Disney’s Hollywood Studios at all times has good days to go to and ones to keep away from, however that can be much more pronounced for the rest of 2024. Halloween and Christmas seasons convey with them a curler coaster of crowds, with dramatic variations in wait instances and attendance in selecting one of the best versus worst days to do DHS. This explains why, with lists of the least & most crowded dates in September via December, and a handful of crimson flag dates to keep away from in any respect prices.
As with the Greatest & Worst Dates at Magic Kingdom in 2024, Celebration Season is the largest issue on this record. Celebration Season is an enormous deal at Walt Disney World as a result of it disrupts attendance dynamics and creates a “porcupine sample” of wait instances and crowd ranges. In a nutshell, each Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration push attendance at Magic Kingdom a lot greater on the dates they’re not occurring and decrease on days of the occasions.
That is nothing new–we’ve been banging the Celebration Season drum the final decade, no less than. Magic Kingdom crowd patterns throughout Celebration Season are a key dialogue factors of our August via December crowd calendars. Nonetheless, this publish isn’t merely a ‘copy+paste’ of the Magic Kingdom suggestions. On the contrary, our recommendation for Disney’s Hollywood Studios is nearly the reverse of what it’s for Magic Kingdom!
As a reminder, we strongly advocate that readers go to Magic Kingdom through the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration nights. In a super world, they’d have Park Hopper tickets and bounce to a different park at round 4 pm.
The underlying rationale for that is that many day visitors keep away from Magic Kingdom on days when MNSSHP or MVMCP is held at evening as a result of the common park hours are shorter and Fortunately Ever After fireworks are usually not proven. This leads to considerably lighter crowds on days of the vacation events when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
These identical visitors then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For guests with out Park Hopper tickets (which is most visitors), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the apparent, intuitive selection. For a similar admission value, they get a number of extra hours within the park and get to see the fireworks. That’s the reason in a nutshell.
In concept, the dynamic ought to be very comparable with Disney’s Hollywood Studios throughout its personal truncated Celebration Season, which is essentially simply the Disney Jollywood Nights Christmas Celebration. Nonetheless, there are a number of variations.
First, visitors who decide to attend Disney’s Hollywood Studios on celebration nights virtually actually aren’t going to lose as many hours as these doing the identical at Magic Kingdom. The fortress park will shut at 10 pm or 11 pm (or typically midnight!) on non-party nights. That quantities to staying an additional 4-5 hours later, seeing fireworks, and attending to benefit from the cooler night hours within the park.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios will shut at 10 pm on the newest (in all probability 9 or 9:30 pm most nights). It additionally doubtless received’t shut as early to common visitors on celebration nights, which means that the quantity of misplaced time on a celebration vs. non-party evening would possibly solely quantity to 90 minutes to three hours. That’s nonetheless an excellent chunk of time, but it surely’s nowhere close to as a lot. And it’s additionally not being taken from the park the place visitors need to spend essentially the most time.
This brings us to the second key level. Disney’s Hollywood Studios actually clears out within the closing few hours of the day, whereas Magic Kingdom does to not practically the identical diploma. That is related from the above perspective–visitors received’t care as a lot about dropping an hour or two there versus Magic Kingdom–but additionally from a strategic one.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has the worst wait instances, on common, of any park at Walt Disney World. However these instances peak earlier within the day. Friends “hit a wall” and usually tend to bounce earlier within the day than they’re from Magic Kingdom. This creates a pointy distinction in wait instances, that are terrible till late afternoon, after which plummet.
This dynamic is why we’re staunch advocates of a noon break on DHS days, or arriving and staying late to keep away from hitting that wall. Doing DHS on a celebration day means basically forfeiting that end-of-night slowdown, which received’t occur because of the celebration mix-in. (In all probability, it additionally means heavier crowds for Fantasmic, particularly with the probability of just one efficiency on celebration nights.)
Lastly, there are merely far fewer celebration dates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Whereas Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration cowl a lot of the calendar from October via December and are held a majority of dates every week throughout their peaks, there are a grand whole of 13 dates for Disney Jollywood Nights. It’s by no means held on greater than two evenings per week.
This alone means are 5 non-party nights per week to soak up the displaced crowds–to the extent they even exist–from Jollywood Nights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In consequence, the distinction in wait instances between celebration days and non-party days at DHS is more likely to be far much less excessive than at Magic Kingdom.
