In this post I discuss an afternoon I spent at Hollywood Studios on December 1, 2021. Visit reports like this post supplement our core content, which focuses more broadly on park strategy.
For planning your own day, check out our Hollywood Studios One Day Plan post. If you’re looking for an overview of the rides an entertainment discussed in this post, you want to visit our Hollywood Studios Rides and Entertainment Guide. For focus specifically on the beginning of your day, read the Hollywood Studios Early Entry and Rope Drop post. Finally, make sure you learn about Disney new “skip the lines” system by reading our Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes Guide.
About This Day
After a holiday week that saw huge crowds and some commentators saying that Genie+ had “collapsed” under the weight, I was happy to be back in Florida during our favorite time of year—the first week of December.
The first week of December is after Thanksgiving crowds, well before Christmas crowds, and after all the holiday stuff has debuted. As a kicker, the weather tends to be very mild.
On Wednesday December 1, 2021 I slept in a bit before deciding to see what I could accomplish with a late arrival at Hollywood Studios, with Genie+. I was visiting solo today, though I didn’t use single rider lines. I didn’t purchase any individual Lightning Lanes, and, crucially, I woke up too late to book a Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane in Genie+.
Pre-Arrival
I bought Genie+ for $15+tax at about 10:30AM. Remember, Genie+ sales start at midnight (or you can buy for your entire ticket length before your trip), and picks for everyone begin at 7AM. You need to be on the app at 7AM if you’re hoping to get a Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog Dash. They book in minutes (or even faster, some days).
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is the go-to second pick at Hollywood Studios, and it was showing return times of about 6PM. I refreshed a few times and lucked into a 1:20PM return time. Since that time was more than two hours in the future, I could make my next Genie+ booking in two hours, at 12:40PM.
After some delays, I headed over, driving from the JW Marriott (review forthcoming). As an annual passholder I didn’t have to pay for parking. I was inside the park at 11:19AM.
My plan was to leave in the early evening and head to Epcot for dinner at the Festival of the Holidays. This meant I was looking at a Hollywood Studios day without rope drop, without park close, and without Lightning Lanes for Rise of the Resistance, Runaway Railway, or Slinky Dog Dash.
On a day like this, the name of the game is “priorities.” There are no strategies without priorities. Generally, we prefer single, full days at the parks—rope drop to park close. On those days you’ll often be able to see almost all of the park. But on a more compressed schedule, you’ll have to pick and choose. In particular, the shows at Hollywood Studios were low priority for me today, and the rides were high priority.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had a relatively short wait—50 minutes, with Slinky at 75 and Rise of the Resistance at 105—so I opted to check off that shorter wait first. I waited 55 minutes, boarding at 12:16PM.
This left me an hour before my 1:20PM return time for Smugglers Run. If shows were in play, I’d be looking for a 12:30PM visit to Frozen Sing Along. Prioritizing rides, I swung by Ronto Roasters, mobile ordering on the way, and then ate as I walked to the Rise of the Resistance queue.
Ronto Roasters pops into my visit/trip reports a lot. It’s a good, quick option at Disney World, and the vegetarian options both at breakfast and lunch have won me over.
The wait for Rise of the Resistance had dropped to 80 minutes, definitely within the range I’d be willing to wait at this hour. Shortly after I got in line it was time to book my next Genie+ Lightning Lane, I grabbed a 2:15PM return time for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (times were mostly around 3:45PMish, but I had another good refresh).
Rise is a long experience, and I’m not sure where Disney measures the wait time from (i.e. the time you board the final ride vehicle can be 15 minutes after the experience begins). I wound up waiting 96 minutes and getting back to Batuu at 2:15PM, with only 5 minutes left on my Smugglers Run return window. I waited 13 minutes via the Smugglers Run Lightning Lane when the posted wait was 40 minutes, riding at 2:30PM.
Pretty much as soon as I got into that Rise line I knew I’d be pushing up against the end of my Smugglers Run window. I was counting on two things. First, I thought if I was late the Cast Members would probably be entirely sympathetic to my explanation that based on the posted Rise time, I had plenty of time. Second, if they weren’t (I’d never push them on this issue—it’s ultimately my mistake), I could us the single rider line. Luckily it didn’t come to that.
Between the two rides I saw Vi Moradi and Rey chatting with guests. This is a bit of a return to “normal” for the land, as far as character locations go. I’ve long struggled with Galaxy’s Edge characters. The performances are all great, but if you’re a frequent visitor the land has a sort of “Groundhog Day” feel to it, where you’re seeing the same dialogues recycled.
A bit of good timing allowed me to squeeze in another Lightning Lane. At 2:40PM (two hours after I made that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster booking), return times for Star Tours were starting at 2:45PM. I was able to grab that time and walk right onto the ride (the posted wait was 10 minutes, but it was actually a walk on even without Lightning Lane) at 2:47PM.
