[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: If Hollywood Studios is on your itinerary, this episode is one you’re going to love because Hollywood Studios, it’s a park that can feel overwhelming at first glance because there’s a lot of quote, big rides and lots of things to do, but with the right priorities, it’s also one of the most rewarding ones to kind of just like slow down and really enjoy, and I think it has a lot of.

[00:00:25] Dana Stanley: The things that we love about Disney, which is the movies and the animation,

[00:00:30] Dana Stanley: as the kids have gotten older, so I have a 9-year-old, five-year-old, and almost 2-year-old. This has become one of our favorite parks to visit. The more and more we go,

[00:00:41] Dana Stanley: this all came about because I asked my Instagram broadcast channel. To vote on today’s episode, and it started with anywhere from first time visits to toddlers and then just an idea of exploring an episode just about a single park. And I thought everyone was gonna pick Magic Kingdom. I really did. But out of all four parks, overwhelmingly the votes were for Hollywood studios.

[00:01:10] Dana Stanley: So I opened up a question, answer inside the channel, and I just pulled your exact questions. So today I’m answering all of them straight from our most recent trip, including what time to get to Fmic, thoughts on Olga’s Cantina and how much you can actually do in one day.

[00:01:31] Dana Stanley: Then mini intro. As I said before, this episode is made entirely of questions from you and I just kind of organize them by the topic. So whether you’re debating the shows or lightning lanes, dining packages, or just how to not overthink some of the nighttime stuff, I know you’re gonna find something helpful in here.

[00:01:52] Dana Stanley: To kick things off, let’s talk about Fantas because there’s a lot of confusion around timing. Because there’s a lot of confusion around timing and how it fits with the other nighttime shows. So Kristen asked, how early do I need to get there for Fmic? And this really depends on if there’s one or two shows that night, because if there’s one show, obviously it’s going to be more crowded because everyone is going to one show.

[00:02:22] Dana Stanley: In that case, I’d wanna get there a little bit on the earlier side, and I wanna say between 30 to 45 minutes before. Now, that being said, I don’t want it to feel like very urgent if you didn’t get there that early, especially if it’s not a busy time of year. And you’ll be able to feel that even like when you’re in the park like, Ooh, it’s really crowded today, or It’s not very crowded today.

[00:02:47] Dana Stanley: Because the good thing about Fantas is there really isn’t a bad spot and the stadium or theater. Depending on what you wanna call it, it’s huge. So it has like classic stadium seating where the bottom rows are lower than the top rows, which are higher. So you don’t have to really worry about someone being like really tall in front of you.

[00:03:11] Dana Stanley: Everyone’s sitting down so you don’t have to like save a spot, like let’s say the fireworks and magic kingdom. It’s just an overall much less intense vibe.

[00:03:21] Dana Stanley: Especially if and when, there’s two shows. The second one is a lot less busy, so you could get there 10, even like five minutes before. Ideally, if you’re not using the dining package for fantasm, so you don’t have like assigned. Special seating. I would grab some popcorn and get there 30 minutes before with the asterisk that if it’s a busy time of year, like I said, so Thanksgiving, Christmas, sometimes spring break, I shoot for 45 minutes just to be safe.

[00:03:52] Dana Stanley: It’s never happened to us, but I know that they can and will reach capacity sometimes.

[00:03:58] Dana Stanley: The biggest like time suck that I didn’t really realize until I had kids was just the actual distance from the entrance to actually getting up and into a seat. It’s a little bit of a walk and it’s an uphill walk, and you have a stroller and then you have to park your stroller in like their designated spot.

[00:04:19] Dana Stanley: So.

[00:04:20] Dana Stanley: So that’s the only thing that’s going to feel like it takes the longest. And someone else had a question about the dining package, so I’m gonna have more info on that as well. Okay.

[00:04:30] Dana Stanley: And speaking of nighttime shows, a lot of people want to know if you can squeeze in both Fantas and the wonderful world of animation. And this is just like a short projection show that happens on the old Chinese theater, which is Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. So I’m sorry I don’t have the first name, but locally roamed asked.

[00:04:53] Dana Stanley: Okay. Thoughts on wonderful World of Animation show. Is it worth it or even feasible to try for both Wonderful World and Fantas? So very short answer is no. You can’t really do both. So on our last trip we were walking from Slinky Dog Dash, which is over in Toy Storyland to Fmic. We had a dining package, so.

