The Jarvii 
I have a love/hate relationship with this park. The first (and only) time I visited here I was 10 years old and it was then called MGM Studios. Same concept about all the big blockbuster movies Disney was associated with, except then it also included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But my distinct memory from this place is being absolutely miserable because I started to get sick (turns out I had the flu).
Anyhoo, I was back and I was determined to have a good time.
We got there just before 9am to make our Slinky Dog Lightning Lane. And as you can see by the picture, the standby line was already way too long (thank you Genie+). It was a fun coaster, especially for kids who love Toy Story. Probably not the best, but still fun.
Afterwards we made our way to watch the Muppet Show before our next Lightning Lane (Alien Swirling Saucers). I forgot how much Disney loves 3D, but then tries to up the ante and does 4D. I used to think 3D was so cool as a kid. But now it makes me cross eyed sometimes and it’s just not good as an overall experience. It also doesn’t help that my husband works on VR headsets. I bet my older kids feel the same way.
Regardless, the kids were still entertained by the Muppets. You can’t go wrong with them right? It’s also a nice reprieve from the heat if you’re looking for one.
When we were done, we made our way back to Toy Story Land to ride Alien Swirling Saucers. It’s a combination of tea cups and the whipping ride thing you see at carnivals. My daughters enjoyed the ride; my son hates things that spin so he sat this one out.
When we were done we tried to race over to do the Disney Junior Dance Party, but just missed it. So we met Fancy Nancy, took some pictures, and got a signature. Afterwards we had some snacks and waited around for the next showing. I highly recommend this show if your kids are into the Disney Channel at all. My kids, including the toddler, were dancing and having a great time–it was pretty awesome!
Afterwards we made our way to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. My husband was a bit skeptical about this and neither of my older kids have seen an Indiana Jones film. Ultimately, they all really enjoyed it especially my daughter who enjoyed how “the lady protected herself by beating up the boys”. Haha. She’s also very skittish about movies (it took her a long time to warm up to Frozen cause she thought it was too scary). But because she saw how it was fake and the behind the scenes stuff, everything wasn’t scary anymore. And guess what folks? This thing is still the same 30 years later! The “director” actually said that they have been doing this show for 33 years now!!!
At that point it was time for us to ride Rise of the Resistance! The build up to it was pretty awesome. You are then eventually funneled into this room where a bunch of storm troopers watch you. Unfortunately for us we were stuck in there for at least 15 minutes, probably more!!! They got on the intercom to say that they were experiencing some problems with the ride. I eventually got on the Disney app to chat with a cast member because we were going to miss our lunch reservations at 50s Prime Time Cafe!!!
Eventually they opened the doors and funneled us to a hallway. Ordinarily, cast members are quite friendly people. But on this ride they are totally in character as people working for the Dark Side, so they can be quite mean. At that point we were already annoyed we waited so long causing us to miss our lunch reservations (and mind you, we should have had ample time since our return time was an hour before our reservation).
You are then put on a vehicle driven by a droid, and it was pretty awesome! If you’ve ever been to Legoland, it’s the same technology as one of their rides–a car goes around a trackless room, but Rise was like multiple crazy ass rooms. It’s pretty amazing. Obviously Rise was so much better and did a lot of cool things (I don’t want to spoil it for you). I can easily see why the wait for this ride is so freaking long (at one point the standby line was 3 hours long!). I think I would have loved it more if I wasn’t so annoyed about being stuck in there.
Afterwards, we met up with my parents and toddler and made our way to eat some pizza at PizzeRizzo. Their pizza portions are quite generous and my kids loved it. Apparently their pizzas had the right ratio of sauce to cheese. Adult meals also come with a salad, which was nice. Though we were disappointed about missing our reservation, we were quite pleased with PizzeRizzo.
My son and I were done first and he was really itching to meet Olaf, of all people at Disney. At that point the app said it was just a 15 minute wait. So we beelined over there to wait for Olaf. When we got there the wait was posted at 30 minutes. I asked if he still wanted to wait, and he said yes. Eventually the rest of the family caught up with us, and at that point we clearly were waiting there over the 30 minute posted wait. In the end I believe we waited an hour, but the kids were super happy to have met Olaf and get a picture with him. They were disappointed they couldn’t get his signature; I think they stopped allowing signatures to get through the queue quicker.
When we were done it was time for our us to ride Smugglers Run. Now this was a really cool ride! It’s kind of like a video game ride and my kids totally wanted to do it again to get a better score. Not sure how accurate the scoring was per se, but it was a really cool ride.
After that we made our way to the classic, Star Tours. My son is prone to motion sickness quite easily, but he said that this ride was fine. It’s definitely a far cry from Smugglers Run even though it’s the same type of ride. Star Tours is definitely showing its age and could do for an upgrade some how.
After that, my husband, parents, and toddler went off to see the Frozen show (which they absolutely loved), while my brother and I took the kids for their appointment to build lightsabers.
There are two Star Wars experiences you can do at Hollywood Studios–lightsabers and building a droid. Building the lightsabers was totally on point with the fanfare. If you are a huge Star Wars fan (which me and the kids are not), you should totally do this experience. The cast members who were playing characters from Star Wars were fantastic, the script was great, and just the general fanfare made you really believe you were one step closer to being a real Jedi. It was really awesome to observe. Again, I am not a Star Wars person and the kids have never seen any of the films. It is also super expensive, but again it was such a well put together experience.
When we were done, we met the family at Backlot Express for dinner. And at that point the toddler and my parents were wiped. So my husband helped them get back to the resort after dinner, while my brother, the kids, and I had time to kill before our droid building appointment.
We made our way to Hollywood Scoops, which seemed to be the only place that had ice cream past 7pm! Weird, right?! So we enjoyed a little ice cream and the “snow” on Sunset Boulevard.
The droid building I think is fun for little kids and general Star Wars enthusiasts, but not necessarily a must do for the Star Wars hard core. Having said that, it was pretty cool to customize your own droid. Finding the parts was kind of confusing though. The conveyor belt had a lot of different parts, and the sign they had to tell you what to do was a picture (no reading). I guess that’s meant to help little kids understand what to do. But it was hard to tell what legs would be appropriate for each droid. Thankfully there were many cast members around to answer your questions. Once you have all your parts, you build your droid. You add little plastic things, the cast member syncs up a remote control, and you’re done!
My kids actually really enjoy their droids. The droids also interact with each other, so the cast members tell you to turn them off at night otherwise you’ll get creepy droids talking to each other. Top Tip: Don’t buy the personality chip right away when you pay for the droid experience. Build your droid first. When you’re done, you can go to the personality chip wall where a cast member will happily let you hear what each personality sounds like. My daughter, of course, got the friendly one and my son got the one with the R2-D2 scream. They are both quite happy with their choices.
Afterwards we had a Lightning Lane for the Aerosmith roller coaster. But everyone was pretty tired, even my roller coaster loving gal. So we canceled them and called it a night to head back to the resort.
Overall, Hollywood Studios is an amazing place. But I left there not feeling very satisfied, I think because there were so many rides I wanted to do but there were too many people there and Genie+ said Lightning Lanes were no longer available and the queues were just hours long. Not sure what they can do about it, but it kind of sucks. I always go back and forth about this place because my kids loved it, I just don’t have that same amount of love.
