January 11th
 

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January 11th, 2020            

Tara, Drew, Jayden, and I decided to make use of our renewed annual passes today, partially to spend time together at the park and partially to try to chase down a new Millennium Falcon popcorn bucket. Because of that bucket, our first stop was at Disney Springs, where we had read it was available. It took us a bit of wandering, but we managed to snag it for our collection!

Stop number two was at Disney's Hollywood Studios, as the kids prefer the thrill rides here over most of those at the other parks. Unfortunately, due to the lateness of our planned trip, we weren't able to secure too many exciting FastPass+'s for the rides that they really wanted. We did get a chance to grab one for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. Our other passes were for For the First Time in Forever: A "Frozen" Sing-Along Celebration and the Fantasmic! show at the end of the night.

We got to the park with some time to kill before our first FastPass+ time slot, so we headed over towards Echo Lake to ride Star Tours - The Adventures Continue. This turned out to be a good choice, as we were among the early riders who got to experience an updated ride, one that was tied closely to the new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie. Drew thought that this may have been one of our best experiences on this ride.

Our next stop was near by, where we went to see the For the First Time in Forever: A "Frozen" Sing-Along Celebration show. I had seen this show last year with Samantha, but neither Tara, Drew, or Jay had seen it yet. Since I thought it was a worthwhile watch, we gave it a shot today. Though it wasn't Drew's favorite, they all enjoyed themselves.

Our next FastPass+ was for the the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith ride. Since we had a little time to kill before our time allowed us to get on, we made a quick pit stop near the Sunset Ranch Market to eat our pre-packed lunch. After eating it was time to take our turn on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster limos. We had a blast!

Since we were nearby, we decided to view the Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage show. It had been years since either Tara or I had seen the Beauty and the Beast show, and we had decided to try new things today, so this was a good choice for us as none of the kids had seen it yet. Although I am certain that things have changed since Tara & I saw it, none of us were overly wowed by the show. I'm not 100% sure why this was, but the show could use some updates.

From here we trekked across the park to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Our mission here was Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which we managed to catch when the stand-by line wasn't too long. Tara and Jay got the role of pilots today, while Drew and I were gunners. As we have each time we have been on this ride, we enjoyed our experience immensely.

To continue our new things experience we stopped at Walt Disney Presents, which consists of the Walt Disney Presents Gallery and Exhibits and the Walt Disney Theater, where we saw the "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream" movie. The gallery and exhibits portion consists of tidbits of artifacts from throughout Walt Disney's life. Once we made our way through the exhibit, we went into the theater to see a movie about Walt Disney's life. Since we were so close, we also decided to give the Voyage of The Little Mermaid show a shot. Sam and I had also seen this during our earlier visit, but none of the others had seen it yet. Well... maybe Tara did, as I think we too saw this show many years ago on an earlier visit. Again, the show was pretty enjoyable, but may be due for some updates (of course, this is just my opinion).

Our last stop of the night was for our final FastPass+, which was for the Fantasmic! show. This was another show that Sam and I saw, but nobody else had seen yet. I was glad that I was able to share this opportunity with the rest of the family. We all enjoyed this show as well, but we were definitely tired, so it was time for us to call it a day. Until next time!

 


Disney's Hollywood Studios


Although Samantha and I had seen For the First Time in Forever: A "Frozen" Sing-Along Celebration before...

...it was the first time for Tara, Drew, and Jayden...

...and all three of them enjoyed themselves!

We all did the Steven "my mouth be closed" pose while on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.

Our next stop was the Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage show...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We headed off to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge for a ride on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

The cast members along the walkway commented about these two "pod racers" that were entering Galaxy's Edge!

Chewbacca was wondering around Batuu today.

Drew got approached by a Stormtrooper while enjoying some Sprees...

...and got a lecture about his time on Batuu.

Although I am not sure, there is some speculation that this black spot is a "Hidden Mickey" style depiction of Peter Pan.

A look at the spires on Batuu.

The view down Sunset Boulevard towards The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror...

...and back towards Hollywood Boulevard.

The moon was out in full force while waiting for the Fantasmic! show to begin.

Mickey Mouse making his entrance during Fantasmic!

Below are some of my favorite photos from the Fantansmic! show...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

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