After our full day of NYE fun yesterday I wasn’t sure if the girls would wake in time to rope drop Hollywood Studios. However, they both woke up about 6.45 so we got ready and got on one of the first buses, arriving at the park at 7.30 for an 8am park opening.
The turnstiles were already open, but as it was New Year’s Day and lots of people were obviously lying in, the crowds were really small. We managed to ride Rise of the Resistance (Lightning lane), Slinky Dog, Runaway Railway, Toy Story Mania, watch The Muppets and meet Mickey & Minnie by 10.30.
We also spent ages on the Datapad game in the Play Disney app where you have to carry out tasks around Galaxy’s Edge, which the girls really enjoyed (once we worked out what to do), met some Stormtroopers and had a ronto wrap and a num num cookie, so a pretty productive few hours.
We hadn’t made any plans for this afternoon as we didn’t know how long we’d spend at the park, but Winnie suggested going to Disney Springs (she’s the only shopper in our family!) so we decided to go with that. However, as we were walking towards the bus stop the sun came out and I suggested Blizzard Beach, which the girls were really keen on (as was I if it meant avoiding Springs!) so we headed back to the hotel as the only passengers on the bus, to get changed.
To get to Blizzard Beach on the bus we would have had to go to Animal Kingdom then transfer to another bus there, so we decided to spend the $10 (including tip) on an Uber instead.
We got there just after lunch. The weather was warm but not too sunny, and the park was very quiet. The girls and Steve had the best time going on all but the biggest slides and spending ages in the main pool with the waves and I got to sit and read which was lovely as after the busy few days we’ve had my body needed to rest. We only planned to stay a couple of hours but ended up being there until it closed at 5pm.
The girls honestly had such a good time and Polly said she never wanted the day to end. It’s funny because we had no intention of visiting a water park this trip, and it actually turned out to be one of their favourite afternoons and the perfect start to 2023. I’m so glad we’ve left the afternoons more flexible for the rest of the trip as I think deciding how you feel on any given day is definitely the best way.
Tomorrow is another early start to rope drop Animal Kingdom (extra hours start at 7.30am!) but then, other than the 5k race day, we will hopefully have a few later starts.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 