Hollywood Studios Crowd Report: Morning Highs & Evening Lows
We’re back at Hollywood Studios to check on the increased fall crowds. In this Walt Disney World photo report, we’ll look at October’s rope drop crowds, posted v. actual wait times, our attempt at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance’s boarding pass dash, and share our step-by-step morning and afternoon/evening in DHS.
For about the last month, we’ve been emphasizing the reality that crowds and wait times are increasing at Walt Disney World. Disney’s Hollywood Studios was already “selling out” of Disney Park Pass reservations prior to the 40% Crowd Increase at Walt Disney World–but the park’s wait times still somehow increased by 39% in September!
Given that Disney’s Hollywood Studios still doesn’t have its stage shows or other entertainment, dining options are limited, the layout is compact, plus a top-heavy and limited ride lineup, DHS feels like a recipe for frustration during the current modified operations. And without question, it can be. Our goal was thus to do as much as possible while minimizing our headaches. Here’s our step-by-step approach to rope drop and beyond…
As a threshold matter, day of the week doesn’t really matter at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Saturdays and Sundays are marginally busier, but the park is coming close to or hitting its reduced capacity every single day of the week. That is not true of any other park at Walt Disney World right now–all the rest are much busier on weekends.
For the latter reason alone, you’re better off visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios on a weekend if you’re visiting any park on a weekend. The best plan of all is doing only weekdays, but if you don’t have that option, do DHS on a weekend. Its 1-2% increase in weekend wait times is much better than the double-digit increases at the other parks, plus the chaos at EPCOT.
We entered Disney’s Hollywood Studios a tad later than anticipated (~9:30 am), as the vehicle line for the parking booths was pretty long.
Next time, we’ll head out 30 minutes earlier. We clearly underestimated how long getting into the park would take. Those arriving on buses won’t encounter this, but you will encounter unpredictable lines and waits at the bus stops. Our top recommendation for rope dropping DHS remains either driving or using Uber/Lyft–just be sure to give yourself a sufficient buffer.
At this point, the posted wait time for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was already 90 minutes.
Across the board, rope drop wait times at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are inflated. Part of this is to keep some–that really have nowhere else to go–manageable. Another part is managing expectations. To our knowledge and experience, this has nothing to do with cleaning cycles.
Here’s a look at the extended queue, which is at its full size. Once demand drops, this is scaled back so it doesn’t block the stairs down to Toy Story Land.
If you’re doing the full day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we do not advocate rope dropping Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Not only is this the longest line in the park, but the vast majority is in direct sunlight with zero shade.
In order of popularity, the main rope drop options are: Runaway Railway, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, sitting around waiting for 10 am, Toy Story Land, Sunset Boulevard, or Starbucks.
Our go-to is Toy Story Land, which we believe presents the biggest time-savings.
At 9:35 am, Toy Story Mania is a walk-on.
Almost none of the rope drop guests heading towards it–for good reason.
Same goes for Alien Swirling Saucers.
If that’s your saucer of tea, you probably could rope drop this and swirl with the aliens 3-4 times before crowds arrived. Live your best life, as the kids say.
While that’s one “valid” approach, we instead queued up for Slinky Dog Dash. The line was just over the bridge when we jumped into line.
Posted wait time was 40 minutes initially and shot to 60 minutes almost immediately thereafter; our actual wait time was 21 minutes.
The bigger issue is that our timing was poor, and I boarded Slinky Dog Dash right as the clock struck 10 am. That left Sarah (who had already opted not to ride irrespective of timing) alone to try the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash.
Despite many past successes, she had no luck this time.
That is becoming increasingly common, including among seasoned app refreshers. If Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is make or break for your visit to DHS, you either might want to build another day into your schedule for trying again…or skip DHS entirely for the time being. It’d be nice if the ride vehicles were modified to accommodate more than one party, because the math on park v. ride capacity just isn’t adding up right now.
Meanwhile, I had a hoot on Slinky Dog Dash. It truly was a roller coaster of emotions–the highs of the ride followed by the low of finding out we wouldn’t be doing Rise of the Resistance.
Next up was Toy Story Mania. At this point, the posted wait time was 30 minutes and line was back past the entrance of Toy Story Land. (The line for Slinky Dog Dash was back into Animation Courtyard!)
