Latest / Mom Street USA / 112. One Day Park Strategy: Hollywood Studios

Transcript

112. One Day Park Strategy: Hollywood Studios · Mom Street USA

0:06
Welcome everybody to Mom St. USA.
0:07
My name is Jackie AKA wishes Mama.
0:09
And on today's episode of Mom St.
0:11
USA, we are finishing finally at the end of our one day park
0:17
strategy series that we have been working our way through.
0:20
That's right, we have made it to park #7 in the Orlando area.
0:25
And if you have missed anything we've done in the series, we
0:27
have already touched on all three of the Universal Parks,
0:31
including our last episode, which was on Epic Universe, the
0:34
newest park in the greater Orlando area.
0:37
And today we are going to be talking about the final Disney
0:40
park. So we've already touched on
0:42
Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
0:45
And today we are going to be talking about Hollywood Studios.
0:49
So that is where we are headed in today's episode.
0:52
Before we jump in and before we head over to the park, I do just
0:57
want to do a quick reminder. We mentioned this last episode
1:01
that starting in 2026, Mom Street is going to be existing
1:06
solely on our own personal feeds from now on going forward.
1:10
So for the past couple years, we have been partnering with the
1:15
Chip and Co Podcast Network, but at this point in time, we are
1:18
going to be parting ways very amicably.
1:21
We are so grateful for the platform that they provided for
1:24
us for the last several years, but we are going to be headed
1:27
back to our own personal feed. So if you are somebody who is
1:31
listening to us over on the Chip and Co feed, we do hope that
1:33
you'll find us on our feed over here.
1:36
We are on YouTube, we are on Spotify, we are on Apple
1:39
podcast, we're on all sorts of places.
1:41
So come over and find us here. We hope that you'll stick with
1:45
us through this kind of transition into 2026.
1:48
So now that that's out of the way, let's head over to
1:53
Hollywood Studios. So let's talk about some general
1:57
notes for Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios rope drop very
2:02
frequently happens actually well before the posted time.
2:07
So we've talked about rope drop before on Mom St.
2:09
We've talked about early entry. Regardless of what you're going
2:14
for, if it's rope drop or early entry, Hollywood Studios of all
2:18
four parks tends to be the only one that that consistently lets
2:25
people in before the posted time.
2:29
So if you are there for early entry, chances are good that you
2:32
will be able to get in the queues for these rides and the
2:36
rides will start operating well before that early entry posted
2:40
time. So because of that, I highly
2:44
suggest arriving at least an hour before early entry.
2:48
Now, I know that's super early, especially when Hollywood
2:53
studios, now most days it opens at 9:00 and your early entry
2:57
would be 830. But sometimes the park is
2:59
opening at 8:30 or 8:00. I know that that's super early.
3:04
It's just a decision that you're going to have to make with your
3:06
party that you're travelling with, but I suggest arriving an
3:09
hour, 45 minutes at the very least before your early entry to
3:14
give yourself time to get through security and be ready
3:17
for the early, early entry. Hollywood Studios tends to go
3:22
back and forth on how they do their early entry.
3:24
So let's talk about that just briefly.
3:27
Previously they would hold everybody at the gate and they
3:31
would have early entry on one side and standard non resort
3:36
guest entry on the other side, which is what they do at like
3:40
the front gates at Epcot. They recently have started more
3:44
often doing more like what Magic Kingdom has started doing, where
3:50
you will tap into the gate and then they will check you at
3:55
different checkpoints throughout the park and then you'll be able
3:58
to actually like queue up for the queue of the ride that you
4:03
want to get on. So for example, and we'll get
4:07
into more specifics on where to go and, and an itinerary here in
4:11
just a few minutes. But so for example, if you were
4:13
someone who was doing early entry of Hollywood Studios and
4:17
you wanted to ride Tower of Terror as an example, even
4:21
before the early entry time, you'll be able to tap in at the
4:26
main gate. You'll be able to walk through
4:29
the park, turn, go down Sunset Blvd.
4:32
They will, there will be a cast member that is waiting down that
4:38
way to like scan you to make sure that you have early entry
4:41
and then you can queue up to get in the queue for Tower of
4:45
Terror. So that's why I say that it's
4:48
really important to get there early because that does tend to
4:52
happen earlier than at the other parks.
4:56
There is on occasion where they are still holding people at the
5:00
front gate. So it's hard to predict.
5:04
It's it's not consistent yet, let's put it that way.
5:06
As far as which way they're doing it, Magic Kingdom is
5:08
consistent. The way that they've been doing
5:10
their rope drop for the most part has been very consistently
5:13
the same for years and years and years with a slight change
5:17
recently with them being able to let you go to the queues of the
5:20
rides that you're going to rather than holding you in that
5:23
holding in that line kind of between by like the Tomorrowland
5:27
Speedway. This with Hollywood Studios has
5:31
been really inconsistent for the past like 6 months.
5:34
So it's hard to kind of know what they're going to do going
5:38
forward. But it's going to be one of
5:40
those two ways. Either you're going to be held
5:41
at the front gate or you're going to be able to tap it at
5:44
the front gate and then walk to whatever land it is that you're
5:48
trying to go to for rope drop. OK, so those are kind of just
5:52
some general notes. We'll get into a few more notes
5:54
here momentarily, but we are going to talk just like we did
5:58
in the other One day park strategy episodes, about two
6:01
different ways to do your itinerary for Hollywood studios.
6:05
The first one we're going to talk about is what to do if you
6:08
are using lightning lanes. The second one is going to be a
6:12
plan for what you can do if you are not using lightning lanes.
6:16
So let's talk about Lightning Lanes first, because that's what
6:19
we've done with all the other parks.
6:22
Hollywood Studios is the hardest park to manipulate using Multi
6:29
Pass because there are so many big name attractions.
6:36
It's really, really tricky to kind of navigate and and
6:40
negotiate your way through the times for Multi Pass.
