Let the Disney magic begin! On Monday, June 28, we left the crummy Residence Inn and took a Lyft to Disney’s Beach Club Resort. We set an alarm to get us up at 6 am so we could leave the hotel by 6:45. That was not a lot of sleep, but we all believe in getting to the parks before they open, so everyone was in agreement.
Getting up and going went well. We checked out of the hotel and were just getting into our Lyft at 7 am. That was a very important moment, because that was when boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance were available.
Rise of the Resistance is the newest Star Wars ride at Disney World. It’s in the Galaxy’s Edge part of the park, which is basically like being in a whole different planet. I can’t describe how cool it is to walk under a big overpass and enter into Galaxy’s Edge. Everything looks like our idea of outer space. And you can’t see any of the rest of the park from inside Galaxy’s Edge.
I’ll tell more about Rise of the Resistance later, but when we rode it when we were at Disney World for Ellie’s 16th birthday, I could not wait to take Andrew and Madeline on it. The ride is so popular they don’t use a line system. Instead, you use your phone and the My Disney Experience App to get a boarding pass. When your boarding group is called you go to the ride, and then you stand in line for about a half an hour. It beats standing in line for four hours! Boarding passes are made available at 7 am, and again at 1 pm. When we were there in December 2019 you had to be inside Hollywood Studios to get a boarding pass. And there were hundreds and hundreds of people there trying to do just that. The staff was overwhelmed, the park wifi was overwhelmed, and it was just unpleasant. Now, you just have to have a Hollywood Studios park reservation, and you can get a boarding pass from anywhere at 7 am. You still have to be in the park at 1 pm to get boarding passed then, though. Passes are gone in less than a minute, so that 7 am time was really important.
While Andy made sure our luggage was all loaded into the Lyft, Ellie and I got onto our apps to try for boarding passes. Ellie got in first, but even though we had made sure all five of us were connected to Ellie, the app would only let her make reservations for her, Francesca, Andrew, and me. Fortunately, I was in moments later and was able to get passes for all five of us. Boarding group 55! The estimate put us riding around lunchtime, which was just great with us.
Traffic was not bad on the ride to the resort, and leaving our luggage with bell services went very quickly. The girls were hungry, so we took the time to grab Mickey waffles at the resort quick-service restaurant before walking to Hollywood Studios. The walk was hot, but not too bad.
We arrived at the park around 8:20, which was pretty close to my 8 am goal. The park was not yet open, even for resort guests, but we were able to get about halfway back to Galaxy’s Edge before we encountered a group standing behind a rope manned by Disney employees. We took the opportunity to put on sunscreen, and after about ten minutes the group started moving. Slowly. The park employees accompanied us all the way back to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which had to be at least 150 yards. I assume that was to keep everyone from stampeding and trampling one another. The crowd seemed to grow around us, but we still walked right in to Smuggler’s Run with practically no wait, which was amazing. The big girls and I had waited at least 90 minutes for it in December 2019, even though we were at the park at rope drop then, too.
Smuggler’s Run would not be an exciting ride, except for the fact that you’re inside the Millennium Falcon. So we all loved it. Our plan was to check out Slinky Dog Dash next. Only Francesca had been on it before, and although I’m sure it’s not the most exciting coaster, I’d like to ride it sometime. But the wait was 110 minutes, and none of us wanted to ride it that badly. We ended up walking to the opposite end of the park so the girls could ride the Hollywood Tower of Terror. That’s a ride I don’t ever feel like riding, and Andy was not excited about it either, so we sat in the shade and the did a little shopping while the girls rode. Next we all rode the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster together. I like that ride, but I will admit the little pre-ride video story is a bit forced, and Aerosmith are not really very good actors. Unfortunately, Andy got something in his eye during the ride, and it continued to bother him for several hours after, so it was definitely not his favorite.
By this time it was midday, and raining a bit, and we were all hungry, so we headed to a quick service restaurant called Backlot Express. When we got there we discovered that you were required to order on the app, and you were only allowed to enter when the app notified you your order was ready. That was a little inconvenient, but I appreciated that they were saving seats for people who were actually eating. We ordered and sat in the shade while we waited (the rain had already stopped). At one point the music got really loud, and soon thereafter a small parade of Pixar characters came by.
I’d read about these COVID-era parades. Instead of having one big long parade at a set time, for which people line up for hours in advance, they have a series of smaller, unannounced parades with just a few key characters. I really liked them. This one had Mr. Incredible & Elastigirl, Edna Mode, Sully, the toy soldiers from Toy Story, Jesse, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear. Some were walking and some were riding in slow-moving cars. There were handlers walking several yards out from the characters/cars, to keep people back. It was a nice way to see a bunch of characters without having to stand in line. That said, the pictures when you’re actually standing next to a character are much better.
Lunch was passable, and as we were cleaning up we got the alert that our boarding group could enter Rise of the Resistance! We probably stood in line about half an hour, which was fine because every different room in the line had cool things to look at. Eventually, we entered a room where the “ride” began.
I put the word ride in quotes in that previous sentence because it’s an experience that’s hard to describe. And I don’t want to give too much away, because I believe it’s better to experience it without knowing what’s coming. So I’ll just include Disney’s description: “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a massive attraction with multiple ride systems that is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced at Walt Disney World Resort… or anywhere else in the galaxy!”
