Touring Disney’s Hollywood Studios After Toy Story Land Morning Extra Magic Hour

Our morning at Hollywood Studios continues from Part 1, where we rope dropped Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land during morning Extra Magic Hour. As a reminder, this is what I was able to accomplish:

1. Slinky Dog Dash: 6:38am – 6:48am
2. Slinky Dog Dash: 6:49am – 7:06am
3. Woody and Jessie Meet and Greet: 7:09am  – 7:12am
4. Alien Swirling Saucers: 7:15am – 7:25am
5. Alien Swirling Saucers: 7:26am – 7:42am
6. Toy Story Mania: 7:46am – 8:15am

Given the fact that Slinky Dog sports a 75-minute wait most of the day, along with a 30-minute average at Swirling Saucers, 45 minutes at Toy Story Mania, and 30+ minutes for Woody/Jessie, I’ve saved about 300 minutes in line already and the Studios has only been officially open to everyone for 15 minutes.

Most of Pixar Place is now walled off, but the Joffrey’s stand remains standing and the bathrooms to the right remain open. If you’re thinking you’re going to need to use the facilities, I’d recommend stopping here rather than trying to traipse all the way over to the back of Toy Story Land against the crowds only to find an undersized, albeit precious, set of bathrooms. On the plus side, the bathrooms are the only air-conditioned portion of Toy Story Land accessible to guests.

I’m on my way to Sunset Boulevard to see how long I’ll wait at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, but I could stop by Star Wars Launch Bay to meet Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and BB-8 in short order. The three meets should take less than 15 minutes.

Feels crowded.

After our Flight of Passage rope drop over at Animal Kingdom from last week, where all of the pictures were shot at 85mm, we now find ourselves in 11mm land. I’m sure things will even out soon enough.

Peak tour group season continues with higher numbers than we’ve seen the last couple of years. But outside of this group of 50 with exactly two chaperones, there aren’t a lot of people pouring into the Park at 8:30am.

Tinseltown Trinket has taken over for Sweet Spells.

It’s largely full of Toy Story merchandise, you know, since there wasn’t a big toy store in the movie called Big Al’s Toy Barn that would have been a perfect fit for the new Land.

Since the clock is obscured, you’ll just have to trust me that this is the Sunset Boulevard crowd at 8:29am on Friday July 13, 2018.

Maybe the placement of the sun will help.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster wait times typically rise faster in the morning, so it makes sense to head there first, but Tower of Terror will be a walk-on at this point in the morning barring unforeseen mechanical problems that reduce its capacity.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is still posted at 10 minutes. As long as the walkway up into the building is clear, as it is right now, this should prove to be accurate.

I arrived at 8:33am and was inside the pre-show at 8:40am.

And boarded at 8:46am.

I arrived back outside at 8:53am for a total experience time of 20 minutes, which is right around the minimum amount of time that the ride takes. The posted wait is now 45-minutes, which is probably prohibitive at this point in the morning. If you’d like to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in standby a couple more times, you’ll need to skip second rides on the Toy Story Land attractions in order to get over here earlier in the morning. The fact that I was able to basically walk on the ride at 8:30am means that those ineligible for morning Extra Magic Hour that arrive in time for regular opening will be able to visit anything outside of Toy Story Land with a short wait, which is good news.

Tower of Terror was still posting a 13-minute wait at 8:57am. That’s code for nobody in line.

And that turned out to be true.

There was “literally” nobody walking ahead of me, so I had to take this picture by throwing my camera at the lobby.

 

I arrived at 8:58am and was in the library pre-show two minutes later.

And in the far corner of the elevator, where I belong, four minutes after that.

And I was back out front at 9:13am on Friday the 13th.

To what was still a 13-minute posted wait.

Things seemed to be pretty chill on Sunset Boulevard at 9:15am.

And given the short posted wait, I got back in the standby line.

This time around, there were probably about 75 people in front of me.

It did afford the opportunity to stop and take what was basically the same exact picture as before.

I was in the pre-show about twelve minutes after I got in line and inside the elevator about four minutes after that.

I arrived at 9:16am and was back out front at 9:40am for a total experience time of 34 minutes, which is about 12 minutes longer than the ride typically takes with FastPass+. That’s not so bad considering I’ve now been inside the Studios for a little more than three hours and the Park has been open for more than 90 minutes to everyone.

