Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, After Hours, Rope Drop… huh?!
Welcome to the ups and downs of planning a trip to Walt Disney World, where all the terms and acronyms turn your trip planning into PhD-level research.
Most people heading to Disney World don’t truly research, however, so they aren’t aware of how to plan for and take advantage of the numerous benefits Disney grants visitors – like Early Entry, for example – to make their trip a little more magical.
But if your search has led you here, you’re way ahead of the pack.
With a varied selection of entertaining shows for all ages, immersive lands to explore, and popular rides ranging from silly fun to incredible technology to high thrills, a full day at Hollywood Studios means hitting a bit of everything.
That variety and popularity, however, make touring Hollywood Studios a little trickier than the other Disney parks. With so many headlining attractions, this park draws large crowds and long waits early that last most of the day, so a solid strategy for touring is crucial.
So, how do you make the most of your visit?
Let’s start by looking at one of the most underappreciated visitor perks: Early Entry.
What is Early Entry?
Early Entry is a benefit reserved for guests staying on property at Disney Resort and other select hotels, granting them access to the Disney parks 30 minutes before the official park opening.
At Hollywood Studios, almost all rides are open during Early Entry. This is great, but it also means you have some decisions to make. There are a lot of options, but we’ll go through all of them (strategically!).
Early Entry Pro Tips
Knowing the ins and outs of benefits like Early Entry will not just set you up for a successful park day, but you’ll also begin to learn to maximize your time at the parks. And we all know that, especially at Disney, time = money.
Here are our favorite tips when it comes to mastering Early Entry:
- Early Entry = Start Early. Early Entry often starts before it says it will. For example, if the park opens at 9 am and EE is at 8:30 am, some attractions will start operating 5-15 minutes earlier. It’s never much earlier than that, but it’s definitely a nice way to get the line rolling earlier, so factor it into your overall arrival time – especially if you’re like us and consider EE to be a competitive sport!
- Pause to take in the park. All guests with valid park admission will be allowed past the main turnstiles and onto Hollywood Boulevard, so even if you don’t have EE, you’ll still get a chance to enter early. We consider that worth it alone for the chance to grab your morning Starbucks at Trolley Car Cafe along with a Carrot Cake Cookie (a must). Plus, you’ll get to listen to Disney jazz music, which is some of our favorite in-park tunes!
- Be first for Rope Drop. Strategically speaking, if you don’t have EE, arriving early can also put you ahead of the (regular) crowd when the park officially opens at “rope drop.” While many rides lines will grow significantly by the official opening time at HS, you can still get a good jump start on certain attractions if you don’t have Early Entry but are still in the park.
Early Entry Attractions
Hollywood Studios has a variety of attractions that include a large mix of rides, shows, character greetings, and exhibits but know that only rides are available during Early Entry, not character greetings or early showings of Beauty and the Beast or anything like that.
Here’s the official list of attractions currently open during Early Entry:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Toy Story Mania!
Food Options
Although major quick service options at Hollywood Studios won’t typically open until closer to lunchtime, some food vendors will be accessible during Early Entry.
We’re fond of grabbing snacks and coffee at a Joffrey’s kiosk or The Trolley Car Cafe (aka Starbucks) if we need them, but note that we don’t necessarily recommend this approach.
If you’re up and at ‘em for Early Entry, you should really be using that time to focus on conquering the beautifully short lines for rides.
Our hot take? Fuel yourself to get through at least the first 90 minutes of your time in the park to make the most of the “extra” time you have. Some quick food in the room or to-go breakfast bars are our first line of defense, and then we’ll typically get a filling snack at Woody’s Lunch Box or in Galaxy’s Edge if we’re in either spot.
But usually, we prefer to eat beforehand and then settle down for an early lunch once we’ve gotten through our priority attractions for the morning and lines really start to grow. That way, you’re beating the long lunch lines, too! 😉
A Note on Early Entry v.s. Rope Drop
Before we get into the actual step-by-step attraction strategies, it’s important to know that there are two different terms used to signify opening times at the parks: Early Entry AND Rope Drop.
Historically, Rope Drop referred to the time when Cast Members would drop the (literal) rope for an attraction so guests could ride. There would additionally be multiple rope drops, such as an 8:30 am rope drop for Fantasyland rides when at Magic Kingdom, then another one at 9 am for Frontierland.
Many bloggers and publishers use the terms for park opening interchangeably, but for the purpose of OUR website and the strategies we have for the four parks, we use them separately:
- Early Entry refers to the attractions opening 30 minutes before the park officially does.
