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, including Fantasmic, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Land, and more. (Updated June 20, 2025.)

This Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS) plan for 2025 has been updated to take into account all of the major changes in the last few years. This includes the opening of Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After and the Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure, along with the permanent closing of MuppetVision and Muppets Courtyard to make way for Monstropolis.

Looking down the road to 2026, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is again likely to be the park with the biggest changes. At minimum, that will include the reimagining of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and a new mission featuring Mandalorian and Baby Yoda in Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Beyond that, we’re anticipating bigger picture changes to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and potentially more new entertainment.

Another relatively recent change is the introduction of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, the paid FastPass that replaced the Genie+ system. Previously, we had separate plans with and without Lightning Lanes. With the new system, we’re instead recommending you start with this itinerary as the ‘bones’ to build your own plan, and combine it with Disney’s Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Rankings & Strategy.

The very good news is that DHS is now the #1 park for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) at Walt Disney World. It’s not necessary to purchase LLMP at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, especially if you have a full day in the park and plan on staying late. However, it’ll make touring so much easier, especially as DHS has the highest average standby wait time of any park at Walt Disney World.

Our big ‘warning’ before you embark on a day at DHS is that crowds peak early. It’s not uncommon for all of the most popular rides to have 60-90 minute wait times shortly after regular rope drop. These long lines can be daunting, and result in guests ‘hitting a wall’ and leaving DHS earlier than the other parks.

DHS can be a very challenging and frustrating 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” rides department. Which is to say there are very few low hassle attractions that are easy to do with minimal wait to round out your day or kill time. Instead, they’re stage shows–and most guests don’t have the tolerance to do 4-6 stage shows in one day.

This is also why wait times, on average, tend to drop sharper in the afternoon and evening than the other parks. Suffice to say, you’ll really want to stay late at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, even if it means arriving late or taking a midday break. Alternatively, there are plenty of entertainment options to fill-in the middle of your day at DHS (that’s what this plan will incorporate).

If you’re staying on-site and can arrive early, check out our Guide to Early Entry at Walt Disney World. This headstart will give you a big advantage, but is also not strictly necessary for a productive day in DHS. You’ll just spend more time waiting in standby lines without Early Entry or Lightning Lanes, and you’ll need/want to stay later in the day.

For a recent look at the first ~90 minutes of the day, check out our new Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Report: What Worked & Went Wrong. That’s not a perfect Early Entry and rope drop run (hence the ‘what went wrong’ part of the title), but it’s often the case that you’re going to need to call an audible at DHS due to ride downtime and the dreaded delayed openings. So that’s worth checking out to form your plan-of-attack and set expectations at a reasonable level.

Fortunately, there are still ways to outsmart the crowds without buying Lightning Lanes or being eligible for Early Entry. For an ideal day 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. With that out of the way, let’s roll…

Start with Second Choices – 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. This leaves you with the “second choice” options.

Instead, start with the simplest approach with the Sunset Boulevard attractions near the front of the park. During the first hour, wait times for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror should be relatively low.

If you arrive early enough here (or it’s a slow day), you might also be able to do Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster a couple of times via standby with short waits. Follow that by doing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror while you’re in the neighborhood. 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 with your first few rides, all attractions will have high wait times. 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 nearly hour-long wait time throughout the day, but should have an actual wait time of under 30 minutes when you arrive.

Over on Grand Avenue, you can see more characters. This includes the popular Vacation Goofy and Max Goof as Powerline near the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge entrance, among others. These rare characters are all very popular, and we highly recommend seeing them as early on as possible.

Go See A Star War: Episode I – Once you’re finished with the characters, continue to Star Tours: the Adventures Continue and then 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. Consider perusing the shops and marketplace stalls now, as many will have lines later in the day.

We’d also strongly recommend prioritizing the free-roaming Mandalorian and Baby Yoda characters who appear in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. This duo is absolutely mobbed in the afternoon, but their sets that start before 11 am are not nearly as bad. Now might also be a good time to try your luck with a walkup at Oga’s Cantina, the Star Wars bar.

If characters aren’t your thing, another strong option is Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run after the Sunset Boulevard attractions. (In which case, you should skip Star Tours and do it later.) You might encounter a slightly longer line for Smugglers Run, but it won’t be nearly as bad as later in the morning or early afternoon. En route to Galaxy’s Edge, you might be tempted to do Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, but don’t–that’s the longest line it’ll have all day.

DHS Morning Run Recap – Here’s how your morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios might look before breaking for lunch:

1. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (potentially twice)
2. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (potentially twice)
3. Characters (optional)
4. See Mandalorian & Baby Yoda (optional, but they’re cool and free-roaming, so no lines)
5. Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and/or Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

If you’re able to accomplish all of this, you’ve had a reasonably productive morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It may not seem like it, but trust us. DHS is all about pacing yourself. With that said, we’d recommend at least one more stop before lunch (especially if you skipped some or all of the above characters).

