Bright suns from Batuu! We’re spending the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today, and quite a bit of time at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as part of the visit. We’re also checking out the rest the park has to offer, including some terrifying new merchandise and many character interactions.

First thing in the morning, it looked like it was going to be a busy day at the Studios. While not quite as busy as yesterday, this would turn out to be mostly true.

Curiously, despite the huge influx of guests at opening, The Darkroom and Celebrity 5 & 10 did not open alongside the rest of the park at 10:00am.

Global pandemic or not, long lines will never cease to form for Starbucks. Perhaps they should add their wait time to the My Disney Experience app.

As usual, guests battled at 10:00am for boarding groups to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. However, obtaining even boarding group 1 today didn’t necessarily help you avoid downtime, as the attraction went down within its first 20 minutes of operation today.

Rise of the Resistance’s early downtime at least partially contributed to a 70 minute wait for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run shortly after opening.

While queuing up alongside the Millennium Falcon isn’t the worst thing ever, 70 minutes can be a bit surprising for guests expecting “no crowds” and for all attractions to be a walk-on. That simply isn’t the case at any of the Walt Disney World parks, least of all Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Despite a lack of easily accessible attractions, there are other experiences available on Batuu. For example, the market is host to a variety of otherworldly goods.

Though, if we’re being honest, the baskets of the new “The Child” plush are the main attraction.

Droid Depot is still offering up their droid building experience, albeit with a handful of adjustments for health and safety.

Likewise, Dok-Ondar is still hosting guests in his Den of Antiquities, with similar safety measures.

Naturally, you can find a variety of ships strewn about within Galaxy’s Edge.

Some of those craft will have characters in the area, some more peaceful than others.

Resistance “sympathizers” will find some allies on Batuu, like Rey, Vi, and Chewbacca.

Heading “off planet”, more character interactions could be had, though more of the Pixar variety than Star Wars.

That doesn’t mean Star Wars merchandise is limited to Galaxy’s Edge, though, as this “The Child” mini figure was available right here on Earth!

Also available on Earth were some long waits for attractions, with Slinky Dog Dash offering up a 50 minute wait in the late morning.

Walt Disney Presents is once again showing One Man’s Dream, after offering a preview of Onward before the park closing in March.

Heading down Sunset Boulevard, progress on the exterior refurbishment of Legends of Hollywood has been crawling along. Neon has yet to reappear on and around the signage, unfortunately.

As long as the Hollywood Tower Hotel remains at the end of the boulevard, we can mostly forgive missing neon.

Not only were we treated by the mere presence of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, but new merchandise making an appearance certainly improved our day. The new items include an ornate keychain, shirt, door hanger, and more. If you haven’t checked out our full post on the new items, click here to view the exciting details.

The hotel’s neighbor, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, had a couple new items of its own. This license plate magnet is one of those new pieces.

New pins were also available, those these were found just outside the gates to the park at Movieland Memorabilia. The logo and license plate pins sell for $12.99 and $9.99, respectively.

Back at the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we were also spooked by new Vampire Teddy and The Mayor plush, which joined a larger line of The Nightmare Before Christmas plush which appeared elsewhere in Walt Disney World last weekend.

Rounding out our day back on Hollywood Boulevard, guests had either dispersed to other spots in the park, or called it a day after hitting a few of their favorite attractions and dealing with the heat.

Outside the gates, late-arriving guests were reminded of what they should already know – the opportunity to ride the marquee attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, has passed.

That’s it for today from Disney’s Hollywood Studios. For real-time updates from Disney parks around the world, make sure to follow @WDWNT on Twitter. ‘Til the spires!