Tips for visiting Disney World: Hollywood Studios

These are just my opinions. I recommend getting a travel guide ahead of time, researching the attractions and making a schedule that fits your group the best. Yes, a schedule! A little work now will provide lots of fun later!

Hollywood Studios:

Get there at opening. Ride Toy Story Mania first. The Fastpasses for this ride go quick and by noon they probably won't even be available.

If you have people in your party who want to ride Tower of Terror or Rock n Roller Coaster you can send one person to get fastpasses first thing and then the rest of the group can go get in line for Toy Story Mania. Did I mention Toy Story Mania is the coolest ride there?? For all ages! It was a lot of fun.
If you didn't get a FP for anything else, get a FP for Toy Story Mania after you ride it and come back and ride it again later in the day.

I personally HATE Tower of Terror. I don't like the feeling of freefalling to my death! However, many people like it. If people in your party want to ride it head over to it after Toy Story Mania. Rock n Roller Coaster is right next to it so do both of them or get FP for them if you didn't already. Their lines will be long all day. Personally, I don't wait in line more than 20 min. for anything. If the wait is over 20 min. I get a FP. (I also never go during peak travel times, though.)

So, in summary, I recommend doing 2 of the above rides right away and getting a FP for the other. If you can go during early morning hours that would give you another advantage.

Star Tours is also a FP ride, but its lines were so short when we were there you didn't need a FP. I really liked this one...also good for most ages.

I also recommend the muppet 3D show, the Little Mermaid puppet show, and Beauty and the Beast musical. For the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast you might want to get there about 30 min. before showtime. (45 min. for peak seasons) Little Mermaid is a FP and is very popular, but the FP machines weren't operating when we were there. The theater seats a lot so we were able to walk right up 10 min. before a show and get in.

My husband and son saw the Indiana Jones show and said it was good. It's also a FP, but seats many.

The Great Movie Ride was ok. We didn't wait in line at all for it. If I had waited in line 20-30 min. for it I would have been disappointed.

We didn't see the Lights, motors, action show and the backlot tour was closed when we were there so I can't comment on those.

I highly recommend the Block Party Bash "parade". It's more of a party than a parade. It has all of the Pixar characters in it and it is fun and interactive. They also throw bouncy balls out at the end, so like I mentioned in another post, nice free souvenirs!

We ate at Pizza Planet when we were there. The pizza was ok. The restaurant was a little disappointing. It didn't look anything like the pizza planet in Toy Story and the kids are just surrounded by games that require extra money.

We didn't eat anywhere else in that park so I don't have any other info on dining. It is best to eat lunch around 11 am though. Starting around 11:30 the lines start getting long at the counter service restaurants. (We didn't do the meal plan so we didn't eat at any table service restaurants while we were there.)