Stepha-Roo and Gwendolyn Too!: WDW Day 3: Hollywood Studios

Day 3! And we were still holding up great, but we had heavy pressure on this third day to be on the move to rush the park gates when they opened to sign Stephanie up for Jedi Training. At this point, we had mastered the getting into the park situation, and I went through the bag line with our things while Alaina, Kevin, Gwen and Stephanie went through the faster no bag line. They then zoomed to stand in line to get her a Jedi training spot, which, of course, worked out just fine, since we were still crushing it.
Hollywood Studios was Kevin's favorite park. It is smaller, and part was under renovation, so we had plenty of time to get good coverage of the park. Our first ride was the Tower of Terror (Alaina AND Kevin's favorite of the day), which I declined to do the last time I was at Disney. At this point, I had come to the conclusion that I could actually physically handle all the rides, so I did it. The ride had great atmosphere. It was creepy from beginning to end. I stayed behind with Gwen initially, and I went into the area behind the gift shop that I thought they would exit from, and there was a moment that I really thought I had wandered into an area that I shouldn't be, as they kept the creepy hotel basement vibe alive even through the exit of the ride.
Hollywood Studios is well on it's way to fully owning the Star Wars Franchise, so there are Stormtroopers everywhere and we all enjoyed the multiple marches with the Stormtroopers as well as the occasional interaction with them in their persona as the police of Hollywood Studios.
The Star Tours ride was an early ride for our fast pass, and I initially thought it was a super cool and super fun ride. The ride itself mostly took advantage of 3D glasses (a bit of a theme at Hollywood Studios, as we discovered) and jostled you around a bit, but after the ride, I couldn't shake the queasiness that set in during the ride. I felt crummy until after lunch (literally closing my eyes during the 3D muppet show because even that simply felt like too much after the Star Wars ride), but lunch kicked the queasiness to the curb and I was feeling fine by noon. At that point, we had fast passes to the Rock N Roller Coaster, but I was a big NO THANK YOU after the long recovery from a fairly harmless ride. Stephanie was too small (only one of two rides in all of the parks) so Alaina and Kevin got to ride twice. When Alaina described the ride as "forcing the tears from my eyes", I knew I made a good choice to do two other agenda items with the kids. First we got to meet Olaf (which was only a 5 minute wait at the time we were walking past- because we were still crushing it!). Gwen was so excited to meet Olaf, but wouldn't go near him. I did get cute pictures of Stephanie with him though. We also went to the Frozen show. We ended up, thanks to a last minute diaper change, being among the last in the theater, so our seats were right up front at a very awkward stage angle (felt like we were crushing it less at that point), but the show was fantastic! It makes me realize that I probably missed many fantastic shows in my pursuit of all the rides- but I still don't regret pursing the rides heavily!
Stephanie also got to do the Jedi Training (you know, why we rushed into the park)- which involves going on stage with a group of about 30 other kids and being "trained" to be a Jedi. Ultimately, they get to fight either Darth Vader or the Seventh Sister. If you don't know who the Seventh Sister is, join the club. Stephanie ended up fighting her, and I was SO disappointed for her. After the whole thing, she expressed absolutely no disappointment at not fighting Darth Vader, which made me feel so much better. She just had a blast being up there for the training, which is all I needed to happen.
Next we fast passed Toy Story Mania, and I have to say this was probably my favorite ride in all 4 parks. I think this is partly because I had no expectations for the ride, and we all came off of it and declared that we all MUST GO AGAIN! So we waited in the "45" minute line (ended up being closer to 20) and then waited in line again, because we all got such a kick out of it. The line being shorter than advertised was a bonus, because that was the only line we waited in the whole time that was significantly different than the posted wait times. But hey, when you are crushing Disneyworld, I think you should expect this kind of thing!
The last big moment came as a result of my hunt for Star Wars pressed pennies. We hadn't wandered into one last Star Wars area, and we did so because I wasn't satisfied with the pressed pennies options in the other areas. It was there that we realized we could meet Chewbacca after a short 20 minute wait and then check out some Star Wars memorabilia. I would have liked to have had more time in the area, but it was time to head out for church and dinner. BUT Alaina found some excellent pressed pennies while we were in line for Chewbacca, so mission accomplished!
We drove off site that night for church and decided to eat dinner off site since we were already out. I think the most stressful part of the trip was this part- between church being hard with Gwen (no nap on Day 3!) and GPS really not wanting to cooperate with our chosen destination, it was exhausting and frustrating. BUT Alaina got to introduce me to the joys of the Fuddruckers kids meal (which is a crazy amount of food for most sdults at kid's meal prices) and we all made it back to our hotel in one piece. I like to think if it as a lesson- NEVER leave the site of Disney- Orlando is WAY less magical!