Disney 2021: A Day At Hollywood Studios

On our first full park day with friends, we planned to visit Hollywood Studios and hopefully obtain a Rise of the Resistance boarding group. We also had another Hollywood Studios day planned later in the week, just in case a Rise boarding group didn't work out that day. 

So, around 6:50 a.m. my little group met up in the courtyard outside of our rooms (near the Lady statue) to try our hand.

Sadly, the odds were NOT in our favor for the 7 a.m. boarding group round. It was ok though, because we could try again at 1 p.m. from inside Hollywood Studios and we were ok with that!

Since we were up and ready to go, we decided to join the Skyliner line and hit up Hollywood Studios early. We'd heard that they were letting people inside of the park before official park opening time and we wanted to experience that if so.

The Skyliner line was quite the orchestration at the Caribbean Beach hub, but those cast members knew exactly what they were doing and it all flowed very very well! (However, it looked like a hot mess to the outsider!) 

We had time to stop at Joffrey's for coffee, so we ordered toffee flights! With an incredibly short wait time at the hub, we were off to Hollywood Studios! (I'm pretty sure it was right at 7:45 a.m. when they started running - and HS wasn't set to open until 9 a.m.!)

After arriving at Hollywood Studios, we joined the line for temperature and security screening and by 8:25 a.m., we were inside of the park. It was SO strange seeing it so empty but also incredibly cool to be among the first to enter the park that day!

A new to all of us ride was Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, so we all headed straight there and it was a walk on! 

Runaway Railway is seriously the CUTEST ride EVER! We all loved it! Sadly, we only had the opportunity to ride it one time this trip but will definitely remedy that next time! I think this is Brayden's new favorite WDW ride!

After Runaway Railway, we walked over to Slinky Dog and waited maybe 10-15 minutes to ride. It wasn't long at all! 

So so cute!

After Slinky Dog, Brayden spotted Alien Swirling Saucers which was yet ANOTHER walk on!!

We felt like we had been transported in some kind of magic Disney bubble because this couldn't be real life!

By this point, it was officially 9 a.m. and "park opening time" and we'd already hit three rides - two of them being major headliners with little to no wait!

Next up was Star Wars Land and a ride on the Millenium Falcon. By this point, the lines were growing throughout the park and this one had about a 40 minute wait. Still not bad considering!

After flying the Falcon and crashing horribly, we all enjoyed a little blue milk treat. I've tried both and prefer blue over green. Anyone else?

We returned to Toy Story Land and Toy Story Mania. The posted time here was 75 minutes but we didn't end up waiting that long, thankfully!

He's not a toy but he sure is a cute little fella!

Before lunch, I had to take my traditional "Karen" photo at One Man's Dream. These date back all the way to 2007! On one trip, they changed the outfit to "Cubby" but it was back to Karen and has been ever since!

By this point, it was closer to noon and definitely time for lunch! We tried ABC Commissary and their new (to us) menu. I really really enjoyed the curry shrimp dish. This is totally something I would never order while out and about around home, but I like to try new foods and was pleasantly surprised!

We hung around ABC Commissary for a little while, waiting on 1 p.m. and the time to snag a Rise boarding group. I was also trying to get Brayden to take a nap, but he was not interested in any of that!

Thankfully, we were successful this time and were set to go! YAY!

While waiting for a boarding group, I sent Jason and our friends over to Rock n Roller Coaster while Brayden and I shopped around and again attempted a nap.

The runDisney merchandise inside of Hollywood Studios was by far the best selection I saw out of any and all of the parks! So, if you're headed there, be on the lookout - this store was on the road way headed to Tower of Terror.

This time, our nap time attempt was successful, and we hung out for a few minutes beyond our rise boarding group return time to give him a little time to sleep. People over on instagram were amazed that he still takes naps in the stroller and yes, he definitely does!

Rise was just as amazing as we remembered and Jason tried to get us all in trouble by attempting to convince the resistance that he actually belonged on Tatooine. They were quite funny in their banter back and forth! 

Our last quest of the day was the brand new Scenic Selfies challenge hosted by Disney Vacation Club. After scanning a QR code at a DVC desk, scavengers set out throughout the park to take selfies with the various landmarks/clues put out by the website.

After completing the challenge, you return to the DVC desk, show the guide your completion, and obtain your button! It was a lot of fun and we learned some trivia/facts about the parks we wouldn't have otherwise known!

Our plan for the evening was to return to Disney Springs for dinner. We wanted to try Chicken Guy as none of us had been there yet.

This salad was SO good!! I would definitely order it again!

We ended our evening with dessert at Ghirardelli and it was truly the perfect way to top off our day!

