Disney New Year: Hollywood Studios Rope Drop

We finally did a proper rope drop day:  up and out of bed and parked in the front row ready to dash to Slinky Dog.  And much like the fog looming over Tower of Terror, our day was off to an inauspicious start!  We were a little slow back to the line thanks to our official first rope drop (the bathroom) and then there was an announcement that Slinky and Rise of the Resistance were not going to be opening right at park open.   We've had that foot fault with Rise before but not Slinky.   I wasn't sure how long it would be down and chose not to pivot so we gambled and lost.   We waited around 45 minutes and it didn't come back up, and then we lost first comers advantage at any other ride.   However....we did have a cool start coming up.

We went to Galaxy's Edge as there was a short line for Smuggler's Run.   And just as we got there, the Rise of the Resistance ride must have reopened and everyone abandoned Smuggler's for it?   That's all I can figure out as to why an hour after park opening, we ended up walking onto the Millennium Falcon ride.   And even cooler than that, we ran into a family of three who wanted to ride "Chewie Mode" and were looking for a party of three to fill the cockpit.   Most people don't know about this hack nor would they be interested in it (and easily talked into it in line by strangers), but we were on board!   I volunteered for a backseat engineer spot and video taped it.   It was too big to upload or send so I'll have to figure out how to YouTube it. 

After that adrenaline boost, we checked ride times again and everything, everywhere was a mess.   We stood in a longer than it should be line for Star Tours and then a few others things.   I'm not even sure anymore!  We left shortly after noon and had lunch back at the room, since we had groceries and our dinner reservation for California Grill was early that evening.

California Grill is our favorite restaurant on property and we try to go on most trips.   Their brunch buffet was the best meal, but that never came back after COVID.   We had the early seating at 7:15, so that gave us plenty of time to get home and cleaned up with our early park departure.   We had our orders in and our drinks in hand when the fireworks started, so the timing was perfect!  It's so hard to get a good picture from inside, but our table had a lovely view.   We went outside to the terrace to watch the fireworks show.

Tron show building view looks great

Back inside we enjoyed our prix fixe meal (they switched to that to celebrate the 50th anniversary).   I had sushi appetizer, filet entree and creme brulee dessert - all favorites I've had before.   John tried the new venison entree and a peanut butter dessert and both were fantastic!

 After dinner we had to check out the gingerbread display at the Contemporary and go through all the gift shops for anything new/unique before calling it a night!   That made our total count for the trip to be four of the gingerbread masterpieces:  Grand Floridian, Beach Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Contemporary.   That is the order of amazingness that I rank them in.