Hollywood Studios
First official day at the parks! We decided to start at Disney's Hollywood Studios, including investing in the Genie+ pass and getting up early to get into a virtual queue. At 7 a.m. we were able to grab a spot on the currently most popular ride "Slinky Dog Dash" for 9:45 a.m. We showed up at the park for "rope drop" (i.e. arriving before the park actually opens at 8:30 a.m.) and raced to the walk-on line for the other major attraction (Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance). The Genie+ turned out to be a necessity at this park as we decided that we wanted to try to hit all the major rides by dinner time. Between strategically using our Genie+ and a couple waits, we were able to cover all the rides - leaving the park at around 6:30 p.m. A rushed but fruitful first day!
A summary of the day.
A cool souvenir are the Coke and Diet Coke Grenade bottles (we grabbed one of each) and the Star Wars "Sporks" (Tanner grabbed 4) and the Star Wars "credits" card (we put $100 of "credits" on this one! - everywhere we used it we were surprised how many of the staff didn't even realize it existed and were amazed when we asked to pay with it - and it worked!).
Finding the sporks turned out to be a bit of a treasure hunt as the location of the restaurant is fairly hidden and does not open till 11a.m. It is right by the entrance to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. I ended up ordering the sporks on the app for right at 11 a.m. pickup as apparently they sometimes run out.
Riley picked up a cool limited edition DB-8 drinking cup that surprisingly holds a lot of liquid.
Star Wars "Credits" Card (Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge - Silver Batuuan Spira):
