Hollywood Studios Hours: This Isn’t Working.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has been on a roll at Walt Disney World, getting through over 130 boarding groups each of the last 4 days, including 146 yesterday. On several dates, the ride has maxed out early, meaning it could’ve gotten through even more backup groups had they been distributed. We’re not quite ready to trumpet these as reliability gains as a long-term or lasting improvement, having made that mistake once before.
In addition to this, there’s more good news. Walt Disney World has once again extended park hours for DHS for the second half of March 2020. Disney’s Hollywood Studios now opens at 8 am and closes at 8:30 pm from the opening day of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway through March 28, 2020.
The two weeks after that and through April 19, 2020 are likely to be among the busiest of the year thanks to a combination of schools being off for spring break and the Easter holiday, plus the Star Wars runDisney weekend. As such, we’d expect those hours to likewise be extended to an 8 am opening. As good as this all sounds, it’s still not enough…
Over the past two weeks, we’ve felt the “consequences” of Disney’s Hollywood Studios moving from opening at 7 am to 8 am. As stressed in our last several posts about the boarding pass dash for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the delayed opening time makes it easier for more guests to arrive at DHS by rope drop. Many might argue it’s great for them since arriving before 7 am is a non-starter, whereas 8 am is challenging but doable with some effort.
However, this is a double-edged sword. The later opening time incentivizes more guests to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the morning, which in turn makes scoring a boarding pass more competitive. The crowds we’ve observed for 7 am rope drop as compared to 8 am rope drop bear this out, as do statistics. More guests have been arriving at DHS before 8 am on mornings with the later opening than on mornings with the earlier opening.
Stated differently, on days when Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened at 7 am, fewer guests arrived before park opening plus the following hour leading up to 8 am, than are currently arriving by 8 am. Back in the “good ole days” of 7 am openings, it wasn’t uncommon to snag a backup boarding group at 8:30 am, often much later. Almost every day for the last two weeks or so, all boarding groups have been gone by 8:05 am. Often earlier.
In case I’m still not properly articulating this, above is a graph from thrill-data.com that shows the distribution of boarding groups since Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened. As you can see, back in December (before the distinction between primary and back-up boarding groups) when the park was quietly opening at 6:30 am or so, boarding groups were often lasting until 9 am or later. (Note the gaps between the green and red plot points on the graph before January.)
As that moved forward to official 7 am opening times and a distinction was made between primary and backup boarding groups, the guaranteed ones went quickly but backup groups were still available over an hour after park opening most days. Move forward to 8 am openings, and we’re now seeing all three plot points on top of one another, meaning all boarding groups are gone immediately.
In other words, the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash has slowly morphed over time into something more closely resembling a pure lottery on some mornings. It started as a pure first-come, first-served system back in early to mid-December. Many guests who didn’t want to get up before 5 am understandably objected to this.
That approach was modified to the hybrid first-come, first-served and lottery system we saw from mid-December until mid-February. Since you could arrive an hour after rope drop and still get a boarding pass with a very high chance of riding most days, this wasn’t a lottery. It was the approach that we viewed as most equitable.
Currently, attempting to join the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue is often a lottery, albeit one with a very high success rate. With few exceptions, you must be in the park at rope drop in order to obtain a spot in the virtual queue–and luck determines whether it’s a guaranteed group or a backup one. If you have problems with My Disney Experience or need help from the Guest Experience Team, forget about riding at all.
To compound matters, if you “lose” this lottery or even don’t perform well in it, your alternatives are not great. Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run are instantly posting triple-digit wait times, and crowds are massive everywhere else in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As we’ve suggested in our Park Hopper Strategy for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, your best bet is leaving for a couple of hours and rope dropping Epcot.
This problem is not going away anytime soon. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens next week and will provide Disney’s Hollywood Studios with sorely-needed capacity. However, it’ll also draw more guests to the park, and those people aren’t just going to do that one new attraction and leave.
