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What would your day look like if you stopped trying to do everything at Disney World and just focused on what actually feels good?
In this episode, I’m walking you through my ideal Hollywood Studios itinerary. Not the most efficient plan. Not the one that checks every single box. But the one I would choose over and over again for my family.
Because when you’re figuring out how to plan a trip to Disney, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of doing more instead of doing what actually works for you.
We’re talking about a real Hollywood Studios itinerary that blends strategy with flexibility, including how I use a Hollywood Studios lightning lane strategy to keep things moving without feeling rushed.
Inside this episode:
If you’re trying to figure out how to plan a trip to Disney that doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed, this episode will give you a completely different way to think about your day.
And if Hollywood Studios has ever felt chaotic or hard to plan, this might just be the reset you need.
What would your version of a “perfect” Hollywood Studios day actually look like?… Let me know your thoughts over on IG: @somewhereworthwhile
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:
Grab my guide to Hollywood Studios here
LET’S CONNECT!
Join the Laid-Back Magic® community
Podcast music by Podington Bear, track: ‘Filaments’, licensed under CC BY-NC, courtesy of Free Music Archive.
[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Today is May the fourth. And unless you have a Star Wars fan in your life, this may seem like a normal day, but it is. May the fourth be with you. Do you get it? May the fourth. May the fourth be with you. And while this episode is not going to be Star Wars Focus, per se, it did bring up in my mind, Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios.
[00:00:22] Dana Stanley: Hollywood Studios and Disney World is a little bit of a sneaky park to me because years and years ago I was very excited to visit Hollywood Studios. It was one of my favorites, and then it kind of dipped down to like, I didn’t really care about it. It was probably like my least favorite. And then fast forward now to 2026, or even last year, when I ask my girls like, Hey, what’s your favorite?
[00:00:46] Dana Stanley: Park in Disney World. They won’t say Hollywood Studios most of the time. But then when I ask them, Hey, what are your absolute things that we must, must do when we go to Disney World next time? They’re all things in Hollywood Studios for both of them. So today I’m going to walk you through my ideal day that we end up doing, usually when we visit Hollywood Studios.
[00:01:09] Dana Stanley: And while this is not a step-by-step itinerary necessarily that I think you should follow because. It’s not really efficient for someone that has maybe never been to Hollywood Studios before or maybe wants to do absolutely everything. IE it is not necessarily the most productive day, but it is as close as possible to like my dream Hollywood Studios Day.
[00:01:31] Dana Stanley: So there of course will be some strategy, but overall these are things that my family just keeps going back to. And just as a reminder, the ages of my kids right now, I have a daughter who is days away from being 10, another daughter who’s five and a 2-year-old boy. I think this will be helpful because I know Hollywood Studios is just one of those parks where people feel a lot of pressure around to do everything.
[00:01:54] Dana Stanley: It’s just kind of a tough park to plan for. ’cause you have the Star Wars people. You have toy story kids. You have people who want to ride all the throw rides and just like toddler things in general. You have frozen. There’s a little bit of everything, which is kind of what I love about it, but somehow we think that we’re supposed to like fit all of that.
[00:02:14] Dana Stanley: Into one day or even a half day. So today I wanted to do something a little different as kind of an imaginary day, but also a day that I have had in the past. That would be ideal if I could replicate it over and over. This is what that day would look like.
[00:02:35] Dana Stanley: Hello, and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of Laid Back Magic. As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here.
[00:02:55] Dana Stanley: We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories. So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts, real life trip recaps, and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday, so be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment.
[00:03:16] Dana Stanley: Okay, let’s dive in.
[00:03:24] Dana Stanley: So ideally in a. Perfect scenario on a Hollywood Studios day. For me, I would be staying at my favorite resort and or resort areas, which would be the boardwalk, and this is around Crescent Lake because when I say that I love the boardwalk or it’s my favorite resort. Yes, that is all true. It really is.
[00:03:46] Dana Stanley: Being around Crescent Lake, so yes, it’s my favorite, but my runner’s up would be Beach Club Yacht Club, followed by even like the Swan Dolphin, maybe Swan Reserve. That way I am able to walk or I could take the boat to Hollywood Studios. Really what this means in mom terms is that I do not have to fold up my stroller for the bus.
[00:04:11] Dana Stanley: Honestly, most of the time we end up walking, it is a bit of a walk. It’s about like a 20, 25 minute leisurely walk. Like we take our time, but we kind of just let it happen depending on how the boat comes to the dock. Like if we go down to the boardwalk and we see a Hollywood Studios boat. We’re gonna just walk right on and I am able to just roll my double stroller onto the boat.
[00:04:35] Dana Stanley: It does get parked in like the handicap area of the boat, so there could be times with lots of wheelchairs or scooters that they would ask me to collapse it. That has not happened for us in like 17 years. Or if we come up and we see the boat is like super far away, my husband will usually convince me to walk.
[00:04:57] Dana Stanley: And again, it’s like 20, 25 minutes. And honestly, this part already is what is making it feel so much more laid back to me is that I’m not waiting or depending on anything, if worse comes to worse if like the boat was late or if it was lightning and the boat wasn’t running or whatever it may be. I always have my own two feet, which I really like.
[00:05:19] Dana Stanley: I’m also not worried about like holding a coffee and folding my stroller or doing anything like that. I am walking by the water or sitting on the boat. Hopefully I grabbed a coffee from like carousel coffee inside the boardwalk or maybe cake bake shop, which I’m excited to try. It’s already just feeling a lot more relaxed.
[00:05:40] Dana Stanley: That being said, of course, for this fictional day. To be laid back. It’s because I have done all of the thoughtful pre-planning things ahead of time. So once we arrived at Hollywood Studios, I already have some things in my pocket for the day. And really it’s two things. The first thing is that I already pre-booked and stacked up a few lightning lanes for Hollywood Studios because there is like, no way, Jose, a possible chance that I’m going to Hollywood Studios.
[00:06:11] Dana Stanley: Without lightning lanes with little kids, and I mentioned that this is by no means like an itinerary. I want you to follow play by play exact moments that are like exact plans. That is what I have inside of my Hollywood Studios guide. So my Guide to Hollywood Studios has four itineraries inside that you can follow play by play.
[00:06:30] Dana Stanley: There’s one for toddlers. One for mixed ages, which is kind of like when you wanna do a little bit of everything, including the bigger thrill rides. Then I have a Toy Story Day and a Star Wars Night, which are like two of my absolute favorite itineraries, which I will definitely leave a link in the show notes for you to check it out.
