Hollywood Studios is the best park at Walt Disney World in the mornings. We’ve done Early Entry and rope drop many times here in the last few years, and highly recommend it for beating the crowds in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land. This photo report offers a step-by-step look at a perfect run at DHS to start the day.
We’re generally enthusiastic about Early Entry. It’s an underrated perk, with many guests dismissing it as “only” 30 minutes. Many guests do it first at Magic Kingdom, which is usually the worst park for Early Entry, and assume it’ll be equally bad at the other 3 parks. It’s not.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is far and away the best place to do Early Entry, but we’ve gotta warn you, our success here is an extreme outlier, and definitely not representative of an average morning. See our last DHS rope drop report, Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Report: What Worked & Went Wrong, for the flip side of this. We’ve had both awesome and awful experiences at DHS in the morning. It’s probably about 80/20 in favor of great ones, but your mileage may vary.
I just want to be incredibly transparent about all of this upfront before the complaints roll in about negative experiences with Early Entry or this not being replicable. It’s not replicable in full, that is correct. This is an example of extreme good luck, and that coupled with low to moderate crowds made this morning a massive success.
Suffice to say, this is not a “how to” post or an itinerary. Like all of these Early Entry and rope drop recaps, it’s a photo recap of what I did–luck and/or warts and all. With those warnings out of the way, the good news is that you can apply some of the principles and a rough outline of this into your own morning plan for Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Step one is choosing the right day to do Disney’s Hollywood Studios. If you’re visiting between now and late December, you might also consult Best & Worst 2025 Crowd Days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. There are going to be even more opportunities for great rope drop runs at DHS over the next couple of months, and I’ll be testing (and reporting back on) one of those very soon!
This is especially true on the days when DHS opens extra early, which was not the case on this particular day. My suspicion is actually that this run-through actually will be possible on at least some of those dates, assuming favorable conditions (e.g. no dreaded delayed openings or ride breakdowns). It should be somewhat similar to those glorious 7:30 am Early Entry Experiences at Magic Kingdom During Party Season (also highly recommended).
This particular day, crowd levels were 3/10 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s that time of year when Walt Disney World has roller coaster wait times, so you’ll either encounter averages like this–in the 30-40 minute range–or much worse crowds during the holiday season. It’s pretty much feast or famine, but don’t expect to encounter crowds any lower than this.
I arrived at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on this particular morning at 7:50 am, which is ~45 minutes later than some guests. (The parking lot typically opens at 7 am, with security starting around 7:15 to 7:30 am.) This worked out pretty well, as I still beat the crowd and breezed through bag check.
I then proceeded to the far right tapstiles and was only a couple of dozen people back. I’ve mentioned these far right turnstiles in the past, but in case you’ve missed that, going to the far right is one of my favorite “tricks” because Cast Members usually open extra sets of turnstiles here relatively last minute. You can thus improve your position and be much closer to the front of the pack.
Even though I arrived at 7:50 am–which is late by Early Entry standards at DHS–I would say my ultimate position at the turnstiles was more like a 7:30 am arrival. This “trick” doesn’t always work, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.
Anyway, the tapstiles opened right on time at 8 am, which was an hour before park opening time–or 30 minutes before the official start of Early Entry. (Note that this opening time is unofficial and can vary from day-to-day.)
If you haven’t done Early Entry in a while, one thing to note is that now all guests are allowed through the tapstiles at the same time.
Previously, there were separate lines for regular rope drop and Early Entry, with off-site guests held at the main entrance until official park opening time. With the new procedure, everyone can enter the park about an hour before regular rope drop. Off-site guests then have access to a large swath of the park, including the entirety of Hollywood Boulevard.
Once inside the park, there are five designated checkpoints for resort guests participating in Early Entry.
One is down Sunset Boulevard, two more at the respective ride entrances to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Star Tours, one on Grand Avenue for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and the final checkpoint along the main entrance corridor to Toy Story Land.
Resort guests will likely only have to validate eligibility once. Note that there’s no checkpoint between Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, nor are there at the entrances to individual attractions beyond those mentioned above.
