FastPass+ Tier Changes & Star Wars Ride Added at Hollywood Studios
One of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge rides is being added to FastPass+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and attractions are again shuffling tiers ahead of Walt Disney World’s big debut of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. In this post, we’ll detail the changes, share tips for which FastPass+ reservations to book, and offer predictions.
For starters, the new attraction being added to FastPass+ in Galaxy’s Edge is sadly not Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (more on this later). Rather, you’re now able to make to fly the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, as FastPass+ reservations for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run are now available in the My Disney Experience app for February 19, 2020 and later.
Beyond this addition, there are tier changes for other attractions. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is now one of two tier 1 attractions, along with Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land. This duo will presumably be joined by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at some point in the future, as well as Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway…
Tier 2 is now comprised of Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Tours: the Adventures Continue, Fantasmic, Frozen Sing-Along, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, MuppetVision 3D, Disney Junior Dance Party!, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, and Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage.
Given that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens on March 4, 2020 and reservations for it were not added to My Disney Experience with this latest change, it’s probably a safe assumption that the attraction will not have FastPass+ when it debuts. Rather, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is probably being added because Runaway Railway won’t offer FastPass. It’d be a bad look if all three of Walt Disney World’s newest attractions didn’t offer the service.
With that said, we do not anticipate Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway using a boarding group system like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, unless it’s also unreliable and plagued with downtime issues. We haven’t heard anything to suggest that this is the case, meaning it’s highly likely to be standby only.
The reason for making Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway standby-only is pretty simple, and one we went through prior to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge last year: crowds. FastPass+ effectively allows guests to be in two places at once, whereas the standby line is an effective and efficient way for the park to soak up crowds.
In an undersized park like Disney’s Hollywood Studios, this could be important. While we haven’t seen the park’s capacity tested yet, that could happen once Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is added to the mix. At this point, we’re not talking phased closures or anything like that–more like unpleasant congestion and overcrowded restaurants.
As for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, we do not anticipate it being added to FastPass+ any time soon. Walt Disney World initially indicated that the boarding pass/virtual queue system was about addressing demand and would only last for a few weeks, neither of which are true.
The virtual queue system is ideal for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance because it remains incredibly unreliable with delayed openings and multiple breakdowns per day being common. The virtual queue is the same concept as FastPass+, but without the return time windows. Unlike with FastPass+ (which is often booked a month or more in advance), this allows Disney to offer return windows on the fly based upon real-time ride conditions.
This means that if Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance goes down, Walt Disney World can immediately pause the calling of new boarding groups, and resume only once the attraction is back up and the backlog of guests that were already called has started to cycle through. This approach is much more dynamic and minimizes the headache and confusion of having to constantly issue “anytime” FastPasses.
Overnight test and adjust continues on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and our expectation is that it will not offer FastPass+ until it’s deemed sufficiently reliable. (Maybe averaging only one breakdown per day? That seems more reasonable.) It’s a complex attraction with multiple ride systems and a couple of trouble AAs, so that could be a while.
This is borne out by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland. Per Disney, that version of the attraction was in roughly the same state when the one at Walt Disney World opened over a month earlier. That means that the west coast version benefited from over a month of additional full-time test and adjust…and it’s still having the same downtime woes.
New attractions being unreliable, especially envelope-pushing ones, is hardly a novel or unprecedented thing. This has happened countless times before. The original Test Track is probably the best example, but the main difference there is its opening was actually delayed for nearly 2 years due to problems during test and adjust.
As for when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will be sufficiently reliable to offer FastPass+, we don’t have a crystal ball. There could be some epiphanic moment overnight that solves everything by tomorrow. (That seems doubtful.) It could take months of tweaks and software upgrades to get everything running more smoothly and downtimes minimized. (That seems more likely.)
