What’s Good at Hollywood Studios and What Needs Work?
When I wrote about Disney’s Animal Kingdom, I blithely stated that not much has changed since 2017.
Thoughtlessly, I also suggested that the beauty of Disney theme parks is that they’re generally the same whenever you visit them.
And as I started to outline this article, I quickly deduced what an absolutely silly thing that was to say.
After all, another Walt Disney World theme park has changed dramatically since 2017.
So, let’s talk about what’s good at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and what still needs work.
What’s Good
Honestly, good doesn’t feel like a strong enough word for the positives at Hollywood Studios these days.
I vividly recall the look of wonder I had during a D23 announcement regarding park improvements.
At the time, Bob Iger sought to settle all family business, negating longstanding criticisms of some theme parks.
Specifically, people assailed Disney California Adventure (DCA) for its cheaper attractions and Disney’s Hollywood Studios for its lack of rides.
Disney split DCA into Neighborhoods and turned it into the Marvel/Pixar park, a brilliant business decision.
Meanwhile, Disney’s Hollywood Studios ceded an iconic part of its history to create a better tomorrow.
That’s a real thing that happened, as Disney closed the park’s oldest attractions in favor of newer, bigger, better ideas.
The results speak for themselves, and the data is quite emphatic.
Before the pandemic, when admission estimates were more reliable, Hollywood Studios attendance dropped in 2016.
At the time, estimates suggested 10.78 million annual guests.
After Hollywood Studios opened Toy Story Land in 2018 and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019, attendance increased to 11.48 million.
That’s 700,000 more customers in 2019, the year that Star Wars Land opened. As a reminder, it didn’t debut until late August, either.
So, the total is, if anything, understating how big a draw Star Wars and Toy Story have been at Hollywood Studios.
Iger and his team stubbornly tested the Field of Dreams maxim, “If you build it, they will come.”
Once guests realized they could live out their Star Wars fantasies, they arrived in droves.
If not for the pandemic, the attendance trajectory at Hollywood Studios would have pointed due north.
The Rides
Unlike with Animal Kingdom, I don’t need to spend much time praising Hollywood Studios. You know what’s great here.
Imagineers breathed new life into the park by constructing those two new themed lands, both masterpieces.
I consider them two of Disney’s best four recent expansions, with multiple legitimate E-ticket attractions.
You can pick your favorite of Slinky Dog Dash, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, or Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
No matter which one you love the most, I suspect we’d all agree that the tech on Rise of the Resistance has raised the bar.
Even more impressively, these aren’t the only new attractions at the park.
Arguably the one that’s the most fun came later. It’s Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, a ride Walt Disney would have loved.
It would be the best new ride in years at most themed lands, including Disneyland Park (!).
Meanwhile, at Hollywood Studios, you could claim it’s not among the best two rides since 2018. That’s…amazing.
Now, I wouldn’t do that, as I slightly prefer Runaway Railway to Rise of the Resistance, but I’d understand the claim.
Similarly, if you told me Slinky Dog Dash is your favorite, I’d get that, too.
There’s no wrong answer here, and I include Smugglers Run in that statement.
This one park added four of the best ten Disney attractions overall over the past decade.
The Shows
Then, we have the other great part of Hollywood Studios, the aspect we’ve appreciated since the beginning.
Disney designed this park for enjoying shows as much as attractions.
Hollywood Studios hosts shows based on beloved properties like Beauty and the Beast, the Muppets, and Indiana Jones.
This park’s brilliance is that it’s an ideal option on an especially hot day.
Guests can enter a theater and watch a show that ranges from ten to 30 minutes.
The story will revolve around your Disney favorites, but it will also include special effects and, in many instances, live performances.
No matter what Disney does with Hollywood Studios in the future, it’ll continue to offer these shows.
We know this because Disney’s most recent one was the high-tech, whizbang spectacle of Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy.
Soon, a replacement for Voyage of the Little Mermaid will debut, and I’m really looking forward to the new version.
Disney has indicated that The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is coming soon, so I cannot include it yet.
Still, this revelation underscores Disney’s commitment to shows and live presentations at Hollywood Studios.
If these new presentations are anywhere near as good as For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, I’m thrilled.
What Needs Work
While I’ll happily sing the praises of the new, vastly improved Hollywood Studios to anyone who will listen, it’s still imperfect.
When I think about this park, I instinctively recognize two areas where Hollywood Studios needs vast improvement.
If you missed the article, I recently wrote about my favorite restaurants at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.
I had to combine the two parks because the dining at those places frustrates me.
Disney should never host a Rainforest Café inside its theme park. That’s just a lack of imagination.
Similarly, while Hollywood Studios hosts a couple of gems, its overall dining lineup is mediocre.
In my opinion, Woody’s Lunch Box is by far the best Quick-Service restaurant, and nothing else is in its stratosphere.
Similarly, if I’m not eating at Sci-Fi Dine-In, I’m probably not picking a Table Service meal at Hollywood Studios.
When I say that, I should emphasize that I haven’t had the pleasure of trying Rodeo Roundup BBQ, though.
That’s also the vital point here. Management appears acutely aware of the issue.
When Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge opened, each themed land featured exciting new dining options.
So, while the meal shortcomings remain a work in progress, at least we know Disney is doing something about it.
What Else Needs Work
Then, we have the lingering matter of the attraction options at Hollywood Studios.
This park’s offerings are currently too feast or famine, with seven (!) attractions often requiring hour-long waits.
Most of the other attractions pale by comparison, and guests know it.
Options like Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy and Muppet*Vision 3D provide solid entertainment.
Unless you’re a Muppets/Cars superfan, you only experience these attractions when you need a break, though.
Hollywood Studios needs two or three more mid-tier rides.
I think the average fan would hope for better than Alien Swirling Saucers, a ride I quite like, though.
Something akin to Toy Story Mania! is preferable here, and it’d be that much better if the new experiences came with massive throughput.
Currently, Hollywood Studios can and frequently does suffer from overcrowding on its most congested paths.
When Disney expands, its unspoken goal will be to redirect many of those park guests into attraction queues and on the rides themselves.
Right now, the park suffers from an imbalance in that it’s teeming with E-ticket attractions and high-quality shows.
What Hollywood Studios lacks is a high volume of mid-tier rides.
It’s a feast or famine park now, and fans ARE eating good.
From a theme park design perspective, it’s currently flawed, though, albeit in an easily fixable way.
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