Disney World 50th Anniversary Trip Report (Part 9 - Hollywood Studios Early Entry)

Welcome to the final post of our Disney World 50th Anniversary trip report. We end with a second attempt at Hollywood Studios Early Entry!

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Early Entry at Hollywood Studios

This was our second visit to Early Entry at Hollywood Studios. With Emily having started with Slinky Dog Dash a few days ago (part 4), I was tasked with a popular request—the Rise of the Resistance start. I boarded what was presumably the first bus to Hollywood Studios from Gran Destino at 7:14AM, arriving at 7:22AM for the 8:30AM start of Early Entry.

Just as I walked up to a small crowd, security started walking us toward the entrance, and I was inside the park at 7:33AM. I had a very short delay because of something I know to be an ongoing issue—when I scanned my Magic Band for early entry, it said I wasn’t eligible.

This glitch has occurred to many people on their checkout day, but like all Disney hotel perks, your Early Entry privileges extend to your checkout day. I showed the Cast Member my reservation in my phone and was let through, but I’ve also heard of people being sent to guest services (who remedy the situation, but by then you’ve lost ground to other guests).

As Emily mentioned a few days ago, there isn’t a sign for Rise of the Resistance, but to get there you head left at the Chinese Theater and past Star Tours.

Guests heading to Rise of the Resistance are actually queued outside the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge. Much of the queue is backstage, so it might look small as you walk up when actually it’s quite long.

At 8:10AM we started the walk to Rise of the Resistance. This was in line with what happens at Animal Kingdom, where the walk to Avatar Flight of Passage begins early. I wound up boarding with the first group of recruits and was off the ride at 8:38AM.

Overall this is a great outcome. Rise isn’t super well-positioned in the park, but you’ve got Smugglers Run very near and Toy Story Land not too far.

The big question is just going to be how reliable this is. That 28 minute process eats all of your Early Entry time if it starts at 8:30AM instead of 8:10AM. That’s maybe not a huge loss, but generally I’m more nervous about this rope drop than Slinky Dog Dash rope drop. (All that said, I think the balance of factors beginning October 19 will favor buying Genie+ and rope dropping Rise of the Resistance, but we shall see.)

From Rise I booked it all the way to the far reaches of the park, to Tower of Terror, more or less walking right on at 8:53AM. At 8:58AM I should have booked it back to the center of the park to try and beat the 9AM crowds to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, but instead I went to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which was a more relaxing approach, walking right on at 9:04AM. (As always I point out that both Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Smugglers Run have single rider lines, making them generally lower priority if you’re willing to use those lines later).

And that was it! I had a Mickey bar (a new thing I do), Ubered back to Coronado Springs and then Ubered to the airport to reunite with Emily and Zoe, who had taken Magical Express earlier in the morning!

Thanks for reading another trip report. With Genie+ and Lightning Lanes debuting soon, we’ll have some extended time in Florida, so you might see a few “Visit” Reports replacing these traditional trip reports for a while!