6:45
Again, if you are someone that is new to this lightning lane
6:48
system and new to multi pass, I did a whole episode breaking
6:53
down everything that I know. Lightning lanes are like my jam.
6:57
That is what I love to help people with.
6:59
I know a ton about how they work.
7:01
I know about how to modify and how to work the system to make
7:05
it work to to my best interests. So if you want those tips and
7:11
tricks and that information, hop back into our archives.
7:14
It was not that long ago that I did a whole refresher on the
7:17
multi pass system, how to book, how to modify what you should
7:21
book, all those types of things. So if you need that, go there.
7:25
But this park is so hard to do. So I'm going to give you my best
7:32
kind of strategy and attack for this.
7:36
Again, if I mention rides that you're like my group doesn't
7:39
want to ride that great, skip it and move on.
7:42
Figure out the next best course of action for what you think
7:47
makes sense for your group. Hollywood Studios of all of the
7:53
Disney parks, it is the least like toddler friendly when it
7:58
comes to rides. Now they have a ton of
8:00
characters, they have great shows if other things you can
8:04
do. But as far as rides go, the
8:07
majority of the rides at this park have a height requirement.
8:10
So just be aware of that as you're like doing your initial
8:14
planning for like which parks you're going to go to with your
8:17
group because this one is truly better for your older kids and
8:23
like teens and tweens. If I had to kind of put a
8:26
generalized statement on it. Now again, there are other
8:29
things to do with your little so don't let that completely deter
8:32
you, but you definitely need to look into the height
8:34
requirements here. So let's talk about lightning
8:37
lanes. This park does have two tiers of
8:41
lightning lanes. My suggestion for your pre
8:46
booking again, you can pre book seven days out if you are a
8:50
resort guest, three days out if you are a non resort guest.
8:53
Your your window depends on check in and if you're a resort
8:59
guest and your first park day if you are a non resort guest.
9:02
Again, all that information is in that Lightning Lane episode,
9:05
but your Tier 1, you are definitely going to want to book
9:08
Slinky Dog. So Slinky Dog Dash is the
9:11
hardest ride pretty much almost all of the parks at at Disney.
9:23
Slinky Dog is your hardest lightning to get pretty much
9:25
across all four parks. So that is definitely the one
9:28
that you were going to want to use your tier one on.
9:31
Now that's going to be really hard because there are also a
9:35
lot of other really good tier one rides.
9:39
Mickey, Minnie's, Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon,
9:42
Smugglers Run and Rock and Roller Coaster are all also on
9:44
that list. And you're probably going to
9:47
want to ride all of those as well.
9:49
I understand that. So hang with me and I will talk
9:51
to you about the way that I go about trying to get all those
9:54
rides. But you definitely want to book
9:57
Slinky Dog because it is probably the most roped drop
10:02
rope dropped ride. Is that how you say that?
10:05
Sure, it is the most rope dropped ride in like all of
10:09
Disney property. I in my opinion now your Tier 2
10:15
you actually have far less options because there are
10:19
several shows on here that just don't necessarily need a
10:24
lightning lane, at least at first.
10:27
You may later in your day use some of those as lightning lane
10:32
options, but at least at first not something you necessarily
10:35
need to book. But for your Tier 2 options, I
10:38
would book Tower of Terror and I would book Toy Story Mania.
10:42
Toy Story Mania is so hard to get a lightning lane for because
10:47
it is one of those attractions that does not have a height
10:52
requirement. So it makes it significantly
10:56
harder to get that lightning lane.
10:59
And that one is almost, almost as hard as Slinky Dog just
11:05
because of that. And it will get a high standby
11:09
line because a lot of people will pivot there if they have
11:12
people in their group that are going to Slinky dog and then
11:14
they have people in their group who can't ride Slinky dog Toy
11:18
Story Mania is one of the next closest rides to go on.
11:20
So keep that in mind. So Tier 1 Slinky dog, Tier 2
11:25
Tower of Terror Toy Story Mania. Now when you are booking for
11:30
your pre booking, I typically say that you want to wait like
11:37
an hour into your park day to start booking your Lightning
11:42
Lane times. Hollywood Studios is a little
11:45
bit different just because there are so many rides that you're
11:51
going to want and need to book. For example, somewhere at Magic
11:56
Kingdom you're able to do a ton standby in the morning.
12:01
At Hollywood Studios, it's not as easy to do the majority of
12:05
the rides on standby. So you really have to utilize
12:10
your lightning lanes and use them to your full ability
12:14
whenever you are at this park. So when you're pre booking, grab
12:19
Slinky Dog as early as you can, grab Toy Story Mania as close to
12:25
Slinky Dog as you can. And then Tower of Terror you
12:28
want to be ideally as early as you can by like 10:00 AM at the
12:33
latest. Now, if you can't get Tower of
12:39
Terror to be earlier or one of your other rides, let's say you
12:45
buy some miracle got Slinky Dog in the 10 O clock hour.
12:50
Amazing, brilliant. That is wonderful.
12:52
Keep that, but you want one of those top, one of those first
12:56
three rides to be within that by that 10 O clock hour because if
12:59
it's much later, you're going to have a harder time getting those
13:03
other big rides later in the day.
13:06
So with Hollywood studios, like I said, it's a little bit
13:08
different. But if you are not able to, then
13:12
you need to modify. If you're not sorry, let me
13:14
clarify. If you're not able to get one of
13:17
those first three rides no later than 10:00 AM, you're going to
13:23
have to modify Tower of Terror to something else.
13:27
Do not, I repeat, do not modify your Toy Story Mania time.
13:33
It is so much harder to get that ride.
13:36
So take your Tower of Terror, modify it for a different ride
13:40
that you can get in that 10 AM time slot.
13:44
So that way you'll be able to start using your Lightning lanes
13:47
earlier and then eventually be able to book a time for Tower of
13:52
Terror. So that's kind of my suggestion
13:55
with that. As far as single passes go,
13:58
there is just one at this park, which is the Rise of the
14:01
Resistance ride. Fabulous ride.