[00:06:48] Dana Stanley: If for some reason maybe your only visiting a couple parks and one of them is Hollywood Studios, or if you wanna see just like a piece of what laid back magic looks like. Grabbing a single guide is a great idea, and then you can always upgrade for the whole thing. And the second thing I have in my pocket is because we’re staying around Crescent Lake in this fake scenario, which is actually a very real scenario that I’ve done many, many times, is that because I’m staying at a Disney World resort, I get early entry.
[00:07:16] Dana Stanley: Early entry in Disney World means that we can start riding rides 30 minutes before people who are not staying on property. The caveat for this, and like a little asterisk for this, is that doesn’t necessarily mean. That I am going to get there 30 minutes early, or if I really wanna take advantage of early entry 30 minutes early.
[00:07:36] Dana Stanley: So let’s say the park opens at 9:00 AM that means obviously early entry starts at eight 30, but I know that they’re gonna start letting people into the park before eight 30. So they’ll let people line up at the turnstiles and let’s just say they let everyone in a little bit after eight o’clock. Once we get into the park, people can head to wherever they want to head first.
[00:08:01] Dana Stanley: And if you are somebody that likes to be in the front of the line or you like that feeling of like, we got here first, I think Hollywood Studios can be very tempting, but I also know that this is where a lot of people accidentally just make their day harder. Most of the time they immediately go to the two rides, like with the biggest crowds and what’s going to have the longest line and the biggest chance of having an issue.
[00:08:26] Dana Stanley: And we’re gonna touch on that in just a second. So here’s what I have pre-booked. Lightning lane wise, I am going to have three pre-booked multipass lightning lanes, and I’m also going to have one single pass lightning lane, nine times outta 10. I’m going to have a very early as soon as possible return time.
[00:08:46] Dana Stanley: For Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway railway. I’m gonna shoot for something between like nine and 10. Then I’m going to have a Toy story mania booked for kind of right after that, like let’s say 10 32, 12 ish. And then I’m going to have a flanking lightning lane for Alien swirling saucers, because those two are obviously in Toy Story land.
[00:09:09] Dana Stanley: Again, kind of like the same timing. It doesn’t really matter if like Toy Story Mania was first or alien swirling saucers. I just want those between like the 10 30 to 12 ish mark, whatever the app gives me, or that is earlier, I’m just gonna take it. And then I’m also going to have a single pass booked for Rise of the Resistance for around lunchtime, let’s say like a 1230 to one 30.
[00:09:32] Dana Stanley: This is probably the most strategic thing that I am doing out of the whole day because what I want to do is because we have the 2-year-old who is not tall enough to ride rise. Is I want to take turns riding while we’re eating lunch, and I really like eating lunch at Docking Bay seven in Galaxy’s Edge.
[00:09:53] Dana Stanley: And this works out so perfectly because Rise is not a quick ride. It’s not just something that we can like switch off super quick. Even with a lightning lane, the pre-show is really long. The ride itself is pretty long. And then if you have the switching involved. It can just take even longer. So I just like being able to, no matter what the scenario is, like maybe I can just send Colton into the lightning lane while I go order the food.
[00:10:20] Dana Stanley: And then once we sit down and like start to eat or maybe we’re halfway finished eating, he comes back and I can go to r’s. I just like having a little bit of like a home base of like a table if it’s inside or outside, so we can kind of pop in and out, if that makes sense. So I really like kind of building my lunch around Rise.
[00:10:39] Dana Stanley: Then feeling like Rise is this like interruption, like, oh, we have to go ride it. And then there’s like not really a lot to do with the little kids in Galaxy’s Edge. It’s like one of the places gives me a little bit of like anxiety because I don’t know, I can kind of get lost around Galaxy’s Edge and there’s ramps and there’s steps.
[00:10:58] Dana Stanley: And you have the stroller and I just don’t really like wandering around there at all. So I definitely like a lunch. So now that you know what lightning leads I have, this will give you a little bit more context of what time I am planning on getting there. I don’t really want to be held at the gate before being allowed in, so I’m not really rushing to get there.
[00:11:23] Dana Stanley: In my mind. I would love to get there at like eight 15, maybe eight 30. Again, it just kind of depends. But if I have that morning lightning lane for Mickey and Minis, that’s kind of like my parachute or my fail safe or however you wanna view it. If we’re in the room and we’re having like a really. Hard morning and we’re rushing and I find myself rushing.
[00:11:44] Dana Stanley: Or if Colton’s like, Hey, I thought you wanted to leave by seven 30 or eight, or whatever it may be, and we kind of feel that panic. I’m like, you know what? We just have to make it to our lightning lane and if we get there at nine 30, like whatever, if we get there at 10, whatever. It just has such a different feel to it than if we were trying to like rope drop Mickey and Minis or rope drop something because this is what a lot of people do.
[00:12:12] Dana Stanley: Most people are going to head to Slinky Dog Dash, which is in Toy Story Land. Or they’re going to head to rise of the resistance, and there’d be two lines, one for early entry where you could just actually get in line for the ride, and then a separate line for people that don’t have early entry, and they have to wait there until the park officially opens to ride.
[00:12:34] Dana Stanley: So for those people that don’t have that 30 minutes, they’re definitely going to be sitting there for a while. And the problem with the people that do have early entry is that a lot of times these rides won’t be open yet, so it’s a little bit of a gamble. Slinky Dog Dash. Could have a delayed opening.
[00:12:52] Dana Stanley: I’ve seen it in the past, but another thing that I don’t really love about the standby line for Slinky is that the line is all outdoors. Well, even the lightning lane is all outdoors. So in this scenario, I’m not riding Slinky because. No one really goes crazy for it. Me and my husband like it, but the girls don’t really care.
[00:13:10] Dana Stanley: And if I am going to ride it, I would prefer to ride it at night after a break, which again, is gonna make a little bit more sense when you see how the rest of our day plays out. And then rise of the resistance has historically the most chance of downtime. In all of Walt Disney World, it goes down a lot.
[00:13:29] Dana Stanley: So if I was trying to save money and avoid buying a single pass for it, which I totally get, I could risk rushing there, rushing my kids to ride it in the morning and it just be down or be waiting for it, and then kind of lose my early entry time. So what that looks like for us when we walk into the park is while everyone is rushing to Slinky Dog Dash and rushing over to Rise.
[00:13:54] Dana Stanley: We are going to head to the right to Tower of Terror, which is pretty much like right at the front of the park. So we’re gonna like just watch everyone go by and it’s very chill going that direction. And you’re maybe thinking like, why are you prioritizing Tower? And this is actually like strictly for my husband.
