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NOTICE: FASTPASS+ Discontinued and Replaced
FastPass+ has been discontinued and replaced. To learn more about its replacement, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, consult the following posts:
Original Post
In this post we discuss how to use FastPass+ successfully at Hollywood Studios in 2020, including the Hollywood Studios FastPass tiers and the best rides to Fastpass at Hollywood Studios. We also cover Toy Story Land FastPass+ strategy and discuss the addition of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway to FastPass+!
We also suggest reading our Walt Disney World FastPass+ strategy for a complete understanding of the FastPass+ system. To hear more about specific rides, check out our Hollywood Studios rides guide. We’ve also applied this strategy to put together a one-day Hollywood Studios itinerary.
We also recommend checking our most recent trip report to see if we’ve provided any updates and just to see how this strategy is holding up.
Important: Disney World Phased Reopening Notice
This topic is temporarily impacted by the ongoing phased reopening of Walt Disney World after its extended mid-2020 closure. We highly recommend you also visit our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost, where we highlight specific issues guests will face during this unique time.
FastPass+ is temporarily suspended during the initial reopening period. We don't know when or if it will return.
THE BASICS OF Hollywood Studios FASTPASS+
Again, you'll want to check out the full Walt Disney World Fastpass+ strategy post to make sure you really understand FastPass+, but we want to give those of you who are just looking for the basics a quick intro. Click here to jump past the intro if you’ve read it before.
FastPass+ Allows You To “Skip The Lines” At Walt Disney World
With FastPass+, a person can book an hour window to come back to certain rides and skip the lines. Since waits for some rides can get to three or more hours (even six hours on New Year's Eve), FastPass+ is an important part of planning your day at Hollywood Studios.
We’ve started putting “skip the lines” in quotes because you’ll usually still have some wait with FastPass+, it’s just much shorter than the regular wait. A long wait with FastPass+ might be a 20 minute wait for a ride that has standby waits of 100+ minutes.
You Can Book FastPass+ 30 or 60 Days In Advance
Guests at Disney hotels can book FastPass+ for their entire stay 60 days in advance of the first day of their stay. If you're not staying at a Disney hotel, you can book FastPass+ 30 days in advance. You can make bookings on the My Disney Experience app or online via the Disney website.
Advance Bookings Are Limited (And Go Fast)
When booking FastPass+ in advance, you can book three rides each day. Those three rides must be at the same park. At Hollywood Studios, you can book one Tier 1 attraction in advance and two Tier 2 attractions in advance (or three Tier 2 and no Tier 1). Some tier 1 rides fill up 30 to 60 days in advance, though you’ll see sporadic availability pop up even on the same day.
Tap / Grab / Modify Gets You The Most Out of FastPass+
Once you've used your three advance FastPass+ bookings, you can get new FastPass+ reservations throughout the day. You simply:
“Tap” your Mickey at the start of the line to use your last FastPass+
Open the My Disney Experience app on your cell phone and “Grab” a FastPass+ for the next ride you want to ride
“Modify” that FastPass+ to the best time you can find
Tap / Grab / Modify will keep you out of lines all day long.
FastPass+ During Special Events
FastPass+ is only available during regular park hours at Hollywood Studios. It is not available for special events held before or after regular park hours, like Hollywood Studios After Hours.
Splitting Days at the Parks
If you won’t be in the parks for one day at each park, we have posts on two-day Disney World trips and three-day Disney World trips that discuss how you might efficiently divide your days (and FastPass+ reservations) across multiple parks.
Recent and Upcoming Hollywood Studios Changes
Before we get to the details of Hollywood Studios FastPass, we want to talk about what happened in 2019 and what’s coming in 2020 in Hollywood Studios. Feel free to skip down if you’re not interested in this, but there’s a lot going on at the park.
Recent Changes at Hollywood Studios
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (Star Wars Land) opened on August 29, 2019. The land opened with one new attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and the second attraction, Rise of the Resistance, opened on December 5.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, a trackless dark ride without a height requirement (the park’s second such ride), opened on March 4, 2020.
