Hollywood Studios Itinerary with Small Kids- Ride Strategy, Best Dining, Entertainment Tips

Hollywood Studios has some of the most intense and thrilling rides out of all the Walt Disney World theme parks. With rides such as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Slinky Dog Dash, there’s no shortage of attractions for those looking for an adrenaline rush.

Since there are so many attractions at this park that are geared toward the older crowd, you may be wondering how to go about planning a day around a younger child.

Fortunately, even though Hollywood Studios has a lot of intense attractions, it also has plenty of rides, shows, character encounters, and entertainment that younger kids can enjoy.

Planning in Advance

In order to make your day as smooth as possible, there are a few things that you’ll want to get done in advance. After following these simple steps, you’ll be prepped and ready to go for your day at Hollywood Studios.

• Firstly, you’ll need to purchase tickets. If your child is under the age of two, you won’t need to purchase a ticket for them. They get into the park for free! We recommend purchasing the rest of your Walt Disney World tickets from Get Away Today. As a Disney-approved reseller, Get Away Today is able to offer tickets at the lowest price possible.
• Once you’ve bought your tickets, you’ll want to download the My Disney Experience app. This app will be a handy tool for you throughout the entirety of your visit. The app can be used to access your tickets, check wait times, make or change reservations, order food, view your pictures, and manage Lightning Lanes.
• In order to save time at the park, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with the layout of the park and schedule for the day that you’re going. On the app and the Walt Disney World website, you’ll be able to view the Hollywood Studios map, park hours, entertainment schedules, menus, and information about the rides and attractions.
• If you plan on making any reservations, you’ll be able to do so in advance. We highly recommend that you take advantage of this to make sure that you can do everything that you’re interested in. Dining reservations and Enchanting extras can be booked 60 days in advance. Lightning Lanes are able to be selected 7 days in advance for Guests staying at an on-property hotel and 3 days in advance for all other Guests.

Starting the Day

Children tend to have the most energy in the morning and wear out as the day goes on. It’s very beneficial to take advantage of this morning energy. Plan on waking up early, getting ready for the day, and heading to the park.

I would recommend giving your kiddo some time to eat before you start your day. They can do so in the hotel room while everyone’s getting ready, at a resort restaurant, or on their way to the park. You’ll be able to get more out of your day if you don’t take park time to stop and eat breakfast. If your little one’s already fed when you arrive, you’ll be able to start your day as soon as you enter the park.

Besides regular meals, plan on having lots of snacks available for your child throughout the day, even if they aren’t a regular snacker. Disney days take a lot out of everyone and it’s important to keep the body fueled up. Taking time to rest, eat snacks, and have full meals will be extremely helpful. You’ll be able to keep your little one’s energy levels up and help prevent hungry tantrums.

Arrive Early

By default, the longer you’re at the park, the more time you have to get things done. Since you’re spending the day with a young child at Hollywood Studios, who will most likely need additional breaks, time to rest, and possibly even a nap, I recommend getting to the park as soon as it opens.

Hollywood Studios normally opens around 9:00am. However, hours do vary. Make sure that you check the park hours for the particular day that you will be visiting.

Guests who are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel have access to Early Theme Park Entry. This means that they can enter the park 30 minutes prior to the time the park officially opens. While 30 minutes isn’t a large amount of time, you can get a good head start on your day by accessing the rides and attractions with shorter wait times.

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Have a Game Plan

When visiting a Disney theme park, it’s a good idea to have some sort of plan for your day. While it’s almost impossible to plan your day out exactly, and follow that plan without any complications, it’s helpful if you have a general idea of what you’d like to get done.

To do this, you’ll want to think about what rides and attractions are most important to you. These will be the ones that you’ll want to prioritize. On top of thinking about what you’d most like to get done, you’ll also want to consider the popularity of the rides. The most popular rides and attractions are going to fill up the quickest and hold the longest wait times throughout the day. In order to avoid waiting in long lines, you’ll want to strategically plan what order you’d like to do things in.

Luckily, we’re here to help with that. Since we’re planning a day for younger children, height requirements are going to need to be considered. Some of the more thrilling rides do have height requirements that some children may reach. However, if your child does not, feel free to skip through the itinerary and organize your day according to the rides and attractions that your child can take part in.

The most popular rides at Hollywood Studios that children can ride are:

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (40”)
• Slinky Dog Dash (38”)
• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (40”)
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (38”)

Whether you plan on utilizing the Lightning Lane services or not, these are the rides that you’re going to want to prioritize. Again, your top priorities may vary from ours simply due to your child’s height.

Utilizing Lightning Lanes

If you are using the Lightning Lane services, I would start off by purchasing a Lightning Lane Single Pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. I prefer to purchase this pass rather than waiting in the line. Even if this is the ride you plan to rope drop, it does tend to fill up very quickly and have long wait times almost immediately. Since you’re traveling with a youngster, you most likely won’t be able to get to the queue as quickly as you would if you were alone or with older members of your party.

I would then use Lightning Lane Multi Pass to book Slinky Dog Dash and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Since you can book three Lightning Lane Multi Passes in advance, I would recommend making Toy Story Mania! your third choice.

If you’re able to successfully book all of those rides in advance, you’ll be off to a great start! With those passes, you get a lot of the heavy hitters out of the way, which means you can now use your park time to get through the rest. There are now only two rides remaining on the top priority list – Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I would recommend rope dropping Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

While Millennium Falcon: Smugglers run is very close in regard to popularity, the fact that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway has no height requirement is why I choose to prioritize it. Because there’s no height requirement, once the general public enters the park, families will be flooding to that attraction, creating a long line almost immediately.