Then there’s spring break followed by Easter. Those crowds will start materializing around March 13, 2020 and will continue through Easter. Don’t expect peak season crowds to let up until April 20, 2020 due to a combo of lingering Easter crowds and the Star Wars Rival Run Weekend.
During those peak season dates, expect all Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding groups to instantly fill up at park opening most days. That’s a long time for this problem to persist.
The silver lining is that there should be a temporary reprieve for the next 10 days or so, and all backup groups are unlikely to fill up instantly in this window of time before Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens. After that, all bets are off.
Which brings us back to the 7 am park openings. At least for now, those appear to be the “friction” that is needed to discourage enough Walt Disney World guests from attempting to join the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue at or shortly after official park opening time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
We’re not contending that this approach is perfect and doesn’t likewise have its own losers. Obviously it does–the whole idea is to discourage some guests from participating. Literally every single approach to allocating capacity for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is going to suffer from that problem due to a combination of high demand, low supply, and frequent breakdowns. There is no possible way to make everyone happy.
However, we contend that it’s the best system given the circumstances. It’s better for guests to be able to make the decision to opt out ahead of time, rather than putting in all of the effort of arriving early, using a park day at DHS, still potentially being denied a chance to ride, and then having to deal with the crowds & chaos. This is what has been happening with the current 8 am openings, which makes for an unpleasant day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Aside from the 7 am opening plus virtual queue, no other approach presents predictability and efficiency. If Rise of the Resistance were standby-only, the queue would fill up very early in the day and have to be cut at an undetermined time. That’s assuming there’s enough physical space to put everyone (there isn’t) and the line wouldn’t have to be dumped multiple times due to ride breakdowns (it would). Anyone thinking they could simply hop into line at the end of the day and wait it out should perish the thought.
Opening an hour earlier is also better than staying open an hour later. While we firmly believe Walt Disney World park hours should be extended considerably across the board (the current closing times are laughable given the peak crowd levels this winter), the solution here is not simply operating Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance later into the night.
Later closing times draw in more guests who want to take advantage of evening hours in the parks, which is the exact opposite of the goal here. It seems counterintuitive, but it’s the same idea as opening DHS an hour later–many guests strongly prefer staying late, which means a 10 pm closing would induce more demand/attendance.
There’s also the fact that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance still needs significant overnight maintenance. Operating the attraction from 8 am until 10 pm daily is simply not in the cards, as ideal as that might be for addressing its current capacity woes.
If anything, the other parks should have later closing times–especially Magic Kingdom–on a nightly basis. That’s tangential to the main point here, but the current crowds nonetheless necessitate it, and longer hours elsewhere at Walt Disney World could help pull guests away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Ultimately, the current approach for allocating ride capacity at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is not working with Disney’s Hollywood Studios opening at 8 am. Even as it has come under considerable criticism, we have been staunch defenders of the virtual queue and boarding pass system. Throughout this, we’ve been of the perspective that any scheme will create winners and losers, and this is the most sensible for creating “lemonade out of lemons.”
However, that’s in large part true because the virtual queue previously valued the time of guests, offered a predictable payoff, and favored tourists over locals (at least on weekdays). So long as you made the effort to arrive by 7 am, you’d be rewarded with a boarding group–maybe not early in the day, but at some point. Now, you can make the effort to arrive early, do everything right, and still come up empty-handed some mornings. In the process, you’re pretty much committing to spending time in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which may not be ideal given the wait times and crowds elsewhere in the park.
If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. This covers a range of topics from basics about the land and its location, to strategically choosing a hotel for your stay, recommended strategy for the land, and how to beat the crowds. It’s a good primer for this huge addition. As for planning the rest of your trip, we have a thorough Walt Disney World Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you agree with our assessment that Disney’s Hollywood Studios needs to return to 7 am official opening times for Easter and spring break season? Alternatively, do you prefer the later opening time even if it means scoring a boarding group is more difficult? Do you plan on visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios in March or April 2020? Do you agree or disagree with our advice and 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!
