In this post we discuss how to use Lightning Lanes successfully at Hollywood Studios in 2024 under the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass systems. This includes our Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane priorities and the best rides for Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios. We also discuss Lightning Lane Single Pass access and how to balance your use of Lightning Lanes, standby lines, and single rider lines at Hollywood Studios.
Reminder: Genie+ Is Gone
Disney World’s Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane systems had their last day of operation on July 23. Genie+ has been replaced by Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Individual Lightning Lanes have been replaced by Lightning Lane Single Pass. This post focuses entirely on the new systems.
Related Posts
We also suggest reading our Walt Disney World Lightning Lane guide for a complete understanding of the Multi Pass and Single Pass systems.
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.
Finally, your Lightning Lane strategy should always complement your rope drop (or Early Entry) strategy—if you won’t be getting a Lightning Lane for a ride, it makes sense to go to it early when it has a short wait. Our Hollywood Studios rope drop guide covers your options in more depth.
THE BASICS OF Hollywood Studios Lightning Lanes
Again, you’ll want to check out our Walt Disney World Lightning Lanes Strategy Guide to make sure you really understand Lightning Lanes, but we want to give those of you who are just looking for the basics a quick intro.
Lightning Lanes Allow You To “Skip The Lines” At Walt Disney World
“Lightning Lanes” are the way to “skip the line” at Disney World, and there are two paid services to access them—Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass (sometimes just “Multi Pass”) is a paid (expected roughly $15 to $35 per person, plus tax, depending on the day) skip-the-line system at Walt Disney World. By purchasing Multi Pass for the day of your visit to a Disney World park, you’ll be able to make bookings to access “Lightning Lanes” which are shorter lines than the regular “standby” lines that most rides have.
We’ve put “skip the lines” in quotes because you’ll usually still have some wait in a Lightning Lane, it’s just much shorter than the regular wait. A typical wait in a Lightning Lane is 5 to 10 minutes. A long wait in a Lightning Lane might be a 20 minute wait for a ride that has standby waits of 100+ minutes.
Not all attractions are included in Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Some attractions don’t have Lightning Lanes and some attractions with Lightning Lanes aren’t included in Multi Pass.
At Hollywood Studios, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has a Lightning Lane but is not part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass. To access that Lightning Lane you’ll have to make a separate Lightning Lane Single Pass purchase. We discuss the included attractions at Hollywood Studios later in this post.
You can make three advance reservations in Multi Pass. The advance booking windows vary based on whether you are a guest of a Disney resort (or select partner resort) or not. Guests of Disney resorts and select partner resorts can purchase Multi Pass for any day of trip (up to the first 14 days) beginning 7 days in advance of their check-in date at 7AM. Other guests can book 3 days in advance of their park visit at 7AM.
Advance reservations are “tiered” at three parks, including Hollywood Studios. At Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, you can only make one advance reservation from the “tier 1” rides. The remaining two (or all three, if you so choose) will have to be from the “tier 2” group. Animal Kingdom does not have two tiers.
Tier and park restrictions only matter for initial bookings. Once you tap into your first Lightning Lane of the day, you’re able to pick new reservations and modify existing reservations in any Tier and at any park.
You can make new Lightning Lane reservations as you use them. You have three slots for Lightning Lanes to keep filled throughout the day. Once you use one, you can book a new one.
You can choose / modify your Lightning Lane time. You can pick a time slot from a limited selection (usually up to 3 times in any hour, subject to availability) when you book your Lightning Lane. As always, you can also modify the time, which will usually be an important part of fitting as many rides into your day as possible.
Lightning Lanes Not Available During Special Events
Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass are only available during regular park hours at Hollywood Studios. They are not available for special events held before or after regular park hours, like Hollywood Studios After Hours or Jollywood Nights. They also aren’t available during Early Theme Park Entry or Extended Evening Hours.
Park Hopping With Lightning Lane Multi Pass
Your advance reservations have to be in a single park. Once you use a Lightning Lane on the day of your visit, it sounds as if you’ll be able to make your next pick in any other park. At that time, you can also modify any reservation to be in any park.
We have posts on two-day Disney World trips and three-day Disney World trips.
Purchasing Lightning Lanes for Hollywood Studios
Before we get to strategy, let’s talk about how you get Lightning Lanes to begin with.
