How do late rides work at Hollywood Studios?

[Mambo Junkie]

We are here and we have Fantasmic at 8:00. There’s another show at 9:30. Can we ride after the first show is over? It says the park closes at 9. Slinky was down for early entry and it’s mobbed now

 

[WDWLODGE]

They will close the lines @ 9pm. As long as you're in line by then you will get to ride.

 

[Mle8308]

You can get into a line up until park closing time. They will cut the line at that time, but will cycle through all the guests currently waiting. Show up at 9:01pm (on a 9pm close) and you will be out of luck.

 

[scrappinginontario]

You may join the line until 8:59pm. Even arriving at 9:00 you will be turned away.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

The vast majority of DHS guests attend the first Fantasmic show, making this the very best time of the day for multiple rerides on the headliners.

Just keep in mind that the posted wait times in the evening are intentionally inflated to discourage late riders and you’ll be good to go.

Lines will be pretty short between about 7 and 9 pm, then you’ll have plenty of time to make it over to the ampitheater for the 9:30 show. We’ve been doing this for years and have very rarely seen the stadium much more than half full.

 

[SL6827]

I wonder how often RoTR goes down late at night? If you get in line at 8:55 and then wait 45 minutes, then it goes down, your out of luck, right?

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I wonder how often RoTR goes down late at night? If you get in line at 8:55 and then wait 45 minutes, then it goes down, your out of luck, right?

These attractions are more likely to not fire up in the morning than they are to break down in the evening and the waits are much shorter than you would expect.

On our most recent visit, we hit Rise 80 minutes before close with a posted wait time of 100 minutes. The actual waits were 20 minutes for the first ride, 10 minutes for the second trip then the third was pretty much a walk on. (The posted wait had dropped to 80 by then.)

That was a pretty efficient use of time.

 

[SL6827]

These attractions are more likely to not fire up in the morning than they are to break down in the evening and the waits are much shorter than you would expect.

On our most recent visit, we hit Rise 80 minutes before close with a posted wait time of 100 minutes. The actual waits were 20 minutes for the first ride, 10 minutes for the second trip then the third was pretty much a walk on. (The posted wait had dropped to 80 by then.)

That was a pretty efficient use of time.

Wonder just why the mornings are worse off than late at night? Could it be Disney's scheduling of CM as late as possible to save money?

 

[philharmagic fan]

You may join the line until 8:59pm. Even arriving at 9:00 you will be turned away.

Also, having family in line by closing time doesn't mean they'll let you in to join them after closing. I've seen people turned away on numerous occasions.

 

[Sheryl2059]

This assumes the rides themselves are not closed at 9pm on the dot as usual depending on if there is a line outside the entrance. Unless there is some kind of preset return time after that then they will. Got turned away at a ride at almost 'exactly' 9pm, literally a few seconds after, but there was no line. Only those with the aforementioned return time. I was unhappy and had a short but polite discussion with them about making an exception. After that I was pretty upset, but in the end they were only doing their job.

I would have been there sooner, so in the end it was my own fault, but being night time I got lost even with the phone app. Lesson learned from that experience is to expect to get lost and allow the time for finding your way back.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This assumes the rides themselves are not closed at 9pm on the dot as usual depending on if there is a line outside the entrance. Unless there is some kind of preset return time after that then they will. Got turned away at a ride at almost 'exactly' 9pm, literally a few seconds after, but there was no line. Only those with the aforementioned return time. I was unhappy and had a short but polite discussion with them about making an exception. After that I was pretty upset, but in the end they were only doing their job.

I would have been there sooner, so in the end it was my own fault, but being night time I got lost even with the phone app. Lesson learned from that experience is to expect to get lost and allow the time for finding your way back.

The second the clock turns 9:00:00 the park is closed and the CM is quite right to turn people away at that time, regardless of line size. The digital clock at the attraction (which is clearly visible to all) must be x:59 to gain entrance to the attraction.

 

[SL6827]

I would arrive at least by 8:45 to which ever ride I was lining up for.

 

[otten]

We rode RotR at 8:50 with about a 15 minute wait. Most people were at Fantasmic during that time frame so loving through the park was easy. Then as we were leaving GE most guests has either exited after the first show or were in the second so it was a breeze getting out of the park.

 

[SL6827]

Any rides at any of the parks that you really take a chance on with getting in line last minute? Any that can be more of a miss than a hit?

 

[Sheryl2059]

MK: Personally, Big Thunder. AK: Avatar or Everest. DHS: Oga's Cantina (true its not a ride, but still). EPCOT: Mission To Mars, though Im sure many would say Test Track.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Any rides at any of the parks that you really take a chance on with getting in line last minute? Any that can be more of a miss than a hit?

We’ve been doing this for a long time, and the only ride that ever broke down on us at closing time was the log ride over at Universal about 20 years ago.

They gave us free tickets to return the next day.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We’ve experienced Rise being closed at the end of the night.

 

[SL6827]

We’ve experienced Rise being closed at the end of the night.

How close to the end of the night?

 

[scrappinginontario]

How close to the end of the night?

Rise is a volatile ride. In our case it was closed more than 2 hours prior to park close and never reopened. You just never know with Rise due to the complexity of the many computer systems.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

MK: Personally, Big Thunder. AK: Avatar or Everest. DHS: Oga's Cantina (true its not a ride, but still). EPCOT: Mission To Mars, though Im sure many would say Test Track.

You dont’ need to wait for park close for mission to mars to be a walk on. Pretty much any time after 6 pm it will be.