Aside from rumors that we don’t deem credible, we aren’t privy to what issues Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is currently having. However, if a time traveler from January 23, 2021 visited us and said that Walt Disney World just announced the ride would be getting FastPass+ in February 2021, we would not be shocked. We’d be more surprised if it dropped the virtual queue before this summer. Anything between this summer and 2021 seems like 50/50 odds.
This is part of the reason why we caution guests against waiting in our FAQ & Ride Guide to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Its popularity is not going to die down. (To the contrary, the easiest time to ride was the week after opening!)
Even when the virtual queue is eventually abandoned, Rise of the Resistance is going to trade one high-demand, limited-supply system for another. Anyone without an extended on-site hotel stay is going to be in a long standby line, because that attraction will be perpetually fully-booked before the 60-day mark. In the meantime, it’s entirely possible that problematic effects will be eliminated. (Just ask Indiana Jones Adventure about that.) But I digress…
Overall, these changes in FastPass+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios seem like a positive move for the vast majority of guests. The Huge Hollywood Studios FastPass+ Change from last summer that made every stage show tier 2 option was a mostly bogus move to redistribute crowds, and I don’t think we met a single fan of that change.
Now that Walt Disney World has seen that the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge did not cause a crowd cataclysm, it makes sense to restore some order to things–especially with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance still causing frustrations.
As for strategy, selecting Slinky Dog Dash as your one choice from Tier 1 plus Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith as your two selections from Tier 2 is the optimal approach. Tower of Terror and Fantasmic are also good back-up options if one of the above Tier 2 FastPasses is unavailable. Anyone with an upcoming trip that booked under the old tiers should swap out their previous Tier 2 picks for these if possible, as you’ll save far more time with these rides than the shows you likely picked.
Even though it’s a new and shiny FastPass+ option, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is not a good choice from the top tier of FastPass+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Its lines do get really bad in the morning, but they always subside later in the day. (Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is basically a “consolation prize” for those who don’t score Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding groups–which is also what it is for those who can’t score Slinky Dog Dash FastPasses now.) Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is a good attraction to do mid-afternoon or later, or anytime via the Single Rider line.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run being added to the FastPass+ lineup at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Disappointed Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance aren’t being added? Have any predictions as to when either of those will join the lineup? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? 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!
Tom – do you know if RotR, while not offering fast passes yet, will allow a DAS rider to get a time to come back and ride? And same for Mickey ride…if only standby, will they accept a DAS?
As of now, RotR does not offer DAS return times. DAS riders must use the same virtual queue system as everyone else.
Thanks for the update. Our fast pass is confirmed for 2/28/20.
Finally! I loathed the fact that they put all the rides into tier 1. That was horrible and not cool at all.
I am interested to see if your prediction for Runaway Railway having no FP or virtual queue holds true. Now, both tier 1s have a height requirement. Usually there is one all heights ride in tier 1—parents with babies can’t wait in long standby queues. It would be weird for them to add a much needed baby friendly ride in a park with few of them, and then make it unusable by parents of small kids. I suspect it will utilize virtual queue and require guests to choose between queues for rise of resistance and railway to help offset demand for resistance (eg maybe people with two days at HS will do one ride one day and the other the second day, giving more first timers a better chance at getting lower boarding groups for resistance).
Using Runaway Railway as a means of diluting the virtual queue for RotR would actually be a pretty savvy move, and is an interesting prediction. I still don’t think it’ll happen, but I respect the idea and think it’s certainly plausible for the reasons you identify. Good thinking!
We’ll have to see what happens!
Yes! As a parent with 4 kids age 6 and under, if a ride requires waiting in a line over 20 minutes or arriving in the park at 7:00am, we just don’t do it. The combination of long trips and FP has allowed us to completely avoid lines in the past. Totally fine with missing out on ROTR when we go this November, but Mickeys ride really needs a FP!