Today we were in the park and loaded to join a boarding group. My brother didn’t realize he didn’t attach the kids on his and by the time he backed out to fix it (I had the kids but couldn’t add him and I) all groups were gone. At 8:01 we were locked out. It sucked, my 8 year old celebrating his birthday cried because we skipped school and left home before 6am to make it. Thankfully he had a great day and we will try again eventually, but the system needs to be changed.
@Megan, this made me so sad. I’m glad he had fun in the end though.
If that happens again, just accept the boarding group with whomever is listed in your party and then go to Guest Experience Team member (in the blue shirt) and they can add the missing people in your party to your boarding group.
They came up with a new glitch today. We were inside the park at 7:30, ready to go at 8 with our apps ready. I did not see the Join Boarding Group button go active until 8:02, my husband never got it. When I tapped it, I immediately got the message that there were no more groups available. We left to go get breakfast and move on to Plan B, and found out that the app was making it possible for people NOT in the park to join boarding groups, many not even in the state Florida!
We then went to Plan C, and loved up at Guest Relations. According to the CM we spoke to, they were unaware of this problem, so cannot say if or when it will be resolved. We said, well, now you’re aware.
There’s hundreds of posts about this on Facebook. Major fail, Disney!
They should do the que in stages. One in the morning for half what they usually do and then one mid day.
Just an update on my experiences the last few days…
We head to Disney next week, and I’ve been logging in daily at 8 AM to go through the boarding pass process. A few times, I’ve been able to get the red “get boarding pass” to come up within a few seconds of 8 AM and go through the process. I’ve then kept track of times – primary boarding passes are usually gone in about 30-40 seconds, secondary within 15 minutes or so.
Yesterday and today, I couldn’t get the boarding pass icon to come up for around 35 seconds despite exiting and reentering the screen multiple times. Yesterday, that put me in a backup boarding position. Today, all groups (backup and primary) were gone within 35 seconds.
I’m really not optimistic that we have any chance of getting boarding passes given we are going next Thursday, the day after Runaway Railway opens. It only seems to be getting harder to get a group at all. I’m mentally prepared to throw in the towel on RoR, rope drop Runaway Railway and have a 3 hour wait (4 & 7 year olds, so it’s a must do for us!), then never go back to Hollywood Studios again.
Are you saying that you’ve been getting boarding groups when you aren’t in Hollywood Studios? First, that isn’t supposed to be able to happen. But second, you’re taking boarding groups away from people that are actually there. Major etiquette fail.
Will an 8:20 breakfast reservation help ensure I am in the park when boarding passes become available? Planning to go this coming Sunday. The park opens at 8:00am anyways but I want to make sure that I am inside right at 8:00 and not stuck in a line when it opens. I don’t really care about any rides other than ROTR. I was thinking I can hopefully show up at 7 or so and be allowed to go to the restaurant early. From what I understand, the park usually allows people inside early anyways so I would probably be inside the park when it opens if I show up at 7am even if I don’t have breakfast reservations. Will there be an express-line entrance kinda thing for breakfast reservations?
Thank you!
Similar question here. We have an 8:40 am breakfast reservation on a day they open at 9 though. I think I’ve read that this is a good strategy to ensure you’re in the park to do the boarding pass. Do they handle general park entrance and meal reservations the same way or do you get caught up in the crowd?
At this point, it makes no difference–there’s no separate line at DHS. If they ever follow through with the 9 am park openings, it might.
However, even then it’s entirely possible they’ll open the turnstiles at 8 am, in which case there still wouldn’t be a need for a separate line.
I would not expect a DHS pre-park opening breakfast ADR to make any difference whatsoever at any point in 2020.
@Ray, in my case, our ADR is for 8:40 am and the restaurant opens at 8 for breakfast (as per the Disney website). So far HS itself is scheduled to open at 9 on the day I’m going but I do know that can change. Anyone know if they update the website to reflect when the hours change? Snagging these tix seem to be more stress than needed in ones life, lol :/ I think if we go with the open mind that there’s a high chance we won’t get on, it won’t ruin the early part of our experience!
