In this post, I recap a visit I made to Hollywood Studios on January 6, 2022. You can find other trip / visit reports here.

About This Day and Genie+ Setup

I wasn’t at a Disney resort, so I didn’t have Early Entry or access to individual Lightning Lanes at 7AM. I was visiting with a friend—M, no relation to the Spaceship Earth narrator—whose priority was the new rides. Our plan (which worked out) was to purchase Genie+ and both individual Lightning Lanes. This wasn’t meant to be a hardcore touring day, although we wound up doing a lot.

I woke up and bought Genie+ at 6:45AM. I ran Genie setup and made sure my only “Top Pick” attraction was Slinky Dog Dash, so it was at the top of my Tip Board. I opened up a world clock on my computer and pulled to refresh right at 7AM and tapped through, winding up with a 10AM-11AM slot. By about 7:00:09 the slots were in the evening, and by about 7:00:20 they were gone.

My tapping was a tad slow today, but I think the quick sellout was indicative of relatively high crowds (indeed, Thrill Data suggests it was a very busy day). Marathon weekend is typically not too busy (there are a few reasons for this), but I think the first race of the weekend (the 5K) might not be as impactful as the later races (but also predicting crowds is…difficult).

Since park open is 9AM, I’d be able to make a new Genie+ selection once I used Slinky Dog Dash or at 11AM (which was, coincidentally, both two hours after open and when my Slinky Dog Dash pick would expire if I didn’t use it).

“Late” Arrival to Hollywood Studios

Without Early Entry, there isn’t much to make of rope drop (which, without Early Entry here isn’t really rope drop) on busy days. You can arrive early to try and be in the park right at open, and you often can check off some boxes if you beat the regular crowds, particularly if you’re willing to just start at Alien Swirling Saucers or Star Tours (both at 5 minutes as of 9:05AM today). On a lighter day you might even get reasonable waits for Tower of Terror or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (both over 45 minutes by 9:05AM today).

We parked (as an annual passholder I get free parking) around 8:50AM and were at the gates around 8:55AM. M had to go get a plastic ticket card (she doesn’t have a magic band and purchased her ticket online) from the ticket desk, which took only a few minutes.

I was surprised that at 8:59AM the Cast Members started directing all guests, including Disney resort guests, to the back of the long lines at the gates. While non-Disney resort guests aren’t allowed in until 9AM, Early Entry access closes at 8:59AM, I guess.

My goal for 9AM was to get a Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance. I was surprised to see 6:30-ish slots still available in the minutes leading up. Recall you can choose any time you want when booking an individual Lightning Lane at Disney World, but earlier slots still sell out fastest (I typically aim for a slot around 2PM-4PM if I can).

I modified my Tip Board selections to put Rise at the top. Without a world clock handy to help me to pull to refresh right at 8:59:59, I pulled to refresh right when my clock hit 9:00. As I tapped through, I was surprised Emily was included in my party.

While she wasn’t with us, she did have a parks pass reservation for Hollywood Studios today. I was pretty sure, though, that I’d run Genie and set up my party without her. In any case, I couldn’t risk the time to modify my party, so I paid an extra $15+tax. Instagram followers told me guest services has refunded them in this case (I didn’t have time to make the visit there today).

I wound up with a 6:35PM - 7:35PM booking ($47.94 for three people). I went ahead and made my purchase of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (less of a rush, so I was able to remove Emily) for 2:35PM - 3:35PM ($17.04 for two people).

With long lines outside the park, we were through the gates and inside at 9:13AM.

Morning at Hollywood Studios

With Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster posting waits of over 45 minutes already, any hope of quickly tackling those rides was gone. Tower of Terror could have been a good pick—we’d be done just before our Slinky Dog time and have one less Genie+ Lightning Lane to worry about.

I think people make a mistake assuming just because you buy Genie+ you shouldn’t wait in any lines. The busier the day, the faster Genie+ slots will run out, and the fewer rides you’ll get done via Genie+. You don’t want it to be 1PM and you’re facing a choice between an 8PM slot for Tower and an 8PM slot for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and now you’re thinking “gee I wish instead of shopping for an hour this morning I’d ridden Tower.” (But again, shopping in the morning might be the right call for you—it’s your vacation!)

Since we were flexible, we passed on those waits. Alien Swirling Saucers and Star Tours were posted 5. We decided to head to Saucers, expecting the wait to be longer by the time we got there. The line was all the way to the entrance by the time we got there—definitely longer than 5, probably closer to 20-30 (the posted wait soon updated to 30 minutes), so we skipped that too.