Slinky Dog is the objectively best choice for tier one, but I’m personally not wild about it. So I got a Smuggler’s Run Fastpass instead. I’m fine with not riding Slinky Dog or maybe getting lucky with an evening Fastpass day-of (it’s somewhat cool at night). I’d rather do multiple rides on Smuggler’s Run
This was my strategy as well. Not all of us–there are five–like roller coasters so MFSM it is. And this way I am hoping we can ride it more than once. If we have time the coaster lovers will wait in line for SDD in the evening.
For our March spring break trip I added smuggler’s run; slinky dog dash is still not available. Glad to swap out the Beauty and the Beast show fastpass for smuggler’s run! Sounds like it will be an early morning getting that ROTR boarding pass.
btw, didn’t get tower of terror (although it was available) due to a teen with a heights issues. will let her decide day of 🙂
I have two young kids who aren’t going to want to FP the new Tier 1 attractions. My daughter freaked out on Slinky Dog Dash the last time we went to HS.
Any chance Runaway Railway will FP for the end of July?
Overall this is really good. I am just frustrated that they announced it less than 30 days out. We are traveling in mid February and this eliminates the benefit for those staying at Disney resorts by having it at les than 30 days.
There’s no way to avoid it though – no matter what day Disney releases or changes something, it will absolutely be within someone’s FP window! Just gotta roll with the punches 🙂
That’s not necessarily true. If this change was announced today to take effect at the end of March 2020, it wouldn’t impact existing bookings.
This happens all the time at Walt Disney World, and many fans just take it for granted. By contrast, it almost never occurs at Disneyland, and that’s simply because the booking windows there (where they exist at all) are not such extremes. To each their own, but I personally far prefer Disneyland’s approach.
Ditto! I went to Disneyland for the first time a couple of years ago and it was so refreshing to not have to plan out my day a couple months in advance. I get that Disney can’t necessarily know every detail about operations months in advance, but then they shouldn’t allow/expect guests to try and book so far out. It’s a lot more frustrating to have a plan you’ve had set for months fall through (be it because of a policy change, ride breakdown, or weather) than it is to adjust something you’ve only had set for a couple weeks.
True, but if they had started the change on Mar 1 instead of Feb 19, the ones who could only book at the 30 day window, ie, non disney resort guests, would not have been able to book yet. This would have given disney resort guests an advantage, which is what they should have done. but yeah, either way, it’s good to see the change.
I was able to add tower of terror. I already had rockin roller coaster as my tier one. Of course smugglers run was already gone by the time I saw this post! I had no issue with changing my booking. I did check again just now and all the previous tier 1 rides are all booked!
This is great news! I was hoping for something like this to come out before my trip. I wasn’t counting on the re-tiering though, so I’m uber excited. now, just have to wait 7 more weeks until I’m actually able to start reserving my FP’s. Definitely planning on back to back TSMM and Slinky dog on one of my days and MFSR on the other. Not sure the rest yet, just excited for the opportunity.
You’re forgetting a big factor in your recommendation against Smuggler’s Run fast passes: The lines have been reasonable BECAUSE there was no fast pass. So 100% of capacity goes to standby.
With only 30% of capacity going to standby…. I expect Smuggler’s Run to immediately become like Flight of Passage – Current 40 minute lines will immediately become 100 minute lines. Current 90 minute peak lines will become 3-4 hour lines.
I disagree.
Numerous things go into a wait time, but the primary factors are supply (capacity) and demand, the latter of which includes each guest’s balking point for a particular attraction. FastPass+ does not alter supply (it just redistributes it) and it has only a minimal impact on demand. (It creates *a bit* of artificial demand.)
What remains unchanged is balking point. The reason waits die down from their morning highs is because guests see those 100 minute posted wait times and are not willing to jump into line for this particular attraction. The difference between Smugglers Run and Flight of Passage is that the latter is significantly better, so more people are willing to wait longer for it.
Guess we will wait and see…. A friendly wager, I expect doubling of wait times.