[00:05:22] Dana Stanley: We had a dining package, so I wasn’t planning on getting there the 30 to 45 minutes before, but our lightning lane for Slinky took way longer than we thought, so, so we were like hustling to Fantas. We were power walking, and I think we ended up getting there like five minutes before when all was said and done.

[00:05:40] Dana Stanley: I’m telling you this because on the way there, wonderful world of animation was already started, like it had already. Like, I don’t know if I had started one minute before or 10 minutes before, but this is just a quick projection show. Like I said, it’s only 12 minutes, so there’s music and sounds and the projections and like little like pop-off sparklers, but it doesn’t bring a big crowd like Fanta.

[00:06:10] Dana Stanley: So it’s kind of just there, I think to like disperse people a little bit. You’re not going to Fantas. There’s like something else for people to do. That’s more of like a nighttime thing. Now, if there are two showings of Fantas on the night you’re there, you could potentially see both. For sure. You could see a wonderful world of animation and then you could go see the second showing of Fantasm for sure.

[00:06:35] Dana Stanley: For example, if you’re listening to this, the day that this episode actually airs, fantas is at eight 30 with only one show, and world of animation is at nine. So obviously today, if you were gonna try to see both, that would not work. And then even on some other nights later in the month, it flip flops.

[00:06:55] Dana Stanley: Fantas is at nine 30 and World of Animation is at nine. So just going back to, unless there’s two shows, you can’t do both and between the two, there really is no comparison. Fantasma is a completely different type of show. I mean, it is a show. There are characters and lights and sounds and huge props, and it’s a whole production versus world of animation.

[00:07:22] Dana Stanley: It’s just like a cute little thing that if you happen to be walking by, it’s fun to watch. You know what I mean?

[00:07:28] Dana Stanley: Next up, let’s talk about dining a little bit. So starting with one of the most asked about, and that is the Fmic Dining Package. Morgan asks just my thoughts on it and my short answer is that I like the Phantasm dining package for the example that I just gave of us being late to Fantas because.

[00:07:48] Dana Stanley: Something happened and it was out of my control and unexpected. And even though I was a little stressed, I wasn’t that stressed because we had that dining package, which essentially just gives you a designated spot that only dining package people can sit at at Fantas. And there are great seats. I know that there is like no bad seat, but in terms of where it is, it is like front and center.

[00:08:15] Dana Stanley: It is front dead, center of the show.

[00:08:18] Dana Stanley: Both times we’ve done the dining package, we ended up eating at Hollywood Brown Derby, which is good. A solid good, I’d say solid good from me. The steak is decent. My husband really likes it there. I was able to get a cocktail to go. I’m always a fan of anything that reserves a spot for me. I. Sure.

[00:08:42] Dana Stanley: You know, I love the Magic Kingdom Dessert Party, and I like the Fantasma Dining package for the same reason. We don’t see fantasma on every trip either, so it’s just something like, if we’re going to prioritize it, it’s kind of a no-brainer to do the dining package. I certainly don’t think that you absolutely need it, especially if you don’t have little kids.

[00:09:02] Dana Stanley: That’s a big thing too. If it was just me and my husband, like if it was just my husband and I. We would be happy campers just sitting there, you know, 30 to 45 minutes before the show starts, whereas that 30 to 45 minutes with little kids and toddlers, like my son was under two last time we did this, and that was not gonna happen.

[00:09:22] Dana Stanley: He could barely sit still for two seconds. So I like just knowing that that spot is there for me when I get there. I’m not gonna spend too much time on the dining package just because I have a full review of it on my blog, so I’m gonna link it in. So I’m gonna link that in the show notes so you can see more details on where the dining package is offered and the pricing and how the whole thing works.

[00:09:48] Dana Stanley: And for those of you who are wondering whether Olga’s Cantina is actually worth the hype. Millie said, I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on Ogas. Is it worth it? So the thing about Ogas is right off the bat, if you have a Star Wars fan in your group, I think it’s worth it. So the first time we went was in 2021 with my brother-in-law.

[00:10:11] Dana Stanley: He, it was like our big family trip. He is a Star Wars. Nut. So that was like a done deal that we were going to have drinks there, and it was fun to experience once and then again, like a lot of things in Disney, I’ve said it before we left, kind of like, oh, like that was fun, but we don’t have to do that again.

