One Day Disney Trip - Hollywood Studios

[NYHeel]

My family of 5 are heading down to Miami for a weekend on 6/17 and we’re driving up to Orlando Sunday night for two days. Originally we were planning on spending Monday and Tuesday in Universal as we have 1 day park to park comp tickets for universal. But I decided to just do one day at Universal and one day at Hollywood Studios.

I bought the tickets (only needed 2 tickets as I already had 3 one day tickets in my account) and managed to get a Hollywood Studios reservation for June 22. Now to actually plan the day. We were last in the parks in January 2020 so I’m familiar with the boarding group system with ROTR. I’ve read about the current system a bit. Is it crazy hard to get a boarding group at 7:00? We’ve got a 7:45 flight and we need to eat dinner out of the park so we’ll need to leave at 4:30 at the latest. Do I have a good chance of getting a boarding group that will work with our time frame? I’m not sure how it’s been working at 7:00 as I haven’t been following at all.

In terms of doing HS for the day, how have people been planning it out without fastpass? We can certainly do rope drop though we’re staying in Universal. What’s the general strategy? As an aside we love tower of terror so we’d like to ride that a bunch of times later in the day.

Lastly, we’ve always done the parks in late January. How bad is it going to be in June? Keep in mind that for our one day in HS we have no hotel to go back to and we need to leave by 4:30. So no mid day break or anything like that. My kids are 19, 14 and 13 so they’ll complain like teenagers but they can manage. I’m more worried about me and my wife. Also, is Disney still doing masks? I’m not sure I can take the heat in masks.

Hoping we can make both Universal and HS work in one day each. We have Express Pass for Universal but I’m more worried about our day in HS.

 

[GBRforWDW]

My family of 5 are heading down to Miami for a weekend on 6/17 and we’re driving up to Orlando Sunday night for two days. Originally we were planning on spending Monday and Tuesday in Universal as we have 1 day park to park comp tickets for universal. But I decided to just do one day at Universal and one day at Hollywood Studios.

I bought the tickets (only needed 2 tickets as I already had 3 one day tickets in my account) and managed to get a Hollywood Studios reservation for June 22. Now to actually plan the day. We were last in the parks in January 2020 so I’m familiar with the boarding group system with ROTR. I’ve read about the current system a bit. Is it crazy hard to get a boarding group at 7:00? We’ve got a 7:45 flight and we need to eat dinner out of the park so we’ll need to leave at 4:30 at the latest. Do I have a good chance of getting a boarding group that will work with our time frame? I’m not sure how it’s been working at 7:00 as I haven’t been following at all.

In terms of doing HS for the day, how have people been planning it out without fastpass? We can certainly do rope drop though we’re staying in Universal. What’s the general strategy? As an aside we love tower of terror so we’d like to ride that a bunch of times later in the day.

Lastly, we’ve always done the parks in late January. How bad is it going to be in June? Keep in mind that for our one day in HS we have no hotel to go back to and we need to leave by 4:30. So no mid day break or anything like that. My kids are 19, 14 and 13 so they’ll complain like teenagers but they can manage. I’m more worried about me and my wife. Also, is Disney still doing masks? I’m not sure I can take the heat in masks.

Hoping we can make both Universal and HS work in one day each. We have Express Pass for Universal but I’m more worried about our day in HS.

Hello, this is exciting news about making a Hollywood Studios stop. Imo, it's a really fun park to visit. Congrats on getting the park pass reservations lined up already, that's always a big stress point.

For boarding groups, you need to understand the join, join, join method as soon as your phone turns 7am. Go as fast as possible. Load the My Disney Experience app on your kids phones and sign everyone into your account. Tell em how to use it to get a RotR boarding group. They also have a 1pm boarding group drop, which typically means if you get a boarding group at 7am, you'll likely ride by early afternoon.

Check out the rise spoiler free thread before you go as well:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...on-no-spoilers.3782822/page-995#post-63069018
As for strategy. The park opens at 9am, which really means 815am. The parking lot booths will also open at 815. Try to be there at 8 though to get lined up. I've read that a lot are going to Slinky Dog and millennium falcon at rope drop and tower of terror rnrc are a good strategy right away. With needing to leave at 430, I wouldn't count on riding it numerous times in the afternoon, Maybe once or twice. Check the app for wait times starting at 2pm to know what to expect. If MMRR is a must do, you may want to go there first if you're arriving at 815. You can get through with a very short wait and usually still make it to tot before the lines. As for other wait times, I recommend just checking the app throughout the day before your trip to get an idea of when some rides are more crowded than others.

Check out here now and just back reports to see what others are saying:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...riences-including-park-hopping.3807247/unread
Disney is maskless while walking around outside. However, and this may have changed, you do need to wear a mask in most outdoor queues as well as anything indoors.

Dining can be rough, just remember to get your mobile lunch order in early. Eating lunch early can help make it easier finding a table.

Good luck and enjoy your day!

 

[NYHeel]

Hello, this is exciting news about making a Hollywood Studios stop. Imo, it's a really fun park to visit. Congrats on getting the park pass reservations lined up already, that's always a big stress point.

For boarding groups, you need to understand the join, join, join method as soon as your phone turns 7am. Go as fast as possible. Load the My Disney Experience app on your kids phones and sign everyone into your account. Tell em how to use it to get a RotR boarding group. They also have a 1pm boarding group drop, which typically means if you get a boarding group at 7am, you'll likely ride by early afternoon.

