Hollywood Studios Tips: Rise of the Resistance and Fantasmic! Dining

#1 Rope-drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance!

Rise of the Resistance, one of the most popular attractions at Hollywood Studios, tends to have long waits all day long, so I strongly recommend rope drop (heading straight there the moment the park opens). If you can, get in early in the morning and join the line first – or buy a paid Lightning Lane Single Pass, which is the easiest way to ride.

#2 Fantasmic! dining package

Fantasmic! is a show you can’t miss at Disney World. With a dining package, you get reserved seating (priority entry) in the Fantasmic! amphitheater, so you can watch from a good seat without waiting in a long line. The package works like this: you eat at one of the restaurants below and your show seat is guaranteed.

• 50’s Prime Time Café (adult price, $60)
• Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant (adult price, $57)
• The Hollywood Brown Derby (adult price, $83)
• Hollywood & Vine (adult price: breakfast $67, lunch $81)

Packages usually include an entrée + dessert + non-alcoholic drink (or a buffet + drink). If you want to save time in line and get a guaranteed seat, the package is very useful.

Out of the four, I chose the drive-in-movie-themed Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant because I loved the concept. Another big plus was that it’s the most reasonably priced of the four (about $57 per adult). I wrote a detailed review in the post below:

🔗 [Hollywood Studios] Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater review – a special evening with the Fantasmic! package

Using the dining package works out to roughly $22 extra per person. But you don’t have to stand in a long line, you don’t have to fight for seats in a huge crowd, and you’re guaranteed a good seat in the middle of the amphitheater – so for me it was well worth it.

#3 Mickey Mouse popcorn bucket

At Hollywood Studios you’ll find a popcorn bucket shaped like Mickey Mouse. Lots of people buy it as a souvenir and a home décor piece, and thanks to its cute design it works both as decoration and as an actual popcorn bucket. 🎀

It has voice recognition, so when you say “Hey, Mickey!” or “Mickey!”, he responds by talking, blinking or turning his head – it’s absolutely adorable. If you want to keep the bucket clean, ask them to put the popcorn in a separate container when you buy it, and you can take it home spotless.

#4 PhotoPass

I bought PhotoPass, and I’ve marked Hollywood Studios’ best photo spots on the park map in #5 too. If you didn’t buy PhotoPass, you can also hand your own phone to a photographer and they’ll often take the photo for you. However, shots that need their special cameras (like zoom shots and distortion shots) can only be viewed with a watermark in the app.

#5 My Hollywood Studios park map

This is a park map I made myself, marked with:

• 🚩 Attractions
• 📷 PhotoPass spots
• 🎀 Mickey character meet

so everything is easy to see at a glance.

If you’d like it as a PDF, email me through the contact page and I’ll send it to you myself!

That’s it for the tips I picked up after visiting Hollywood Studios. For my Hollywood Studios trip report, see the post below!

🔗 Walt Disney World – Hollywood Studios trip report: ride order and times

I hope my blog helps make your trip just a little more magical 💫 If you have any questions or want to know more, feel free to reach out through the contact page! Thanks for reading ❤