Our third full day in Florida was spent with a day at Hollywood Studios and a night at The Boardwalk. I was looking forward to this day all week! Hollywood Studios is one of my very favorite Disney parks, and I hadn’t visited The Boardwalk since I was seven years old.
This day in particular was supposed to be the hottest day of our trip, in the mid-90s! So, we aimed to get an earlier start before it got too warm. The park was ridiculously crowded, which was something I wasn’t expecting. Hollywood Studios always seems to be a bit quieter, but not this day. I also was a little disappointed to see how much the park had changed in a year. I know it’s starting to undergo some major changes, but did they have to set up a massive Star Wars stage in front of the Graumann’s Chinese Theater replica? Or take down the Streets of USA? It kind of made me upset at first, but then I was extra glad that we got to see everything one last time during our visit last year. Time’s are changing, I guess!
Anyways, we started the day with The Great Movie Ride. In case you don’t remember, that is my favorite Disney ride of. all. time. I know, I know. It’s old, and it’s hokey. But, there’s just something so nostalgic and fun about it!
But, the real memorable thing this trip happened when we got off the ride. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never seen one Star Wars movie. It just doesn’t interest me, and I think a lot of the characters are creepy. Including those damn Storm Troopers. So, much to my dismay, two of them were patrolling the outside of the theater. One locked eyes with me, it freaked me out, and I bolted. I’m talking a dead sprint as far away from there as I could get. Never did I think that they would follow me … oh, but they did. So, that led to a few embarrassing minutes! And, instead of trying to help me, Ryan just stood by taking photos and laughing with the rest of the crowd that had gathered. One of the lower points of my life, that’s for sure. 😉
Once I recovered from the storm trooper trauma, we headed over to Tower of Terror. This ride is not our cup of tea, but we figured we had to do it since it soon will be *gone. A farewell ride of sorts. I think my face in the picture pretty much sums up how I felt about that decision. *My bad – a few of you let me know that Tower of Terror only is gone at Disneyland. Go figure – we probably wouldn’t have gone on this then. Ha!
From there, we took things at a more leisurely pace. We headed over to the Pixar area, had a quick meet-and-greet with Olaf, and even stumbled upon one of the yellow dresses that Emma Watson wears in Beauty and the Beast! Having just saw the movie last weekend (I’m OBSESSED), the dress is that much prettier in person. It’s basically a dream dress. I thought it was so neat that they had this on display!
After we finally got onto Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster, we wrapped up at the park after being there for about half a day and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner at The Boardwalk. Like I mentioned before, I hadn’t been to The Boardwalk since my first visit to Disney when I was seven. I remember it being so cute, and it’s still exactly the same! I couldn’t believe that hardly anything had changed. It was fun to just walk around to take it all in, and there even were a few street performers out for entertainment.
Trattoria Al Forno was where we decided on for dinner, and it was delicious. A decent meal, let alone Italian food, was a welcome change from park food! It was a nice, relaxing atmosphere and the service couldn’t have been better. We highly recommend this restaurant for your next trip!
And, that concludes the recap of a day at Hollywood Studios and a night at The Boardwalk! Our last day of vacation at Magic Kingdom is coming at you next week.