Is Rise of the Resistance on FastPass+?
No, Rise of the Resistance is not a part of FastPass+ at Walt Disney World. The only way to ride it is currently by Boarding Pass, though as some point standby and FastPass+ will be added (read more about riding Rise of the Resistance here). Currently, Disney has only told us that Rise will not be part of FastPass+ in the short term.
Is Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run on FastPass+?
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is a Tier 1 FastPass+ along with Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
Is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway on FastPass+?
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a Tier 1 FastPass+ along with Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
The Future at Hollywood Studios
We’ve still got two changes we expect to happen eventually at Hollywood Studios…but I have no idea when.
Unknown date — Rise of the Resistance gets standby line (slightly impacting FastPass+ strategy)
Unknown date — Rise of the Resistance added to FastPass+
Hopefully these happen at the same time, because we’re as sick as you are of the constant changes to the park.
Hollywood Studios Fastpass Tiers
Your Hollywood Studios FastPass+ choices are part of building your Hollywood Studios rope drop strategy. If you don’t have a FastPass+ for it, you’ll go there when the park opens.
This is a good time to remind you to check the height requirements at Disney World when booking FastPass+, as Runaway Railway and Toy Story Mania are the only rides without a height requirement. While you’re at it, read about visiting Hollywood Studios with a toddler.
With that in mind, here are our suggestions for Hollywood Studios FastPass+ selections:
Hollywood Studios Fastpass Tier 1 Attractions
The two Hollywood Studios FastPass Tier 1 attractions are:
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (also has single rider)
Slinky Dog Dash
Rise of the Resistance is still not a part of FastPass+.
Best Hollywood Studios Rides To Fastpass (Tier 1)
We’re currently recommending the following priority:
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Slinky Dog Dash
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (also has single rider)
While we expect things to change as the weeks going on, at least initially (as of the addition of Runaway Railway) it’s not possible to quickly get on two Tier 1 rides to start the day. This means you’ll FastPass+ one, rope drop one, and visit one at some point later in the day.
To that end, Runaway Railway hasn’t been consistently exceeding Slinky Dog Dash in wait times, but it is more or less meeting it and you ideally don’t want to rope drop Runaway Railway because the queue sometimes opens early, and if you’re inside the building (or on the ride) when Rise of the Resistance boarding groups open, your cell signal might not be good enough to get one.
Smugglers Run has a single rider line and pretty consistently sees waits mid-afternoon that are below Slinky Dog Dash and Runaway Railway. It’s not a bad situation if you wind up with it, but the other two are better to have.
Additionally, you can read about skipping FastPass+ reservations to allow you earlier access to Tier 1 searches.
Hollywood Studios Fastpass Tier 2 Attractions
The Hollywood Studios FastPass Tier 2 attractions are:
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (also has single rider)
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Alien Swirling Saucers
Star Tours
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Disney Junior Dance Party!
Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Muppet Vision 3D
Beauty and the Beast
Fantasmic!
Best Hollywood Studios Rides To FastPass (Tier 2)
The best Tier 2 FastPass+ selection at Hollywood Studios are two of the following three: Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror.
The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror pairing is the most appealing for most guests. This allows you to go to Toy Story Mania early in your morning, and that’s going to be closer to your first ride than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, which are relatively far from everything else.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is arguably the best roller coaster in the park, but as it offers single rider, some guests might prefer to use one of Tier 2 slots for Toy Story Mania, hoping to luck into a short Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster wait or else to use the single rider line.
If you wind up with either Alien Swirling Saucers or Star Tours, it’s not the worst thing. But if you wind up with none of the three we recommend, you really should keep searching or maybe even plan multiple visits to Hollywood Studios to avoid being stuck in lines all day long.
Fantasmic! is a popular choice, but it locks you into that as your last slot the rest of the day. That means you can’t get a fourth, fifth, etc. FastPass+. With the park as busy at is can get, you’ll really want to be able to use your initial three FastPass+ and then move on to booking more rides.
