” me to take the other pilot seat, because 1) we needed two pilots and 2) I was the grown up and probably our best shot at completing the mission. My wife had warned me that the seats on the ride might be an issue for my hips, so I was apprehensive boarding the Falcon, but once I sat down I had zero problems getting buckled in. The ride itself is a cross between a motion simulator and a video game. You really do take damage from hitting things, and my daughter and I were… not the greatest pilots. There was a lot of yelling directions back and forth: “Pull up! Pull up!” “Turn left… No, the other left!” However, even with some spectacularly bad scores, the crew was able to finish the mission. On the way out of Galaxy’s Edge, my wife stopped for some blue milk at the milk stand, and my co-pilot and I took some photos with lightsabers. And as we paused next to the droid depot for another photo, Vi Moradi walked by, warning us not to trust anything the droids say.

At this point, it was nearly 8:00 p.m. and the park was closing at 9:30. Originally, I had the goal of doing Slinky Dog Dash after finishing up in Batuu, but the downpour led to the ride being shut down, and it still wasn’t open when we were done, even though the rain had cleared. We decided to hit Star Tours next, one of the few rides the middle kid had remembered from when he was little. There really wasn’t much of a standby queue so we skipped bothering with DAS, but with my rollator, I had to use the Lightning Lane entrance anyway.

Star Tours – The Adventures Continue

Now here’s the deal with Star Tours: smaller mobility devices fit through the front row, and you just wheel your device across and out the exit door before taking your seat. My rollator fit, but just BARELY. I took the far seat in the front row, but I had the worst time getting the belt to click. The seat dividers her partially obstruct the buckles, and it’s pretty difficult with wider hips. The ride itself was okay, but rougher than I remembered and I had to brace myself. Getting out of the seat was even harder for me than fastening the seatbelt, though. Guests were already loading before I managed to get it to unclick – the cast member was coming back to help me because the angle for me to reach the buckle was just not working, but I got it at the last minute.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

I had hoped to catch Fantasmic! that night, but there was no way we were making the first showing. The park was pretty packed that day, and all the school groups were heading to the line. We decided to check out Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway instead. I was able to bring my rollator all the way in. There are some smoke effects when you first enter, in the room where the short is playing (before you enter the movie). We waited off to the side, in a separate room with a car that can load independent of the rest of the train. (This was a cool feature, similar to the accessible loading area in Haunted Mansion, and one I’d like to see more rides offer). However, as I was able to load and unload here, we just went in the back of the last train car in the standard loading area. This ride was pretty wild. Lots of spinning and directional changes. The toddler loved it. The middle kid raves about the “tornado room”. I thought it was a lot of fun, but a quick word of warning – it is SO easy to get dizzy in here. Theres one scene that has a waterfall or underwater type effect, and the ride vehicle rolls right into the screens… it’s very immersive and it took me a couple minutes to recover after we got off. Nothing too bad, just needed to get my balance back.

Movie Magic and the Hotel

As we were coming out of the ride, the Disney Movie Magic projection show was starting, and we decided to sit and watch before heading out. We were way up at the front, so it wasn’t the best view, but it was still pretty neat. Everyone was getting tired, and while I still wanted to see Fantasmic! I was outvoted and we made our way through the crowds to the front of the park. Disney’s Hollywood Studios wasn’t closed yet, and there was still another couple nighttime shows to go, so it wasn’t too bad getting out, BUT the school groups were gathering around the Skyliner station, so it was a little tricky to get through. We sat for a few minutes under the Skyliner, then headed back to the bus.

Back at All-Star Movies, we stopped at the food court for the kids and my wife to get a bite to eat before they closed for the night. I wasn’t hungry, just tired, so I sat at the table with the toddler while the others got the food. Around 11:30 we made it back to our room to a big surprise: not only had the Goofy hat been repaired… a Goofy plush was sitting with it on the bed. We told our toddler that it seemed that Goofy knew it was his birthday trip and left him a present. He snuggled that plush until he fell asleep.