However, because the hourly capacity of Toy Story Mania has not been reduced much at all, the line moved incredibly quickly and our actual wait time was 8 minutes.
I assumed we’d have time to knock out Alien Swirling Saucers before moving on, but the posted wait had already shot up to 40 minutes.
There’s no way this was even remotely accurate, but we weren’t willing to gamble on even a 10 minute wait for this particular attraction especially this early in the morning. You’d have to be a really big A.S.S. lover to get in this line.
Instead, we cut through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Posted wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was 45 minutes at this point. That’s probably not inflated too much given that the line was all the way back to the “refreshers.” (In checking My Disney Experience, the posted wait had shot up to 65 minutes shortly after we saw this.)
There were long lines for pretty much everything in the land at this point.
Pre-closure of Walt Disney World, a disproportionate number of guests headed to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at rope drop. Post-reopening, the same is also true. It was bad strategy then and remains bad strategy now.
Our intent was simply to cut through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to get to Star Tours.
Posted wait was 40 minutes; actual wait was 17 minutes.
We’re still avoiding indoor shows so we didn’t do it, but at this point MuppetVision actually would’ve been the best choice.
The posted wait time was 35 minutes, but you wouldn’t have had to wait through multiple shows to see it. Due to physical distancing, single-theater shows actually have long midday waits right now and are a big time commitment.
We headed to Sunset Boulevard to check out waits for the two headliners up here.
They were…not good! Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster already had a 60 minute wait, which was actually the better of the two attractions here.
Tower of Terror’s queue was back into the Fantasmic amphitheater, with the posted wait time being 105 minutes. While I’d imagine that was inflated, we were not about to find out.
If you’re not staying the entire day, it’s possible that rope dropping Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster might be a better strategy than starting with Toy Story Land.
By around noon, Disney’s Hollywood Studios looks pretty quiet. That’s not because it’s a slow day–it’s due to the vast majority of guests being in standby lines somewhere.
We left around this point, but if that’s not an option, your best bet is going to be booking an Advance Dining Reservation for a table service lunch right around noon. This is when wait times peak at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so it’s a good idea to wait out the crowds at this point. If you can’t score an ADR or would prefer to dine outdoors, your best bet would be BaseLine Tap House–we’d recommend showing up there before noon, as tables do fill up.
If you’re staying at a Crescent Lake or Skyliner resort, heading back to your hotel for a midday break is another really good option–especially if you didn’t score a Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding group.
Remember, you can do the 2 pm draw from outside the park. The only “validation” that’s performed is whether your MagicBand has been scanned into the park for the day. There’s no geolocation limitation.
We headed back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at around 4 pm.
After wandering around, taking photos, and grabbing a couple of snacks, we headed over to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The goal was to see how much we could accomplish in the last 2 hours of the day.
We got into line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run right at 5 pm.
Posted wait time was 35 minutes; our actual wait was 17 minutes.
Bouncing to the other side of the park, I did Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Posted wait time was 25 minutes; actual wait was 12 minutes.
Sarah rejoined me and we did the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror next.
Posted wait time was 30 minutes; actual wait time was 11 minutes.
At this point, we arguably still had enough time to do Slinky Dog Dash again but it would’ve been a really close call.
Instead, we opted to play it safe and did Toy Story Mania again. Posted wait time was 10 minutes; it was a walk-on.
We finished up there shortly before 6:45 pm, and were in line for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway by 6:50 pm. (In retrospect, I’m 95% positive we could’ve done Slinky Dog Dash, but it wasn’t worth the risk.)
Posted wait time was 50 minutes; our actual wait time was 32 minutes.
Judging by social media, we missed a really epic sunset–but still cannot complain too much about what we accomplished in our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Ultimately, this should demonstrate that it is still possible to do (almost) everything in Disney’s Hollywood Studios with minimal waits. However, that comes with the huge asterisk that we got shut out of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and skipped the entire middle of the day. This will work for some of you, especially repeat visitors staying on-site at a Crescent Lake or Skyliner resort, but it’s going to be frustrating for many more.
