one day at HS - have not kept up with the changes

[Bethany10]

We're flipping the script a bit and are doing one day at HS out of our Universal trip. I'm a huge SW fan and wanted to be able to at least walk through the land, maybe even build a lightsaber.

Like many others this was supposed to be a 2020 trip. December, 2019 I knew everything I needed to know about getting a boarding pass for ROTR, when I needed to try and book fast passes etc. Of course 2020 hit and I went into how do I move everything mode and stopped paying attention to the changes as I knew they might change before we even got there.

Now we're about 2 months out and I'm unsure of what if anything I need to do.

We have our tickets
I have HS park reserved for our chosen day on the app
Droid workshop/Lightsaber appointments can be booked Sunday.

On to my questions:
Looks like the park will open at 9 on our day. What time should we get there?
I can open the app on/before 7 am from my Universal hotel room try to book ROTR boarding passes correct? (if we don't get one then I try again at 1)
Do we need to get magic bands? I saw on some park videos people scanning their phones before being allowed on the rides, with no fastpass system in place why scan?
Do I need to do anything else besides have a loose plan? While I'm a huge SW geek, the rest of my family is not. I'm ok diverting to TSL first thing, then on to TOT and RRC before ending (depending on our boarding pass time) at the SW area of the park. I suspect I'd get an eye roll if I tried for the runaway railroad ride, and honestly that's 4 less people in line for those to whom it's a big deal to be able to ride it.

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

 

[HiStitch626]

I assume you are driving from the Universal area, aim to arrive about 8am if the park opens at 9.
Yes, the app will open at 7am and it is important to be on time as the reservations go fast.
For ROTR you will need to "show" your reservation and that can be with a magic band or with your phone. If you saw people using "fastpasses' they may have been DAS or people who had gotten a recovery fastpass due to a ride going down

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Hi! I’d calendar 60 days out from your trip. Reservations - both restaurant and lightsaber - go QUICK.
I’d also make sure you have park reservation locked in. It’s the park that’s been selling out/filling up the quickest.
About 2-3 weeks out check the park dates. They’ve been updating on Fridays for about 2-3 weeks out. By then they could have extended the hours (also opening up reservation slots)

EDIT: Looks like you have reservations. Good! Still check the park opening dates. They have been revising them. Also, some vloggers have been doing rope drop videos if that’s your thing

 

[GBRforWDW]

We're flipping the script a bit and are doing one day at HS out of our Universal trip. I'm a huge SW fan and wanted to be able to at least walk through the land, maybe even build a lightsaber.

Like many others this was supposed to be a 2020 trip. December, 2019 I knew everything I needed to know about getting a boarding pass for ROTR, when I needed to try and book fast passes etc. Of course 2020 hit and I went into how do I move everything mode and stopped paying attention to the changes as I knew they might change before we even got there.

Now we're about 2 months out and I'm unsure of what if anything I need to do.

We have our tickets
I have HS park reserved for our chosen day on the app
Droid workshop/Lightsaber appointments can be booked Sunday.

On to my questions:
Looks like the park will open at 9 on our day. What time should we get there?
I can open the app on/before 7 am from my Universal hotel room try to book ROTR boarding passes correct? (if we don't get one then I try again at 1)
Do we need to get magic bands? I saw on some park videos people scanning their phones before being allowed on the rides, with no fastpass system in place why scan?
Do I need to do anything else besides have a loose plan? While I'm a huge SW geek, the rest of my family is not. I'm ok diverting to TSL first thing, then on to TOT and RRC before ending (depending on our boarding pass time) at the SW area of the park. I suspect I'd get an eye roll if I tried for the runaway railroad ride, and honestly that's 4 less people in line for those to whom it's a big deal to be able to ride it.

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

This sounds exciting. Always love a good Hollywood Studios day! Just know that boarding passes are gone in seconds. It's good to stay up to date on to RotR thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...planning-and-information-no-spoilers.3782822/
They allow you to start waiting at the toll booth around 8am. Sometimes a few minutes early. Get there too soon and they make you turn around though.

I don't think you need magic bands for the ride. You definitely don't for any other ride unless you have DAS.

Runaway railroad is a lot of fun and you should definitely do it. It's very unique. My favorite rope drop strategy is the one we I did in January where we walked straight into MMRR, then back to TSL and rode SDD, TSM, and AS2 all in a row. Only SDD had a wait, probably 15 minutes. Then we headed to Galaxies Edge for our RotR boarding group. Unfortunately millennium falcon had an hour wait so we skipped. We then did our droid depot early. Had an 1145 reservation but went over at 1110 and got through, then off to sci fi for lunch.

Those were all the rides we did, but with only 4 other rides and the park open for 7 more hours, we could have easily done however many we wanted. Instead, we did the Disney Junior dance for my daughter before taking a break. At night we did the Mickey shorts theater and muppets, walked around a bit and had a closing time ADR at Hollywood and Vine.
No matter how you slice it though, you should be able to have a lot of fun in Hollywood Studios!

 

[Bethany10]

thank you GBRforWDW, that sounds like an amazing day! I'd love to do MMRR but we are NOT morning people and I know I'm going to be getting pushback for getting everyone up and TO the park so "early". I'm trying to guild the Lilly by doing SDD and TSM first and letting everyone else hit GE. (this is dependent on having a later boarding pass for ROTR. If it's earlier in the day then the morning will be structured around that).

How was Sci Fi for lunch? I've been assuming we'd do Woody's Lunchbox, but we might like Sci Fi. For not staying in park it's 60 days out for reservations correct? (Easter Sunday for us)

 

[GBRforWDW]

thank you GBRforWDW, that sounds like an amazing day! I'd love to do MMRR but we are NOT morning people and I know I'm going to be getting pushback for getting everyone up and TO the park so "early". I'm trying to guild the Lilly by doing SDD and TSM first and letting everyone else hit GE. (this is dependent on having a later boarding pass for ROTR. If it's earlier in the day then the morning will be structured around that).

How was Sci Fi for lunch? I've been assuming we'd do Woody's Lunchbox, but we might like Sci Fi. For not staying in park it's 60 days out for reservations correct? (Easter Sunday for us)

Correct. You'll probably have a terrible time trying to get an adr for sci fi though, at least from what I've been seeing lately. It was good food, fun/unique/interesting place for lunch. I guess in before times smaller parties joined your table, but they're not doing that now.

I thought I was going to have a terrible time getting to the park early on our day, since my wife and kid sleep like there's no tomorrow and we jumped an hour ahead, but everyone was up by 630 and was ready to go by 730.

 

[GBRforWDW]

I should mention, if you can't get an adr, I did some research on walk up/wait list reservations. I believe they start offering these available at 5am day of, so if you join right away, you'd probably get an early lunch there, but I'm not sure how close you have to be to the park as these are location based. I think I read within 3 miles. If you can't get it from your hotel, then definitely get on while you're in your car at the parking lot toll booth waiting to get in. I think they run out of wait list reservations around 10am, so the earlier you can do it, the better.

 

[No.1000]

If you love Star Wars, I recommend a Oga's reservation. So much fun!