Is there any workable HW Studios strategy?

[tentaguasu]

As far as I can tell, there is literally no "solution" or strategy for HS, including paying a ton of money. Please clue me in if I'm missing anything.

Take yesterday - according to Thrill Data, of the "big" rides, Slinky, ToT, Runaway Railroad, Smugglers, and Rockin RC were *all* out of Genie+ before 11:00 a.m., i.e. before the earliest time to book a second selection. So even if my wallet is wide open, I can rush and pray to pay for an ILL to get RotR, then pay another similar fee to get a single **one** of the other big rides. And that's it. Maybe you could sneak a Midway Mania in there if you're lucky at 11:00.

It seems like at HS right now, Genie+ is a defacto one-ride ILL.

In short, it sounds like you can spend $30 to skip 2 lines, $15 to skip one line plus maybe a B-tier ride if you're lucky that's the best you can do. Even rope dropping seems largely useless except to rush to maybe one ride. (And many of us - myself included - are not on site).

And posted wait times are high open to close.

Am I missing anything? Is there a strategy could even conceivably work?

EDIT: I'm a bit of a tool here - I didn't realize that HS is opening at 8:00 a.m. this week. As a result, the second LL opportunity is at 10:00. That makes things substantially better, as you can likely get a second Genie+ LL at a big ride. Still not super great, but better than I was fearing. Still, any hints and strategies are appreciated.

 

[Mango7100]

We were at HS last Friday (a sold out day) and used 5 LLs plus and ILL for Rise (which we didn’t pay for because a CM gave it to us for free after my resort reservation dropped, totally not expecting this). We also went in March over the big sold out Spring Break time and had 4 HS LLs stacked for the night on our arrival day.

On 4/15–Booked Slinky at 7 am for return of 8-9.
Arrived for Early Entry at 710 for a 730 start. Rode RnRC with a 5 minute wait. ToT was another story with the line down the street, but we don’t care about that ride. MMRR was our initial plan but it was down at opening, so switched to RnRC
Rode Smugglers with a 20 minute wait.
Used our SDD at about 810 and booked TSMM for 1115.
Met Olaf with a 5 minute wait and did first Frozen show of day at 930.
Did Rise with our ILL at 1030.
Did TSMM LL at 1115 and booked MMRR for evening.
Lunch at Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge via walk up list with 10 minute wait for table. Back to resort for nap and pool.
Booked LL Swirling Saucers via 120 minute rule. Refreshed for 5 minutes and nothing came up with good times.
Booked LL RnRC 120 minutes after that by refreshing for about 10 minutes.

Returned at 6 to eat at Basaline Tap House, use our 3 stacked LLs, and ride TSMM at close as a walk on.

 

[ScarletFire]

Is it okay to say on the Disboards that you should watch Molly from allearsnet on youtube. She's full of good genie+ strategies.

My DH24 was there three weeks ago and managed to ride all she wanted at the Studios. She even took a mid-day resort break. She stayed on-site and took advantage of early entry. Used LL$ for rise and Genie+. Rope dropped ToT and RnRC.

I was there in March and got in line for Rise before closing. The stated wait was 130 minutes but was actually 70 minutes from line entry to ride exit.

 

[Anna131517]

I agree it’s virtually impossible to do a lot at HS right now. It’s only happened once so far but if they do another extended evening hours at HS then stay at a delux resort that night and go! We lucked out and were able to do that. We rode ROTR, SDD, and MMRR. It was amazing and the park is beautiful at night. When we went there during the day later in the week it was such a pain. All the LL’s were gone within the first hour or two after the park opening.

 

[soonerdoc]

It is possible to use ILL and G+ to your advantage. It just takes a little work.

This is what my family of 4 did last week at HS (Palm Sunday). We were staying onsite, and took advantage of EE.

Made initial G+ selection for TOT at 7:00. Got a return time for 10:30 am
Did not buy ILL for ROR immediately. Waited until new times dropped at about 7:19, and got a return time for 8:30 am
Got to front gate at around 7:15, waited for about 10 min, and went to Smugglers Run.
Rode Smugglers right at 7:30, got in line again and rode with almost no wait
Stopped and had Ronto Wraps
Went to MMRR and rode with only 15 min wait (wait went up to 50 min about 10 min after we rode)
Rode ROR, but it broke down when we got to the storm trooper room, got a pass to return whenever we wanted
Went to TSMM, waited about 40 min
At 10:00, grabbed another TSMM for an 11:40 return
Rode ROR (ILL)
Rode TOT (LL)
Rode TSMM again (LL). Grabbed RnRC for a 12:15 return, after refreshing the app for about 15 min
Rode RnRC (LL)
Left Park around 12:45

Got to ride all of the major headliners except SDD (which my family thinks is a bit overrated), and could have easily ridden Star Tours, and fit in most of the shows in the afternoon if we had wanted.

 

[DestyTiger]

As far as I can tell, there is literally no "solution" or strategy for HS, including paying a ton of money. Please clue me in if I'm missing anything.

