Before I start talking about Part 2 of our day, I realized something.
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I totally forgot to post the PhotoPass picture in my last post of Briana and Doug on the "Tower of Terror"...
Doug and Bri were in the middle seats. Briana was smiling. Doug not so much!
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Ok, it is now time to talk about HS Part 2!
We walked back to Galaxy's Edge to go on the "Rise of the Resistance" ride. Having the individual lightning lane allowed us to scan our magic bands and walk right onto the ride. The standby line wait times for Rise of the Resistance in the afternoons - every single afternoon that week - was totally insane...
Waiting in a line that long would have taken away a half a day from us. I know that it was a crazy busy week, but it felt to me (though I have no proof) that Disney didn't have any sort of acceptable cap for the number of people it was allowing into the parks. I'm not sure if that was the case, but there were just SO MANY people there that week. It seems a bit greedy and dangerous in my opinion - but that just may be me. I did feel a sense of guilt at times walking by so many park goers who wanted to ride some of these rides so badly - and they were willing to wait for 4 hours to do so. I understand how lucky our family was to be able to bypass those wait times. It was very, very nice to be able to walk right onto a ride.
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Ok - moving on to happier things now!
Rise of the Resistance...
We entered the building...
I didn't watch the ride on YouTube because I wanted to be surprised by it all. But, I had read that the entire experience was split into several parts and lasted around 20 minutes.
The ride puts guests in the middle of a battle between the Resistance and the First Order. In the ride's pre-show, guests learn that they are a part of a resistance team that is no longer safe on Batuu.
The first part...
The second part...
The third part...
The fourth part (the actual moving ride)...
It really was a whole lot of fun! Really fast paced! We really enjoyed it!
We ran into Kylo Ren as we were leaving the ride...
On to "Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run"...
Introduction (guests are told they are going on a secret smuggling mission)...
Doug and Bri got to pilot the ship and I was a gunner in the middle...
Another big thumbs up from our family!
Once we scanned our wristbands, we scheduled another lightning lane for the Indiana Jones stunt show.
But our next lightning lane was for Toy Story Mania. So it was off to Toy Story Land again...
Toy Story Mania (another really fun ride!)...
Briana wanted to do a little shopping back at Galaxy's Edge, so off we went...
Briana ended up with an adorable little shoulder porg. There were probably 5 other people in line purchasing the same little guy!
Next, we went to Muppetvision 3D (always very cute)...
We ate a little gelato because it was getting quite warm that afternoon...
Next up, the Indiana Jones Stunt Show...
Then we checked out this cute little animation short. It was a nice place to get away from the crowd and cool off a bit...
Finally, it was time to go have some dinner. I booked a Fantasmic dinner package when I first made dinner reservations 60 days in advance. I was up early in the morning and the restaurant times were already filling up quickly with this package. I saw that Mama Melrose had a 4:45pm available. It was so early and Fantasmic didn't start until 8pm, but I grabbed it anyway. We had luckily eaten lunch early that day, so I figured by the time we got served, it would be around 5pm and we would be sort of hungry. Well, I am very glad I booked for 4:45 because even with a reservation, we weren't seated until 5:15pm. That gave us plenty of time to eat slowly, walk to the venue and get a good seat before 8.
Doug waiting patiently for our name to be called at the restaurant (joined by Briana's porg)...
I really liked the restaurant ambiance and the food was very tasty (the Fantasmic package includes an appetizer or dessert and a main course per person)...
We ate our delicious meal and walked slowly over to the venue. We got to the venue about 45 to 50 minutes early which allowed us to get really good seats.
Before I post Part 3 of our HS adventure, I did leave Slinky Dog Dash off my ride list. Doug, Bri and I did not ride Slinky Dog Dash the first day at HS. We rode it our last day when we returned to HS. With the way lightning lanes fill up and with the ridiculous standby wait times (Slinky Dog Dash is super popular), we had to make some logistical choices and chose to skip it the first day.