We were about halfway through Rise of the Resistance when — everything stopped. Our conveyance stopped, and a voice came on saying there was a disturbance in the force, but hold tight. We couldn’t have gone anywhere if we wanted to, because our seatbelts were locked. So the announcement was really just to make us feel better. We waited and waited and waited. We noticed Finn was standing pretty close to us, ready to take out any stormtroopers, so that was reassuring. The lights came on. More announcements, more waiting. Eventually, they announced that they were going to come get us and walk us off the ride, which they did. It was really neat walking through and getting to look at all the detail that you normally pass by too fast to appreciate. Unfortunately, they asked us to keep our phones put away, so no pictures of the cool details. When we got to the exit they did a little thing to our Magic Bands so that we could return to the ride any time later that day that we wanted!
We were near Toy Story Land, but the Slinky Dog wait was still too long. Andy and I decided to wait for Toy Story Mania, one of our favorite rides, but the girls didn’t want to stand in the sun for an hour, so they went and did their own thing. I am really terrible at the shooting part of Toy Story Mania, but I don’t care and have a lot of fun. Andy’s pretty good, and he really likes it too. I wonder if it will ever get to the point where the line is not an hour long all day.
Whenever I’m at Hollywood Studios I have to see the Muppets 4D show. It’s kind of silly, and probably a bit too long, but I love the Muppets and always see it. Andy and I were in the waiting room for that when the girls texted to say that Rise of the Resistance was operating again, and they wanted to go. We asked them to wait for us and headed there as soon as the Muppets show finished.
This time we got to go through a special “recovery” line for Rise of the Resistance, which skipped all the cool rooms and got us to the start in just a couple minutes. We were able to experience the entire ride this time, and everyone loved it. At that point Ellie and Francesca were done with the heat and the crowds and wanted to go back to the hotel and swim. Andy and Madeline had reservations at Oga’s Cantina a couple of hours from then, so we didn’t have time to go the hotel and come back. We decided to go straight to Oga’s and see if they could fit us in immediately.
The big girls and I had gone to Oga’s Cantina on Ellie’s birthday trip. I loved it then, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t. I really wanted Andy and Madeline to see it, but getting reservations was hard. It was one of the first things I tried at 6:00 am on the sixtieth day before our trip, and I literally checked every day (sometimes more than once per day) on days 59 through 0. I was eventually able to get a reservation for two people, but never more. Since Andy & Madeline had never been there, I put the reservation in their names.
Disney has exceptional service, but the people at Oga’s went above and beyond even what I’ve come to expect from Disney. First, we showed up about two hours early for the reservation, and they checked us in without blinking an eye. When they asked to confirm that the reservation was for two people, and we told them that it was but if they had room for three it would make us very happy, they said no problem. They took us in and put us at a standing table, which made Madeline start crying. She was so tired from the crazy week of dance competition, and from only getting about six hours of sleep the night before, and from walking around in the heat all day. And apparently, standing while consuming a space beverage was the final straw, a thing she just couldn’t bear. I asked a restaurant worker if we could switch to a sitting table, and she said we had to talk to the hosts at the entrance. Andy went to ask, then came back and said we could do that but we had to go back outside and wait. In about a single minute, they’d come up with a plan to get us seated at a booth. I was really grateful and impressed. The service inside Oga’s was exceptional as well. Madeline didn’t like her blue milk, but I liked my White Wampa Ale, and the experience was fun.
I don’t exactly remember why, but at that point Madeline and I decided to head back to the hotel, while Andy stayed at the park for a bit longer. I think maybe he wanted another drink and Madeline didn’t want to wait. Anyway, as Madeline and I headed out, we saw another impromptu parade. This one had Chip & Dale, Minnie, Pluto, and Mickey.
As we were leaving the park I was dreading the walk back to the Beach Club, until I realized we could take the Disney Skyliner to the International Entrance of Epcot. We did that, and it took a really long time, because you have to go way out of the way, but it was cool in there, and we sat with a family who was nice, so it went quickly.
When we got to the room (the big girls had our luggage brought up) I unpacked quickly, but Madeline went into chill mode. I wanted to go to the pool, but she took a really long time unpacking. By the time she finished Andy was back. Earlier that day I discovered I’d lost one of the earrings that I bought at Velocicoaster. While he was at Hollywood Studios, he bought me a new pair of earrings to replace those. So sweet! Madeline and I eventually made it to the pool, but we only were able to stay about ten minutes before it was time to leave and get ready for dinner. It’s a shame, because the Beach Club pool (shared with Yacht Club) is really nice.
Monday was the only day I made dinner reservations outside of a park. Hollywood Studios doesn’t have that many great options, and the ones they do have fill up fast. Instead of reservations at the park, I made a reservation at Trattoria al Forno, an Italian restaurant on the Boardwalk that the big girls and I had loved on our last trip.
The Boardwalk is an area that I didn’t visit until my fourth or fifth Disney trip. But it is now a favorite, and we’ll probably get back there every trip. It’s modeled after an east coast boardwalk, is about a quarter mile long, and has some restaurants, stores, and games. I’ve heard there are street performers, but I’ve never seen any there. The Boardwalk is between Epcot and Hollywood Studios, so it would be easy to stop there when you’re at one of those parks. The Boardwalk is also right across the lake from the Beach Club Resort, so it was really convenient for us to visit this trip. We walked over as the sun set, so the view was really pretty.
Trattoria was as good as I remembered. Our server was amazing, we ate an enormous amount of bread, and my lasagna was delicious! When we left the restaurant the sun had set, and the Boardwalk was all lit up and beautiful. The only disappointment of the day came when we realized the Boardwalk funnel cake stand, which we’d passed on the way to the park in the morning and planned to visit for dessert, was temporarily closed due to COVID. Still, it was a near-perfect day.
We went to bed pretty quickly after we returned to our resort, but I did take a minute to snap a picture out the balcony of our room.
Disney magic is real.
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