2023 Disney Vacation: Hollywood Studios

Day 5: Hollywood studios

Official park opening time is 8:30 for Hollywood Studios, which meant early entry for resort guests was at 8:00. We purchased Genie+ for that day (it was $15/person) and booked our first ride at 7:00am as we were walking out the door to head to the Skyliner. We booked Slinky Dog Dash first with an arrival window of 1:25-2:25.

We made it to the Skyliner a little earlier than we did in our Epcot day and it wasn’t quite as long. Again, it moved very quickly and we had no issues. A huge perk of Art of Animation or Pop Century resorts!

I’m not sure what time we actually arrived at HS, but I remember we made it through security very quickly and were able to walk straight toward Galaxy’s Edge to get in line for Rise of the Resistance. David and the two big girls hopped in line for this at 7:45. I scanned my band and one other band to go through rider swap later, then Hannah and I just strolled around for a bit.

A day at Hollywood Studios. Food at Hollywood Studios. Rides at Hollywood Studios. Genie+ at Hollywood Studios. Snacks at Hollywood Studios. Galaxy's Edge. Toy Story Land. — | Not a Star Wars fan, but this area really is cool |

We took some pictures in an empty Galaxy’s Edge and found some delicious cold brew with sweet cream cheese and cocoa puffs on top from Kat Saka’s Kettle. Exactly what I needed at 8:00am!

We walked over to Toy Story Land and decided to go ahead and ride Alien Swirling Saucers, which she loved! We walked right on at 8:30. It has a 32inch height requirement and she was just barely tall enough to ride.

David and the girls should have been on and off of Rise of the Resistance quick since we got there so early. He said it was moving along pretty quick….until it wasn’t. The ride broke down and the line went to a stand still. They waited probably 30 minutes with no movement and decided to get out of line. We felt like it was a waste of time to keep standing in a line that wasn’t moving.

They met us in Toy Story Land to ride Toy Story Mania. By the time we got done with Toy Story Mania, the wait for Alien Swirling Saucers was sort of long, so we decided to come back to it later.

We headed back toward Galaxy’s Edge, where David and Audrey rode Smuggler’s Run, then we went back to Rise of the Resistance to see if we could snag another pair of rider swap passes to use later.

We decided to go to the 10:30 Frozen sing along and then grab lunch. What we learned this trip is that there’s no way to have a solid plan of how the day is going to go. You really just have to have a list of the things you want to do, and play the rest by ear. It all depends on how your lightning lane times play out, if/when rides go down, what stand by wait times look like, etc.

At 10:30, 2 hours after park opening, we were able to book our next LL. We got Tower of Terror with a a time of 4:20 (ish- I can’t remember the exact time). I modified it later for a window of 6:05-7:05 so we wouldn’t be so rushed after dinner.

We had 4:00 dinner reservations, so we wanted to make sure and eat an early lunch. We grabbed hot dogs from Dockside Diner, where Hannah refused to eat a single bite! I think Hannah lived off of snacks and French fries this trip. And pizza.

The big girls got regular hot dogs and David and I got the mac-n-cheese bacon dog. It was very good and filling.

After lunch we went BACK to Rise of the Resistance. David and Raley rode first, then Audrey and I got in line using our Lightning Lanes. We got seated on the ride annnnddddd……it went down again 🤦. Not gonna lie, I have a bad taste in my mouth for this ride. The EXACT same thing happened in 2021 when we tried to ride. I feel like with the problems they have with it breaking down, it’s not even worth the time to go over there and wait in line. But I’m also not a Star Wars fan, so if you like Star Wars, I’m sure it’s worth it.

The only good thing that came out of all of this is that since we were on the ride when it went down, they gave Audrey and I a multiple experience pass, which is a lightning lane to either come back and ride later, or use on another ride in the park. They mistakenly scanned each of our bands twice, which meant we actually had a total of 4 lightning lanes to use on anything we wanted.

After all that, we booked it over to Sunset Boulevard, where we got some ice cream and watched Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage. I’ve always loved this show!

At 12:30, we booked our next LL. We got Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway for an arrival window of 5:10-6:10. This worked perfect since where we were eating wasn’t far from there.

While we were on that side of the park, I hopped on Rock-n-roller coaster. Right after I got off, we made our way toward Slinky. It was nearing the back end of our arrival window time. The cast member let us know that there is a 15 minute grace period for your arrival window, just in case you’re running late.

Slinky is Audrey’s favorite ride and the main thing she had been talking about leading up to the trip…and all day long! I can’t count the number of times I heard the question “is it time to ride Slinky?” I’m so proud of Raley on this one. She was adamant that she WOULD NOT ride this ride. She rode it for the first time when she was 5 and didn’t like it. She refused to ride it in 2021 when she was 7. She kept saying she wasn’t going to ride it, but after liking Big Thunder Mountain earlier in the week at Magic Kingdom, she decided to try Slinky – and she loved it!

We decided that instead of trying to ride Rise for a third time, that we would use those extra Multiple Experience Passes on Slinky, which meant we each got to ride it twice.

At 2:30, we booked our next LL. We booked Toy Story Mania for 5:25-6:25.

We had a little bit of time to kill before dinner, and since we had a LL for most of the other things we wanted to do in the park, we decided to get in line to meet Buzz Lightyear, snap some pictures in front of the Chinese Theater and then head to Sci-Fi Dine-In for dinner.

The atmosphere is really neat at Sci-Fi Dine-In. It’s set up to feel like you are sitting in a car at the drive-in theater in the 50’s. There’s a huge screen that’s playing clips of old sci-fi movies and TV shows. Some of them were a little scary for my kids. But they also showed things like Tom and Jerry. They liked sitting in the cars and we got them each a special drink with glow cubes in them which was cool since it was pretty dark in there.

The food was so-so. I got the barbecue burger, and it was only ok. The fries were good and Raley and I really enjoyed the ranch dressing.

At 4:30, we booked our final lightning lane of the day for Alien Swirling Saucers at 6:20. If we had planned on staying a little longer, we probably could have snagged one more at 6:30, but we didn’t worry about it since we had ridden everything we wanted to.

After dinner, we went to use our Lightning Lane at Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway. This is a cute little ride and Hannah really enjoyed it (I’m glad she got over her fear of rides after I traumatized her on our first day)!

Next up was Toy Story Mania again and then Alien Swirling Saucers. The rides in Toy Story Land are the best!

After we finished up in Toy Story Land, we made our way to Sunset Boulevard for Tower of Terror. I’m thinking that Lightning Lanes toward the end of the day maybe take longer? We had the same issue with Tower of Terror that we had with Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom. The LL line just wasn’t super quick like it was most of the time.

Audrey and I rode it first. She rode it last time we were here, and she said she liked it, but she did not enjoy it this time. Raley also said that she liked it back then, but now she says she didn’t actually like it, and did not want to ride. Which is fine. David rode after Audrey and I got off.

By this time, the seating for Fantasmic was limited view only, which meant you didn’t have a really good view from those seats. I was also worried that Fantasmic would scare Hannah because it has scared the big girls in the past. The kids weren’t super invested in seeing it, so we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel via Skyliner.

I always thoroughly enjoy Hollywood Studios. There’s a lot to do there, but it feels like you’re able to slow down a bit and really enjoy your time. Genie+ definitely helped with this! I would recommend using Genie+ at Hollywood Studios. David and I walked out of the park agreeing that today was a good day.