Yes you are allowed in the park but nothing opens until the official opening time…..nothing. They pretty much keep you waiting on Hollywood Blvd. until the official opening time. On Monday my plan was to get into the park, get a boarding group (got 132) then grab breakfast but most of the sit down restaurants do not open until 9 or 10 and the quick serve ones were jammed. Overall a waste of time as RotR broke down at 9 and I am not sure when It came back on line but I knew then that group 132 was not going to make it. By the way the lines to scan in were crazy and even though I was in the parking lot at 7:30 and parked, I scanned in at 7:59 and only because I went through the no bag security line. There were a lot of people behind me and all boarding groups were taken by 8:01. A lot of pissed people.
First I have a question that I never see the answer to: How many people are in a boarding group? It seems that the ridership capacity is way to low for a popular ride and at least several thousand should be able to ride it per day.
My suggestion is that the release only a single boarding group every 4 minutes when the park opens so if you show up at noon you can still get a boarding group. Might kill the app but at least it is fair to those of us that come for the day and live 2 hours away.
Another site has a good break down about the boarding groups. “This also means that, on a 13-hour day, the park will average about 154 boarding groups or 15,400 riders. In a 12-hour day, the park will average 143 and so on.” So from this it looks like 100 people per boarding group? I like the idea of staggered or something with the boarding groups but I’m sure when they change something it will benefit resort guests, not everyone else. Just the usual MO for Disney!
No one knows. There are a lot of supposed “estimates” but they’re all just guesses.
We’re heading to WDW in March from the UK. It’s our son’s 11th birthday and he is extremely excited for Galaxy’s Edge. My hubby and I are watching the evolution of the boarding pass system with increasing anxiety.
We have fast passes for Smuggler’s Run and Mickey & Minnie’s (thanks to the flurry of changes to that system) and I’m trying to keep my expectations low for Rise of the Resistance. No, going to WDW is not a right, but I do think that the management could be doing more, in this case, to manage the crowds, given how much we do pay and how far some of us come.
Perhaps annual pass holders should be capped on how many boarding passes they can book within a given time frame?
But I like your suggestions of later opening at the other parks and earlier opening at HS. I think that would go a long way to resolving this problem.
We were just there today, 2.25.2020 and the queue was full instantly at 8. All rides had wait times over 30 min at 8 am, and the big names by 8:15 am were into triple digits! Raiders had standing room only 35 minutes before showtime! I have not seen this many people at this time of year. It was crazy! I pick this time of year for the smaller crowds. It was not the case this year. It felt like mid summer.
We went to DHS! 2 hours before opening (6am). Tried to get on a boarding group, and it was FULL for the whole day in 30 seconds. WTF! So, we didn’t get to ride that stupid ride. Then it rained. Yay!.. Total waste of time and money. And WAY too many people.
Us too! Insane crowds. I wish we had signed up my kids for Jedi training then gone to Epcot then come back we got boarding group 86. The whole system was so nerve wracking. Most ppl around us didn’t get any boarding group. So 5 Minnie 30 sec is generous. They were gone in 10 seconds. I heard boos and groans in the crowd. We we’re lucky I guess. But when we boarded at 520pm, we still had a 45 min line wait. That seems also ridiculous. So boarding groups are not even like fastpass?? Ugh this whole system is frustrating and seems unfair.
Local, annual pass holder here. People need to bear in mind, WDW is a privilege, not a right. No one has a right to go to WDW. You must pay to play. That being said, why do people spend so many thousands of dollars to go and wait in lines, spend thousands on hotels and mediocre food? I can’t and will never understand the frustration and time people go thru, dragging their kids thru the rude crowds, coming from all over the world, to wait in line for a ride, or in this case, a mere CHANCE to ride? People from amazing places like europe and Japan. Makes no sense.
