Hollywood Studios Update: October 2018
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the next stop in our ongoing October 2018 Walt Disney World construction updates, and as the park with the most ongoing work, it stands to reason that this update should be the most exciting, right?!
In this DHS update, we’ll cover the latest on PizzeRizzo, the bus stop death march, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Toy Story Land, and other areas of the park. Also, we’ll get to the bottom of the mysterious case of the disappearing stage.
You might have caught a notable omission: Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. Unfortunately, without riding Slinky Dog Dash–and we didn’t have a FastPass+ for it (womp womp)–it’s tough to ascertain any changes as compared to our September Disney’s Hollywood Studios Construction Update. It’ll still be an exciting update, though. Eh, hopefully…
We’ll start with the death march from the bus stops at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to the front entrance of the park.
This time, I did this walk during the middle of the day when temperatures were over 90 degrees, with a ‘feels like’ of ~120. It was absolutely miserable–to the point that I was beat by the time I got into the park, and not really in the mood to do the rest of this update. (The only reason I was there.)
In our last update, I joked about this walk: “Due to all of this construction/demolition, it’s now a 13.1 mile walk from the bus stop to the front entrance. (Half marathon ‘I Did It’ shirts coming soon.)”
I found this to be an amusing quip, and while reasonable minds may differ on its degree of humorousness, I didn’t expect it to be taken seriously. However, multiple people questioned whether it’s really a 13.1 mile walk. I understand that not everyone is a runner, but even if you didn’t know that’s the distance of a half marathon–and ignored the parenthetical informing the joke–that’s such a high number that it should be patently obvious hyperbole.
The distance between Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Universal Studios Florida is 12.7 miles, so even if you parked at the wrong studios theme park, you wouldn’t have a 13.1 mile walk to the front entrance of DHS. Just so we’re clear.
Not much progress is visible on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which isn’t too surprising as most of the work is occurring inside the building. The only noteworthy change is that anchors have been added to the building facade, which will presumably be for the attraction marquee.
The most interesting “development” has been the appearance of a new website called Backdoor Disney, which has some interesting construction photos taken in May and June. Great Movie Ride fans might not want to look…
After transforming from Toy Story Pizza Planet less than two years ago, PizzeRizzo will go seasonal on October 20, 2018.
It remains to be seen what this means for the future of the Muppets themed counter service pizza restaurant, but we do not assume “seasonal” is a code word for Disney silently killing PizzeRizzo, as is often the case.
While seasonal status is frequently the kiss of death for Walt Disney World attractions or restaurants, in this case, it makes perfect sense. (In fact, what didn’t make sense was opening PizzeRizzo two years ago instead of just shuttering it for a few years.)
PizzeRizzo is at the end of a dead-end that’s “anchored” by MuppetVision 3D. As much as we love that attraction, the general public does not share our good taste.
A little over a year from now, this no longer will be dead-end. It’ll be the chaotic entrance area for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Not only will that bring a ton more foot traffic, but it’ll also mean a lot of guests waiting for their FastPasses (either for attractions or to enter the land itself).
In the long term, we think PizzeRizzo is totally fine. Well, not totally fine. The food will still be awful, but that’s correctable with a menu change.
One thing I wasn’t able to do while visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios was get photos of the interior work at Tatooine Traders. The store was simply too crowded and I didn’t want to wait out the crowds.
Based on what I could see, the redesign is pretty utilitarian, and I’m guessing the idea is to open up more floor space. Presumably, Tatooine Traders will be a spillover gift shop for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. If entry to the land is timed or otherwise limited, having a second, high capacity outpost for that land’s merchandise makes sense.
Speaking of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, I also didn’t get new construction photos of it. Toy Story Land was utter chaos, and I was already losing my patience from the heat and crowds.
You can see a couple of the rock spires above this photo of Slinky Dog Dash. What I could see looked about the same as progress last month, but most of the work is done at a lower level, so you really need to ride the coaster to get a good look at progress.
You might’ve noticed the stage wasn’t in our top photo of Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away, which is because the show is currently down for refurbishment.
This used to occur on occasion because the stage was permitted as a temporary structure, meaning it would need to be disassembled and reassembled every so often to comply with that technicality. However, Disney switched to a rolling stage about a year ago. This time, the show is going dark for concrete work.
Very soon, we should start seeing the prep and installation work occurring for Sunset Season’s Greetings and Echo Lake Christmas.
Last year, Echo Lake was drained for ~2 months for repainting and cleanup, plus the installation of support structures for Christmas decorations. With that already accomplished, it should be a much quicker set-up process this year.
