Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Report: Low Crowds & Luck!
We pick up where our Caribbean Beach Resort Stay Report left off, aboard the Skyliner to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Having boarded the gondola at 9:42 am, it was a race against the clock to make it to the park in time for rope drop and the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue ‘boarding pass dash’ at 10 am.
For those who are new to reopening rope drop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, due to the reduced capacity of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, boarding passes are gone pretty much instantly at 10 am. From that perspective, there’s little difference between arriving at 10:01 am or 1:59 pm–either way, you’re not getting a boarding pass during the first drop. (There’s another one at 2 pm, but inventory is usually significantly lower then.)
Gliding above the headwaters of the Florida Everglades, we noticed the parking toll plazas were fairly significantly backed up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This made us nervous about our chances, as it meant there was likely a backup for the temperature checkpoint and security screenings. Our margin of error was going to be slim, and any added friction could spoil our chances…
Worth noting for anyone staying at Caribbean Beach, Pop Century, or Riviera Resorts is that the Skyliner is probably the most efficient option (rather than Uber or driving) due to this backup at the parking toll booths. That is, so long as you can get to the CBR hub station early.
Upon “landing,” there was no wait for the temperature check station on the Skyliner and bus station side of Disney’s Hollywood Studios (there’s a separate checkpoint for guests arriving via car and it had a bit of a line), so we breezed through that. This was a bit of a surprise, and different from what we encountered last month in Disney’s Hollywood Studios Reopening Report: A Tale of Two Visits.
The story was the same at bag check.
The new screening devices (previously only at Animal Kingdom and Epcot’s International Gateway) have been installed at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, making this a complete breeze. The line appeared slightly longer on the car arrival side, but even that should’ve moved quickly.
Note the crowds on the left side of the photo above versus the right side. Left is predominantly guests coming via car, whereas right is Skyliner and bus arrivals.
Neither side is busy as compared to pre-closure norms, and there was no wait at the turnstiles.
We stepped onto Hollywood Boulevard at 9:49 am.
That is incredibly good time–approximately 7 or 8 minutes–from stepping onto the gondola at Caribbean Beach Resort until entering Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You may have similar success, but don’t count on it–give yourself more of a buffer.
Above are directional signs for guest flow.
Please excuse the photo quality–we were trying to race back to Toy Story Land while I captured some illustrative photos as we went.
A quick look at the rope drop line for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
In the middle of the frame is a Cast Member with the “end of line” sign. The posted wait time is 1 hour and 20 minutes (or an 80 minute wait for the math challenged).
That’s a long wait time and most of it is out in the sun. We’d strongly recommend saving Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway until later in the day. While that 80 minute wait time is almost certainly inflated, this is definitely not the most efficient time to do the attraction.
Instead, start in Toy Story Land.
Slinky Dog Dash was already running when we arrived in Toy Story Land.
I’m not totally sure when it starts operating, but the answer is “before 9:54 am.”
We jumped into line for Slinky Dog Dash when the posted wait time (per the sign held by the Cast Member on the right side of the frame) was 20 minutes.
The actual wait was shorter than that. Some of this is probably luck, but not all of it. Toy Story Land is definitely the place to start the day, in our view. (Especially on weekends with locals disproportionately drawn to Runaway Railway.)
Speaking of luck, we scored boarding group 7 for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance while in line for Slinky Dog Dash. We each tried different strategies for this, with refreshing the “Virtual Queues” (via the hamburger button in My Disney Experience) proving the winning approach this go-round.
We noticed a lot of guests simply sitting or standing around waiting to join the virtual queue. Don’t do this–get in line for something to kill two birds with one stone. (For more tips, see our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.)
At this point, we could’ve done Alien Swirling Saucers to our heart’s content. Since we have poor taste, we opted to do Toy Story Mania instead.
We’d recommend the one-two punch of Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania because the ride time for the roller coaster is short, so you’ll be ahead of the ‘wave’ of morning crowds. By contrast, even if you’re towards the front of the line for Runaway Railway, the start-to-finish time is longer (same goes for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run or Tower of Terror).
From there, we bounced over the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for some photo time.
I can’t remember the last time we had low crowds, sun-kissed facades, and those glorious puffy “Florida clouds” in Galaxy’s Edge.
