Disney – day 2 Hollywood studios

At least this morning, we didn’t have a two-hour drive in the dark to get to the park.

The park didn’t open until ten, so we stayed in bed a bit and recovered from day one. We did try to get in the digital queue for arise of the Resistance, but it was already booked at seven when it opened up.

Once in the park, we had a bite to eat and some coffee, then we made our way to Galaxy’s Edge. In order to get there, you have to walk through a short tunnel and it’s akin to being transported to a galaxy far, far away.

Something that amazes me is the architecture and the art of the place. This part of the park is only two years old at most, but it looks weathered like it’s been there a long time.

We met Chewbacca on our way to Smuggler’s Run and got in line for the most amazing event of the day (up to that point). Flying The Milennium Falcon.

Just seeing this thing in real life was a huge deal for me. I swear I’ve never been so happy to wear a mask so people couldn’t see me ugly-crying. The line was long, but it was so worth it. We also used the Disney Play app to keep ourselves occupied while we waited. It allowed us to play games, scanning crates of cargo, intercepting transmissions from both the First Order and The Resistance, slicing (hacking) into panels and droids around the park, and taking on jobs for either side.

The point where we got inside and could see the interior of the ship was a huge deal for me. Up to that point it had only existed in my imagination and in movies. It came to life in that instance and I was inside of it. I still get chills just thinking about it.

I was one pilot (yaw, boost, and brakes), Sarah was the other pilot (pitch and hyperdrive), and Adrianne was our gunner. I think she did the best out of al three of us blasting away at any time fighters that came into view. We managed to sneak one canister of coaxial away from the resistance for our boss, Hondo Ohnaka. There was a lot of damage to the ship afterwards, but she sure is one of the fastest hunks of junk in the galaxy and a blast to co-pilot.

Afterwards, we went and drank some blue milk which was really good actually. Tooled around with some Storm Troopers that decided to try and enforce their imperial laws on us.

They got even when we were on a rebel shuttle off of Batuu and got captured by a star destroyer in orbit. Rise of the Resistance was more incredible than Smuggler’s Run. You have to get on a digital queue for this and everyone wants on this ride. At 1pm, the second queue opened up and Adrianne, best of wives and best of women, got us in while single-handedly blasting down tie fighters from the flight deck of the Millennium Falcon.

If you don’t get on Rise of the Resistance, you haven’t lived yet.

That ride is so immersive and meta, none of us were sure what planet we were on when we landed. I’m not joking. all three of us were gobsmacked. 😶 The Magic of that experience still has me pondering. The cast members were super into their roles. I don’t have the words. Just do it.

We took a break after that, grabbing some drinks and a shady bench. The we moseyed over to Star Tours which has been updated; we were all impressed.

Then, over to Tower of Terror for a quick drop and a short ride. I swear that used to be longer and you could hear people screaming al the way in the parking lot. was disappointed in how fast the shuffled us through our brush with The Twilight Zone.

We grabbed some food afterwards and went on Rock and Rollercoaster. I’m super proud of Adrianne who got on even though she hates coasters. I didn’t like that ride last time, but the volume was down a bit and it was a great ride. I may have psyched myself up for it a bit more that I believe helped.

After that, we went back to Batuu for our reservations with Industrial Automaton, where Sarah and I built customized droids. Well, I built an R2D2 replica and Sarah built an Empire inspired BB unit.

One final stop at a shop before the park closed and Adrianne bought Mace Windu’s light saber. I had an interesting conversation with the clerk about the best Jedi Knight from the Clone Wars era. my money was on Kurt Fisto, she liked Mace Windu. The decor in the shop was awesome!