Our May dates have Epcot and Hollywood Studios opening at 8:30 on the crowd calendar. I know these are estimates, but I can’t see why those hours would change, even after Memorial Day. They don’t change on the WDW official calendar after Presdients Day or very often during Spring Break . How often are the calendars updated?
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Touring Plans updates their site about every 4 - 6 weeks.
Disney finalizes it’s calendar up to 12 - 14 days before the time of your travel.
This means WDW will have the calendar published much further in advance thiugh…about 60 days. However, it is subject to change as they may have operational changes.
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I believe Disney updates as late as 2 weeks in advance. TP will update if Disney does. The estimated times are based on historical data.
Last year Hollywood Studios was opening a half hour earlier than they are this year during the same time frame. But during May 2024 Epcot and HS mostly opened at 9am. I’m not sure why TP is predicting earlier hours. This is true for my May dates as well. I would plan on 9am opening. Disney’s official calander only goes through the beginning of April.
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They had been opening HS up to 30 minutes earlier for entry and then often differing times by attraction. Eg. Rise and Slinky.Are they still doing that??
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Do you mean 30 mins before the published time? They have that for resort guests at each park. So a 9am park open means 8:30 early entry for resort guests. Certain attractions are open during early entry. And I do believe Rise and Slinky are in that list. They are sometimes down in the morning though. So have a plan B.
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For Hollywood Studios, sometimes they open 30 minute before even the published early entry time. For example, if the park opens for day guests at 9:00 and 8:30 for resort guests, sometimes the park will be open for rides at 8:00. Disney only does this when the super headliners are ready for guests to ride, though.
There is a theory that, if the park opens before scheduled early entry, Rise is up and ready for riders and rope droppers should go there first. If the park doesn’t open until the published early entry time, Rise is not running yet and the first place rope droppers should go is Slinky.
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Interesting. I hadn’t heard that mentioned before. It would be useful to keep data on this. Could make or break a RD strategy.
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Sorry for being “That Guy” right now… 
However, I would need more corroboration to rely on any openings more than 5 minutes or so than offically posted.
Having worked Ops for years at theme parks they need every minute to do all the testing and staffing at opening.
The best advice, as always, would be to arrive 45 - 60 minutes before EE / RD (Whichever you qualify for)
If by some miracle they open before scheduled you’ll be there. Otherwise, you’ll still be at the front of the crowds waiting before EE/RD
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I personally wouldn’t count on any early opening other than posted. It would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between Rise being up and ready and HS opening much earlier than scheduled.
I rarely RD but HS would be the park I would.
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Yeah it was definitely a thing last summer but hadn’t been on the forums for a while. I like the idea of @TwoBits theory though. It would make sense. I think it was probably because of the volume of peeps wanting ROTR and SDD. Now ROTR seems more reliable maybe it’s less of an issue. I like the way they open HS its less of a “Bums rush” like the other parks.
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Still goes down though. Somewhere keeps the stats. Not sure if it’s TP or Thrill Data. I’ll see if I can find it.
Becky has had posts about percentage of time attractions are down at rope drop.
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I did think it was in the blog.
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She hasn’t done the weekly Disney Data Dump blog post in several weeks. I suspect she’s busy prepping the 2026 Unofficial Guide.
I think I may have read the theory on Becky’s IG if not on a touringplans blog post.
I will say that if you can get to the front of a rope drop crowd and EE begins a full hour before regular entry, it is a hug advantage. We had the pleasure of experiencing it in July 2022 (crowd level that day was predicted to be a 4, but wound up a 7) by being near the front, walking non-stop to Rey’s room on Rise. When we exited, the posted wait was 60 minutes. We then went directly to Slinky to find a 15 minute posted wait, waited maybe half that, and when we exited that ride, the posted wait was 60 minutes. We went back to GE to ride Smuggler’s run to find a 20 minute wait and were well within the queue when the park finally opened to day guests.
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This happened when I went to rope drop HS for early entry— got there before 8:30 but they had already let people
In and riding slinky dog. My family waited atleast 20 minutes. This was in May. I am definitely planning on getting there earlier next time. But you never know!
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