Travelogue day whatever, we visited a quaint park by the name of ‘MGM Studi…’ checks notes ‘Hollywood Studios’, nearly the whole heehaw gang of us, 25 some people, which, is not per se, gigantic by ‘family trip to Disney’ standards but it’s still pretty large…
Since my last visit to this movie making paradise, much has changed, and, much has stayed the same… I started my day with not one but two solo rider trips through Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, one of which was literally solo (my best score…) because when I got to the door, that wings queue was empty and they just let get on by myself…. And friends, I am in love with this ride, it may not be as big or flashy as Rise or as intense as others but anyone who knows me I’m mildly obsessed with the Falcon, and being in the cockpit and getting to pull the hyperspace levers? 😻 and solo riding it is actually really fun! I like getting to get a brief moment with some random group of strangers and just having a good time on the ride!
Then the family started to arrive after regular park hours opened and most of us got in line for Rise of the Resistance, and reader, holy mother forking shirtballs, imagineer’s have their game faces on lately for the designs, between these two and Wonders of Xandar I just want to ride and ride! (But queue times…)… from there our group, descended en masse on Muppet Vision 3D, because we have many young and young at hearts in the crowd, we managed to get a family photo together of all but one (brother had wandered off to see some thief of antiquities try to avoid getting run over by a ball…) The group managed to hang together in to Star Tours, and I’m sure to the annoyance of many, we all got in the same car, aunt with her scooter and all, and one of the younger two in the group was the rebellion member! Gasp!
And there things broke up a fair bit, trying to get 4 people to agree to a plan is bad enough, 25 is unpossible for that size of group, we splintered for lunch and other things, my aunt and I went to see Lightning McQueen, and Beauty and the Beast together, then we had lunch at Sci Fi Dine in Theater and I had a nice meal and a vegan shake which was WONDERFUL! I have thoughts on things I’ve noticed about the allergy process at the parks have changed in the last decade but more on that another night…
We managed to meet back up with my cousin, her wife, their daughter and another of my cousins, and did Midway Mania (that line remains among the most painful line in the parks, lots of standing, but never enough in one place long enough to sit down and rest a bit…), then some of the group wanted to do Rise of the Resistance again, but my feet’s were way too sore so I sat out with mom for a bit, then ultimately convinced her to at least go see the Falcon, and then I did another single rider line with it, it’s fun! And then I convinced her to try it single rider with me because the standby was like 95 and neither of us could do that and she enjoyed it and then about half of us met up and… got in the queue which had dropped to all of 45 minutes, and we had a good time, and that was my day!
I didn’t try the new coaster, I’m sure it’s fun, but the lines were long. Tower of Terror had a huge line and was only half operational, and rocking roller coaster, even the lightning line was out past the entrance by a couple hundred or so people and I’ve ridden both lots, I have fond memories… but… the maintenance issues are real…
Falcon had at least one of its however many bays go down at one point, the family who tried Rise a second time got to the jail cell and then it broke and they had to be evacuated from the ride :/
It was a good day, as good a day as we could have though, and new memories were made, I still and will always miss my uncle though. In spite of everything else about this trip, I’m glad I came, even if writing this made me cry :)