What We Skipped at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios

We were some of the very fortunate guests to have gotten to Walt Disney World this calendar year. We made it down to Walt Disney World during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in January. We stayed for an epic vacation of nine days, after skipping a vacation in 2019 because of having our third child. Our January trip was made up of 1 park day to Magic Kingdom, 1 park day to Animal Kingdom, 2 park days at Epcot and 2 park days at Hollywood Studios. Despite spending two days at Hollywood Studios, there were still experiences that we didn’t get in. Some of them were due to height restrictions, some had to do with timing and others had to do with closures. Take a look at the things we missed at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios and the reasons why.

Character Meet and Greets

We skipped all character meet and greets during this vacation. This was our daughter’s fourth trip, our son’s third trip, and our youngest was not quite one years old. On all other trips we’ve spent a lot of time meeting characters and felt that it takes up too much of the day. So we opted to skip all characters for this trip to make room for all the attractions we wanted to ride. It certainly made more time for rides but our kids did miss meeting the characters. Because they are still so young, 7, 5 and 1, they don’t have the memories of meeting the characters during their other trips. They’ve requested on our next trip that we make time for meeting characters.

Walt Disney Presents

This attraction is found in Animation Courtyard and is open to all heights. It’s part museum and part film. Guests enter a museum of Walt Disney’s achievements over the course of his career, as well as models of plans for future Disney developments. It’s a must for any Walt Disney fan. Once you’ve gone through the museum, you enter a theatre which shows a film about Walt’s life narrated by Julie Andrews. The film is short, but certainly too lengthy for a one year old, making it a solid skip for us.

Star Wars Launch Bay

It’s here where you can meet several Star Wars characters as well as watch a film about the creation of the Star Wars franchise. In Launch Bay there’s a showcase of several props and costumes featured in the films. It’s a great way to pass the time while you’re waiting to meet the characters but since we were skipping meet and greets on this trip we didn’t even go into the Launch Bay.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

This new attraction had yet to open in January, so unfortunately we weren’t able to check out this new ride featuring Mickey, Minnie and the whole gang. Which was too bad, because it’s a ride the whole family can enjoy. We’ll certainly look forward to checking it out on our next trip.

Nighttime Entertainment

We didn’t take in any of the nighttime entertainment. On our first Hollywood Studios park day, we were at the park at 7am in order to get on the Rise of the Resistance ride. This made for an extremely long day, so we opted to leave the park after dinner that day. On our second Hollywood Studios day, it was the final day of our vacation. And after many early mornings for us parents for the races we participated in, and the late night at Magic Kingdom the night before, we just couldn’t muster up the energy to stay for Fantasmic!, Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular!, Disney Movie Magic, or Wonderful World of Animation.

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!

We went to this show on our last vacation, and it is a fun show to watch. But quite honestly, it didn’t even enter our minds to fit in during this trip. With all that is constantly happening in Galaxy’s Edge, from spontaneous interactions with Storm Troopers and Rey fighting for the Resistance, it’s hard to steel yourself away from the newer areas of the park. If we don’t ever see this again, it wouldn’t feel like a loss.

Rock’n’Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

This is a bit of a cheat, because my husband did go on this ride on our second visit to Hollywood Studios. But I didn’t go on it, and neither did our kids. Our kids are all under the height requirement, which is why they didn’t go on the ride. I chose not to go on it, because even with using the single rider line, it took my husband 45 minutes from start to finish to get through the attraction. And that was first thing in the morning.

Our two days at Hollywood Studios were filled with plenty of attractions, great stage shows, delicious food. We did spend a lot of time going back and forth from the Rise of the Resistance ride as we waited for it to reopen, went on it only to have it break down. For all the details on that experience, click here. But by missing out on the above mentioned things, I didn’t feel like we missed out on anything. There’s never any way to get everything in, and you have to be ok with knowing there will be experiences you may never enjoy. So you need to appreciate the ones you do. This will leave you feeling like your money was well spent.

For what we missed on our other park days, check out these previous posts:

Which Rides we Skipped at Magic Kingdom

Which Rides we Skipped at Epcot