We had several times throughout the day when a wait for Star Tours or Alien Swirling Saucers would have made sense for an average guest. Yes, your odds of getting a Lightning Lane later are good. Yes, your odds of finding a short evening wait are good. But yes, a 20 / 30-minute wait for Alien Swirling Saucers is can be a fine use of 20 / 30 minutes early in the day.

Skipping any immediate rides, we headed to Ronto Roasters, where I got a Three Suns Breakfast Wrap and M got an allergy friendly wrap. I’m wholly unfamiliar with allergies at Disney World (fi you have allergies, I recommend Mouse Ear Memories for Disney allergy content and instagram). Generally throughout the two days I spent in the park with M, I was happy to see Disney taking the gluten/wheat allergy seriously, using separate trays, and confirming it every time I picked up the food.

After the snack, M rode Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run via single rider (I skipped some rides this visit). The posted wait was 60 minutes and she waited 10, riding at 9:45AM. Similar to my point above, I like tackling Smugglers Run early, including via single rider, because it’s the second most popular Genie+ Lightning Lane in the park. Getting it done gives you added flexibility the rest of your day.

We headed to Slinky Dog Dash, waiting 6 minutes in the Lightning Lane vs. a standby wait for 100 minutes, riding at 10:07AM. I grabbed our second Lightning Lane, a 2:25PM slot for Tower of Terror. Our loyal reader may remember our Tower of Terror / Rise of the Resistance scheduling fiasco from our last visit report. Well, I’d double booked again (this time Tower and Runaway Railway), so I set an alarm on my phone for 2PM to make sure we’d be at Tower ASAP. I also set a 2 hour timer to remind myself to book my next Genie+ Lightning Lane.

On busier days at Hollywood Studios with Genie+, you wind up in this situation a lot—nothing booked until the afternoon, two hours until you can book anything else, and long waits across the board. This means you’ll probably start with time-fillers / shows earlier.

We watched Muppet*Vision 3D at 10:20AM, the Pixar Pals Motorcade at 10:45AM, and the 11AM Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage. As always, the go-to would be to hustle to Frozen Sing Along after Beauty and the Beast and see if you can get into the 11:30 show, but we weren’t interested in it today. We walked around a bit. The 12PM Indiana Jones show filled up a few minutes before start, so we went to the Mickey Shorts Theater at 12:14PM. My standard approach to shows is “try to get in 1 minute before the first showtime, 5 minutes before the second showtime, 15 minutes before the third…” or something to that effect.

Around then it was time to grab another Lightning Lane. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster looked like it had run out, but I refreshed a few times and was able to grab a 6:35PM-7:35PM slot (then I set a 2-hour timer). This time was less than ideal as it was the exact window I had for Rise of the Resistance, but if you get to one right at the start of the hour you shouldn’t have trouble getting to the second in time. (Rumors suggest Disney is more strict with individual Lightning Lane times than Genie+ times. I know flexibility with Genie+ times is pretty common, so I always prioritize individual Lightning Lane times.)

One thing I want to say about refreshing is that you should keep an eye on your desired ride before it comes time to book. If a ride is gone at 11AM and you don’t see any times, even after refreshes, by noon, it’s mostly just gone for the day (popular rides don’t get cancelled very often). If you see times come and go, either the system is playing games with you or people are still cancelling. If you’re seeing some times come and go, it might be worth it to refresh a bit when your time comes around.

We caught the 12:45PM Mickey and Friends Motorcade and grabbed coffee at Starbucks. After a bit of walking around, we visited the “Walt Disney Presents…” museum, skipping the movie for now and instead having a late lunch over at Catalina Eddie’s.

Afternoon and Evening at Hollywood Studios

During our late lunch it was time to pick another Lightning Lane. My target was Toy Story Mania, which I'd seen some late availability for about 15 minutes prior. It took about 5 minutes of refreshing, but I lucked into a 4:40PM-5:40PM slot (and set a two hour timer).

At this point we held three Genie+ Lightning Lanes:

2:25PM Tower of Terror
4:40PM Toy Story Mania
6:35PM Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

This was in addition to the two individual Lightning Lanes

2:35PM Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
6:35PM Rise of the Resistance

We used the Tower of Terror Lightning Lane right at its start, waiting 15 minutes vs. a posted 70 minute wait. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was down when we got there, so we grabbed Root Beer Floats from Epic Eats (next to the Indiana Jones entrance). When it came back up, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was posted 75, 13 via Lightning Lane and we were done around 3:30PM.