14:03
Highly suggest. Make sure you grab that and will
14:06
you'll hear me talk more about time frame with that here in a
14:09
little bit, but that is likely going to be something that you
14:14
that you do kind of middle of the day with Rise of the
14:17
Resistance. So kind of a midday, maybe like
14:20
a noon time ish with that for pre booking.
14:26
Now just a quick note about booking your lightning lanes as
14:30
a whole. I didn't talk a ton about this
14:32
and I haven't really in the past, but this actually came up
14:34
in my comments section on my personal page not that long ago.
14:39
When you are booking your lightning lanes, you on your day
14:43
of eligibility you will book for your entire trip.
14:47
So any day that you have lightning lanes you're going to
14:50
be using, you will book them on that morning.
14:53
That being said, I highly suggest no matter what order
15:00
you're visiting the parks, highly suggest doing your
15:04
Hollywood Studios day first. Even if it's at the end of your
15:08
trip, book your Hollywood Studios day first and then after
15:11
that, I really don't care what you do from there, but book your
15:16
Hollywood Studios Day first because you'll be fighting with
15:20
less people to get those times for Hollywood Studios.
15:24
Now, if you are able to manipulate your schedule a
15:29
little bit and put Hollywood Studios towards the end of your
15:32
trip, that will even be more in your favor for getting these
15:36
times that I'm going to kind of talk about today.
15:39
But because it is just so difficult, you definitely want
15:44
to book that day first and then go back and grab Magic Kingdom,
15:49
Epcot, Animal Kingdom from there.
15:53
Let's talk just briefly about booking order before I get into
15:59
the actual itinerary. And the reason I do this is
16:02
because you may have to pivot from this itinerary depending on
16:10
what you're able to get for the day.
16:11
Hollywood Studios is so hard to predict that I really can't give
16:15
you a, oh, this will happen, then this will happen, then this
16:18
will happen, then you should do this.
16:20
It's so hard, you guys. It is so hard.
16:22
So I'm going to give you just a general booking order for the
16:25
order in which I would book the rides there and then you can
16:30
take that and go from there. Now, I have been saying all
16:34
along in this one day Park strategy series, graphics are
16:38
coming. So this information will be on a
16:40
graphic by the end of 2025 on our Patreon account.
16:43
So I am in the midst of working on on those graphics.
16:47
So be patient with me, but it will be there.
16:50
But in case you're listening to this before, because this will
16:54
be posted before the end of the year, this is your booking order
16:58
for Hollywood Studios. So Slinky Dog is top priority,
17:01
Tower of Terror and then Toy Story Mania like I talked about,
17:03
those are your big three that you want to book first.
17:06
After that, I personally this is the order that I kind of follow.
17:10
So after your first 3 Smugglers Run, then Runaway Railway, then
17:16
Rock and Roller Coaster, then Star Tours and Alien swirling
17:19
saucers are the bottom of that list.
17:21
And then after that would be any of the shows that you might want
17:23
to book for, including the new Little Mermaid show, which I
17:27
that one is a is a pretty good idea to book for because it's
17:30
still a little bit inconsistent with loading cycles and how busy
17:35
it gets from day-to-day. The other shows you don't ever
17:38
need a lightning lane. It's just a if you want to
17:41
utilize one or not, but that's the order that I would book the
17:46
rides in now if there's something on that list that
17:48
you're like, we don't want to ride it, great skip it and move
17:50
on right. That's what we've said all along
17:52
that that still applies here to Hollywood studios and again that
17:59
you have the ability to do a single pass for rise of the
18:01
resistance. Just a quick note that there are
18:03
a few single rider lines as well.
18:06
So if you're party is of age and ability to utilize the single
18:11
rider line, Rise of the Resistance, Smugglers Run and
18:14
Rock and Roller Coaster all have single rider lines.
18:17
The ones for Smugglers Run and the one for Rise of the
18:21
Resistance both really good. If on Rise of the Resistance
18:25
you've already done the entire experience once before, I do not
18:30
suggest it if you are someone that has not because you miss
18:34
out on some on that on that single rider line.
18:37
The Rock and roller coaster 1 is very hit or miss and we'll see
18:41
what happens with it in the future as it shifts to become
18:44
Muppets here in the next several months.
18:47
But those are your single rider lines available as well.
18:51
And I'll talk a little bit more about those single rider lines
18:53
when we get to the non lightning lane itinerary.
18:57
But I did just want to mention them here as well.
19:01
OK, so let's jump into our suggested itinerary.
19:08
Now, like I said, this is what I would do if I am trying to get
19:13
as many rides as I possibly can and I'm willing to take the time
19:17
to sit and modify times on my phone because that is the only
19:22
way you're going to be able to get all these rides in.
19:25
You have to be willing to utilize your phone.
19:28
Maybe a couple adults are just sitting there refreshing, trying
19:32
to get better times as you are going through your day.
19:35
But you have to be willing to do that, especially at Hollywood
19:38
studios. So let's talk about my
19:41
suggestion. So like I said earlier, I book
19:45
Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania as close together as
19:50
possible. I book Slinky Dog first as early
19:54
as I can and then I take Toy Story Mania and I push it up as
19:57
close to Slinky Dog as I can and then try to book Tower of Terror
20:02
in that 10 AM hour. So in a perfect world, if I'm
20:07
able to do those things with my pre booking, here's what I would
20:11
do. I personally would rope drop
20:14
Runaway railway because it's one of my family's absolute favorite
20:17
rides so we would personally go there.
20:21
Another great option would be to go to rock and roller coaster as
20:24
your rope drop. But ultimately what I would
20:27
suggest is something close ish to the front of the park that
20:32
your group knows you want to get on twice because chances are
20:36
good you're going to get on it with a lightning lane.
20:38
So this would be your opportunity to get on it via
20:41
standby. So that's why we always opt for
20:44
Runaway Railway because that's personally my favorite and my
20:47
family's favorite. I do not necessarily recommend
20:51
rope dropping Slinky dog, Almost everybody rope drop Slinky dog,
20:56
that line gets to be an hour almost immediately.
