Hollywood Studios is a great Walt Disney World park for both adventure seekers and show enthusiasts alike. There is tons of entertainment packed into one of the smaller parks in Walt Disney World. However, don't let the size fool you; there is plenty to see and do in the park. Read on to find out more about Hollywood Studios rope drop and the best strategy for this park!
We visit Walt Disney World every week and spend considerable time riding attractions in Hollywood Studios. Our Hollywood Studios rope drop strategy is based on our personal experience of touring the Walt Disney World theme parks by ourselves and with our whole family in tow! Our strategies take into account what it's like to tour Walt Disney World as a family.
In this article:
Hollywood Studios Rope Drop – Terms You Need to Know
Rope-Drop: Strategy to get the most out of your Disney Park Experience. This strategy requires getting to the park before park opening, scanning in with your ticket as soon as you are able, and making a mad dash to the first attraction to hopefully have the shortest wait time of the day.
Early Entry: guests who stay on property are able to enter the park 30 minutes before official park opening to have early access to select rides and attractions
Genie Plus: Paid access to book ride windows throughout the day. Pricing will vary per park per day.
Lightning Lane: Entrance to access the paid arrival window for your wait for a ride.
Hollywood Studios Park Opening Times
Hollywood Studios typically opens at either 8 AM or 9 AM throughout the year. If the park opens at 8 AM, and you have early entry from staying on property, you will have the best odds at rope-dropping the ride of your choice.
When the park opens at 8 AM, guests who are staying on property will have an early entry beginning at 7:30 AM. The earlier the opening time of the park, the easier it is to have a rope drop that is successful due to less people being awake and at the park earlier in the morning.
When the park opens at 9 AM, guests will have an early entry time of 8:30 AM. While getting in early still allows you to have a better selection of the main thrill rides, it will likely be more crowded.
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Hollwood Studios Rope Drop Basics
To be successful at rope-dropping the park, your party will need to plan to be at the park about 40 minutes before park opening or early entry opening. Many times, guests are let into the park before the early entry time even begins.
Budgeting 45 minutes – an hour for travel, depending on where your resort is in proximity to the park, makes for an incredibly early day. Most people are not willing to get up and out that early to be there right at park opening, especially for early entry at 7:30, so this will give you an advantage.
When you arrive at the park, you will go through security as normal. Once you have gone through security, there will be a few different holding points. It will feel crowded because there are a lot of people there at one time versus trickling in throughout the day, but don’t worry, once the park is open, people will disperse throughout.
When rope dropping, many guests go in 1 of three directions: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, or Tower of Terror/ Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Genie Plus/ Individual Lightning Lane
Before talking about Hollywood Studios rope drop strategies for your park day, it is important to mention that if your family wants to be able to successfully hit all of the big rides in Hollywood Studios, see the shows, potentially meet characters, and eat in the same day, you are going to want to budget to purchase Genie Plus for your park day.
Hollywood Studios has the most thrill rides out of any of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. Guests who come to this park know that long waits are inevitable as the day goes on. It is also not uncommon for at least one of the thrill rides to go down during the day, making the wait times for the other thrill rides go up. Having Genie Plus covers 14 of the rides/ attractions in the park and typically costs between $20-$30 for the day. Even if you only get 4 attractions through Genie Plus in the day, you are paying $5 per ride (that is less money than a ride at the State Fair in North Carolina!).
Rise of the Resistance is also a great Lightning Lane purchase. Even though you can rope drop Rise, it often opens late or goes down throughout the day. If this happens, you can usually get another lightning lane return time for Rise later in the day, or if it doesn’t come back up, a lightning lane return time for any attraction of your choice in the park.
Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Strategy Options
There are endless combinations of Hollywood Studios rope drop strategies depending on your interest in rides, whether or not you have purchased Genie Plus, whether or not you have bought Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, crowd levels, holidays, etc. Our post is going to focus on 5 different rope-drop strategies to give you the best chances of completing your Hollywood Studios park day successfully.
- Rise of the Resistance
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Tower of Terror/ Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Rope Drop without Early Entry
- Rope Drop without Ride Focus
Our Hollywood Studios rope drop strategies here are not going to include Genie Plus selections due to the diverse options each guest will have. However, we do have some recommendations for what to prioritize for your Genie Plus day at the end of each rope-dropping section.
Rise of the Resistance Rope Drop (Only With Early Entry)
Rise of the Resistance is still one of the most popular rides in Walt Disney World. When arriving at Hollywood Studios, make your way to the left of the Chinese Theater, past Star Tours, and use the entrance at Muppet Courtyard.
After getting off of Rise of the Resistance, the park probably isn’t open yet. You can go next door and make a stop at Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run. Other guests will have to cross the park to get to Galaxy's Edge, so it should still be a lower wait time.
However, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a slightly better option as your second pick, if you don’t mind going back to Galaxy’s Edge later in the day. Mickey and Minnie is a great ride, but it doesn’t usually have as long of a line first thing in the morning due to guests prioritizing the other thrill rides.
