Disney World, Day 3 | Hollywood Studios

Written By Sami Laughlin

For our second full day in the parks, we set off to Hollywood Studios! We were excited for the shows, meeting character, and of course Fantasmic! But, our day didn’t exactly go to plan…

Before I tell you about our first-timer experience in Hollywood Studios, make sure to check out my other content from our first two days in Disney World:

Check out the Hollywood Studios vlog HERE!

While everyone that talks about Hollywood Studios raves about the “must do” rides (The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, etc.), we knew that those weren’t for us and opted not to get Lightning Lane Multipass for this day of our trip.

My main priorities for our Hollywood Studios day were shows, character meetings, shopping (of course), and dinner at Roundup Rodeo!

iPhone wallpaper itinerary made on Canva

A trip to Hollywood Studios from Caribbean Beach Resort means that we were planning to take our first ride on the Skyliner.

Unfortunately, the day got off to a rough start. I woke up with an upset stomach and decided that a pre-existing fear of heights mixed with not feeling well would not make for a good first experience on the Skyliner.

Alternative Transportation:

  • Some Disney resorts have specific types of transportation for certain resorts. For example, from Caribbean Beach Resort you can take a bus to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, but you can only take a Skyliner to get to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT.

  • Minnie Van transportation (which I talked about in my last post), is a luxurious private ride from any resort to any Disney destination. The only “con” is the price.

  • Uber & Lyft: We used these two ride share services as much as- or more than free Disney transportation. This is definitely not a necessity, but I can tell you that it will be go-to for us on future trips. I’m scared of heights and my other family members are prone to motion sickness, so this was a good option for us to fall back on. Most rides were roughly $10 each way, but I don’t think we paid over $15 for any trip. I’m sure prices change throughout the year, but this was our experience and well worth it in our eyes. I downloaded both apps ahead of time and compared prices whenever we wanted to go somewhere. Altogether we only spent $63 (including tips) for rideshare services during our week in Disney.

  • Drive your own car: If you drive to Disney or have a rental car there, you can drive from the resort to any of the parks and park your car for free. However, my husband drives over an hour to and from work every day and has decided when he is on vacation he doesn’t want to drive at all. We are falling in love with vacations with walking distance attractions, free transportation, or affordable ride share, haha! If we needed to tighten our budget we definitely could cut out the Uber/Lyft cost and just drive our own car, but $63 isn’t going to make or break a Disney trip in our eyes.

Even though we didn’t ride the Skyliner, the view was still amazing!

Feeling less than 100%, I decided to order an Uber ($10.91 +tip) to take us to Hollywood Studios and ditch our rope drop plans for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in exchange for a slow stroll around the park until I felt more up to things.

We left the resort at 7:45 am and arrived at Hollywood Studios at 7:53 am.

I rarely eat breakfast, but my day doesn’t start until I have a coffee in my hand. Nothing sweet or fancy…just a cold brew or pour over coffee with half and half and I am good to go. I was hoping that my “normal” breakfast would make me feel better, so we made Trolley Car Cafe our first stop of the day.

This is probably the weirdest rope drop strategy ever, hahah! I was shocked when we stepped in and there was nobody else in line. I even did a double take to make sure they were open. The workers politely flagged me in, took my order, and delivered my coffee to me with the speed of a Nascar pit stop.

Fuel in hand, we were ready to officially start our day with shopping and a stroll down Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd.

After a little shopping, I was happy to report that I was feeling much better just in time for my mother in law mentioned she was ready for breakfast. Unsure of where to go, we asked a really nice cast member at one of the Sunset Blvd. shops and she recommended Fairfax Fare.

We ordered 2 platters of Mickey Waffles and Bacon and split it three ways (2 waffles and 2 pieces of bacon for each of us), which was the perfect amount of a small quick breakfast for us.

After breakfast, we stopped at Sunset Ranch Pins and Souvenirs to investigate the mystery pin offerings. I decided not to buy any pins from this stand, but Brian finally gave in to his inner child. He caved and bought a Mickey bubble wand! We are all adults, but this little purchase put a smile on all of our faces for the rest of the trip. We even turn it on at home sometimes when we’re missing the parks, haha!

You know my motto, “always stop for the photo pass opportunity!”

So of course, we had to get this iconic shot on Hollywood Blvd. on our way to our next activity for the day!

Next up on our agenda…show time!

We saw Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. Both were absolutely fantastic and attention grabbing, but as someone who was obsessed with Frozen when it came out, knows the words to every song, has identified as Elsa (#BlondeIceQueenEnergy), and even named our dog Elsa, the Frozen show was definitely my favorite.

We were also blessed with the best Arendelle Royal Historians for the show! They are a hoot, and if you have ever been lucky enough to see them you know exactly what I’m talking about! Even though this is a “kids show” they made the experience exciting and hilarious for the whole family.

We really wanted to ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (which is a terrible tongue twister, lol), but the wait time was over 50 minutes every time we checked, so we decided to wait it out in hopes that it would come down later in the day. We never got to come back to it, but it is a definite must-do next time I’m in Disney.

After Frozen, we went over to Backlot Express for lunch.

My brief moment of feeling better was starting to fade away, so I kept it simple with some chicken tenders and fries. Side note, Disney fries are delicious!

The food wasn’t anything special and it wasn’t a magical cure to make me feel better, but I loved the theming and decor of this restaurant! Everything in Disney feels so immersive and there is so much attention to detail!

After lunch, it was time for warm hugs with Olaf!

While I love Olaf, this was my least favorite character meeting. It’s in an awkward little room with a camera that continually clicks while you are in there. There was a Photo Pass attendant, but it was the same experience that you get with other character meetings or Photo Pass locations around Disney.