[00:14:15] Dana Stanley: I am fittingly terrified of Tower of Terror. I maybe would ride like, I don’t even know if I wanna ride it again. If one of my girls wants to ride it, I will go and like be scared with them. But for right now, this is just for my husband. And the thing about Lightning Lane Multipass is when you’re booking them, you have to all book together.
[00:14:35] Dana Stanley: So I’d have to get all of us a lightning lane. And then modify S or cancel s, and it would just be kind of annoying. But this early in the morning, because people aren’t prioritizing it, I know that it’s basically gonna be a walk-on, if not just a very low weight. So while he heads to tower terror, I’m going to go right nearby to Fairfax Fair, and this is where I’m going to have some Mickey waffles and some bacon and maybe a mimosa.
[00:15:04] Dana Stanley: Um, I’m actually going to cry that there’s no. Blueberry Mickey waffles anymore. Next door. If I have any like OG followers listening, you’ll remember the blueberry waffles that I’m so sad about. That’s like the one thing I’m very upset about. Like food wise, I don’t get into like the Disney food too much, but I’m actually upset about that ’cause they were amazing.
[00:15:25] Dana Stanley: So really, I’m gonna get in line for the waffles and by the time the food comes, my husband’s going to be back most likely. So we’re gonna have a table. We’re going to again enjoy our Mickey Waffles bacon. 99% sure I’m having a mimosa depending on what my blood sugar is feeling like at the moment. And this is exactly what I mean by laid back, because there’s not gonna be a ton of people doing this first thing in the morning.
[00:15:54] Dana Stanley: Now, another thing that’s a little bit different and will be a little bit different in a fruit church trip more than past trips, is that rock and rollercoaster, which is right across from Tower of Terror, is reopening later this month on May 26th. As a revamped Muppets version of rock and roller coaster.
[00:16:11] Dana Stanley: So I know that me and my husband are going to want to ride that. We don’t really prioritize rock and roller coaster. My husband would definitely ride it. It sometimes gives me a little bit of a headache, but I definitely wanna ride the new version. So there’s a few things that I’m thinking about for this, like for our next trip, because depending on the time of year, obviously this like new rollercoaster is going to be.
[00:16:32] Dana Stanley: Very popular after it reopens. So I’m either going to need a lightning lane for it, um, or I’m really going to have to like truly rope drop it. Or there’s, I’m 99% sure going to be a single rider line and I know that my girls don’t wanna ride this ’cause it goes upside down. So normally, like if it’s just a normal day, let’s say it’s like a year from now, I don’t see us having a problem.
[00:16:58] Dana Stanley: Just doing rider switch using the single rider line. It should be much shorter and then that would be perfect. I don’t know if Colton would also wanna do tower and rock and roller coaster, but we would definitely figure that out while. Kind of planning that around the Mickey waffles if I needed to kill a little bit more time.
[00:17:19] Dana Stanley: There is a shop that I like down that way. It’s called Once Upon a Time. I don’t know why. I just always seem to find something in there. Like my girls will find like the ears of the trip or the stuffy of the trip, t-shirts, sweatshirts, just things that they like, and I just like it there. It’s really chill because again, everyone’s busy rope dropping those popular rides.
[00:17:41] Dana Stanley: So while we’re kind of hanging out towards the front of the park until our first lightning lane, which hopefully, let’s just say it’s like a 9 15, 9 30 ish, we’re going to head over to Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway and scan in. I love the cue for Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway. It’s air conditioned.
[00:17:59] Dana Stanley: My kids are always in the best mood and like dancing. I don’t know what it is. I have so many videos of them. In this queue, like with the carpet and just them like dancing and wiggling and doing all the things while they’re dancing through the lightning lane. I am going to pull out my phone and book my next lightning lane for Millennium Falcon.
[00:18:20] Dana Stanley: So this is over in Galaxies Edge, kind of nearby rise. So I know that if I scan into Mickey and Minis at, let’s say like it’s nine 30, I’m most likely going to get a lightning lane anywhere between like. 11:00 AM on a chill lower crowd day to like a 1:00 PM on a busier day. And because I already know that I have rise later at 1230 ish.
[00:18:47] Dana Stanley: This is going to be perfect. Anything around that time I’m going to book and my girls really like Millennium Falcon, so that’s why I am booking a lightning lie for it. Then after Mickey and Mini’s, we’re going to meander over to Toy Storyland. We have. Our lightning lane waiting for us at Toy Story Mania, which we can all ride.
[00:19:06] Dana Stanley: My 2-year-old is old enough to like sit in his own spot with a little trigger gun and he loves that ride. We all love this ride. The cue is air conditioned. It’s gonna be great. I am going to score whatever tier it is where you get the cat and I cannot get past the cat. And if anyone can DM me any like toy story mania nerds, it’s really bothering me that I haven’t beat my husband yet.
[00:19:31] Dana Stanley: I beat him one time ever and it’s ’cause he was like super sick and weak and I definitely took advantage of him. I was like, in your face and he is like, Ugh, I don’t feel good. I would really like to beat him on a good day. So help me out. Leaving Toy Story mania. We also have a lightning lane for alien swirling saucers.
[00:19:51] Dana Stanley: It’s one of those rides, like I do not have to ride it. The queue is not air conditioned, so I am not going to ride this unless I have a lightning lane. And even with a lightning lane, it kind of bugs me ’cause it’s like you’re waiting in the line and it’s kind of like a carnival type of ride where it lasts.
[00:20:07] Dana Stanley: Truly like, I don’t know, maybe it’s like 30 seconds. Lemme look it up. I’m wrong. It’s one minute and 30 seconds. So it’s actually, that’s actually way longer than I thought it was gonna be, but it’s also one of the first rides that our kids can ride. It’s a 32 inch. Height requirement. So if you have like a 3-year-old or maybe a tall 2-year-old, they can usually get on.
[00:20:29] Dana Stanley: And if I ha and if I can get a lightning lane for it, great. We’ll ride it. So once we quote unquote like knock out Toy Story land, I’m gonna kind of see where the timing is. Like are we heading straight to Galaxy’s edge and starting the whole like Millennium Falcon Single Pass for Rise slash Docking Bay seven lunch.
[00:20:51] Dana Stanley: Or if we have a little time to kill and the timing, we could go see essentially a show. And this would have a little bit of backtracking, but we could see the Frozen Sing-along show. Or I may head to the old Disney Junior playing dance, which is with Mickey. It’s being revamped a little bit too. At Disney Junior, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse live show.
