Hollywood Studios Report: High Heat & Wait Times

Hollywood Studios is the next stop as we continue our late-July 2021 visits to the parks. This Walt Disney World park report will share photos and commentary about the high heat, wait times, crowds, and problem points during the heart of summer tourist season at DHS.

In case you missed it, a good place to start is our Magic Kingdom Crowd Report: Busiest Week of the Year. We also just did an Epcot Crowd & Construction Report, but that park is an outlier and not reflective of what’s happening at the other three parks right now.

In a nutshell, attendance and wait times have spiked at Walt Disney World due to several Disney Park Pass reservation refills over the last two months. The capacity increase has kept reservation calendars mostly green for all dates in late July 2021, meaning that there was no meaningful limit on attendance–what we’re seeing right now is actual pent-up demand playing out…

Disney Park Pass reservations are now unavailable for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for resort guests and theme park ticket holders for the coming week. However, last week was refilled several times and available for the most part for resort guests and ticket holders. No park or date was fully booked for Annual Passholders–the calendar was all green.

This is significant because it means recent crowds level and wait time numbers for Disney’s Hollywood Studios are more or less a snapshot of organic demand, without significant crowd throttles. As evidenced by the coming week being partially unavailable, there are still some limits on attendance, but it’s not nearly like earlier this year, when DHS was fully booked weeks in advance.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the numbers, beginning with average attraction wait times (all graphs courtesy of Thrill-Data.com).

For perspective, the average wait time across all attractions and the entire day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was 46 minutes, which is 10 minutes above average. This made it the 9th busiest day since reopening a little over a year ago.

While no rides had triple digit average wait times (small silver lining), 5 of the headliners were above an hour: Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, Slinky Dog Dash, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Toy Story Mania was also close, at 47 minutes. Oof.

Crowds and wait times have been trending in this direction since the start of July, with almost all of the 10 busiest days since reopening occurring since July 15.

Last month at Disney’s Hollywood Studios actually wasn’t half bad. Walt Disney World was in the process of reducing physical distancing—and thus improving hourly attraction efficiency—but had not yet increased capacity caps to a corresponding degree. July has seen capacity caps catch up to improved operational efficiency—and surpass it.

The end result is an average daily wait time of 49 minutes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

This number would be worse if you were to take out the bottom three attractions, which are continuous shows and/or walk-through attractions. (Animal Kingdom does not do wait times for its trails or stage show.) It’s also worth taking into consideration the lack of entertainment and stage shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Additionally, we’re also no longer seeing a significant fall-off in wait times during the final two hours of the day.

There was a time when you could arrive at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the afternoon and knock out all of the headliners because there was an afternoon exodus among guests who got shut out of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Since wait times are longer across the board, guests who arrive at rope drop aren’t leaving by early afternoon. It’s taking them 5-6 hours just to knock out the headliners, and that doesn’t account for lunch, snack breaks, or shows.

Consequently, the average wait time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is still 38 minutes at 6 pm, which is only 15 minutes off the peak wait of 53 minutes from 11 am until 2 pm.

The best approach to doing Disney’s Hollywood Studios right now is arriving pre-rope drop, and just knocking out the headliners as quickly as you can.

Trying to ride the wave of crowds to the greatest extent possible is still the best approach. I’d personally start in Toy Story Land, but Sunset Boulevard also works.

I’d consider spreading DHS out over two separate mornings, and then Park Hop to Epcot for the afternoon and evening. I know I’m repeating myself with this advice, but it’s strategy that (I think) bears emphasizing.

This strategy should hold true even after the “Wonderful World of Animation” returns, which we view as skippable. That’s a solid show, but was previously treated as a pre-show for the actual nighttime spectaculars. Unless it’s been modified and expanded, “Wonderful World of Animation” is simply not something to plan a day around.

Speaking of which, the company announced the return of several shows to Walt Disney World next month, which should help Disney’s Hollywood Studios in a big way.

More is still desperately needed, but it’s progress.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios has become a sea of umbrellas in the last few years with so many extended queues, but those only help so much. There’s still a lot of overflow queue that’s in the direct sunlight.

From the photos, this might look like a pleasant day at DHS, but the feels like temperature hit 106º during my visit. So for a more accurate “portrayal” of the experience, read this post while wearing a santa suit in a sauna or something.

There’s also a lot of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as a whole, that’s lacking in shade and cover.

Perplexingly, pretty much the entirety of Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge were built with minimal shade. This is not a new complaint–fans have been harping on it for a while. The heat wave Orlando is experiencing is just a “nice” reminder of this issue. Every single day the last week has had feels like temperatures of over 100º.

The few areas with some degree of shade are always packed with people.

I didn’t get a good photo, but the entrance tunnel from Grand Avenue to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is just scattered with bodies during the middle of the day. It’s as if the Battle of Mon Calamari was just fought on Batuu, and passed out guests are waiting for Lieutenant Bek to give one of his famously inspirational and rousing speeches.

Walt Disney World fans have executives they cast as villains who are (supposedly) responsible for every unpopular decision, but this is an issue that falls squarely on those creatives everyone loves.

If there were more collaboration between Imagineering and Operations during the design and construction of attractions and lands, these problems could be avoided entirely. There’s no reason this couldn’t be addressed with purpose-built solutions rather than a bunch of umbrellas, which are about as effective at keeping guests comfortable as fixing a cannonball blast with duct tape.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Even though I’m not a huge fan of Toy Story Land, I’ll admit that it has its moments.

However, both have glaring issues that are not a result of budget cuts or value engineering. These problems are, quite simply, conscious design choices that looked or sounded cool in theory, but clashed with the hard realities of having to exist in a working theme park subject to things like weather.

So many of these problems could and would be quickly fixed if leadership and creatives experienced the parks for a day even once per month as actual guests, without the benefit of VIP access.

I’ll bet Chewbacca has some good ideas. Isn’t there some saying about walking a mile in a Wookie’s fur? (Well, there should be!)

On a positive note, there were a lot of characters out and about at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, posing for distanced selfies and interacting with guests. This is such a great addition that makes the parks feel more lived-in, and I really hope it’s something that becomes permanent.

As an aside, this may not be the “stylish” kind of bucket hat and I may look ridiculous, but I also have zero sunburn after spending the better part of the last week in the parks. Well, aside from a weird splotch on my hand where I, apparently, poorly applied sunscreen. I’m still going to call that a success.

Ultimately, Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been the most “challenging” park at Walt Disney World for the last couple of years, and that remains true right now. The core of this issue is its top-heavy lineup–there are several must-do headliners (a good problem to have) and an insufficient supporting cast of easier to do attractions (not a good problem to have).

That has been exacerbated following the reopening, as several stage shows, nighttime spectaculars, and atmospheric entertainment are still on hiatus at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This will improve a bit in August with the return of Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage and the Wonderful World of Animation, but more is still needed. Here’s hoping that the rest of it–or close to it–is back by October!

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, 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 clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Thoughts on anything covered in this Walt Disney World park report? Have you visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios recently? What was your experience with crowds and wait times at the headliners? If you rope dropped the park, how many attractions were you able to accomplish before the wave of crowds hit? Thoughts on anything else covered in this DHS report? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!