21:01
So I do not suggest going that direction, but if that is like
21:09
the top favorite ride of your group and you're willing to get
21:12
there extra early to put yourself in a good, in a good
21:17
place, in a good position to be able to rope drop over there,
21:21
then that's totally fine if that's what you choose to do.
21:23
But we would rope drop Runaway Railway.
21:26
After that we would head down to Rock and Roller Coaster and then
21:32
after we have done Runaway Railway and Rock and Roller
21:35
Coaster, then we will hopefully have timed it nicely so that we
21:40
can just nice and easy relax and get to our Tower of Terror
21:44
Lightning Lane. So we're going to use our Tower
21:47
of Terror Lightning Lane after we have ridden those two standby
21:50
rides. After that, after we tap in for
21:54
Tower, we're going to Book Smugglers Run because that is
21:57
next on my list in my order that I have.
22:01
After that, it really depends on what time it is.
22:06
So ideally by 10:30-ish you have completed those three rides.
22:14
OK, so now you've got an option. You can grab something to eat,
22:21
or if you're not hungry yet, you can throw in either the Beauty
22:27
and the Beast. Sing along.
22:29
That is right there along the same pathway that you're on.
22:34
Or you can do something like the Frozen Sing Along or The Little
22:38
Mermaid show, which are not too far, kind of right around the
22:41
corner back near the Chinese Theater.
22:44
Or you can throw in Star Tours, which is a little further, but
22:48
still not terrible when it comes to Criss crossing the park.
22:53
So those would be my suggestions for you to throw in.
22:55
Now those would all be standby at this point.
22:58
Those would not be something that you would be utilizing a
23:01
lightning lane for. So this gives you some extra
23:03
time to be manipulating and modifying for your Smugglers
23:08
runtime, because what you want to do with that is book your
23:12
Smugglers Run to be close to your Rise of the Resistance
23:16
time. So whatever time you got for
23:18
your single pass for your Rise of the Resistance time, when
23:22
you're modifying Smugglers Run, you want to put it close to
23:25
that. So that way, when you are in
23:27
that area, you do not have to crisscross back and forth in and
23:31
out of Galaxy's Edge. After that, and whatever
23:35
decisions you've made, you definitely want to eat before we
23:39
we hop into the next little section of our itinerary.
23:42
So whether that's a late breakfast, an early lunch, a
23:46
bigger snack, some kind of food sustenance to get you through to
23:50
dinner time, again, we always suggest eating either earlier or
23:54
later than the standard times just to alleviate some waiting.
23:58
And we suggest mobile ordering. So a couple different places
24:01
that are good to mobile order. ABC Commissary is really close
24:05
to where we were just talking about that kind of Chinese
24:08
theater area. Back Lot Express is not too far,
24:12
especially if you're over in the Star Tours side of things.
24:14
It's not too far from there. But if you are ready to head
24:18
into Galaxy's Edge because you're getting ready for your
24:21
Rise of the Resistance time, then you could hit up Docking
24:25
Bay 7 while you're over there. So those are some different
24:28
options for food for your lunch and again, mobile order, make
24:33
sure you order ahead of time. It will save you waiting in an
24:36
extra line. You'll be able to go in, grab
24:39
your food, find a seat and it'll be much a much easier experience
24:42
for you for food. So after all of that, after
24:48
you've relaxed a little bit inside, maybe you finally got
24:51
your times to align how you wanted them to with your
24:54
modifying for your lightning lanes.
24:56
Now it will be time to use your single pass for Rise of the
25:01
Resistance. So whether you're already in the
25:05
Galaxy's Edge area or you need to head there, that'll be your
25:08
next stop. So single pass for Rise of the
25:11
Resistance and your lightning lane for Smugglers Run.
25:14
Now I understand we still haven't used our lightning lanes
25:16
for the Toy Story rides yet. So again, I anticipate when I
25:25
pre book for Slinky Dog for it to be about a one or 2:00 in the
25:29
afternoon time. Very rarely can I consistently
25:35
or I should say I very inconsistently get Slinky Dog
25:38
before noon. It's just the nature of the ride
25:41
and how popular it is, how many lightning lanes are available
25:45
and how many people book it. So I kind of just anticipate it
25:49
being an after lunch thing, especially if you're doing an
25:51
early lunch, because like I said, if you can book your your
25:56
Rise of the Resistance time to be about noon, that's perfect
25:59
timing because you can eat around 11, go to that at noon
26:02
and then head to Smugglers Run after that.
26:05
So those are kind of your next two after lunch.
26:08
After you have ridden Smugglers Run, I would go ahead and book a
26:14
time for Alien Swirling Saucers that lines up after my Slinky
26:20
dog in Toy Story Mania times. So that way I can kind of hit
26:24
all three rides in that area all at one time.
26:30
So ride Smugglers Run, book Alien Swirling Saucers.
26:34
After that. After we have finished both
26:37
rides in the Galaxy's Edge area, we are going to head to the Toy
26:42
Story area. This will be ideally in a
26:45
perfect world where you're able to go through all three of your
26:51
Toy Story rides. So Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog,
26:53
Dash, and Alien Swirling Saucers are ideally all going to be
26:58
booked kind of one after the other, maybe a little bit of
27:02
time in between for a quick snack break, you know, bathroom
27:06
break, those types of things after you do.
27:10
So in my kind of head here, I've booked them in the order of Toy
27:14
Story Mania, then Slinky Dog, then Alien Swirling Saucers.
27:18
So I go to tap in for Toy Story Mania.
27:21
When I tap in for Toy Story Mania, if it's me I am booking
27:24
another or I'm booking a time for another ride on Runaway
27:29
Railway. Again, we rope dropped it
27:32
because it's my family's favorite, so I'm booking another
27:34
time to be able to get on it later in the day.
27:37
After I ride Slinky, I would book then a time for another
27:43
ride on Rock and roller Coaster. Again we rope dropped it.
