As we get closer and closer to the official opening date of Toy Story Land, we find ourselves visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios more frequently. We recently made it out to the park to check out the reworked queue for Toy Story Mania and spent the morning walking around and checking out what’s new. Let’s take a look.

As with any trip to Hollywood Studios, let’s first check in on the Disney Skyliner progress. This station is, by far, the furthest along of any of the stations at Walt Disney World. With the Skyliner expected to be operational by mid-2019, Disney seems to be on a good construction schedule so far. According to the manufacturer of the Disney Skyliner system, we can expect to see at least 3,000 people per hour pushed through the system. This will provide some much needed relief to the bus system by the time Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens.

Welcome to Disney’s Hollywood Studios! We visited on two different mornings and found the ideal time to arrive was around 1 hour before official park opening. That said, that time will be thrown off once Toy Story Land opens and daily resort Extra Magic Hours are offered throughout the month of July. We’ll be sure to update our rope drop strategies once Toy Story Land opens.

7:57am

9:19am

8:33am

8:53am

The crowds above were captured on the day that Toy Story Mania reopened. We arrived at around 7:55am, and were at the front of the rope drop line.

June 19th was the day that Toy Story Mania reopened and the new Toy Story Land Cast Costumes, that we first told you about, debuted.

A reworked queue debuted that day as well. We have a few photos below, but have a more indepth blog post about it for you too.

Nearby, Toy Story Land is going through Cast Member previews. Cast recently got the chance to ride Slinky Dog Dash, and will soon begin previewing Alien Swirling Saucers.

As far as what we can see, there will be a new Disney Vacation Club kiosk greeting guests as they make the turn around Walt Disney Presents towards Toy Story Land. First, a look at the kiosk as represented in the Toy Story Land model.

Beyond the kiosk is a tall Woody statue.

Here’s the latest progress on the kiosk itself. The Toy Story Land entrance sits past construction wall Jessie.

We’d expect that the opening of the Toy Story Land entrance DVC booth would lead to the removal of the DVC booth near Sci-Fi Dine In. The booth acts as a bit of a choke point now, we can only imagine it would only cause traffic headaches when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens.

At Walt Disney Presents, we have a couple of new-to-us items. First, there are macquettes and some storyboard art from Incredibles 2. You can find a more details in our blog post about the display.

There is also a Black Panther display nearby. It contains the movie-worn costumes for Zuri and Romonda.

We also noticed that some of the etching on the window for the Toy Story Land model has been removed. I can’t imagine a need for having the Toy Story Land model on display past the June 30th opening date, but there has been no official word from Disney on what, if anything, would replace it.

Disney is still working on fixing the major walkway issues along the mobile stage parade route. Concrete has been replaced in front of the Hyperion Theater and near the Olaf Meet and Greet. It seems like they’ve nearly replaced all of the broken concrete and just have a bit of work to finish in front of the XBox Game Port and near the Jedi Training Academy near Star Tours.

We found some in-store only mugs and glassware at Tatooine Traders that have been listed as out of stock for a while.

Not much has changed along Grand Avenue. Disney made a good choice with the trees they planted. The larger trees give the area an enclosed, mature feel.

Chip and Dale walking down Grand Avenue.

The car photo-op is still missing from the Sci-Fi Dine In. Last we heard, it was sitting backstage at Hollywood Studios, but we hope it’s not gone for good.

Over at the Chinese Theater, nothing has changed on the exterior. The old exit ramp has been walled off and enclosed for a while now. While Disney has only targeted “2019” as the opening date for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, it’s likely we’ll see it open a few months (if not longer), before the late-Fall debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Turning our attention to Sunset Blvd now, we can see that all “Sweet Spells” signage has been removed.

Here’s what it used to look like. If you’re looking for a trip down Sweet Spells memory lane, we have a photo overview of the old space.

The refurbishment of the Sunset Ranch sign continues.

Unfortunately the Fairfax Fare breakfast test has been completed. I’m not sure what the status is going forward, but we really enjoyed the items on offer. If you missed our review, you can read it here.

Some other notable items include patriotic merchandise at multiple locations not only in Hollywood Studios, but pretty wide-spread around property right now.

Disney is also pushing a lot of Stitch merchandise right now.

Finally, we haven’t stepped inside Planet Hollywood on Sunset Blvd in awhile. They’re promoting Planet Hollywood Observatory in Disney Springs. If you missed the news, Planet Hollywood Observatory in Disney Springs is getting a new quick service location.

Thanks for joining us on a quick tour around Disney’s Hollywood Studios!