Even if you were to do a table service lunch, that still leaves a lot of time to kill in the middle of the day in order to have an efficient day. Walt Disney World really needs to bring back the outdoor stage shows here to fill that gap, and also fix Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. As we wrote before the closure of Disney’s Hollywood Studios: This Isn’t Working. That remains the case now for some of the same–and some different–reasons.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the last month or so? What was your experience? When did you arrive? How long did you stay? Thoughts on lines and crowds? Success or failure with the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? Do you plan on arriving at rope drop, or will you utilize a late arrival strategy? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
HS was definitely the most frustrating part of our recent trip. Rise of the Resistance is both figuratively broken and literally broken much of the time. It was one of the things we were most exited to try and therefore the biggest letdown of our trip. After all the practicing with the virtual queue in the app and the stress of the 10am finger race, we got boarding group 2, but the ride didn’t open until well after 10am, and then had an extended outage after we had already waited a long time in the queue. We were eventually given a “fastpass” to return when the ride started up again, which wasn’t until hours later. Then there were several other shorter (but still annoying) extended pauses of 20 mins or so the second time while we were in line/in between portions of the ride (not sure if it was a cleaning cycle or more downtime) so altogether riding it sucked up almost half the day! On our second Hollywood Studios day we opted to skip it altogether and let someone else experience the “fun,” but wait times were still long on everything with many queues fully or partially outdoors in the heat, and we definitely missed having shows to relax and watch so it isn’t all just standing and waiting all day long.
So I can see how you were able to experience much of Hollywood Studios without Rise of the Resistance, but realistically, most people are going to want to do that, and it really can be a massive time suck. Not to mention that if your boarding group is near the end of the day, that will completely defeat the strategy of using the last couple park hours to ride attractions with lower waits.
We have a short stay planned in a couple of weeks and are skipping Studios altogether. In its current state it is not a pleasant experience. Fastpass would be a huge improvement, since at least then one could ride at least three things with no waits.
We will be arriving at WDW on Sunday, 10/11 and staying on property for a week. A day in each park + one day at Universal. Thank you for your itineraries. We haven’t been to WDW in over a decade so we want to make the most of our visit. We have no idea what to expect, everything seems to change daily, so the articles you share help us to come up with a flexible game plan. Thank you again.
You’re welcome–have a good trip!
Thanks for the updates Tom! This really makes me groan though. I have my group of 11 booked with 2 days for HS when we are there for Christmas, in fear that we will get locked out of getting boarding passes on the first day, but now I am wondering if we even get them at all. This is all so frustrating! How frustrating it will be to be at HS and not be able to ride the ROTR at all on this trip. Although my husband and I go often, the other family going with us only goes every few years so it will be extremely disappointing for them, to go all the way to Florida and not get to ride it. Guess we will be building droids! LOL
When we were in the parks two weeks ago we rope dropped M&M Railway. The ride started at 9:30 and we were off by 9:45, plenty of time to get a RoR Standby time. IF you are super early it’s easy to knock that off right away.
good to know! thanks!
We will be visiting Disney World the first week of November. Family of three with a 6 year old. Would you say our time would be better spent at Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios? We have one extra day to add one of these parks. Our son loves Star Wars, but the risk of not getting to ride the main attraction ride makes me a little nervous. May be better to avoid the situation altogether and just spend the day at AK…
Easily Animal Kingdom, much more for the kids being basically a zoo and plus riding the safari several times u will never see the same thing twice
Thanks Tom for the valuable information. We are supposed to do a Disney Cruise/WDW trip planned in January, but have WDW-Caribbean Beach/Pop reserved as a back up. This information about DHS is awesome. Also your reports about Epcot on the weekends has me re-thinking Park Passes. Do you have any scoop whether the Festival of the Arts will come back in modified form? We will be at WDW from Jan 1-12, assuming there is no cruise.
“Do you have any scoop whether the Festival of the Arts will come back in modified form?”
Not yet, but my bet is that it’s Festival of the Arts in name only, and is more about the food in 2021.
