You may remember that Marie graduated last month.  In lieu of a party, we cashed out all of our credit card bonus reward dollars to fund a Mommy-and-Marie graduation trip to Walt Disney World for four nights.

Our alarms went off at 4AM and we quickly dressed, packed our coffee, and got on the road.  We left the house right at 4:30AM, give or take a few minutes.

Our travel was far less traumatic than our last trip (Praise the Lord!), and we stopped only for quick potty breaks and some McDonald’s coffee.

This was 7:19AM

We were in the Disney Hollywood Studios parking lot by 1PM, where we lotioned, hydrated, and got on our way into the park.

We had splurged for Disney’s ride reservation system, Genie+, and as we were driving we’d been able to book a few rides for the afternoon/evening.

Our very first stop was – shopping?
Actually – it was because I was waiting to grab another “Lightning Lane” as WDW calls them.  I was eligible to grab one at 1:00PM, but an unannounced drop was expected at 1:18PM (I know things ).  Sure enough, a drop popped up and I secured another ride for our afternoon.

We headed toward the Tower of Terror.  I haven’t been on this but once ever.  And I can’t even remember when that was.   It’s not my favorite, but Marie loves it.

We saw Goofy!

1:37PM

The same dear friend who’d provided us with the precious shirts (and so much else) linked my account with hers so that we would be able to have the PhotoPass photos.  1:53PM

I was overly worried about getting dehydrated (I got over that concern quickly) and we stopped for some water.  We managed to find some friends!

2:05PM

We scooted over to Toy Story Land and stopped for some photos.
2:12PM

We rode Alien Swirling Saucers 2:21PM

And then we decided we’d stop for an early dinner (we’d had sandwiches in the car for early lunch). 

On the way we stopped for this (and many other) photos.

2:28PM

We split a pulled pork sandwich and each had a bag of baby carrots and some soda.

2:43PM

We headed back to Toy Story Land

3:08PM

And rode one of my favorite rides – Slinky Dog Dash
3:23PM

I met a friend, Karen, from my Disney message board.
3:33PM

And then we rode Toy Story Movie Mania.  I won.

4:04PM

It was really hot.  We were all but melting. 
We headed back over toward Rock and Roller Coaster, and stopped for more Photo Pass pictures.

And then got to the party on time!
4:37PM

We had some time at this point, and went and rode Star Tours (no photos) and then waited in line to meet Sorcerer Mickey and Hollywood Minnie.

6:30PM

I was ready for a snack, so we headed to Starbucks for a Carrot Cake Cookie (more like a cake).  We had perfect timing because the skies opened up and it started to POUR while we were in there.  We stayed under the awning to enjoy our treat.
6:37PM

We had accomplished so so much – WAY more than I had dared to hope.  And we’d picked up more Lightning Lanes along the way.  We decided we’d bite the bullet and get in line for Star Wars: Ride of the Resistance.  It is a ride that opened after our last visit in 2019.  The stated wait time was about 90 minutes, but we knew we could handle that.

7:29 PM – this was shortly after we’d entered the queue.  Maybe 10 minutes.

While neither of us are Huge Star Wars fans, we were blown away by the immersion.

We were off the ride by 8:30PM and then hurried over to Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railroad.  I was nervous that we might miss the fireworks scheduled for 9PM.  I almost bolted a few times, but online friends said they thought I’d be fine.

We waited and I am so glad!  The ride was excellent!

And we were outside in a great spot for the nighttime show before it started.

A few days before we had left, Reservation Finder had found me an after-closing reservation for the two of us at Oga’s Cantina.  It is a bar from one of the early Star Wars movies.  It was something we’d never done before.  It was fun.

She tried the Blue Milk,

and I had some other concoction that was refreshing. 

We were able to grab a few shots as we left.  We were tired!  We’d been up a LONG time. 

10:00PM

We found our car and made the quick drive to our hotel – Disney’s All Star Movies Resort.  (The cheapest rooms on property.)  It had a queen bed, and a queen Murphy bed. 

10::50PM – What a satisfying day!