Park hours at Hollywood Studios are quirky however constant. This information covers not simply regular opening and shutting instances, but in addition Early Entry, Extended Evenings, After Hours, rope drop, when sure rides really begin working, and extra. Plus, suggestions & tips for beating the crowds and avoiding instances of day when attendance is highest.
This isn’t only a put up about common working hours at DHS. If it had been, it’d be one sentence lengthy: Disney’s Hollywood Studios is often open from 8:30 am till 9 pm. If you assume that’s all it’s essential know, extra energy to you. This is a put up we’re doing as a result of we repeatedly get questions on Walt Disney World park hours, and wished to drill down a bit deeper with added perception and nuance.
The very first thing it’s essential know is that hours are added to DisneyWorld.com’s 5-day calendar on a rolling foundation, sometimes 60 days upfront. Walt Disney World additionally has a month-to-month calendar that isn’t as simple to seek out, and this at present has hours dumped in ‘batches’ a lot additional upfront.
Walt Disney World’s regular apply is to launch boilerplate or placeholder hours earlier than extending these primarily based on attendance and lodge occupancy projections. For some time, the preliminary launch of park hours was nearly meaningless, as each single park and date would see extensions. This is less-pronounced of a apply now, and the hours which are launched are very often the ultimate hours.
With that mentioned, extensions are nonetheless comparatively commonplace–they simply are much less more likely to happen throughout the board. Now, it’s extra focused to weekends, holidays, and particular days when the parks are forecast to be busier. In these eventualities, extensions can happen about just a few weeks to about two months upfront. We’ve seen precisely this situation play out round Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, MLK Day, and Presidents’ Day.
The most typical apply on busier dates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is for the closing time to be prolonged to 9:30 pm. In the previous, we’ve additionally seen the official park opening time moved ahead to eight:00 am. As of 2023, that’s not frequent. Normal hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are 8:30 am to 9 pm and peak season hours are 8:30 am to 9:30 pm.
Another frequent apply on these busier dates is so as to add second showtimes of Fantasmic. This is extra vital than the additional half-hour, because it presents an enormous strategic benefit–see our Viewing Guide for Fantasmic at Walt Disney World for extra.
Regardless of whether or not hours are prolonged, it’s frequent for Fantasmic or the projection exhibits on the entrance of the park to start at and even after park closing. Fantasmic’s second showtime is often at 9:30 pm when park closing is at 9:30 pm–and even when the park closes at 9:00 pm.
This permits friends to successfully lengthen the day at DHS by 30 to 60 minutes after official closing, since Fantasmic is about half-hour lengthy. (Meaning that you simply’ll exit the present at 10 pm, even on nights when the park closes at 9 pm.)
It’s additionally extremely frequent for desk service eating places to supply Advance Dining Reservations proper up till park closing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This means you will discover ADRs for 50’s Prime Time Cafe, Sci-Fi Dine In-Theater, and different eating places till about 8:55 pm on nights when the park closes at 9 pm. Each of those meals take about an hour, so it’s an identical situation–exiting a full hour after parking closing.
At Oga’s Cantina, the apply is much more pronounced. That bar in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open till 10 pm, and infrequently presents ADRs till shortly earlier than then. The finish result’s that you could possibly exit Disney’s Hollywood Studios 90 minutes or extra after park closing.
If you’re fearful about transportation again to your lodge, don’t. Officially, transportation to the theme parks begins roughly 2 hours previous to park opening time and runs till roughly 1 hour after the parks shut. This is the information you’ll discover on Walt Disney World’s web site, and what Cast Members will inform you.
It is true that the Skyliner and boats open and shut in accordance with their posted schedules on the pertinent motels and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. So the Skyliner really does shut at no matter time indicated on the signage outdoors the park. However, that’s not true of all transportation.
Unofficially, buses proceed working after park closing continues so long as individuals are contained in the park. As a lot as Kingdom Keepers IRL would possibly sound, Disney gained’t go away you stranded at a park. Sometimes it’s nearer to 2 hours after the parks shut when transportation ends. Cast Members are methodical about clearing the parks and radio to bus drivers to verify they stick round till all the stragglers are accounted for.
We have left Walt Disney World theme parks lengthy after park closing many, many instances and have by no means had a problem. If something, delaying departure so long as potential is the most effective plan of action. You get to get pleasure from park closing serenity and usually tend to have a bus all to your self. (For these staying at a Skyliner or Crescent Lake Area Resort, bus transportation is offered to get you again even after the Skyliner and boats cease working.)
Now let’s flip to the expanded Disney’s Hollywood Studios park hours for friends of on-site motels. These are Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours, which change Extra Magic Hours within the morning and at night time. If you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the morning choice, study extra in our Guide to Early Entry at Walt Disney World.