Since our goal was showcasing rope drop strategy for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we probably should’ve continued to do attractions…but I just can’t help myself. Instead, I ran around and took photos for “a few minutes” (probably more than that, I lost track of time).
While I was doing this, the posted wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was 10-15 minutes.
It was a beautiful day, but also a brutal one weather-wise. (It probably didn’t help that I had been racing around Caribbean Beach since sunrise.)
It’s a divisive land, but I love Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. On a pretty day with moderate crowds, the roaming characters out, and the sound effects thumping, it is the most immersive place at Walt Disney World. (It’s even better at night, but alas…)
Our boarding group for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was called fairly early on, but we didn’t head back right away–wanting to get stuff done and soak up the ambiance of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge while it was relatively uncrowded.
This run-through was mostly unremarkable. We got to exactly the same point in the queue before encountering other parties as our last time doing the ride. Pretty much everything was identical to that prior ride, so we won’t rehash that here. (See our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Reopening Ride Report for full details.)
Here’s a screenshot of wait times around Disney’s Hollywood Studios taken while we were in line for Rise of the Resistance.
Notably, the posted wait for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is decreasing while everything else is rising.
Back to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, there are a couple of noteworthy things. First, it continues to be the case that not all numbered markers are used for the ITS, which prevents backups in the hangar.
Disney should really remove a couple of the numbers and reposition the existing ones in the briefing room and ITS, as some numbers have poor views in both locations (as was the case for us). That’s a really simple and quick fix, and it’s frustrating that it hasn’t happened in the month DHS has been operating.
Second, the final major effect was not working on our ride-through of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with the screen-based version running instead. Everything else was excellent. (We’re being deliberately vague with all of this to avoid spoilers, but if you’ve ridden, you know. If you haven’t, you’re better off with the vagueness.)
No wait for MuppetVision 3D. So many distinctly unpatriotic guests these days.
Don’t let its lack of popularity fool you–MuppetVision is a Walt Disney World unheralded gem. Anyone with a (good) sense of humor will love it.
Continuing towards the front of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we see that the wait time for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is now 50 minutes.
With waits spiking elsewhere, it’s strategically and theoretically a good time to jump in line. However, there’s still a lot of outdoor queue and this is the most uncomfortable time of the day.
Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster had 35-40 minute waits at around noon, and judging by their overflow queues being in use, those are probably accurate.
On other occasions, we’ve noticed Tower of Terror posting a 45-50 minute wait with no queue outdoors. While it’s possible for this to be the case with one elevator down, it’s just as likely that the time is arbitrarily inflated. We’ve noticed it oscillating between 50 minutes and 13 minutes.
Rather than doing more at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we opted to head back to Caribbean Beach Resort to enjoy the amenities and continue doing “research.”
Taking a midday pool break or doing a long table service meal would be a fairly savvy strategy at this point. Then, finish up remaining attractions in the afternoon as other guests start to leave (see our last Disney’s Hollywood Studios Report for more late arrival strategy).
Ultimately, our rope drop experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios went way better than we expected. Entering the park was totally smooth, we got lucky with the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash, and pre-opening crowds & lines in Toy Story Land were surprisingly low. This park remains a challenge–especially with the summer heat & humidity–because there’s not enough to fill a full day, but with savvy strategy you can accomplish everything (and then some) in a single day (or less).
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios since the park reopened? What was your experience? When did you arrive? How long did you stay? If you did rope drop, which attraction did you do first and how long was the actual wait? Weekday or weekend? If you’ve yet to visit, will you be attempting to join the modified 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!
Tom, thank you very much for not giving away any RotR spoilers in your report. It’s much appreciated as we haven’t yet ridden it.
This is exactly how our two days at Hollywood studies went last week too. Rode rides before park opening and got boarding groups 7 and 11. I was nervous about DHS given all the reports but I think it’s the best temporary abnormal park. The best change at Disney during all of this has been to security checks. It is, dare I say, pleasant now? On the other end of the spectrum I posted several times last week about how awful Magic kingdom was. We went today, however, and it was dead all day. Last week may have been the last hurrah before school. Having experienced near park capacity and the opposite it really is the difference between feeling safe and not.
Love love love MuppetVision 3D! Oh how I miss WDW. Continued thanks for the info and photos.