27:49
And then after I do Alien Swirling Saucers, I'm booking
27:54
another time for Star Tours. If I choose to do another ride
27:57
OnStar Tours, those are all bonus right?
28:01
Because we've already ridden everything.
28:02
So that's where it gets a little bit frustrating with Hollywood
28:04
Studios is the list of rides is actually really short.
28:11
When you look at it all together, there are only 8 rides
28:14
that need lightning lanes for. But of those eight rides, six of
28:21
them you absolutely need a lightning lane for.
28:24
So it gets a little frustrating because you do kind of finish
28:27
off your lightning lanes a little bit earlier in the day
28:33
than you do at some of these other parks.
28:37
So after you have kind of gone through those in Toy Story Mania
28:44
area or sorry, Toy Story Mania, the Toy Story area, Toy Story
28:48
Mania Slinky Dog Dash and Alien Swirling Saucers, chances are
28:52
good it's time to eat again. So same suggestions as above for
28:55
mobile ordering ABC commissary docking by 7 back Lot Express.
28:59
Depends on where you are. There is Woody's lunch box.
29:01
I just don't love the seating in that area being in Toy Story.
29:06
So you really just kind of have to make a decision on where you
29:09
want to go and kind of just head that direction.
29:13
Now there are several really fun sit down restaurants in
29:16
Hollywood studios. And if you are someone that is
29:19
using lightning lanes, you feel confident about using lightning
29:22
lanes and or you have maybe there are some rides on this
29:29
list that you're like, no, we're not going to ride those.
29:31
And you think you're going to have time.
29:33
There's some great sit down restaurant options, 50s
29:35
primetime sci-fi dine in Hollywood and Vine if you want a
29:39
character meal is really great. Brown Derby.
29:41
Lots of lots of really good sit down restaurants as well that
29:46
you could totally book a time. I would suggest booking like
29:51
again, a 4:00 time or like a 637 o'clock time to avoid the rush
29:58
if you're able to. Earlier rather than later is
30:01
typically better in my personal opinion, but that's just kind of
30:05
what it is. So that will ideally finish out
30:10
all of the lightning lanes that you need to book will be booked
30:13
before dinner or you'll still be kind of maybe tweaking a couple
30:17
little things while you're enjoying your dinner, sitting
30:20
down with with your group. So after dinner you are going to
30:26
finish going to all of those lightning lanes that you booked
30:29
again if you chose to. So that would be Runaway Railway
30:33
Rock and Roller Coaster and Star Tours if you choose to do them
30:36
again or if you're done, there are lots of other things after
30:40
dinner that you could do at Hollywood Studios.
30:43
We didn't talk about the shows. There are several shows that you
30:46
can do, so we talked a little bit briefly about Little Mermaid
30:50
in Frozen, but there are more shows that are all that also
30:54
exists inside of Hollywood studios that you could go to.
30:59
So there is the Beauty and the Beast sing along.
31:01
We talked about the Frozen sing along, which is great.
31:04
The new Little Mermaid show, super cute.
31:07
The villains show. I highly suggest hitting the
31:10
villains show. It is the newest show.
31:12
It premiered at the same time as The Little Mermaid.
31:14
Little Mermaid is kind of a reimagining of the same show
31:20
that they had there, where it's just kind of like a retelling of
31:22
the movie. Now, if you've got kiddos that
31:24
love Little Mermaid, it is a fabulous show to go to.
31:28
The villains show is phenomenal. The original music is great, The
31:34
storyline is super fun. Really, really great show.
31:38
So that one I highly suggest. There is a theater around the
31:43
corner from the Frozen theatre that you can catch some of the
31:46
Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts called Vacation Fun.
31:50
There are tons of characters, Buzz and Woody, Mickey and
31:53
Minnie, Olaf, tons of Pixar characters, Edna, Frozone, Mr.
31:56
and Misses Incredible. You can meet Darth Vader over by
32:00
Star Tours. They have roving characters in
32:02
Galaxy's Edge. They have the Green Army Man
32:06
drum corps in Toy Story Land where they like March up and
32:09
down tons and tons and tons of characters over there as well.
32:13
So again, I talked about it not being Hollywood studios, not
32:16
being a great park for toddlers, but if you've got like if your
32:20
kiddos love these characters, it's fantastic.
32:24
You could spend half of your day just meeting characters and have
32:26
so much fun. So there's still a ton to do in
32:29
your evening time. I will also say this about
32:33
Hollywood Studios. It is such a great park in the
32:37
evening. Hollywood Studios is not on the
32:39
top of my list of favorite parks.
32:41
I don't love the layout of it. I don't love the way that it's
32:43
set up. There's a bunch of construction
32:45
going on right now, which is what it is, and it will be great
32:48
whenever that all finishes in the next, I don't know, seven
32:52
years. But it's really kind of tricky
32:56
to navigate the way that they have the pathways going right
32:59
now. So because of that, it's not my
33:02
favorite, but at night time it is just something special to
33:08
see. Hollywood Studios truly does
33:11
thrive at night time. It is such a vibe.
33:15
It is really just very, it's got tons of great ambiance and
33:20
lighting and all that kind of stuff.
33:22
So it is also just fun to kind of wander around the main front
33:27
section of the park near the Chinese Theater.
33:30
So like what they call Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd.
33:33
Great options to just kind of wander, go in and out of some
33:37
shops and kind of enjoy your evening.
33:39
And then Fantasmic can be a great ending to your your day at
33:44
Hollywood Studios. If you are show people, don't
33:47
sit too close if you don't want to get potentially a little bit
33:51
wet, if it's really windy, a little bit more than a little
33:54
bit wet, but it is great to see. It is also great if you're like,
33:59
Nope, we've seen it, we're done. We're not show people.
34:02
It's also a really great time to grab some last minute rides as
34:05
well. So if you want one more ride on
34:08
Tower of Terror or you want one more ride on Rise of the
34:11
Resistance or Slinky Dog, the end of the night is your your
34:14
time to do that. Since you've already utilized
34:16
your Lightning Lanes, you would be doing standby at that point
34:19
for those. So that is my best attempt at
34:24
giving you a Lightning Lane itinerary for Hollywood Studios.
