Park hours at Hollywood Studios are quirky however constant. This information covers not simply regular opening and shutting instances, but additionally Early Entry, Extended Evenings, After Hours, rope drop, when sure rides really begin operating, 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 suppose that’s all you might want to know, extra energy to you. This is a put up we’re doing as a result of we frequently get questions on Walt Disney World park hours, and needed to drill down a bit deeper with added perception and nuance.
The very first thing you might want to 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 straightforward to seek out, and this presently 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 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. 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 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 eventualities, extensions can happen about a number of 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 commonest 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 gives 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 normally at 9:30 pm when park closing is at 9:30 pm–and even when the park closes at 9:00 pm.
This permits company 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 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 Dining Reservations proper up till park closing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This means you could find 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 analogous 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 sometimes gives 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 anxious 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 data 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 keeping with their posted schedules on the pertinent resorts and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. So the Skyliner really does shut at no matter time indicated on the signage exterior the park. However, 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 gained’t depart 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 difficulty. If something, delaying departure so long as potential is the most effective 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 Area Resort, bus transportation is on the market 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 company of on-site resorts. These are Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours, which change Extra Magic Hours within the morning and at evening. If you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the morning choice, be taught extra in our Guide to Early Entry at Walt Disney World.
Early Entry is big at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Without a doubt, that is the park the place Early Entry gives the most important strategic benefit. That’s very true in the event 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. 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 company.
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 be a strong approach 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 evening and skipping the second exhibiting of Fantasmic (if there may be one) is sort of as sturdy of a technique as Extended Evening Hours. Crowds are likely to peak early at DHS, lowering within the afternoon and turning into extra manageable by night on regular days.
Another uncommon approach 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 important of “overbuying” upcharge choices as a result of FOMO and so forth, we really love After Hours at DHS. It’s positively 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 must always add right here is that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is unreliable and liable to breakdowns. This signifies 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 could not reopen in any respect. Read our Ride Guide for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which gives an outline 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 sights are open for Early Entry and, as famous above, wait instances peak earlier than noon at DHS. In basic, you’ll be able to 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 sights begin working at park opening time. The most notable examples are stage exhibits and meet & greets–and there are a lot of of each at DHS. This is a part of the rationale 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 exterior the park whereas “stacking” Lightning Lanes for later within the day is the savviest technique.
Here’s the tough define of my excellent 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 sights with brief waits within the night and finish of evening
This strategy usually means spending a couple of half day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in mixture, however getting lots executed–together with some sights twice. It minimizes complications and the chance of burn out, and is an effective 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 couple of many years, so we aren’t regular in that regard. The excellent news is that every little thing between “leave” and “return” could be swapped out for leisure–and probably a desk service lunch–and the plan nonetheless works virtually precisely the identical. In truth, 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 you might want to find out about park hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Now it also needs to be clear why there’s plenty of nuance and quirks which are value understanding past simply the fundamentals that DHS normally is open from 8:30 am till 9 pm. Many regular company will see that, present up between 9 am and 10 am, be overwhelmed by 11 am, and depart earlier than 3 pm.
Now you need to perceive why that occurs, find out how to keep away from burnout, working schedules that differ from common hours, and so forth. More than another 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 stream will put you at an enormous drawback!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about resorts 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 novel 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 begin is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for every little thing you might want to 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 make the most 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 might help you reply? Hearing 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!