Hi Tom,
Your strategy above sounds solid to me. We have DHS on a Friday coming up. We even scored ADR to SCi-Fi at 12:35. We are going to rope drop DHS and see how the lines look but not pressure ourselves into any long lines. I think We are going Slinky first assuming Mickey and Minnie’s is over 45 mins due to the sun factor we would ipt to jump in line at closing. We haven’t been to DHS since 2017 so Toy Story Land and Mickey and Minnie’s are number 1 priority. Living in CA with an AP we have been on ROTR enough where if we miss a boarding group for it oh well. We really want to knock out Slinky,Mickey and Minnie, ToT, and Aerosmith. That is a successful day for us and anything else is a bonus after that. Thanks for your ever sop insightful posts.
You should have no problem accomplishing all of that, and the lunchtime ADR for Sci-Fi is perfect. Have a good trip!
Completely agree with this, with one caveat. The absolute best start to the day is to Uber to the Dolphin and walk to HS. We did this last Sunday, and arrived at about 8:45. We were on and off Runaway railway by 9:30, headed to Slinky, ride that and got off just in time (9:58) to score the elusive RotR boarding pass. We then could’ve done TSM as a walk-on and Falcon; however the fam wanted Starbucks so we did that next. After Muppets, a gloriously uncrowded shopping in Dok Ondars & a mask break in launch bay we had a res at Brown Derby, then went back to the resort at 230 to swim. Came back at 5:30 and rode Rock coaster, Toy Story Mania and Falcon twice before park close. Could’ve easily hopped in slinky or railway line if we’d been interested. The temperature and low crowds are amazing in the evening. However the moody teens were melting down for no reason so we left Definitely try the Uber to Dolphin method one day as it is AMAZING.
Oh and Rise was WORTH IT! What a great ride. However, is the Kylo on the bridge supposed to move/talk? Because he just started at us… everything else worked as intended I think.
“The absolute best start to the day is to Uber to the Dolphin and walk to HS.”
That’s a great additional wrinkle for anyone who doesn’t mind walking a bit. Personally, I’d choose your approach over waiting at the toll booth but having a shorter walk.
Can you Uber to the Dolphin if you are staying off property?
Yes, Randy, you can Uber there. There is also a Speedway near DHS that is a few steps closer than the Swan/Dolphin, and it has cheap snacks!
Can you uber to the boardwalk resort, stop at the bakery and then walk over? Just wondering if they will let you into that resort area?
How long did it take to walk from Dolphin to HS?
Thank you for another great report Tom!
Every time I read one of your reports I agree that they need to bring back the shows. That was always a big part of the studios and the theaters are open. If they reduced the capacity by making folks spread out instead of the usual squeeze together, it would really help.
For the week of December 27 do you still recommend weekends at DHS over the other parks? We have one Sunday in the parks. Planning 2 days at DHS and 2 at MK including NYE – 1 each for AK and EPCOT.
We were there Saturday, got there about 9:30 and got in line for Runaway Railway. Posted wait was 70 minutes but was actually around 40. We got ROTR boarding passes while in line (my daughter’s iPhone was faster than my android). We then went to the muppet show, no wait. By that time everything (!) was 40+ minute wait, so we took the skyliner to Boardwalk and had lunch. By the time we were on our way back it was time for ROTR. After that we did some shopping in Batuu, then headed to Toy Story Mania. Posted wait was 40 min, actual was about 20. Everything still had a pretty long wait so we did Muppets again (I love them!) while my daughter went to Aerosmith. By this time it was around 5 and it started to rain. Millennium falcon was at 30 min, so we did that. It was an accurate wait time. It was raining pretty steady by then, so it cleared out pretty quickly. Did Slinky dog (40 minutes), Aliens (no wait), Runaway Railway again (45 minutes accurate wait time), Tower of Terror (no wait) and Aerosmith at 6:54 (no wait). All in all a great day! We Lyfted in the morning so missed most of the huge parking lines. Thanks for what you do, your tips are invaluable to having a magical Disney day!
Does Lyft wait in the same line as other cars to get in or is there a separate line for lyft/taxis, etc.
I concur with most of what you’ve said. The longest wait for Mickey & Minnie is at rope drop. When we were in DHS last month, we rope dropped Slinky Dog and maybe didn’t walk on but it was minimal wait and there was not much of a wait for the Saucers either. Wait times for Mickey & Minnie wanes in the afternoon, especially after 2 PM when people bail on the park when they don’t get a boarding group for Rise.
