Guests visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios will find a new rope drop procedure in place now that Disney World has effectively put the COVID-19 pandemic behind them.
Just like over at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, guests are now prevented from walking straight to attractions when they enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios before official park open. That said, Disney’s Hollywood Studios appears to be a bit different in that rope drop is essentially a series of corrals, or queues, for various attractions. We’ll explain in the photos below, but here’s a video of the current rope drop procedure at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
As far as timing your arrival, the parking plaza opens around an hour before official park open. This is the same as before rope drop was reintroduced. Disney transportation and ride share arrive slightly earlier, but plan on arriving around an hour before park open.
Guests essentially have three options at rope drop:
- Hollywood Blvd – Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway/Toy Story Land
- Sunset Blvd – Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster/Tower of Terror
- Echo Lake – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Starting on Hollywood Blvd, guests will be asked to either corral into the right side of the road, or the left, using the white line that goes down the center as the divider. Guests looking to rope drop Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway will be asked to stay to the left of the middle white line, and guests looking to rope drop Toy Story Land will be asked to queue to the right. There are no formal lines, but each of these holding areas act as a de facto queue for the most popular attractions in the park.
Of course, once you get towards the front of the line, the lines sort of merge. With traffic for Mickey and Minnie’s Runway Railway going left, and Toy Story Land to the right, to procedure makes sense.
A similar procedure is in place on Sunset Blvd for the two attractions there – Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Here’s a look at the rope drop procedure, which asks guests to choose an attraction and create a line.
While walking down Hollywood Blvd, Cast Members hold up signs directing guests to the Echo Lake area to rope drop Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Guests will find themselves congregating in front of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.
What separates Disney’s Hollywood Studios from Magic Kingdom is that rope drop at Studios is actually 30 minutes prior to official park opening. With less square footage to store guests, the park areas that are accessible to guests begin to feel cramped around 30 minutes before park opening, so Disney has been opening the park earlier than official posted opening. That is subject to change.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
The “Rope Drop” is a park management scam with the sole purpose of getting as many park guests as possible to crowd into the parks at park opening. This process is one of the main factors that encourages and creates long wait times. Park guests have no other option to manage their park day. The more that park guests crowd into the parks at park opening, the longer will be the wait times. The result is the most park guests will spend most if not all of their day standing in lines.
Disney has eliminated the “Fast Pass” and “Extra Magic Hours” and reduced park hours in all parks with the sole purpose of creating long wait times to keep guests in the parks longer.
As more and more guests experience the long wait times, they will not return to the Disney Parks on future vacations. Disney will loose all of the magic and all future revenue.
The biggest problem at Disneyland is the fact that the parking structure trams are still sitting in a pile of dust and cobwebs. $25 to park and no transportation to the park. Our dept ( Resort Transportation and Parking) provides no transportation to the park. If you are disabled you have the privilege of renting a very expensive scooter that has a top speed lower than the average walker. Trams need to return people and many guest complaints is the only way to get them running.