Hollywood Studios Wait Times (Dec. 19 Scorecard)

We’re back with a look at the waits for the week of December 12 through December 18 at Hollywood Studios at Disney World gears up for the holiday season!

hollywood studios wait times tower.jpeg

RELATED POSTS

If you’re new to the wait time scorecards, check out our post explaining our Disney World Wait Time Scorecards. That post explains the different numbers you’ll see here including why they’re imperfect. We source our own data for the scorecards, but if you want to run your own analysis, we still recommend Thrill-Data.com.

We also have a post covering the reopening of Walt Disney World from top to bottom if you’re planning an upcoming visit.

This post works in tandem with our Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Strategy post, which discusses things like when to arrive at the park and what to expect when you arrive. In the case of Hollywood Studios specifically, the rope drop post has very important context about how we pick a best strategy to start the day.

If you’re new to Disney World, you might also want to read out Guide to the Rides and Entertainment of Hollywood Studios, which includes descriptions of the rides.

Hollywood Studios Wait Time Scorecard Part 1

dhs dec 19 scorecard part 1.png

Tower of Terror has topped the wait list for the last seven days, with an average wait of 60 minutes. While it’s usually helpful to break the rides into “tiers”, you can see it’s a pretty smooth set this week, though you might say Tower of Terror, Smugglers Run, and Slinky Dog Dash are the top tier, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Star Tours, Toy Story Mania are the bottom tier, and Runaway Railway is sort of in between.

Here’s a look at the average waits by 5-minute increments for those top rides:

dhs dec 19 scorecard graph.png

You can see Slinky Dog Dash and, more significantly, Runaway Railway, drop steadily throughout the afternoon. Tower of Terror notably didn’t see much drop at all in the afternoon.

Hollywood Studios Wait Time Scorecard Part 2

dhs dec 19 scorecard part 2.png

It’s pretty clear that in an ideal world, you’d visit with Tower of Terror and Smugglers Run early in the morning. The problem is they’re just so far apart. They’re two of the most distant rides in the park, actually.

As we note in our rope drop post, starting with Smugglers Run and then Tower of Terror is ideal, but you’re counting on getting all the way to Smugglers Run, it operating early (assuming the park opened before official time, as is the norm at the end of the year), and then making it all the way back to Tower of Terror around the time the park is scheduled to open.

You have more flexibility if you punt Smugglers Run into the afternoon. This means you’re probably looking at a 60-minute wait, but an effective early morning at Hollywood Studios should cover multiple picks from Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash, Runaway Railway, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Conclusions

Hollywood Studios remains a frustrating park because of the boarding pass system for Rise of the Resistance. But even with waits that start the day pretty high, Hollywood Studios fits into a single day with some planning.