Disney’s Hollywood Studios all the time has good days to go to and ones to keep away from, however that will likely be much more pronounced for the rest of 2024. Halloween and Christmas seasons deliver with them a curler coaster of crowds, with dramatic variations in wait instances and attendance in selecting the perfect versus worst days to do DHS. This explains why, with lists of the least & most crowded dates in September by means of December, and a handful of purple flag dates to keep away from in any respect prices.
As with the Finest & Worst Dates at Magic Kingdom in 2024, Celebration Season is the most important issue on this listing. 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 increased 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, at the very least. Magic Kingdom crowd patterns throughout Celebration Season are a key dialogue factors of our August by means of 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 in the course of 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 company keep away from Magic Kingdom on days when MNSSHP or MVMCP is held at night time as a result of the common park hours are shorter and Fortunately Ever After fireworks usually are not proven. This leads to considerably lighter crowds on days of the vacation events when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
These identical company then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For guests with out Park Hopper tickets (which is most company), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the plain, intuitive alternative. 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 principle, the dynamic must 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, company who decide to attend Disney’s Hollywood Studios on occasion nights nearly actually aren’t going to lose as many hours as these doing the identical at Magic Kingdom. The citadel park will shut at 10 pm or 11 pm (or generally 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 (most likely 9 or 9:30 pm most nights). It additionally probably received’t shut as early to common company on occasion nights, which means that the quantity of misplaced time on a celebration vs. non-party night time may solely quantity to 90 minutes to three hours. That’s nonetheless an excellent chunk of time, nevertheless it’s nowhere close to as a lot. And it’s additionally not being taken from the park the place company need to spend essentially the most time.
This brings us to the second key level. Disney’s Hollywood Studios actually clears out within the remaining few hours of the day, whereas Magic Kingdom does to not almost the identical diploma. That is related from the above perspective–company received’t care as a lot about shedding 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. Visitors “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 occasion mix-in. (In all chance, it additionally means heavier crowds for Fantasmic, particularly with the chance of just one efficiency on occasion nights.)
Lastly, there are merely far fewer occasion 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 by means of 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 occasion days and non-party days at DHS is more likely to be far much less excessive than at Magic Kingdom.
On this be aware, 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 folks will likely be extra more likely to plan round MVMCP, adopting the intuitive technique there, whereas ignoring Jollywood Nights.
Scheduling round the primary vacation occasion is already lots of work–juggling plans round two completely 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. (Should you’re studying this, you’re not the common visitor.)
With all of that stated, you may 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 taking place at Magic Kingdom year-in and year-out for so long as we’ve been monitoring crowds, so at the very least a decade. In all probability longer.
In contrast, that is solely the second 12 months of Disney Jollywood Nights. The occasion was not notably well-liked in its inaugural 12 months, which might partly clarify why it had a negligible impression on crowds. The larger cause, although, is that it was basically an After Hours occasion by one other identify, with little or no impression on the working calendar (lower than an hour per night). Day company thus didn’t “plan round” DJN, since that they had no cause to imagine it could impression them. (It did, they simply didn’t understand it.)
This 12 months, the beginning time of Disney Jollywood Nights is transferring ahead by an hour. We will see whether or not it’s nonetheless the case that folks don’t plan round DJN with the 7:30 pm begin time. That is likely to 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 the entire 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 company 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 in the course of the day earlier than events. Displaced crowds received’t be as large of a deal as a result of there are fewer occasions.
The lack of these quiet nights is the larger deal than the entire above. These slower evenings will likely be misplaced–we will already say this with a excessive diploma of confidence primarily based on what we noticed final 12 months and on different exhausting 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 company with tickets to the particular occasion are allowed to enter the park early.