My plan for the next morning was to run the 5K around the lake at Pop Century prior to heading to EPCOT. I truly loved not being at the parks until midnight then waking up and doing it all over the following day. We actually had a chance to relax and get some sleep on this trip and it was perfect to me!

Up next: EPCOT and Festival of the Arts!

2020 Star Wars Rival Run Weekend

Although I was not registered for any races during the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend this year, I did manage to watch the entire Star Wars saga on Disney+ throughout this whole quarantine saga.

So, when pretty much the entire runDisney community decided to come together to make their own quarantine version of the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend due to the cancellation of said race weekend, I was all in! One of the running groups I belong to (Team #runDisney) created a true "Rival Run" and place runners on two different teams (dark side and light side). The teams would then log their miles throughout the weekend - the team with the most mileage/points at the end of the weekend was the winner! Well, I was given team dark side and although we kept a lead for a good bit of the weekend, we ultimately lost to team light side. Whomp whomp. It was all in great fun, anyway!

Happy Star Wars Day, by the way!

Friday

Since I had not attempted anything quite like this challenge in a long while, I decided to take it super slow on Friday and Saturday to baby my hamstring. A 4:1 run/walk ratio was quickly adapted and it suited me well then entire weekend which I was very grateful for!

I honestly kind of enjoyed the run/walk ratio - it always kept my mind on something and helped the miles go by!

Leg 1 done!

Saturday

For the 10K on Saturday, I continued with the same 4:1 run/walk ratio and attempted to keep a similar pace as Friday. 

The weather was perfect the entire weekend and the 10K turned out to be a really good one!

I honestly haven't run three days back to back with varying up mileage like this since Dopey in 2018 which made me very nervous. I am so thankful my hamstring decided to behave!

Sunday

On the morning of the half marathon, I got a little bit of a head start and added in a few fun extras to help make the idea of running a half marathon at home a bit more exciting! 

What does every runDisney race have? CHARACTERS! 

After considering a few different options, I came across the official Star Wars app. Included with the app are "stickers" which you can move and resize on your pictures as you see fit. 

With a plan in mind, I was off!

I decided to have a "character stop" every 1.5 miles or so and take GU at mile 5 and 10. Along with counting down a 4:1 run/walk ratio, my mind was literally busy the entire 13.1 miles. (You can also see all of these pictures and more on my instagram runDisney highlight.)

Baby Yoda at mile 1.6.

Dark Side? Light Side? It didn't matter! They were all a part of my race weekend!

Imperial Storm Trooper at the 5K point.

In order to take these photos, I found various points along the route to rest my phone and I used the selfie mode timer. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was straight up crazy!

I found Rey at mile 4.6.

Look! It's the Millennium Falcon at the halfway point!

I spotted a Porg at mile 8!

Kylo Ren did not understand that I was on team dark side! He was ready to chop off my hand at mile 9.5.

Although I managed to get away from Kylo, this storm trooper was ready and waiting for me at mile 11. Thank goodness they have terrible aim! I was not impressed.

I know I said I was team dark side, but seeing this Wookie at mile 12.5 really made my day!

...and done!

High fives after my run from this little dude were pretty special, too!

That's a wrap! Race 3 of the Rival Run weekend was complete (for a combined total of 22.4 miles) and my hamstring held up through the entire thing! I decided that run/walking at a slower pace and continuing to run vs running fast and having pain was a better alternative in the long run, anyway!

Jason had breakfast waiting for me once I was done. This included coffee in our Rey coffee mug and Sky (Paw Patrol) waffles because...well, she's a pilot and it was the closest thing we could come up with! :)

About a week after running this challenge, the medal I ordered from Virtual Pace Series arrived. I realize that this specific challenge was actually supposed to coincide with Star Wars day (which is today), but I decided to make it my April the 19th challenge instead. :)

The official virtual runDisney Star Wars Half Marathon was sold out, so I chose this one from Virtual Pace Series because the back of the medal included all of the distances I ran - the 5K, 10K, and Half.

Oh yes, and the medal included Mando and Baby Yoda...so yes, I'm an easy sell!

Did anyone else run their own Virtual Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend? If so, how did it go? 

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th Be With You!

Wordless Wednesday: May the 4th Be With You

Since today is Wednesday, it's time for another Disney Wordless Wednesday!

Today’s Wordless Wednesday theme is: May Calendar Shot
Host: Deb at Focused on the Magic

In honor of "Star Wars Day" (May the 4th be with you)...I dug up a couple of runDisney pictures with my favorite Star Wars guys! I haven't participated in either the Light Side or Dark Side Challenges, so these pictures were taken before that time. I think some of these were even taken before the Star Wars/Disney partnership was announced! Whoa.

The first photo was taken during Disneyland's Half Marathon in 2013 and the second was taken during the Inaugural Wine & Dine Half Marathon in 2010!

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