2025 Dopey Challenge Recap: Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Departure

Hollywood Studios

With my Dopey Challenge behind me, I welcomed the ability to "sleep in" and just enjoy a day at Hollywood Studios. Granted, we were still up early enough to catch the Skyliner into the park well ahead of Early Entry rope drop. Hollywood Studios is a favorite for my kids between the Toy Story Land rides and the immersive Galaxy's Edge. I had a good lineup of early morning Lightning Lanes and a decent plan for the day, so I was excited to get going.

Our first stop during Early Entry was to head straight toward Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. It was a favorite ride of ours as our entire family could join in - plus it's a great ride. We were amongst the first several guests in line, and as the park officially opened we got on the ride pretty quickly. Our youngest, a big fan of Mickey and friends, had a great time to kick off our day.

We then made our way to Toy Story Land where we had back-to-back Lightning Lanes at Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania. We still had some time in Early Entry before our 9:05 Slinky Dog Dash reservation, so we used Rider Switch to go on Alien Swirling Saucers. We then made our way to Slinky Dog Dash, where I rode first with my son (who lists Slinky Dog as his #1 ride at Disney World) while my wife and daughters got on Toy Story Mania, then we switched and I took my youngest over to Woody's Lunch Box for some lunchbox tarts and coffee. Around 10am we did our family ride on Toy Story Mania, and we were off to Galaxy's Edge.

If Toy Story Land is the section of the park to enjoy the rides and move on (especially if it's hot and there's no shade), Galaxy's Edge is definitely a section to take in slowly. There's always so much to see and hear while you make your way around all the nooks and crannies of the area. We all split a couple Ronto Wraps (we unfortunately just missed the superior breakfast versions), and my kids wandered around the different shops. I was able to get Lightning Lanes for Millenium Falcon Smugglers Run, where I was an Engineer with my daughter. I'm always an Engineer, but my daughter didn't seem to mind taking on her responsibilities of hitting a bunch of buttons for the ride. We then used our Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, which I still think is the best overall ride experience at Disney World. My youngest had fallen asleep in the stroller, so I took her to Backlot Express to grab a Wookie Cookie while the rest of my crew went on Rise. In between Rider Switch rides we got to see the Mandalorian and "Baby Yoda", and after I got on Rise with my son we made our way out of Galaxy's Edge.

Like many others, I was pretty disappointed to hear about the closing of MuppetVision 3D. Muppets are always great (Statler and Waldorf are my personal favorites), and it was always fun sharing the show with my kids in all its goofy glory. Enjoying one last show was somewhat bittersweet, but it was nice to settle in and appreciate all the jokes and moments. I'm hopeful Disney World can keep the Muppets in the parks, and hopefully in more iterations than a retheme of the Rock n' Roller Coaster.

After MuppetVision, we caught the Frozen Sing Along show before heading over to Animation Courtyard. I took my older two kids into Star Wars Launch Bay for some photos with Darth Vader and BB-8 while my youngest got a photo with Pluto. Then we did the Disney Jr. Dance Party, and made our way down Sunset Boulevard.

Our day took a turn in the afternoon, starting with Tower of Terror. I tried prepping my kids with a ride video before our trip to see if they'd be up for riding it for the first time. My son went on first with my wife, but when they exited he was a bit freaked out by the pre-drop elements. I decided against riding it solo, and we headed over to Rock n' Roller Coaster. This was my wife's favorite ride, and with my son a little shaken up from Tower of Terror my daughter mustered the courage to go. However, she was a couple inches short of being able to ride, so I now had two kids who were a bit upset. I grabbed a popcorn refill and headed over to the Beauty and the Beast show to settle down. By the time my wife got off the coaster we were in better shape and ready for dinner.

I had booked a reservation for Sci Fi Drive In Diner, which I had never been to but thought would be a perfect way to decompress and enjoy a cheeseburger in peace. Unfortunately, it did not turn out this way. While the ambience was really cool and the burgers hit the spot (my kids enjoyed the chicken tenders and corn dog nuggets as well), the "sci fi" aspect got the better of us. While everything started out fine, my kids were getting progressively creeped out by the monster movie trailers to the point where my daughter had to hid in the backseat with us. My son even turned away during some of the clips, whereas I had to console my daughter and convince her to eat during the cartoon shorts. So I recommend to parents with young kids that if they're the least bit sensitive to old movies or monsters they should probably go elsewhere. While the movie clips are pretty tame by today's monster movie clips, I think the combination of black and white images and "monster" music got to them. I would definitely choose this restaurant again in the future, but maybe when the kids get a bit older.

