How We Combined Early Entry and Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios

See how we combined Hollywood Studios Early Entry and Lightning Lane to ride the biggest attractions, see the shows and build an amazing evening stack.

Estimated reading time: 31 minutes

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There are some Disney days where one touring strategy does most of the heavy lifting.

You rope drop.

Or you buy Lightning Lane.

Or you sleep in and see what happens. 😂

This was not one of those days.

On February 6, 2025, I basically threw everything at Hollywood Studios: Early Entry, Lightning Lane Multi Pass, a Lightning Lane Single Pass, standby lines when they made sense, Mobile Order and a Fantasmic Dining Package.

And holy cow.

It worked.

We rode Rise of the Resistance twice… and rode Slinky Dog Dash twice, including once after dark. We saw a ridiculous number of shows, met Sorcerer Mickey, ate two actual meals, stopped for snacks and coffee, took PhotoPass pictures and ended the night with Fantasmic.

But here’s the part that surprised me when I went back through my photos and reconstructed the day.

We weren’t rushing.

For real, we spent almost an hour and a half at Hollywood & Vine in the middle of the afternoon. We sat through Frozen Sing-Along, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones and my beloved MuppetVision 3D. And of course we stopped for Joffrey’s. We got ice cream, and even watched some of the First Order show because we happened to walk by at the right time.

There was plenty of breathing room built into this day.

And I think that’s actually why it worked so well.

We weren’t relying on Lightning Lane to magically fix Hollywood Studios for us.

Early Entry had one job. Lightning Lane had another. Our dining package had another. And together, they gave us a fantastic day.

Hollywood Studios Early Entry + Lightning Lane: At a Glance

Date: February 6, 2025

Park: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Resort: Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter

Left Our Room: 6:56 AM

Arrived at Hollywood Studios: 7:35 AM

Early Entry: 8:00 AM

Touring Style: Full park day combining Early Entry, Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass and strategically chosen standby lines

Big Early Entry Targets: Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash

Lightning Lane Strategy: Keep two original Lightning Lanes reserved for nighttime rides on Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania while using our remaining selection as a daytime “floater”

Single Pass Strategy: Ride Rise once during Early Entry and use a Single Pass to ride it again as part of our evening Galaxy’s Edge/Toy Story Land stack

Dining Strategy: Mobile Order lunch at Fairfax Fare plus an early Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic Dining Package dinner that doubled as a long afternoon rest

The Experiment: What happens if you use Early Entry to knock out Hollywood Studios’ hardest attractions and then let Lightning Lane shape the rest of your day?

The Result: This was one of my most successful Hollywood Studios touring days ever. Early Entry took care of Rise and Slinky before the regular park day really got going, and Lightning Lane helped us build the rest of the day around shows, meals, characters and an absolutely fantastic evening ride stack.

We Left French Quarter Before 7 AM

Okay, so this particular strategy does require getting out of bed.

Sorry. 😂

We were staying at Port Orleans French Quarter, and according to my photos, we left our room at 6:56 AM.

I am pretty sure we took a Lyft to Hollywood Studios instead of waiting for Disney bus transportation. And for a morning when I really care about being toward the front of the Early Entry crowd, that’s absolutely something I will do.

By 7:35 AM, we were at the Hollywood Studios entrance.

Early Entry officially started at 8 AM.

And this is where reconstructing a Disney day from timestamped photos becomes very helpful.

Because by 8:08 AM, we were already through the entrance and in the queue for Rise of the Resistance.

Now, I know how fast I walk.

Or rather… how fast I don’t walk. 😂

There is no shot on this planet that I crossed Hollywood Studios in eight minutes while fighting an enormous Early Entry crowd.

So I’m pretty confident they started moving people toward the attractions a little before 8 AM that morning.

Probably not much before.

But enough.

Either way, we were in an excellent position for our first target.

Early Entry Target #1: Rise of the Resistance

Rise was the obvious first choice.

By 8:16 AM, we were already in the pre-show.

At 8:28 AM, we were on the actual ride.

And by 8:32 AM?

Done.

Rise of the Resistance was finished.

Thirty-two minutes after Early Entry officially began.

That’s pretty darn good.

But we weren’t finished with Early Entry yet.

