In February, Danny and I went to WDW for our anniversary. It was our first trip to Disney alone and it was absolutely magical. You can read more about our trip here; and be sure to check out what our days at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom looked like as well! On the last day of our trip we spent the morning in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and all of our pre-booked FastPasses were for that park. We had a wonderful morning there, and then headed out after lunch to the bus loop to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The bus loop at Hollywood Studios was being renovated, so it was a WALK to the main gates. (I’ve seen that it’s since been finished!) We got some photos taken outside and tried to “take it all in” as we knew that was the last park we’d be going into before we flew home.
When we had cleared all of our FastPasses from Animal Kingdom (around 11:30 am) we immediately tried to book FastPasses for HS and were mostly out of luck. All of the “Fantasmic!” passes were gone, and so was every ride that we wanted to go on except Star Tours. We did end up getting a FastPass for it, since we wouldn’t have gotten on it without one, so I suppose that was worth it.
So if you’re park hopping, that’s one thing to keep in mind. If you FastPass the first park you won’t get the ones you really want for the other park. We had lofty hopes to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror and Slinky Dog Dash; as well as find a gift for our oldest daughter, and end the night with “Fantasmic!”
Attractions
As soon as we got in the park we headed right for Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Like we’ve said before in our first impressions, there aren’t many rides in Hollywood Studios This is changing with Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge thankfully, because when we got to the park all of the rides were over an hour wait (the downside of having so few rides in one park). You can read all of our first impressions here.
We went to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first, and it was about a 2 hour wait. We decided to wait in the single rider lane which took a WHILE. They actually told us that there’s no way to monitor the line and we could be waiting as long in single rider as the regular line. We took our chances, and it did end up being only about an 80 minute wait! We ended up on the same train when all was said and done, which was also fun.
Next up was Tower of Terror which also ended up being over an hour. However, we don’t always mind waiting. There’s a certain part of the day where you end up having to either get in a line, walk around, or go back to the hotel… we always just get in a line! The line-ups are where you can take lots of pictures and just enjoy being in Disney.
Toy Story Land
Once those two rides were done, we were basically finished with that section of the park. We headed over to Toy Story Land next and it’s REALLY fun but heads up, unless you are there first thing in the morning, it will be totally and completely packed. Wall to wall people. We wanted to get some photos of the Pixar Ball and there were about a dozen people leaning against it. The details in this land are very neat, but it’s definitely hard to enjoy it with such large crowds. I suspect this will get worse before it gets better as well, with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge coming so soon.
The lines were too big so we headed over to Star Tours for our FastPass. We kept watching the app during this time, and once Slinky Dog Dash was 80 minutes we booked it there and got in line. Luckily, we actually got in line when it was light out and then got off the ride when it was dark! It was cool to see Toy Story Land during the day and at night.
Then we headed for some shopping and dinner; nothing super notable, we ended up with a burger. Always a disappointment to end up with a consolation meal at Disney when there are SO many good places to eat. We looked at the app to do mobile ordering, but I just didn’t see anything I really wanted and I was starting to get seriously “hangry!”
Fantasmic!
After dinner we made our way to the “Fantasmic!” arena and got there about 45 minutes early. If you don’t have a FastPass for the show we recommend getting there really early because it does fill up completely very quickly. There are bathrooms and a few food carts and a hype guy that makes the wait super enjoyable! He had the entire stadium do the wave… and even managed to get everyone to do it in slow mo and super speed!
We ended our whole trip with “Fantasmic!”, which I highly recommend. There’s just something SO special about that show. It’s a nice way to finalize the trip.
The next day we left our hotel at 3 am for our flight (again we checked Uber/Lyft to see which one was cheaper… they vary and it can be the difference of $10 or more depending on the time). And that was that!
Have you visited Hollywood Studios? What did you think? We’d love to hear from you!
Have a magical day!
Erica
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