Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort opened as as Disney-MGM Studios on May 1, 1989 and recently added two new lands: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land. The park in 2020 opened Disney's first ride devoted to Mickey Mouse — Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which you will find inside the replica of Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre that stands in the middle of the park.

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New for 2023

Roundup Rodeo BBQ, a table-service, family-style barbecue restaurant, opened in Toy Story Land in March.

What to Do

Top 10

  1. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ★ ★ ★ ★
    Trackless dark ride located in Star Wars: Galaxy Edge. Height requirement: 40 inches
    Read Robert Niles' review of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

  2. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ★ ★ ★
    Indoor drop tower ride located at the end of Sunset Boulevard. Height requirement: 40 inches

  3. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway ★ ★ ★
    Dark ride located in the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard
    Read Robert Niles' review of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.

  4. Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run ★ ★
    Motion-base ride located in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Height requirement: 38 inches

  5. Fantasmic!
    Nighttime spectacular on Sunset Boulevard.
    Fantasmic!

  6. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
    Indoor Vekoma roller coaster with on-board music, located on Sunset Boulevard. Height requirement: 48 inches
    Rock 'n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

  7. Toy Story Mania
    Interactive dark ride located in Toy Story Land
    Toy Story Mania

  8. Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
    "Star Wars"-themed motion-base show located near Echo Lake. Height requirement: 40 inches
    Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

  9. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
    Live stunt show recreating famous scenes from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," located next to Echo Lake
    Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

  10. Slinky Dog Dash
    Mack Rides family roller coaster located in Toy Story Land. Height requirement: 38 inches
    Read Robert Niles' review of Toy Story Land.

Other Attractions

Sunset Boulevard
  • Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy: character show
Mickey Avenue
  • Walt Disney Presents: walk-through exhibit
Toy Story Land
  • Alien Swirling Saucers: whip spinner. Height requirement: 32 inches
Commissary Lane
  • Mickey Shorts Theater: movies
Muppets Lane
  • Muppet*Vision 3D: movie

Where to Eat

Recommended

  • Hollywood Brown Derby
    Table service restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard
    Hollywood Brown Derby

  • Woody's Lunchbox
    Counter service sandwiches served in Toy Story Land

  • Oga's Cantina
    Themed bar in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. [Advance reservations strongly encouraged]

Park Map

Disney's Hollywood Studios is part of the sprawling Walt Disney World Resort, located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida – about 24 miles from Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Note that Disney no longer provides free Disney's Magical Express bus service to and from the Orlando airport for its hotel guests.

If you are renting a car while visiting Orlando, you can save on toll road fees by getting a Visitor Toll Pass at the Orlando airport rather than renting a toll transponder from your rental car company: Toll Discounts Return for Orlando Theme Park Visitors

Best Time to Visit Disney World?

Disney's theme park ticket prices vary by day, so you can use Disney's pricing calendar [scroll down] to see which days have the highest expected crowds. The lower the price for a ticket, the smaller the expected crowd that day.

In general, you will find the lightest crowd levels at the Walt Disney World theme parks during these periods:

  • late April through the week before Memorial Day
  • after the first week of August through September
  • late October and early November

Large crowds will fill the parks on runDisney weekends:

  • November 2 - 5, 2023
  • January 3 - 7, 2024
  • February 22 - 25, 2024
  • April 18 - 21, 2024

In addition, crowd levels are high during:

  • any holiday week
  • President's Day week through Spring Break in mid-April
  • the week of Thanksgiving through New Year's week

Whenever you plan to visit, you must make date-specific reservations in advance to use your tickets. You can see which dates are open to reserve on Disney's "Park Pass" availability calendar. See the next section, below, for more advice on planning your Walt Disney World visit.

Strategy

The Walt Disney World Resort now requires that all guests make date-specific reservations in advance to visit its theme parks. You can see which dates are available to reserve on Disney's "Park Pass" availability calendar.

Dates are listed up to about 15 months in advance, and reservations are available on a first-come, first-served basis. However, Disney maintains separate pools of available reservations each day for its annual passholders and its on-site hotel guests, as well as for regular ticket holders. So if a specific date is "sold out" for annual passholders, it might still be available for regular ticket holders.

If you want to visit more than one Walt Disney World theme park on a single day, you will need a "Park Hopper" ticket. You will make a reservation for the park you visit first on each date, then you can park hop to other parks starting at 2pm that day. After April 17, annual passholders also may visit any park after 2pm without a reservation, with the exception of the Magic Kingdom on weekends.

Once you have selected the dates you wish to visit and made your Disney Park Pass reservations, you may want to make dining reservations in advance of your visit, as well. Reservations can be made via the Disney World website, and each date's reservations open 60 days in advance, at about 5:45am Eastern Time. Disney's on-site hotel guests may make reservations for their entire stay (up to 10 days) starting 60 days before their check-in date. That gives Disney's on-site hotel guests an advantage in making reservations for the most popular restaurants.

Disney's hotel guests also get 30 minutes of early access to each of the resort's four theme parks every day. So hotel guests should plan on an early start each morning to take advantage of empty queues. Unfortunately for guests staying off site, this new early admission policy means that they no longer have any opportunity to be the first to enter any Walt Disney World theme park in the morning.

As for planning your day, Walt Disney World now offers a new tool on its official My Disney Experience app to create a custom itinerary for each day of your visit. In addition, Disney offers two ways for its theme park guests to pay to access shorter wait times for many popular attractions. You can learn more about these options in our posts:

Because Disney's hotel guests slam Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance first thing in the morning, we recommend waiting until later in the evening to ride that attraction - or consider paying for Individual Lightning Lane access.

Honestly, this is the one park were we most recommend paying for either the Individual Lightning Lane for Rise or buying Disney Genie+, or even both. Slinky Dog Dash often has even worse wait times than Rise, with long wait times also common for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Millennium Falcon, Runaway Railway, Toy Story Mania, and Tower of Terror.

If you don't get Genie+, start with Slinky Dog, then go to Runaway Railway. Then look on the Disney World app to find the shortest wait time among Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and do that next. If the times are close, start with Toy Story, then do RnR and ToT. Save Rise for late in the day, aiming to arrive to that queue around 6-7pm, and after riding Millennium Falcon.

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