Our second day in the park came bright and early! After a bit of confusion at the bus stop about how to get to Hollywood Studios, we made our way over to what quickly became our favorite non-ride ride of the whole trip- the Skyliner!
This gondola system connected our resort to both Hollywood Studios and Epcot and was the location of many laughs over the course of the week. We heard "you are now gliding over the shimmering waters of Hourglass Lake" so many times that we use it as a way to interrupt each other at home now.
Silly Noah.
A poster in one of the Skyliner transfer stations.
The ride itself was scenic, smooth and a thousand times better than squeezing onto another bus.
Just the six of us gliding around at Disney World!
Hollywood Studios had so much to tackle- it was a very good thing that we opted to spend two days here as well!
Again, we were trying to avoid buying the pay-per-ride passes, so we got up early and beelined it to our first ride of the day- the new Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway.
We made sure not to read or watch any spoilers about this ride beforehand, so we were all a little confused when we boarded what looked like a train when we thought we were going on more of a trackless bumper car ride.
And it ended up being one of our favorite rides of the whole trip!
We were fully immersed in a Mickey film! This ride was so fun.
Next up- Toy Story Land! This was under construction the last time we were here and it was so fun to get to see this new part of the park.
Our plan was to zip through Toy Story Mania then hit up the rest of the land, but that plan came to a screeching halt when the ride broke down and we were stuck halfway through the queue. Definitely a thumbs sideways moment of the day.
It was pretty painful, but a few dozen YouTube videos and Disney app games and snacks all helped to pass the time.
All of the details in the queue were so fun too!
Hollywood Studios has all of the best shows, so we skipped out of Toy Story Land and headed over to watch Beauty and the Beast. The show was so fun but came to a halt when the Beast's tail fell off just as they were leading up to the big scene. When they did resume the play, tail reattached, we watched the main characters dance and fight and reunite a solid six feet away from each other. The shows were altered to accommodate social distancing. The show was good, but it fell a little short of our expectations (and happy memories!).
Next up, we headed over to the Rockin' Roller Coaster, which was right by the Beauty and the Beast theater. 
The line was annoyingly long but it was either that or the Tower of Terror, which no one wanted to go on, and we were on that side of the park so we decided to grab some snacks and hop in line.
We were excited! And nervous! Noah wasn't about to go on this ride- "it goes upside down three times!"- so we did a kid swap and boy was it a fast blast of a ride!
We all loved that take off!
After a relaxing stop at Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy, we finally got our first taste of Star Wars! Our whole family watched all nine movies back in 2020 when the world was in lockdown, so we all appreciate all things Star Wars more now!
Noah wanted to know how he missed those x-wings flying overhead while they were taking this picture!
Look at these brave young Jedi! There was no Jedi training due to Covid, which was super disappointing, but we still had so much fun experiencing all things Star Wars close up.
The force was definitely getting stronger as we made our way over to Star Wars Land.
How did Noah get so tall?! ;)
Star Tours has been in Hollywood Studios for a long time, so we knew what to expect and we loved it! (and when I didn't love it I just closed my eyes.)
Emma found a sweet little shoulder buddy! She definitely bought the most souvenirs of the trip, but this little guy didn't make the cut.
Noah bought the first souvenir of the trip- a green lightsaber!
Lunch stop! I tried and tried to get us a reservation at the Sci-Fi Drive Inn, our favorite restaurant from our last trip, but with no luck. So we enjoyed a quick meal at the Backlot instead, and this plate of hummus and plant-based meat may have been the best meal I had in Disney World.
Next up- the Frozen Sing-along!
Again, don't let Adam's eyes fool you- what nearly teenage boy wouldn't love a retelling of Frozen?!
I definitely saw Daddy singing along with Emma though! After that overdose of estrogen, we popped into the Mickey Films theater,
and then finally headed over to the major highlight of the day- Galaxy's Edge, also known as Star Wars Land!
We carved plenty of time out of day to just be in Star Wars Land, and it was awesome!
First we rode on the Smugglers Run- inside the Millennium Falcon!
The line was long but the queue was fun and before we knew it, we were inside the Millennium Falcon!
Everyone had a job to do, and mostly mine was to not throw up. Boy, I just can't do these motion simulated rides like I used to! Thankfully the girls were excellent pilots, Daddy and Adam were excellent engineers, and as gunners, Noah and I did a great job of warding off the bad guys! Our family of six was just the right size for this ride!
I so appreciated the random man who offered to take my phone so "mom can be in the picture too".
After a bit more wandering, it was finally time to bite the bullet and get in line for the most highly anticipated ride of the entire trip- Rise of the Resistance.
Wow, this line was just as boring as could be. Once we finally snaked our way through the first major serpantine, a cast member told us that there were seven more rooms just like this one to get through before the ride. Seven! It was not fun waiting in such a long line, and I was already telling myself that we would most definitely try again to get fastpass tickets for our next visit at the end of our trip. We had tried to get them this morning but the entire day's worth of tickets was gone in literally 40 seconds. Hopefully we could figure out our mistakes so we would know what to do differently so we could get tickets next time, because this line was absolutely the worst.
After we got off the ride we had a funny debate over whether these Stormtroopers were real people or not. They sure seemed real!
As did these,
as well as the strict members of the First Order.
Leah took a quick minute in the ride queue to interview us all about what was going on. The fun thing was- we had no idea!
But we made it out alive and loved it!
This was definitely the BEST ride of the entire week! (correction, Noah, who is reading over my shoulder as I type this says that either the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Slinky Dog Dash was the best roller coaster of the week, but agrees that Rise of the Resistance was, indeed, the best ride of the week.)
Our day was just about over at this point, and with no nighttime show to catch, we decided to make our way back over to Toy Story Land
to check out the Alien Swirling Saucers- a fun spin on the teacups-
and the Slinky Dog Dash!
You never know what to expect from roller coasters at the end of the day, but Noah loved this one (the second time on our last day, the first time was a little much with the dark and the drops and the unknown)!
We all did!
The Disney app had games that we all took turns playing in just about every line in every park, and it was actually really nice!
And funny!
And just like that, our day at Hollywood Studios was over!
Again, knowing we were coming back made it pretty easy to say good-bye, and we hopped back on the Skyglider and were back in our room and ready for bed in no time!
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