Sunset Boulevard remains relatively quiet.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is now showing a 120-minute posted wait with a tour group filling up most of the FastPass+ queue against the far wall.

Fairfax Fare, as part of Sunset Ranch Market on Sunset Boulevard, is serving breakfast these days. The two egg-based hot items look pretty good and this wouldn’t be a terrible time to stop and rest a little bit while enjoying something like the Loaded Scrambled Eggs Bowl and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

But there is no rest for the weary.

Here’s Hollywood Boulevard at 9:45am. It’s still a small number of people arriving.

Star Tours is the only ride that we haven’t already experienced, so we’ll head over there now.

The new Tier structure at the Studios makes acquiring a 4th or 5th FastPass+ for Star Tours even easier than before, given the fact that most people select Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror to start. Prior to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster moving to “Tier 2” with the three Toy Story Land rides appearing in “Tier 1,” most people would select Tower of Terror and Star Tours as their initial two Tier 2 attraction choices.

But before 10am, I should be able to walk on the simulator ride with a minimum wait.

We’re in the middle of the 9:40am Jedi Training show.

Star Tours is posted at 15 minutes.

But I’ll be marching most of the way to the merge point with FastPass+ unabated:

I arrived at 9:50am and was back out front at 10:10am for a total experience time of 20 minutes, which is about as short as it gets here. It was nice to see all of the simulators working this early. The posted wait is 20 minutes with a bit of a backup at FastPass+, probably because somebody with a Tough To Be A Bug FastPass+ was trying to scan here. If I got line again, my wait would probably be around ten minutes.

This would be a good time to meet Goofy and/or Chip and Dale along Grand Avenue.

You’d wait less than three minutes for each. BaseLine Tap House is also opening at 10am these days.

In the mood to get off my feet for a minute, I headed over to Muppet Vision 3D.

Where I was surprised to find a crowd this large, considering what should still be short waits at most characters and the likes of Star Tours.

But maybe we’ve all been here since 6am.

Amusingly, almost all of the Studios’ attractions went down for a couple of hours on Thursday of last week, with one notable exception in Muppet Vision.

Maybe these people hadn’t heard that other attractions reopened.

Perhaps the skywriter is reminding them. Star Tours looks to be posting a 30 minute wait at 10:40am.

I headed over to try to sneak into the 10:45am Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

I prefer to show up closer to showtime for a variety of reasons, but one big one is being able to sit off to the side where there’s typically a little more room to spread out. Those in the center sections are going to be made to squish together a couple of times between when they arrive 30 minutes prior to the start of the show and my arrival just five minutes before showtime.

And the view from over here is just fine:

You might consider adding Indiana Jones into your itinerary if it’s been a while since you’ve seen it. There are some genuinely funny moments and a lot of the stunts are better than they have any right to be.

I was back out front at 11:20am for a total experience time of 40 minutes and very little hassle.

At this point, my day has been filled with:

1. Slinky Dog Dash: 6:38am – 6:48am
2. Slinky Dog Dash: 6:49am – 7:06am
3. Woody and Jessie Meet and Greet: 7:09am  – 7:12am
4. Alien Swirling Saucers: 7:15am – 7:25am
5. Alien Swirling Saucers: 7:26am – 7:42am
6. Toy Story Mania: 7:46am – 8:15am
7. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: 8:33am – 8:53am
8. Tower of Terror: 8:58am – 9:13am
9. Tower of Terror: 9:14am – 9:40am
10. Star Tours: 9:50am – 10:10am
11. Muppet Vision 3D: 10:13am – 10:37am
12. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular: 10:40am – 11:20am

So far, I don’t think there’s anything that I would change as my day is coming together nicely. If I did want to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in standby a second time, I’d want to arrive for my first ride by 8:10am or thereabouts, which probably means you’d want to cut one of the two rides on Swirling Saucers. The fact that waits on Sunset Boulevard remain short until at least 8:30am is good news for those ineligible for morning Extra Magic Hour. We’ll return to Toy Story Land at night to make sure waits are still short in the next part of this series, in addition to returning to Toy Story Land to ride Slinky Dog Dash with FastPass+ and see how things are looking at Woody’s Lunch Box.