Hello from Hollywood! We’re starting our day from Disney’s Hollywood Studios during this holiday weekend, and hoping crowds will be a little bit tamer than they were yesterday. We’re armed with a boarding group from the 7am distribution and with some fairly chilly weather awaiting us, we’re hoping to get our hands on a sparsely available treat. Will we be successful? Let’s find out!

Early on, crowds were about normal for rope drop of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It makes sense that they would be, as only so many people can get through temperature and security checks at a time, even if capacities are higher.

A few days ago, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith received an updated poster outside of the attraction, but it turns out that wasn’t the only attention the exterior received. This sign for Rock Around the Shop, the exit gift shop, got a little love in the form of replacing missing letters for the shop name.

Miss Piggy and the Muppets courtyard fountain had their refresh at the beginning of last year, and she still looks good in the morning sun.

Unfortunately, there has still been no word about when any of the shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios might reopen — For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration excluded — which includes Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage.

Taking a look at the mobile order menu for Ronto Roasters, we have finally achieved our cold weather objective: the Spiced Surabat Cider.

This cider is served only on the coldest of Batuu days, which are about as infrequent as they are in Florida. For all of the details on when and how to get this drink, and our thoughts on the elusive beverage, click here to check out our review post.

If you look hard enough in Galaxy’s Edge, or sometimes if you aren’t looking at all, you’ll find some strange and unique things all throughout the land.

Now it’s our turn to hop on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. It was a pretty smooth boarding process today, taking only 15 minutes in line before reaching the first preshow.

Lieutenant Bek was on hand to guide us through the following stages of our adventure.

He couldn’t do it without the help of some R5 droids, though.

Despite how many First Order enemies opposed us, we eventually made it out safely.

On that note, it’s time to head to the opposite end of the park and down Sunset Boulevard where a few new pieces of merchandise await.

Today, we located two new pairs of lounge pants and two pairs of boxer briefs, featuring the likenesses of dalmations, Mickey Mouse, and Green Army Men from Toy Story.

On our way out, we caught the motorcade with the catchiest music, the Disney Junior Stars Motorcade. Naturally, that earworm of a tune would be with us all day.

Now, it’s time to hop to EPCOT!

We were met with a weird sight at EPCOT — the complete lack of a line at Spaceship Earth. While the park was in no way as empty as this line might indicate, sometimes timing is everything and you can find near walk-ons when you don’t really expect them.

Heading further into Future World, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind continues its slow progress towards completion — hopefully at some point in 2021. Most work over the past week has been related to this framing on the exterior of the structure, with the roof sitting stagnant since the wood panels were installed.

Innoventions East, home to Mouse Gear in all of its past, present, and future forms, has been receiving most of the attention lately, with tons of framing and glass being added in and around the space.

Conversely, and despite having a permit recently filed, Liquid Layer has seen no movement over the course of the last four months since being walled off.

Over at the Gran Fiesta Tour, you might simply be expecting an update on whether or not the Donald Duck animatronic has returned. Well, there’s a little more going on today than that.

New barriers have been added to the attraction in an attempt to prevent guests from prematurely exiting their boat, which causes massive delays and problems for both Cast Members and guests. There are panels featuring the likenesses of the Three Caballeros, including Donald.

The duck in question has not returned to the big finale scene with Panchito and Jose, however.

Within the Italy Pavilion, work continues on patching up the La Gelateria stand, which was trucked in as several different pieces a week ago.

In the U.K. Pavilion, Mary Poppins continues to make her physically distanced, and quite proper, meet and greets in the garden adjacent to the The Tea Caddy shop. You’ll often find Mary or Alice here throughout the day.

Our final stop of the day, we checked out what the artists were up to on the bridge to Showcase Plaza, and as one might expect they were hard at work creating colorful works of art for guests’ enjoyment. The quality and quantity of work they’re able to apply to either side of the bridge are always impressive, and part of why the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts is many people’s favorite festival.

We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s park hopping adventure between Disney’s Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. If you enjoy our Photo Reports, you’ll love our Instagram account — click here and follow WDWNT for all of the best pictures and news from the Disney parks!