With so many great, new attractions in this park, planning the Ultimate Hollywood Studios itinerary so you get to do all you want is pretty important, right? We’ve heard about people not getting done the best things to do at Hollywood Studios and others spending FAR too much time waiting in lines.
That sounds pretty stressful to us, so we’re going to give you all the information you need to create the ideal Hollywood Studios touring plan, bespoke for you!
Whether you have one day in Hollywood Studios or (even better) more, we want to help you create the Hollywood Studios itinerary that will inform you and make sure you know exactly how to go about planning what to do at Hollywood Studios to have YOUR best day!
This is just one of our many detailed Disney World Touring Plans! When you are done, make sure to check out other options for any parks you may be visiting!
So while we’re going to give you the outline based on one day in Hollywood Studios, feel free to modify this to make sure you cover your must-dos. You can also use it more than once, with key switches to make sure you have the best time while you’re there, using your Hollywood Studios touring plan.
The Ultimate Hollywood Studios Itinerary (Without Lines!)
Best Time Of Year To Visit Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios Hours
How To Use Fastpass+ At Hollywood Studios
What is Fastpass+?
10 years ago, you could get paper Fastpass for some attractions, one at a time and on the day, when you were visiting Disney World. Fastpass+ is the name of the existing free service, which is included with your park ticket and which you can book for your party in advance (60 days ahead if staying in a Disney resort and 30 days if staying offsite).
You can save time with FastPass+ because, it allows you to enter a separate Fastpass+ line (at your selected/pre-booked time), bypassing the main line for certain rides, attractions and character meets. You can pre-book 3 Fastpasses for attractions in the same park; the Fastpass+ window is open for an hour and you cannot overlap windows. So you could book a 10.45am Fastpass, but the second window won’t open until 11.50.
What about Fastpass+ at Hollywood Studios?
Like Epcot, Hollywood Studios operates a Tier system for their Fastpasses, so you book one Fastpass from Tier 1 rides/attractions and the other 2 from Tier 2. Once you’ve used your third Fastpass, you’re no longer tied to the ‘tier’ system (or even the same park) and can grab whichever Fastpass is available on a ‘one at a time’ basis.
If you weren’t able to get the Fastpasses you wanted, you should use time in lines to ‘tap’ any Fastpass for your desired attraction, grab them and then persistently try to modify the time, until you get a time that suits you.
How do I book my Fastpass+?
The simplest way to book your Fastpass+ is through the My Disney Experience app.
When you’re at the attraction, go to the Fastpass+ line, tap your magic band (or ticket) at the entrance to the line and Mickey will go green. Once you’ve tapped in for your third Fastpass+, you should open the My Disney Experience app on your phone and start looking for more Fastpasses – you can only book one at a time, but as soon as you tap in at the beginning of the next line, you should start looking for another Fastpass. This way, you’re not wasting ‘park’ time on the app, just time you’d be in a line, anyway.
Best And Worst Hollywood Studio Fastpass Options
Fastpass Suggestions To Save To Your Phone
Hollywood Studios Map
Arrival And Rope Drop At Hollywood Studios
Rise Of The Resistance Boarding Groups And Virtual Queue
The Virtual Queue
So, there’s no physical line for the Rise of the Resistance, it is a virtual queue – a line you join by using the My Disney Experience App.
Step 1: At LEAST the day before, make sure you’ve downloaded the most up to date version. Make sure you have all of your party in My Disney Experience (which you will, if you’ve booked Fastpasses for them).
Step 2: Firstly, to join the Virtual queue, all members of your party (who wish to ride) need to be present, in the park – you can’t secure a space in the Virtual queue for them by being in the park alone.
Step 3: A lot of people have had more success getting a Boarding group using their own data than the park WiFi – whilst Disney’s WiFi is excellent, you’re competing with many other people in your area. Make sure you are NOT in a building when following subsequent steps, even if it means missing a few places in line.
Step 4: Do NOT open the My Disney Experience app a second before opening time (for this illustration, we’ll assume an opening time of 8am, so do not open My Disney Experience before 8am) – doing so could cost you enough seconds to make a difference between getting a Boarding group and not!
