1-Day Hollywood Studios Itinerary
Our 1-Day Hollywood Studios itinerary is an efficient step-by-step plan & strategy for minimizing time waiting in lines, maximizing rides, and avoiding crowds at Walt Disney World. It covers attractions, restaurants, shows, and includes Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. (Updated May 12, 2022.)
This Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS) touring plan has been overhauled for the start of Summer 2022, taking into account the return of shows, character meet & greets, and attraction refurbishments. The plan also factors changes for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, Early Entry, standby line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Genie+ Lightning Lanes–the the paid replacement for free FastPass.
Suffice to say, a lot has changed in the last year or so from a strategy perspective. Thankfully, Disney’s Hollywood Studios has largely returned to normal, with most stage shows and entertainment now back. The one conspicuous omission is Fantasmic, and the lack of that nighttime spectacular has a big impact on crowd dynamics. Accordingly, this is our revised 1-day Disney’s Hollywood Studios itinerary for Summer 2022…
This itinerary assumes you will not be buying those line-skipping services nor will you be taking advantage of Early Entry. If you do plan on spending the extra, consult our 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
If you’re staying on-site and can arrive early, check out our report on Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Either of those things will give you a big advantage, but neither are strictly necessary for a productive day in DHS. You’ll just spend more time waiting in standby lines without Early Entry or Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and you’ll need/want to stay later in the day.
Fortunately, there are still ways to outsmart the crowds without buying Genie+ or being eligible for Early Entry. With that said, if you want to know which of those (and other) approaches is best, see our new Genie+ v. Savvy Standby Strategy at Walt Disney World, which details the best and worst ways to save time in lines.
This post continues our series of Walt Disney World Park Itineraries & Touring Plans designed to answer the frequently asked question, “what would you do in an ideal day at the park?” With Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway plus all of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge now open, including both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, there’s more to do here, and we once again recommend spending a full day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
However, it also can be a very challenging and frustrating day because the attraction lineup is very top heavy, consisting almost largely of highly popular rides. Unlike virtually every other park at Walt Disney World, DHS is lacking in the “supporting players” department. Which is to say there are very few low hassle attractions and shows that are easy to do with minimal wait to round out your day or kill time.
Unlike all of our other WDW touring plans, our strategy for Disney’s Hollywood Studios starts prior to the day of your visit…
DHS Rope Drop – For an ideal experience at DHS, we recommend arriving to the park about 30 before official opening time, and picking up this itinerary from there.
If you’re staying on-site and are eligible for Early Entry, we’d strongly recommend arriving 45 minutes before the official start time of that.
Avoid Towering Lines, Terrifying Waits! – Unfortunately, if you’re staying off-site and are arriving for official park opening, you’re going to be behind the crowd, making both Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance bad options for starting the day.
The good news is that there’s a prime opportunity to “zig when they zag” right at the start of the day. This is because the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is currently receiving a “stealth” refurbishment, with one elevator shaft down. The whole process could last through Summer 2022, perhaps beyond. This means Tower of Terror is effectively operating at half-capacity.
As a result, Tower of Terror currently has a higher average daily wait time (119 minutes) than Slinky Dog Dash (111 minutes) right now. Despite this, most guests arriving for Early Entry do not prioritize Tower of Terror, nor do those arriving for normal rope drop. Outsmart them by heading to the other end of the park for the Sunset Boulevard attractions.
During the first hour, wait times for Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror should be relatively low. Start with Tower of Terror, and then follow that by doing the Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster while you’re in the neighborhood–you might even be able to do the latter twice before crowds build. Our actual waits for these rides early in the day have been under 20 minutes regardless of posted wait times.
Hollywood Dreams – By the time you’re done on Sunset Boulevard, all attractions will be at or near their peak wait times for the day. This is an unfortunate reality at Disney’s Hollywood Studios–wait times get long earlier than any other park. The first bit of good news is that it’ll work to your advantage later in the day.
The second bit of good news is that, currently, character meet & greets lag behind other attractions in having long wait times. Get ahead of the crowds by doing Red Carpet Dreams, which is the Minnie and Mickey Mouse meet & greet. This currently averages a 61 minute wait time throughout the day, but should have an actual wait time of under 30 minutes when you arrive.
Snow-Monster-Men Meets – If you’re into character meet & greets, continue with the park’s other options. Start by prioritizing Sulley from Monsters, Inc. inside Walt Disney Presents. This also will have a long wait time later in the day (average is 36 minutes).
Follow that up with Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight. This meet & greet does not have long lines later in the day, so save it for later if you want.
Go See A Star War: Episode I – Once you’re finished with the characters, bounce to the other side of the park and do Star Tours: the Adventures Continue and see Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Don’t be afraid to slow down and enjoy some of the atmosphere on Batuu–it’s the least crowded Galaxy’s Edge will be until the evening hours.
