We’re back with a new Hollywood Studios wait time scorecard for the week ending July 28. This week saw mostly small increases to waits, one notable ride with a drop in average waits, and a new analysis technique we’re using to see how our rope drop strategy works!
Related Posts
If you’re new to the wait time scorecards, check out our post explaining our Disney World Wait Time Scorecards. That post explains the different numbers you’ll see here including why they’re imperfect. Our wait time scorecards are based on the last week of data from Thrill-Data.com.
Hollywood Studios Wait Times (Week End July 28) (you are here)
We also have a post covering the reopening of Walt Disney World from top to bottom if you’re planning an upcoming visit.
This post works in tandem with our Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Strategy post, which discusses things like when to arrive at the park and what to expect when you arrive. If you’re new to Disney World, you might also want to read out Guide to the Rides and Entertainment of Hollywood Studios, which includes descriptions of the rides.
This Week’s Bottom Line
Waits are slightly up from the first week, except Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which saw a drop in average wait from 56 minutes to 46 minutes. Given multiple reports the posted wait was way off the first week, I suspect this might just be due to this week’s posted wait times being more accurate now that Disney has more information about guest flow to start the day. It’s also possible many locals prioritized rides on the Runaway Railway in week one.
Tower of Terror waits were up this week, and it’s now has the second-highest average wait in the park. With Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster right next door, this could make it an appealing rope drop candidate. However, we worry about winding up in the boiler room or on the ride when Rise of the Resistance groups open, so we still recommend starting with Slinky Dog Dash.
If you can confirm Tower of Terror isn’t loading prior to 10AM, or if you’re comfortable standing out on Sunset Boulevard until 10AM, starting there and heading to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster second looks like a fine strategy.
We don’t discuss Rise of the Resistance in these posts. The fundamentals of Rise remain unchanged—try to get a boarding group (at 10AM and 2PM, now) and go whenever your boarding group gets called. You can read more about the Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group system here.
The worst day for maximum wait times was Sunday. If you caught all the maximum waits that day (not including Rise of the Resistance), you would have spent 470 minutes in line.
Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and Alien Swirling Saucers remain low priorities with low median waits in the afternoon. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is looking more like Millennium Falcon this week, which again suggests a Tower of Terror - Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster rope drop could be a good strategy.
Railway waits still peak in the morning, dropping the first hour of the day until about 11AM. A ride on Slinky Dog Dash, followed by a ride on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (or / maybe plus a ride on another Toy Story Land ride) should have you visiting Runaway with a sub-60 minute wait, which is a good option.
Random Walks Around Hollywood Studios
Before I get to the scorecard, I want to tease a new analysis I’m doing. I’m using python to simulate random “walks” around the park where you go from one ride to a random next ride, wait the posted wait time, and then pick a random ride to go to next.
If I run 50,000 simulations using Sunday’s wait times at Hollywood Studios (because Sunday was apparently the busiest day), here are the results:
Shortest time spent in line is 145 minutes
Average time spent in line is 257 minutes
Longest time spent in line is 370 minutes
None of the simulations finished the day without riding every ride. Rise of the Resistance isn’t included, but you can expect it to take about 60 minutes (30 minute wait, 30 minute experience).
Our rope drop strategy (Slinky, then Smugglers Run, then Runaway Railway, followed by random rides) did pretty well:
Shortest time spent in line is 175 minutes
Average time spent in line is 217 minutes
Longest time spent in line is 275 minutes
Using our rope drop strategy drops the average waiting time by 40 minutes and saves you 95 minutes in a “worst case scenario.” You might notice the shortest total wait was 145 but 175 if you followed our rope drop strategy.
The first four rides for the best possible day were (145 minutes waited): Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, Alien Swirling Saucers, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Slinky Dog Dash. As noted throughout our Hollywood Studios content, we’re just not comfortable starting with Runaway Railway.
Hollywood Studios Wait Time Scorecard Part 1
Here’s part 1 of the scorecard, commentary follows:
Data Source: Thrill-Data.com
You can see waits on all rides except Runaway Railway increased this week. Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster saw the largest increases. Runaway Railway dropped, but I suspect that’s simply because Disney got better at estimating the wait time. Last week I saw repeated reports of the posted wait times being way too high.
Five of eight rides average waits below 30 minutes, and three rides average below 15 minutes. The park still isn’t difficult to fit into a day.
As we’ve continually noted, if you can arrive early for Runaway Railway and you’re willing to risk having bad cell reception when Rise boarding groups open at 10AM, the best strategy is to start with Runaway Railway. If you’re off quickly, you should still get a short wait on your second ride.
We don’t think the risk of missing the 10AM boarding groups is worth starting at Runaway Railway. Same for Tower of Terror, as I’d worry about cell reception in the boiler room or while on the ride. This means Slinky Dog Dash continues to be our recommended first ride of the day.
One approach you could try with Tower of Terror would simply be to wait to get in line until 10AM. This is a strategy I’d like to try. You’d go to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster next, but the next steps are tough. Walking all the way to Millennium Falcon looks like the best option, but that’s a long walk.
Smugglers Run waits tend to be steady for the first 20 minutes of the day. If you can get off Slinky Dog Dash first and ride Smugglers Run quickly, you’ve had a great morning. You might fit in one more Toy Story Land ride or Star Tours before heading to Runaway Railway.
Runaway Railway waits start high, but drop the first hour of the day. Then they level out with a slight decline throughout the day. Riding between 11AM and 12PM is usually a good strategy.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely you’ll get to Tower of Terror before its waits jump in the morning. This means you’ll probably just have to endure a 40-minute wait in the afternoon.
Hollywood Studios Wait Time Scorecard Part 2
Here’s part two:
Data Source: Thrill-Data.com
You can see that Runaway Railway, Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Smugglers Run, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster are all unappealing for the afternoon. Our rope drop strategy has you covering three of these—Runaway Railway, Slinky Dog Dash, and Smugglers Run—in the morning. But you’ll probably just have to endure waits on the other two.
Here are the cutoffs for when we’d get in line for each ride, with “good” waits being 15 minutes under the cutoffs:
Runaway Railway — 60 minutes or less
Tower of Terror — 45 minutes or less
Slinky Dog Dash — 45 minutes or less
Millennium Falcon — 30 minutes or less
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster — 30 minutes or less
Toy Story Mania — 15 minutes or less
Star Tours — 15 minutes or less
Alien Swirling Saucers — 15 minutes or less
How bad a day could you possibly have had this past week? Well, Sunday if you had caught every maximum wait time, you would have been in line for 470 minutes. That’s not including time spent on rides, or time spent waiting for or riding Rise of the Resistance.
That would have made for a tight day, but it’s basically impossible to catch every ride at its longest wait because longest waits tend to overlap in the morning. For reference, you can see the median afternoon waits on Sunday only totaled 285 minutes.