When can I purchase Multi Pass?
Guests of Disney resorts and select partner resorts can purchase Multi Pass for any day of trip (up to the first 14 days) beginning 7 days in advance of their check-in at 7AM. Other guests can book 3 days in advance of their park visit at 7AM. (Note there is an exception for international guests.)
How much does Multi Pass Cost?
Lightning Lane Multi Pass pricing varies by the park you book your initial three Lightning Lanes in. Here’s an example pricing lineup:
Magic Kingdom - $29
Hollywood Studios - $26
Epcot - $21
Animal Kingdom - $18
Everyone in your group needs to have Multi Pass if they plan to use the Lightning Lanes for the Multi Pass attractions. If someone in your party isn’t going on the rides via Multi Pass, then of course they don’t need Multi Pass.
Is Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios Worth It?
We think Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios is definitely worth it. Hollywood Studios is a park with a small, but all-star lineup of rides, with Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Tower of Terror all “can’t miss” rides on Multi Pass. Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Tours are great rides, too.
Hollywood Studios tends to have some of the heftiest waits in Walt Disney World, and the best way to bypass these is going to be Multi Pass. You could wait in the long standby lines, but besides being a drag that will likely mean missing out on some of the other things the park has to offer—like it’s stage shows or nighttime spectacular, Fantasmic.
If you have Early Entry (a perk of Disney resort guests), on the average day you’ll be able to avoid buying the Single Pass Lightning Lane, but we’d still recommend Multi Pass.
If you have access to something like Extended Evening Hours or After Hours at Hollywood Studios, or if you have two days at Hollywood studios, you won’t need to worry about Lightning Lanes at all (provided you plan those events accordingly).
If you feel like there are only a few rides worth doing at Hollywood Studios, you might consider pairing it with a visit to EPCOT, conveniently connecting by sidewalk, boat, and Skyliner. This can make Multi Pass a more justified purchase.
Lightning Lane Single Pass Purchases
In case you forgot, there are some rides in the parks that are not a part of Multi Pass and require you to buy access to their Lightning Lanes Individually. At Hollywood Studios, the only such ride right now is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which also has a standby queue (no virtual queue anymore) and is a part of Early Entry.
If you decide to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass access for Rise of the Resistance, you’ll make your purchase at the same time you can purchase Multi Pass.
Is it worth it to buy a Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance?
Unless you can rope drop Rise of the Resistance as part of Early Entry or you plan to ride it at the end of the day (thus possibly missing the park’s nighttime show), we think Rise of the Resistance is usually worth the cost of its Lightning Lane Single Pass…but we have more to say.
I write this paragraph on a Saturday afternoon with Rise of the Resistance sitting at a 70 minute standby wait. That’s a reasonable for that ride, and while I wouldn’t be upset to have spent more than $15 per person on a Lightning Lane today, I would have been good without one.
Unfortunately you can only predict crowds so well in advance, and, more importantly, Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lanes often sell out. This means you’ll have to decide relatively early in your planning process whether or not you buy the Lightning Lane. (Thrill Data tracks Lightning Lane availability, if you want to look at recent days.)
All that said, we think that if you buy Multi Pass, you can have a good day even if you have to wait up to 90 minutes for Rise of the Resistance, and most days that will be an option. Generally, we think the full Multi Pass portfolio is worth well more than just Rise.
Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Tiers
There are thirteen attractions that are a part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios. The Hollywood Studios Multi Pass Lightning Lanes are broken into two tiers (Tier 1 and Tier 2). When making your three advance bookings, you can book up to 1 ride from Tier 1 and the remaining 2 (or all 3) from Tier 2.
Here are the Hollywood Studios Multi Pass Lightning Lanes (by Tier, in alphabetical order):
Hollywood Studios Tier 1 Lightning Lane Group (up to 1 advance booking)
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
Slinky Dog Dash
Hollywood Studios Tier 2 Lightning Lane Group (other 2, or all 3 advance bookings)
Alien Swirling Saucers
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (show)
Disney Junior Play & Dance! (show)
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration (show)
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (show)
Muppet*Vision 3D (show)
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania!
Notably missing from these lists is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which instead has the Lightning Lane Single Pass option.
Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Multi Pass Planning
Now that we’ve covered the Hollywood Studios Multi Pass Tiers, we need to talk about how to actually put together a day at the park.
