I’m back today with a round up of what we did during our Hollywood Studios day at Walt Disney World! There are quite a few attractions at Hollywood Studios that had us very excited. We obviously wanted to visit Toy Story Playland and Galaxy’s Edge. The entire park is so cool and has a retro old-Hollywood vibe that I was generally very excited to see; however, we spent most of our time in Galaxy’s Edge.
We are major Star Wars fans, so we definitely wanted to ride Rise of the Resistance. In case you’ve never heard of Rise of the Resistance, it’s one of the two major rides in Galaxy’s Edge. There is only one way you can ride it, and that is via a Boarding Pass in the Disney World app. The moment the park opens at 8 am, the boarding passes are available in the app and you have the opportunity to claim yours. They are very hard to get, and they are gone in a matter of a minute or two. We were lucky enough to snag boarding passes for our family. Be aware, you have to get to the park early and be scanned in to even be able to get the passes.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios at about 7 am and then made our way to Toy Story Land. We decided to rope drop Toy Story Land, because we wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash (and we didn’t have a Fast Pass for it). When the park opened at 8, we got our boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance and made our way to the Slinky Dog Dash line. The line wasn’t bad at all first thing in the morning. Granted, it is still a very long line. But, it was our first time ever in Hollywood Studios so we had a lot to look at and talk about while we were waiting.
Slinky Dog Dash was so much fun. I have to say, I am not really into rides at all. I do not go on fair rides and amusement parks with huge roller coasters are really not my thing. However, Disney rides are more my speed. I love that it’s not just a ride, because there’s also meaning or a story behind each one. After Slinky Dog Dash, we got a little breakfast at Woody’s Lunchbox. Tip: mobile order when you can. It’s so much easier!! We hung out in Toy Story Playland until our Hollywood Tower of Terror fast pass.
To be completely honest, I was pretty scared of Hollywood Tower of Terror. Like, really scared. I don’t like drops, and I don’t like that it the drops on this particular ride are random. But, after actually riding it, I can honestly say I would ride it again. By the time we were done with Tower of Terror, it was actually starting to get hot.
We thought about waiting in line for Rocking Roller Coaster … in fact, now that I think about it, we did wait in line. However, while we were waiting in line for Rocking Roller Coaster we got a notification for our Rise of Resistance boarding passes. When you get the notification for your boarding pass group, you have two hours to get into the line. We stepped out of line for Rocking Roller Coaster and booked it over to Rise of the Resistance to ask how long the ride was. See, we also had lunch reservations at Hollywood & Vine that we were trying to squeeze in between lines. By the time we got to Rise of the Resistance and found out we’d be in the line about 45 minutes to an hour, it was cutting it close for our lunch reservations.
And, guys, we had a character lunch reservation that we were not going to miss. We let the cast member know that we had a lunch reservation, and he said no problem. We had more than enough time to go get lunch and then back to Rise of the Resistance. We made it over to Hollywood & Vine for our lunch.
If you have a chance to eat at Hollywood & Vine, I would highly recommend it. It is a character meal, but apparently the characters rotate. We were hoping for the Disney Jr. characters to be there, but it was the classic four with Mickey Mouse at the front door with a Photo Pass photographer. The food was so good! The desserts were probably the most memorably part for me, but it was honestly all so good.
After lunch, we rode Rise of the Resistance, which is so good. It was 100% worth the early wake up time. Even if you’re not a fan of Star Wars, the ride is a lot of fun. After rise of the Resistance, we hung out in Galaxy’s Edge and shopped, ate some snacks, and looked at everything. It was really cool. We tried blue milk, saw Storm Troopers, and even spotted Rey and Chewbacca. Disney did an amazing job with Galaxy’s Edge!
A few of us had appointments to either make light sabers or droids, so the rest of us just hung around for a bit in Galaxy’s Edge. We were actually pretty tired from walking, so we sat down to eat some popcorn and snacks. It was nice to people watch for a little and take in all the sights and details of Galaxy’s Edge.
After the light saber and droids were made, we stood in line for Smuggler’s Run. We had dinner reservations at Hollywood Brown Derby that we bumped back a little to allow for the wait time for Smuggler’s Run. I mean, we wait for at least an hour and a half. We were all a little tired at that point, but the line for Smuggler’s Run is actually pretty cool. It basically looks like you’re in a smuggler’s base in a mountain.
I do have to say, the wait for Smuggler’s Run was worth it and I would’ve waited to ride it again, but we had dinner reservations to get to. Ironically enough, our dinner reservations didn’t end up going as planned. I didn’t realize that Hollywood Brown Derby costs two table service credits (I could get into all the details of the dining plan, but that would honestly warrant an entire post all on its own), we cancelled our reservations and decided to eat at the ABC Commissary.
If you’re looking for a quiet place to sit and eat, the ABC Commissary is really great for that. Honestly, the food wasn’t amazing and we were all very tired at that point. Maybe the lunch menu is better and maybe I just couldn’t eat what I wanted, but I was not impressed. The next morning was the Princess Half Marathon, so I was trying to eat as light as possible while, you know, also eating enough to stay full. After we were done eating, we headed out to the buses and went back to the resort.
My next post in the Disney World series will be the Princess Half Marathon & Epcot Day!
Check out the other days of our trip:
Days 4 & 5: Magic Kingdom & ‘Ohana
Rebecca has been writing about style, beauty, and lifestyle topics since 2011. Thank you so much for reading this post! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. I love hearing from you!
