November 4 – 14, 2020 day 4 – Should have been Wine and Dine races

Saturday 11/7/20
This was the first day of Heather driving us. It was so nice the next few days not having to go out so early to make sure we made the first bus with social distancing! There was no need for an alarm with the later park openings. Heather and Ryan tried for a Rise boarding group since Ryan is directly linked under Heather’s account but were unsuccessful. That’s okay, we really weren’t expecting it. Studios didn’t open until 10:00. We had Mickey waffles for breakfast and left Pop about 8:40ish for the three minute drive to Studios! Thanks Heather! We were first through the parking booth at 9:00! It was very efficient entry even though there were a lot of people. The only delay was both Kathy and my bag set something off in the detectors. We got in line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway right away, about 9:25. The wait said 90 minutes but we were on in 35, right at park open! It’s a cute ride, but there’s so much action, so many things going on, we found it a little too “busy”. It’s a cute ride but not something we have to do every time. We both liked Great Movie Ride better. Not going to bemoan the change we just liked GMR better. After exiting Heather and Ryan took us over to Batuu for our first experience with Galaxy’s Edge! Oh my goodness, when walking through that tunnel and seeing it for the first time, amazing! They led us through, showing us where things were until we came upon it, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, the Millenium Falcon! Wow! We got in line with a posted 60 minute wait but it was really about 40. We actually enjoyed the wait, talking and looking around, hearing the background audio, some of which is absolutely hilarious! Kylo Ren and Storm troopers also came out of his tie fighter while we were there! Let me tell you, walking through the Falcon, seeing the gaming table, and then going into the cockpit, wow! I still get chills thinking about it! Heather and Ryan took pilots so we didn’t have to concentrate too hard on our first experience. We were gunners which was very fun….shoot everything! They were good pilots and we must have been good gunners because we got two cannisters of coaxium! They took us to the bazaar which was just a bit of a wait with social distancing but not too bad. It was neat to see the different shops and I can imagine how cool it must have been when it was allowed to be crowded and characters walking through. More like a real space port. I found the mobile modeled after the Falcon/Empire battle in the asteroid field, so cool! The toy store was so neat! After looking around a bit we got lunch at Docking Bay 7. It was nice because they had cast members helping find tables. We had a good lunch of chicken with mashed potatoes.

After lunch we got some photopass shots including the zoom one and found the spot where the Child magic shot was! There was hardly any wait for any of these! We exited Batuu via Toy Storyland and hit up TSMM with a posted 30 minute wait. The start of the line was actually outside Toy Storyland, but the wait wound up only being about 15 minutes! We’ll take it! I got 146,000 and Kathy got 117,700. The three of us, Heather, Ryan, and myself, went to to RnRC with a posted 50 minute wait. All three of us got on posters in the queue! That was awesome! We got off at 1:59 and Ryan ran outside for a better connection and scored boarding group 93! Woohoo! Heather and Ryan went to Tower and Kathy and I browsed some shops and were able to catch the Pixar cavalcade. That is one cool cavalcade! We got some Echo Lake tree and photopass pictures and a Mickey pretzel. It was so good! We do like those! We met up with them after the “dropped in” at Tower and all wen to Star Tours with a posted 25 minute wait. But it was really a walk on! Heather was the rebel spy! Oh my gosh, I was so happy to see that! Now we are both forever rebel spies! We check out Alien Swirling Saucers, with a posted 35 minute wait it was a walk on! Oh that ride is fun! And then our boarding group got called! We got to see Chewie heading back into Batuu and he gave us a Yowl! It was awesome! It was hard to find the start of the line, it kept moving back! But really it was only a 20 minute wait! Oh my gosh, even the queue is amazing! But the ride…wow! No, WOW!!! Both Kathy and I were just blown away! As she said, “amazing from start to finish!” I have no idea how they transform from the shuttle you go into to escape the planet to inside after you’re captured, and frankly I don’t care to know! Disney magic at its best! And when the doors open to the Storm trooper room, wow! Talk about intimidating! It was all just simply amazing! Still on our high from the ride, we got to see and chat with the resistance fighter at the speeder area. We had a great interaction and she chided both Heather and I just a bit for being rebel spies but galavanting around all day while she was dodging the First Order! Haha! We decided to hit up TSMM again and it was almost a walk on. We both did better this time with me at 170,000 and Kathy at 121,500. Couldn’t beat the waits much this day! From there we decided to hit Slinky Dog for the circuit! This would be every ride in the park for Heather and Ryan! We were in line and we knew the virtual race wasn’t going to happen tomorrow morning. Kathy’s foot was hurting her and Heather’s ankle had ballooned up like crazy from an injury. We were all sad that we weren’t going to be able to complete the race together but also knew that the health of the girls was far more important. We got pretty much to the platform and experienced our first ride pause for cleaning. They cycled all the dogs through and sprayed and wiped them and then sent them through empty again. It worked out in the end though as we got to ride at twighlight! The lights and the park were so pretty! I just love that ride! It’s such a fun family coaster! After we got off it was dark and so we made our way over to Sunset Blvd to see the Tower projections on the way out. It only took about 10 minutes to get back home! Thank you so much Heather for driving! It was such a fun day, a full day, but waits weren’t bad and we got it all in! This would allow Kathy and I to explore Galaxy’s Edge a little more and do doubles on our second day there.

Steps: 21,571
Miles: 9.73