This character meeting felt chaotic and the pictures afterward look a little chaotic as well, haha! But we did get some cute photos, so it was all ok!

Don’t hate me for what I’m about to say, but our first and last time in Muppet's Courtyard wasn’t anything spectacular. I was excited that we would be visiting Hollywood Studios before the closure of Muppet Vision 3D and Muppet’s Courtyard. But after seeing Muppet Vision 3D, I wasn’t sad that it was leaving.

It was not the worst show in the world, but I definitely think there are better shows on property that should have a bigger following like Muppets, haha!

However, I am not one to rain on other peoples parade, so if you loved Muppets I totally support you and I’m sorry for your loss. I definitely understand the nostalgia element and wanting more attractions that focus on the classics of the past. But personally, my excitement for the future of Monsters Inc land outweighs my sadness for the departure of Muppets.

My brother works for Coke and loves Star Wars, so I picked up one of these Coke bottles for him.

I will say it again and again, but the fully immersive theming and experience of each theme park and land in Disney is what makes visiting Disney World so magical! I am not a Star Wars girlie, but even I enjoyed and appreciated seeing the sights and sounds of Batuu in Galaxy’s Edge.

I would have loved to explore this area more, but unfortunately this is where I hit my limit for the day. The heat picked up, and I just kept feeling worse the longer we walked. I found the tiniest shade spot in Galaxy’s edge and sent Brian off to explore a little bit more, and then we decided it was best to head back to the resort instead of pushing through and making myself feel worse.

I wasn’t able to keep the Mickey balloon that Brian bought me the day before at Magic Kingdom because we were going on rides all day, but I wanted one for a keepsake so we bought another on the way back to the resort.

One of my favorite photos from our Universal Studios trip last year was in front of the Dark Room store front there. So of course, I wanted to recreate it in Hollywood Studios. As a photographer this photo is a must!

This is so much of Hollywood Studios that we didn’t get to see. It made me sad, but I knew that if I continued to push myself I would keep paying for it. I didn’t want to be miserable for the rest of our vacation, so choosing to listen to my body and rest was the best choice I could make. Thankfully, we didn’t pay for Lightning Lane Multipass on this day and we were able to cancel our reservations at Roundup Rodeo BBQ (🥲) so nothing was lost. And on the bright side, we get to explore new things next time we come to Disney!

However, this is your PSA that sometimes your magical Disney World vacation doesn’t go to plan, and sometimes heat, travel, water, theme park food, etc. can make you feel sick. Do your best to care for yourself and rest. It’s better to cut a park day short, than to have to cut the entire vacation short.

We used Lyft to go back to the resort, which cost $8.94 +tip.

Also before we left the park, I bought this little guy. I fell in love with the big foot plushies in Magic Kingdom, but hadn’t convinced myself to buy one yet. Having to end the park day early because of not feeling well felt like a pretty good excuse to buy a stuffed animal as a consolation prize, haha!

Fun fact about me, club soda is one of my favorite drinks. I literally keep Bubbly stocked in the house at all time, but it is especially great if you aren’t feeling well. Brian went to the Banana Cabana bar next to the main pool at CBR and found a club soda for me, and also discovered that club soda is free, so if you’re like me and love a sparkling water you can get it any time you feel like it!

Once we got back to the room, I changed into comfy clothes, drank my club soda, cuddled with Sven, and we all took a little nap in the ice cold A/C!

We all felt refreshed after our downtime at the resort, and while we probably could have made it back to Hollywood Studios in time for Fantasmic, we didn’t feel like rushing back into the park. We decided to give Disney Springs a try for dinner instead.

When you’re in a theme park, you don’t typically gravitate towards vegetable heavy meals. But after the events of the day, we all felt like we could benefit from a healthier meal. My mother in law and I both specifically wanted a salad, so I pulled up some menus while we were on the bus to Disney Springs and we decided to try Polite Pig.

This restaurant was a 100 out of 10 for us. If we lived close to Disney or I could DoorDash Polite Pig 6 hours away, I would eat this once a week at least! I ordered the Chipotle Cobb Salad with Smoked Chicken and subbed the dressing for regular ranch. Brian ordered ribs with crispy brussel sprouts, and his mom ordered burnt ends (I can’t remember what her side was). Everyone had positive things to say about their meals and the service of the restaurant!

Post-dinner, I was ready to experience the wonder of the World of Disney. If you love Disney shopping, you will feel like you’re shopping in a dream. This shop is the largest Disney store in the world, with over 51,000 square feet of retail space! I don’t think we actually bought anything this night, but it was so much fun to see everything and plan out our purchases for later in the week.

Everyone else wanted ice cream, and went to Salt & Straw (which they said was very good). But I had been dreaming of trying this artisan s’more from The Ganachery! When I walked in to order, there was a waiting list for the s’mores —which is a sure sign that they are going to be good!

I placed my order and walked over to watch them being made through the kitchen window. They are made with house made graham cracker cookies with a drizzle of chocolate, toasted fresh marshmallows, a thin sheet of chocolate, flaky sea salt, and then dusted with powdered sugar in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

I love a good s’more, and this definitely lived up to the hype! The house made graham cracker saw soft like a cookie, which made this dessert even more decadent —even if it was messy. 🤭

Check out the Hollywood Studios vlog HERE!

Even though this day didn’t go according to plan, it was still a great day at Disney and the magic wasn’t ruined for us at all! Overall, I am glad that we took the time to rest so that we could continue to enjoy the rest of our trip. If you haven’t watched the vlog, be sure to check it out HERE and subscribe for future videos!

Next up, we’re heading to Animal Kingdom! Be sure to check back next weekend for a wild new vlog and blog post! 🦒 (see what I did there?)

Thank you so much for reading!

With Love,
Sami 🩷

Sami Laughlin https://slaughlinco.com
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