Strategy for Hollywood Studios and Galaxy's Edge

[lindsay314]

Hello all,
So, if this fall all will be mostly back to normal operations (wishful thinking here, please humor me ) I am trying to figure out the best plan of action for HS in September. I have not experienced Galaxy's Edge at all (my last visit was May 2019), and I would like to experience both rides as well as the rest of the land, and also try to catch a ride on Slinky Dog Dash, Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, a few shows, and watch Fantasmic! that evening.
So, I know that Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land are the hot spots, but I really don't know where to start once I arrive at the park. In the morning, if I can get a boarding group, do I rush to Slinky Dog first? Or go ahead and explore Galaxy's Edge while I'm waiting? Or wait till the evening for any of those? What FastPasses should I choose? Have the tiers changed at all?
I know that's a lot of questions; TIA for your answers!
ETA: It will just be my mom and I; she hasn't been to Disney since Dec 2017, so hasn't experienced Toy Story Land or Galaxy's Edge.

 

[CastAStone]

(wishful thinking here, please humor me )

You got it!

We got VERY little information on what to do post MMRR because DHS shut down just over a week after MMRR opened. So this is theory, not a promise:

1) Get your FP for whichever of SDD or MFSR you absolutely can't live without. Sounds like MFSR.
2) Rope Drop the other one. Get there at LEAST an hour before opening
3) when you get called for ROTR, that's when you explore SWGE, not early in the morning when you ride MFSR
4) Get your Tier 2 FPs for Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster, probably in early afternoon when the parks are busiest.
5) Immediately after your Rope Drop ride, head to Toy Story Mania and ride that - both MFSR and SDD are very close to TSM. If the line for Alien Saucers isn't too bad, ride that after.
6) Assuming a 9AM opening, Its probably about 10-10:30 now. There are 9 rides at DHS. You have FPs for 3 rides, a BG for another, and have rode 3 rides, so you just need a plan to tackle Mickey and Minnie and Star Tours. Lucky for you, you have 9-10 hours until Fantasmic! so you should be able to manage 2 waits of an hour+, plus your 4 rides you have FP/BG for and plenty of shows.

 

[gharter]

You got it!

We got VERY little information on what to do post MMRR because DHS shut down just over a week after MMRR opened. So this is theory, not a promise:

1) Get your FP for whichever of SDD or MFSR you absolutely can't live without. Sounds like MFSR.
2) Rope Drop the other one. Get there at LEAST an hour before opening
3) when you get called for ROTR, that's when you explore SWGE, not early in the morning when you ride MFSR
4) Get your Tier 2 FPs for Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster, probably in early afternoon when the parks are busiest.
5) Immediately after your Rope Drop ride, head to Toy Story Mania and ride that - both MFSR and SDD are very close to TSM. If the line for Alien Saucers isn't too bad, ride that after.
6) Assuming a 9AM opening, Its probably about 10-10:30 now. There are 9 rides at DHS. You have FPs for 3 rides, a BG for another, and have rode 3 rides, so you just need a plan to tackle Mickey and Minnie and Star Tours. Lucky for you, you have 9-10 hours until Fantasmic! so you should be able to manage 2 waits of an hour+, plus your 4 rides you have FP/BG for and plenty of shows.

Good plan.
The only addition would be considering between SDD and MFSR. Both are very busy in the morning. SDD stays busy throughout the day whereas MFSR, in the past had shorter lines.
I haven't been there since ROTR opened to see that changed this at all. If thatstill holds true, might consider SDD FP over MFSR.
Of course, all of thi sis now a guess as we don't know what the parks will look like when they reopen.

 

[Boopuff]

My guess is that you won't see the crazy crowds of past. I think moving forward WDW will limit the number of guests - at least until the virus is under control. IMO

 

[cgattis]

My guess is that you won't see the crazy crowds of past. I think moving forward WDW will limit the number of guests - at least until the virus is under control. IMO

But I also think Disney won’t staff fully at first—they’ll want to limit how much they’re paying out in salaries while the money coming in is still limited by crowd size. So I think the wait times might be just as high, so the battle plans might stay about the same. If we had Leota’s crystal ball.....

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I’ve been debating about this. I fully intended to watch what MMRR lines were doing in Early April before I had to get Fastpasses. Luckily, we are going two mornings, so I did MFSR one day and MMRR the other for our tier 1 rides. We decided early on that we’ve ridden SDD so it wasn’t an important FP for us this trip. We’ll either rope drop it, or ride it at the end of the night.
I really am curious how it will be when things reopen. Whether we’ll have virtual queues, much less crowds, but with the same wait times because of reduced capacity on rides. We are scheduled for June 1st. And I’m thinking even beyond the uncertainty we face about our trip, people coming later will have increased issues to worry about as far as things changing as things do get back to normal. It’s like when ROR opened and they kept changing what time they’d allow people into the park, ect. It’s going to fe hard to make a solid plan recommendation for probably 18-24 months until things either go back to normal, or everyone gets used to the new normal.