Ahead of the official reopening of Disney’s Hollywood Studios on July 15th, Disney held a preview for Cast Members and invited guests. We were lucky enough to be in attendance, and wanted to provide some first impressions of the operations as well as some of the new experiences. We’ll be back on July 15th to report on opening day crowds and the all-new Rise of the Resistance virtual queue which was not in use during the preview. Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be the most difficult theme park to visit this summer, so we anticipate writing quite a bit about the park in the coming weeks and months, but here is our first impression of returning to the park.

Just Like The Hollywood of Old

A theme park originally built to romanticize old Hollywood certainly gave us some nostalgic feels as we walked down a decidedly less crowded Hollywood Blvd at park open versus the many, many early mornings that we’ve spent there over the past year.

Just like other theme parks, Disney is holding cars at the parking plaza and not actually opening up the parking lot until the bag check area and theme park is ready to welcome guests. This made for a much more pleasant arrival experience. As we wrote yesterday, Disney has eliminated rope drop, so your morning touring and planning might look a little bit different than it has in years past. We’ll talk more about planning your visit to all four theme parks in a series of future articles.

Disney’s health and safety protocols are standardized across all four theme parks, almost to the point of not being interesting enough to note at every turn. Temperature screening takes place before you reach bag check, and is as frictionless as any other theme park. Disney might consider adding more tents in the future as Hollywood Studios will be fielding guests from not only the parking lot and buses, but also the Disney Skyliner when it resumes operation on July 15th.

Walking down the main thoroughfare of any Disney World theme park feels the same, and is a reminder that Disney is working hard to create an experience that both lives in the real world of life attempting to resume during a pandemic, and lives in the world of escapism that the Disney World theme parks serve as for so many of the guests.

This is what “rope drop” looks like at Disney’s Hollywood Studios now. You’ll be surrounded by the people you parked next to and that’s about it. This photo was taken about 15 minutes after the parking plaza opened to guests.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Our first stop of the day was Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the Rise of the Resistance attraction. This will certainly still be the biggest draw when Disney’s Hollywood Studios welcomes guests back on July 15th, and is the only attraction at Walt Disney World that will be utilizing a virtual queue. It’s worth noting that this is NOT the same “boarding group” system that we all grew so accustomed to since Rise of the Resistance debuted last December. It’s also worth noting that this new system was not in place during yesterday’s preview. We’ll be back on the 15th to report on our experiences with the virtual queue, but here are a few quick hits on how it’ll work:

• Virtual queue distribution times are 10am, 1pm, and 4pm
• The virtual queue will be easiest to join via the My Disney Experience app, make sure you have it downloaded before you arrive at the park
• Once you have logged into the My Disney Experience app, select “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Virtual Queue” on the home screen. You will be able to view the current status and next steps for joining the virtual queue
• The app will indicate when there is no availability for a specific distribution time. Some guests may join backup groups. 
• As long as your My Disney Experience account is linked to park tickets for you and the others in your group, you can enroll everyone in the virtual queue at the same time. In order to give as many guests as possible the opportunity to join the Resistance, each guest can enter the virtual queue no more than once per day.
• Make sure push notifications are turned on for My Disney Experience so you will be alerted if your group is called to return. You’ll have up to an hour from the time of the alert to go to the entrance of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. 
• Please note that joining the virtual queue does not guarantee the ability to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. 

With so much of the Rise of the Resistance attraction dependent on the “experience”, we were interested (and anxious) to see how the multiple pre-show rooms would be handled.

First, a look at some notable elements in the queue, including social distancing markers throughout, and plexiglass installed in some of the tighter spaces.

Some portions of the queue have theming elements that don’t get plexiglass. In the photo below, everyone was spaced out well thanks to the social distancing stickers, and theming elements ensured that we never walked too close to another party.

Another example where a theming element keeps us blocked from nearby groups.

Plexiglass returns later in the queue where a switchback means you’ll pass close by another group.

Before you reach the first pre-show room, you’ll be given a number to remember. This number will be your group’s number in the two pre-show rooms, so make sure you remember it. Oddly enough, there were no numbered stickers to stand on in the room that we were told what our number would be. We hope to see some stickers installed before the general public arrives.

