Newbie! Late morning arrival to Hollywood studios - Help! (please)

[CaperRD]

Hi all,
Planning our first family trip to WDW! Myself, hubby & 6yo son. 4 park days, so only getting to each park once. However, we are planning to visit HS the day AFTER we go to MNSSHP! So, we fully expect to get home quite late that night; and not get to HS until mid-morning! 10:30 methinks?? So, to my question...
Should we wait to do Toy Story Land until the evening? Before Fantasmic? I'm struggling with a touring plan for that day...
We are NOT doing TofT or R&RC. Probably won't do Frozen Sing either.
ARE interested in seeing Storm Troopers, Muppets and Toy Story Land (plus others)
So, should I aim for FP for Toy Story Rides before lunch? Or wait until late day?
Should I use FP on Fantasmic?
Any suggestions for our plan that day would be great!
PS - will be visiting HS on Monday Oct 29th!
Thank YOU!

 

[Marshmelo]

You are aware you can only get one fast pass for one of the three TS rides? You probably won’t be able to get SDD. I was on at 7am today trying to get it for my 60+4 day and they were gone, so I got AS2 instead. I figure the wait for TSM is indoors and the queue is more entertaining. I’ve heard AS2 is slow loading and only 1 side is open frequently. We plan to rope drop SDD and TSM. I’ve heard that you can get on SDD right at closing for a very short wait. Remember the wait time they show will be inflated to discourage people from getting in line.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We never arrive at a park before 10:30 am and still find plenty of time to do everything we want multiple times.

Read through some of the “Refresh” threads to see how easy it can be to pick up additional FPs throughout the day.

One thing you don’t want to do is get a Fanrasmic FP in advance. That one will prevent you from adding any additional passes during the day. We like to wait and add Fantasmic as our 8th or 9th FP about an hour before showtime.

And the lines do get really short later in the evening. It’s an extreme example, but a few weeks ago we found a 70 minute posted wait on Toy Story Mania around 8 pm. We were on the ride in 3 minutes.

 

[Princess Madeleine]

We never arrive at a park before 10:30 am and still find plenty of time to do everything we want multiple times.

Read through some of the “Refresh” threads to see how easy it can be to pick up additional FPs throughout the day.

One thing you don’t want to do is get a Fanrasmic FP in advance. That one will prevent you from adding any additional passes during the day. We like to wait and add Fantasmic as our 8th or 9th FP about an hour before showtime.

And the lines do get really short later in the evening. It’s an extreme example, but a few weeks ago we found a 70 minute posted wait on Toy Story Mania around 8 pm. We were on the ride in 3 minutes.

A less extreme example, my mom and I were in the park around 9:30-10:00 am last week, TSM posted 50 min wait but we only waited about 20. That queue is fantastic too.

 

[GillianP1301]

I would try to get your fastpasses late morning/early afternoon and give yourself a chance for additional ones later in the day. You will be hard pressed to get a SDD on a 4 day trip and if you do it will likely be a later in the day one. I would go with Alien Spinning Saucers for the fastpass since there are a lot of reports of lots of same day TSMM fastpass availability. Your other 2 fastpasses will likely be throw aways (as in not necessary but you need to have them and use them or let them expire before you can book others). I would choose Star Tours and Muppets, since those are both things you want to do anyway and get the 3 fastpasses all back to back.