We immediately high tailed it over to Toy Story Land.

And by high tailed it, I mean we walked with purpose at approximately the speed my short little legs are willing to go. 😂

Early Entry Target #2: Slinky Dog Dash

Our next target was Slinky Dog Dash.

And this is where the morning really paid off.

By 9:01 AM, we were on Slinky.

At 9:05 AM, we were finished.

So let’s just stop here for a second.

The regular park day was basically just beginning, and we had already ridden:

Rise of the Resistance.

And…

Slinky Dog Dash.

Those are arguably the two biggest Lightning Lane headaches at Hollywood Studios.

And we’d used exactly zero Lightning Lanes to ride them.

That completely changed what Lightning Lane could do for us for the rest of the day.

Instead of spending the morning trying to use Lightning Lane to solve Rise and Slinky, we’d already solved them.

Now Lightning Lane could do something else.

Why on Earth Was Frozen Our First Lightning Lane? 😂

Our first Lightning Lane of the day was…

Frozen Sing-Along Celebration.

I know.

After all this talk about Rise and Slinky, that sounds slightly anticlimactic.

But there was a reason.

Our Frozen return time was 9:15 AM.

That was fantastic.

Because as soon as we tapped into Frozen, we could make our next Lightning Lane selection.

So at 9:15 AM, almost immediately after finishing Slinky Dog Dash, we tapped into Lightning Lane #1.

And because hardly anyone was at that first Frozen show yet, our seats were really good.

Bonus!

This is one of those little Lightning Lane choices that probably looks weird if you’re only thinking in terms of attraction rankings.

Did we desperately need Lightning Lane to see Frozen Sing-Along?

Nope.

But the early return time was useful.

We could tap in almost immediately after regular park opening, enjoy a show we wanted to see anyway and get our Lightning Lane strategy moving for the rest of the day.

Frozen finished at 9:59 AM.

At that point we’d been inside Hollywood Studios for less than two hours.

We’d already ridden Rise and Slinky and watched an entire show.

And now?

We were going to do something that probably sounds even stranger in a case study about Lightning Lane.

We got in a standby line.

Sometimes Standby Is Still the Best Choice

Next up was Tower of Terror.

We didn’t have a Lightning Lane.

We didn’t need one.

The standby wait was only about 30 minutes, which was perfectly reasonable.

By 10:35 AM, we were in the pre-show, and at 10:36 AM, we were on the ride.

This is another piece of the strategy that I think is worth pointing out.

Buying Lightning Lane does not mean every attraction suddenly needs to become a Lightning Lane attraction.

If the standby line is reasonable?

Use it.

Save Lightning Lane for something where it’s actually going to make a difference.

After Tower of Terror, however, we did have a legitimate emergency to deal with.

We needed caffeine.

😂

So we grabbed a much-needed boost from Joffrey’s and headed right back down Sunset Boulevard.

Because our next stop wasn’t another ride at all.

It was time for Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage.

And Then We Slowed Down

Our next stop was the 11 AM Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage show.

And I think this is where you start to see what I mean when I say this wasn’t a commando-touring day.

By this point we’d already ridden Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror and seen Frozen Sing-Along.

We could have kept chasing rides.

Instead, we sat down and watched Beauty and the Beast.

Because I love the shows at Hollywood Studios, and I don’t want to plan a day where I ride everything but somehow don’t have time to actually enjoy the park.

Once Beauty and the Beast finished, it was time for lunch.

At 11:43 AM, we put in a Mobile Order at Fairfax Fare, and by 11:48 AM, we were eating.

Easy.

No complicated dining reservation. No spending 45 minutes waiting to order food. And once again, we weren’t racing.

Sometimes You Need to Stop and Take the Picture

By 12:20 PM, we were back on Sunset Boulevard taking PhotoPass pictures.

This is another thing that’s really easy to cut when you start treating Disney World like one giant efficiency exercise.

PhotoPass isn’t a ride.

It doesn’t make your attraction count go up.

But I like having pictures from my trips.

So we stopped and took them.

Then it was time for our next Lightning Lane.

Lightning Lane #2: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway

At 12:59 PM, we tapped into our Lightning Lane for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

By 1:16 PM, we were in the pre-show.