Once you are off of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway you have two different options. You can head to Toy Story Land or head down Sunset Boulevard. We recommend checking the wait times on your app. If Slinky is 60 minutes or less, head to Toy Story Land. If Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror are 60 minutes or less head down Sunset Boulevard.
For this article, we are choosing to head down Sunset Boulevard. You will most likely just be getting to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror right at the park opening. Other guests are going to head towards Slinky Dog or Rise of the Resistance, so the wait times at these two rides should be lower.
After finishing on Sunset Boulevard, head towards Toy Story Land. Even though Slinky Dog Dash may have a long line, now is a great time to do Toy Story Mania (an incredibly popular ride) and Alien Swirling Saucers. While in Toy Story Land, you can also do character meet and greets with Andy’s Toys. Toy Story Land doesn’t have much shade, and you really don’t want to be in this area during the heat of the day.
For the rest of the day, we recommend checking the wait times for the rest of the attractions.
Other Rides:
Star Tours – The Adventure Continues
Smuggler’s Run
Shows:
For the First Time in Forever- a Frozen Sing Along
Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Disney Junior Dance Party
Walt Disney Presents
Muppet*Vision 3D
Lightning McQueen Racing Academy
Characters:
Meet Ariel @ Walt Disney Presents
Star Wars Launch Bay: Chewbacca, BB8, Darth Vader
Disney Junior Characters in Animation Courtyard
Edna Mode, Mr. Incredible, and Mrs. Incredible, Sully @ Pixar Place
Mickey and Minnie @ Commissary Lane
Olaf @ Celebrity Spotlight
Toys in Toy Story Land
Genie Plus Priorities
If you are rope-dropping Rise of the Resistance, you will want your first Genie selection to be Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror or Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Slinky Dog Dash is going to go the quickest, followed by Tower of Terror.
Slinky Dog Dash Rope Drop (Only with Early Entry)
Slinky Dog Dash is another popular ride that people rush to when the park opens. To get to Slinky Dog, head to the right of the Chinese Theater. The cast members will hold you until you at the entrance of Toy Story Land until the land opens for early entry. Again, it is very important to not arrive at Hollywood Studios at the time that early entry starts or you will be unsuccessful in getting a short wait time for Slinky Dog Dash.
When the Hollywood Studios rope drops, head straight towards the ride by staying to the right when you enter the land. You should be done with Slinky Dog relatively quickly (and if you are lucky, maybe before the park actually opens).
After riding Slinky Dog Dash, there are two options we recommend for Hollywood Studios rope drop. If you are traveling with little kids, finish the rides in Toy Story Land first and then head to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. If you have an older group with you, when you finish with Slinky Dog Dash, head to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. These rides will have shorter wait times as everyone will try to get to Rise of the Resistance or Slinky Dog. Do Tower of Terror first because Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster has a single rider line.
If you went to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, the next shortest wait time will be Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, towards the middle of the park.
You can then choose to try and wait in line for Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run, but wait times may be long by this point. However, Rise of the Resistance does go down a lot throughout the day. We recommend if this is a must do for you to either buy a lightning lane or make sure to visit early in the day in case the ride has to close later.
If you chose not to do the rest of Toy Story Land in the morning, we recommend waiting until after dinner to try and ride Toy Story Mania as the wait time gets long from mid-morning through the afternoon.
For Mid-morning through the early evening, we recommend checking wait times for these attractions and prioritizing the shorter waits or the attractions you know your family will enjoy.
Other Rides:
Star Tours – The Adventure Continues
Shows:
For the First Time in Forever- a Frozen Sing Along
Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Disney Junior Dance Party
Walt Disney Presents
Muppet*Vision 3D
Lightning McQueen Racing Academy
Characters:
Meet Ariel @ Walt Disney Presents
Star Wars Launch Bay: Chewbacca, BB8, Darth Vader
Disney Junior Characters in Animation Courtyard
Edna Mode, Mr. Incredible, and Mrs. Incredible, Sully @ Pixar Place
Mickey and Minnie @ Commissary Lane
Olaf @ Celebrity Spotlight
Toys in Toy Story Land
Genie Plus Priorities
If you booked Genie Plus for your day and want to prioritize Slinky Dog, try to get a lightning lane reservation for Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, and Smuggler's Run.
We also recommend purchasing an individual lightning lane for Rise of the Resistance. It is possible to still ride without it, but you may sacrifice time in the park waiting in line.
Tower of Terror/ Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Rope Drop
The Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is a great strategy if you know you are purchasing Genie Plus and Lightning Lane and can ride Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash later. This could also be a great strategy for those who don’t love Star Wars and don’t find Slinky Dog a priority (I know, but there are people that don’t understand its greatness).
Upon arriving for early entry, guests will head towards Sunset Boulevard. The cast members will also have a holding space for guests to wait until early entry begins. We recommend Tower of Terror first and then Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster directly after. This should put you completely done with both of these rides most likely within 10 minutes of the park opening.
