How to handle mornings at HS

I am curious what folks are doing at HS in the morning now if you show up to try for a BG.

I do plan to try ToT and RnRC with one hopefully as a FP. But morning waits look absolutely ridiculous now.

Problem is, shows don’t start until later. So how are you filling your morning at HS if you plan to do rides later in the day?

I was planning to RD MFSR, but after seeing reports about FPP drops, I’m thinking I will RD SDD and the try for MFSR on a drop.

I’m fingers crossing for an hours change so I can adjust my FPPs slightly. Hoping to do SDD at RD, ASS standby with a decently low wait and then hop on TSM with an early FPP.

I do have a 10:30 and a 2:30 Oga’s right now - haven’t decided which to keep.

We rope dropped TSM, got right back in line to do it again (because why not?), then had breakfast/snack at Woody’s lunchbox while we waited for our first FPP at SDD.

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We currently have a PPO at Hollywood & Vine so the youngest can spend some time with “her” characters. I am not sure if I’m going to keep that for our whole group though, I’m really not excited about it and the only reason we made the ADR is because of the characters she wants to interact with. My mom said that she would be happy to just take her. But I’m also thinking that might be a good way to be in the park for ROTR boarding groups but not have to deal with the crowd. I’m holding onto it until we figure out a more solid gameplan, and also until we know if the 9am opening will be changed to 8am opening. My fastpasses will almost certainly all be for the evening, so if I can change one of them earlier I will.

We also have a reservation for the droid depot at 9:30am; I’m hoping that will help us dodge some of the morning crowd. Between the end of our breakfast and the droid depot, we’ll have to sign up for jedi training academy because my oldest still has his heart set on it. I might try to RD Rockin Roller Coaster with my older two kids or ToT with my husband- there is a high chance of chickening out on these rides so I’m not going to bother with FPP for them, but I think we can RD them for those who don’t chicken out…

hmmm, now I’m rethinking my strategy. Maybe we should RD something everyone wants to do…

It worked really well for us. The majority of the crowd was heading to SDD, so we only waited 5-10 minutes the first ride on TSM and 25 minutes the second time. We all love that ride, and there’s so few things open at that hour (it was a 7am opening), that we didn’t feel the need to rush to something else.

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I am not just talking rope drop, but how to fill the morning.

This morning at 10:00, I checked waits. They were about twice what they are now, at 1:15…so I don’t want to do rides really.

Other than hopefully FPing RnRc, I need to find things to do. Maybe watch the Jedi Training.

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This was my thinking when I booked the 9:30 droid depot reservation. I am not sure what we will do once we are done making droids, or even how long that will take. I was thinking of “people watching” the citizens of hollywood or the characters in SWGE if the storm troopers or rebels are out and about, or even going to Star Wars Launch Bay, or meeting Mickey and Minnie at that time.

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That’s why I’m considering keeping our 10:30 Oga over the 2:30. I figure RD and then do whatever early FPP I am able to set up thanks to hours change - then do the 10:30 Oga’s and maybe a show before the next mid morning FPP.

I don’t think there will be much wiggle room to move FPPs up, and I’m not going to wait in those crazy lines.

Of course I’d all goes really well, we might have early BG in which case ROTR will be in there.

When we were there (12/28 and 1/2 at open), we made our first 3 FPP in the morning and then were able to pick up same day FPP after that. On 1/28 we got our BG (BG22 at 6am :scream:), rope dropped Smugglers Run, ate breakfast at Ronto Roasters (we then got called to return to ROTR so I went out to Star Tours where we had FPP and scanned us in, but we did not ride as we had FPP 2 other days for it), rode ROTR, had green milk, then exited to Toy Story Land. Rode SDD with a FPP (it’s maybe 8:30am now), went to Frozen show at 9 with FPP, then started booking same day FPP. We got TOT, then ASS, then Muppets and then went to lunch at Sci Fi at 11:45. Right after the Frozen show we walked around and took pictures of the Christmas decorations and photopass stops. There is plenty to do while waiting for your FPP. Rope dropping a ride will take a bit. Have breakfast. Stroll and look at decor, go to Launch Bay, walk through Galaxy’s Edge and admire, drink blue/green milk, take photopass pictures.

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We are booking FPs for most of the morning and doing some of the character meets. Some of them start at 9am. It looks like Muppets 3D isn’t too bad in the morning either. We are planning on FPing MFSR and SDD on 2 different days and going to try to rope drop MMRR if it’s not too horrible. But if we decide things are too crazy, we may just plop down somewhere and people watch. I’m sure the crowds are a sight to behold.

I’ve been thinking on this question as well. We have a 9 am FP, but are assuming HS will be opening at 8. We are going to be trying for RotR BG, and signing up for Jedi Training. I was then thinking of maybe trying to do Star Tours…is it also a long line straight away?
And then, pin trading. I’ve got 2 littles and I feel like that could be a fun way to fill some of our time early on while we wait to start our plans…

my family of 5 staying at Cr, other family of 6 at pop. The family of 6 has a flight home at 10:55 that night. We all have 8:35 tsm so I figure best case is that they will be at Hs at 7 and we get in rd sdd line. Surely we can be in and off sdd by 9:35. Followed by 9:35 tot and 12:20 mmrr. 2:00 mama mel, I figure they will have to take DME at 7:45 just so those kids can nap. We’re sleeping the next day before a farewell brunch at cm. I like our plans better

I’m hoping I can change my evening FPP to morning as people change plans the night before or morning of but right now the plan is to rope drop ToT so I can drop that FP and then go to my 8:25 am Ogas breakfast. Hopefully get an early morning BG. Explore galaxys edge in the morning. Then move to Epcot at 11 and hopefully pick up same day FP for EE in the evening at AK.
The only things I really want to get done at HS in the morning are galaxys edge and ToT. A SDD morning FPP would be icing because right now I have an evening one but I don’t plan on being in HS in the evening.

We also caught one of the early Little Mermaid shows and walked around Galaxy’s Edge.

We have littles, so it may not be super helpful, but after BGs at 8 we signed up for Jedi Training, then went to Alien Swirling Saucers (25 minute wait at +/- 9am) while my wife took the 2YO to the VotLM (early shows start at 9:30). Then we met up for the Frozen sing-along at 11-ish. Most of the crowds were at Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, so you could probably RD something on Sunset Boulevard without much issue (I think those wait times were under 20 minutes for the first hour or two) instead of the Jedi Training sign-ups and have plenty to fill the time.

This might be of use to some people wondering where to get breakfast:

https://www.wdwmagic.com/dining/abc-commissary/news/29feb2020-abc-commissary-and-milk-stand-offering-breakfast-at-disneys-hollywood-studios-for-a-limited-time.htm

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Oh, good. That is overdue.

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Oh. I didn’t think first show was until noon!

https://touringplans.com/hollywood-studios/showtimes/date/2020-03-02

Just change the date in the URL