At 1:26 PM, we were on the ride.

And at 1:31 PM, we were finished.

From there, we hopped over to Red Carpet Dreams.

We didn’t actually meet Minnie, but we did meet Sorcerer Mickey.

Sorcerer Mickey for the win!

😂

I don’t have an exact wait time for this one, but based on my photos, I think we probably waited around 15–20 minutes.

And then it was time for something much more emotionally significant.

One Last MuppetVision 3D

By 2:30 PM, we were sitting inside MuppetVision 3D.

Whaaaaaa.

I loved this show.

Was it technologically cutting edge?

No.

Did I care?

Also no.

It was the Muppets. Totally ridiculous and totally charming. And it had one of my favorite lines in Hollywood Studios:

“A salute to all nations, but mostly America.”

😂

At the time, we knew MuppetVision was going away, so this wasn’t just another attraction to knock off a list.

We were saying goodbye.

And that’s another reason I love looking back at this particular day.

There was room for stuff like this.

We weren’t skipping MuppetVision because the app told us we could shave seven minutes off our day if we immediately crossed the park for something else.

We watched the Muppets.

Our Lightning Lane Floater Kept Working

After Runaway Railway, we used our available Lightning Lane selection for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

Did we absolutely need a Lightning Lane to see Indiana Jones?

Nope.

But it gave us preferred seating.

And since we wanted to see the show anyway, why not?

At 3:15 PM, the show started, and we had fantastic seats.

This also illustrates something important about how I’d set up our Lightning Lanes that morning.

Two of our original selections already had very specific jobs.

I wanted Slinky Dog Dash at night.

And I wanted Toy Story Mania right afterward.

So I wasn’t messing with those.

We’d already ridden Slinky during Early Entry, but riding Slinky after dark is a completely different experience. I deliberately held onto that evening Lightning Lane rather than moving it earlier simply because I could.

Toy Story Mania was positioned right behind it.

Boom.

Those two were staying put.

That left our third selection as what I basically think of as our floater.

We’d started with Frozen Sing-Along because it had that fantastic 9:15 AM return time.

After tapping into Frozen, we could start moving that available selection through the day.

It became Runaway Railway.

Then Indiana Jones.

And once we tapped into Indiana Jones and sat down for the show?

I grabbed Smugglers Run for the evening.

Now things were getting interesting.

Because I wasn’t just collecting Lightning Lanes anymore.

I was building a stack.

But First… Hollywood & Vine

After Indiana Jones, we headed over to Hollywood & Vine for an early dinner.

And I need to say something here.

I do not understand why people hate on Hollywood & Vine so much. 😂

Is it fine dining?

No.

It’s a Disney character buffet.

But we’ve enjoyed our meals there. I like the food, and I especially love the character interactions.

This particular meal was Silver Screen Dine, so everyone was in their snazzy Hollywood costumes.

And because our reservation was around 4 PM, the restaurant was practically empty.

Just saying.

That meant we got a ton of character interaction.

But even more importantly for this particular touring day?

We rested. Sitting was great.. and yes we had dinner.

But we also thoroughly enjoyed the characters and we got off our feet.

We slowed down and took our time.

We didn’t leave Hollywood & Vine until around 5:29 PM.

That’s almost an hour and a half when we could theoretically have been out there doing more attractions.

And I wouldn’t change it.

Because we’d been going since before 7 AM, and we still had another huge chunk of our park day ahead of us.

That long dinner gave us a chance to reset before Round Two.

Plus, this wasn’t just a character dinner.

We had booked the Fantasmic Dining Package.

So while we were sitting there resting and eating dinner, we were also taking care of something we’d appreciate very much later that night:

preferred seating for Fantasmic.

Choices choices choices.

😂

And Now… The Evening Stack

We walked out of Hollywood & Vine around 5:29 PM.

And this is where the day gets really fun.

We had built a fantastic string of attractions through the back half of Hollywood Studios.

But before we started burning through Lightning Lanes, we squeezed in Star Tours.

Standby.

Again.

Because there is hardly ever a line for Star Tours, and I’m not using a Lightning Lane just for the sake of saying I used a Lightning Lane.

Then we headed into Galaxy’s Edge.

