*8/8 Update: Our Intentions Were Good, But The Treats Were Better: One Month in Disney (4/21-5/21)

[ddluvsdisney]

5/14 Efficient Touring at Hollywood Studios​

When I was planning our Hollywood Studios day I was faced with a dilemma. I knew we would need to purchase LLMP if we wanted to ride everything but DH usually only rides one of the Lightning Lane rides, MMRR. It seemed like a waste of money to buy LLMP for him for one ride. So, we planned to rope drop Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway during early entry and then use LLMP for the three of us for all the rest.

Good idea on not buying LLMP for your DH.

We got up early and started our morning with pastries from Java with our breakfast vouchers. We shared 2 blueberry muffins.

These were excellent, very fresh and full of blueberries.

We also shared a ham and egg croissant.

This was also pretty good for a quick service breakfast.

I love blueberry muffins and that one looks fantastic!

After our in room breakfast, we walked to Hollywood Studios. It is such a beautiful walk along the waterway.

It is a nice walk!

We arrived at 8:10 for 8:30 early entry and were allowed through the tapstiles right away. We went directly to MMRR to join the line. The line started moving at 8:20 and we were on the ride at 8:38.

I’m not a huge fan of this ride. I really miss the great movie ride. And parts of this ride really make me nauseous

Since it was still early entry time, we headed to Toy Story Mania, another ride that DH sometimes rides without too much motion sickness. We rode with minimal wait. This is DS-26’s favorite ride in Hollywood Studios. All three of them always outscore me.

Love TSM. I don’t even try to beat DH anymore. Haha

We headed next to Rock n Roller Coaster. My sons and I waited in the standby line for only 30 minutes.

Another favorite ride!! I’ll miss Aerosmith! I hope it’s just as good with Muppets.

Having already accomplished more than we expected, it was time for a snack and we had to share another one of our favorites with our sons. We headed to Trolley Car Cafe for the carrot cake whoopie pie.

Our sons loved it as much as we do!

I haven’t had this snack since it was called the carrot cake cookie. I think I’ve mentioned that before. I’m not sure I’ll make it to HS this trip to try it again.

Refueled and ready to go we headed to Muppet Vision 3D for our final goodbye to the show. We’ve always enjoyed this show and were sad to have to say goodbye to it.

I am not sad about losing this show. I never really “got” it. I know I’m in the minority. I’m glad they’re keeping a Muppets theme somewhere else!

After the show, it was finally time for our first lightning lane so the boys and I headed to the Tower of Terror. We waited 13 minutes to ride and had a really cool sequence with multiple short drops.

We both don’t really like ToT so haven’t ridden it since DS24 wanted to go on when he was 4.

We met back up with DH and headed for our sons’ favorite lunch in Hollywood Studios, Ronto Roasters. We ordered four Ronto Wraps: Roasted Pork, Grilled Pork Sausage, Peppercorn Sauce, and Tangy Slaw wrapped in Pita Bread.

These are always even better than I remember them to be. The pork sausage had great flavor, very reminiscent of the linguica sausage that we have in Southeastern Mass. The pita was freshly grilled and the slaw and roasted pork elevated the flavors. These were really good!

This is the second time I’ve heard how good these are recently. I’ve never had them. It does look just like linguica! What does the roasted pork look like. In the picture it looks like just the sausage and slaw.

One of the challenges of dining at Ronto Roasters is the very limited seating. We often end up standing and sharing a small shelf along the wall. This time though I asked the CM when I picked them up if we could sit at Docking Bay 7. She said “of course”. As we headed there, we found a great outdoor seating area between Ronto Roasters and Docking Bay 7. It was so nice to be able to enjoy our Ronto Wraps seated in a booth.

Yeah that’s what’s great about Disney you can eat at just about any QS restaurant. We’ve done something similar before.

After our delicious lunch, our sons said they wanted to get dessert in the big dinosaur so we headed to Dinosaur Gertie’s Ice Cream. We each ordered a cup of soft serve twist.

The CM that served us was an older gentleman who was super friendly and struck up a conversation with DS-28. The soft serve was excellent. It was rich and creamy and so much better than the soft serve we got in the waffle sundae at Marketplace Snacks in Disney Springs.

Ice cream is so good on a hot day or any day!!

At this point, I had a bunch of Lightning Lanes stacked up for the three of us. Since we were just going to be going from ride to ride, DH decided to take the skyliner over to Epcot. It was the first day of Passholder Appreciation Days and he wanted to pick up his Maleficent magnet and check out the passholder lounge in Marrakesh.

I’m sure your DH was happy to take a little field trip instead of sitting and waiting.
Ya know Disney needs to step up on these AP Days. If you’re gonna advertise a longe as something wonderful then make it that way.

While he was off enjoying Epcot, my sons and I used Lightning Lanes for Toy Story Mania, Smugglers Run, MMRR, and RNRC as well as an LLSP for Rise of the Resistance. We were about to use a final LL for Alien Swirling Saucers when DH returned from Epcot. He was happy that he got a Maleficent magnet but he said the passholder lounge was a waste of time. He said it was packed and he had to wait in a long line for lukewarm mint tea, a pin, and two bags of snacks.

He said the mint tea and the trEAT4U nut free mix were gross. It was the first day so hopefully it improved but we never stopped by there again.

Mint tea and nut free snacks!!??? Really!??

Instead of riding Alien Swirling Saucers we opted to get pineapple coconut slushies from the Market.

This really hit the spot on a hot day. We enjoyed our slushes as we explored Toystoryland and Batuu.

Slushes are a close second for ice cream.

Overall it was a great day at Hollywood Studios. It was so much more fun for me to be able to enjoy all the rides with my sons and DH enjoyed his field trip to Epcot (with the exception of the passholder lounge). I had to do a lot of refreshing and checking the MDE app but I was able to get lightning lanes for every ride that we wanted to ride. As much as I dislike the LLMP system, it really is a necessity in Hollywood Studios if you want to ride everything.

We headed out of the park around 5:00 to head to Disney Springs for our dinner ADR.

Up next…dinner at another family favorite restaurant

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Sounded like another great day!!