Check out the rise spoiler free thread before you go as well:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...on-no-spoilers.3782822/page-995#post-63069018
As for strategy. The park opens at 9am, which really means 815am. The parking lot booths will also open at 815. Try to be there at 8 though to get lined up. I've read that a lot are going to Slinky Dog and millennium falcon at rope drop and tower of terror rnrc are a good strategy right away. With needing to leave at 430, I wouldn't count on riding it numerous times in the afternoon, Maybe once or twice. Check the app for wait times starting at 2pm to know what to expect. If MMRR is a must do, you may want to go there first if you're arriving at 815. You can get through with a very short wait and usually still make it to tot before the lines. As for other wait times, I recommend just checking the app throughout the day before your trip to get an idea of when some rides are more crowded than others.

Check out here now and just back reports to see what others are saying:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...riences-including-park-hopping.3807247/unread
Disney is maskless while walking around outside. However, and this may have changed, you do need to wear a mask in most outdoor queues as well as anything indoors.

Dining can be rough, just remember to get your mobile lunch order in early. Eating lunch early can help make it easier finding a table.

Good luck and enjoy your day!

Thanks for the helpful info. We’re going to be coming in cars so does that mean we can’t get into the parking lot until 8:15? Do the cars just lone up at that point?

We were last in WDW in January 2020 so I’m pretty familiar with Hollywood Studios with the exception of MMRR. I’d say it’s a must do simply because we haven’t done it before. With that said I don’t know much about it so if it’s lame then we can skip it. Our youngest kid is 13 so if it’s just for little kids we don’t need to bother. But overall I’ll start tracking wait times on the app. Our most important rides are the two Galaxy’s Edge rides, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Midway Mania and then MMRR simply because we haven’t been on it before. Slinky dog would be nice to ride but it’s not absolutely necessary. With that said it seems like it makes sense to head there first since the lines really pile up on that one.

Good news for us is that we don’t really eat lunch. We just snack throughout the day and eat a relatively early dinner outside the park. We eat Kosher and the in park options for a real meal are pretty bad but edible if needed. But the ice cream and hot pretzels are kosher so we’re good for snacks.

I’m hoping the masking just gets eliminated by the time we’re there in 2 weeks but at least we don’t need to wear it when not in line. Just can’t imagine the heat with that thing on. Plus we’re all vaccinated so it’s just frustrating.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Thanks for the helpful info. We’re going to be coming in cars so does that mean we can’t get into the parking lot until 8:15? Do the cars just lone up at that point?

We were last in WDW in January 2020 so I’m pretty familiar with Hollywood Studios with the exception of MMRR. I’d say it’s a must do simply because we haven’t done it before. With that said I don’t know much about it so if it’s lame then we can skip it. Our youngest kid is 13 so if it’s just for little kids we don’t need to bother. But overall I’ll start tracking wait times on the app. Our most important rides are the two Galaxy’s Edge rides, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Midway Mania and then MMRR simply because we haven’t been on it before. Slinky dog would be nice to ride but it’s not absolutely necessary. With that said it seems like it makes sense to head there first since the lines really pile up on that one.

Good news for us is that we don’t really eat lunch. We just snack throughout the day and eat a relatively early dinner outside the park. We eat Kosher and the in park options for a real meal are pretty bad but edible if needed. But the ice cream and hot pretzels are kosher so we’re good for snacks.

I’m hoping the masking just gets eliminated by the time we’re there in 2 weeks but at least we don’t need to wear it when not in line. Just can’t imagine the heat with that thing on. Plus we’re all vaccinated so it’s just frustrating.

Yes, they hold cars until 815. We did it in January, it wasn't too bad, but lots less people back then. When we got into the park, we were able to do MMRR with little wait, SDD with 20 minute wait, TSM and AS2 with no wait before our RotR boarding group was called at 10. Not sure if that's the best route any more, but we sure knocked a lot out that morning!

Mmrr is a fun trackless adventure based on current Mickey shorts. It's worth checking out at least once if you can and make up your mind later if it's worth doing on the next trip. That being said, the teens would probably enjoy the SDD rollercoaster more.

 

[NYHeel]

Yes, they hold cars until 815. We did it in January, it wasn't too bad, but lots less people back then. When we got into the park, we were able to do MMRR with little wait, SDD with 20 minute wait, TSM and AS2 with no wait before our RotR boarding group was called at 10. Not sure if that's the best route any more, but we sure knocked a lot out that morning!

Mmrr is a fun trackless adventure based on current Mickey shorts. It's worth checking out at least once if you can and make up your mind later if it's worth doing on the next trip. That being said, the teens would probably enjoy the SDD rollercoaster more.

Will shoot to get there by 8:00. Hopefully that will at least put me in front of a few cars. Leaning towards starting with SDD just because the line there will be the longest the rest of the day. Other option is the Millenium Falcon. SDD is a little lame but it's a cute ride.

 

[Newbie500]

Hi,
I'm looking for an update to this thread. We'll be in HS on Sunday September 18 for one day. Any advice different from what was posted last year? We will be driving in from about an hour away and staying until park close. What would be the strategy with rope drop and without? Should we do lunch or dinner reservations or none? Use Genie+ or not? Priority rides are ROTR, SSD, TOT, MMRR, and of course all the other rides in the park!