Once inside the pre-show, you’ll be able to find the clearly numbered sticker and your group will be socially distanced from other parties throughout the pre-show.

No stickers as we prepare to board the I-TS, but this outdoor space has plenty of room for parties to social distance.

Once inside the transport ship, you’ll find numbered stickers again for your party to stand on.

The only part of the attraction where social distancing really broke down was in the hangar. This was likely a case of catching the crowds at the exact wrong time and we anticipate that Disney will ensure this doesn’t happen in the future. Cast Members working the attraction noticed that this crowd was not in compliance with social distancing and immediately stopped sending guests through the I-TS pre-show that transports guests to the hangar.

There are no social distancing markers in this room, likely because it is never intended to hold more than one group of guests coming from the I-TS pre-show at a time. By the time we made it to the next hallway (under the Tie Fighter seen in the photo below), the crowd was naturally thinning out.

As a reminder, here’s the type of view you’ll normally see in this room as guests snap a photo or two and move on to the next hallway.

The next hallway has plexiglass dividers as guests make their way towards the final pre-show.

First Order Cast Members ask guests to line up against the wall (like always), as they move guests through a series of holding areas. Your party will not be grouped with another party, and your party will ride in their own vehicle.

In the final pre-show area, there are no social distancing markers. That said, because two ride vehicles await your escape, there are only two groups in this room at any given time. First Order Cast Members remind you to social distance as you enter the interrogation room.

After that, the ride experience is how it normally would be – masks are required, of course.

We probably spent more time that we wanted to describing the Rise of the Resistance experience, but it is the most popular attraction at Walt Disney World, and will be the one that guests will have the most questions about when it reopens to the public.

During yesterday’s preview, Rise of the Resistance had a traditional standby line. It’s worth noting again that it will not have a traditional standby line going forward, and that we’ll be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the 15th to bring you coverage of the new virtual queue. During the preview, the standby line ended up snaking around to MuppetVision 3D, with some guests reporting over a 4 hour wait.

Elsewhere in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we noticed some significant operational changes, including a strict limitation on the number of guests able to enter the Marketplace, a relaxation zone, a new use for Savi’s Workshop, and socially distanced characters.

At the Marketplace, Disney is limiting the amount of guests allowed into the area to less than 30. Guests check-in with a Cast Member on the end of the Marketplace opposite Ronto Roasters. The shopping experience is relaxed when compared with the usually bustling shops we’re used to seeing prior to social distancing. Guests are asked to use hand sanitizer prior to visiting each shop, and only one party at a time is allowed inside of the shops.

Elsewhere in the land, guests will be able to spot some of the same characters they were able to see before the closure. That said, the characters will be socially distanced, utilizing walkways and stages instead of walking through the land amongst guests. We’re happy to see that the characters are still in the land, interreacting with guests as much as social distancing allows for.

Dining

We’ll speak briefly about dining, as we only visited Oga’s Cantina. For more on the operational changes Oga’s Cantina is implementing, check out our earlier post.

For all quick service locations, guests are required to Mobile Order, and Cast Members are present to assist if needed. Safety measures such as self-dispensing cutlery and digital menus. Within restaurants, tables are socially distanced or marked off as unavailable for use. Capacity is limited within the restaurants.

Attractions

Ok, with an extensive look around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge out of the way, let’s pick up the pace a bit and take a more general look at some of the attraction safety measures guests can expect when Disney’s Hollywood Studios reopens tomorrow.

Like we said earlier, the safety measures that Disney put in place at their theme parks is mundane in its consistency, but we’ll go over some of the bullet points with some photos from various queues and attractions.

Most queues have some amount of plexiglass installed where typical social distancing may break down. Here’s a look at various attraction queues where you can find plexiglass installed. From our observations, plexiglass is installed where a 6′ radius of guests can’t be accommodated. Whether that is while waiting to load into an attraction, or in portions of the queue that Disney needs to pack a bit more densely such as in switchbacks for attractions that pull a larger crowd.

There is even plexiglass on some attractions, like the plexiglass booster seat found on Star Tours.