This switch to in-park checkpoints is a positive change for most guests, but not on-site ones.
It gives off-site guests the chance to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios, grab a coffee, enjoy the atmosphere, pre-queue for regular rope drop, or simply sit in the shade. I never stood in the mass of humanity waiting in the sun for regular rope drop outside the entrance, but it looked miserable.
Since more guests are coming from off-site than are staying on-site, this is an improvement for the guest experience as a whole. It’s also a reversion to the old normal. This is more or less how it used to be before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019. Everything changed once that land opened and mornings at DHS turned into pure anarchy.
This new-old approach is a slight negative for on-site guests taking advantage of Early Entry. It introduces a bit more chaos to the entry experience, both at the tapstiles themselves and at the checkpoints for the various lands.
It also means that you have a few fewer precious minutes to beat the regular rope drop crowd to your next destination before the end of Early Entry. Instead of a slow trickle of guests entering the park via the tapstiles, those guests are already pre-loaded near Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Land, and Sunset Boulevard, and descend upon those attractions all at once right at 9:00 am.
You used to have until ~9:05 am to beat the rope drop rush. That didn’t end up mattering to me on this particular day, but I had also moved on from the two most popular rope drop destinations by 9 am. YMMV.
The vast majority of guests are headed to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land both for Early Entry and for regular rope drop.
Even though the “new ride smell” has worn off Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, it’s still a popular first pick. My strong suspicion is that it sucks up the guests not wanting to walk any deeper into the park.
If you want to stick to the front of the park, I’d recommend starting with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. But really, Slinky Dog Dash isn’t that much more of a walk than Runaway Railway.
For the first time in a long time, I opted to start in Toy Story Land as opposed to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had been quietly opening ahead of schedule during Early Entry, but that has been less inconsistent this year. It also helps that Rise of the Resistance is one of my favorite attractions in the entire world. I can’t say the same about Slinky Dog Dash.
All else being equal, it does not make sense to start at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. It has a lengthy queue that takes a while to walk and is a multi-phase attraction with a long duration. By contrast, Slinky Dog Dash has no pre-show and a significantly shorter minimum duration from start to finish. Assuming all goes well, it’s the perfect Early Entry ride!
All didn’t just go well on this particular morning, it went perfectly.
Slinky Dog Dash was already cycling when I entered Toy Story Land, which alone was an optimistic sign. I was near the front of the pack, and after a ~5 minute hold on the bridge to Slinky Dog Dash, the queue opened at 8:12 am.
Here’s a look at the gloriously empty queue:
Sometimes, Walt Disney World will preload a queue before cycling the ride. So I figured that might be the case here, to avoid having a long line overflowing to the entrance of Toy Story Land, which I’ve seen in the past.
Not so on this morning. The ride started running when the line opened.
I was on Slinky Dog Dash by 8:16 am. I’ll do the math for you: that’s 4 minutes after the line opened.
I was back in line for Slinky Dog Dash a second time at 8:20 am.
There was a longer line this time, but I was still off Slinky Dog Dash by 8:31 am. On a busier day, this wait would’ve been longer. According to the DTB Archives, the last time I looped SDD like this, the second time took 17 minutes. That was in early December of last year, so also a low crowd day. It could easily take 20-30 minutes on a moderately crowded day.
Even on this exact day, if the same scenario played out at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, this wouldn’t have been the outcome. The whole experience takes much longer. It’s impossible to start and finish Rise of the Resistance twice during Early Entry.
I could have bounced to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at this point and knocked out Rise of the Resistance. That would’ve been the high-value move. But I didn’t see a wait time posted in the app and didn’t want to risk it having a delayed opening.
Sticking with the path of least resistance, I did Toy Story Mania.
Another complete walk-on, and I was off by 8:39 am.
Wanting to keep my momentum going with low-friction attractions, I headed to Sunset Boulevard to knock out both the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.