- Rope Drop, which we sometimes call Regular Rope Drop, refers to attractions opening at the official park opening time.
It will be clear below, but we needed to mention it!
Early Entry Strategies
Now, we can get to the fun part: planning your ride strategy on arrival. Your Early Entry strategy, however, will depend on multiple factors:
- How early you want to be there to line up for a ride (we’ll get more into this, but your timing matters for certain attractions).
- Whether you’re planning on purchasing and using Lightning Lane Multi Pass and/or Single Pass (which we strongly recommend for Hollywood Studios).
- How much of a crowd you want to deal with that early.
Note: Early Entry is a nice benefit, but it’s important to highlight that 30 minutes goes by quickly. You’ll typically only have time for 1-2 attractions MAX before moving to a regular itinerary (and starting to use your Lightning Lanes if you’ve paid for the Multi Pass), so being intentional with your time is crucial.
Let’s go through the different Early Entry strategies based on priority attractions so you can pick which works best for you:
Slinky Dog Dash
Let’s start by saying that you’re hopefully using the Lightning Lane Multi Pass [LLMP] at Hollywood Studios and following a good itinerary. There aren’t as many rides here as there are at say, Magic Kingdom, but most rides here are super headliners. That means it’s nearly impossible to “beat the long lines” without having Lightning Lane access at this park. It’s much more difficult here than any other park.
Let’s start by addressing one of the most popular attractions (and the ride that typically holds the longest line of the day): Slinky Dog Dash.
If you are using the LLMP, pre-booking Slinky Dog Dash as your Tier 1 ride is your best choice.
If you are not using LLMP, you should get in line for this ride before Early Entry starts and hit it first thing. This is the only way you’re going to see a <30-minute wait for the majority of the day for this ride.
But if you can, we recommend avoiding this ride in the morning because it can get chaotic quickly.
Rise of the Resistance
As one of the major headliners in all of Disney World, this is a super popular Early Entry option. But there’s one big caveat.
This ride sees a ton of downtime, typically in the morning. While it’s running more often than not in the morning, it’s still down a significant number of days each month. Enough so that we’d re-consider the strategy of hitting first, but just know you are rolling the dice if you decide to go here first thing.
You’ll also need to be there early, just like Slinky Dog Dash, to make sure you don’t get stuck in the back of the Early Entry line.
Our favorite option for riding Rise, though? When possible, we get in line in the last half hour of the night and typically have less than a 30-minute wait (sometimes even less).
Nighttime is a great option for riding it with a shorter wait and without paying for the Lightning Lane Single Pass (which is expensive).
If you do go with riding Rise during EE, however, it’s easy to hit Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run right after while you’re in Galaxy’s Edge. And then make sure to book your first Lightning Lanes in the morning for Toy Story Land since it’s right next door!
Kid-Focused/Chill Approach
If you’ve got young kids in your group or are looking for a little bit more of a relaxed start to your day at Hollywood Studios, consider hitting Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway first and/or Toy Story Land attractions that aren’t Slinky Dog Dash (i.e., Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers).
If it’s not a packed time of year, you can typically do those three attractions (in that order) and see pretty short waits in that first hour.
It’s a great plan to knock those out if you don’t have Lightning Lane access, but if you do, remember you don’t have to rush anything. You can get Lightning Lanes for all of these attractions sometime in the afternoon.
Thrills to Start the Day
If you’ve got an adult group, brave kids, or older kids/teens, another great option in the morning is hitting the two thrill headliners on Sunset Boulevard: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. These rides are amazing but see lower crowds since so many guests head to Slinky or Rise of the Resistance.
Pro Tip: They are also rides that are fun to do twice, which you may either A) have enough time to do in the early morning or B) ride once in the morning, then again with your Lightning Lane Multi Pass later. Score!
It’s typically more strategic to hit Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first, as it’s a reasonably short ride compared to Tower of Terror, which can take a while (and often doesn’t grow as quickly in wait time).
We love this option for Early Entry because the crowds are a little lower than the rest of the park. Not to mention we can also get a morning coffee at the Joffrey’s outside of the Tower of Terror, which almost never has a wait.
In Conclusion
Like most parks, you’ve got multiple options for Early Entry, and they’re all solid. Just remember, the biggest thing with choosing an EE strategy is to factor in your Lightning Lane pre-booked attractions (if using it), and your overall itinerary.
Next: Make sure to check out our full itineraries to successfully set up the rest of your Hollywood Studios day – and beyond!