34:28
Hopefully that all makes sense. As far as the order in which I
34:32
suggest you book, again, picking and choosing what makes sense
34:35
for your group that you're going with is your best bet and having
34:39
that list kind of pre planned out.
34:41
So that way you know what order you're booking everything for
34:44
that. Now let's talk about Hollywood
34:49
studios without lightning lanes. So without lightning lanes, this
34:55
park becomes even more difficult to navigate depending on what
35:00
your party is wanting to do. Now, if you've got a group that
35:03
isn't super into some of these bigger E ticket attractions and
35:06
you just are going for shows and characters and maybe a few rides
35:11
here and there, it might be super easy for you.
35:14
But if you are a group that really truly wants to get as
35:17
many of these rides done as possible, it's really, really
35:21
hard. So I'm going to focus more on
35:23
the rides because it is a little bit harder to navigate through
35:29
the parks trying to get on the rides than it is that like
35:33
trying to see the characters and going to the shows, if that
35:35
makes sense. So with Rope Trump, again, you
35:39
want to get there at least 45 minutes to an hour before your
35:44
entry time is so that way you can position yourself
35:47
accordingly based on where you're trying to go.
35:49
Now let's talk about where to go.
35:53
Here's the thing. You really need to think about
35:56
going to the area of the park that is most important to your
36:01
group. So there are kind of the way
36:04
that I see it, there are kind of four different options for where
36:09
you can go. So the first one, the most
36:12
obvious one, the one that most people go to is the Toy Story
36:16
area to get to Slinky Dog. So here's the thing, if Slinky
36:23
Dog is your ride, if that's the one you guys want to do, you're
36:27
not using Lightning Lanes, you really kind of have to either
36:31
rope drop it or keep your fingers crossed that it's still
36:35
running and nothing has gone down at the very end of your
36:37
night and jump in line then. I don't know that you want to
36:40
risk it. If it's like your favorite ride,
36:43
your kiddos favorite ride. So rope dropping it is probably
36:46
your best bet. After you just Slinky Dog, you
36:50
want to just finish out Toy Story Land and then get out of
36:53
there and not have to go back into that area for a good
36:58
portion of the rest of the day. So Slinky Dog, Toy Story Mania
37:02
and if you choose to do aliens, swirling saucers, at that point,
37:05
those would be your top three that you would go to if that is
37:08
your top selection. Second option, again, these are
37:13
four different options, four different pathways that you can
37:15
take. Choose your own adventure if you
37:17
will. After, if you don't want to do
37:19
Toy Story, if you're like, Nope, we're good.
37:21
Don't need to do those. Those are not our top.
37:23
Or like, oh, we'll try and hit them later maybe, but they're
37:25
not our top. A second option would be
37:27
Galaxy's Edge and going all the way back to Batu to hit Rise of
37:32
the Resistance and Smugglers Run.
37:33
But here's the deal. This, in my opinion, is the
37:40
least favorable route to take at rope drop because Rise of the
37:45
Resistance frequently, almost consistently, has a delayed open
37:53
or goes down very quickly after it opens in the morning.
37:59
And if that happens, you have now wasted your time for rope
38:04
drop because by the time you pivot and go to a different
38:08
ride, chances are good the line is going to be even longer.
38:14
So I understand the appeal of going to Rise of the Resistance.
38:20
I don't think it's the best option for early entry.
38:25
What I would do if I was trying to do Rise of the Resistance,
38:29
couple options. One we talked about, it does
38:31
have a single rider line. Again, I wouldn't do it single
38:35
rider if you haven't ridden it at all yet because you do miss a
38:39
lot of the storytelling elements of it.
38:41
You miss some of the pre shows and some of the other things
38:44
that happened on that ride. So I wouldn't do that if you
38:47
haven't written it yet. But if you have and you just
38:50
want to be able to experience the ride part, then single rider
38:56
is for you. Now, spoiler alert, if you
38:59
haven't written Rise of the Resistance and you don't want to
39:01
be spoiled, plug your ears for about, I don't know, 10 seconds.
39:05
Spoiler alert, when you take the single rider line, it will put
39:09
you in the stormtrooper room. So you will walk through the
39:13
stormtrooper room and join with the rest of the queue before you
39:16
get loaded into your ride vehicles.
39:19
So if that is something that is OK with your party and you're OK
39:23
with missing those several pre shows, then single rider is good
39:28
for you. OK, end of the spoiler.
39:31
You may now rejoin. You may not rejoin.
39:34
If you have fast forwarded, you have now entered back into the
39:38
safe zone. We are now spoiler free.
39:41
OK. That being said, Smugglers Run
39:44
does also have a single rider line.
39:47
Both of those single rider lines may or may not be open super
39:50
early in the morning. Sometimes they don't open them
39:52
until 10:00-ish. Smugglers run pretty
39:56
consistently. Runs about 10:00 AM to about
40:00
6:00 PM. So definitely ask the cast
40:04
member if it's not open yet. Ask them what time it opens so
40:07
that way you know when to circle back if you are planning to do
40:11
single rider for that. For a smugglers run single rider
40:14
you don't. It's not as big of a deal
40:17
because you it it's. The beginning of the ride is not
40:21
as involved as it is on Rise of the Resistance, so you're not
40:23
missing as much if you do the single rider line for Smugglers
40:26
Run, other than some neat cue elements.
40:30
But you win some, you lose some, right?
40:32
That is what it is at that point in time.
40:34
So that is option number 2. So we talked about Toy Story,
40:37
you talked about Galaxy's Edge option #3 would be to hit Sunset
40:42
Blvd., which is this is kind of the route we talked about a
40:46
little bit with the Lightning lanes.
