Saturday, May 4, 2024
Today is Star Wars day. We had plans to be in Hollywood Studios today, but switched to Animal Kingdom when we thought about how many people would want to spend the day in Batuu, the Star Wars outpost in HS. We woke up early and did not leap out of bed. We decided we didn’t have any reason to scurry to the park, so we made genie+ reservations for a couple of hours away and leisurely enjoyed the morning. We caught a safari with no waiting when we got there, since everyone else was focused on Pandora and its ride. The lion was up and greeting us. On our next safari an hour later, he was asleep, but mama elephant had her baby out.
We skipped the premier ride, Flight of Passage, because it has no genie+ pass and we weren’t interested in waiting for anything today. The day was glorious and we enjoyed the animal and the flowers and the other rides. We went to see the Nemo musical and got plucked out before we could even get in line to go down to the front because Keith was wearing his Finding Dory shirt. Yay!
Keith had a yummy raspberry, lime, strawberry bar and then found a pancake sandwich with egg, sausage, cheese, and guava paste. Fun food.
Since we could get a no wait trip on Kali River rapids, we decided to get wet. WET – but we dried quickly. After our lunch at Sa’tuli Canteen , we had ridden everything and decided we really needed to see what was happening with the Star Wars folks.
We could get genie+ reservations in a couple hours, so we went to the hotel and slept for a bit. We got to Hollywood studios at 5pm. It was FULL of people dressed up for the day. There were lots of cute and funny Tshirts about Star Wars, but there were also a LOT of people dressed up completely. We sat and ate our light saber churros and just watched the parade of people walk by. We really appreciate all the effort that many, many people put into their attire.
We were lucky enough to score no wait lines on all the big rides (except Rise of the Resistance – no reservations available there and the line was three hours long. I think a lot of people wanted to take their pictures inside the ride/preshow areas). We had dinner at the commissary – I remembered they had killer steak fries but forgot about the buffalo grilled cheese sandwich. So good. Our last genie+ reservation was for a ride on the Millennium Falcon at 9:30. When we got to Batuu, it was crazy full – and crazy full of people with light sabers. FABULOUS! We got stopped, along with a LOT of other people, because they wouldn’t let any more people down by the Millennium Falcon. We got to show our fast pass reservation and go down the ramp – feeling very much like special people. The crowd by the Falcon was really celebrating – chanting and singing and waving sabers. Such fun to see and hear. The other people in our ride were dressed for the roles.
We hopped over to Toy Story Mania to grab a last ride. There was no line. (I think I know where everyone was.) When we finished our ride, there was no one in line. WHAT?! We asked and they let us stay on for another ride. WHHHOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! Today win at the end of a totally winning day!
And then there was Dole Whip! We walked almost 13 miles – over 31,000 steps. Pretty good for what felt like a leisurely day of watching.
Yay on consecutive rides at Toy Story. I did the same 2 weeks ago on Soarin’. They both have long queues that are great to skip. I made reservations any day I had to for Epcot. That way you can virtual queue for Guardians every day and just hop. It let me do a normal virtual queue at Guardians but also let me virtual queue for the extended hours. So, 2 times in 1 day. Have fun!
Soarin’! What a great time saver to get to go twice. Win! We have Epcot for almost every day – because Guardians is the best!