So now it had gotten dark outside, rain was threatening, and my kids were suddenly not having the greatest time. I was inclined to quit and head back to the resort, but we didn't want to leave on a low note. I had booked another Lightning Lane for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway and we decided to go for it. It was just as good as the first ride, and it gave us a bit of a boost. It started drizzling a bit when we got out, but my wife saw a 15 minute wait for Slinky Dog Dash so we decided to get further from the exit and try our luck. A couple coaster rides later and spirits were back up while the weather cleared up. The park was near closing time and we booked it over to Fantasmic. Normally we'd have to line up much earlier for a spot, but the crowd had lightened up from the brief rain and we were able to get good seats with about 10 minutes until showtime. Fantasmic is my favorite nighttime show at Disney World, and it was a great way to end the very full day. We dragged our worn out kids back to the Skyliner and got some sleep before our last day at Disney World.

Magic Kingdom and Departure

Departure day from Disney World is always the toughest. Our shuttle to the airport wasn't leaving until 3:30pm, so I had planned to have a chill day at Magic Kingdom where we focused on taking our time and enjoying the park as it unfolded in front of us. However, I couldn't help myself in trying to squeeze out a bit more from the trip. The night before I looked at the Lightning Lane Multipass and saw a late morning timeslot for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It quickly became my daughter's favorite ride from our previous Magic Kingdom day, and I knew it would otherwise take up a big portion of the day if we tried riding standby. So I pulled the trigger and sprung for the Lightning Lanes.

The theme of our day seemed to be trying to do a bit too much. Given we were checking out, it took a bit more time than anticipated getting out and on the bus. We got to the park right around the official park opening, missing Early Entry and a head start on rides. We decided to start with it's a small world before sharing a giant cinnamon roll from Gaston's Tavern. I was still intent on trying to take things slow, so we ambled over to our morning Lightning Lane at Under the Sea before heading into Tomorrowland.

We rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin as a family before splitting up for a Rider Switch at Tron. I took my daughters on the Peoplemover and shared a Mickey pretzel, then we met back up and headed over to Philharmagic. We grabbed the same early lunch as before: Spicy chicken waffle for me, hot dog for my older daughter, and Columbia Harbor House for the rest of my family. We then did Rider Switch at Tiana's, which still took well over an hour for all of us to get in our rides. Based on the ride photos, it was well worth the money to see my kids enjoying themselves.

We probably should have stopped there, but I had a Tron RIder Switch pass and my son was excited to use his Rider Switch pass as well. So we raced to the back of the park to get in one last ride. It was definitely a good thrill, but when it came time to reconnect with the rest of my crew we ran into a snag. I knew the buses from the park to the resort can be hit-or-miss based on timing and I worried about running into the parade crowd. People were already lining up on Main Street, but my wife and daughters had gotten stuck on their last it's a small world ride. Eventually they fought their way through the crowd and we hit the bathrooms at the front of the park before rushing to the buses.

As I feared, we waited several minutes for a bus as I started getting text messages from the stoller pickup representative. A Pop Century bus actually showed up first and we rushed to get on it thinking it would be faster to run through the two resort pools than wait. But of course we sat and watched an Art of Animation bus show up a few minutes later and leave before ours did. So we ran through the resorts and I was able to get our bags and drop off the stroller just in time. It was about 3:15 at this point and although we wanted to take one more look around the gift shop, the shuttle was already parked at the resort and we went ahead and boarded. I will say that for as much trouble as we had with Mears Connect from the airport late at night, going from the resort to the airport was a breeze.

We had a very packed and very successful trip to Disney World, and our crew was sad to go but excited to get back. My personal highlights were running the 5k with my son, experiencing my older daughter's cackling ride through Tiana's, and seeing my youngest daughter hug every single character in sight. If I had one takeaway it was that I tried to fit in a bit too much in our last half-day. I will have to remember that less can be more - although that's not ultimately the Ultra Dopey way.