That does it for this Disney’s Hollywood Studios update. I know that I missed a couple things, but the weather and crowds were a one-two punch for which I was not prepared. I debated going back to rope drop Slinky Dog Dash for a glimpse of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but I didn’t want to hassle with it. I’ll probably hold off on another update from DHS until the bus/parking situation improves–or the weather cools considerably. While my “13.1 mile” comment was hyperbole, the unpleasantness of that experience really cannot be understated. I guess whoever is in charge of the projects at Disney’s Hollywood Studios right now really hates shade.
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Your Thoughts
Have you done the “13.1 mile” death march from the buses to Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Do you agree or disagree with our take on its unpleasantness? Thoughts on PizzeRizzo going seasonal? Did you look at the carnage inside Great Movie Ride? Anything else we covered in this update? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
We were there the same week as you, but we did the walk from the Boardwalk Inn for a breakfast reservation at 7:55 and we thought we’d never get there. We found out last minute that the ferry from the Boardwalk does not run until 8. Good thing it wasn’t as hot that early in the morning and at least the view was nice.
I was there with my family of 4 (4 and 7 were the kids ages) and our complain about the “Half Marathon” bus walk was that it took a long time for a bus to come to our stop and there wasn’t any shade. a bunch of us stood under the tents that have up beside the stops to be protected from the sun. By the time the bus came, the line filled up. Luckily my wife and kids were able to get a seat (I normally stood with the stroller).
We were there in mid September. Right as our bus arrived off the bus one of those epic afternoon t-storms started. We threw on our ponchos before stepping off the bus, but the rain was coming down “sideways” and man we got soaked during our half marathon walk! There was no place to shelter from the rain and lightning until we got to the main gate. It was actually a little unnerving with the lightning. Once we got in the park the rain let up and we had a great evening, including two rides on the R&R coaster in under 30 minutes!
One suggestion… since the park closed at 8 and epcot’s fireworks started at 9 (we already saw the DHS fireworks earlier in the week), we got on the water taxi, which is a much shorter walk from the main entrance, then took that over to Beach Club Resort, got off there and walked to the International Gateway. Somebody on the boat told us it’s actually faster to walk to the gateway from the Beach Club stop than to stay on the boat which makes another stop before arriving at the gateway. We walked through the gateway with 15 minutes to spare before fireworks started, granted we didn’t get a premium viewing spot, but we still had a good view of the entire show.
“Somebody on the boat told us it’s actually faster to walk to the gateway from the Beach Club stop than to stay on the boat which makes another stop before arriving at the gateway.”
This is correct.
We were there the second week in September with two kids (11 and 7.) Yes, the walk was long, but no one in my group complained. I think we were all just really excited to be there. Plus disney world = tons of walking, so I don’t think anyone thought anything about it. Although this was at 7:30 am, so I’m sure it would have felt like a death march had it been later in the day.
When I was there in sept. (Toy story land) i noticed people standing at the tables in the shade at Woodys lunch box restaurant and not even eating. Just trying to get shade. Which meant those eating had no where to sit/stand in the shade. Terrible design knowing how hot it is in Florida. NEED more shade areas!
If it’s supposed to be like Woodys back yard then put up a giant leaf over the whole area. Lots of shade then. Haha.
They could totally repurpose the huge clovers from A Bugs Land in CA for this!
Did the “death march” the week after Labor Day…when it was in the 90’s and a thousand percent humidity. The walk was quite a haul and seemed never ending at the end of the day. (And yes, I thought about your half marathon comment and could absolutely see how it would feel that way! )
My one major gripe was the lack of shade when you’re having to wait for your bus. It was pretty brutal out there and if we could, I think my husband and I would’ve crawled up in our 2-year-old’s stroller to utilize the canopy on it, because that was about all there was.
Do the Minnie vans drop off closer? We will be doing one of the early morning events and was considering getting a Minnie van for that. A shorter walk would convince me.
Yes, Minnie vans drop off slightly closer.
That walk to/from the buses was horrible especially when it was so hot. We were there October 1st and I was disappointed in the lack of shaded areas within Toy Story Land. I dont know why they didn’t make Woodys Lunchbox with inside dining areas. Also the area seemed so cramped, maybe it wont feel that way in a few years……
Is the temporary bus stop further away than the parking lot?
The only closer parking is in the medical lot.
People actually thought you were for real about that walk being 13 miles??? That is hilarious. I agree it is a hike. I actually commented to somebody in a joking manner saying it was miles away from the busses and they asked if I was serious. I just laughed. As for Pizzarizzo…I’m sad to see it go.(because I agree that they are slowly phasing out) Loved their salad and my kids and hubby loved the pizza. We actually tried to go back in on our 2nd day of HS to find it closed and it was only 4 in the afternoon.