Our first big target was Rise of the Resistance.

Again.

😂

We’d already ridden Rise during Early Entry that morning. This second ride was our Lightning Lane Single Pass, which we’d deliberately timed for the beginning of our evening stack.

And one of the nice things about having a return window instead of an appointment at one exact minute is that you have some flexibility.

We could do Star Tours first and then move into Galaxy’s Edge without feeling like we were racing a stopwatch.

After Rise, we stopped at Kat Saka’s Kettle around 6:30 PM for a snack.

Because apparently our hour-and-a-half-long character buffet had occurred approximately 60 minutes ago, and therefore it was snack time.

Disney math.

😂

Smugglers Run → Slinky Dog → Toy Story Mania

At 6:34 PM, we rolled up to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run for our Lightning Lane.

By 6:52 PM, we were on the ride.

At 6:55 PM, we were finished.

And Galaxy’s Edge was gorgeous at night.

So once again, we didn’t immediately race away.

At 6:57 PM, we caught part of the First Order entertainment happening in the land.

Target of opportunity!

Then we headed toward Toy Story Land.

And this was the moment I’d been saving one of our original Lightning Lanes for all day.

At 7:19 PM, we rode Slinky Dog Dash.

Again.

Except this time?

At night.

Yes, we could have moved that Lightning Lane earlier.

No, I didn’t want to.

We’d already ridden Slinky during Early Entry. The entire point of keeping this reservation was to ride it after dark when Toy Story Land is all lit up.

And then we went straight to Toy Story Mania, just like we’d planned.

Talk about efficiency.

We weren’t bouncing from Sunset Boulevard to Toy Story Land to Galaxy’s Edge and back again.

We’d built the evening geographically:

Star Tours → Rise → Smugglers Run → Slinky Dog Dash → Toy Story Mania.

With Kat Saka’s Kettle and a little First Order entertainment thrown in because apparently we weren’t doing enough already. 😂

Obviously, This Required Ice Cream

By 8:03 PM, we were back on Sunset Boulevard.

And it was time for Hollywood Scoops.

Yummy.

At this point we’d been out of our French Quarter room for more than 13 hours.

But we weren’t done yet.

We had one final major experience waiting for us.

And because of the decision we’d made hours earlier to spend a leisurely dinner at Hollywood & Vine, we didn’t need to spend the end of our night worrying about getting a good seat.

Around 8:45 PM, we headed into the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater with our Fantasmic Dining Package preferred seating.

The show didn’t start until 9:30 PM, so yes, we still got there plenty early.

But we had excellent seats.

We could sit.

And after the day we’d just had, sitting sounded pretty darn fantastic. 😂

At 9:30 PM, Fantasmic began.

By 10 PM, it was over.

And by around 11 PM, I was back in my room at French Quarter.

What. A. Day.

And when I went back through all these timestamps, the thing that struck me wasn’t just how much we’d accomplished.

It was how much of it wasn’t rides.

Because somehow, in the middle of this gigantic Hollywood Studios day, we’d also found time to actually enjoy Hollywood Studios.

So… Did Combining Early Entry and Lightning Lane Actually Work?

Oh my goodness, yes.

This might actually be one of the best examples I have of why I don’t think Disney touring strategies should be an either/or proposition.

Should you use Early Entry?

And should you buy Lightning Lane?

Should you pay for a Single Pass?

And what about standby?

My answer after this day is basically:

Yes. 😂

Use whichever tool makes sense for what you’re trying to accomplish at that particular moment.

Because we didn’t ask Lightning Lane to carry this entire day.

Early Entry did something Lightning Lane couldn’t do nearly as well: it let us knock out Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash before 9:05 AM without using either of our nighttime Lightning Lane reservations.

Standby worked beautifully for Tower of Terror and Star Tours.

Lightning Lane helped us move through attractions and shows during the day without spending huge chunks of time waiting.

Our Single Pass put a second ride on Rise exactly where we wanted it in the evening.

And the Fantasmic Dining Package meant dinner doubled as a long rest break and gave us preferred seating for the final show of the night.

Every piece had a job.

That’s why the whole thing worked.

Early Entry Did the Heavy Lifting

If there’s one part of this strategy that made everything else possible, it was that first hour.