Take yesterday - according to Thrill Data, of the "big" rides, Slinky, ToT, Runaway Railroad, Smugglers, and Rockin RC were *all* out of Genie+ before 11:00 a.m., i.e. before the earliest time to book a second selection. So even if my wallet is wide open, I can rush and pray to pay for an ILL to get RotR, then pay another similar fee to get a single **one** of the other big rides. And that's it. Maybe you could sneak a Midway Mania in there if you're lucky at 11:00.

It seems like at HS right now, Genie+ is a defacto one-ride ILL.

In short, it sounds like you can spend $30 to skip 2 lines, $15 to skip one line plus maybe a B-tier ride if you're lucky that's the best you can do. Even rope dropping seems largely useless except to rush to maybe one ride. (And many of us - myself included - are not on site).

And posted wait times are high open to close.

Am I missing anything? Is there a strategy could even conceivably work?

EDIT: I'm a bit of a tool here - I didn't realize that HS is opening at 8:00 a.m. this week. As a result, the second LL opportunity is at 10:00. That makes things substantially better, as you can likely get a second Genie+ LL at a big ride. Still not super great, but better than I was fearing. Still, any hints and strategies are appreciated.

We were there on Saturday 4/16 and really didn't have any issues. This was another of those "sold out" days. We had to get a park reservation at EPCOT and wait until 2pm to "hop" over. Got to HS and rode MMRR, RnR, TSM, SD, ST, and ToT all before 9pm, with a one hour stop at Baseline Tap House in the middle of that. We could have also gotten in SR if we had wanted to, but opted to skip it this time. Wait times were all listed over 75 min (some as high as 100 min), but actual wait times were FAR LESS. We found the actual wait times to be only about 50% of posted wait times or less. Longest line we waited in was ToT for about 40 min. When we walked in that afternoon we knew the wait times couldn't be real. Based on the number of people walking the main streets in HS, there was no way the wait times were accurate. Hope you find the same.

Oh and we did all of this without using Genie+ or any LL passes for the rides. All were standby waits.

 

[Pinnochio]

It is possible to use ILL and G+ to your advantage. It just takes a little work.

And therein lies the problem for me .....I don't want work i want a vacation ....

 

[TXStormtrooper]

And therein lies the problem for me .....I don't want work i want a vacation ....

Then do what DestyTiger did and don't use Genie+. They were able to ride just about everything without it on a "sold out" day. Certainly sounds doable with or w/out Genie+

 

[Calidisneyfam]

We did Hollywood Studios on 4/11, the week before Easter.

Staying at Disney Springs, so we had early entry, but could not get ILL at 7:00. We were not interested in any of the Star Wars ride.

7:00 got LL for Slinky Dog Dash
Rope drop Tower of Terror
MM Runaway Railroad--about 20 min wait
Muppet Vision
Frozen sing a long
Beauty and Beast show -- LL
Slinky Dog Dash -- LL
Alien Swirling Saucers --LL

Left about 3:30

 

[godfather927]

Yea HS is the most susceptible park for high crowd levels. It's the difference between 2 vs 3 Genie+ LLs for the main rides. If I can score LLs for SDD, MMRR, and TSMM in one day, I will consider that a huge win. But on crowded days like we've seen much of the past month or so, it's more likely you can only book 2 of main LLs. Even alien saucers runs out well before that 3rd LL reservation window, which is crazy.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Paying a ton of money option? Yes there is. A VIP Tour. Did one most recently last month (in March) and rolled through DHS for all that we wanted there (ROTR, SR, SDD, MMRR, ToT, TSM and RnR) with ease. Then moved on to other parks. Yes, it's pricey. But you can do it with that kind of investment. So there is a ton of money option. Not for everyone, but since you mentioned the ton of money...

 

[3gr8boys]

We had at least 4 quality LLs April 5- MFSR, TOT, TSMM and SDD (I can't remember if the afternoon ride on RnR was LL or single rider). We were able to book a not-far-away LL for SDD in the afternoon by refreshing for awhile instead booking a not so valuable LL when we were eligible. Because we didn't get a MMRR LL that day, we rode it standby shortly after park open on our second HS day (a partial). We did get TOT and TSMM LLs that morning before we switched to looking for Soarin' and TT.

I felt like Genie+ saved us a lot of time at HS.

ETA on HS day one we hit RnR and ToT first thing, arriving for ETPE. The TOT LL was a second ride

 

[g-dad66]

Thrill Data shows today
7:15 am: Could get 9:00 LL for Tower of Terror, Runaway Railway, Rock n Roller Coaster, Millenium Falcon, or Toy Story Mania (don't try to book right at 7:00 am, as returns will be too late, wait till about 7:10 and then keep refreshing)
9:00 am: Could get evening LL for any of the above
11:00 am: Could get evening LL for Rock N Roller Coaster or Toy Story Mania

So depending on your priorities, you could get 3 LLs for major attractions (all except Slinky Dog)

 

[itf]

Hoping guardians takes some of the pressure out of HS and reduced at least the rise demand a bit.

 

[Kingoglow]

And therein lies the problem for me .....I don't want work i want a vacation ....

Oh, then you don't want to be here. Walking 9+ miles in the parks each day is definitely work.