[00:21:16] Dana Stanley: This is coming also on May 26th, so I’m thinking it’s going to be similar to what it was. So depending just on like what my kids want to do and the timing, we might just go see one of those two things. Before heading into Galaxy’s Edge, and again, this depends a lot on the timing and I know we’re talking about like my ideal day, but this would be a great time or spot to meet a character or like my kids even really like going to, um, like the Potato Land.
[00:21:48] Dana Stanley: If you watch the new Mickey cartoons, you’ll know what potato land is. There’s almost like little photo backdrops in air conditioning. That you can go into. It’s at the exit of the Mickey Shorts Theater. You don’t actually have to sit and watch the show if you don’t want to. And when I had crew and he was like in that crawling phase, it stays pretty empty unless people are just exiting the theater.
[00:22:13] Dana Stanley: And it was a great spot for him to kind of like crawl around a little bit. And then after that it would definitely be lunchtime. So this is where that timing I talked about with Rise. And docking base seven is gonna come in because again, I don’t really wanna ride rise first thing in the morning. I don’t wanna rope drop it, and I think it’s just worth the money grabbing that single pass.
[00:22:34] Dana Stanley: Also, if the ride did go down, because I have a lightning lane, I have that in my back pocket for when it comes back up, versus if I got in line and waited 30 minutes and then it went down, I would have like a very tough decision to make and be kind of stuck. And by the time everyone has done eating and we have all ridden rise, who wants to ride rise?
[00:22:55] Dana Stanley: We are kind of already where we need to be for that millennium Falcon lightning lane that I booked in the morning, and that’ll most likely be our last ride before we leave the park. And this is why I love staying around Crescent Lake in this scenario, because when you’re staying around Crescent Lake, it’s just so much easier to go back to the room for.
[00:23:18] Dana Stanley: A nap for the toddler and or some pool time for the older kids. So this is probably around two o’clock and I’m just going to get outta the park and don’t feel like trapped there. I know that in like 30, 45 minutes I can be back at the resort. I will most of the time just take the boat because I’m gonna be pretty tired at this point and not feel like walking.
[00:23:40] Dana Stanley: And we’re just gonna take a little pause. We’re gonna take a little breather. And then we can come back later. So while I am taking this break for nap time, you may have noticed that I have been scanning into lightning lanes in the morning, like after I was scanning into Toy Story or Alien swirling saucers and then Millennium Falcon.
[00:24:01] Dana Stanley: You may be thinking like, well, why aren’t you booking more things? After that, and that’s kinda where the Slinky Dog Dash comes in. If I really wanted to ride Slinky, I would much rather ride it at night, and that would be my opportunity to try to get a Slinky dog Dash Lightning lane. Is this a guarantee that I would get it?
[00:24:21] Dana Stanley: No. Do I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve to get it and have gotten it and feel pretty confident that I would get it? Yes. So if I wanted to ride Slinky. At night, I would grab a lightning lien for that for the evening. I could book some more things too. I could do maybe star tours. Maybe I could do a lightning lane for Tower of Terror.
[00:24:40] Dana Stanley: If my husband wasn’t able to ride it in the morning, I could grab just one lightning lane for him at Tower. It could be rock and rollercoaster, like maybe something towards the front of the park when we walk in. We could bang out something if the beginning of the day was a little bit of a hot mess and I am rested.
[00:24:57] Dana Stanley: Maybe I did like an afternoon shower, got ready for dinner. And we are heading back into Hollywood studios. I could also swap this out for if I had a park hopper. Sometimes we take. Two half days in Hollywood studios, like I would do that first half that I mentioned and then go see the fireworks in Magic Kingdom.
[00:25:17] Dana Stanley: And then on another day we do Magic Kingdom and I would do this Hollywood Studios at night with Slinky and dinner. So for my ideal day that we are talking about and we’re heading back into Hollywood Studios, I am going to have a dinner reservation. With the Fantasma Dining package at Hollywood Brown Derby, this is going to just guarantee me seating that’s front and center to see Fantasm that night, so I don’t have to get there too early to get a good spot and have my 2-year-old.
[00:25:51] Dana Stanley: Like rigging around and not wanting to sit. This is exactly what we did on our last trip and I was so happy to have it because what ended up happening is we had dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby and I had a last minute lightning lane for Slinky Dog Dash. What happened is the timing was perfect, but we went over to Slinky to use the lightning lane.
[00:26:12] Dana Stanley: I was riding with one of my daughters, I actually forget which one, and I guess Slinky dog had been down. Shocker. And when we got into the lightning lane, it just happened to be right when it came back up. So the lightning lane was pretty backed up and it just took longer than we expected. I was actually like worried they weren’t gonna let us into Fantasm.
[00:26:33] Dana Stanley: So from getting off Slinky, which was really fun at night to getting too fmic, we were kind of hustling and we made it just in time. We had a perfect seat. I was just so happy that I had that Fantas Dining package booked at Hollywood Brown Derby. There are other restaurants that you can book for the Phantasm Dining Package.
[00:26:55] Dana Stanley: This just would happen to work in my plans. Um, Hollywood Brown Derby. It’s not my favorite restaurant, but it is like my least hated restaurant at Hollywood Studios. It has decent food and again, with the fantastic dining package, it’s just kind of a little bit of a no-brainer. If I need to eat dinner anyway, I might as well just do it.
[00:27:15] Dana Stanley: But you could also do the fifties primetime cafe. You could do Hollywood and Vine. Maybe you could do that. Like you could even do that earlier for lunch if you wanted to, and, and still get the Fantasma Dining package. You could also do the sci-fi restaurant, but this is my, this is my day, not yours. So we’re doing the Hollywood Brown Derby for dinner.
[00:27:36] Dana Stanley: I am getting a cocktail to go and maybe hitting just like one more lightning lane. Or if we did a lot that morning, we could do a little bit of shopping before heading over to Fantas. So that is my perfect, imaginary laid back day in Hollywood studios that I hope to do very, very soon. If you want my actual step-by-step itineraries for Hollywood Studios.
[00:27:58] Dana Stanley: That I talked about earlier, like the toddler mix ages, toy Story Morning and Star Wars night. I will leave a link for the guide in the show notes. Alright, I will see you next week. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode and it was helpful for you.
[00:28:21] Dana Stanley: It would mean the world to me if you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them. Seriously. Thank you in advance. You can find me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile, and I’d love to hear from you there. DM me if you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones.
[00:28:39] Dana Stanley: Until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.
My life doesn't revolve around Disney like you may think. I live for my family: my husband and our three kids. In my spare time I like to make my home the best it can be, read on our porch and watch (you guessed it) Disney+.