This is a good time to remind you to check the height requirements at Disney World when booking Lightning Lanes, 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 if it applies to you.
Low Priorities for Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios
Let’s start with some rides that are low priority most days—putting these rides in the back of your mind should simplify your analysis for the time being.
For starters, this post isn’t going to focus on Lightning Lanes for the five shows—Muppet*Vision 3D, Beauty & The Beast Live on Stage, Disney Jr. Dance Party, Frozen Sing-Along, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular.
You can grab those if they make sense, but they basically just guarantee you entry to a particular showtime (Muppet*Vision runs continuously, though), and it won’t generally make sense to plan much around these Lightning Lanes. Do plan to fit the shows into your day, though.
That leaves us with the eight rides (four in each tier). The lowest priority rides are Alien Swirling Saucers and Star Tours, but for different reasons. Star Tours is consistently one of the easiest rides to get on in Walt Disney World, both in terms of standby waits and Lightning Lane availability. Of course using a Lightning Lane to turn a 20-minute wait into a 5-minute wait is good, but don’t stress about this one.
Alien Swirling Saucers is more complicated, as of the debut of Multi Pass. With Tier 2 selections being limited, Alien Swirling Saucers has seen much more limited Lightning Lane availability than in the past.
If you can get a short standby wait early in the day, that’s usually the way to go. If you’re around Toy Story Land / Galaxy’s Edge, it can be worth setting aside a few minutes for this Saucers.
If you can’t fit it into your morning, I still think its Lightning Lane is not worth stressing about. Even with somewhat limited Lightning Lane availability, the ride isn’t good enough to justify prioritizing, in my mind.
Toy Story Mania is sort of in between low priority and medium priority. It’s almost never as low priority at Star Tours and Alien Swirling Saucers. On busy days it’s going to run out of slots alongside or even before the medium priority rides, but most days it still hangs around a few hours after them. Since it has no height requirement, if you have a small child you might even bump it into the high priority group. (Relatedly, since it’s more popular with families with kids it tends to be a higher priority during summer / holiday breaks.)
Best Tier 1 Lightning Lane to Book at Hollywood Studios
Slinky Dog Dash is definitely going to be the most popular Tier 1 pick, and it’s a good one to book if you can get it. This is particularly the case if you (1) don’t have Early Entry or (2) have Early Entry but will be using it to ride Rise of the Resistance. (Again, Early Entry and Lightning Lane strategies should always work together.)
If Slinky Dog Dash is going to be your Tier 1 pick, our position is that any Slinky Dog Dash time is better than no Slinky Dog Dash time. Earlier is always better under Multi Pass, but in the case of Slinky Dog Dash you should be comfortable taking any time you can get (it’s important that you keep reading on, to our Tier 2 section, for more context on this).
Your Tier 1 pick becomes a little more flexible if you have Early Entry and are able to rope drop Slinky Dog Dash. In that case, you can stress less about nabbing that popular pick, and any of the other three Tier 1 selections is fine.
I’d personally go with popular and centrally-located Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. While Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is arguably the best roller coaster in the park, it also offers single rider—a fine backup plan for riding if you don’t otherwise fit them into your day—as does Smugglers Run.
Alternatively, you might also think geographically—book an early Smugglers Run if you’re heading to Rise of the Resistance early, or book Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror back-to-back if you can.
Best Tier 2 Lightning Lanes to Book at Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios is un/fortunately straightforward when it comes to tier 2 picks—you want to pick The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania!. This is fortunately simple, but unfortunately a very popular approach.
The problem here is that you want the lineup of Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania, but you also need one of them to be early in the day. You can’t book the remaining three Tier 1 rides on Multi Pass until you use your first Lightning Lane for the day, this means having some—any—early Lightning Lane is important.
If you can get those three picks for the first three hours of the day, you’re golden. But if you can only get them for the last three hours of the day…well, you probably need a new plan. So, how much should you prioritize these specifics rides, and how much should you prioritize early times? Here’s our recommendation.
