περιπλάνηση: Weekend Getaway Day 2

Saturday morning we were up and out to get to Studios at opening, and our first stop was going to be Slinky Dog Dash, which Julie has never ridden.

But Slinky Dog was down when we arrived. Instead we hopped on Toy Story Mania and then Alien Swirling Saucers, hoping Slinky Dog would come back up, but no luck.

I finally managed to get the gimbal to cooperate so I could film without shaking all over the place. The only drawback was I'm still learning and between the heat and running the video, I managed to kill the battery too soon. But it's a learning curve I'm willing to climb.

We decided to go find some breakfast and do some shopping along the way.

The newest release of the Japanese NuImos were the Hundred Acre Wood friends and I happened across Eeyore who is sporting a very rare smile.

Julie found her Passholder Ears here too!

We played around inside the Mickey Shorts backdrops (and the AC)

And then stopped in for a Wookie Cookie at Backlot Express

Then another AC spot for the Walt Disney exhibit

What we were really waiting for was for one o'clock to roll around so Julie could try and get us Rise of Resistance boarding passes while we were in the park. (You have to be in the park at 1:00 to try) We did some pin trading and watched another pass of the cavalcade along Hollywood Boulevard until then.

And right at 1:00, score! We have a boarding group. From there, we left to board the Skyliner for a ride to Epcot and the Flower and Garden Festival. We'd planned to hop back closer to the boarding group time and finish out the night back at Studios.

as we approached Epcot you could kind of get an aerial peek into the new section not yet opened in France where the Ratatouille ride will open October 1 for WDW's 50th celebration.

the trip was so quick, we had to wait for the arrival of the 2:00 hour to get into our second park.

by the way, that little wearable personal fan was a life saver, until the battery died.

At this point it was just plain HOT

We wound our way around through the UK pavilion

stopped for some AC and a lovely pianist inside the World Showplace

then right back out to brave the scorching hot afternoon ahead of building storm clouds.

It was so hot, I had to scrap my hopes for making it out the front to see those topiaries and fountain or around the rest of the world showcase. We just kept trying to find a place to cool off.

The Epcot Experience is the preview of the park's almost total reimagining of the Future Showcase space. Construction walls are up everywhere and even the topiaries are themed around construction.

Time to ride back to Studios

I love the side-eye on Eeyore here

When we arrived it was starting to rain. And Rise of the Resistance was down. So we grabbed a bite to ear nearby and tried to get a last little charge for the phone to make it the rest of the evening. (The external charger, the fan, and the gimbal had all run out of juice long ago.)

After dinner and the first band of rain had passed, it was cooling off and the ride was back online.

This is the most immersive ride and it's notoriously difficult to score a boarding group to ride. We struck out back in December, so this was my first time getting to experience it.

lots of holograms and moving from Star Wars space to Star Wars vehicles

At the point where you've blasted off in the cargo hold of a Resistance ship, you get pulled in by the Empire's tractor beam to a Star Destroyer, and, captured, are herded off the ship to face this:

you are then marched through to a holding cell by Empire minions who must've had snarky auditions for their parts.

after this, you are really on the actual ride that is trackless and spins and drops and careens you in your escape from the Star Destroyer and Empire baddies.

of course, it ends happily with your escape. It's Disney.

From there, we walked onto Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

And then, despite a nail biting wait while lightning moved in bands and threatened to shut it down, we managed to get Julie on her first ever Slinky Dog Dash ride!

We still had time to ride Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers again, ending our day how we began it, but much cooler.

I was the angry cat and managed best in vehicle :)

once the lights started coming on, it was 8:00 and park close, so we wandered through Galaxy's Edge, which Julie had never seen at dark before departing.