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What would your day look like if you stopped trying to do everything at Disney World and just focused on what actually feels good?
In this episode, I’m walking you through my ideal Hollywood Studios itinerary. Not the most efficient plan. Not the one that checks every single box. But the one I would choose over and over again for my family.
Because when you’re figuring out how to plan a trip to Disney, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of doing more instead of doing what actually works for you.
We’re talking about a real Hollywood Studios itinerary that blends strategy with flexibility, including how I use a Hollywood Studios lightning lane strategy to keep things moving without feeling rushed.
Inside this episode:
If you’re trying to figure out how to plan a trip to Disney that doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed, this episode will give you a completely different way to think about your day.
And if Hollywood Studios has ever felt chaotic or hard to plan, this might just be the reset you need.
What would your version of a “perfect” Hollywood Studios day actually look like?… Let me know your thoughts over on IG: @somewhereworthwhile
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:
Grab my guide to Hollywood Studios here
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Join the Laid-Back Magic® community
Podcast music by Podington Bear, track: ‘Filaments’, licensed under CC BY-NC, courtesy of Free Music Archive.
[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Today is May the fourth. And unless you have a Star Wars fan in your life, this may seem like a normal day, but it is. May the fourth be with you. Do you get it? May the fourth. May the fourth be with you. And while this episode is not going to be Star Wars Focus, per se, it did bring up in my mind, Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios.
[00:00:22] Dana Stanley: Hollywood Studios and Disney World is a little bit of a sneaky park to me because years and years ago I was very excited to visit Hollywood Studios. It was one of my favorites, and then it kind of dipped down to like, I didn’t really care about it. It was probably like my least favorite. And then fast forward now to 2026, or even last year, when I ask my girls like, Hey, what’s your favorite?
[00:00:46] Dana Stanley: Park in Disney World. They won’t say Hollywood Studios most of the time. But then when I ask them, Hey, what are your absolute things that we must, must do when we go to Disney World next time? They’re all things in Hollywood Studios for both of them. So today I’m going to walk you through my ideal day that we end up doing, usually when we visit Hollywood Studios.
[00:01:09] Dana Stanley: And while this is not a step-by-step itinerary necessarily that I think you should follow because. It’s not really efficient for someone that has maybe never been to Hollywood Studios before or maybe wants to do absolutely everything. IE it is not necessarily the most productive day, but it is as close as possible to like my dream Hollywood Studios Day.
[00:01:31] Dana Stanley: So there of course will be some strategy, but overall these are things that my family just keeps going back to. And just as a reminder, the ages of my kids right now, I have a daughter who is days away from being 10, another daughter who’s five and a 2-year-old boy. I think this will be helpful because I know Hollywood Studios is just one of those parks where people feel a lot of pressure around to do everything.
[00:01:54] Dana Stanley: It’s just kind of a tough park to plan for. ’cause you have the Star Wars people. You have toy story kids. You have people who want to ride all the throw rides and just like toddler things in general. You have frozen. There’s a little bit of everything, which is kind of what I love about it, but somehow we think that we’re supposed to like fit all of that.
[00:02:14] Dana Stanley: Into one day or even a half day. So today I wanted to do something a little different as kind of an imaginary day, but also a day that I have had in the past. That would be ideal if I could replicate it over and over. This is what that day would look like.
[00:02:35] Dana Stanley: Hello, and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of Laid Back Magic. As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here.
[00:02:55] Dana Stanley: We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories. So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts, real life trip recaps, and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday, so be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment.
[00:03:16] Dana Stanley: Okay, let’s dive in.
[00:03:24] Dana Stanley: So ideally in a. Perfect scenario on a Hollywood Studios day. For me, I would be staying at my favorite resort and or resort areas, which would be the boardwalk, and this is around Crescent Lake because when I say that I love the boardwalk or it’s my favorite resort. Yes, that is all true. It really is.
[00:03:46] Dana Stanley: Being around Crescent Lake, so yes, it’s my favorite, but my runner’s up would be Beach Club Yacht Club, followed by even like the Swan Dolphin, maybe Swan Reserve. That way I am able to walk or I could take the boat to Hollywood Studios. Really what this means in mom terms is that I do not have to fold up my stroller for the bus.
[00:04:11] Dana Stanley: Honestly, most of the time we end up walking, it is a bit of a walk. It’s about like a 20, 25 minute leisurely walk. Like we take our time, but we kind of just let it happen depending on how the boat comes to the dock. Like if we go down to the boardwalk and we see a Hollywood Studios boat. We’re gonna just walk right on and I am able to just roll my double stroller onto the boat.
[00:04:35] Dana Stanley: It does get parked in like the handicap area of the boat, so there could be times with lots of wheelchairs or scooters that they would ask me to collapse it. That has not happened for us in like 17 years. Or if we come up and we see the boat is like super far away, my husband will usually convince me to walk.
[00:04:57] Dana Stanley: And again, it’s like 20, 25 minutes. And honestly, this part already is what is making it feel so much more laid back to me is that I’m not waiting or depending on anything, if worse comes to worse if like the boat was late or if it was lightning and the boat wasn’t running or whatever it may be. I always have my own two feet, which I really like.
[00:05:19] Dana Stanley: I’m also not worried about like holding a coffee and folding my stroller or doing anything like that. I am walking by the water or sitting on the boat. Hopefully I grabbed a coffee from like carousel coffee inside the boardwalk or maybe cake bake shop, which I’m excited to try. It’s already just feeling a lot more relaxed.
[00:05:40] Dana Stanley: That being said, of course, for this fictional day. To be laid back. It’s because I have done all of the thoughtful pre-planning things ahead of time. So once we arrived at Hollywood Studios, I already have some things in my pocket for the day. And really it’s two things. The first thing is that I already pre-booked and stacked up a few lightning lanes for Hollywood Studios because there is like, no way, Jose, a possible chance that I’m going to Hollywood Studios.
[00:06:11] Dana Stanley: Without lightning lanes with little kids, and I mentioned that this is by no means like an itinerary. I want you to follow play by play exact moments that are like exact plans. That is what I have inside of my Hollywood Studios guide. So my Guide to Hollywood Studios has four itineraries inside that you can follow play by play.
[00:06:30] Dana Stanley: There’s one for toddlers. One for mixed ages, which is kind of like when you wanna do a little bit of everything, including the bigger thrill rides. Then I have a Toy Story Day and a Star Wars Night, which are like two of my absolute favorite itineraries, which I will definitely leave a link in the show notes for you to check it out.