I live in the US but not local to WDW. I can’t speak for all but I think many people go for the same reason you are an annual pass holder, it’s fun, or rather should be. Keep in mind most of these international and other travelers booked months ago (you basically have to), before the crazy crowds and new policies causing the frustration even existed. That is probably part of the issue. They had no idea if would be this confusing or frustrating.
We visited Hollywood studios first week in January . Got on resort bus at 6am park opened at 7am. Got in a long line to enter the park, went straight back to star wars area. Had phone ready Disney app hit the app at 7am , spinning , spinning finally got on and we were group 140 thru 145 back up. Ok we did it, then got in line for other star wars ride , went pretty fast rode it. Had a reservation for ogas cantina that was great. Had lunch at 50s prime time cafe then took the sky ride to Epcot. This was easy and great. 515pm we were notified our group was up. Went back to do rise so so worth it. So yes opening 7am is a good idea.
We are planning on going next week, opening day of the new ride (we did not plan it this way and because of limited time this was our only option). We will be a party of 6 (3 adults and 3 kids 6, 5 and 10 months) my girls love Star Wars bit after reading all of this I’m debating on visiting a different park (maybe Epcot) that day to avoid the chaos. My current fast passes are for the star wars adventure ride, Disney Junior live and frozen. Or do we just go later in the day and not even try to get a virtual boarding pass??? Thoughts???
You really don’t need fast passes for Frozen or Disney Jr. Star Tours (star wars adventure?) is hit or miss with standby times. Sometimes it’s 20 minutes, sometimes it’s 90. With the crowds lately comparing to holiday crowds, it may be worth having a fp for star tours. As for RotR, it took 5 (FIVE!) attempts to get my 5 and 7 year old, my wife and myself on the ride and it wasn’t even close to as busy as this. We did eventually make it on and yes, it was very cool, but it wasn’t worth it imho. For a 5 and 7 year old getting up so early, it really ruined the day. They were a mess by the middle of the day. So up to you. If you can get your family to HS by 7, by getting an Uber, you have a 30 second shot to get a boarding group. Otherwise, if not, you can then have to wait three digit waits on the more popular rides for the rest of the day…. I’m sorry, I’m really showing my feelings about it. Unfortunately if you read the rest of the comments, many people are having the same experiences. Good luck to you. Personally, unless your kids are always up that early, and you are technically inclined and familiar with the app, and you have a park hopper, and a HUGE star wars fan, go for it! But don’t get upset if you don’t get it. Odds are not good.
Thank you! I’m thinking I’ll just make a game day decision, Especially because we’re going to MK the day before
I wasn’t that impressed with the actual RotR ride. The physical ride itself was awesome, but the experience for the rider wasn’t that great. I much preferred Avatar. Also new to me. And the kids preferred Smuggler’s Run as well.
I agree with you they need to open earlier and see if it eases the rush. It was much more fair when if you are willing to get there you could probably get on the ride. It was also easier to catch a ride on one of the other top line attractions some days eve 2 of them before the crowd was to big. People who keep saying fastpass would be better kill me. Then only people who stay on property and are quick enough on the draw 60 days out have a chance and no one else. Tuesday in mid February shouldn’t be worse than Christmas week.
Tom thank you for all this info. We will be at DS on 3/9 and will make sure we are through the turnstiles in time. Can multiple people in a group be trying to refresh and get a boarding pass in the app or just one person.
I’ve been wondering this same thing. If people are logged into the same account on two (or more) phones, can both people attempt to get a boarding pass?
We were very disappointed when we went to DHS the end of January. The only things we were able to do are the ones that cost extra $. Typical for Disney I know. We have been visiting every 1-2 years since 1990. I told my husband that I’m not sure I want my grandchildren to experience Disney. When you have a ticket that is 100-150 and you get to ride 1-2 rides. That’s ridiculous. And don’t remind me of other things to do, we have. I don’t care to spend the $, but I spend it to ride the rides. I mean basically we paid the price of a ticket to ride the Millennium Falcon once. I love Disney. But we have to consider other options.