Step 5: From the home page of the App, under ‘Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – Access by Boarding Group’, tap ‘Find Out More’
Step 6: Tap ‘Join Boarding Group’; then select the people in your party and tap ‘confirm’.
If you get an error message, close the app and reopen it; backing out doesn’t work. If, for whatever reason, you have a Boarding Group but not all of your party is listed, go straightaway to a Cast Member.
If you’ve been successful, you’ll then see which boarding group you’ve joined. It’s very helpful to ensure that you enable ‘lock screen’/push notifications for the My Disney Experience App, so you know when your Boarding Group has been called.
Boarding Groups
Once you’re given a boarding group, you are free to do whichever rides you want – so your itinerary can start once you’ve secured your boarding group! You don’t even have to stay in the park, but we recommend you make the most of your Hollywood Studios itinerary!
When your boarding group is called (keep an eye on your phone), you have 2 hours to get to the Rise of the Resistance ride. If you’re called within the first few hours of the park being open, we recommend you do not return until nearly the end of this window, because waiting times at the other rides will increase during the day.
At ride time, go to Galaxy’s Edge and the Rise of the Resistance ride, where Cast Members will see you into the line. Typically, if all is running well, you’ll be in line around 40 minutes before the ride.
One Day Hollywood Studios Itinerary Morning Plan
Our other itinerary articles (linked at the very bottom of this article) give you a time (9am-10am, for example) but because Hollywood Studios has been opening at 8am for such a long time, we’re going to tell you first hour, second hour etc, because we don’t want to mislead you by giving you the wrong time!
First Hour
Second Hour
These are the big thrill rides which you may have chosen to get Fastpasses for; below is a way to ride them early in the day if you don’t have Fastpasses or if you want to make the most of your Hollywood Studios itinerary and ride twice! If you have kids who don’t want to ride, you can do Rider Switch for both of these rides. We’ve rode both before our Fastpass window opens, then gone straight around and rode again!!
Third Hour
Fourth Hour: Break/Lunch!
If you can avoid the 12-1pm period for lunch, it’s likely you’ll encounter less crowds in the restaurants. Eating earlier could be a really helpful strategy and probably provide you with a much needed rest, given the early entry strategy!
We particularly recommend either Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo or ABC Commissary for lunch (both of which you can use Mobile ordering for and save even more time!), but you can also check out our Quick Service recommendations.
One Day Hollywood Studios Itinerary Afternoon Plan
Here are our suggestions for the afternoon, in the order that suits you best:
- Use your Rise Of Resistance Return Time – remember, you have 2 hours from when your Boarding Group is called, so you don’t have to worry about leaving a line you’re in for another ride
- Watch Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Echo Lake
- Use any remaining Fastpasses and continue to tap/grab Fastpass+ throughout the day!
- Watch Beauty and the Beast- Live on Stage on Sunset Boulevard
- Explore Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – get a reservation for Oga’s Cantina for a refreshment experience, with a twist!
- Consider, also at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Droid Depot (from $99 plus tax) and/or Savi’s Workshop for Handbuilt lightsabers (from $199 plus tax), both of which are indoor activities – reservations suggested
Plus…Disney Trippers’ Favorites for beating the heat!
- Frozen Sing-A-Long Celebration – at Echo Lake; humor as well as a sing-a-long! (30 minutes duration)
- Lightning McQueen Racing Academy – on Sunset Boulevard (10 minutes duration)
- Muppetvision 3D – on Grand Avenue; some lovely nostalgia that the kids are bound to love! (25 minutes duration)
- Voyage Of The Little Mermaid – in Animation Courtyard (almost 20 minutes duration)
Dinner
Rest of the Evening
15 Secrets For Reducing Your Disney Wait Times
This is great information, but do you have an updated post for 2021? With no Fast Passes and changing they way they do Extra Hours, a lot of this information is unusable. I read the article and didn’t see any links to an updated post – sorry if I missed it!