[00:06:48] Dana Stanley: If for some reason maybe your only visiting a couple parks and one of them is Hollywood Studios, or if you wanna see just like a piece of what laid back magic looks like. Grabbing a single guide is a great idea, and then you can always upgrade for the whole thing. And the second thing I have in my pocket is because we’re staying around Crescent Lake in this fake scenario, which is actually a very real scenario that I’ve done many, many times, is that because I’m staying at a Disney World resort, I get early entry.
[00:07:16] Dana Stanley: Early entry in Disney World means that we can start riding rides 30 minutes before people who are not staying on property. The caveat for this, and like a little asterisk for this, is that doesn’t necessarily mean. That I am going to get there 30 minutes early, or if I really wanna take advantage of early entry 30 minutes early.
[00:07:36] Dana Stanley: So let’s say the park opens at 9:00 AM that means obviously early entry starts at eight 30, but I know that they’re gonna start letting people into the park before eight 30. So they’ll let people line up at the turnstiles and let’s just say they let everyone in a little bit after eight o’clock. Once we get into the park, people can head to wherever they want to head first.
[00:08:01] Dana Stanley: And if you are somebody that likes to be in the front of the line or you like that feeling of like, we got here first, I think Hollywood Studios can be very tempting, but I also know that this is where a lot of people accidentally just make their day harder. Most of the time they immediately go to the two rides, like with the biggest crowds and what’s going to have the longest line and the biggest chance of having an issue.
[00:08:26] Dana Stanley: And we’re gonna touch on that in just a second. So here’s what I have pre-booked. Lightning lane wise, I am going to have three pre-booked multipass lightning lanes, and I’m also going to have one single pass lightning lane, nine times outta 10. I’m going to have a very early as soon as possible return time.
[00:08:46] Dana Stanley: For Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway railway. I’m gonna shoot for something between like nine and 10. Then I’m going to have a Toy story mania booked for kind of right after that, like let’s say 10 32, 12 ish. And then I’m going to have a flanking lightning lane for Alien swirling saucers, because those two are obviously in Toy Story land.
[00:09:09] Dana Stanley: Again, kind of like the same timing. It doesn’t really matter if like Toy Story Mania was first or alien swirling saucers. I just want those between like the 10 30 to 12 ish mark, whatever the app gives me, or that is earlier, I’m just gonna take it. And then I’m also going to have a single pass booked for Rise of the Resistance for around lunchtime, let’s say like a 1230 to one 30.
[00:09:32] Dana Stanley: This is probably the most strategic thing that I am doing out of the whole day because what I want to do is because we have the 2-year-old who is not tall enough to ride rise. Is I want to take turns riding while we’re eating lunch, and I really like eating lunch at Docking Bay seven in Galaxy’s Edge.
[00:09:53] Dana Stanley: And this works out so perfectly because Rise is not a quick ride. It’s not just something that we can like switch off super quick. Even with a lightning lane, the pre-show is really long. The ride itself is pretty long. And then if you have the switching involved. It can just take even longer. So I just like being able to, no matter what the scenario is, like maybe I can just send Colton into the lightning lane while I go order the food.
[00:10:20] Dana Stanley: And then once we sit down and like start to eat or maybe we’re halfway finished eating, he comes back and I can go to r’s. I just like having a little bit of like a home base of like a table if it’s inside or outside, so we can kind of pop in and out, if that makes sense. So I really like kind of building my lunch around Rise.
[00:10:39] Dana Stanley: Then feeling like Rise is this like interruption, like, oh, we have to go ride it. And then there’s like not really a lot to do with the little kids in Galaxy’s Edge. It’s like one of the places gives me a little bit of like anxiety because I don’t know, I can kind of get lost around Galaxy’s Edge and there’s ramps and there’s steps.
[00:10:58] Dana Stanley: And you have the stroller and I just don’t really like wandering around there at all. So I definitely like a lunch. So now that you know what lightning leads I have, this will give you a little bit more context of what time I am planning on getting there. I don’t really want to be held at the gate before being allowed in, so I’m not really rushing to get there.
[00:11:23] Dana Stanley: In my mind. I would love to get there at like eight 15, maybe eight 30. Again, it just kind of depends. But if I have that morning lightning lane for Mickey and Minis, that’s kind of like my parachute or my fail safe or however you wanna view it. If we’re in the room and we’re having like a really. Hard morning and we’re rushing and I find myself rushing.
[00:11:44] Dana Stanley: Or if Colton’s like, Hey, I thought you wanted to leave by seven 30 or eight, or whatever it may be, and we kind of feel that panic. I’m like, you know what? We just have to make it to our lightning lane and if we get there at nine 30, like whatever, if we get there at 10, whatever. It just has such a different feel to it than if we were trying to like rope drop Mickey and Minis or rope drop something because this is what a lot of people do.
[00:12:12] Dana Stanley: Most people are going to head to Slinky Dog Dash, which is in Toy Story Land. Or they’re going to head to rise of the resistance, and there’d be two lines, one for early entry where you could just actually get in line for the ride, and then a separate line for people that don’t have early entry, and they have to wait there until the park officially opens to ride.
[00:12:34] Dana Stanley: So for those people that don’t have that 30 minutes, they’re definitely going to be sitting there for a while. And the problem with the people that do have early entry is that a lot of times these rides won’t be open yet, so it’s a little bit of a gamble. Slinky Dog Dash. Could have a delayed opening.
[00:12:52] Dana Stanley: I’ve seen it in the past, but another thing that I don’t really love about the standby line for Slinky is that the line is all outdoors. Well, even the lightning lane is all outdoors. So in this scenario, I’m not riding Slinky because. No one really goes crazy for it. Me and my husband like it, but the girls don’t really care.
[00:13:10] Dana Stanley: And if I am going to ride it, I would prefer to ride it at night after a break, which again, is gonna make a little bit more sense when you see how the rest of our day plays out. And then rise of the resistance has historically the most chance of downtime. In all of Walt Disney World, it goes down a lot.
[00:13:29] Dana Stanley: So if I was trying to save money and avoid buying a single pass for it, which I totally get, I could risk rushing there, rushing my kids to ride it in the morning and it just be down or be waiting for it, and then kind of lose my early entry time. So what that looks like for us when we walk into the park is while everyone is rushing to Slinky Dog Dash and rushing over to Rise.
[00:13:54] Dana Stanley: We are going to head to the right to Tower of Terror, which is pretty much like right at the front of the park. So we’re gonna like just watch everyone go by and it’s very chill going that direction. And you’re maybe thinking like, why are you prioritizing Tower? And this is actually like strictly for my husband.
