Park hours at Hollywood Studios are quirky however constant. This information covers not simply regular opening and shutting occasions, but additionally Early Entry, Prolonged Evenings, After Hours, rope drop, when sure rides truly begin operating, and extra. Plus, ideas & tips for beating the crowds and avoiding occasions 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 generally open from 8:30 am till 9 pm. When you suppose that’s all you must know, extra energy to you. It 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 you must 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 search out, and this presently has hours dumped in ‘batches’ a lot additional upfront.
Walt Disney World’s regular follow is to launch boilerplate or placeholder hours earlier than extending these based mostly on attendance and lodge occupancy projections. For some time, the preliminary launch of park hours was virtually meaningless, as each single park and date would see extensions. That is less-pronounced of a follow now, and the hours which might be launched are very often the ultimate hours.
With that stated, extensions are nonetheless comparatively commonplace–they only are much less prone 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 situations, extensions can happen about a number of weeks to about two months upfront. We’ve seen precisely this state of affairs play out round Thanksgiving, Christmas, New 12 months’s, MLK Day, and Presidents’ Day.
The most typical follow on busier dates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is for the closing time to be prolonged to 9:30 pm. Prior to now, we’ve additionally seen the official park opening time moved ahead to eight:00 am. As of 2023, that’s not frequent. Regular 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.
One other frequent follow on these busier dates is so as to add second showtimes of Fantasmic. That is extra vital than the additional half-hour, because it provides an enormous strategic benefit–see our Viewing Information for Fantasmic at Walt Disney World for extra.
No matter 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 prolong the day at DHS by 30 to 60 minutes after official closing, since Fantasmic is about half-hour lengthy. (Which means that you just’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 Eating Reservations proper up till park closing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This implies 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. Every of those meals take about an hour, so it’s an analogous state of affairs–exiting a full hour after parking closing.
At Oga’s Cantina, the follow is much more pronounced. That bar in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open till 10 pm, and sometimes provides ADRs till shortly earlier than then. The top result’s that you may exit Disney’s Hollywood Studios 90 minutes or extra after park closing.
When you’re anxious about transportation again to your lodge, don’t. Formally, transportation to the theme parks begins roughly 2 hours previous to park opening time and runs till roughly 1 hour after the parks shut. That is the information you’ll discover on Walt Disney World’s web site, and what Solid Members will inform you.
It’s true that the Skyliner and boats open and shut in accordance with their posted schedules on the pertinent accommodations and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. So the Skyliner truly does shut at no matter time indicated on the signage outdoors the park. Nonetheless, that’s not true of all transportation.
Unofficially, buses proceed operating after park closing continues so long as individuals are contained in the park. As a lot as Kingdom Keepers IRL may sound, Disney received’t go away you stranded at a park. Typically it’s nearer to 2 hours after the parks shut when transportation ends. Solid Members are methodical about clearing the parks and radio to bus drivers to ensure they stick round till all the stragglers are accounted for.
We now have left Walt Disney World theme parks lengthy after park closing many, many occasions and have by no means had a problem. If something, delaying departure so long as potential is the very best plan of action. You get to take pleasure in park closing serenity and usually tend to have a bus all to your self. (For these staying at a Skyliner or Crescent Lake Space Resort, bus transportation is obtainable to get you again even after the Skyliner and boats cease operating.)
Now let’s flip to the expanded Disney’s Hollywood Studios park hours for friends of on-site accommodations. These are Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours, which change Additional Magic Hours within the morning and at night time. When you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the morning choice, study extra in our Information to Early Entry at Walt Disney World.
Early Entry is large at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Undoubtedly, that is the park the place Early Entry provides the largest strategic benefit. That’s very true when you prioritize Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with the added upside of doing this primary being that you just’re much less prone to encounter a breakdown whilst you’re in line for it. Take a look at 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.
So far, Prolonged Night 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 stated, Prolonged Night Hours can be a stable option to expertise DHS with decrease crowds. (See our Information to Prolonged Night Hours at Walt Disney World for extra.)
With that stated, staying late on a standard night time and skipping the second exhibiting of Fantasmic (if there’s one) is sort of as robust of a technique as Prolonged Night Hours. Crowds are inclined to peak early at DHS, reducing within the afternoon and turning into extra manageable by night on regular days.
One other uncommon option to keep late is the 2023 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. At the moment, these are solely scheduled for Winter and Spring 2023, however given their reputation and what number of dates are already bought out, we anticipate many extra dates within the months to come back.
Whereas we’re important of “overbuying” upcharge choices because of FOMO and so forth, we truly love After Hours at DHS. It’s positively a splurge, however it’s one which’s truly 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 occasions are decrease within the final two hours of the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, however that’s solely half of the story. Precise wait occasions are sometimes dramatically decrease, significantly for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Canine Sprint, 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 liable to breakdowns. Which means that ready till the tip of your solely day at DHS to do that glorious attraction is dangerous. If the trip goes down within the final two hours of the day, it could not reopen in any respect. Learn our Trip Information for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which provides an outline of the very best & worst methods to do this, and plan accordingly.
Talking 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 occasions peak earlier than noon at DHS. Normally, 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. Essentially the most notable examples are stage exhibits and meet & greets–and there are numerous of each at DHS. That 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.
In relation to the interaction of park technique & hours, another choice is Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. It’s quite common for trip reservation return occasions to be pushed out later within the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This may imply that having fun with a relaxed morning outdoors the park whereas “stacking” Lightning Lanes for later within the day is the savviest technique.
Right here’s the tough define of my ultimate day doing Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with a mixture of productiveness and rest:
- Keep in a Skyliner resort
- Head over to DHS for Early Entry and common rope drop as quickly as Skyliner begins working
- Receive first Lightning Lane for Slinky Canine Sprint
- Go away 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 method usually means spending a few half day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in combination, however getting quite a bit finished–together with some points of interest twice. It minimizes complications and the chance of burn out, and is a good way to beat the crowds!
With that stated, this method is not optimum for first-timer or anybody who desires to see all the stage exhibits. We’ve finished all of these many, many occasions over the previous few a long time, so we’re not regular in that regard. The excellent news is that every little thing between “go away” and “return” might be swapped out for leisure–and presumably a desk service lunch–and the plan nonetheless works virtually precisely the identical. In actual fact, that’s exactly the method in our touring plans for DHS.
To that time, for Disney’s Hollywood Studios technique & planning perception see the next posts:
Finally, that ought to cowl what you must learn about park hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Now it also needs to be clear why there’s a variety of nuance and quirks which might be 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 is best to perceive why that occurs, the best way to keep away from burnout, working schedules that differ from common hours, and so forth. Greater than every 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? Study accommodations on our Walt Disney World Motels Critiques web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Critiques. To economize on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a singular have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the very best place to begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every little thing you must know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider regular park hours in 2023 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Choose to reach very first thing for Early Entry, later within the morning, afternoon, or night? How do you reap the benefits of 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 may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!