Since these occasions are the one probability many attendees have to go to the respective parks, they arrive as early as attainable to cram rides in earlier than the occasion begins. Because of this we advocate bouncing from Magic Kingdom at 4 pm on occasion 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 a substitute of wait instances falling within the remaining two hours of the night like regular, they’ll enhance on DJN nights from 7 to 9 pm. This can be a large blow–as that’s usually after we advocate knocking out Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land. On some evenings, it’s attainable to do these whole lands within the final two hours of the night time. 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 rationalization beneath.) Now that we’ve defined the why and the way of this, right here’s the listing of dates to keep away from at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the rest of the 12 months…
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
All the dates on the listing 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 will likely be mix-in crowds that lead to much less of an finish of the night time slowdown. We’ve additionally noticed ever-so-slightly increased 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 finest days to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the low density of events shouldn’t actually disrupt our common Finest & 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 most likely (hopefully!) conscious, Sunday is the day in between.
Sunday is generally our favourite day to do DHS. The wait instances information doesn’t totally assist this, however we love Sunday nights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios as a result of the vacationers filter out 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’d not count on this to be the case throughout November when Jollywood Nights is occurring on Saturday and Monday nights. Sunday must be at the very least barely worse in consequence.
Statistically talking, Wednesdays and Thursday are the perfect days to do Disney’s Hollywood Studios. That received’t be true on December 11 or 18, when the park is internet hosting DJN, nevertheless it ought to in any other case stay correct within the months to come back.
One other factor to notice is that the above ‘worst’ lists are relative to the dates inside every week or basic date vary.
As a basic matter, all dates from August by means of 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 basic matter, busier than August and September.
In different phrases, in case you’re an area who has a large open calendar and desires 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” listing 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 the entire above with the Free Park Hopper Deal. Truthfully, it’s actually tough to evaluate the impression this promo could have. For one factor, there’s been nearly no buzz about it–we haven’t heard from many people who find themselves eligible and plan on taking benefit (largely the other).
In principle, providing free Park Hoppers would normalize crowd ranges to a point. However I feel it’s simply as probably–if no more so–that this gambit backfires and is counterproductive. It’ll completely redistribute crowds to a point, however in what path? Free Park Hoppers might not lead to increased attendance on early park closing days in any respect. It could as an alternative merely lead to heavier crowds on the late nights, as company leverage Park Hoppers to go to the parks open earliest and newest.
Talking of Park Hoppers, another 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 unique round 6 or 7 pm for the remainder of the night time.
From a sensible perspective, this is likely to be particularly enticing 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 all the time held on completely different dates. Which means you would begin at Magic Kingdom on a MVMCP day and hop to DHS that night time; then do the other on the Jollywood Nights day.
To be very clear, I’m not suggesting that is an ill-advised technique. It truly could possibly be a reasonably good one! The above lists and steerage have been created from the angle of these company who don’t have Park Hopper tickets, and to clarify why Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a unique beast than Magic Kingdom throughout Celebration Season.
Finally, that’s why we don’t advocate spending the whole 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 won’t be as excessive at DHS as it’s at Magic Kingdom. There’s a chasm in wait instances on occasion vs. non-party days there for causes mentioned above. The distinction received’t be almost as stark at DHS. Should you can solely comply with our Celebration Season recommendation at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios for no matter cause, accomplish that at MK. Indubitably.
Once more, Park Hopping provides a unique dimension to this, particularly once you pair two MK/DHS half days collectively. That ought to work very well. As is hopefully now clear, the aim of this publish isn’t actually the listing of dates. That’s actually only a matter of pulling up the occasions calendar, which you would’ve completed your self in like 30 seconds. Slightly, it’s serving to you make extra sense of this dynamic, and why Disney’s Hollywood Studios is completely different than Magic Kingdom throughout Celebration Season.
As all the time, we favor the “educate an individual to fish” strategy–serving to you perceive the why of Walt Disney World, so you possibly can take the recommendation and apply it to your individual circumstances, trip dates, and so forth. Hopefully this wasn’t too complicated, and also you now have a way of which days will likely be finest for you at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in late 2024.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this persuade you 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 strategy? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we will 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!
