Time was growing short – we were already halfway through our stay here. Should we or shouldn’t we? Did we or didn’t we? Time for a decision! Finally, on Tuesday night, November 28th, an executive decision was made. Yes, we did! Hollywood Studios and specifically the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge attraction was on our itinerary for the next day. Rest up, feet!

Rob had made a Lightning Lane reservation ($27 per person) to board the Millennium Falcon starship between 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. for what we hoped would be an exciting smugglers run flight! Implemented in 2021, Lightning Lane was new to us – it had replaced the free Fast Pass system that was in place during our prior visits.

Arriving at the park shortly around 8:45 a.m. gave us plenty of time for a repeat visit to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which luckily only had a 10 minute wait. At 199 feet, it is the second tallest attraction at the Walt Disney World. It is narrated by Rod Serling who takes hotel visitors into the Twilight Zone, it is pretty terrifying! Being someone who doesn’t like heights and is terrified of roller coasters, it’s very surprising that I actually liked the stomach-churning 130-foot drop! In the mood for a dose of terror? Check this out:

Once our stomachs had settled back to where they belonged, we were looking forward to something a little bit calmer. Time for a visit with Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of Muppet Menagerie at the Muppets Vision 3D show. Not sure exactly what had changed but it was slightly different than the other times we had seen it. Always fun!

Located in the northwest corner of Hollywood Studios was our next stop. Set on 14 acres, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which opened in 2019, includes two signature attractions (Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance) as well as restaurants, shopping and more. It is set on the outer rim planet of Batuu in a village know as Black Spire Outpost, a haven for smugglers, scoundrels and a few members of the Resistance.

A typical example of Disney’s attention to detail, as we entered the Outpost, it was totally immersive – we were transported from the 3D Land of Muppets and the streets of Hollywood into a galaxy far, far away! There was so much to absorb we didn’t know where to look first! Wow!

It took us a few minutes to find our way to the Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run attraction. Outside there was a very cool, very realistic, life sized model of the Falcon.

At the entrance, there was no wait and we were allowed to enter right away. Then we passed through an engine room/mechanic shop followed by a brief stop in the command center where Audio-Animatronics of Hondo Ohnaka and R5-P8, a yellow, red and white assassin astromech droid, and one of Hondo’s guards, who explained what the ride is about.

For this ride, visitors are seated in a 6-passenger motion simulator, and go on an interactive “smuggling mission” with each guest on the attraction being assigned a different crew role, Pilot, Gunner or Engineer. The two pilots sit in the front row where the pilot on the left side moves the ship left and right and the one on the right side moves the ship up and down. In the next row are the gunners (Rob & I) who press buttons to shoot down enemies and obstacles in the way. In the back row seats are the two engineers who work to repair the ship during the flight. The story is set between the films The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and lasts about five minutes.

Awesome ride! But in all honesty, we weren’t as enthralled with it as we were with the Pandora’s Avatar Flight Of Passage ride in Animal Kingdom.

By now, we were hungry so the hunt was on for a restaurant. After roaming around for awhile, we finally ended up at the Docking Bay 7 Food And Cargo, a quick service restaurant. We could have ordered from the Mobile App but since it wasn’t very crowded, we decided not to.

After some assistance from a Cast Member located just before the registers where you would order your meal, we finally decided to order the Batuuan Beef and Crispy Topato Stir Fry which was Smoky Braised Beef glazed in Tamarind Sauce, served with Stir Fried Mushrooms and Vegetables, Crispy Herb Yucca, Pickled Onions, and Cilantro. Wow, it was excellent!

After lunch, we continued to wander around a bit taking in everything.

Since it was early afternoon and we wanted to “park hop” to Epcot, we made our way to the parking lot. More about what we did for the rest of the day in our next post.

More photos can be found here.