Help with Hollywood Studios Ride Strategy?

[CuriousRapunzel]

We're going on Tuesday April 30th to Hollywood Studios and we need help! We basically want to do:

Tower of Terror
Rock N Roller Coaster
Toy Story Mania
Beauty and the Beast
Honey I shrunk the Kids
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Fantasmic! 8:30

Obviously Fantasmic can't be moved since the only show is at 8:30. But I'm thinking as soon as we get to the parks one of us makes a break for a TSM FastPass?

Note: Due to transportation limitations we can't enter the park before 10:15AM.

 

[mesaboy2]

We're going on Tuesday April 30th to Hollywood Studios and we need help! We basically want to do:

Tower of Terror
Rock N Roller Coaster
Toy Story Mania
Beauty and the Beast
Honey I shrunk the Kids
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Fantasmic! 8:30

Obviously Fantasmic can't be moved since the only show is at 8:30. But I'm thinking as soon as we get to the parks one of us makes a break for a TSM FastPass?

Note: Due to transportation limitations we can't enter the park before 10:15AM.

The top priorities (in order) are Toy Story Mania, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. The rest on your list are relatively easy to do with shortish waits. With your arrival time, TSM FPs will be for late-afternoon or early-evening, if still available at all.

Fantasmic will likely involve a 45-60 minute wait at minimum, if there's only one show scheduled.

 

[jcieutat]

You definitely need to go straight to the fastpass line for TSM. It is a mad dash the minute the park opens up for that ride. The second poster is spot on with the ride strategy.

 

[CuriousRapunzel]

The top priorities (in order) are Toy Story Mania, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. The rest on your list are relatively easy to do with shortish waits. With your arrival time, TSM FPs will be for late-afternoon or early-evening, if still available at all.

Fantasmic will likely involve a 45-60 minute wait at minimum, if there's only one show scheduled.

Wow this TSM is quite the hit eh? Thanks for the advice!

Edit: Wait for Fantasmic means I have to line up that early for the show?

 

[EnchantedLilly]

We love going at the end of April/Beginning of May, and so I thought I might give a couple of past observations. We stopped going on TSM simply because if you didn't get a FP for the morning, you would be waiting in the stand by line for 45+ minutes later on in the morning or in the afternoon. I agree, if you are going to do TSM, do it first/get a FP.

In my past experience, the ride wait comparisons between Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Rollercoaster is a little bit different. RnR is always a longer (but not TSM long) wait, whereas ToT is shorter. We usually head towards RnR and ToT early in the morning, but pass by there before the afternoon as well to check out the wait times. For both rides the wait times could be between 10-30 minutes at the point in which you arrive at the park.

Have a magical vacation!!!

 

[mesaboy2]

Wow this TSM is quite the hit eh? Thanks for the advice!

Edit: Wait for Fantasmic means I have to line up that early for the show?

TSM is the only attraction in DHS that has no height requirement and appeals to all ages. It is also a slow-loader, all of which translates into long waits and/or quickly-disappearing FastPasses most any day of the year.

As for Fantasmic, yes. It is possible to get in and see the show with less wait, but not as likely.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

You're going at a pretty decent time as far as crowd calendars go. Attendance should be around a 4 out of 10, according to easywdw. It's too bad you can't get there until 10:30, but we do what we can, right? Here's what I would do:

Arrive at 10:30
Send someone straight to TSMM for fastpasses (make sure everyone gives him/her their ticket. I have seen people get to the kiosks only to realize that, in their hurry, they forgot to collect the tickets)
10:40 Go ride Tower of Terror (wait will be about 30 minutes)
11:15 Rock n Roller Coaster (wait will be around 30 minutes)
12:00 Lunch (I recommend Min and Bill's)
12:40 head to Beauty and the Beat for 1:00 showing
1:30 Voyage of the Little Mermaid
1:55 Great Movie Ride (have to plug because it's my favorite)
2:30 Mid day break! Grab a frozen lemonade at Min and Bill's and take the kids to Honey I Shrunk the Kids
3:15 Enjoy some free time. Check out Animation Academy, One Man's Dream, or Muppet Vision 3D OR, head to Lights Motor Action for the 4:00 show, if you want (I don't like it but many seem to)
5:30 See if you can book a Fantasmic! Dining Package at Mama Melrose (or for more upscale, Brown Derby and more kiddish Hollywood and Vine) If not, try eating at Sci fi Dine in. It is one of my absolute favorites!
6:30-7:30 is more free time (hopefully you were able to do TSMM duing the 3:15 free time. If not, it should be around here)
7:30 If you didn't do Fantasmic dining, go line up for Fantasmic at this time. Otherwise, enjoy the park some more and line up at 8:00
8:30 Fantasmic!


I added in some things that you didn't request, so feel free to drop them or replace them with something else.

 

[Peachkins]

The top priorities (in order) are Toy Story Mania, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. The rest on your list are relatively easy to do with shortish waits. With your arrival time, TSM FPs will be for late-afternoon or early-evening, if still available at all.

Fantasmic will likely involve a 45-60 minute wait at minimum, if there's only one show scheduled.

Completely agree with this, right down to the order in which you should do the rides. Your fast passes for TSM will be for later in the day, but two hours after you get those you can get fast passes for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster if there's a long wait for that. I would ride some things in between while you wait for those fast pass times to come up. We were last there in early December, which is typically less crowded. We still found that the coaster had an hour wait in the afternoon, while Tower of Terror was only about 20 minutes.

 

[CuriousRapunzel]

Does anyone know where I can find times for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (show) ?

 

[mesaboy2]

Does anyone know where I can find times for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (show) ?

www.wdwent.com has schedules for most of the live entertainment. LM runs continuously most days.