On this observe, there’s additionally the truth that Jollywood Nights isn’t occurring in isolation. That’s apparent since we’re speaking about it in tandem with Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration. However the sensible consequence of all that is that individuals can be extra more likely to plan round MVMCP, adopting the intuitive technique there, whereas ignoring Jollywood Nights.
Scheduling round the principle vacation occasion is already a variety of work–juggling plans round two totally different events in two parks will merely be an excessive amount of for the common visitor. They received’t trouble worrying concerning the DHS occasion and can simply go to after they go to. (When you’re studying this, you might be not the common visitor.)
With all of that mentioned, you would possibly discover some wiggle phrases within the above. This can be a departure from our greatest & worst days to do Magic Kingdom, which expresses a excessive diploma of confidence and calls this the simplest prediction we make. The distinction, fairly merely, is precedent. This has been occurring at Magic Kingdom year-in and year-out for so long as we’ve been monitoring crowds, so no less than a decade. Most likely longer.
Against this, that is solely the second yr of Disney Jollywood Nights. The occasion was not significantly widespread in its inaugural yr, which may partly clarify why it had a negligible influence on crowds. The larger cause, although, is that it was basically an After Hours occasion by one other identify, with little or no influence on the working calendar (lower than an hour per night). Day visitors thus didn’t “plan round” DJN, since that they had no cause to consider it will influence them. (It did, they simply didn’t realize it.)
This yr, the beginning time of Disney Jollywood Nights is shifting ahead by an hour. We will see whether or not it’s nonetheless the case that individuals don’t plan round DJN with the 7:30 pm begin time. That may be pushing it an excessive amount of and trigger extra disruptions to crowd dynamics a la MNSSHP and MVMCP, however we’re actually skeptical that’ll be the case for all the causes recognized above.
All of that is exactly why we don’t advocate a zig after they zag advice for Disney’s Hollywood Studios like we do with Magic Kingdom. Common visitors don’t care as a lot about lacking (much less) time at DHS as they do (extra) time at MK. Attendance received’t be that a lot decrease through the day earlier than events. Displaced crowds received’t be as huge of a deal as a result of there are fewer occasions.
The lack of these quiet nights is the larger deal than all the above. These slower evenings can be misplaced–we will already say this with a excessive diploma of confidence primarily based on what we noticed final yr and on different laborious ticket occasion nights–because of the mix-in. For these unfamiliar with it, mix-in is the casual time period for the overlap between the common working day and time when visitors with tickets to the particular occasion are allowed to enter the park early.
Since these occasions are the one likelihood many attendees have to go to the respective parks, they arrive as early as doable to cram rides in earlier than the celebration begins. That is why we advocate bouncing from Magic Kingdom at 4 pm on celebration days–as a result of that’s when mix-in begins, and the park will get noticeably busier.
With Disney Jollywood Nights, mix-in will start at 7 pm. As an alternative of wait instances falling within the closing two hours of the night like regular, they’ll improve on DJN nights from 7 to 9 pm. This can be a huge blow–as that’s usually once we advocate knocking out Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land. On some evenings, it’s doable to do these total lands within the final two hours of the evening. That won’t be the case on DJN nights.
Consequently, we advocate doing Disney’s Hollywood Studios on non-party days in case you’re spending all day within the park and don’t have Park Hopper tickets. (Extra on the Park Hopping exception within the clarification beneath.) Now that we’ve defined the why and the way of this, right here’s the record of dates to keep away from at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the rest of the yr…
When to Keep away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Fall 2024
- August 27, 2024
- August 29, 2024
- September 25, 2024
- October 2, 2024
- October 16, 2024
- October 23, 2024
The entire dates on the record above after After Hours, Prolonged Night Hours, or different particular occasions. The identical logic applies to those events as Disney Jollywood Nights, albeit to a lesser extent. On these evenings, there can be mix-in crowds that end in much less of an finish of the evening slowdown. We’ve additionally noticed ever-so-slightly greater daytime crowds on Prolonged Night Hours dates.
When to Keep away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Christmas 2024
- November 9, 2024
- November 13, 2024
- November 16, 2024
- November 18, 2024
- November 23, 2024
- November 25, 2024
- November 30, 2024
- December 2, 2024
- December 7, 2024
- December 11, 2024
- December 14, 2024
- December 18, 2024
- December 21, 2024
As for the greatest days to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the low density of events shouldn’t actually disrupt our common Greatest & Worst Days of the Week to Do Each Walt Disney World Park suggestions that a lot.
