How Changes to Hollywood Studios’ FastPass+ Tiers Affects You

On June 16, Hollywood Studios’ Great Movie Ride will join Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Beauty and the Beast, and Fantasmic! as Tier 1 FastPass+ attractions. Guests making advance FastPass+ reservations will be able to choose one of these attractions before arriving at the park. Guests making advance FastPass+ reservations will still be able to select 2 attractions from the Studios’ remaining Tier 2 FastPass+ attractions.

Great Movie Ride was a Tier 2 FastPass+ attraction before June 16, 2014, and we’ve been getting two questions about this change:

How does this affect our Hollywood Studios touring plans?
What are my FastPass+ priorities at the Studios now?

Effect on Studios Touring Plans

Only 2 of our 15 Hollywood Studios itineraries required changes to accommodate Great Movie Ride: the standard 1-Day Studios Plan for Parents with Small Children, the Holiday 1-Day Plan for Parents with Small Children, and the Happy Family touring plan for multi-generational families. On these 3 plans, the touring plan software either moved Great Movie Ride to slightly earlier in the day, when crowds haven’t yet built, or to around 2 PM when there’s an afternoon lull at the ride.

With these updated touring plans, your average wait time for rides will be well under 15 minutes. In fact, your longest wait of the day is likely to be at Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, somewhere around 17 to 20 minutes.

Your New FastPass+ Priorities at the Studios

The results from our touring plan software are clear: Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and Tower of Terror should be the 3 advance FastPass+ priorities for most families doing a comprehensive tour of Hollywood Studios:

Only one other attraction is ever identified as requiring FastPass+, and that’s for an afternoon touring plan that includes the 7 PM show at The American Idol Experience. Because the 7 PM Idol performance is the last of the night and features winners from the day’s earlier shows, it’s somewhat more popular than the other performances. It seems like FastPass+ would be a decent choice in this situation.

The Best Times for FastPass+ Reservations at Hollywood Studios

Now that you know which attractions most need FastPass+, the next question is when you should make your FastPass+ reservations. Here’s a chart showing the times our Hollywood Studios touring plans use FastPass+ to avoid long lines (yellow=morning times, orange=afternoon):

Our touring plan software recommends Toy Story Mania before 11 AM on average. Doing that removes one bottleneck from your early morning schedule, and allows you to ride more headliner attractions while lines are still short. After you’re done with the headliners, a 12:00 noon Star Tours FastPass+ choice is excellent for teens and adults. If you’ve got small children who meet Star Tours’ 40″ height requirement and you’re taking a mid-day break (as our touring plans suggest), then a late-afternoon FastPass+ reservation at Star Tours will also help keep your waits low.

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