[00:10:30] Dana Stanley: I,

[00:10:31] Dana Stanley: or at least not for a while. So I think a lot of what the mixed reviews comes with is. Is it coming from a Star Wars fan or not? First off, and a lot of people think that it’s like a restaurant and it isn’t. It is not somewhere that you go to have a meal. It is a lounge.

[00:10:51] Dana Stanley: There’s just not a lot of food options. So like if you book that at 12 o’clock and you think that you’re gonna be sitting down for lunch. It could kind of be a nightmare, especially with little kids. So they have snacks, like little things that are kind of just fun and again, super themed Star Wars, but it’s not gonna fill you up.

[00:11:08] Dana Stanley: They have like a little charcuterie board type thing, a flatbread, that type of stuff.

[00:11:14] Dana Stanley: But if you were just going for a drink and you’re not into Star Wars, you know, there’s a lot of different places you could go. Baseline tap house kind of has like that bar lounge feel. Tune in lounge, same thing. I’d say. If you have a toddler, let’s say like under four years old, no, I would probably skip it unless your husband is like a diehard Star Wars fan and you know that he’ll love it.

[00:11:41] Dana Stanley: If you do go, my favorite cocktail is the outer rim, because essentially it’s just the closest thing to a margarita. But another little tip is if you order the blue banta for your kids, this is like the blue milk that you can get at Galaxy’s Edge. Ask for an extra cookie because on top of the drink comes with this like little sugar cookie, and I’ve never had a problem.

[00:12:05] Dana Stanley: Just getting an extra cookie and that way my girls weren’t fighting and screaming and they really liked the milk. And if you’re a mom, I know you understand.

[00:12:13] Dana Stanley: Okay, so shifting into a little bit of strategy. Let’s talk about lightning lanes and how I think about picking them. So Tracy asked recommendations for booking lightning lanes and when it comes to lightning lanes and how I teach it in my course is really just you finding, I call them your quote, dreamy lightning lanes.

[00:12:35] Dana Stanley: So it’s just a mix of three things and where they all intersect, and that’s the popularity of the lightning lane. How much time the lightning lane is going to save you. And your family

[00:12:49] Dana Stanley: because I could recommend, Hey, get Slinky Dog Dash, Hey, get Tower of Terror, get these hard to get rides. But like for my family, my girls don’t wanna get on that. Like I might get my husband one lightning leave for Tower of Terror. I don’t wanna ride that either. So it doesn’t make sense. There’s not like one size fits all recommendations that I can give.

[00:13:10] Dana Stanley: But I will say this, if you want to ride Slinky Dog Dash using the Lightning Lane, that’s gonna be one of the first ones to sell out, but it is also one of the rides that gets a lot of day of availability once you’re in the park. So if you’re using Standby Skipper, I know I’ve talked about it before, it’s an app that will book Lightning liens for you, kind of like an alert system.

[00:13:35] Dana Stanley: Like, oh, there’s a lightning lane that just opened for Slinky Dog Dash. Instead of refreshing on the Mind Disney Experience app yourself to find it. Standby Skipper will snatch it up for you. Now that being said, I will tell you that the two hard to get lightning lanes in Hollywood Studios. If there’s something that you want, then you should prioritize Slinky Dog Dash and a single Pass for Star Wars Rise of the resistance.

[00:14:06] Dana Stanley: Those are the two top rides that are always going to sell out first. And then

[00:14:11] Dana Stanley: for us, because typically we’re skipping slinky, especially in the morning, sometimes I’ll grab it for the evening, like I was saying before. When we were late for Fmic, that was because I had standby skipper, grab me a Slinky for the evening and it had no problem. But if I don’t go that route of getting it as a secondary lightning lane, my pre-booked ones are usually going to be Mickey and Mini’s Runaway Railway and Toy Story Mania, which is like one of my favorite rides in Hollywood studios.

[00:14:46] Dana Stanley: It’s really a park that you have to prioritize what you wanna do, so you have to read the descriptions, maybe go on YouTube and do some of these ride throughs and decide what you really want to ride ahead of time.

[00:15:02] Dana Stanley: Then from there you can look into the tiers of lightning lanes, which ones you are allowed to book ahead of time, how many, and

[00:15:12] Dana Stanley: then you can cross reference those with the rides that usually get long waits and sell out the fastest and put those to the top of your list to pre-book them ahead of time.