You won’t get an argument from me about the shadeless temporary bus area. It is a depressing place to be and a depressing walk to the park.
As a crazy ops theory, I wonder if a better approach would have been to sharply increase the bus frequency at Epcot, and then run several buses shuttling people between the front of DHS and Epcot’s bus area.
Hopefully I didn’t miss it but how long will the half marathon bus stops be in place? We will be there end of December and I’m hoping we won’t qualify for the “I survived…” shirts.
Thanks for all the info Tom! Love the blog!
The walk is not really that long, but in the relentless sun makes it seem like it is. In December you should be ok. They also seemed to be building shade at the new bus stops so that should help. There is not a lick of shade during the walk or at the bus stops and you are standing on asphalt I am sure you could cook a complete meal on the ground the day we were there. If you do an afternoon only I would suggest hopping from Epcot via boat.
I’m planning a trip for January. Would you even recommend DHS right now? We’re spending one day at AK, two at Epcot for the fine arts festival and then we have a fourth day.
Careful, Tom — if you keep talking about “parentheticals informing jokes” and “patently obvious hyperbole”, people will think you’re some kind of lawyer or something. 😉
But seriously, don’t stop joking. Yes, that’s an oxymoron, but the sly sense of humor lurking around every corner is a big reason I return to this blog.
How long is the walk from the buses, really. I haven’t been able to see it clearly in pictures and will be going in a few weeks with a 2 year so would like to have a better idea of how long the death march will be.
The exact distance depends upon the bus stop, but it’s probably about .3 miles. However, in the midday sun it sure feels longer than that.
We were there same week and had The Last Stop (Pop Century) on one of the paths. It was .3 miles per Motiv fitness tracker. It did feel longer, was miserable hot, and there is a choke point where the two bus paths merge. We highly recommend the strategy we choose at closing which was to sit on the benches and wave to the kiddies until the foot traffic slowed down to a trickle. Thanks for your wisdom!
I haven’t tried the pizza at PizzeRizzo, but I do love their antipasto salad. I went to DHS some months before, and headed straight for PizzeRizzo for that salad, only to find it was already closed for the day, something I did not understand–why are all restaurants not open the whole time the park is open? They did that with the extinct Starring Rolls, too. I am a local passholder, so I often come around 4 PM instead of the beginning of the day, so I can’t always enjoy some of my favorite food options.
I love the salad as well! So good! My kids and hubby said the pizza was really good. We, too, tried to go there on our second day in and were also disappointed to see they were already closed for the day. So sad to hear they are going seasonaland,I agree with Tom, they are prbly on their way out
Any word on how long the Star Wars show will be down? Going early December with 2 little SW fans…
I believe it’s down for 5 weeks, starting about 2 weeks ago–you should be fine by December.
I’m glad you pointed out that the show is closed for refurbishment! This information is NOT available on the Disney website and an e-chat with Disney help was not helpful as they said the show was running. It was not until I called the Tour hotline and specifically asked about the show that I found out it really is closed. Even that person had to put me on hold for 10+ minutes in order to find a cast member to confirm. She said there is no exact re-opening date, so I’ll just call back a week before our tour to see if it’s back on.
Does anyone know why the walk from the bus stop to the entrance keeps getting more and more? I would be exhausted too if its that far of a walk.
They’re currently building a permanent bus stop area (you can see the new area pictured near the top of the post) and trying to expand the parking lot, which has meant a temporary area for buses.
Why they didn’t wait until the cooler months of the year to do this is beyond me.
The current bus loop is permanent, but will stay as a charter lot once the new loops open. All resorts plus Minnie vans will run out of the new ones. The goal to have them open is December. Also, the new guest entry/exit from the parking lot seems very close to being finished.
Maybe you should take the friendship boats to Hollywood studios so its only a 10.2 mile walk
I literally laughed out loud. Well played.
Tom, I want to be excited about the future of DHS, but with how lackluster TSL appears (admittedly I haven’t been yet), the closure of GMR, the uncertain future of Star Tours, and the amount of dead space in the park (Animation Courtyard comes to mind), I can’t help but feel DHS won’t be any less of a mess in 2 years than it is now, even with SW:GE and MMRR. The biggest difference is that it will be a crowded mess instead. I hope they have a good plan, because they can’t afford to be complacent with DHS over the next decade.
I would agree that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway still won’t be enough to “fix” the park, and that reopening other spaces and updating shows should also occur.
Fortunately, I think some of those things can be relatively quick fixes.