40:49
But if you are someone that like Rock and roller coaster and
40:51
Tower of Terror are your jam, then you're going to want to
40:55
head to Sunset Blvd. play Eenie meenie, miney Moe as far as
40:59
which one you want to get in line for first and then jump in
41:02
line. And then hopefully if you have
41:05
positioned yourself accordingly, you got there early.
41:07
Like I suggested, you should be able to hit both of those rides
41:11
no problem in the morning. I would suggest doing Rock and
41:13
Roller Coaster first and then going to Tower of Terror if
41:17
you're kind of like I love them both equally or like I don't
41:19
really have a preference one over the other but I want to do
41:21
both of those. I would do Rock and Roller
41:23
Coaster 1st and then do Tower of Terror.
41:25
Tower of Terror tends to have some more dips in wait times in
41:31
the afternoons and evenings where Rock and Roller Coaster
41:34
isn't as consistent with that. So I would hit Rock and Roller
41:38
Coaster 1st and then hopefully hit Tower of Terror with less
41:41
than a 30 minute wait at that point in time in the morning.
41:44
So that's option #3 that was pretty straightforward and easy
41:47
to explain. Option #4 would be the Hollywood
41:51
Blvd. area, which would send you to Mickey Minnie's Runaway
41:55
Railway first, which is what we talked about rope dropping with
41:58
your Lightning Lane itinerary. That one in the morning gets a
42:03
decent line, but it's not super crazy, which is part of the
42:06
reason why I like to rope drop it because it's it's pretty
42:08
quick to get in and on. And then once you finish that,
42:12
you could head over towards Star Tours, which would be kind of
42:15
your secondary ride in that area, or you can start looking
42:20
at showtimes for some of the different shows that are in that
42:24
area. Little Mermaid runs on a
42:25
continuous show loop, so they don't have set times, whereas
42:29
The Frozen Sing Along, which is your next closest one to the
42:33
Chinese Theatre, they do have set showtimes.
42:36
It's like every hour on the half hour or so I think.
42:41
So that is something that I would consider as well after you
42:46
have hit those rides. So for rope drop, whichever of
42:50
those four areas is most important to you, that's where I
42:55
would suggest you you go ahead and head at that point in time.
42:59
So ideally your morning is spent doing one of those four areas.
43:03
Hopefully you're able to get on 2 rides in the morning, maybe
43:09
more if you're really lucky or it's a really slow morning by
43:12
happenstance. But you definitely want to have
43:14
that priority list ready to go. So you want to make sure you
43:17
know, OK, I'm going to rope drop this area.
43:19
These are my top rides in that area.
43:21
OK. My second area of interest is
43:24
this area. You know, you want to have that
43:25
priority list kind of ironed out because you want to know exactly
43:29
where you're going to be able to pivot to if something is down.
43:32
So we talked about rise of the resistance frequently going
43:35
down. Let's say you go to it later in
43:38
the morning, but it goes down. OK, You need to know where to
43:41
pivot, where is the next closest place that you can go.
43:44
So you definitely want to have that list ready to go.
43:47
But ideally you are going to want to get at least one, if not
43:53
more of those areas knocked out before lunchtime.
43:57
So then when you get to lunchtime, when you're hungry,
43:59
again, eat before you're hungry, eat around the common food
44:06
times. Your options are what we talked
44:10
about before. Mobile ordering places like ABC
44:13
Commissary, Document 7, Backlog Express are all really great
44:16
options for that. If you want something quick,
44:21
there are lots of other little kind of food places around that
44:25
have like stands for, you know, the standard popcorn and
44:28
pretzels and all that kind of stuff.
44:29
So definitely easy to find a snack if you need a snack too.
44:34
So after lunch, after you have enjoyed and filled your bellies,
44:38
your next course of action really depends on where you rope
44:42
dropped and what you got done in the morning.
44:43
So most of your afternoon is going to be spent checking the
44:47
wait times on your app, which sounds very familiar because
44:49
we've talked about that before with our non lightning lane non
44:54
express options that we've talked about at all of these
44:56
different theme parks. So my best course of action is
45:01
just to suggest that you work your way down through your, your
45:05
your priority list. And if something is 40 minutes
45:10
or less, go ahead and get in line because Hollywood Studios
45:13
just notoriously has long lines for so many rides, especially in
45:18
the afternoon Towards the evening, it does tend to dip
45:21
down more. So maybe spend your afternoon
45:23
doing a couple of the shows that you want to hit again, the
45:26
villain show is fantastic. The Frozen sing along is super
45:29
fun. The new Little Mermaid show,
45:31
super cute. There's the Beauty and the Beast
45:33
show. We hadn't talked much about the
45:35
Indiana Jones epic stunt spectacular, but that is at
45:39
Hollywood studios as well if that's something that interests
45:42
you. So maybe your afternoon time is
45:44
spent going to a few shows to kind of wait and hope and see if
45:48
those wait times do drop down closer to dinner.
45:51
I will just give you kind of a generic typical wait times list.
45:58
So something that I thought might be helpful because it is
46:01
so hard to predict what you should do without lightning
46:05
lanes without knowing like specifics of your party and what
46:08
is important to you and what you want to go on and all that.
46:11
But your typical wait times at Hollywood studios from highest
46:15
to lowest tends to be Rise of the Resistance, then The Slinky
46:22
Dog, then Smugglers Run, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania,
46:28
Runaway Railway Rock and Roller Coaster, then Alien Swirling
46:31
Saucers and Star Tours. So those ones that are closer to
46:35
the top of that list, if you hit like a 40 minute wait,
46:39
definitely get on those. The ones that are lower, Alien
46:42
Swirling Saucers, Star Tours, I wouldn't wait longer than maybe
46:45
1520 for those. And you just have to keep an eye
46:48
on that app. You have to know where you are
46:51
in the park and you have to know the quickest route to get there,
46:54
right? So you really have to
46:56
familiarize yourself with Hollywood Studios because it is
46:59
just trickier to navigate. If you're back in Galaxy's Edge
47:03
and you see that rock and roller coaster dropped to a 15 minute
47:07
wait, that's a really far distance to navigate.
