Things To Do in Disney's Hollywood Studios

The 30-minute, self-explanatory musical torture chamber features live actors telling the history of Arendelle six to 10 times daily, generally hourly, as well as an opportunity for you to endure “Let It Go” for one more white-knuckled, mother-loving time. You’ll be seated in the…

It’s essentially a covered variant of the tried-and-true Whip carnival thrill but with a Little Green Men theme (and the same thing as Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree at the Disneyland resort). Your vehicle, containing a bench that should fit up to four, does an easygoing do-si-do with…

The kid-friendly 30-minute show is advertised as “Broadway-style,” but it’s really not. It’s theme park–style, simplified with the most popular songs from the movie. The story is highly condensed (you never find out why Belle is at the Beast’s castle and Gaston’s fate isn’t shown),…

“These days villains are preoccupied with who’s been treated the most unfairly of all,” goes the premise voiced by the Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror, your narrator by video. And so begins a boisterous 18-minute contest among Disney’s wickedest baddies to crown the one who’s most…

You'll probably see the Tower of Terror and the Earrfel Tower, a water tank with mouse ears, even before you enter this park (formerly the Disney-MGM Studios), which Disney bills as "the Hollywood that never was and always will be." Once inside, you'll find pulse-quickening rides…

The super-popular 25-minute pyrotechnics show featuring character-laden showboats, a 59-foot man-made mountain, flaming water, and lasers projected onto a giant water curtain, takes place in the 6,500-seat waterfront Hollywood Hills Amphitheatre. Although it’s a strong show by dint…

The 30-minute, bone-rattling tour de force of hair-raising daredevilry—rolling-boulder dodging, trucks flipping over and exploding—simultaneously titillates and, to a lesser degree, reminds you how such feats of derring-do are rigged for the movies. They try hard to convince you that…

Up to 15 times daily (see the app), about a dozen kids are lent robes, telescoping “light sabers,” and some gentle training in the Force by a “Jedi master” before a final defeat of Darth Vader and some Stormtroopers. It’s cute and takes 20 minutes. Recruits (ages 4–12) are selected…

This minor 2019 addition is in a warehouse-like building behind Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster that hasn’t been used much before; maybe that’s why what’s inside feels extraneous. But as the only permanent Cars-themed attraction in Florida, it offers your only chance to admire the superb…

The big opening at DHS for 2020 was a boisterous indoor ride dedicated to the madcap world of animated short films from which this whole crazy Disney empire grew. Amazingly, this is the first ride to pay tribute to Mickey and Minnie (but if you’re counting, it’s the seventh Walt…

For Star Wars fans, sitting at the chessboard in the hold of the Millennium Falcon is a dream come true. You’ll do that and more on Smugglers Run, a ride in which six people sit in a mockup of the cockpit of Han Solo’s battered but trusty ship. Using highly believable but…

Oga’s Cantina is a sumptuously whimsical place to drink and snack (and collect tiki-like mugs, at a high price). Picture a dark, groovy, Steampunk-style hangout with a stripped-down robot DJ and drinks with flavors that are decidedly on the weird side. (The foam on the Fuzzy Tauntaun…

On one of DHS’s two coasters, 24-passenger “limousine” trains launch from 0 to 57mph in under 3 seconds, sending them through a 92-second rampage through smooth corkscrews and turns that are intensified by fluorescent symbols of the Los Angeles freeway system. The indoor setup allows…

This boutique is only for die-hard Star Wars fans. At the wildly popular Savi’s Workshop, you build your own light saber in a mystical 10-minute ritual. Reservations are essential, so go to www.disneyworld.com/savisworkshop up to 60 days ahead to see how Disney wants you to do it.…

Quick accelerations, banked turns, and humps with genuine air time make it more exuberant than it appears to be, yet for all its giddy sensations, its 2 minutes remain rambunctiously accessible. At its climax, this terrific coaster delivers what could be considered the opposite of…

Before Disney bought Star Wars, it made, and later upgraded, this popular 40-person motion-simulator capsule that has you riding shotgun with a fretful C-3PO on an ill-fated and turbulent excursion. In 5 minutes, you manage to lose control, go into hyperdrive, dodge asteroids,…

Disney’s version of Star Wars is its own unprecedented creation, a unique destination called Black Spire Outpost on the planet of Batuu, which has never been seen in films before. Designed with meticulous input from Lucasfilm to ensure every light saber burn mark and creature fits in…

Without a doubt the most complex multi-stage theme park ride in existence right now, Rise of the Resistance is a sprawling tour de force of attraction technology. This isn't about daredevil thrills or cheap stunts—it's a multi-stage adventure (part walk, part ride in a cart, part…

The tallest ride at Disney World (199 ft.) is one of the smartest, most exciting experiences at the parks, and it’s the best version of the ride at any Disney park. It shouldn’t be missed. Guests are ushered through the lobby, library, and boiler room of a cobwebby 1930s Los Angeles…

Wearing 3D glasses, passengers shoot their way through a series of six animated indoor midway games (themed as Woody’s suction-cup shooting game, a Little Green Men ring toss, and the like) based on the Pixar toy box characters. Along the way, air puffs heighten the reality. Your…

The only focus on Disney history on resort property, it’s mostly overlooked but the display is a requisite stop for anyone curious about the undeniable achievements of this driven man. Here, you (and a few other stragglers) find a few authentic artifacts (props, costumes, the desk…