It may seem like you’re “wasting” valuable time in the morning by perusing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge especially after only doing a few rides, but that’s not true. These shops and marketplace stalls will all have lines later in the day.
Early Lunch – During the middle of the day, you’re going to have some time to kill while waiting for wait times to drop. Fortunately, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is home to two of the Best Themed Restaurants at Walt Disney World.
Definitely book Advance Dining Reservations for right around noon at 50’s Prime Time Cafe or Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. Disregard the negative reviews, as the experience at both restaurants is the star of the show. Personally, I think both serve pretty good food, too. (Note that both are incredibly hard Advance Dining Reservations to score right now; Hollywood Brown Derby is also a great pick if you can’t book either of the other two.)
Shows & Stuff – Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a bunch of shows that are worth seeing. These include the Frozen Sing-along, Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, and MuppetVision 3D.
No strategy is required for seeing these, just do them at your leisure around their scheduled showtimes. They seldom have actual waits or lines, and are a good way to fill the middle of the day while the rides have long standby queues.
In particular, we highly recommend MuppetVision 3D–to skip it would be distinctly unpatriotic. Consider spending some time in the pre-show area and overflow queue at MuppetVision, as there are some hilarious Easter Eggs all around.
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular is also a ton of fun, a blockbuster production worthy of its “epic” name. Definitely make sure you watch (at least) both of those; these shows are great ways to kill times while waiting for standby wait times to drop on the park’s headliner rides.
Midday Break – In every touring scenario we’ve run for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it doesn’t take a full day to finish the park. That’s true even on busier days. However, rather than leaving early, we recommend a midday break–whether that means going back to your hotel for a swim or staying in the park and perusing the gift shops or doing more of the aforementioned stage shows.
Another option is to caffeinate by heading to Trolley Car Cafe (the Starbucks location at Disney’s Hollywood Studios) for coffee. Oh, and while you’re there, grab one of the two Best Snacks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Dinner – If you’ve somehow already worked up an appetite and still have time to kill, consider doing another meal. Ideally, whichever of the two table service restaurants you didn’t do above. If you’re more in a drinking and snacking mood, give BaseLine Tap House a try (food spreads pictured above).
Another option is Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. That’s currently one of the best counter service restaurants at Walt Disney World.
Late Train to Runnamuck Park – While it might be tempting to run(away) to the newest headliner attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to start your day, the better option is doing Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway about 3 hours before park closing.
There are three benefits to this approach. First, that’s when its line is shortest, so you’re waiting the least amount of time. Second, the queue is mostly outdoors, and the sun can be brutal earlier in the day. Finally, this attraction is at the front of the park, and has the longest lines while guests are arriving or leaving. The sweet spot for short lines is a few hours before park closing.
Go See A Star War: Episode II — With about 2.5 hours left in the day, we recommend blasting off to Batuu once again. It’s better to spend the bulk of your time in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge later in the day rather than in the morning for a couple of reasons. First, crowds are actually worst in the morning and get progressively better as the day wears on.
Second, because Star Wars Land is simply better as the day goes on (ideally after sunset, but that option is off the table right now). The lighting adds a lot to the moody off-planet atmosphere, and makes the experience even more immersive.
While you’re in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, be sure to do Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run followed by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance via the standby line. Do the attractions in that order, and expect Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance to take about an hour, even if the posted wait time for the standby line is 90 minutes or longer. (Barring a breakdown, it’ll take far less time than the posted wait time suggests.)
Toy Story Land Mania – After finishing up Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, you should have about an hour–maybe less–left in the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Once you’re in Toy Story Land, start with Toy Story Mania, which should have a 30 minute or less actual wait. (Skip Alien Swirling Saucers.) Then bounce to Slinky Dog Dash with however much time is left in the evening, for its shortest line of the day. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to do it more than once–but don’t hold your breath on that!
After that, take the time for a slow stroll out of the park upon exiting, taking your time to look at and photograph all the beautiful neon signs. The good news here is that even though it’ll be dark out, the neon is so bright that it’s easy to photograph at night.
All in all, it should conclude a pretty satisfying day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This park is so much better than it was just a few years ago–it’s now unquestionably a full day park and one that is free of visible construction. The added good news is that Disney’s Hollywood Studios should further improve once more of the stage shows start to return. That has already happened with the Frozen Sing-Along, so hopefully the others will follow suit soon!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!
Your Thoughts
What would you include in your ideal day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Would you recommend visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios to a first-timer? If you haven’t visited Walt Disney World, what do you plan on doing? Do you agree or disagree with our strategy or plan of attack? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Thank you for the update! My only fear is holding off on the Star Wars rides until later since I’ve heard the tend to break down.
