Are you planning 1-day at Hollywood Studios? This one day Hollywood Studios itinerary will share all the details from most popular rides, places to eat, and how to make the most out of your day.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is one of my favorite Disney parks but explaining the best way to plan your day can be a bit overwhelming.
To be honest I had procrastinated updating this post from our most recent visit for months because it is a lot, and I really want to help you plan your best day at Hollywood Studios without it feeling chaotic.
A friend reached out and wanted an itinerary for 1-Day at Hollywood Studios and it pushed me to get this updated.
I hope this is helpful to you and you have an awesome day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
- One Day at Hollywood Studios Itinerary (Overview)
- Things You Need to Know Before You Go to Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Map and Layout
- Hollywood Studios Tickets
- Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios
- 1-Day at Hollywood Studios Itinerary (Detailed Steps)
- Planning Your Day at Hollywood Studios
- My Best Hollywood Studios Advice
- What Else to Do
One Day at Hollywood Studios Itinerary (Overview)
Below I am sharing our exact itinerary for the day at Hollywood Studios. I will go into details of the whys/how’s throughout the post, but this is the overview.
- Secured Lightning Lane reservations for 3 attractions prior to arrival.
- Took bus from All Star Sports Resort to Hollywood Studios (7:15am)
- Arrived at Hollywood Studios at 7:30am for 8:30am park open. (Early Entry for resort guests.)
- Scanned in to park at 8:01am
- Walked to Rock n Roller Coaster and waited until official park open at 8:30am.
- 1st Ride: Rock n Roller Coaster
- 2nd Ride: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- 3rd Ride: Toy Story Mania (9:06am)
- 4th Ride: Star Tours (First Lightning Lane, once scanned secured Smugglers Run)
- Visit Pixar Pals: Meet Frozone, Edna Mode, and Sulley
- Toured Walt Disney Presents
- Lunch at ABC Commissary (10:35am)
- 5th Ride: Muppets 3D
- 6th Ride: Rise of the Resistance at 11:26am, Boarded at 12:16pm. This has 2 pre-show rooms so the wait time went quickly and is totally worth experiencing.
- 7th Ride: Millennium Falcon (Lightning Lane)
- Mobile Ordered Cold Brew from Kat Saka’s Kettle
- 8th Ride: Tower of Terror (1:20pm)
- Bus back to resort for rest and pool time. Headed back to park around 4:00pm
- 9th Ride: Slinky Dog Dash (Lightning Lane)
- Dinner Reservations at Roundup Rodeo BBQ. Booked ahead of time.
- 10th Ride: Rise of the Resistance (Ride broke down during our wait, we were offered anytime Lightning Lane.)
- 11th: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (8:45pm)
- 12th: Rise of the Resistance (9:30pm)
- 13th: Alien Swirling Saucer (9:53pm)
- Night Show: Fantasmic (10:30pm)
We did everything at the park and had time to rest at the resort but it was an exhausting and amazing day. I was on the My Disney Experience continuously throughout the day to make sure everything was booked and we got the most out of our Lightning Lane.
Let’s get into how I did it with everything I did before we arrived and during the day of our trip.
Things You Need to Know Before You Go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Consider the crowd levels on the day you visit. It can have a huge impact on a good plan.
For our itinerary above it was a medium crowd day but there were moments when Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway were down.
This completely changed our day but you have to be flexible. I suggest looking at this crowd calendar to see the expected crowds on the day of your visit.
Research the rides and shows you want to prioritize before you arrive. Check popular attractions and ride height requirements. Don’t waste your time on popular rides that you are not interested in riding or your kids are not at the height requirement.
If you have purchased Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Lightning Lane Single Pass or you have dining reservations, you have to plan your day around these times.
The weather is another thing to consider during your visit. Depending on rain and the heat you may want to plan a mid-day break at your resort.
We suggest staying at a Skyliner resort to maximize your time at the park. Disney’s Riviera Resort and Disney’s Art of Animation resorts offer options for most Disney vacation budgets.
If you are staying at another on-site Disney resort you can take the complimentary bus service from the resort to the park. If you are off-site check if your accommodations offer shuttle or plan on driving.
Map and Layout
Look at the park map get an understanding of the layout and locations of the attractions. It is not a difficult park to navigate but it will be necessary to do some back tracking during your day.
Hollywood Studios does not have the easiest layout. It is broken up into different lands but you will probably find yourself back-tracking your steps a bit.
The lands are Hollywood Boulevard, Echo Lake, Grand Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, Animation Courtyard, Toy Story Land, Commissary Land, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Hollywood Studios Tickets
Guests visiting must purchase ticket. This can be done on the Disney World website or check here for discounted ticket packages.
Guests staying at a Walt Disney World resort can take advantage of Early Entry. Early Entry allows on-site guests to enter the parks 30 minutes before opening.
Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios
Paying to skip the lines at theme parks has become common place and really can maximize your day. You do not have to buy this but it can be helpful.
Update: Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass is replacing Genie+, Genie+ had replaced FastPass.
