Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios opened in 1989 as a working film studio, with real sound stages and real crews. The studio shut down, the park stayed, and it has reinvented itself more often than the other three combined. In 2026 alone, one whole area reopened and another is going up behind construction walls.

Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

The park that changes fastest

Hollywood Boulevard serves as the entrance, with the Chinese Theatre closing the view. Echo Lake keeps its Indiana Jones stunts and Star Tours. Sunset Boulevard lines up the park's two big thrills. Toy Story Land shrinks guests to the size of a toy. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge fills the back of the property.

The changes come quickly. In May 2026 the rebuilt area on the old Animation Courtyard reopened; The Magic of Disney Animation opened its doors there on 14 September 2026, with drawing sessions hosted by Olaf, an art gallery and a screening room. The Baby Care Center moved with it and now sits in that courtyard, beside the building entrance.

Further along, the old Grand Avenue is closed off by construction walls. That is where Disney is building Monstropolis, the monsters' city, announced with a show starring Sulley and Mike, a sushi restaurant run by Harryhausen and a suspended coaster hanging from closet doors. Disney speaks of a partial opening sometime in 2027, with no more detail, and the coaster is set for a later phase with no announced date. Muppet*Vision 3D, on the site since 1991, closed for good in June 2025.

The Millennium Falcon at Black Spire Outpost, in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

A galaxy far, far away

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge tells no particular film. You land at Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu, a trading port on the galaxy's edge, and the setting never breaks: no Disney logo, no film score, cast members who call you "traveller".

Two attractions. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance requires 102 cm and strings together a pre-show, a troop transport, a star destroyer and a chase, running about twenty minutes end to end. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run requires 97 cm and puts six of you at the controls of the Falcon as pilots, gunners and engineers; the mission changed in May 2026. Both have a single rider line, and the one at Smugglers Run is the more useful of the two.

The rest is lived rather than told. You build a droid at the Droid Depot, forge a lightsaber at Savi's Workshop, drink the blue or green milk at the Milk Stand, and Oga's Cantina pours its drinks in a room where a droid DJ spins the music. Oga's books ahead and fills very early.

The entrance to Toy Story Land, guarded by a giant Woody. Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

Toy Story Land and Sunset Boulevard

In Toy Story Land you are the size of a toy in Andy's back yard. Slinky Dog Dash requires 97 cm and makes an honest first roller coaster for a child who has never ridden one. Alien Swirling Saucers drops to 81 cm. Toy Story Mania asks for nothing at all: it is a 3D shooting gallery where the whole family fights over the score. Roundup Rodeo BBQ serves its barbecue among the oversized toys.

Sunset Boulevard holds the two big drops. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror requires 102 cm and drops you down the elevator shaft of an old Hollywood hotel, in a sequence that changes from one ride to the next. Next door, the launch coaster has changed its headliner: since March 2026 the Muppets have taken over the marquee of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, replacing Aerosmith. It requires 122 cm, goes from zero to nearly 90 km/h in under three seconds, and runs its inversions in total darkness.

Mickey, Minnie and Pluto on a picnic, in Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. Disney images, logos and properties: ©2026 Disney.

Shows, from morning to fireworks

Hollywood Studios leans on its shows more than on its rides, which is what lets you fill a whole day without running. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! takes stunt work apart in front of you. Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage has held the Theater of the Stars since 1991. For the First Time in Forever gets the room singing along to Frozen. Two additions from May 2025 joined them: The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure, which took over the Voyage of the Little Mermaid theatre, and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, where the villainesses finally get the floor.

At night, Fantasmic! takes the Sunset Boulevard amphitheatre for close to half an hour of projections on water screens, fire on the lagoon and battles with the villains. The park also projects on the Chinese Theatre façade: Disney Movie Magic returned in August 2026, followed by Wonderful World of Animation.

Getting there and sitting down

Hollywood Studios is the easiest park to reach without a bus. The Disney Skyliner arrives straight from Caribbean Beach, and from Pop Century, Art of Animation and Riviera with one transfer. Boats connect the BoardWalk area hotels, and you can walk in from the BoardWalk, the Swan, the Dolphin, the Yacht Club and the Beach Club along a flat path of about fifteen minutes.

At the table, the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater seats you in a convertible in front of trailers for fifties B movies, and the 50's Prime Time Café serves you in a suburban kitchen where the waitress orders you to finish your plate. These are the two hardest tables to get in the park: book the moment the window opens, about two months ahead. Hollywood & Vine hosts a character meal, and The Hollywood Brown Derby replays the golden age of cinema. Mama Melrose's, still listed in many guides, closed for good in May 2025.

Want to talk it over with one of our Magic Creators? Write to us at createursdemagie@voyagesaquaterra.com or call 450-628-6241, toll-free 1-866-628-6241. Quotes are free, and so is the advice.

Lightning Lane passes: seven days ahead, or three

Disney sells three products, and confusing them costs you the day. The Multi Pass gives up to three experiences booked in advance in the park, one entry per attraction per day, with another to pick once the first is used. The Single Pass targets the highest-demand attractions, the ones not offered on Multi Pass: two per day at most. The Premier Pass opens each Lightning Lane in the park once, with nothing to plan, in limited quantities.

The gap that counts is the purchase window: seven days before the first day of the stay for Disney hotel guests, three days for everyone else. At Hollywood Studios, where the headline attractions can be counted on one hand and hold all the waiting, those four days change more than anywhere else.

Early entry and extended evenings, seen from here

They are constantly confused, and they do not target the same guests. Thirty-minute early theme park entry applies every day, at all four parks, for Disney hotel guests and for fifteen non-Disney addresses named on the official list. Extended evening hours open only on select nights, reserved for the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa categories, plus the Swan, the Dolphin, the Swan Reserve and Shades of Green.

Here, the morning half hour is usually spent on the busiest attractions: those who take it do before opening what takes a long queue in broad daylight. Valid admission and hotel identification are required, and not every attraction runs during that time.

The only park you plan by the clock

The other three parks are walked. This one reads like a timetable. Shows run at fixed hours, some only a few times a day, and a badly built day ends with two shows missed and an hour lost crossing the park the wrong way.

The method that works fits in one sentence: set the show times and the booked tables first, then fill the gaps with queues. The reverse does not work. It is also why this park sits badly at the end of a trip, when the family is tired and nobody wants to watch a clock.