Around then Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster went down because of an…incident. After a few minutes, my Lightning Lane converted to a “Lightning Lane – Select Experiences” pass.
This allows you one use, any time the rest of the day, at any Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios except Rise of the Resistance, Runaway Railway, or Slinky Dog Dash. (Problematically, the icon for this pass is the a promotional image for Runaway Railway.)
Once I’d used my Star Tours Lightning Lane, I grabbed a 5PM return time for Tower of Terror. My plan was to use the Select Experiences pass for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster around the same time I went to Tower of Terror. This would leave me Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers to sort out.
Usually, 3PM with a 70 minute wait is not when I’d recommend riding Slinky Dog Dash, but looking at my schedule and priorities today it was the best option. I consider the ride a must-do, I can’t ride it at park close (my best option without a Lightning Lane or rope drop) since I’m leaving early, and I’ve got 2 hours to fill. I got in line, waiting 75 minutes and riding around 4:15PM.
In total, I waited 226 minutes—nearly four hours—for the three top priorities at the park. That’s tough, but I arrived at the park after 11AM, and I actually would still be able to catch Beauty and the Beast (at 5PM) and the Frozen Sing Along (various times remaining) if I wanted to watch some shows. Plus I had a good plan for getting on the remaining four rides—two Lightning Lanes in hand, probably one more to come, and one late, short wait if necessary.
Overall I was very much helped by low crowds and Genie+. Those peak waits would have been worse on high crowd days, but more importantly I would have gotten less use out of Genie+ (I probably wouldn’t have bought it at 10AM on a high crowd day).
Continuing my day, I read about the incident at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and assumed I wouldn’t be getting on it today, so I instead used my Select Experiences pass for Toy Story Mania, waiting 8 minutes in the Lightning Lane versus the 50 minute standby wait.
I scored around 240,000. I’m not an expert at Toy Story Mania—specifically I don’t know the “tricks” to all the levels (I know two). When Emily and I work together (necessary for some of the tricks), I can get over 300,000. But those high scores for the hour/day/week that you see are usually the result of some experts knowing the tricks to the levels.
I finished up my afternoon at Hollywood Studios with a ride on Tower of Terror, waiting 13 minutes in the Lightning Lane versus the posted 40 minute wait at 5PM.
Both Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (5:20PM) and Alien Swirling Saucers (6:30PM) had Lightning Lane availability as I left. Had I planned to stay until close this day would have been surprisingly complete.
Here’s a look at how the day wound up (rides bolded):
10:30AM – Purchase Genie+
10:40AM – Grab Lightning Lane for Smugglers Run (1:20PM)
11:19AM – Arrive
12:16PM – Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (55 minutes)
12:30PM – Lunch at Ronto Roasters
12:40PM – Grab Lightning Lane for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (2:15PM)
2:10PM – Rise of the Resistance (96 minutes)
2:30PM – Smugglers Run (13 minutes via Lightning Lane)
2:40PM – Grab Lightning Lane for Star Tours (2:45PM)
2:47PM – Star Tours (walk on via Lightning Lane)
2:50PM – Grab Lightning Lane for Tower of Terror (5PM)
4:15PM – Slinky Dog Dash (75 minutes)
4:44PM – Toy Story Mania (8 minutes via Lightning Lane)
5:13PM – Tower of Terror (13 minutes via Lightning Lane)
Final Thoughts
Someone messaged me during the day to ask about “stacking.” There was a change to Genie+ last week that reduced the overall usefulness of stacking (basically by closing a loophole we don’t need to talk about anymore).
Stacking is discussed more in our main Genie+ post, but the basic idea is that on a busier day you’ll wake up and do the following:
7AM — Book 4PM return time for Slinky Dog Dash
11AM — Book 6PM return time for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
1PM — Book 5PM return time for Tower of Terror
3PM — Book 7PM return time for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Now you have a “stack” of Lightning Lanes all booked in quick succession late in the day.
I maintain my position that stacking isn’t really a special strategy. Stacking is just what naturally happens if you apply good Genie+ strategy on a day with moderate-to-heavy crowds.
Today, my Genie+ bookings wound up:
10:40AM – Book 1:20PM return time Smugglers Run
12:40PM – Book 2:15PM return time for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
2:40PM – Book 2:45PM return time for Star Tours
2:50PM – Book 5PM return time for Tower of Terror
No stack. This is what happens on a more average crowd day. Return times are about two hours out, meaning you’re nearly booking one, using it, then booking another. There’s no need to think about stacking or “try” to stack in this situation.
Thanks for reading! See you in the parks!
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