Disney World May 2021 - Day Three
Our last park day started with a pressured filled morning. Today was our Hollywood Studios morning. This meant getting up to get a Rise of the Resistance boarding group at 7 am. We also had breakfast reservations at 9 am at Hollywood and Vine. While the breakfast was good, I do kind of wished I had not booked it. Then we would not have been in as much of a rush to get to the park. But such is life I suppose.
So we set our alarms for 6 am, I believe. Our goal was to try to get a boarding group from our rooms, then meet up with my parents in line for the Skyliner almost immediately after. By a miracle, Brad got us boarding group 41. The return time was lining up with our lunch reservation, but we knew it might would change. So we quickly got ready and headed to meet my parents. Melody was exhausted, and we were slow moving. But my parents already got in line just as soon as we got the boarding group. As we were walking to meet them, the line started moving and we freaked out, ha. We probably left our room at 7:25, and we were on the Skyliner by 7:45. It was intense. We were in line at Hollywood Studios at 8:15 am. They still had not opened the park yet, but we knew it would be at any minute.
They opened about 10 minutes later. So we were really unsure of what to do. We had about 30 minutes before our breakfast reservation. We thought about Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, but I was scared the line was already too backed up for us to finish in time. So we first let Melody shop. She had some graduation and early birthday money to spend, and she hadn’t had the opportunity to shop yet.
Then we walked over to the Animation Courtyard. We wanted to see if the Disney Jr. store was open (it wasn’t), then we saw all the sets for the Disney Jr. characters, and we let Melody grab some pictures in front of them. She was really hesitant for some reason.
We checked in for our breakfast reservation at 8:40, and we were inside and seated within 10 minutes. The characters still freaked Melody out, so I am glad they were still socially distant, ha.
After breakfast we headed to Toy Story Land. First up was Toy Story Mania. The wait was only 25 minutes (posted at 35). Then Brad went to get coffee and talk with Guest Services about our Rise boarding group being at the same time as lunch, and the rest of us road Alien Swirling Saucers. We waited about 30 minutes for it. We actually sort of road it twice. After about 15 seconds the first time, the ride stopped. We still aren’t totally sure why. But we all got off and got on the other side and rode it then.
Brad met back up with us, and we were pretty close to our boarding group. So we headed over to Galaxy’s Edge and first got some blue milk. We finally stumbled across some shade, and we drank it while Melody napped again. Our boarding group was called at 11:40, and we headed that way. I tried to keep what pictures I posted below fairly spoiler free, but I did include a few. So keep scrolling if you want to remain spoiler free. I plan to do a post all about our thoughts on Rise, but Brad and I really enjoyed it. Melody was terrified by it, and my parents were meh about it. While the ride was a good one, as non-Star Wars fans, they would not go through the same effort again to ride it. But Brad loved it. It was such an experience, and I know we missed so many things because so much happens so quickly. Overall we from when we got in line until we got off the ride, it was 45 minutes long. We may have waited 20 minute before the “experience” really started, but we were moving most of the time, and there was a lot to take in even while in line.
We made it to our lunch reservation at Hollywood Brown Derby around 1. Our original reservation was at 11:45. Brad actually didn’t feel great with the answer guest services gave (they said eat lunch then do ride), so he went and talked with the Brown Derby folks. They said the opposite. They said ride the ride because anything could happen. If our group gets called go. They said they will still fit us in when we return. And they did! I am also glad we had the later lunch since we had a larger breakfast. My dad was exhausted (I tend to do that to people). I kept it light and just got the Cobb Salad. It was delicious as always.
At this point it was around 1:30 pm. We had dinner reservation at Epcot at 5:05. We knew if we all stuck together, we could not all do everything we wanted to do before leaving Hollywood Studios. So my parents went and rode Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Brad then received a text that he could now go shopping at Galaxy’s Edge which was something he really wanted to do. So he did that. So Melody and I decided to wait in line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I was clueless going in, and it was a 50 minute wait. I even tried to get her to back out and shop, but she wanted to wait. She was such a trooper and my Melody then. She waited without complaint and talked with me so much. She really is such a different person one on one with me. In the end, it really was about a 50 minute wait. But we made friends with those around us, and the line did constantly moved. And to be honest, it was our favorite ride of the day. She loved it, and it was so cute. Nothing like I expected. I felt really bad no one else got to experience it but us.
When we finished, Brad was still shopping, so I took Melody in a few more stores before she finally picked out some figures she wanted. We caught one last cavalcade on our way out. This time it was Disney Jr. characters.
We left Hollywood Studios around 3:30 or so. Since we had a few bags of souvenirs and we were taking the Skyliner anyways, we took our bags back to the room. This is wear staying at Pop came in handy. It was super convenient and quick to do. We made it to Epcot within an hour even after stopping.
We did some shopping in Japan before heading to dinner. It was sad seeing so few International Castmembers. It really isn’t the same when you are shopping for sure. We had dinner at Via Napoli. It was delicious as always. Unlike Chefs de France, it was just Americans working. They were all really nice though, and we had a great dinner.
We finished up around 6:15 and headed to Test Track. It was really the only ride left that we wanted to accomplish. We took some selfies along the way.
Test Track was only about a 25 minute wait. Depending on when you ask, Melody will usually say this was her favorite ride of her new ones this trip. I think she loved going so fast. She wanted to ride it again, but the wait was up to 45 minutes, and I just didn’t want to do that.
We did some shopping at MouseGears next. It is so small and depressing honestly. I did get me a new cute pillow though. We were at another crossroads here. After shopping, Melody wanted to ride more rides, specifically Spaceship Earth. My parents were pretty worn out though. So my parents headed back to the room while we headed up front to ride Spaceship Earth. Once finished we stumbled upon a photographer and had some more pictures made. I would have loved these more if the construction walls were not in it, but they were still so cute.
Then we decided to walk on Nemo and Living with the Land one last time.
We did some shopping on the way out. I really loved this bowl, but I knew it would be hard to get home :(
We literally closed out the park. I opened some glow sticks for Melody, and she had a ball waving them around. We also saw a wedding processional. Brad waved Melody’s bubble wand so they had bubbles to walk through.
We knew the lines were already long for the Skyliner, so we found a bench and just sat for about 10 minutes to get a few last minutes at our favorite park. It was the perfect way to end the trip for sure (tomorrow turns out rough, stay tune!).
We once again wait about 30 minutes or so to get on the Skyliner back to Pop.
Overall it was a great last day. I do wish we had cancelled (or not booked) Hollywood and Vine. We could have either slept in after our boarding group, or accomplished more that morning so that our waits were not so long. But Melody and I had our special moment together on our ride, and the day was still a lot of fun.