I’m game if you are. Let’s choose a fixed off-season date and go with concrete predictions. For the sake of simplicity, how about February 27, 2020? If the peak wait time for Smugglers Run is closer to 180 minutes, you win bragging rights. If it’s closer to 110 minutes, I win bragging rights. Fair enough? 🙂
Got Smugglers Run and new Toy Story Mania and Saucers! Love this new tiering!!!!!
Friday was all booked but Thursday of our trip had them.
I also switched it for only 4 in our party of 10 then added another 3. It worked that way.
While a certainly defer to your expertise and experience, I tend to agree, at least at a high level with Adam. I’m sure the whole fastpass system has benefited the average family in Wisconsin that plans their pilgrimage a year in advance but it’s pretty much destroyed it for anything resembling a spontaneous trip. We haven’t been in a few years and finally decided to go the first week in March (a “good” week according to one of your previous posts). We are staying on site but unfortunately, because of scheduling we couldn’t plan more that 50-55 days in advance. Big surprise – no fastpasses available at any time on any day we’re there for flight of passage – heck no fastpasses on any day at any time for the snow white & seven dwarfs coaster. They’ve completely abandoned standby riders for the benefit of the fastpass system. At this moment it’s 205 minutes for Flight and 130 minutes for Snow white. That’s just nuts. I am convinced that those wait times are not simply because of demand, but because we are slowly approaching the point of 0% capacity being allocated for standby.
I’ll take the bragging rights wager… but the average wait time may be a better reflection than the peak wait time (which can be due to many factors).
Under a 70 minute average wait, you win. Over 110 minutes, I win.
Or quite simply… 2/27/20 — I bet the average wait time for Smuggler’s Run is at least 10 minutes more than Slinky Dog, you bet it’s at least 10 minutes shorter than Slinky Dog.
What you say about capacity and “walk away” limit is true but with some important caveats:
If daily ridership remains the same — And the “average” wait time (for ALL riders) remains the same, then the wait time will be significantly longer.
If right now, there is an average wait time of 60 minutes, for all riders
Then in the future, there is still an average wait time of 60 minutes for ALL riders… but 2 out of 3 riders will get a much shorter wait time, FP wait time of just 10 minutes (for example). So keeping the 60 minute average now means a standby wait time of 160 minutes. (1 standby guest at 160 minutes plus 2 FPs at 10 minutes each, still is a 60 minute average).
So the only way the standby line stays close to the same as current, is if ridership DECLINES.
Which brings us to the “walk away” number. Yes, in theory, ridership can decline if there is a rational walkway number, pretty consistent across guests.
But I argue that you have a very different walk away number for Star Wars fans vs non-fans (and a gradient in between). If you are visiting DHS from far away, a trip specifically to see the Star Wars stuff, your once in a life time trip, you’re not going to walk away from Smuggler’s Run because the line is a bit too long. On the other hand, if you’re a non-fan just going ride to ride, you may walk away even at 20 minutes.
So there are non-fans who are walking away even right now — But many of them won’t walk away if they get a FP.
In other words — Currently, only “fans” are riding it at all. Since non-fans would walk away even from a 45 minute line. But once you have FP, much of that capacity may go to non-fans… people who would even walk away from a 20 minute line. So where all the current capacity may be going to “fans”, FP will steer some capacity to non-fans. With the fans being ready to wait longer.
So 3 assessments for 2/27/20:
Peak time of 100 (you)/180 (me)
Average time of 70(you)/110 (me)
Or… 10 minutes shorter than Slinky Dog (you), at least 10 minutes more than slinky (me).
No availability for smugglers run at this time. Do you have any insight as to whether everything was snatched up quickly or is this a system issue and I should keep rechecking? Thank you
Keep checking as people continue to shuffle their plans. I have had decent luck scoring hard to get fast passes even on the same day.
I doubt everything is already gone. As always, My Disney Experience has trouble whenever the system is stressed. Keep checking!
even for Feb 19 ?
trying to get one for the last 2h…website or app !!