One of the things we wondered about is how Disney would handle some of the pre-shows that act as critical plot devices for an attraction. We were happy to see that both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway ran normal pre-shows. We already covered Rise of the Resistance above, but here’s a look at Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and the socially distanced pre-show, which had a full video and effects. Like Rise of the Resistance, parties are assigned to numbers to stand on.

Character Cavalcades

With the removal of traditional meet and greets, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is implementing cavalcades, or more accurately motorcades, that run down Hollywood Blvd throughout the day. The themes are set to Pixar, Disney Jr., and (our favorite) Mickey and pals.

We found that the cavalcades were lightly attended and social distancing was easy to maintain. Disney doesn’t publish a schedule of the cavalcades, but we found that they would run every 15-45 minutes throughout the day.

Safety Measures

Just like other theme parks, Disney is constantly reminding guests that they are required to wear a mask via a park-wide announcement. One of the things we noticed at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (and Disney’s Animal Kingdom) is that these messages played in the queues as well as common spaces. This wasn’t the case when we visited Magic Kingdom on opening day.

Like other theme parks, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is sanitizing the attraction vehicles every two hours. For more on the sanitization process, including what Disney is using to sanitize with, check out our earlier post.

One area where Disney can improve guest communication is during the cleaning process when the queue isn’t moving. It looks like Disney is building cleaning times into the posted wait time, as we’ve found the wait times to be quite accurate when we’ve been in a queue during a cleaning. We would like to hear queue-wide announcements by Cast Members indicating that a cleaning is taking place and giving an estimate of time remaining.

We’ve seen guests leave the queue by walking backwards through the queue during a cleaning either because of a lack of an announcement (Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway), or a lack of an estimated time remaining (Na’vi River Journey). Ideally, we would like to see the queues closed to new guests, the attraction cycled to empty, and queue reopened after cleaning has taken place. Of course, operationally this might be difficult to impossible, but Disney has to work out a solution to guests leaving a queue that isn’t moving for 15-30 minutes.

Wearing a Mask

As you likely know by now, every guest 2 years old and older are required to wear a mask at Walt Disney World. There’s no way around this – masks are uncomfortable. We’re having a particularly rough stretch of warm weather in Central Florida, with the “feels like” temperature hitting 100 degrees at the warmest. This would be unpleasant in the best of circumstances, but wearing a mask is uncomfortable.

That said, wear a mask! Wearing a mask is not only one of the posted park rules, but a contract with society that indicates that you have respect for others. We won’t delve too deep into the mask debate, but there really is no debate at Walt Disney World.

We want to take a moment to applaud the Cast Members for their enforcement of the mask policy. Disney Springs has always presented a difficult environment for enforcement, which left us with little confidence that the theme parks would be better, but we were very impressed with the enforcement of the mask policy by Cast Members. We will also say that we were impressed with the other Annual Passholders for not only wearing a mask 99% of the time, but wearing it correctly. We hope the trend continues in the coming weeks as more guests visit the theme parks.

We saw instances where Cast Members turned guests away from the main entrance due to wearing a neck gaiter, and instances where Cast Members reminded guests to cover their nose with their mask. We even saw an instance where the vice president of a theme park got into a loud “educational” conversation about the theme park mask policy with a guest wearing a bandana.

While guests must wear a mask while on the attractions, there are Relaxation Stations where you can take off your mask while staying socially distant.

Our Thoughts

Overall, our visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios felt like a blast from the past. The park is in wonderful shape, and the new safety measures seem to be pretty well thought out (with few exceptions). We’ll be back at Disney’s Hollywood Studios soon to report on the Rise of the Resistance virtual queue situation, and any other operational changes we notice during the official reopening of the park.

Of course, whether or not you visit the Disney World theme parks is a personal decision, and with Florida as the COVID-19 hotbed of the nation, visiting a Disney World theme park isn’t for everyone.

Our initial advice is that if you’re planning a first visit or only visit once per year or every other year, now isn’t be best time to return. That said, if you’ve “been there and done that” at Disney World, and you’re comfortable with the risk of returning to a public space, this could be a nice time to visit. With crowds (initially) lower than we’ve seen in years, and fun character cavalcades filling in for more traditional entertainment, there is still plenty of fun to be had at Disney World.

Our advice and opinions will continue to evolve as we see more operational changes and understand more about how crowds will react when the theme parks open to the general public.