I agree Lisa, while the breakdowns are less common, the ride did break twice when we were there. If you DON’T use a LL for Rise, only have ONE day at the studios and the ride is a must, I would not take any chances and rope drop it even if the queue will already be quite long.
My thoughts on the risk of Rise breaking down is this… It breaks down a lot, so would it upset you more of you waited 1-2 hours in the sun, or have it happen in the evening? Keep on mind the evening waits are a lot lower than first thing in the morning too. The break downs always happen regardless of time of day.
No Fair!! The hilarious photo of Sulley completely enveloping Sarah in a hug only appears in the email announcement and not the main essay and so does not permit scrutiny! What a delight!!
Anyone have any recent experience booking rise and slinky for afternoon/PM times and stacking G+ for later afternoon/eve times? We are not rope dropping DHS and need some recent real world advice on how their constant refreshes have been for later attraction times. Ideally I’d like 3-4 rides booked before we even get to the park. TIA
The LL for Rise is individually priced so you can select the time of arrival which is perfect for park hoppers. Slinky is a little more tricky because it fills up so fast that waiting and booking it at around 7:05 to get a later arrival time is risky. That being said, we were there last february and by 7:02 return times were already in the PM. You could try logging in at 7:00 sharp and refresh the times but the app can be a bit flimsy. That 7:00 AM rush for Disney Studios LL is quite…intense…
Your DHS itinerary was very helpful! We went on a Friday March 25th. We followed this pretty closely, but stopping for lunch at Woody’s Lunch Box. The Brisket Sandwich was recommended by some pros and it was really good, we took a break around 6pm and snagged one of the last ice cream sandwiches from the Dino ice cream stand and a 50th anniversary chocolate funnel cake from the Indianan Jones stand.
We followed your suggestions on the order of the Star Wars rides and after the sweet treats and a sit down break, we headed to Rise of the Resistance as the sun was setting. It was perfect to have a night sky during the transition and was almost the last ride of the night. We Had decided to walk through Toy Story Land with the big lights to end the night. It was super cute and we made it on the shooting game before heading back for the night.
Thank you for your efforts in making your page useful and I found it very helpful. I’ll be back before my next Disney trip!
Went to DHS on 3/19 and tried to follow this itinerary. We did not buy genie + based on the articles on this site. We were not staying on site, got to the park about 30 minutes early, rope-dropped rock and roll rollercoaster and stood in line for about 40 minutes. Then went to Tower of Terror and the wait was 110 minutes so we did Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway which had a 60 minute wait. We walked through Star Wars in the morning and did lunch and shows in the afternoon (The high temperate for the day was 90 degrees and the afternoon sun/heat was brutal). About 5:30 we headed to do the Star Wars rides…here is where the day went way wrong. Three rides were temporarily closed at the same time–Tower of Terror, Rise of the Resistance, and Slinky Dog Dash. This caused the wait times on the remaining rides to soar. We got in line for Smuggler’s Run at 6:50…and did not get on the ride until 9:18. There was no way we would have stayed in line if we knew it would have taken anywhere close to that long. The posted wait time was 75 minutes when we got in line and one time went up to 130 minutes, but we had already been in line for about 90 minutes at that time. I think what happened was when the three rides went down, all the people who had lightning lane passes for those rides got a free one to use and most of them used it for Smuggler’s Run. So almost 2.5 hours in line and didn’t get to be in line for another ride before the park closed–that ruined our day for sure. When I asked the cast member at the end of the line what happened, her response was “What?” When I said we were in line for 2.5 hours she shrugged and said “It’s spring break.” We only made it on three of the top 7 rides at DHS…very disappointing day for the kids.
Thank you so much for this detailed itinerary! We are going tomorrow with our 9, 5 year olds and our 6 month old. Hoping to do a modified version more geared towards the littles. And we can’t miss Beauty and the Beast or Frozen sing along!
We will be offsite and I think I’m getting Genie plus for the roller coaster riders (about half the group). I’d like to start the day with something everyone can ride- so I’m thinking mmrr OR TS Mania. Which one would you suggest?
We’re headed to WDW during Spring Break, and my plan for the first day is to head to EPCOT in the morning whenever we’re ready, spend around 3 hours strolling World Showcase, heading back to the hotel for a nap/swim, and then showing up at DHS around 4 hours before park close. I figure if we can do dinner plus MMRR and the Star Wars rides, we’ll be well set to finish up the rest on a single early entry morning (not doing ToT or RRC). Slinky and/or TSMM would be bonus selections for the evening of Day 1, but I want to take it easy and enjoy then evening, so if we get to them, that’s great, and if not, that’s okay too.
All of that is a great plan!
Your Arrested Development “Star War” references made me as giddy as Lucille Bluth when she gets pranked by Gene Parmesan! Looking forward to using the itineraries (with Deluxe Property stays and without Genie+ or Lightning Lane) this summer.