[00:15:23] Dana Stanley: One of the factors to think about when you’re booking lightning lanes and Hollywood Studios is the actual location of the rides. So like I love getting Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway as our first lightning lie of the day, really? Because it’s towards the front of the park and you’re kind of walking by it on your way to Galaxy’s edge.

[00:15:43] Dana Stanley: Or toy story land. So I love getting that first and scanning in that way I, or standby skipper, which I’m most likely using, can start grabbing lightning lanes and I can just keep booking and scanning for the rest of the day.

[00:15:57] Dana Stanley: On that note, let’s also cover how to structure your day. So Brittany asked, what was your 3, 2, 1 for Hollywood Studios on your last trip? So she is referring to my method 3, 2, 1. Which means to pick three rides for your park day, two experiences, and then one dining reservation. I feel like this is just the perfect way to structure your day, not just the Hollywood studios, but any of the parks that doesn’t feel like too much or too little, and then anything extra is kind of a bonus.

[00:16:29] Dana Stanley: And these definitely change wildly from trip to trip. Even if we’ve only gone three months ago, I know that our 3, 2, 1 is going to be different because my kids grow up, they have different interests or maybe they’re different heights and now they can ride to, and now they can ride certain things and there’s always some type of new show or ride that we wanna experience.

[00:16:52] Dana Stanley: So on our last trip, my daughter Sailor just reached a new milestone for her height. So she was tall enough for Star Wars rise, the resistance, and she was very like eager and excited to get on and also Star Tours, which she had never been on and her big sister loves both of those, so we were really excited.

[00:17:13] Dana Stanley: So she was really excited to like bring her on these rides.

[00:17:17] Dana Stanley: So those were at the top of the list along with Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway, because I can’t miss that. I really like that ride. And the kids all like it. The toddlers love it. It’s just like so happy and fun. And I swear my kids are in the best mood in the line for Mickey Minnie’s runaway railway.

[00:17:36] Dana Stanley: I don’t know if it’s ’cause we do it like early before anyone’s like lost their minds, but it’s just like a good ride. It makes us all very happy.

[00:17:43] Dana Stanley: And for the two or two experiences, we had the new villain show unfairly ever after that had just opened when we went and we really liked it, by the way, and we’re gonna talk about the show on the next question, so I won’t get into it, but that was. Something we could not miss. My oldest was very excited for that and I wanted to see it just to pass along information.

[00:18:07] Dana Stanley: And then the second experience was fmic, so we did prioritize it on this trip and because we were prioritizing it, I went for the dining package at Hollywood Brown Derby, which was our one reservation.

[00:18:21] Dana Stanley: And if you’re still trying to choose which shows are actually worth it, Laura asked what my opinion was on the new shows because there’s so many shows in Hollywood Studios. What’s your priority order? So first I agree like there’s a lot of shows in Hollywood Studios and to recap, those are, so to recap, those are Beauty and the Beast Live on stage.

[00:18:47] Dana Stanley: Was it. Which is outdoors, but shaded. Then you have the new villains unfairly ever after, which is indoors with air conditioning. You have fantasm, which we talked about, which is outdoors, not covered, and at night. Then the first time in forever, a frozen sing-along celebration. That is a mouthful. I’m just gonna call it the frozen show that is indoors.

[00:19:17] Dana Stanley: Then the New Little Mermaid musical Adventure, which was just added as a lightning lane,

[00:19:24] Dana Stanley: and that is indoors as well. And then you have Indiana Jones, which is like a stunt show that’s similar to the theater of Beating the Beast where it’s outside, but you’re covered.

[00:19:36] Dana Stanley: And I am mentioning the logistics of indoor versus outdoor because that kind of changes my priority list.

[00:19:44] Dana Stanley: Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast are pretty long shows, and if it’s hot, I don’t really wanna sit through it. I love them both. I think they’re both awesome, but if it. But if it is sweltering outside, I am not prioritizing those and I’m going for it. The Frozen Sing-along Little Mermaid or The New Villain Show, I have not got to see the New Little Mermaid musical.

[00:20:15] Dana Stanley: That was something that we were hope, hoping to be able to do on our trip, but the villain show trumped it and sure enough, like I thought we didn’t have time to do both. Totally fine. I’m gonna try to catch it next time, so I can’t speak on that. But if I had to pick out of all of the shows, the Frozen Sing Along is my top pick because it has that beautiful air conditioning.

