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When I think about visiting a Disney park, I get excited, and also overwhelmed. There’s so much to see, do, eat–what if I miss something? How can I gather all the secrets of the Disney universe and maximize my time in the park?
I actually think you can stumble into a Disney park without any kind of a plan and still have an amazing time; in fact, I KNOW you can, because that’s what my husband and did for one day of our honeymoon! We were in San Diego and, on a whim, drove up to Disneyland and had a blast. No plan. No reservations. Somehow we still got to eat at Blue Bayou, and to top it all off, back then park tickets only cost $50 each.
Times have changed. Parks are crowded, but so is the internet: crowded, that is, with information on how to maximize your Disney park days. For this trip, we relied on one-day-park plans from Undercovertourist.com, which gave us a general guideline for a day at each Walt Disney World park we visited.
Before we get to how our day played out, I’ll let you in on a little secret: our tickets to Hollywood Studios were free, because we bought them through Undercovertourist.com on our Capital One card and erased the tickets off our statement with Capital One miles. Here’s two credit cards you could open to earn Capital One miles to pay for park tickets:
Open a Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card and earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening, for only a $95 annual fee. You’ll receive two complimentary Capital One Lounge visits per year, and earn unlimited 2X miles per dollar on every purchase, and 5X miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Earn up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® fee with no foreign transaction fees.
Capital One Venture X
A premium card with a $395 annual fee, open a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Receive up to $300 back as statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel, where you’ll get the best prices on thousands of options. Get 10,000 bonus miles (equal to $100 towards travel) every year, starting on your first anniversary. Receive up to a $100 credit on Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Earn 10X Miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5X Miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, and 2X Miles on all other purchases, every day.
With 75,000 miles from either card plus the 400 miles you’ll earn spending $4000 to earn the miles, you can erase $790 worth of Disney tickets off your statement, as long as you purchase them through a third party like UndercoverTourist.com (so they code as ‘travel’ on your statement!).
And now: here’s a general rundown of our day, including what Disney Hollywood Studios attractions we rode when:
The park opened to off-property guests at 8:00, so we were in line at the gate by 7:50. We followed the park plan’s advice and headed straight to Toy Story Land to ride Slinky Dog Dash. This is easily one of the best rides at Hollywood Studios!
At 8:07 the wait said 35 minutes; we were on the ride at 8:25.
Next, we walked across the way to Midway Mania. Got in line at 8:29 with a projected wait of 20 minutes; rode the ride at 8:50.
We didn’t follow the park plan’s advice and ride the Alien ride next; instead, we walked over to Sunset Blvd. to ride Tower of Terror.
We got in line for Tower of Terror at 9:20, with a projected wait of 110 minutes. We rode the ride at 10:50. That’s the longest line we waited in that day. One thing we noticed was this: only half the cars were running on TOT. Also, Rockin’ Rollercoaster was down for most of the day. Likely both factors contributed to our 90 minute wait. Because Rockin’ Rollercoaster was closed, we decided to try the Lightning McQueen ride nearby.
We rode this ride around 11am. The Animatronic Lightning McQueen was neat and it was a cool place to rest for a few minutes, but I’d say it’s not a big deal if you miss this ride. Next, we headed over to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
It was getting really hot at this point, so we were happy to be heading for some dark, sit-down experiences. We got in line for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at 11:35, and despite the posted wait of 60 minutes, we rode the ride at 12:15. As I stood in line, I was definitely beginning to look at what to mobile order for food later in the day.
We walked next door just in time to catch the 12:30 Frozen sing-a-long. It was lovely to be frozen and resting in the air conditioning during the heat of the day.
Because Indiana Jones was right next to Frozen, we walked over and caught the 1:30 show. I mobile ordered from Woody’s Lunchbox while we waited for the show to start.
On our way to Woody’s Lunchbox in Toy Story Land, I spotted a Joffrey’s and stopped off for an iced Chai.
We picked up the Raspberry Lunchbox Tart I had mobile ordered from Woody’s Lunchbox, and then I had to take a whole bunch of photos of it in front of Buzz Lightyear.
Here is where we veered off course from our park plan, which told us to spend the evening in Galaxy’s Edge. We decided since we were right there, we would walk through Galaxy’s Edge (which is amazing and also exactly like Batuu in Disneyland, which we’ve been to several times). We weren’t planning to ride Rise of the Resistance or Smuggler’s Run since we’ve ridden both a bunch in California, but we were so. hot. that we decided to cool off inside ROTR (the wait said 105 minutes at 2:22/we rode the ride at 3:45).
While I stood in line for Rise, I checked the My Disney Experience app to see if Oga’s Cantina had any walk-ups available, and they did! I came very close to grabbing one of them, but didn’t in the end. When we came out of Rise, Rockin’ Rollercoaster was finally open, so we walked back over to Sunset Blvd.
We stopped at the Beauty & the Beast show because the last showing was at 5:00; I ordered this Frozen Rum Berry Lemonade from Rosie’s All-American Café to drink while we waited for the show (I also mobile ordered dinner from Docking Bay 7 and dessert from Backlot Express). After Beauty & the Beast, we rode Rockin’ Roller Coaster (the Aerosmith Ride) single rider (which didn’t save us time; at 5:30 the wait said 60 mins, and that’s how long it took us in the SR line!)
When we came out, it was an absolute downpour with no sign of letting up. Boy was I glad I had a poncho in my backpack! We raced back over to Docking Bay 7 in Galaxy’s Edge to get the dinner I had ordered for 7pm.
Docking Bay 7 is awesome and the food delicious. The rain stopped while we ate, then we wandered over towards Backlot Express. We walked past Star Tours, which had zero wait, and walked onto the ride at 7:30. At 7:45, we picked up dessert from Backlot Express:
We walked by the theater showing a Mickey and Minnie cartoon and caught the last showing at 8pm, then headed back to Toy Story Land to ride Slinky Dog Dash one last time. But first, we rode Alien Swirling Saucers.
And it was cute and fun! Glad we did it. Re-riding Slinky Dog Dash was the last ride of the night, which was perfect because Toy Story land hits different at night.
TAKEAWAYS
You can easily conquer Hollywood Studios in one day. We rode 14 rides/attractions with time to spare. The only things we didn’t ride were Muppets 3D & Smuggler’s Run (only because we’ve ridden them multiple times in CA). We easily could have fit in both those rides if we wanted to.
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