We left French Quarter at 6:56 AM.

Yes, that is painfully early. 😂

But look what we got for it.

By 8:32 AM, we’d finished Rise of the Resistance.

At 9:01 AM, we were riding Slinky Dog Dash.

Four minutes later, we were done.

That meant the regular park day was basically beginning and the two attractions that can cause some of the biggest planning headaches at Hollywood Studios were already behind us.

Except we weren’t actually finished with either one.

We’d deliberately saved a nighttime Lightning Lane for Slinky.

And we had a Single Pass for Rise later.

So Early Entry didn’t merely let us ride two headliners.

It gave us two bonus rides on attractions we already planned to experience later.

That’s a pretty fantastic return on getting out of bed before 7 AM.

Our First Lightning Lane Wasn’t Our Most Important Lightning Lane

I also love the Frozen Sing-Along choice in retrospect.

Because if you’re ranking Hollywood Studios attractions by how desperately they need Lightning Lane, Frozen probably isn’t sitting at the top of your list.

But that wasn’t why I chose it.

It had a 9:15 AM return time.

That meant we could finish our Early Entry strategy, tap into Frozen almost immediately after regular park opening and unlock our ability to make another Lightning Lane selection.

Plus, we wanted to see Frozen anyway.

And because the early show was practically empty, we got fantastic seats.

So much winning!

Sometimes the best Lightning Lane isn’t necessarily the hardest attraction to get.

Sometimes it’s the one that helps unlock the rest of your day.

I Would Absolutely Save Lightning Lanes for Night Again

I think this is another important takeaway.

There can be a temptation to move a Lightning Lane earlier just because an earlier time becomes available.

Earlier must be better, right?

Not necessarily.

I wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash at night.

Period.

We had already ridden it that morning, so there was absolutely no reason to move our evening reservation earlier just for the sake of being “more efficient.”

The nighttime ride was the experience I wanted.

Same basic idea with Toy Story Mania.

Keeping those two Lightning Lanes together meant we could hit Slinky at 7:19 PM and then immediately do Toy Story Mania without bouncing around the park.

It reminds me of something I’ve learned over and over again at Disney World:

Don’t optimize the fun out of your day.

The best return time isn’t always the earliest return time.

The Floater Lightning Lane Was Brilliant

This is probably the piece of the strategy I’d be most likely to deliberately recreate.

Two Lightning Lanes had permanent evening jobs.

The third one?

That sucker was working all day. 😂

It started as Frozen Sing-Along.

Then we turned it into Runaway Railway.

After Runaway Railway, it became Indiana Jones.

Once we tapped into Indiana Jones, we grabbed Smugglers Run for the evening.

So instead of constantly blowing up our entire plan every time another Lightning Lane appeared, we essentially had one flexible slot that could keep moving through the day.

That gave us structure without locking down every minute.

And I really, really liked that.

The Evening Stack Was Pretty Fantastic

Then there was this:

Star Tours → Rise of the Resistance → Kat Saka’s Kettle → Smugglers Run → First Order entertainment → Slinky Dog Dash → Toy Story Mania.

Chef’s kiss.

😂

The thing I particularly like about that sequence is that it made geographical sense.

We weren’t crisscrossing Hollywood Studios.

Star Tours naturally led us toward Galaxy’s Edge.

We did Rise, grabbed a snack and rode Smugglers Run.

Then we wandered through Galaxy’s Edge at night, caught some First Order entertainment and continued into Toy Story Land.

Slinky and Toy Story Mania were waiting for us there.

Done.

A good Lightning Lane stack isn’t just about having a bunch of reservations.

It’s about having reservations that actually work together.

Don’t Automatically Use Lightning Lane Just Because You Bought It

Tower of Terror is another great example.

We waited about 30 minutes.

That’s it.

Star Tours was basically the same philosophy later in the day. There was hardly any wait, so we just got in line.

Could I have tried to engineer Lightning Lanes for those attractions?

Probably.

Why?

If standby is short enough that I’m perfectly happy with the wait, I’m getting in the standby line.

Save the Lightning Lane flexibility for somewhere it matters.

Rest Was Part of the Strategy

This may be the least exciting part of the case study.

It might also be one of the most important.