I don’t know when these photos were taken but we just got back and every park was way more crowded than these pics show! Busses were a disaster, no reliability. Food and water were hard to find in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I mean frustratingly hard to find. It was really hot and if you wanted to spend $4.50 for a bottle of water, it was even hard to find, much less find free water. Epcot and AK were better but still had to hunt it down. We found the cast mates really rude which was a surprise. We had four children under 10 and when they had a drink they would take half of their mask down, take a sip and put it back on. More times than I can count a cast mate came up to us and said your child has to have a mask on as they were drinking. The adults even were told the same thing many times even though we were well away from any crowds. Which brings me to the mask relief stations. We saw two the whole time we were there and both were in full sun. Not much relief. So we chose to socially distance in shaded areas with our drinks and snacks and still got called out. Kind of ironic because if you went into a store of any kind there were people on top of one another. At least half of the hand sanitizers were empty and we never saw any railings or doors inside or out ever cleaned. We figured out the rides were cleaned every 15-20 minutes because the the lines would quit moving. Definitely no cleaning after every ride. Far from it. We saw no real concern by staff to clean anything but their personal space. The plus, and it’s a big plus, is that the kids got to go on every ride, sometimes two or three times. Overall for the adults it was not a magical experience. The kids had a ball. My recommendation is to postpone any plans until next year unless going on the rides is your main goal. Other than that it was terribly disappointing!
Staying at Pop… what time should we get on the skyliner in order to make it to the park on time?
We are also staying at pop and I’m wondering the same thing. What time to board skyliner to make it for line at Caribbean Beach? Or should we just take a bus? Or Lyft? Or take a Lyft to Boardwalk and walk to HS? Looking for some advice. We reeaaalllyy want ROTR boarding passes
I got in line at 8:15 but then the skyliner broke and it was a a MAD DASH for the buses. I said no way and called a Lyft. My Lyft showed up at 8:45 ish and we were turned away from HS b/c it was too early. My driver suggested dropping us off at Boardwalk and us walking which we did. I was in line for HS by 9:15, in the park by 9:25 off MMRR by 9:45ish and sat by SLinky dog to get BG 26. Good luck! Personally I would get in line early for the skyliner, by 8:15 and have lyft or uber be your back up plan.
Dee, how much was your ride from Pop Century?
Hi Brian, It would have been $7.00 if my Lyft driver took us to HS, but since he changed where he was going I updated the app and it changed the amt. I think to $10… maybe some change and I tipped him $3 b/c I was SO happy to be at HS that early. To me it was $13 very well spent.
Any word on when the shows will start back up now that an agreement was made?
Thank you SO MUCH! We are headed for the week of Labor Day and you have now posted about Caribbean Beach (where we got moved after Riverside closed) and gave me excellent info on how to structure our HS day. My son and I are Star Wars fans, and our little is pretty excited about “Slinky Dog Lash” (she is 4…and I just can’t correct that one.)
Thank you for your info- this is all so helpful! And now we wait and see if hurricane season is going to be all 2020 or what.
I’m leaving Disney World today. We visited Hollywood Studios twice this past week walking from the Boardwalk villas. We found out that right now they are starting up Runaway Railroad by 9:30am even though official opening isn’t until 10. On our second day we went straight to Runaway railroad at 9:30, we were off the ride by 9:45. We were able to get number 22 for rise of the resistance and walked onto Rockin Roller Coaster at 10:02. A perfect morning!
Thanks for the heads up on that. I guess now we have an excuse to retest our strategy with that approach, too!
MomOTwins, How long did it take you to walk to from RR to the CB skyliner station?
Thanks for the report! Very timely. My wife and I were just talking about our upcoming DHS visit and wondered how the rope drop process worked. Now we know!
As a dyed in the wool disney fan who has been countless times (though not up to your “countless” times of course LOL) but who is sadly waiting for a different time to revisit, I can’t thank you enough for your continued reporting with your usual (dare I say, even better?) sass and spunky writing. You never fail to inform me and make me giggle while giving me a small bit of that Disney magic I’m missing so much right now. THANK YOU!
Glad you’re enjoying the reports and/or finding them useful!
If you get a boarding pass during the morning grab are you ineligible for the afternoon grab or could you get lucky and get 2 boarding passes in one day?
