Disney Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Here’s a detailed run-down of our first family trip to Walt Disney World!
Day 3
Hollywood Studios
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Full disclosure: this post should probably be titled “Day 3: Galaxy’s Edge”, because we spent the majority of our time in a galaxy far, far, away. Lots of Star Wars content ahead!
Josh and I are Star Wars nerds. We were so excited to finally visit Galaxy’s Edge, and we knew this would be a non-negotiable part of our trip. When we first started planning our Disney trip, I decided to introduce the Star Wars universe to the kids so they would have some understanding before arriving at Black Spire Outpost on Batuu (the name of the fictional Star Wars world created for Galaxy’s Edge at the Disney parks).
The kids have become big fans of Star Wars since we introduced it to them, and it made our trip to Galaxy’s Edge even more special getting to experience it together!
Anyway, here’s how our day went:
It started with waking up at 5:30am to a lo-fi cover of “The Mandalorian” theme song and I booked our Genie+ for the day. We got ourselves ready in our Batuu-bounds (outfits meant to blend in with the local Batuuans), then woke the kids up at 6:30 to get ready. We had a quick, small breakfast in our room then headed over to the Skyliner.
At 7:00am I reserved our first Lightning Lane for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. I also chose to book an Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, since it’s one of the few not available on Genie+ and we wanted to guarantee that we got a chance to ride it that day. We got in line for the Skyliner around 7:15 and arrived at Hollywood Studios in time for early entry rope drop. We were in the park at 8:15!
We power-walked as best as we could—if you read about our day at Epcot, you may remember that our stroller broke and we had to keep stopping to fix the wheel—over to Galaxy’s Edge. Since we already had a Lightning Lane for Smuggler’s Run and an Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, we didn’t feel pressured to jump on a ride right away. What I mainly wanted to do was to explore Batuu and take pictures without crowds of people around.
It truly was a surreal experience to immerse in the Star Wars universe, and it was incredible just to walk around and take it all in. We did a loop around Black Spire Outpost, took pictures in front of the Millennium Falcon and Kylo Ren’s ship, and then since the wait time was still less than 25 minutes, we decided to go on Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run.
Ollie was just barely tall enough to ride Smuggler’s Run, so we all got to go on together. Josh and Ivy were our pilots, and Ollie and I were the gunners—except he wasn’t able to reach the controls. Even though he couldn’t contribute to the mission, he was happy just to be along for the ride. Which was a bit bumpy considering one of the pilots was four.
After our first ride, we decided it was time for second breakfast, so we headed over to the Milk Stand. Ivy picked blue and Ollie picked green so we were able to try both flavors; the blue was our collective favorite. Then we went on to Kat Sana’s Kettle for a Black Caf cold brew, the only coffee option available at Galaxy’s Edge, and then stopped at Ronto Roasters to get a Ronto Wrap and Rising Moons overnight oats.
We hung out at the open air tables in Ronto Roasters while we ate, and the food was excellent. It was definitely a strong start to the morning. After we enjoyed our leisurely second breakfast, we wandered over to the entrance to the marketplace to see if we could meet the Mandalorian.
One of the perks about going all out on our outfits: Ivy was the center of attention. The Mandalorian came right over to us and Ivy was thrilled to meet Grogu. She looks worried in this picture since she was a bit intimidated by the Mandalorian but I promise she really was excited!
Next Ivy wanted to ride Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, so we exited Galaxy’s Edge back over to Star Tours, which is on the other side of the Muppets area. She was excited to see R2-D2 and C-3PO there, along with the AT-AT structure outside of the ride. Ollie wasn’t tall enough to ride this one so we got to try out Rider Switch for the first time.
About Rider Switch from the Disney website: “If a child does not meet the height requirement or a Guest does not wish to board a particular attraction, no problem! With Rider Switch, one adult can wait with the non-rider (or riders) while the rest of the party enjoys the attraction. When the other adult returns, they can supervise the non-riding Guests, and the waiting adult can board the attraction without having to wait in the regular line again!”
More details about Disney’s Rider Switch service here.
Ollie was more than content to have a snack break and play while we took turns doing the ride, plus Ivy got to ride twice! Then it was back to Batuu to catch our Lightning Lane for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. Even though we had already ridden it that morning, Ivy was even more excited to ride (and pilot) it again.
Cue the First Order theme in your mind—because when we exited the Falcon we ran into the First Order searching for the Resistance. Kylo Ren spotted Ivy in her Rey costume from over thirty feet away and headed straight for us.
Ivy held her ground and stared him down, and when he asked her to join the Dark Side she shook her head no. He and the Stormtroopers moved on, and we decided we needed to escape the heat from the First Order so we went off planet back into the park to make our way up to the Star Wars Launch Bay.
We could have spent much more time at the Launch Bay since there were some great Star Wars movie prop displays and meet-and-greets with Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and BB-8. We didn’t have time to meet all of them, so we decided to just see BB-8, which was a very fun meet-and-greet. Ivy got to rub his belly and the kids got a kick out of interacting with him.
It was close to lunchtime and the kids were starting to run out of steam, but they perked up after getting to share their first Mickey ice cream bar.
Before leaving the park to head back for an afternoon rest, we went all the way up to Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy for Ollie. He’s a big Cars fan and we wanted to make sure to visit this show. It was a great short show and perfect for young kids. I think Ollie would have enjoyed it more but he was pretty worn out, and so we headed back to the Skyliner to go back to the hotel for nap time.
During nap time, Josh put together a delivery order from Walmart through Instacart with some groceries and a small toolkit to see if he could fix the stroller. This was one of our biggest mistakes of the trip: not having groceries delivered at the beginning of the trip!
After naps we went back to the park in the late afternoon, and we went straight to our Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance. Ollie wasn’t big enough for this ride, so we got to utilize Rider Switch again and Josh and I both got to ride with Ivy separately.
Then it was back to the marketplace since we had a dining reservation at Oga’s Cantina! This was such a fun experience, even for the kids. The menu had a lot of options for alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks. Josh picked the Jet Juice, Ivy got the Blue Bantha, Ollie had the Carbon Freeze, and I had the Jedi Mind Trick. The ambience was (ahem) out of this world. I could just as equally picture Han Solo sitting at a table across the way as I could a young Obi-Wan Kenobi standing at the bar. The kids loved the music and all four of us had a blast.
For dinner we went to Docking Bay 7, the other quick service restaurant in Galaxy’s Edge. The food here was amazing. I had the Roasted Endorian Chicken Salad, Josh had the Smoked Kaadu Pork Ribs, and the kids shared a Fried Chicken Tip Yip Youngling Meal. We also tried the Surly Sarlacc, of which I unfortunately didn’t get a good picture, but it was one of our favorite drinks of the entire trip.
In the marketplace on our way out of Black Spire Outpost, we let Ivy pick out a stuffed Chewbacca from one of the vendors. She has slept with it almost every night since.
Despite our broken speeder (stroller) we still managed to make our way around the park, and again we didn’t get the maximum use out of our Genie+ that day. We were still glad to have had the Lightning Lanes available and it was a bonus that we got to ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run multiple times. We were disappointed we weren’t able to find Rey around Batuu, but we had an incredible day and made a lot of memories.
After the kids went to bed, Josh managed to fix the stroller (HOORAY) and we prepped for our next park day: park hopping day!
What’s your favorite thing to do at Hollywood Studios? Let me know in the comments below!