[00:20:36] Dana Stanley: It’s a perfect length. And anywhere from like babies to grandparents. Love it. It’s really funny. You get to see. It’s really funny. They get to see Elsa. There’s bubbles and it’s just, it’s great. That would be my top pick. I don’t necessarily get a lightning lane for it.

[00:20:57] Dana Stanley: I don’t necessarily get like a lightning lane for it or like do it first thing in the morning. I do kind of treat it as like, hopefully this works out. But if you have a frozen fan, I would definitely throw that in your two experiences as a priority. It’s always a really great show.

[00:21:14] Dana Stanley: One last one that came in and let’s touch on park hopping before we wrap up. So Amy said, I would love to hear your thoughts on park hopping, which parks to pair together for ease of travel and how to best utilize lightning lanes. So just a reminder, when you have a park hop ticket, you’re able to start in one park and end in another.

[00:21:37] Dana Stanley: So she’s referring to like the mixing and matching of when to do Hollywood studios, and I would just, like you said, she’s already on the right track. I to choose that I would just focus on lightning lanes because you can’t pre-book your lightning lanes in the park because you can’t pre-book three lightning lanes.

[00:22:00] Dana Stanley: Split up between two parks. You can’t do Slinky Dog Dash at night and then have you know Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh at Magic Kingdom in the morning. You’d have to pick and choose which ones

[00:22:13] Dana Stanley: I. So if you’re doing like a ride heavy day in Hollywood Studios, it’s really best to start in the morning and pre-book your rides in Hollywood studios. For close to park open. That way once you scan, you can start booking your lightning lanes in the next park that you’re hopping to, which is very cool.

[00:22:33] Dana Stanley: Now that would be, now that would be for the kind of person that’s like, we cannot miss Slinky Dog Dash, or We cannot Miss Mickey Minnie’s runaway railway, and we don’t wanna wait in line for it. So many different factors.

[00:22:47] Dana Stanley: Whereas if you’re a little bit less, whereas if you maybe go to Disney often and you’re not going to be crying about a missed lightning lane, which you never should, but you get what I mean,

[00:23:01] Dana Stanley: I do like hopping to Hollywood studios, especially if you’re starting your day in Epcot. So what that could look like.

[00:23:09] Dana Stanley: So to help you picture this, let’s say you were starting in Epcot and your first lightning lane of the day is Remy’s Oui adventure. You would scan into Remy’s and then you could keep booking an Epcot for a couple rides, or you could start booking in Hollywood studios because there are so many day of drops.

[00:23:30] Dana Stanley: For Slinky Dog, you have a pretty good chance of getting that when you hop, especially again, if you’re using standby Skipper love, standby Skipper for Hollywood Studios for this reason.

[00:23:41] Dana Stanley: And then you could just continue throughout your morning and Epcot. You could go back to the room for a break if you wanted, or you could hop on the boat from Epcot and go straight to Hollywood Studios. I have also walked from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, which is a little bit of a hike, but it can be done if you enjoy walking and wanna get your steps in those two parks go together like chocolate and peanut butter, like they’re a perfect combination.

[00:24:10] Dana Stanley: Even just like with the themeing, like I just think Epcot and Hollywood Studios go so well together. It’s not like. Going from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios, which you can do and I’ve done and it’s fine. I just really like that combination.

[00:24:23] Dana Stanley: And another note on Lightning lanes is when you’re using the single passes, it doesn’t matter where they are. So you could get a single pass in Epcot and you could get a single pass for Hollywood Studios. Thanks for submitting your questions on these. I really like episodes like this because I’m not like guessing what you need to know.

[00:24:44] Dana Stanley: You’re literally telling me what you need to know, and it makes it really fun to record. If you’re heading to Hollywood Studio soon and need more support finding your strategy, don’t forget I cover all of this inside my laid back magic guide within my park guide collection. It’s all bundled in there, so you’ll get park plans.

[00:25:05] Dana Stanley: You’ll get park plans and lightning recommendations, dining tips, and if you ever get stuck for those like really personalized questions. This episode is a perfect example of the kinds of questions that I answer inside of our community. So I’ll make sure to link that in the show notes for you and I’ll see you back here next Monday.