The one factor I’ll level out is that Jollywood Nights is held on Saturday and Monday nights for many of November. As you’re in all probability (hopefully!) conscious, Sunday is the day in between.
Sunday is often our favourite day to do DHS. The wait instances knowledge doesn’t totally assist this, however we love Sunday nights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios as a result of the vacationers filter like regular–however so too do the locals, and disproportionately so, since Monday is a workday–resulting in decrease precise wait instances within the evenings. Nonetheless, I might not count on this to be the case throughout November when Jollywood Nights is going on on Saturday and Monday nights. Sunday ought to be no less than barely worse because of this.
Statistically talking, Wednesdays and Thursday are one of the best days to do Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That received’t be true on December 11 or 18, when the park is internet hosting DJN, but it surely ought to in any other case stay correct within the months to return.
One other factor to notice is that the above ‘worst’ lists are relative to the dates inside every week or normal date vary.
As a normal matter, all dates from August via mid-September are slower than the peak of the vacation season. November and December have excessive highs and low lows primarily based on vacation breaks, however are nonetheless, as a normal matter, busier than August and September.
In different phrases, in case you’re a neighborhood who has a large open calendar and needs to choose an assortment of dates primarily based upon absolute crowd ranges and nothing else, purpose for earlier. One of many August or September dates on our “keep away from” record continues to be going to be higher than the Wednesday or Thursday of Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks.
Moreover, Walt Disney World has thrown a monkey wrench into all the above with the Free Park Hopper Deal. Actually, it’s actually troublesome to evaluate the influence this promo may have. For one factor, there’s been virtually no buzz about it–we haven’t heard from many people who find themselves eligible and plan on taking benefit (largely the other).
In concept, providing free Park Hoppers would normalize crowd ranges to some extent. However I believe it’s simply as doubtless–if no more so–that this gambit backfires and is counterproductive. It’ll completely redistribute crowds to some extent, however in what path? Free Park Hoppers could not end in greater attendance on early park closing days in any respect. It could as a substitute merely end in heavier crowds on the late nights, as visitors leverage Park Hoppers to go to the parks open earliest and newest.
Talking of Park Hoppers, an alternative choice when you have one is following the reverse of our technique: beginning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Jollywood Nights dates, after which bouncing to a distinct round 6 or 7 pm for the remainder of the evening.
From a sensible perspective, this may be particularly engaging when paired with the zig after they zag technique for Magic Kingdom throughout Celebration Season since Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration and Disney Jollywood Nights are at all times held on totally different dates. That means you can begin at Magic Kingdom on a MVMCP day and hop to DHS that evening; then do the other on the Jollywood Nights day.
To be very clear, I’m not suggesting that is an ill-advised technique. It really could possibly be a reasonably good one! The above lists and steering had been created from the attitude of these visitors who don’t have Park Hopper tickets, and to clarify why Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a distinct beast than Magic Kingdom throughout Celebration Season.
In the end, that’s why we don’t advocate spending all the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Jollywood Nights dates–a departure from our Magic Kingdom zig after they zag recommendation. It’s additionally price reiterating that this dynamic is not going to be as excessive at DHS as it’s at Magic Kingdom. There’s a chasm in wait instances on celebration vs. non-party days there for causes mentioned above. The distinction received’t be practically as stark at DHS. When you can solely observe our Celebration Season recommendation at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios for no matter cause, achieve this at MK. For sure.
Once more, Park Hopping provides a distinct dimension to this, particularly once you pair two MK/DHS half days collectively. That ought to work rather well. As is hopefully now clear, the aim of this publish isn’t actually the record of dates. That’s actually only a matter of pulling up the occasions calendar, which you can’ve executed your self in like 30 seconds. Moderately, it’s serving to you make extra sense of this dynamic, and why Disney’s Hollywood Studios is totally different than Magic Kingdom throughout Celebration Season.
As at all times, we favor the “train an individual to fish” method–serving to you perceive the why of Walt Disney World, so you’ll be able to take the recommendation and apply it to your personal circumstances, trip dates, and so forth. Hopefully this wasn’t too complicated, and also you now have a way of which days can be greatest for you at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in late 2024.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this persuade you which you could, from an goal perspective, come out forward by doing non-party days at DHS? Or, are you continue to unpersuaded, favoring the counterintuitive method? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions—even once you disagree with us—is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