New Shows – As mentioned above, two new shows have debuted for Summer 2025 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Villains Unfairly Ever After. These are included as a separate entry on this list primarily for the sake of drawing your attention to them, and the fact that they’re new. The other shows at DHS are all at least one decade to two decades (or more!) old.

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is highly recommended, and currently has showtimes from 9:20 am until 7:20 pm that are spaced 40 minutes apart (e.g. 9:20 am, 10:00 am, 10:40 am, etc.). Although the infrastructure is in place, the Little Mermaid show does not currently offer a Lightning Lane. That should change very soon.

Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After has showtimes from 10 am until 7 pm, with the first and last couple of hours being on the hour and middle of the day being every half hour. There is no Lightning Lane for this show, nor will there be in the future.

Due to their popularity and new-ness, we recommend being slightly more strategic with both of these shows. Catching one or both before lunch is actually ideal in order to beat the midday rush. If you watch either or both between 1 pm and 4 pm, there’s a strong possibility that you’ll be waiting in line and not catching the next show. Demand is likely to remain elevated through early 2026.

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.)

More Shows ‘n’ 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 more.

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. They are all lengthy, hence this being the sole entry between lunch and dinner.

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.

Early 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. Yet another alternative 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.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re not going to need to eat a full sit-down meal in the last 4 hours that DHS is open. This plan practically relies on doing dinner early, which is another “zig-when-they-zag” piece of planning advice for Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

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. You won’t experience the shortest lines of the day, but this is a good compromise.

Toy Story Land Mania – The most popular part of Disney’s Hollywood Studios with families is Toy Story Land. It’s even more popular than the bigger budget Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with this demographic, and the crowds you’ll experience earlier in the day bear this out.

Everyone’s gotta eat, and most people dine on a consistent and predictable schedule. This is doubly true of families with small children, the core audience of Toy Story Land. Like clockwork, families will start doing dinner at around 6 pm, resulting in a bit of a lull in Toy Story Land crowds. This is precisely why we recommended zigging when they zag and eating an early dinner if at all possible.

With so many high-profile rides in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, this is really your best play if you aren’t eligible for Early Entry and are unwilling to purchase Lightning Lanes. The reality is that you’re going to have to compromise somewhere, as it’s simply not possible to get everything done without going against the grain somewhere. You can’t have your cake and eat it too at DHS…unless you do so at 4 pm or 5 pm! 😉

Once you’re in Toy Story Land, you’re going to want to do both Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog Dash. Which you should do first really depends on when you enter the land. If you arrive before 6 pm, do Toy Story Mania first. If after 6 pm, do Slinky Dog Dash first. Don’t worry too much about posted wait times–they are reactive rather than proactive, meaning Slinky Dog Dash’s posted wait time will drop towards the tail end of the dinner lull…right as people are starting to jump back into line. (Skip Alien Swirling Saucers.)

Another option here if you’re not up for an early dinner is eating at Woody’s Lunch Box after both Toy Story Land attractions, after the dinner rush subsides a bit there. If you have even more time, you can do Toy Story Roundup Rodeo BBQ Restaurant.

Go See A Star War: Episode II — Following Toy Story Land, we recommend backtracking 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. The lighting adds a lot to the moody off-planet atmosphere, and makes the experience even more immersive. If time allows, try to knock out both Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and 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 less than 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.)

Fantasmic – The reimagined Fantasmic is a must see. On nights when there’s only one showing of Fantasmic, that’s the one you’ll do (obviously). While you can line up to see Fantasmic up to 90 minutes in advance, we recommend showing up around 30 minutes before showtime. You won’t get as good of a seat, but most views in the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater are “good enough.” (Consider booking the cheapest Fantasmic Dining Package to guarantee yourself a great seat that way!)

On nights when there are two showtimes of Fantasmic, it’s common for the second one to occur at park closing or 30 minutes after. We’ve managed to see the second showing of Fantasmic from spectacular seats without arriving more than 5 minutes in advance of showtime. (We recommend arriving earlier than this.)

This has been the case even on evenings when the first performance was quite busy and seats filled up 30 minutes before showtime. On those same busier days, the late performances of Fantasmic had multiple entire sections that went unfilled. I was able to snag the third row of a great section at (literally) 2 minutes before showtime, and that was on a busy day.

If you’re a Fantasmic fanatic, you might prefer the ‘perfect’ view of the reimagined nighttime spectacular. Again, we’d recommend booking the dining package in that case. For more viewing advice, see our Guide to Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

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? What’s your preferred strategy for Toy Story Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, the Sunset Boulevard duo? What about the first v. second showing of Fantasmic? Do you utilize a zig-when-they-zag approach to DHS, or stick with conventional strategy? 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!