A quick overview is: Lightning Lane is the paid line skipping reservation at Disney World. It is offered for many attractions at the park. Want full details that includes how to use it and what attractions are included? Read this: Easy Guide to Lightning Lane Pass at Disney World
Lightning Lane Multi Pass Attractions Include:
Choose 1 from Group 1:
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
Choose 2 from Group 2:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
- Disney Junior Play & Dance!
- For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Muppet*Vision 3D
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
- Toy Story Mania!
Lightning Lane Singe Pass:
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance: Purchase for a one-time price. Price changes based on day of visit but is around $20.00 a person.
Guests that don’t want to use the paid service can still use the regular lines.
Hollywood Studios is one of the parks I highly suggest purchasing a Lightning Lane pass for. Even on low crowd days it will be helpful in planning your day.
1-Day at Hollywood Studios Itinerary (Detailed Steps)
If you are purchasing Lightning Lane. Before you arrive at the parks you want to purchase and secure your first 3 ride reservations.
Guests on-site can begin purchase 7 days from check-in date. Off-site guests have 3 days from park visit.
If you are staying on-site you can book all of your park visits once it is 7 days from check-in, not 7 days from each park day.
The screenshot below shows my first 3 bookings. The rule is you can book 1 from Tier 1 and 2 from Tier 2 before you arrive. Once in the park it doesn’t matter what Tier the attraction is in.
Let me explain this. Star Tours does not need a Lightning Lane but I booked the early slot so I could then book a popular attraction after.
My Lightning Lane Itinerary Looked Like This:
- 9:10am-10:10am Star Tours (Booked before arrival)
- 1:05pm-2:05pm Tower of Terror (Booked before arrival)
- 4:40pm-5:40pm Slinky Dog Dash (Booked before arrival)
- 12:10pm-1:10pm Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (Booked as soon as I scanned Star Tours)
- 6:25pm-7:25pm Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (Booked after I scanned in for Milennium Falcon)
- 9:10pm-10:00pm Alien Swirling Saucers (Booked after I scanned in for Slinky Dog Dash)
When booking from home, I booked Slinky Dog Dash first because it is most popular. A lot of advice goes against what I did with Star Tours.
Star Tours is kind of a wasted time slot because wait times don’t get very long, but I wanted to risk it to see if I could get another higher tier attraction….and it worked for us.
Planning Your Day at Hollywood Studios
There are two ways you can approach Rise of the Resistance. You can rope drop, ride as soon as the park opens. If it is your first visit, I would probably start there.
If you have done it before you can wait until the morning rush lowers a bit and then head over to ride. If the wait is 45-60 minutes (or less), you should get in line.
You can also consider purchasing a Lightning Lane Single Pass. For our itinerary our strategy was to try to get on it and if we couldn’t we could always purchase the single pass later in the day.
On some occasions there is a single rider line but it bypasses some of the queue experiences that you don’t want to miss on a first time ride.
My Best Hollywood Studios Advice
Plan your day based on the Lightning Lanes you secure, any dining reservations, and plan to use My Disney Experience throughout the day to get the best bang for your buck.
Yes, it means being on your phone but it is really not terrible. I use it to check wait times and book the next Lightning Lane. It only takes a few minutes but saves a lot of time waiting in lines.
What Else to Do
Hollywood Studios has shows and character meet and greets you may want to include in your itinerary. The best way to do this is check the My Disney Experience app.
It will give you current show times and characters to meet. Then you can pencil them in your day if it is important to you.
Making a strict itinerary for Hollywood Studios is very difficult when there are so many different factors that go into planning your day.
The biggest take-away is that you should plan your day around the most popular attractions AND the attractions you are interested in.
If you are visiting with very young children and are not fans of Star Wars you may not want to plan your day around this.
If your kids are not tall enough for some of the attractions you will not want to plan around those attractions either.
The most popular attractions are:
- Rise of the Resistance
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Tower of Terror
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Toy Story Mania!
- Rock and Roller Coaster
Hollywood Studios for Toddlers
- Disney Jr. Live Show
- Meet Disney Jr. Characters
- Watch the Princess shows: Beauty and the Beast, Frozen Sing-Along
Hollywood Studios for Adults
- Explore Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Have a drink at Oga’s Cantina.
- Ride Tower of Terror and Rock N’ Roller Coaster
I hope this 1-day Hollywood Studios itinerary will help you plan your day at the park and maximize the attractions that are important to you. My biggest tip is to always do what works best for your family and use this Hollywood Studios touring plan as a guide to your day.
Read Next: Step by Step Disney World 7 Day Itinerary Guide
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Leah has been traveling with her family of 5 since 2012 and sharing her expertise on planning family vacations and visiting theme parks since 2016. Leah has been featured in Visit Rochester, Undercover Tourist, and Home Publications. She has worked with brands like Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, Hersheypark, Toyota, and various Tourism boards and destinations. Leah creates family travel itineraries based on real trip experiences with her family. Her guides and tips help others plan great family vacations. Learn more about Leah and Five for the Road.