Welcome to our visit report covering a visit to Hollywood Studios on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, subtitled “A Morning Botched and a Day Salvaged.”

About Visit Reports

For the next ~6 months or so we’re going to be spending extended time in Florida, mostly visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort. Typically we do trip reports during vacations, but with a longer stay that doesn’t make much sense. At the same time, we really value providing examples of actual days where we apply our strategies. So during the next few months, we’ll be doing “visit reports” for days that are either planned to be complete park days mimicking what you’d do on vacation or, in the case of today, just wind up being interesting in some way. You’ll see the link in the menu bar of our site. The best place to catch more content like this is our instagram stories.

Introduction

My goal for today was to try something new at Hollywood Studios. It’s a challenging park, and made more challenging if you don’t have Genie+ or Early Entry or either individual Lightning Lane. At this point I don’t think there is a perfect approach to the park, at least not without spending a lot of money, so I’m just trying to navigate the best of okay options.

As a guest of a Disney resort, I had access to Early Entry today. Last night I was up past 1AM because of Epcot Extended Evening Hours (post on that forthcoming), and we’ve covered Rise and Slinky Dog Dash Early Entry Rope Drops recently, so I didn’t see any reason to be up at 6:30AM to try those.

Of course, if you’re buying Genie+, or if you’re a Disney resort guest buying an individual Lightning Lane, you’ll be up before 7AM anyways, so it might make sense to do the early rope drops.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has been the second most popular Genie+ Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios, so I wanted to see what a “late” arrival at Early Entry, starting at Smugglers Run, looks like. It also gives us an idea how heading to Smugglers Run second—after quickly getting on Rise or Slinky—looks.

Early Entry at Hollywood Studios

Things started off normally enough. I was in the park earlier than planned, so I hung out at Slinky Dog Dash, waited for the second train to exit—so I could mimic having been one of those guests—and headed to Smugglers Run. Getting to the ride at 8:40 with a posted 10 minute wait I was on at 8:50 and back in Batuu at 8:56.

Runaway Railway was at 40 minutes—too high for me—and I figured I’d just beat the bulk of the regular (9AM) opening crowds to Tower of Terror if I headed there.

On my way I decided to instead start with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. I prefer starting with Tower, but I’ve seen some people swap these so figured I’d give it a shot…and it wound up being a big mistake.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster’s 5 minute posted wait was actually 11, not awful. But by the time I was off at 9:22, Tower was unexpectedly at 45 minutes.

That’s not outrageous. It’s something you’d expect on a busy day, but having followed the parks this week it caught me off guard. An Instagram follower later told me that they were around the ride at this time, too, and in fact Tower was only operating one side, which doubles the wait time. Bad luck for me.

Not getting Tower early in the day irks me. On Instagram I called my morning “busted.” Maybe I was being dramatic. I had, after all, intentionally skipped rope drop in favor of sleep. If I’d actually woken up early and ridden Rise or Slinky by now, maybe I’d feel better.

Besides tackling the rides in the other order, is there anything I could have done? You think maybe stop at Alien Swirling Saucers or Toy Story Mania on the way from Smugglers Run, but then I’m just getting to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster later, and to Tower of Terror even later, in favor of a Toy Story Land ride that will spend much of the afternoon under 30 minutes and the evening closer to 15. Maybe something to try sometime, though.

The final frustrating thing about this morning is that the two rides I’d completed—Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster—both have single rider lines. I generally don’t use these lines when testing strategy because I don’t expect you to use them. But they’re a fine backup option if your day goes poorly, which means you don’t have to rush to these rides right away.

In any case I decided I wanted to try and salvage this day.

Recovering from a Busted Morning

Only 22 minutes into the official park hours, there were only two rides with short waits (15 minutes or less), both at 5 minutes—Alien Swirling Saucers and Star Tours.

Unfortunately this meant a long walk back where I’d just come from. Part of the reason you come to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster early is that once you’re done with them you cut Sunset Boulevard out of the park and the rest of your day is spent basically on a circle. Leaving Tower incomplete means if you’re watching the app waiting for it get a short wait later in the day, you’ll have to trek back out here, by which time it might not be so short.