I opted to start with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, assuming that would be the faster experience. This was correct. The pre-show was a pass-through because the ride was a walk-on. (There’s no safety spiel in the pre-show, so it can be skipped.)
I was off Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster by 8:50 am.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster appeared to be a walk-on and I still had 10 minutes until regular rope drop crowds hit, so I decided to gamble and do it again.
The risk paid off, as it once again was a complete walk on and I was off by 9:00 am.
Next stop was Tower of Terror, which was still posting a 13-minute wait.
Tower of Terror was also a walk-on despite my arrival here after what should’ve been the rope drop rush. Again, the bulk of these crowds go to Toy Story Land or Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, where they’re behind the Early Entry crowd. They would not have been able to walk-on Slinky Dog Dash or Star Wars: Rise of Resistance.
The former was posting a 55 minute wait and the latter was up to 85 minutes. That’s a slightly below-average wait for the day at Slinky Dog Dash, and above-average for Rise of the Resistance. Meaning those prioritizing these two headliners would’ve squandered their rope drop, receiving little to no advantage for arriving at (or before!) park opening.
The correct approach would’ve been Sunset Boulevard, where both Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster were both walk-ons, which (obviously) is far below their daily average. Rope drop guests could’ve knocked out both of these with minimal waits!
As always, zig when they zag.
Tower of Terror is a longer attraction, so despite it being a walk-on, I wasn’t off until 9:15 am.
I could’ve done Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster again (10 minute posted wait), but figured this would be a more interesting morning if I rolled the dice on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (25 minute posted wait).
There was a steady flow of guests into the queue, but the line wasn’t outside.
As it turned out, this was a near walk-on (no wait at Lightning Lane merge) and I was in the first pre-show by 9:24 am. I stopped keeping track of time after that. It was about the minimum for the rest of MMRR.
At this point, I probably could’ve done Alien Swirling Saucers (10 minute posted wait) just for the sake of saying I “finished” Toy Story Land. But I didn’t really care to do this. (We can pretend I did? I’m sure it would’ve been <15 minutes start to finish.)
I was more concerned with seeing the first performance of The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure. The newly-reimagined stage show that debuted over the summer is still popular, and shows later in the day fill up fairly far in advance.
So instead of squeezing in Alien Swirling Saucers and risk missing the cut-off, I just wandered around for a bit, taking more photos. I then got in the line way too early for the mermaid musical (I could’ve shown up at showtime and still been fine).
That feels like an unceremonious and anticlimactic conclusion to what had otherwise been an aggressive and flawless rope drop run. Maybe I should’ve tried Toy Story Mania or RnRC again, or Star Tours? I just wished I would’ve slipped into the musical at the last minute, as opposed to wasting ~20 minutes of valuable morning time. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
Ultimately, this was a pretty fantastic morning even with that wasted time. If anything, that makes this rope drop run a little more realistic for those upcoming November and December days that’ll have manageable crowds, but not quite this low of wait times.
At the end of the morning, I had accomplished the following:
- Slinky Dog Dash (x2)
- Toy Story Mania
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (x2)
- Tower of Terror
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure
If you told me when I arrived at 7:50 am that I’d knock out 7 rides in under the next 2 hours, I would’ve been thrilled with that outcome. A total of 8 attractions initiated before 10 am is likewise fantastic. And that probably could’ve been 9 rides had I done things slightly differently.
That’s really, really good–by far my best rope drop run at DHS in over 2 years! All by starting in Toy Story Land instead of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and with a lot of luck working in my favor. So not exactly replicable results, but also not terribly unrealistic (especially if you remove one ride on Slinky Dog Dash).
The good news is that accomplishing a lot is possible in the morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, especially if you choose the right day. And regardless of whether you start in Toy Story Land or Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, you can usually knock out the other at the end of the evening. We’re also huge fans of doing both early morning and late nights, with a long midday break in between (perfect for pool time or Park Hopping to EPCOT and doing World Showcase).
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? What’s your preferred approach to Early Entry? Do you start in Toy Story Land or Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? How would you have done things differently? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