And I’m really confused by people voicing concern about the Cast Members and the hours they work. Do you not get gas or groceries in the morning for fear of an employee having to come into work early? I love the CM’s, but that’s just weird.
Haha that is pretty funny about the ‘poor’ cast members. I mean, they get paid, and there are a ton of articles right now about the new director making life great for them. I’ve felt sorry for cast members getting an earful from rude guests before, but never just for ‘having to work’ at a job they signed up for…
Totally with you on the other stuff, too. I have a family of five and the expense vs what you get for your money just isn’t there anymore like it was just a few years ago. We’re either going to wait for everything to calm down (which would likely take an economy crash) or just visit other fun, less expensive and less crowded places.
Thanks for all your work Tom, love reading. We were on Rise of the Resistance this morning and fortunate enough to get group 11, started trying at 7:59:45. By 8:00:30 it was in backup. The mess it caused to the rest of the park was crazy. Slinky dog was 180 minutes at one point then temporarily closed at 10am. I would like to see them go back to a “you’re staying at a Disney property you get in an hour early in rotating areas of the parks” like the late 90s. That along with earlier times
It seems as though the attractions for Star Wars were built severely under capacity to demand.
Why can’t they go to fast passes like all the other new rides. This forces people to get up early and fight crowds. Not fair to ppl who have young children or elderly. Just doesn’t seem right how they are doing this. Also there is another problem there are people out there who do not have smart phones. ( my father In law) so he will never get to ride? Can one person from your group sign everyone up? Or does each person need to be there? Are you guaranteed to get with your group?
Because the ride is still a technical mess that suffers from multiple, lengthy breakdowns every day. Until Rise can be trusted to reliably run for the park’s full operating day, they’re not going to treat it like a normal ride with time-specific fastpasses and a big long standby queue.
As for your other questions, one person can (and should) sign up everyone in your group, but everyone in your group has to have entered the park. It’s like if a restaurant didn’t let you put your name on the waiting list until your entire party is present. Assuming you get a boarding group number for your party, then you are 100% guaranteed to ride together as long as you all show up to the ride’s entrance together.
Only one person from a group with linked tickets has to log in and push the button, but everyone in your group who wants to ride must be in the park when that happens. You can’t send the person who drew the short straw while everyone else sleeps in for another hour.
Everyone *has to have entered* the park, but they don’t have to STILL be there. You can be rope-dropping Epcot while you get your boarding passes, as long as you already *entered* DHS.
You can forget about any park improvements (longer hours, more staff etc). Effective immediately, Bob Iger has stepped down as Disney CEO and has been replaced by the cost cutting-on the cheap king Bob Chapek.
Wow Tom, you really opened a can of worms with this post! 🙂
The entitlement of Disney guests has really come out here.
With many more predicted price increases coming from the new CEO, perhaps WDW will price out many then get rid of boarding zones.
What do you mean? It is expensive to go to Disney and it certainly seems reasonable to expect to actually get to ride the rides you came for….. Don’t see how that is entitlement. They overcrowd the parks to the point that it isn’t enjoyable. And I absolutely think it is wrong that staying on site allows you to “buy” fast passes to the best rides. Everyone paid for the same ticket, everyone should have a shot at getting a fast pass.
My family of 9 just returned from our Disney trip of 7 days. We visited Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Blizzard Beach and Hollywood Studios. We went to the Rats Palace on two days and Hollywood Studios for two days. We were fortunate on both days to get boarding passes in the 30’s. I almost felt guilty about getting to ride RotR twice but then after realizing the amount of time, money and crowding at the park that we went through we got over it in a hurry. We also were able to ride Smugglers Run 4 times with minimal waits by going single rider. It can be done but you have to be lucky for that mythical boarding pass. If only we had that luck when it came to the lottery here back home in Michigan.