Help me out here. We get 3 FPs, but can choose only one from Tier 1 and…one from Tier 2? Two from Tier 2?
1 from Tier 1, 2 from Tier 2.
You can select 1 FP for an attraction in “Tier 1” and 2 FP for different attractions in Tier 2, for a total of 3 daily FP reservations. Hope that helps!
One from Tier 1 and two from Tier 2!
Thank you, everyone!
Missing it by a week! I don’t care about FP for smuggler’s run; I care about the reorganization of the tiers. Oh well, I guess the bright side is I don’t have to adjust my current touring plans or change my FPs.
smuggler’s run always has a single rider line to get through faster too
Technically speaking, you get 3 advance FPs, one of which CAN be a tier 1. You’re not *required* to pick a tier 1, though. Under the current tiering, I would be tempted to just book RnR, ToT, and Fantasmic as my 3.
I think the re-tiering is great news. Your 2nd and 3rd FP+ at DHS are now probably worth more than they are at Epcot or even AK. I’d probably pick ToT for my 3rd FP over TSMM. TSMM has a higher hourly capacity with the 3rd track added and most of the queue is air conditioned!
Very fair point. It’ll also be interesting to see whether demand for Toy Story Mania drops slightly once Runaway Railway opens (as that will be another family friendly attraction).
We have a trip planned March 1-5 and plan on doing Hollywood Studios March 2 to try for Rise Of the Resistance then March 5 for the Mickey Railroad or Rise 2nd attempt if we don’t get on it the first day. Watching for any info on how the new Mickey ride line up will work so thanks Tom for your insight. That is what we were thinking too – that it will just be stand by.
Assuming Star Tours not being in Tier 2 is a typo/oversight?
They didn’t do something weird like make that standby only?
Thanks for the good info.
Star tours is still Tier 2
I was just obsessing about this earlier today!! Are you psychic? Taking my grandson in September. He’s not a huge Star Wars fan so what I really wanted to do on our DHS day was TOT, TSMM and SDD and now I can FP all three!!!! Anything else we are able to do would just be a bonus (thinking M&MRR). Thank you, one less thing to figure out!
Tom, regarding the boarding groups for RotR, I keep seeing if the normal groups (not backup) do not get to ride due to breakdowns, etc., Disney gives guests an anytime FP+ that includes use on RotR. If that’s the case, how does that affect future day boarding groups since there would likely be an unknown number of these “freebies” that also need to ride? Seems like this could just create an eternal case of all boarding groups not getting to ride daily.
I’ve been stalking the boarding groups from afar (I’m visiting in a couple of weeks and as a huge Star Wars fan riding Rise of the Resistance is obviously a top priority) and the number of guaranteed boarding groups seems to vary from day to day. My guess is if the ride has a bad day with downtown, the next day there are less guaranteed boarding groups to account for people redeeming FastPasses. And if less FastPasses are redeemed than anticipated, they can just call more backup groups.
That seems to make the most sense. It’s just difficult to accurately gauge this from afar unless you’re monitoring the uptime/downtime constantly throughout the day and the number of boarding groups that made it through for the day.
my sister in law heard about the change this morning on facebook an hour or so before any of the big blogs began posting about it. she was able to get MFSR in, but then the system crashed (let me put on my big surprised face). she’s trying to get rid of BATB and replace it with RNRC or ToT but so far no luck, she’s been trying for 2 hours probably now.
add another 2 hours from my original post and she was finally able to rearrange her other fps.
i will say, i dislike that disney makes these kinds of changes within people’s fp window. make them at least 61 days out. it’s the same thing with changing park hours after people’s dining windows too. they really need to release things with enough notice for people to plan accordingly instead of having to scramble after the fact.
she is lucky !
my trip to DHS is ON Feb 19…have been trying to get a fp for MFSR for 2h for that day…impossible !