On The Road Again – Day 3 – Disney’s Hollywood Studios

   We made it through days 1 and 2, and are headed into our final day of Disney!  Once again waking up fighting with the snooze button!  Out to the camp stove for the required morning cup of coffee and on the road to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  Hollywood Studios opened in 1989 and is an idealized representation of the Golden Days of Hollywood.  When choosing my 3 parks, the 3^rd park was a toss up between going here or Animal Kingdom.  Since I will be going back to see the bats at the Lubee Bat Conservancy in April I decided on Hollywood Studios.  I cannot compare the two to validate or regret my decision as I have never been to Animal Kingdom.  The bats were tired for the last 2 days, so they stayed to rest at the campsite. 

  My first stop was Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, were we dodged the presence of the storm troopers to get in line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

Just my luck that even at a theme park I have to ride OBS.

 I then headed over to Star Wars: Ride of the Resistance, were we were captured, scheduled for interrogation by the First Order, then rescued by the resistance at the last minute.  This is a very fast paced ride, and the animatronics and special effects are second to none!   I really enjoyed this ride and definitely recommend it to guests.

I then took a break at Mama Melroe’s Ristorante Italiano for a pizza and pasta lunch.  I was not expecting much for a theme park lunch, but was very pleased with the Mushroom Pizza!  I have said several times that I am not a big fan of thin crust pizza but this culinary delight reminded me a lot of one of my favorite restaurants in Seoul 8 Piece Pizza And Beer,

The entree of Braised Wagyu Beef on Orecchiette was disappointing and I would not order it again.  I did not find it very flavorful and the dried Cherries I found flavorfully out of place and I confused them with raspberries. 

 To be fair, I think I just picked something that I did not find appealing, as the pizza was good I would not count it against the restaurant.  I would go back and try another entrée on the menu.

  After lunch it was time to head off to the haunted Hollywood Hotel for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride. 

This is the tallest ride in the park and easily one of my favorites!  The ride is almost a duplicate of ride of the same name at Disney’s California Adventure park in Anaheim (removed).

I ended up going on this ride a couple of times in a row and on one of the rides I was seated with a group of young women from a local high school (Picture below is from an earlier ride.).

The person sitting next to me was very scared of the ride and she asked me if I had been on it before.  After answering the question in the affirmative, she proceeded to ask me if the ride was very scary. I answered “No”, and the look of relief on her face was palpable.  “Though I also bungee jumped off a 722ft tower in Macau.. So I might not be the best person to ask..”..  The look of dread promptly returned.  ZING 1….   She then let me know she would be using my arm rest.  “That’s okay, I won’t be holding on..”  ZING 2!  

  It was then over to the Indian Jones Stunt Show.

  I decided to make this en early day and head back to the campsite for a nice fire!

3 days of walking around Disney Parks I totaled 28,872 steps!  This is more then I get in most months.  I was definitely looking forward to my planned off day at the campsite!

 I enjoyed my time at the Disney parks, ranked in order of my personal enjoyment.  EPCOT (Which I would like to go back and spend more time, as I know there was a lot I did not get a chance to experience.)  Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and finally Hollywood Studios.  A 3 day Florida Resident package at $60 a day is a steal, but the parking for an additional $30 is a bit much.  Though again, still $10 cheaper than a VIP tour at the Kennedy Space Center!

 The next and final blog in this series will be about the ARRL South East Amateur Radio Convention known as “Hamcation”!  I hope you have enjoyed the series so far.  Please come back often to check for new content and if you would like to receive an email notification when new content is posted please consider registering by clicking HERE!