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Continuing on from my Animal Kingdom report... We arrived at Hollywood Studios right at noon with a reservation at 50s Primetime Cafe at 12:05. I also came armed with an 11:30 Star Tours reservation (which I made so that I could hit it ASAP to open up the rest of the A tier rides), 3:30 Tower, 5:10 Rise, and 6:45 Slinky Dog (which I snagged a couple days before after initially being unavailable). We went over and scanned in at Star Tours, but it took a while to get into the ride and we ended up just running across to the exit to make our lunch reservation. However, I was now able to reserve Smugglers Run at 1:15. Lunch at Primetime was delicious and the atmosphere was fun. There were so many things about the rooms that reminded me of how my parents and grandparents would have decorated their kitchens when I was a kid. After lunch we stopped at Star Tours (which was a walk on) to actually ride it and this is still a really fun attraction. Obviously it has been well eclipsed by many newer rides but it is still worth checking out for sure. Continued down into Galaxy's Edge which was my first time there. This area is absolutely massive and it took a while to actually find Smugglers Run but eventually we were in. My wife and I ended up being pilots and were pretty f*cking terrible at our jobs. We loved the ride though and the theming is obviously incredible. After this ride we managed to snag a Toy Story Mania lightning lane at 2:30 despite it not having great times available earlier in the day (I have to say this system sucks in some ways but also was surprising in how much stuff would pop up out of nowhere unexpectedly). We ended up waiting standby for Runaway Railway which was posted at an hour but barely took 30 minutes. My wife was a big Great Movie Ride fan and thought this did not do it justice, but I thought it was cute and fun. Headed back over to Mania which I love. One of my favorite shooting rides (probably because I used to really enjoy Toy Story when I was younger) and it's just a great looking ride. I ended up snagging a Rock 'n Roller Coaster LL that overlapped my Tower LL which was perfect. Speaking of which, Tower of Terror is just a f*cking masterpiece. Despite the insane attractions Disney has built in the past couple decades, this is still my favorite on the property and everything about it has stood the test of time. Unbelievable theming and the ride itself is somehow way more thrilling than most modern freefall towers to me. I wish I had time to lap it over and over. On the opposite end of the spectrum, its neighbor just kinda sucks and I still can't figure out how this fits in a Disney park. There's some intensity, a lot of roughness, and I just think the premise of the ride is meh. I would rate this the worst indoor coaster at Disney by far, and I don't think that is a controversial take. Headed back down to the Galaxy to check out Oga's Cantina. Look, I know that it's a very cozy spot in the movies and they really wanted to go with the "exclusive club" feel and I get it. But having to cram into a booth with 2 other families, one of which had 3 screaming young children (one of which proceeded to dump an entire drink all over a bag of merchandise I had under my seat) kind of ruined the experience. It looks terrific and all, and I get that they want to take in as many people as possible, but that was a miserable experience. The drink was great however. Next was Rise and the theming on this was out of this world. I thought the ride might be a bit over hyped though. After experiencing Flight of Passage a few hours earlier and being blown away, I kind of walked away from this one expecting more. Not sure what else to say. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan and maybe that had something to do with it, but I liked everything else here so I'm not sure why Rise didn't do it for me. I had some time to kill before Slinky, so I reserved Alien Swirling Saucers which I then felt bad walking past a line full of 5 year olds just because I was bored. The ride is not great. We went over and saw the Muppets show afterwards which was a much better way of killing time. That show is adorable. Finally our Slinky Dog time came up and we even scored front row. Admittedly, as a coaster this thing has no forces whatsoever and it really doesn't need them. For the kids it's a home run of a ride and we loved it. After this we had one more park to check off, and hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot. Arrived shortly after 7:30 and headed over for my first Guardians ride. Upon reaching the first room at the top of the line, the thing broke down for probably 30 minutes which became a bit frightening, but thankfully it finally reopened with just one side. An hour later we were zooming around space to the beats of Conga. My thoughts? Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But I think I expected more. The top speed is 60 and it's 5500 feet long yet if you told me Space Mountain was longer and faster I would almost believe it. The visuals are incredible, absolutely amazing. I think I just expected a bit more from the coaster. Unfortunately due to the breakdown it was after 9 when we got off so we were not able to get on Remy or take in some of the amazing Epcot atmosphere and food. Next time. I love this park and only popping in for an hour killed me as much as rushing through Animal Kingdom. It was a long and tiring (and expensive) 14 hour extravaganza of a day, but we had a blast. Once we financially recover from the tickets, lightning lanes, food, and merchandise that we went a little too crazy with, maybe we'll be back sooner than later!

This past Wednesday I did a massive 14-hour park hopper marathon across 3 parks, hitting pretty much everything new to Disney since 2012 (except Magic Kingdom since I was just there in February). I started the day at Animal Kingdom right at 8am and marched right over to Navi River Journey since it was still a walk-on at that point (I had a Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage at 10:45). First off, Pandora looks absolutely amazing and I see what all the commotion is about. I only wish I could have seen it at night. Anyway, Navi is a really well done boat ride with amazing visuals. To quote my wife, it is probably now the best of the Disney boat rides. I wouldn't necessarily jump into a 60+ min wait that this sometimes gets, but otherwise I would easily ride this over and over if I had the time just to try to take it all in. Heading back into the center of the park, I noted that Kilimanjaro Safaris still had a 10 minute line. My only must-dos left were Dinosaur and Tough to Be a Bug, however I only had a limited amount of time in this park as we had to be at DHS for a lunch reservation at 12:05. I knew heading over to Safaris would probably remove the chance of trekking up a particular mountain in this park, but I've made that trek several times before and decided we should see animals while we were at Animal Kingdom. The safari ride was amazing as usual, and on a decently cool morning the animals were very active. When it was over I was happy to have chosen this over Everest. I had never ridden Dinosaur before, so we headed there next and walked right on. I don't know why I haven't heard more positive remarks about this ride in the past (honestly I had no idea what to expect) because this thing blew me away. The vehicle's movements are way more out of control than I expected, the darkness of the ride is pretty crazy, and overall I loved this thing. I hope they do it justice when they retheme it with the new area in a couple years. On the way back over to Pandora, there was a major nostalgia trip that I needed to make before it goes away this winter. I loved It's Tough to be a Bug when I was a kid and I just had to see it one more time. Unfortunately I did not get the full experience, as the water effects did not work in my seat nor did the "bugs leaving the theatre before you" effect. I guess they've already given up maintaining the ride. But it's still a fun show and I'm glad I got to see it one more time. Back into Pandora, I had a few minutes until my Flight of Passage reservation and spent that time at Satu'li Canteen chowing on Burger Pods. These things tasted amazing and that whole restaurant had a really nice atmosphere to it. Absolutely stop here if you're in Pandora. Anyway, 10:45 came up and we headed to Flight of Passage which I'm sure everyone else on this board has probably ridden already, but this thing was amazing in every way possible. The theming both outside and inside the ride, the presentation, and the ride itself. Incredible. After getting off Flight of Passage it was already 11:15 and we had to book it out to the car and head over to Hollywood Studios. I was sad to have had to rush Animal Kingdom, I love the park and definitely look forward to getting more of a full and more relaxed day next time I go. And I absolutely have to see Pandora at night. Sad to see Dinoland USA have to be killed off, but I'm sure they'll do a great job with its replacement.