Another way to get preferred seating on Fantasmic! and save a FastPass+ slot is to book a Fantasmic! dining package, which can be a great use of Disney dining plan table service credits.
Hollywood Studios FastPass+ Planning
Now that we’ve covered the Hollywood Studios FastPass+ tiers, we need to talk about how to plan a few other aspects of FastPass+.
Timing Your Hollywood Studios FastPass+ Reservations
While we generally recommend you book your FastPass+ times starting a few hours into the day, at Hollywood Studios you’re probably fine with your first one starting an hour or so into the day.
This is because rope drop (covered next) at Hollywood Studios isn’t an powerful as it used to be. You won’t plow through six rides in two hours anymore. Once you’re through one or two, waits are going to be pretty high, and you’re going to want to start using FastPass+.
This also allows you to have your afternoon free for piecing together showtimes, which is what you’ll probably spend most of your afternoon at Hollywood Studios doing.
Rope Drop at Hollywood Studios
Allow yourself one to two hours for “rope drop.” This is the time right when the park opens and you are trying to get on one ride after the other, staying ahead of the crowds.
We have a post that more fully covers rope drop strategy at Hollywood Studios. The short version is that you’ll be using rope drop to try and visit the major rides that you didn’t book FastPass+ for.
Because waits are peaking so early at Hollywood Studios, rope drop isn’t what it used to be. It’s good for one or two rides, but on high crowd days you won’t get more out of it than that.
(Note that, as of this update, a boarding pass system is being used to allocate space on Rise of the Resistance.)
Tap, Grab, and Modify FastPass+ While In Hollywood Studios
Tap, Grab, and Modify hasn’t been particularly valuable at Hollywood Studios since the tiers changed in February 2020. We’re seeing very limited same-day availability for the major Tier 2 rides and over the course of around three full days at Hollywood Studios in March I saw no same-day Tier 1 availability.
This basically means you need to be a little more aggressive with what lines you’re willing to wait in. In the past I’d never wait in 60-minute lines, but I’m finding they’re sometimes the best option these days. Hopefully this changes as the park settles into its new grooves.
Another common question is whether you can skip (or not book) a FastPass+ reservation in order to search for a second Tier 1 without using two Tier 2 FastPasses. You should read that post for more on that strategy (because the answer isn’t a simple yes or no).
It’s especially important that you try and use your FastPass+ reservations as soon as possible. For example, let’s say you book 11AM Toy Story Mania, 12:15PM Star Tours, and 3PM Muppet Vision 3D. Your strategy would be the following:
Use Toy Story Mania at 11AM
Modify Muppet Vision 3D to ASAP, hopefully to 11:05AM
Alternatively, Modify Star Tours to ASAP
Use Second FastPass+ (whichever you modified to be earlier)
Modify third FastPass+ to ASAP
Use Third FastPass+
Grab a Tier 1 ride with your fourth FastPass+
If you were able to get that 11:05AM Muppet Vision, you could start searching for your fourth FastPass+ as early as 12:15PM after you tap into Star Tours. Without the modifications, you would have needed to wait until your 3PM Muppet Vision FastPass+.
Hollywood Studios FastPass+ Kiosks
While we always recommend using Disney's official, free My Disney Experience app to snag Fastpass+ reservations, the physical kiosks are located at:
At Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. (across from the Starbucks)
Next to Tower of Terror
Just outside the entrance to Toy Story Land
In Grand Park (by Muppet Vision 3D)
We suggest checking the Walt Disney World website to confirm kiosk locations in case they change before we update this post.
How To Spend One Full Day At Hollywood Studios
We have a full post dedicated to our one-day Hollywood Studios itinerary.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And at 180 days out it's time to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World FastPass+ strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom FastPass, Epcot FastPass, Animal Kingdom FastPass, and Hollywood Studios FastPass.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.