The shape of the day
Hollywood Studios has, ride for ride, the best line-up in Orlando: Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon, Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. Six genuinely excellent attractions.
It also has fewer of them than it needs, in a park with narrow walkways and enormous demand. The result is the worst standby waits at Disney, consistently.
Full day, and start it properly. Of all the rope drops on your trip, this is the one to get right.
Rope drop
Be at the gate an hour before official open. This park has the longest bag-check queues and the tightest entrance plaza.
Then pick one, and commit:
- Slinky Dog Dash — the highest sustained wait in the park, and an outdoor queue in full sun. Doing this first is the pragmatic choice.
- Rise of the Resistance — the best attraction Disney has ever built, and about 20 minutes long door to door. Doing this first is the correct choice if the party can handle it.
You will not get both at rope drop. Take one and buy or book the other.
Lightning Lane
If you buy Multi Pass on exactly one day of your trip, buy it here.
Priority: Slinky Dog Dash, then Tower of Terror, then Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, then Millennium Falcon. Roll aggressively — this park's waits stay high all day, so every booking you convert is worth more here than anywhere else.
Rise of the Resistance is Single Pass. On an August day it's genuinely worth the money if standby is over 90 minutes, which it usually is by 10:30.
When it storms
Hollywood Studios copes reasonably well — most of its headline attractions are indoors, and the queues are largely covered. The full list is below, but Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Runaway Railway and Star Tours are all fully sheltered.
Muppet*Vision 3D deserves a specific mention: air conditioned, 25 minutes, essentially never a queue, and much funnier than it has any right to be. It is the correct thing to do at 3pm in a downpour.
Food
- Docking Bay 7 (Galaxy's Edge) — the best quick service in the park, and the theming actually holds up.
- Woody's Lunch Box (Toy Story Land) — the breakfast bowls are good, the queue at lunchtime is not.
- 50's Prime Time Café — table service where the waiters play your disapproving 1950s relatives and make you eat your vegetables. Either the best or the worst thing at Disney, depending entirely on your temperament. Book ahead.
- Oga's Cantina — the Star Wars bar. Needs a reservation, has a 45-minute limit, and the drinks are strange and strong.
The evening
Fantasmic! is the big evening show and it needs a seat 45 minutes early. It's good, but it's a genuine time cost on a park where time is scarce — skip it without guilt if the day's been hard.
Galaxy's Edge after dark is worth a lap. The lighting is exceptional and it's the closest a theme park has come to feeling like somewhere real.