We spent roughly an hour and a half at Hollywood & Vine.

In the middle of an incredibly productive Hollywood Studios day.

And I have zero regrets.

Our reservation was around 4 PM, which meant the restaurant was practically empty. We had tons of character interaction in those snazzy Silver Screen Dine costumes.

Dinner was slow, enjoyable.. and most importantly, restful.

And we didn’t leave until around 5:29 PM.

Could we have ridden another attraction or two during that time?

Of course.

But then we would have gone into our evening stack after already being on our feet for most of the day.

Instead, we started Round Two fed and rested.

That’s especially important because our day didn’t end at 7 PM.

We still had Rise, Smugglers Run, nighttime Slinky, Toy Story Mania, Hollywood Scoops and Fantasmic ahead of us.

Sometimes the best way to accomplish more at Disney World is to stop doing things for a while.

And the Fantasmic Dining Package Was Worth It

Our Hollywood & Vine reservation wasn’t just a rest break.

It was also our Fantasmic Dining Package.

Which meant that after everything we’d done that day, we didn’t have to end the evening stressed about getting a decent Fantasmic seat.

We still arrived around 8:45 PM for the 9:30 show, but we had preferred seating waiting for us.

And we could sit.

Glorious sitting. 😂

Fantasmic was the last major thing we did that night.

The show ended around 10 PM, and I was back at French Quarter by approximately 11.

That made for a very long day.

But it didn’t feel like we’d spent the entire day grinding our way through Hollywood Studios.

Look at Everything We Actually Did

This is where the timestamps get kind of bonkers.

Over the course of the day, we managed to experience:

• Rise of the Resistance twice
• Slinky Dog Dash twice
• Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
• Tower of Terror
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Sorcerer Mickey
• MuppetVision 3D
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• Star Tours
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• First Order entertainment
• Toy Story Mania
• Fantasmic

Plus Fairfax Fare, Joffrey’s, PhotoPass pictures, an almost 90-minute Hollywood & Vine character dinner, Kat Saka’s Kettle and Hollywood Scoops.

That’s a lot.

Like…

A LOT. 😂

But the number isn’t actually what impresses me most.

It’s the variety.

We didn’t spend the day doing nothing but rides.

We saw five shows if you include Fantasmic.

Met a character, took photos, and enjoyed two meals.

We stopped for snacks, drank coffee, and we spent a ridiculous amount of time at Hollywood & Vine.

After dark we stopped to appreciate Galaxy’s Edge at night.

We even caught some First Order entertainment simply because we happened to be there.

That’s the Hollywood Studios day I want.

Would I Use This Hollywood Studios Strategy Again?

Absolutely.

But I wouldn’t try to replicate every timestamp.

That’s not really the point of these case studies.

Crowds change.

Lightning Lane availability changes.

Ride downtime changes everything.

You might walk faster than I do—which, let’s face it, is highly likely. 😂

The useful part is the framework.

Use Early Entry for one or two difficult attractions.

Don’t waste Lightning Lane on a short standby wait.

Consider keeping one Lightning Lane flexible while protecting reservations you specifically want later.

Build stacks that make geographical sense.

Use meals and shows as opportunities to get off your feet.

And if there’s a particular version of an attraction you want—like Slinky Dog Dash after dark—don’t give it up just because the app offers something earlier.

That’s the strategy I’d steal from this day.

Not the exact schedule.

The Verdict: Early Entry and Lightning Lane Are Better Together

If I’d only used Early Entry, we still would have gotten off to a fantastic start.

If I’d only used Lightning Lane, we still could have had a great day.

But combining them?

That’s where the magic happened.

Early Entry removed the pressure to use Lightning Lane for Rise and Slinky first thing.

That gave us more freedom with Lightning Lane during the rest of the day.

Our floater kept working while our evening reservations stayed protected.

Standby filled the gaps when waits were reasonable.

The Single Pass gave us another ride on Rise exactly where it fit best.

Hollywood & Vine gave us a giant rest break and Fantasmic preferred seating.

And somehow all of those pieces came together into one of those Disney days where we did a ridiculous amount…

without spending the entire day feeling like we were trying to do a ridiculous amount.

That’s the win.

Not the ride count.