47:11
So just kind of play it accordingly.
47:14
Maybe group things by proximity. I talked about the different
47:17
areas earlier and kind of paired those rides together based on
47:21
what is in each area. So maybe you prioritize the
47:24
areas rather than specific rides because that's easier for you to
47:27
kind of figure out geographically.
47:30
That's not a terrible idea. So just some different ideas on
47:33
what you can do with that. This park is so easy to
47:39
backtrack and cross the park time and time and time again,
47:42
several times, back and forth, back and forth.
47:44
So really just try your best, like I said, to finish an area
47:48
before you move on to the next. So your top two rides, maybe
47:53
Rise of the Resistance in Slinky Dog, well, pick one and finish
47:57
that whole area before you go on to the next one.
48:00
So if it's Slinky Dog and you also want to do Toy Story Mania,
48:03
do those two first as a pair before you head out into
48:07
Galaxy's Edge. So that's kind of my best course
48:11
of attack when it comes to Hollywood Studios because it is
48:15
just so tricky. So ideally you'll be able to hit
48:18
quite a few things in the afternoon.
48:20
Again, I already talked about food and dinner options.
48:23
If you want to do a sit down because you anticipate you're
48:25
going to be exhausted after all that running back and forth,
48:29
that's totally fine if that's what you choose to do.
48:33
Because after dinner you're basically doing that clean up
48:36
time. You're finishing up any rides
48:37
you haven't done. You are planning accordingly for
48:41
the evening show if you want to do Fantasmic or not, you are
48:44
planning for shopping time, vibe time, all of that in the evening
48:49
after your dinner break. So it really just depends on
48:52
what you can get done early. But I would front load your day
48:55
as much as you possibly can to get as many rides done because
49:00
that middle of the afternoon block, those rides do all tend
49:04
to have a pretty long wait. And then once you hit about 5 O
49:07
clock ish on. Now this doesn't necessarily
49:12
apply to super busy weeks, but on most weeks you will see a dip
49:15
in in times when it comes to weights at Hollywood studios.
49:19
It doesn't always apply to things like Slinky dog and ride
49:21
so the resistance. So unfortunately those are
49:24
pretty consistently 90 to 120 for the majority of days unless
49:29
you get really lucky. So again, after dinner is that
49:33
clean up time and your time to decide what you want to do.
49:37
And hopefully that is a helpful approach to doing Hollywood
49:43
Studios without Lightning Lanes. Like I said, it is such a tricky
49:47
park to navigate. It really is hard to decide what
49:51
to do and when to do it because there are so many great rides
49:55
there, but you really just have to prioritize, talk to the
49:59
people that you're going with and make your game plan from
50:02
there. That all being said, if you need
50:04
help at any point in time during your trip, planning your
50:07
itinerary, figuring out what rides are best for your group,
50:11
helping plan a a a a course for every park that you're visiting,
50:19
please reach out to me. I love helping people do
50:23
itineraries. I love customizing and
50:25
personalizing itineraries for people.
50:27
It is something that brings me great joy and it makes their
50:30
lives easier. So you can always find me
50:32
Momster usa@gmail.com if you have questions and need help
50:37
with those types of things, I'm more than happy to help.
50:40
So all of that being said, that ends our time in our one day
50:46
park strategy series that we have been working our way
50:49
through. So again, we thought it was just
50:52
a helpful idea to revisit some of these parks and visit for the
50:56
first time these Universal parks.
50:58
So hopefully this can be a helpful guide for you starting
51:02
to figure out what you're going to do when in each park and kind
51:07
of an attack for do you need lightning lanes?
51:09
Do you not? Are you going to budget for
51:10
Express pass at Universal? All of those questions you have
51:13
when you're starting to plan a trip can definitely be
51:16
overwhelming. Again, we are here to help.
51:19
So if there's something that you feel like we didn't talk about
51:22
enough or you want more information on, again, reach out
51:25
to us. You can use that e-mail address
51:27
or you can find us on several social media platforms at Mom
51:30
St. USA.
51:31
We also have our newest form of communication with our lovely
51:35
community, which is our Patreon account.
51:37
So we are Mom St. USA over on Patreon as well, if
51:41
that is a way you'd like to connect with us over there.
51:43
There there's some exclusive content that happens over there.
51:46
And that is where these one day park strategy graphic guides
51:51
will be posted once we get them kind of finalized and ironed
51:55
out. I'm trying my best to make it
51:57
make sense visually. So that way everything that we
52:01
explained verbally, when you look at it, you can go, Oh yeah,
52:05
that's exactly what they said. That's the goal, right?
52:07
So I'm trying to just kind of visually figure out how to make
52:10
that all make sense and make it work for everybody to give you
52:13
guys what you need. So those will be up like I said
52:16
by the end of the year. I am working on those as as we
52:20
speak in the immediate, you know what I mean?
52:24
So that is actually the end of our 2025 season here on Moms St.
52:31
USA because we will be taking a few weeks off for the holidays
52:35
to spend some time with family and friends and enjoy our little
52:39
bit of a break. But we will be back in 2026 with
52:43
all new topics and new things to chat about.
52:46
And if you guys have ideas or suggestions for what you'd like
52:49
to hear us talk about, we would love to hear from you.
52:52
So please reach out, send us your ideas.
52:55
If you're like, oh, I'm, I'm I want to do this and I need more
52:58
information on it or I'm trying to find this.
53:00
I can't find it. Please send that to us.
53:02
We would love to help you guys out with your upcoming trips.
53:05
But again, all of that being said, thank you guys so much for
53:08
being here. Thank you for all your support.
53:10
Thank you for those of you who have been with us for years.
53:13
Thank you to the new people who have found us and hit that
53:16
follow. We appreciate all of you.
53:18
We love that you are here. I hope you all have a wonderful
53:22
holiday season and we will see you in 2026 for the next episode
53:27
of Mom St. USA.
53:29
Bye everyone.