I knew Saucers probably wouldn’t still be at 5 minutes by the time I got there. Short morning waits in Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge don’t last. Everyone is starting their day at Rise or Slinky, and as they get off and see a nearby short wait, they go.

When I got to Alien Swirling Saucers at 9:29 it was still posted 5 minutes, but I waited 11. By the time I got off it was posted 25, and by 10AM it was up to 40 minutes.

From there I headed to Star Tours, which now was the only ride posting a short wait. I thought I had a good shot at beating any crowds there, and I knew since I was trying to fix this day I’d have a late lunch, so I mobile ordered a wrap from Ronto Roasters and ate it on the way.

At Star Tours, I waited 9 minutes for the posted 5 minute wait, and by the time I got off at 10:09 it was posted at 20 minutes.

A few more minutes getting back to this part of the park would have dug me in an ever bigger hole, so I’m glad I thought on my feet to come tackle these short waits. These rides aren’t going to sit at 60 minutes or anything close the rest of the day. I didn’t gain a lot by visiting them now, but it’s just two fewer rides to worry about.

On a normal day, this is when you slow down. Waits are high, and it’s time to celebrate your morning. The 10:30AM Frozen Sing-Along, 21 minutes away, would be potentially a good pick.

I was still unhappy with my morning, though, and didn’t want to burn 21 minutes sitting around. Instead, I got in line for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I’m an advocate of saving this ride for later. It’s central location means it’s never “out of the way” if you see a short wait, which you often will in late afternoon. I definitely didn’t think it would get much higher than 50 minutes today.

But the timing here was good. At 10:09 if the wait was short, I’d be able to catch the 11AM Beauty and the Beast show. If the wait was long, I’d do the 11:30 Frozen Sing Along. (If the wait was perfectly accurate…I’d at least have the ride done.)

I wound up waiting 38 minutes. Despite some technical delays, I was back in the park at 10:59, arriving at Beauty and the Beast at 11:02AM, just missing the first minutes of the show.

At this point I was feeling much better about the day. 11AM Beauty and the Beast is gold for two reasons. First, you’ve checked off a major show with limited showtime that can make your afternoon challenging to plan. Second, at the end of the 25-minute show you can walk back to Frozen Sing Along 11:30 show and grab a last seat if it hasn’t filled. Indeed it hadn’t, and I exited that show at about 12:03. (Notice Frozen is sometimes longer than 30 minutes, so it’s not good to plan to catch a H:30 show here and then an H:00 show at Beauty and the Beast.)

“Wait until Runaway Railway is under 30 minutes!” is a fine refrain, but look at how this worked out—from 10AM to 12PM, two hours, I rode Runaway Railway and watched the two major shows at the park right now, each of which is about 30 minutes. It’s a fantastic use of time regardless of whether I could have waited for Runaway Railway less time later in the day.

And we’re at another decision point. on a typical day this is a fine time for lunch, but I wanted to keep pushing just a bit, and that earlier wrap from Ronto Roasters could hold me over a bit.

I saw Starbucks had no line, so I grabbed a quick coffee planning to drink it in an outdoor queue. Slinky (75 min) and Tower (45 min) were the natural options. The Slinky time felt too high and Tower was my nemesis for the day, so I headed to Tower of Terror.

I waited 46 minutes in the posted 45-minute line, boarding at 1PM and exiting back onto Sunset Boulevard at 1:07PM. By then, I’d seen enough.

Conclusions

I’m left with three rides—Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, and Toy Story Mania. I’d need to eat lunch and dinner. I’d want to watch Muppet*Vision 3D, the Mickey Shorts film, and maybe Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy. In the eight hours left in the park day, this was incredibly achievable. And that’s all aside from the fact that, again, I should have arrived earlier for either Slinky Dog Dash or Rise of the Resistance if I were serious about this day.

Crowds aren’t as high as they’ll ever be, but you might need to think of Genie+ and individual Lightning Lanes as the price you’ll pay to handle those crowds. Today showed that on a typical day these days, even a botched morning can be saved with good decision-making and a little bit of luck.

I don’t think this is a total indictment of visiting Smugglers Run early, but I’ve just never been drawn to that option and today won’t help. Finishing off Sunset Boulevard early simplifies your day, and the Smugglers Run single rider line remains a fine option if the worst happens and waits don’t improve.

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Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

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