[00:14:15] Dana Stanley: I am fittingly terrified of Tower of Terror. I maybe would ride like, I don’t even know if I wanna ride it again. If one of my girls wants to ride it, I will go and like be scared with them. But for right now, this is just for my husband. And the thing about Lightning Lane Multipass is when you’re booking them, you have to all book together.
[00:14:35] Dana Stanley: So I’d have to get all of us a lightning lane. And then modify S or cancel s, and it would just be kind of annoying. But this early in the morning, because people aren’t prioritizing it, I know that it’s basically gonna be a walk-on, if not just a very low weight. So while he heads to tower terror, I’m going to go right nearby to Fairfax Fair, and this is where I’m going to have some Mickey waffles and some bacon and maybe a mimosa.
[00:15:04] Dana Stanley: Um, I’m actually going to cry that there’s no. Blueberry Mickey waffles anymore. Next door. If I have any like OG followers listening, you’ll remember the blueberry waffles that I’m so sad about. That’s like the one thing I’m very upset about. Like food wise, I don’t get into like the Disney food too much, but I’m actually upset about that ’cause they were amazing.
[00:15:25] Dana Stanley: So really, I’m gonna get in line for the waffles and by the time the food comes, my husband’s going to be back most likely. So we’re gonna have a table. We’re going to again enjoy our Mickey Waffles bacon. 99% sure I’m having a mimosa depending on what my blood sugar is feeling like at the moment. And this is exactly what I mean by laid back, because there’s not gonna be a ton of people doing this first thing in the morning.
[00:15:54] Dana Stanley: Now, another thing that’s a little bit different and will be a little bit different in a fruit church trip more than past trips, is that rock and rollercoaster, which is right across from Tower of Terror, is reopening later this month on May 26th. As a revamped Muppets version of rock and roller coaster.
[00:16:11] Dana Stanley: So I know that me and my husband are going to want to ride that. We don’t really prioritize rock and roller coaster. My husband would definitely ride it. It sometimes gives me a little bit of a headache, but I definitely wanna ride the new version. So there’s a few things that I’m thinking about for this, like for our next trip, because depending on the time of year, obviously this like new rollercoaster is going to be.
[00:16:32] Dana Stanley: Very popular after it reopens. So I’m either going to need a lightning lane for it, um, or I’m really going to have to like truly rope drop it. Or there’s, I’m 99% sure going to be a single rider line and I know that my girls don’t wanna ride this ’cause it goes upside down. So normally, like if it’s just a normal day, let’s say it’s like a year from now, I don’t see us having a problem.
[00:16:58] Dana Stanley: Just doing rider switch using the single rider line. It should be much shorter and then that would be perfect. I don’t know if Colton would also wanna do tower and rock and roller coaster, but we would definitely figure that out while. Kind of planning that around the Mickey waffles if I needed to kill a little bit more time.
[00:17:19] Dana Stanley: There is a shop that I like down that way. It’s called Once Upon a Time. I don’t know why. I just always seem to find something in there. Like my girls will find like the ears of the trip or the stuffy of the trip, t-shirts, sweatshirts, just things that they like, and I just like it there. It’s really chill because again, everyone’s busy rope dropping those popular rides.
[00:17:41] Dana Stanley: So while we’re kind of hanging out towards the front of the park until our first lightning lane, which hopefully, let’s just say it’s like a 9 15, 9 30 ish, we’re going to head over to Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway and scan in. I love the cue for Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway. It’s air conditioned.
[00:17:59] Dana Stanley: My kids are always in the best mood and like dancing. I don’t know what it is. I have so many videos of them. In this queue, like with the carpet and just them like dancing and wiggling and doing all the things while they’re dancing through the lightning lane. I am going to pull out my phone and book my next lightning lane for Millennium Falcon.
[00:18:20] Dana Stanley: So this is over in Galaxies Edge, kind of nearby rise. So I know that if I scan into Mickey and Minis at, let’s say like it’s nine 30, I’m most likely going to get a lightning lane anywhere between like. 11:00 AM on a chill lower crowd day to like a 1:00 PM on a busier day. And because I already know that I have rise later at 1230 ish.
[00:18:47] Dana Stanley: This is going to be perfect. Anything around that time I’m going to book and my girls really like Millennium Falcon, so that’s why I am booking a lightning lie for it. Then after Mickey and Mini’s, we’re going to meander over to Toy Storyland. We have. Our lightning lane waiting for us at Toy Story Mania, which we can all ride.
[00:19:06] Dana Stanley: My 2-year-old is old enough to like sit in his own spot with a little trigger gun and he loves that ride. We all love this ride. The cue is air conditioned. It’s gonna be great. I am going to score whatever tier it is where you get the cat and I cannot get past the cat. And if anyone can DM me any like toy story mania nerds, it’s really bothering me that I haven’t beat my husband yet.
[00:19:31] Dana Stanley: I beat him one time ever and it’s ’cause he was like super sick and weak and I definitely took advantage of him. I was like, in your face and he is like, Ugh, I don’t feel good. I would really like to beat him on a good day. So help me out. Leaving Toy Story mania. We also have a lightning lane for alien swirling saucers.
[00:19:51] Dana Stanley: It’s one of those rides, like I do not have to ride it. The queue is not air conditioned, so I am not going to ride this unless I have a lightning lane. And even with a lightning lane, it kind of bugs me ’cause it’s like you’re waiting in the line and it’s kind of like a carnival type of ride where it lasts.
[00:20:07] Dana Stanley: Truly like, I don’t know, maybe it’s like 30 seconds. Lemme look it up. I’m wrong. It’s one minute and 30 seconds. So it’s actually, that’s actually way longer than I thought it was gonna be, but it’s also one of the first rides that our kids can ride. It’s a 32 inch. Height requirement. So if you have like a 3-year-old or maybe a tall 2-year-old, they can usually get on.
[00:20:29] Dana Stanley: And if I ha and if I can get a lightning lane for it, great. We’ll ride it. So once we quote unquote like knock out Toy Story land, I’m gonna kind of see where the timing is. Like are we heading straight to Galaxy’s edge and starting the whole like Millennium Falcon Single Pass for Rise slash Docking Bay seven lunch.
[00:20:51] Dana Stanley: Or if we have a little time to kill and the timing, we could go see essentially a show. And this would have a little bit of backtracking, but we could see the Frozen Sing-along show. Or I may head to the old Disney Junior playing dance, which is with Mickey. It’s being revamped a little bit too. At Disney Junior, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse live show.