Erin, only 1 boarding pass per day.
We took the Skyliner twice to get to DHS from Riviera. First time we were nervous and walked to the Caribbean station so we wouldn’t have to transfer and got there super early at 8:30. We were in the park at 9:25 and rode Mickey and Minnie before 10am. Next time we did the Riviera station and didn’t show up until 9:05, and were in the park at 9:50. So skyliner will for sure get you there on time in our experience.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I don’t know if I’d say it’ll “for sure” get you there on time, though–10 minutes is still a pretty slim margin, and things could always shake out differently. It’s a risk I’m willing to take, but a first-timer with only one day in DHS might get pretty anxious and stressed cutting it so close.
When attempting to join the virtual queue, what is the hamburger button in My Disney Experience?
Far right corner, three lines.
While I trust your judgement Tom, the hamburger method is the most button clicks. Hanging out on the home screen until right at 10am, maybe a second after (similar to the old pre-covid method of starting with a fresh load of the app and waiting until drop time to go any further), and click the Join on the RotR info will take you to the same Join Virtual Queue you’ll find using any other method and the join there is almost always available at that time with no refresh needed. Of course, this is just my at home Monday Morning Quarterback opinion and has no basis in any actual in park results.
Of course, making your screen refresh or go back and forth constantly can make for an exciting game while nervously waiting for the groups to drop.
At any rate, it’s always fun to read about how easy it is to get around DHS right now. Enjoy all your park days!
Thanks tom. We are staying at Old Key West in September. Do you think the buses are reliable enough to get us to HS before opening? I understand they start about 45 minutes prior to each parks opening, but have heard they can be unreliable. OR would we be better served just taking an Uber to the front gate?
You should be fine if you get the first bus, maybe ask at OKW what time they will start, I think they start earliest for DHS. We took an Uber as we were staying at the Poly and made out great, you get dropped off really close and we were in the park by 9:20. Old key west isn’t very far from DHS so it’s not a long ride.
We will be walking over from Boardwalk on a Monday next week. What time would you leave to walk to Hollywood Studios?
I’d probably leave my room around 9:15 am, perhaps 9 am. It’s roughly a 15 minute walk to DHS. We would’ve been better off arriving at DHS slightly earlier and being farther forward in line for Slinky Dog Dash.
Great so if you walk from the boardwalk or swan do you merge in with parking lot folks or with the skyliner folks?
Skyliner and bus side.
Any report on taking the boats from Swan/Dolphin, or better to walk over?
Thanks Tom – I better ask this question before making an incorrect assumption: If you go to DHS and then head back to your hotel, you’re still allowed back into DHS again that same day, correct? In other words, can you leave the park and return later during the same day?
Correct/yes.
Thanks, Tom, for the report on your recent visit. The photos are great! I really appreciate your thoughts. I’ll be there September 8 for a few days, staying at the Riviera for the first time, and really looking forward to it!
Do you think there is much of a risk to miss the RoR distribution time when getting in line for an attraction at rope drop?
Perhaps an indoor one with spotty service? (Ironically, the worst queue for service at DHS is Rise of the Resistance. So that’s not really a concern.)
Definitely no such concerns with an outdoor queue like Slinky Dog Dash or even Runaway Railway.
Thanks. My fear would be that you get on the ride right when you need to get a boarding pass. I guess you just need to keep an eye on the wait time and give yourself some cushon.
What time do the parking lots open?
For DHS, they were holding cars at the parking toll booths until around 9:20 am the first couple of weeks (to prevent crowds at the turnstiles) but I’m not sure whether that’s still the case. I assume so.
Thanks Tom. We will be there next week and using a car, which to us seems odd. But so does everything else now.
As someone who’s staying off-property in October, would you suggest taking an Uber/Lyft to a Skyliner resort in order to beat that car arrival line at security?
Definitely not. Not only will it be more of a hassle, but you risk being turned away at the Skyliner Resort. Just arrive earlier via car to give yourself more of a buffer.
you could take a lyft or uber to boardwalk though and walk over. That’s what I did and it worked beautifully. I was in line for DHS at 9:05 through the gates and in the park by 9:20, off MMRR by 9:40 and got BG 26 for RIse.