And not how many Lightning Lanes I managed to squeeze out of the system.

Or whether or not we maximized every possible minute.

We had an absolutely fantastic Hollywood Studios day which included the rides, all the shows, numerous snacks…

… and rest.

We said goodbye to the Muppets. Whaaaaaa. 😭

We rode Slinky under the lights.

And we ended with Fantasmic.

That’s pretty much my definition of crushing a Hollywood Studios day.

Keep Planning Your Hollywood Studios Day

If you’re planning your own Hollywood Studios day, these guides can help you decide which pieces of this strategy make sense for your family:

• Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategy: This is my complete guide to using Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios, including which attractions I prioritize and how I approach those first three selections.
• Hollywood Studios Early Entry Strategy: Early Entry did some serious heavy lifting on this particular day. If you’re willing to get up early, here’s how I approach those first precious minutes before the park officially opens.
• Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Strategy: We used Early Entry to knock out Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash before the regular park day really got going. My rope drop guide walks through the different ways you can tackle those difficult morning attractions.
• Hollywood Studios Rides and Attractions: You definitely don’t need to ride everything to have a fantastic day. Use this guide to figure out which Hollywood Studios attractions actually deserve a spot on your itinerary.
• Hollywood Studios Shows: Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, MuppetVision 3D and Fantasmic were a huge part of this day. Hollywood Studios has some fantastic shows, and I would absolutely leave room for them instead of filling every available minute with rides.
• Best Quick Service Restaurants at Hollywood Studios: We used Fairfax Fare for a fast Mobile Order lunch on this particular day, but there are plenty of other options depending on where you are in the park and what sounds good. Here’s my complete guide to the best Hollywood Studios quick-service restaurants.
• Best Snacks at Hollywood Studios: Kat Saka’s Kettle and Hollywood Scoops both made appearances during our evening touring. Because obviously a day that includes riding Rise and Slinky twice requires snacks. For science. 😂

More Real-World Disney Touring Case Studies

I love a good Disney touring strategy, but I also want to know what happens when you actually try it in the parks. These case studies use my real park days, complete with timestamps, wait times, meals, mistakes and occasionally questionable quantities of Disney snacks. 😂

You can browse all of my Disney Touring Case Studies, or check out these other real-world experiments:

• Hollywood Studios After a Red-Eye Flight: What happens when you land in Orlando ridiculously early, sleep for a few hours and don’t enter Hollywood Studios until lunchtime? This was my experiment in using Lightning Lane to turn an arrival day into a surprisingly productive park day.
• Animal Kingdom Lazy Rope Drop: I deliberately skipped the Flight of Passage stampede and started with Kilimanjaro Safaris instead. This one is all about what happens when you prioritize animals, shows and a relaxed morning over winning rope drop.
• Magic Kingdom Early Entry With Buzz Lightyear: Instead of joining the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan crowds, I started my morning with Buzz Lightyear and built the day from there. Sometimes zigging while everyone else zags works beautifully.
• Magic Kingdom Early Entry With Peter Pan: For this experiment, I did the more traditional thing and started with Peter Pan’s Flight before heading toward Adventureland at regular park opening. It’s a great comparison to my Buzz Lightyear Early Entry day.
• EPCOT With a Late Morning Start: I entered through International Gateway after 9:30 AM and tested how much EPCOT I could accomplish without rope drop, including Remy’s single-rider line, characters and plenty of World Showcase wandering.
• Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom Without Rope Drop: This was a deliberately relaxed two-park day that included Animal Kingdom, Extended Evening Hours and then a late-night hop to Magic Kingdom. Proof that a huge Disney day doesn’t necessarily have to begin before sunrise.
• Animal Kingdom on a Really Crowded Day: We didn’t arrive until after 11 AM, the park was absolutely packed, and my husband hates standing in lines. 😂 This was a fantastic test of whether paying to skip the lines could protect everyone’s mood without turning the day into a race.
• EPCOT Festival of the Holidays With a Late Start: After Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party the night before, we intentionally slept in and didn’t enter EPCOT until 12:13 PM. Lightning Lane helped us fit the rides around Candlelight Processional, Christmas cookies, Glimmering Greenhouses and everything else we actually wanted from a Christmas EPCOT day.