Early Entry is large at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Without a doubt, that is the park the place Early Entry presents the largest strategic benefit. That’s very true for those who prioritize Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with the added upside of doing this primary being that you simply’re much less more likely to encounter a breakdown whilst you’re in line for it. Check out our report on Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that covers our expertise knocking out the “triple digit trio” at DHS earlier than the park opened to common friends.
Thus far, Extended Evening Hours is very uncommon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, solely occurring when there are scheduling conflicts or excessive crowds forecast for Magic Kingdom. With that mentioned, Extended Evening Hours can also be a stable technique to expertise DHS with decrease crowds. (See our Guide to Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for extra.)
With that mentioned, staying late on a standard night time and skipping the second displaying of Fantasmic (if there may be one) is nearly as sturdy of a technique as Extended Evening Hours. Crowds are likely to peak early at DHS, reducing within the afternoon and changing into extra manageable by night on regular days.
Another uncommon technique to keep late is the 2023 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Currently, these are solely scheduled for Winter and Spring 2023, however given their recognition and what number of dates are already bought out, we anticipate many extra dates within the months to come back.
While we’re essential of “overbuying” upcharge choices resulting from FOMO and so forth, we really love After Hours at DHS. It’s undoubtedly a splurge, nevertheless it’s one which’s really well worth the cash. It provides a VIP vibe to the go to, and at a fraction of the value of hiring a tour information.
Posted wait instances are decrease within the final two hours of the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, however that’s solely half of the story. Actual wait instances are sometimes dramatically decrease, significantly for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and different headliners.
One caveat we should always add right here is that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is unreliable and susceptible to breakdowns. This implies that ready till the tip of your solely day at DHS to do that wonderful attraction is dangerous. If the journey goes down within the final two hours of the day, it might not reopen in any respect. Read our Ride Guide for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which presents an summary of the most effective & worst methods to try this, and plan accordingly.
Speaking of dangerous enterprise, counting on common rope drop (official park opening time) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is ill-advised. All headliner points of interest are open for Early Entry and, as famous above, wait instances peak earlier than noon at DHS. In common, you may anticipate the worst crowds of the day between about 10 am and 1 pm at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
It’s additionally value noting that not all points of interest begin working at park opening time. The most notable examples are stage exhibits and meet & greets–and there are numerous of each at DHS. This is a part of the explanation why waits are worse earlier on–there’s much less to do to take in crowds till the park’s many stage exhibits begin having their showtimes.
When it involves the interaction of park technique & hours, another choice is Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. It’s quite common for journey reservation return instances to be pushed out later within the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This can imply that having fun with a relaxed morning outdoors the park whereas “stacking” Lightning Lanes for later within the day is the savviest technique.
Here’s the tough define of my ideally suited day doing Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with a mixture of productiveness and leisure:
- Stay in a Skyliner resort
- Head over to DHS for Early Entry and common rope drop as quickly as Skyliner begins working
- Obtain first Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog Dash
- Leave DHS by 10 am
- Lounge poolside
- Stack Lightning Lanes all through morning and early afternoon
- Return to DHS at about 2 pm
- Use Lightning Lanes
- Dinner
- First Fantasmic
- Standby points of interest with quick waits within the night and finish of night time
This strategy typically means spending a few half day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in mixture, however getting quite a bit executed–together with some points of interest twice. It minimizes complications and the probability of burn out, and is a good way to beat the crowds!
With that mentioned, this strategy is not optimum for first-timer or anybody who needs to see all the stage exhibits. We’ve executed all of these many, many instances over the previous few many years, so we’re not regular in that regard. The excellent news is that all the things between “leave” and “return” may be swapped out for leisure–and probably a desk service lunch–and the plan nonetheless works nearly precisely the identical. In reality, that’s exactly the strategy in our touring plans for DHS.
To that time, for Disney’s Hollywood Studios technique & planning perception see the next posts:
Ultimately, that ought to cowl what it’s essential find out about park hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Now it must also be clear why there’s lots of nuance and quirks which are value understanding past simply the fundamentals that DHS often is open from 8:30 am till 9 pm. Many regular friends will see that, present up between 9 am and 10 am, be overwhelmed by 11 am, and go away earlier than 3 pm.
Now it’s best to perceive why that occurs, keep away from burnout, working schedules that differ from common hours, and many others. More than some other Walt Disney World theme park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the one the place mastering and exploiting schedule quirks will put you at an enormous benefit–and going with the circulation will put you at an enormous drawback!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about motels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To lower your expenses on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips put up takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to start out is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for all the things it’s essential know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider regular park hours in 2023 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Prefer to reach very first thing for Early Entry, later within the morning, afternoon, or night? How do you benefit from the working quirks of DHS to beat the crowds? Do you agree or disagree with something in our information to park hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Any questions we can assist you reply? Hearing your suggestions–even once you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!