Day 8 - Tuesday the 10th - Part 1 - Hollywood Studios
After celebrating Pickle's birthday the day before, we decided to tone it down a bit for Tuesday. I had been to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends on Saturday with my parents, but everyone else hadn't visited it yet, so this was the day!
Luckily, we didn't have any transportation issues this time around. Seems like the buses are a lot more dependable than the monorails.
Wow, we arrived about 30 minutes before park opening and the lines were already growing. Surprisingly, it was way more crowded on Tuesday than it was on Saturday for Star Wars Weekends. (I wonder if it was because the further you get into June, the more kids are out of school and summer vacations start to kick in across the country?)
I'm glad that we arrived when we did, because looking back, the line grew behind us really quickly!!!
The photo above was about 5-10 minutes after we got in line.
So, we waited patiently (as possible) and decided to head straight towards Star Tours without stopping.
We weren't first in line, but we were pretty darn close. No waits at all. We walked right in, took our spaces in front of the doors, and within a minute or two, we entered the ride. I don't recall the sequence that we experienced, but I was pretty sure that I had seen all of them before. Still lots of fun, and they chose Buddy to be the Rebel spy.
Years ago, when they first started doing build your own light sabers, Princess and Buddy made their own versions. Pickle decided that she wanted to make one this time around...
She picked purple, of course
Buddy's first one was long lost/broken, so he decided to make a new one.
They were a bit different from the last time around. These ones have a colored blade. The ones we had before, had clear blades and then you picked a "filter" that went over the light bulb that would make the blade the corresponding color. The old ones had lightsaber "power crystals" included that you could add/remove from a special compartment. I'm not sure if I would have preferred the old or new versions, but Buddy didn't even seem to remember a difference and was happy with his new green one
Next up, we had FP+ for Toy Story Midway Mania, so we headed that way next. Since there was still one Star Wars Weekend to go, they still had the various props and decorations out. So we had to stop for a photo opp with the new light sabers.
My parents and the rest of the crew had the same FP+ too, so we all met up outside and entered together. Go team!!!
Hi Cassie and Stephanie!
Hey look... It's OK Pickle, you're seven now!!!
My mom plays a mean game of Toy Story Midway Mania.
And watch out for Duffy, he's a high scorer too!
After Toy Story, we decided to split up from everyone. Buddy and Princess went off to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster and stuff with Huey, Dewey, and Louie (and parents). And then my parents went off to find Denise and Steve's group. A funny story.... Louie (14) has been afraid of roller coasters since he was a kid and would refuse to ride them. It took a lot to get him on 7DMT... but he actually liked it. Huey and Princess had kept on pestering him to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster with them. And Huey offered to give him $25 of his souvenir money to ride it with them. The bribe worked, and he rode it. I don't think he actually "liked" the ride, but it wan't terrifying like he imagined it would be. Haha! From that point on, he joined them for all the scary rides
So, Princess, Stephanie and I weren't sure what to do next. We had a FP+ a little later for the Little Mermaid show, but that wasn't for a while. It was getting close enough to 11, so we decided to stop for lunch next. We aren't big fans of Hollywood Studios counter service, but we've found that Pizza Planet actually isn't too bad. So, we headed that way!
We got there about 15 minutes before they started serving lunch, so we went up stairs to relax and enjoy the AC.
Pickle and I planned to stay upstairs while Stephanie headed down to be first in line
A couple minutes later, we noticed that my parents and Denise's family had showed up too. (Pure coincidence.) So we went down to greet them and see if they all wanted to sit together. (There was no keeping Pickle away from Baby at that point!)
A few minutes later, we had our food and were ready to eat.
Pickle went with the kids cheese pizza meal.
And then Stephanie and I shared a vegetable pizza.
Yum!
So we took our time eating and playing games with Chip and Dale in the arcade. We hadn't gotten to spent a whole lot of time with Denis's group since they were on the kids/naps program, so we were really happy to have lunch with them. Chip and Dale are a lot of fun
After lunch, it was time for us to start heading over towards the Little Mermaid show, so we parted ways with the family yet again...
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The drawings are too cute!
I'm subscribing! 
So he addressed the drawing to Stephanie and then handed it to her. Very cool!