[00:21:16] Dana Stanley: This is coming also on May 26th, so I’m thinking it’s going to be similar to what it was. So depending just on like what my kids want to do and the timing, we might just go see one of those two things. Before heading into Galaxy’s Edge, and again, this depends a lot on the timing and I know we’re talking about like my ideal day, but this would be a great time or spot to meet a character or like my kids even really like going to, um, like the Potato Land.
[00:21:48] Dana Stanley: If you watch the new Mickey cartoons, you’ll know what potato land is. There’s almost like little photo backdrops in air conditioning. That you can go into. It’s at the exit of the Mickey Shorts Theater. You don’t actually have to sit and watch the show if you don’t want to. And when I had crew and he was like in that crawling phase, it stays pretty empty unless people are just exiting the theater.
[00:22:13] Dana Stanley: And it was a great spot for him to kind of like crawl around a little bit. And then after that it would definitely be lunchtime. So this is where that timing I talked about with Rise. And docking base seven is gonna come in because again, I don’t really wanna ride rise first thing in the morning. I don’t wanna rope drop it, and I think it’s just worth the money grabbing that single pass.
[00:22:34] Dana Stanley: Also, if the ride did go down, because I have a lightning lane, I have that in my back pocket for when it comes back up, versus if I got in line and waited 30 minutes and then it went down, I would have like a very tough decision to make and be kind of stuck. And by the time everyone has done eating and we have all ridden rise, who wants to ride rise?
[00:22:55] Dana Stanley: We are kind of already where we need to be for that millennium Falcon lightning lane that I booked in the morning, and that’ll most likely be our last ride before we leave the park. And this is why I love staying around Crescent Lake in this scenario, because when you’re staying around Crescent Lake, it’s just so much easier to go back to the room for.
[00:23:18] Dana Stanley: A nap for the toddler and or some pool time for the older kids. So this is probably around two o’clock and I’m just going to get outta the park and don’t feel like trapped there. I know that in like 30, 45 minutes I can be back at the resort. I will most of the time just take the boat because I’m gonna be pretty tired at this point and not feel like walking.
[00:23:40] Dana Stanley: And we’re just gonna take a little pause. We’re gonna take a little breather. And then we can come back later. So while I am taking this break for nap time, you may have noticed that I have been scanning into lightning lanes in the morning, like after I was scanning into Toy Story or Alien swirling saucers and then Millennium Falcon.
[00:24:01] Dana Stanley: You may be thinking like, well, why aren’t you booking more things? After that, and that’s kinda where the Slinky Dog Dash comes in. If I really wanted to ride Slinky, I would much rather ride it at night, and that would be my opportunity to try to get a Slinky dog Dash Lightning lane. Is this a guarantee that I would get it?
[00:24:21] Dana Stanley: No. Do I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve to get it and have gotten it and feel pretty confident that I would get it? Yes. So if I wanted to ride Slinky. At night, I would grab a lightning lien for that for the evening. I could book some more things too. I could do maybe star tours. Maybe I could do a lightning lane for Tower of Terror.
[00:24:40] Dana Stanley: If my husband wasn’t able to ride it in the morning, I could grab just one lightning lane for him at Tower. It could be rock and rollercoaster, like maybe something towards the front of the park when we walk in. We could bang out something if the beginning of the day was a little bit of a hot mess and I am rested.
[00:24:57] Dana Stanley: Maybe I did like an afternoon shower, got ready for dinner. And we are heading back into Hollywood studios. I could also swap this out for if I had a park hopper. Sometimes we take. Two half days in Hollywood studios, like I would do that first half that I mentioned and then go see the fireworks in Magic Kingdom.
[00:25:17] Dana Stanley: And then on another day we do Magic Kingdom and I would do this Hollywood Studios at night with Slinky and dinner. So for my ideal day that we are talking about and we’re heading back into Hollywood Studios, I am going to have a dinner reservation. With the Fantasma Dining package at Hollywood Brown Derby, this is going to just guarantee me seating that’s front and center to see Fantasm that night, so I don’t have to get there too early to get a good spot and have my 2-year-old.
[00:25:51] Dana Stanley: Like rigging around and not wanting to sit. This is exactly what we did on our last trip and I was so happy to have it because what ended up happening is we had dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby and I had a last minute lightning lane for Slinky Dog Dash. What happened is the timing was perfect, but we went over to Slinky to use the lightning lane.
[00:26:12] Dana Stanley: I was riding with one of my daughters, I actually forget which one, and I guess Slinky dog had been down. Shocker. And when we got into the lightning lane, it just happened to be right when it came back up. So the lightning lane was pretty backed up and it just took longer than we expected. I was actually like worried they weren’t gonna let us into Fantasm.
[00:26:33] Dana Stanley: So from getting off Slinky, which was really fun at night to getting too fmic, we were kind of hustling and we made it just in time. We had a perfect seat. I was just so happy that I had that Fantas Dining package booked at Hollywood Brown Derby. There are other restaurants that you can book for the Phantasm Dining Package.
[00:26:55] Dana Stanley: This just would happen to work in my plans. Um, Hollywood Brown Derby. It’s not my favorite restaurant, but it is like my least hated restaurant at Hollywood Studios. It has decent food and again, with the fantastic dining package, it’s just kind of a little bit of a no-brainer. If I need to eat dinner anyway, I might as well just do it.
[00:27:15] Dana Stanley: But you could also do the fifties primetime cafe. You could do Hollywood and Vine. Maybe you could do that. Like you could even do that earlier for lunch if you wanted to, and, and still get the Fantasma Dining package. You could also do the sci-fi restaurant, but this is my, this is my day, not yours. So we’re doing the Hollywood Brown Derby for dinner.
[00:27:36] Dana Stanley: I am getting a cocktail to go and maybe hitting just like one more lightning lane. Or if we did a lot that morning, we could do a little bit of shopping before heading over to Fantas. So that is my perfect, imaginary laid back day in Hollywood studios that I hope to do very, very soon. If you want my actual step-by-step itineraries for Hollywood Studios.
[00:27:58] Dana Stanley: That I talked about earlier, like the toddler mix ages, toy Story Morning and Star Wars night. I will leave a link for the guide in the show notes. Alright, I will see you next week. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode and it was helpful for you.
[00:28:21] Dana Stanley: It would mean the world to me if you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them. Seriously. Thank you in advance. You can find me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile, and I’d love to hear from you there. DM me if you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones.
[00:28:39] Dana Stanley: Until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.
I've planned our family vacations to Walt Disney World, ranging in ages, sizes, and circumstances; without kids, with one kid, and now with two! From these trips, I've learned what not to do and want to share them with you.
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