Day 1, Part 4 - I'm impressed with your accuracy!
We took the boat over to Hollywood Studios because it was there, it's a long walk, and I'm out of shape (tomorrow should be fun). Mom is armed with her purple magicband. I'm armed with my resorts exclusive Cinderella's Castle magicband that I'm convinced is going to do something fun and exciting because it's limited edition..or maybe release...it's limited something. Darnit, just make a pretty color light or a sound or something to justify the extra cost associated with it!
We get through security and I have everything in ziploc bags to make it easy for the nice man to look at all my stuff. We go up to the entrance and I excitedly put my magicband up to the mickey and put my finger in the reader and the lights are spinning and I'm all excited in anticipation and suddenly the light turns.....
green. WELP.
As we stroll down Hollywood Boulevard, it really hits us both that we are at Disney. We're inside a park. We're inside Hollywood Studios! We are at Hollywood Studios! Omg! Let's go ride
Tower of Terror. Okay, let's one of us go ride Tower of Terror. The wait isn't that long, maybe 25 minutes I think. It wasn't bad. I'm in line to ride Tower of Terror! I'm getting to ride Tower of Terror once again! OMG! So naturally I take in how the outside queue is supposed to be unsettling in it's layout and supposed to make guests uneasy. As I get inside the door, I once again take in the sights of this queue and remember how much I loved it last time I was here, and how I still love it now. I just love this ride in general. I looked around at everything, taking in it all but not knowing much about Twilight Zone episodes to get any show references. As I entered the pre-show, my giddiness began again. It was just as i remembered, and I recalled the Mickey doll the little girl is holding in the video. Then we entered the boiler room queue and when everyone kept walking left at the split, I went right into the other line. As I got up to the loader, to be fair to the shorter people in line, I asked for the back row.
Now here's where my previous theme park anxiety kicked in. I'm very much pooh-sized. Seatbelts on rides have been the reason I stopped going to theme parks because I didn't like doing the walk of shame. I was legit worried I wasn't going to be able to get the seatbelt to fasten. Imagine how I felt when I was able to fasten that seatbelt with no problem at all. I was ecstatic! I was beyond ecstatic. I was on cloud, no, cloud 10. I'm able to ride a ride I love and I fit into the seat and we are a go for Tower of Terror! As the door closed and the ride began, my excitement level went through the roof and I had a huge grin as our ride car went up to the first scene.
I love that ride so much.
I met up with mom at the exit with a stupid huge grin on my face and I thanked her for getting me a bottle of water. Around this time, it was getting close to our first fast pass window, so let's meander over to Toy Story land and ride
Midway Mania!
The lovely cast members at the fast pass entrance said we could take the ECV through the queue and to give this pass to the next CM we see, so we did, and then I did, and he directed us to go this one direction so we went that way and then we went this other way and then we were in the special loading line for the ride and it was all a big blur but the next thing I realized we were almost next in line to load. So we get in and I slightly worried about the lap bar but it closed fine, so we put our glasses on and prepared for our first ride on Midway Mania.
Couple thoughts here. First of all, I think if you go on this ride, you can skip arm day at the gym because this ride is an arm workout! Second of all, I'm a gamer. I play first person shooter games, primarily Overwatch. I like to think I'm going to be really good at this game because I have lots of aim practice and I had a strategy for how to shoot quickly. In my head, this was going to be a piece of cake. I'll hit 400k points no problem!
So we get our totals at the end, and I'm thinking I probably did an amazing job.
Mom: 68,000. Accuracy: 40%
Me: 120,000. Accuracy: 25%
Okay, in my defense, I was playing the numbers. I figured if I fired a lot of shots really quickly, I'd rack up a good score easily. I was going to quantity over quality. I turned to mom and said "I'm really impressed with your accuracy." I mean 40%! Maybe mom's a gamer and I didn't know it. I can't really see her playing Call of Duty, though.....
After Midway Mania, we still had plenty of time before our dinner reservation, so since we were in the area and the wait time wasn't that bad, I decided we should go ride
Alien Swirling Saucers! And by golly, I am so glad we did. I have never laughed so much on a ride before. Every time the car would swing left, I'd slide into mom, crushing her against the side, and every time it would swing right, she'd end up squished against me. I was laughing so much I nearly had tears. That ride is so much fun and it's a really cute ride as well. It's not as wild as the spinning tea cups at Magic Kingdom, so that's a plus, but it is so. much. fun. 10/10, would recommend! I think that rhymed.
We still had time before dinner, so I thought while we're over this way, let's go check out
Galaxy's Edge! I was not prepared for this area. Nerd Liz was not prepared for this area. I thought I was prepared but as soon as we crossed over and the immersive themeing began, I was in complete awe. I lost count how often I said "omg" and "wow this is amazing". And then I saw Storm Troopers! And they were harassing a guest! Omg. I'm seeing Storm Troopers with my own two eyes! They're right there! This is unbelievable!
Well, I thought that was unbelievable. But then I saw this....
Now this is unbelievable!
And I thought that was unbelievable. Until I saw this and nearly soiled myself.
Good golly gosh of all things sacred and holy, I'm looking at the Millennium Falcon. I am physically looking at the Millennium Falcon!
Wait, let me blink and pinch myself.
Yep, Millennium Falcon is still right there in front of....OMG, Storm Troopers! And they're headed this way. Okay, okay, be cool Liz, be cool. You're not affiliated with anyone yet. You're just a guest! You're passing through. Just passing through. Not suspicious. Don't look suspicious, Liz!
As soon as they passed, we high-tailed it out of there, because that's totally what people who aren't suspicious would do. On the way, I happened upon a beverage station and completely forgot about the themed bottles, so OF COURSE I had to stop and get one.
I mean, I drank it of course, but it's really comforting to know that even in a galaxy far, far away, one can still get a Diet Coke.
(and a Dasani, which I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it. I have the bottle, why didn't I take a picture of it?)
Anyway, yes, and shortly thereafter, the rain that was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon showed up around 6:30-ish.
Also we have a dinner reservation for 6:50 at 50s Prime Time. GREAT TIMING!