We haven’t tried DHS yet. MK has gotten really good at entertainment though. Yesterday Jack Sparrow was out for distance selfies. We caught Cadaver Dans 2x. They also had the pathway next to the theatre open. We avoided crowds all day, sprawled out on a blanket in the hub so our kid could play.
I don’t know what we are going to that is comparable at DHS. I think we might arrive at or after 2.
DHS doesn’t have a hub equivalent. So that’s going to be interesting. Maybe they should put some singers on balconies.
Just got back last night – We did MK Tues (it rained and I think that helped), Epcot wed., DHS THurs, Animal Friday, MK Saturday (it rained and did not seem to help that much). We stayed at Caribbean for the first time – love the skyliner.
DHS was WAY too crowded I thought, as was MK on Saturday. It was uncomfortably packed with people – felt like the before times honestly. Way too close for comfort just walking around. ROR gone in seconds. No luck there.
Animal was wonderful on Friday and we had no trouble riding anything or being comfortable walking around. Also had a great time at Epcot on Wednesday with food festival. My family agreed that AK on Friday was the best for sure.
Took Tom’s suggestion and made mid-day table service for the MK days (Skipper on one, Tony’s Town on the other), and Mama Melrose at DHS. This was such GREAT advice. We really needed a break from the people and things seemed better after lunch time for sure.
Thank you so much for all your tips and the reader feedback too! Had Amazon fresh deliver groceries and that was so helpful – really reduced the stress of dealing with crowds to get food. Hope everyone who is going soon will have a wonderful and safe time!
“You’d have to be a really big A.S.S. lover to get in this line.”
Tom, can I ask why you chose to temporarily abandon the standard Disney Tourist Blog editorial style guidelines and add periods in this acronym? 😉
Either way, well played, Mr. Bricker. Well played indeed.
Thanks, Tom.
We have one Sunday in early December for Hollywood studios. Hoping for as much as we could control in order to ride RoR, we are staying at the Dolphin hotel and intending to walk, however long that takes! Is leaving the hotel by 8:45 too early?
Thanks, Tom, for the update. I really appreciate the reports on actual versus posted wait times as well as your strategy for navigating HS. I was there September 13 and 15. I really enjoyed my time, despite the uptick in crowds. I had some success in rope dropping M&MRR both days, getting onto the ride within 15-20 minutes after arriving at the park around 9:15am (using the Skyliner). I most likely missed some other rides, as wait times did climb after that. I’ll try your strategy when I return the 1st week of November. Thanks again!
Thanks for the update!
This kind of aligns with what I thought would be a good strategy of breaking the park in two. Our arrival day we are going to head over in the late afternoon, and enjoy as many attractions as we can and hop in line for Runaway Railway as close to park close as possible. We are on a Skyliner resort, and I had not thought of checking in before and leaving so we could try for the 2pm distribution outside the park.
Later in the week we were going to Rope Drop DHS, and have a reservation for lunch there. After lunch we are going to leave.
The day we fly out (late flight) we have one other day at DHS in case we get skunked on the boarding pass.
Since it’s 2020 and we have bad luck I feel like with even a couple shots at 10am and 2pm boarding pass distribution we still won’t get to experience Rise.
I’d definitely recommend trying for the 2 pm arrival day drop, so long as you go in realizing you’re likely to be shut out.
All in all, sounds like a good approach–just too bad you’re locked into DHS for 3 days without the ability to park hop. It was one thing to jump through these hops when able to walk or take the Skyliner over to EPCOT. Now is a different story…
This really is massively different from my experience at the beginning of September (just before labor day). It’s amazing how much crowds have picked up since then. We did hit the long vehicle line and it was a shock, but we scored a pass on Rise of the Resistance passes literally at the exact same time my magic band was scanning in. Judging by the time you got on Mickey and Minnie’s, it sounds like you were there on Sunday and got the longer hours? That really does seem like a good tradeoff right now for Hollywood, vs shorter hours weekdays and nearly as crowded…
Crowds have definitely shot up at DHS as compared to early September. In some ways, that’s fine–the park can absorb more guests than before. The big problem comes with SW:RotR, which is still really low capacity…meaning that an even lower percentage of guests in DHS each day are able to get on it each day than before.
This was a weekday–sunset is just earlier now! 🙂