From Sunset Boulevard, we recommend heading towards Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway at the Chinese Theatre. When finished with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Toy Story Mania should still be at a relatively low wait. Then pop over to Alien Swirling Saucers.
From here, you have prioritized all but the Star Wars themed rides and Slinky Dog Dash. If you want more rides, Smuggler’s Run will still most likely have a short wait and Star Tours will be another short wait.
Character meet and greets are also a low wait at this time. We think meeting Olaf in Celebrity Spotlight, Mickey and Minnie on the Red Carpet, or the Pixar Characters at Pixar Place are all great options to start!
Then, enjoy a relaxing mid-morning to mid-afternoon with shows available at Hollywood Studios. Most shows have their last performance at or around 5, so make sure to check the daily schedule.
For the First Time in Forever- a Frozen Sing Along
Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Disney Junior Dance Party
Walt Disney Presents
Muppet*Vision 3D
Lightning McQueen Racing Academy
After grabbing a bite to eat for dinner, if Slinky Dog is still on your list to do, head towards the back of the park and get in line. You can still get in line to wait until the minute before the park closes, so not all hope is lost if you don't rope drop Slinky Dog Dash.
Hollywood Studios Genie Plus Recommendations
If you are not rope dropping Slinky Dog Dash or Rise of the Resistance, we do recommend getting Genie Plus. Your genie selections should focus on Slinky Dog Dash first, then Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and finally Toy Story Mania.
The benefit to getting Genie and not rope dropping Slinky Dog Dash is that you don’t have to try to get both Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The downside is we have seen these two rides show more frequently than a Slinky Dog Dash lightning lane.
Hollywood Studios Rope Drop without Early Entry
Rope Drop without Early Entry still provides a great day at Hollywood Studios; however, purchasing Genie Plus is greatly recommended for this plan if you still want to ride the larger rides in the park.
There are two methods you could choose for Rope Drop without early entry. We have outlined a quick list of each below, still prioritizing rides first.
Option 1
- Tower of Terror
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Smuggler’s Run
- Toy Story Mania
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Star Tours
- Other shows, attractions, and character meet – n – greets
- Rise of the Resistance (at dinner time)
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Dinner
- Fantasmic
Option 2
- Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Toy Story Mania
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Smuggler’s Run
- Star Tours
- Other shows, attractions, and character meet – n – greets
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (single rider)
- Tower of Terror
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Dinner
- Rise of the Resistance
Both options put Slinky Dog Dash and Rise of the Resistance towards the end of the park day. While the wait will not be incredibly short, you will have prioritized getting everything else done in the park first instead of spending the entire day waiting.
Hollywood StudiosRope Drop without Ride Focus
Sometimes guests are not super focused on riding the thrill rides or the ride motion makes them sick. It is still possible to have a great day at Hollywood Studios without prioritizing the rides.
During rope drop, head to the Trolley Cart Cafe and get your Starbucks. You will find that is the longest line you wait in all day long. Sometimes the wait is outside and down the street. You will really feel as though you are rope dropping a ride.
From here, we recommend heading to For the First Time in Forever a Frozen Sing Along. This show takes about an hour.
To get a little more energized, head to the next showing of Disney Junior Play and Dance and while you are on that side of the park, make sure to meet the Disney Junior Characters in Animation Courtyard and the Star Wars Characters at Star Wars Launch Bay.
Once you leave this area, head to Sunset Boulevard and do the Beauty and the Beast Stage Show, which is about 30 minutes, and Lightning McQueen Racing Academy, about a 15 minute interactive experience. For lunch there are a ton of great quick service restaurants on that side of the park.
After lunch, head to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular by Commissary Lane. This hour-long show should give you a nice rest before meeting Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight and Mickey and Minnie on the red carpet.
Next, head to Grand Avenue to watch the Muppet*Vision 3D show. This short 20 minute show will have you laughing!
After Muppets, is a great time to take a walk through Galaxy’s Edge, even if you don’t want to ride. The walkway to Toy Story Land should also be open at this point and you can meet Andy’s toys. Finish off your character meet and greets at Pixar Plaza before ending at Walt Disney Presents, where the Disney 100 memorabilia is currently being featured. You can also meet Ariel from the new live-action The Little Mermaid.
Enjoy a nice sit down meal at Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood Brown Derby, Sci-Fi Dinner, or 50’s Prime Time and end the night watching Fantasmic.
Even without rides, Hollywood Studios is a full park day. There are tons of places to stop and get a snack, go shopping, and places to relax throughout the park.
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Whether you are ready to rope drop a thrill ride or take it easy enjoying the shows and attractions, Hollywood Studios is a great park to visit. If you are ready to plan your next Disney World Vacation, make sure you are subscribed to our FREE newsletter. We will make sure you have planning resources, access to exclusive discounts and deals, and never miss the important news about your upcoming Disney trip. For now, make sure to read our other planning articles and get a jump on your perfect Disney vacation today!