First, any Tower of Terror time is better than no Tower of Terror time. That means we’d take 7PM Tower of Terror and 8PM Slinky Dog Dash, if those were the best times we could get. But the next point is important…
Second, prefer Toy Story Mania as your other Tier 2, but you have to have some Lightning Lane that starts in the first two hours of the day. So, if you get Tower of Terror at 10AM and Slinky Dog Dash at 4PM, we’re probably fine with any Toy Story Mania time. If you get 7PM Tower of Terror and 8PM Slinky Dog Dash, then we think your other Tier 2 needs to in the first two hours of the day (so, before 11AM for a 9AM open).
This ensures that you can tap into that one in the first two hours of the day and start grabbing new Tier 1 reservations early on. I’d probably even consider going very aggressive and taking the earliest time possible, for any ride or show, just to unlock subsequent Tier 1 bookings.
I don’t think this is “objectively” best strategy because there isn’t really an objectively best strategy here. The key thing here is that you understand the trade-offs and how your strategy will work in light of your picks.
If you don’t pick either Tower or Terror or Toy Story Mania, you either need to plan a rope drop strategy that gets you on them early or accept you’ll spend a lot of screen time trying to find times for them. If you settle for late times for both, you need to accept that standby lines or single rider lines are going to be necessary to get you onto all the other rides.
Probably the final point to close on is that if you’re unsure what to do, probably take any times for these three rides. On almost all days, you’ll have little problem modifying one of them to an early time for MuppetVision 3D or Disney Junior Play & Dance if you decide later you want the early Lightning Lane to tap into.
What Lightning Lane reservation should I grab Fourth, Fifth, etc. at Hollywood Studios?
Ranking the Lightning Lanes at a park always comes with a caveat—this is not definitely the order you should try and book these. “Priority” means that you need to be keeping an eye on availability and making sure you have an idea of how you’re going to get on the ride.
For example, if it’s 10AM and you can book a 10:15AM Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith or a 7PM Toy Story Mania, book Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Yes, it’s “less popular”, but you’ve still got a whole day to try and grab a Toy Story Mania time or just wait in line for it later. Crossing Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster off your list that early is a huge relief, and you can immediately start looking for your next Lightning Lane.
With that said, let’s talk about how we prioritize these rides. My priority list for the rides looks like:
Slinky Dog Dash
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Alien Swirling Saucers
Star Tours
The bigly subjective thing here is my low ranking of Alien Swirling Saucers, which I already discussed earlier. The ride often has more limited Lightning Lane availability than some of the rides above it, but the quality of the ride simply does not merit locking it into some late time early in your day. Find a short standby wait. Try and nab a Lightning Lane after you’ve taken care of some of the better rides. Do something other than dedicating one of your Lightning Lane slots to it while crossing your fingers that you find a way to get on Runaway Railway or Smugglers Run.
Example Day Using Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Hollywood Studios
Below is an example itinerary from a day I spent at Hollywood Studios using Lightning Lane Multi Pass (Lightning Lane activity in bold). Because of two ride breakdowns (and the fact that I left at 3PM), I didn’t make it onto Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Initial Reservations:
9:05AM - 10:05AM Toy Story Mania
10:05AM - 11:05AM Tower of Terror
11:15AM - 12:15PM Slinky Dog Dash
7:25AM - Bus drop off at Hollywood Studios
8:30AM - Start of Early Entry
8:42AM - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (standby, no wait)
8:52AM - Alien Swirling Saucers (standby, no wait)
9:05AM - Toy Story Mania (5 LL vs. 10 posted)
(Book 1:25PM Rock 'n' Roller Coaster)
9:35AM - Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (18 standby vs. 20 posted)
10:18AM - Tower of Terror (18 LL vs. 95 posted)
(Book / Modify to 12:05PM Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway)
10:30AM - Frozen Sing-Along
11:16AM - Slinky Dog Dash (5 LL vs. 80 posted)
(Book / Modify to 12:25PM Star Tours)
11:20AM - Walt Disney Presents... / One Man's Dream
12:17PM - Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway (15 LL vs. 65 posted)
12:21PM - Star Tours (4 LL vs. 10 posted)
1:00PM - Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
(Rock 'n' Roller Coaster broke, LL changes to Select Experiences Pass)
1:41PM - Mickey & Minnie Vacation Fun (Mickey Shorts Theater)
2:00PM - Muppet Vision 3D
(2:37PM Rock 'n' Roller Coaster broke again, given replacement Select Experiences Pass)
3:15PM - Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (used LL at 2:54PM, but not necessary)
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 don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and 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 Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
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.