My Family is heading to WDW December 3rd. We haven’t been since 2016. I am completely overwhelmed at this point and am the type of person who will not pay more money to ride rides. Do you have recommended itineraries that can be printed? We are staying off site at a timeshare resort and are planning on Ubering back and forth each day.
Not bad! The “late arrivals” thing is a good tip and one I hadn’t really considered as much for this one (Rise breaks down so often I’d take any chance I could get).
I was there on the 12th and had a pretty decent time, but this park is now JAM-PACKED with insanely popular mega-rides which all command lineups. I rope-dropped for Rise… which was broken and didn’t start up for 3 hours, so that was out. I bought an LL to get on mid-day, thankfully, but I’d have liked to go twice. The lineup was never under 45 minutes (I refuse to wait longer than that for anything). I instead went to Smuggler’s Run & ToT, both of which were short lines (SR said 10 minutes but was actually about 25). Also it turns out the single rider on S.Run is a microscopic wait.
I actually forgot about Slinky Dog (the one thing I missed on my 2019 trip- the park had some weird early-opening thing I didn’t realize and had massive lines all day long as it was then the “new thing”), but managed to get a 45-minute wait later in the night. I bought the G+ for Railway, and rode it again near the “castle show” for a very short wait.
I had issues with dining- I didn’t expect the parks to just fill up on even the cafes and stuff around the afternoon. In retrospect I’d book those a day ahead.
The shows being back is great, but those eat up a ton of time- 30 minutes each, and for Frozen you want to get in early for ideal seats (front 3 rows are the best).
Our trip to WDW isn’t until late Jan but I’m obsessed with looking at wait times on the app. Right now (7:25 ET) I’m seeing 10-15 minute waits on most rides, even the headliners. It seemed odd but then I looked up the Orlando weather and saw it was raining. Do attractions shut down or do people just leave the parks? Anyway, I guess I got a little excited about seeing all these low wait times and hoping that the same will happen when my trip comes up!
The weather was absolutely awful yesterday, and it was all day long. People left the parks early as a result. In other words, yesterday was an anomaly (beyond that, crowds are a bit lower than normal right now).
Disney parks and rides could be a happy time, but most of the time it is overcrowded and overbooked. We tried to go in early November and ran into bigger crowds than we have in past summer trips. Lightning passes are only useful if you can get on thrill rides. Holleywood studios is really hard to use lightning passes. You might get into a couple but they push the time way later so you wont be able to book very many. I am sitting in Rise of Resistance writing this after waiting 2 hours in line and now they just broke down. I think I would have spent my time and lot less money at the beach
You recommend getting lunch reservations as a way to kill time. What about leaving the park for a while and doing the Skytram tour, taste some food at other hotels, then come back and finish the park later in the afternoon?
Just came from WDW. Did not use Genie+. Dont feel the need to. Only seemed worth it for MK. Rope dropped for the extra time in the morning and used it for Mickeys railroad and Smuggler, then 20min for Slinky. Was able to ride everything we wanted before 3 pm, including 1pm lunch at Brown Derby, except Rise which was down or an hour+ wait time so gave up. Left for Epcot.
Just came from WDW. Did not use Genie+. Dont feel the need to. Only seemed worth it for MK. Rope dropped for the extra time in the morning and used it for Mickeys railroad and Smuggler, then 20min for Slinky. Was able to ride everything we wanted before 3 pm, including 1pm lunch at Brown Derby, except Rise which was down or an hour+ wait time so gave up. Left for Epcot after 2pm.
Hi Tom,
My family is quite thankful for all the information you share. It made a big difference in our overall enjoyment of our trip in 2017.
Your glowing reviews gave me an excuse give my two kids an early Christmas presents at Savi’s workshop as we are visiting the week after Thanksgiving. We have reservations for it at 8:25am on a day where the park isn’t open until to everyone until 9:00am. Do you think it is a good idea to try and get in line for Rise of the Resistance after our time at Savi’s? Basically, what would be your cut off time in terms of posted wait times for this ride that early in the morning. We don’t want to burn all of the prime morning time standing in line for Resistance. I was thinking we may do Smugglers Run (because we will all be pumped up about our light sabers) and then moving to tower of terror followed by Rock’N’Roller Coaster via single rider line. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I’m pretty sure I sat to the left of you last night on Mickie & Minnie’s RR Tom!!! Small world. 😉
I used Genie on it which was probably a waste of $8, but I was curious to see how the new system worked.
Thank you so much! I look forward to your post.
Can you do a new 1 day itinerary for Hollywood Studios now that Star Wars is no longer a virtual queue? Thank you!
It’s coming within the next 3 days!
In the meantime, we’d recommend doing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance as late in the day as possible. Otherwise, the itinerary is pretty much accurate as-is.