Once you've ridden Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, head to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to ride Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

Planning Without Lightning Lanes

If you’re not using Lightning Lane services, I would recommend basing the ride you want to rope drop off of your child’s interests. All of the popular rides at Hollywood Studios are pretty close in popularity. However, I would consider Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash to be at the top. While they both fill up quickly, they are vastly different in regard to theming and ride style. Choose which one is best for your kiddo and then prioritize the rest of your morning accordingly.

For those with children who are not tall enough for the thrill rides, your rope drop choice is much easier! Without a doubt, you’ll want to head to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway as soon as you enter the park. By getting this ride done first thing in the morning, you’ll then be able to use the rest of your day to work your way through the rest of the rides and attractions with lower height requirements.

Afternoon at Hollywood Studios with Kids

Even though Hollywood Studios has some of the best rides at Walt Disney World, it’s one of the parks with the fewest rides in total. That being said, it does have a large number of shows and character encounters, which little ones love.

After you’ve made your way through the top priority rides, there are only a few left. If you aren’t using Lightning Lane Multi Pass, or you didn’t already get a reservation, Toy Story Mania! is going to be the next ride you want to head to. To save time and avoid bouncing around the park too much, after that ride, stay in Toy Story Land and take a spin on Alien Swirling Saucers. This ride does have a height requirement of 32”, so make sure that your little one is tall enough before adding it to your itinerary.

The final ride at the park is Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. If your child doesn’t reach a height requirement of 40”, you can go ahead and skip this one. For those that are tall enough, I would always have this ride at the bottom of my list. Not because it’s a bad ride, but simply because it frequently has extremely short wait times. I would recommend either saving this for your last ride of the day or using it as a filler ride in between activities.

Hollywood Studios Entertainment for Small Kids

As I mentioned, there are a number of shows that children can enjoy at Hollywood Studios. Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage is a beautiful retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. This show is full of characters, bright colors, beautiful costumes, and fun music from the film. For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration is another stage show. While this show retells the story of Frozen, it does so in a comical manner. It’s also very interactive, with the audience being invited to sing along with favorite Frozen songs. Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff all make an in-person appearance during the show. You may even experience some of Elsa’s snow flurries while you’re there!

Little ones can let some energy out during the Disney Junior Play and Dance! dance party. Mickey, Vampirina, Timon, and Doc McStuffins all come out and join in the fun. Kiddos can sing and dance as the upbeat music plays and the disco ball shines.

There are two different theater-style shows at Hollywood Studios – Vacation Fun and Muppet*Vison 3D. Vacation Fun is an animated short that features Mickey and Friends in their newest animated style. Muppet*Vision 3D takes Guests on a 3D adventure with the wacky and kooky characters from the Muppet universe.

Besides shows, Hollywood Studios also has a wonderful nighttime spectacular. Fantasmic! is a crowd pleasing show that includes characters, animatronics, projections, water effects, lights, pyro, and music. During the show, we follow along with Mickey as he goes on a magical adventure during a dream.

Fantasmic! is extremely popular. Make sure that you arrive early to get a good seat for the performance.

Hollywood Studios Characters

If your child likes characters, they’re going to have a great time at Hollywood Studios. Besides all of the characters that they can see during shows and character meals, there are also plenty of meet and greet locations around the park! Here’s every character that’s currently meeting at Hollywood Studios.

• Ariel (from the live action film The Little Mermaid) – Walt Disney Presents
• Vampirina, Doc McStuffins, Fancy Nancy, Pluto – Animation Courtyard
• Sorcerer Mickey and Minnie Mouse – Red Carpet Dreams
• Edna Mode – The Edna Mode Experience
• Joy – Pixar Plaza
• Olaf – Celebrity Spotlight
• Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, Frozone, Sulley – Pixar Plaza
• Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear – Toy Story Land
• BB-8, Darth Vader, Chewbacca – Star Wars Launch Bay

Dining Options for Small Children

There are multiple dining locations at Hollywood Studios that are perfect for younger children.

For lunch, I would recommend Backlot Express or PizzeRizzo. Both locations have menus that are sure to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Backlot Express offers Chicken Strips, Macaroni and Cheese, and the infamous Wookie Cookie. At PizzeRizzo, kiddos can choose from a Cheese Pizza or a Pepperoni Pizza. There’s also a super cute Pizza Cookie that they can finish their meal off with.

There are other locations that children may enjoy dining at, such as Woody’s Lunch Box or Rosie’s All-American Cafe. However, Backlot Express and PizzeRizzo both offer indoor dining, making them more appealing since your little ones can get out of the heat while they eat.

For dinner, I recommend grabbing a reservation for a sit down restaurant. Hollywood Studios has a variety of full-service restaurants that kids are sure to enjoy. Character dining is available at Hollywood & Vine. Minnie and her friends will welcome you to the buffet-style restaurant and make sure to visit you while you eat!

Immersive dining experiences are available at both Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant and Roundup Rodeo BBQ. At Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, little ones will feel like they’ve taken a trip to an old time drive-in movie theater. The dining room has a dark, starlit ambiance. Cars serve as tables and face a screen that plays through a variety of entertaining shorts. Roundup Rodeo BBQ keeps with the theme of Toy Story Land as it shrinks you down to the size of a toy. While you dine in this unique location that Andy constructed himself, you can enjoy a wide variety of BBQ foods and sides. Don’t forget to grab a Forky cupcake for your kiddo! Make sure they know that everyone needs to FREEZE when Andy comes by!

Having a themed dinner at any of these locations is a perfect way to end your day!

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