With an hour before our Toy Story Mania Lightning Lane, we headed to Star Tours, which had a 15 minute posted wait. We waited 11, riding at 3:53PM. Now we only had one ride with a Lightning Lane unaccounted for—Alien Swirling Saucers.

My two hour timer went off around 4:15PM, and after over 5 minutes of refreshing, I got a 6:50PM-7:50PM slot for Alien Swirling Saucers. I was really dreading the idea of waiting in that line, so this was welcome news.

We passed some time with the "One Man's Dream" film before our Toy Story Mania Lightning Lane, which had us on at 5:07PM (posted 70, 14 via Lightning Lane).

Having missed the recently reopened Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular throughout the day, we headed to the theater early for the final 6PM showing. It's always tough timing showtimes. You don't want to waste time arriving early, but you don't want to miss the show, either. Since we had plenty of time, arriving early was fine.

The revamped show was a little awkward, possibly because I'm familiar with the old show, possibly because there was a few minute delay because they couldn’t get the first set out of the way. I’d still recommend it as part of any day at Hollywood Studios, but I’m probably a little less willing to arrive 45 minutes before showtime than in the past.

In any case we finished a little late around 6:40PM, and it was time for our final batch of Lightning Lanes.

At Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster M waited 11 minutes in the Lightning Lane vs. 85 posted, riding at 6:57PM (I skipped this one). Rise of the Resistance had a long wait, 28 via Lightning Lane vs. posted 85, and we rode at 7:45PM. We were a tad late (with no issues) to Alien Swirling Saucers, riding at 8:02PM after a 7 minute wait in the Lightning Lane (25 posted).

We could have gone to Alien Swirling Saucers at about 7:15PM, aiming to be off and at Rise by 7:35PM, but I felt strongly rather than get to Rise anytime close to 7:35PM, I’d rather arrive late to Alien Swirling Saucers.

We wrapped the day up with dinner at Woody’s Lunch Box, followed by the two projection shows—Disney Movie Magic (8:40) and Wonderful World of Animation (9PM). If you’re lucky, people will stay seated for these shows (or at least the first one). Once a few people stand, though, everyone will.

Conclusions

Today was sort of a “cheat” day—$15+$15+$8=$38 plus tax per person spent on Lightning Lanes. That said, it was also a very busy day at the park, so I was happy to see that we were able to put together a pretty complete day (and anything we missed could have fit into our downtime easily) once we’d forked over the necessary money.

I was also happy to see that refreshing worked so well. Here are the rough times I grabbed my Lightning Lanes:

7AM — Slinky Dog Dash
10AM — Tower of Terror
12PM — Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
2PM — Toy Story Mania
4PM — Alien Swirling Saucers

If you look over at the Thrill Data Lightning Lane table for the day, you’ll see those last three had almost no availability at or after the times I booked them. (Theoretically I should have booked Rock ‘n’ Roller before Tower of Terror, but I usually decline to do that because Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster has the single rider line as a backup option.) Our friend Ali over at Wish Upon a Planner was an early fan of refreshing, and I probably undervalued it until now.

Here’s the full itinerary for the day:

6:45 Buy Genie+
7AM Book Slinky Dog LL (all others booked in 2 hour increments)
8:55 Arrive
9AM Buy Rise LL
9:29 Ronto Wrap
9:45 Smugglers Run (posted 60, 10 single rider)
10:07 Slinky Dog (posted 100, 6 via ⚡️)
10:20 MuppetVision 3D
11AM Beauty and the Beast
12:15 Mickey and Minnie Short
1PM Walt Disney Presents (museum)
1:30 Lunch
2:35 Tower of Terror (posted 70, 15 ⚡️)
3:31 Runaway Railway (post 75, 13 via ⚡️)
3:52 Star Tours (posted 15, actual 11)
4:32 One Man’s Dream (short film)
5:06 Toy Story Mania (posted 70, 14 via ⚡️)
6PM Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
6:57 Rock n Roller Coaster (post 85, 11 ⚡️)
7:45 Rise (post 85, 28 ⚡️)
8:02 Alien Swirling Saucers (post 25, 7 ⚡️)
8:10 Dinner at Woodys
8:40 Disney Movie Magic
9PM Wonderful World of Animation

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

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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.

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Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane 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 Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

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.

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