4. It’s a half-day park at best

Image: Disney

It’s sad that for a large portion of the history of Disney’s Hollywood studios, this assumption held true—there just wasn’t enough to do unless you visited every attraction and show. However, it looks like with the arrival of Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge, this reputation is finally changing.

If you find yourself with a full-day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the most important thing to realize is that entertainment is a huge component of this park. While the park hosts some of Disney’s best thrill rides, including The Tower of Terror, The Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Star Tours, if you skip the shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you are missing out. There is something for every age, from Disney Junior all the way up to Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular (the park’s current nightly fireworks display). Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast continue to wow fans of the Disney Golden Age, and the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular has lost none of its thrills. The arrival of Star Wars at Disney parks added even more entertainment. Both The March of the First Order and Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away are excellent shows that will leave fans grinning ear to ear. Muppet Vision 3D also remains a timelessly hilarious option.

Both Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge will have a dramatic effect on how long you should spend at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. All of the Toy Story attractions continue to draw high demand from families, but the real game changer will be Galaxy’s Edge. It would be one thing if Galaxy’s Edge were just a large queue and shopping area surrounding Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run… Instead, the land is an immersive attraction itself filled with interactive guest experiences. If the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland is any indicator, guests planning to visit Batuu will likely need a half day alone just to queue up and experience it.

5. The Tower of Terror has always been the same

Image: Paul Beattie, Flickr (license)

Despite not being an opening day feature, The Tower of Terror is easily one of the most iconic attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Many guests may not realize the ride has actually gone through several different incarnations.

The opening version of the Tower of Terror centered around a single drop. Indeed, some guests even recall the chilling sound of a cable snapping before the elevator took its dramatic plunge. While this version of the ride felt very realistic, it was too short, particularly considering how long guests were waiting to ride it. The second version kept the same concept but doubled the length of the drop sequence. Guests moved into the tower shaft, some heard the cable snap, the elevator dropped, but then shot back up to the top again. The doors opened, and guests screamed for the camera before they were dropped a second time. Some fans still consider this version their favorite since it really highlighted the full drop.

This was still too short for many guests, so the third version introduced the random drop sequence most of us our familiar with now. In this version, guests can never guess how many drops and half drops they’ll experience. While this increased the ride’s length, the downside is that the drop can feel like more a yo-yo at times than that familiar terrifying plunge. Also, the mysterious cable snap some guests remarked on from early versions— we’re still not positive whether this was real or not-- is gone.

As a side note, many people believe the Tower of Terror drops guests at the speed of gravity. Imagineers found that a drop at terminal velocity wasn’t thrilling enough, so the Tower of Terror actually drops guests faster than the speed of gravity, literally pulling them down instead of just allowing free fall.

6. The food is GREAT

This one may be controversial, but it must be addressed. This is a park that has had some problems in the dining department.

It’s not that the food at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is bad, per se. The Sci-Fi Dine In Theater, 50’s Prime Time Café, Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano, and especially the Hollywood Brown Derby all have some dishes that are truly delicious. The problem is that so much of the food served at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the same— slightly adjusted variations on American theme park fare. When Mickey pretzels and lightsaber churros regularly top the list for best things to eat in a Disney park, you have a problem.

You could argue that the food in DHS is meant to match the Hollywood theme, but this argument just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. There’s no reason a Hollywood-centric park couldn’t have something a little more creative like a decent noodle shop, a Chipotle-style burrito bar, or somewhere to get decent health food (sorry folks—the fried green tomato sandwich doesn’t cut it). The quality of food at Disney’s Hollywood Studios across the board just feels like an afterthought compared to other parks. Even the Hollywood Brown Derby has suffered loss of quality over the years.

7. The boulder and extras are fake

Image: Disney

Two of the park’s mini-misconceptions surround The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It’s easy to assume that the boulder in the show’s iconic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark is a hollow fake. After all, why would Disney roll a deadly mega-boulder after one of its stunt actors repeatedly day after day?

Because they can.

The stunt show’s boulder weighs a whopping 440 pounds. It would totally crush poor Indy if not for a convenient amount of space left underneath the boulder’s track for the stunt actor to fall. You can get an idea of its weight when the crew rolls it back into place.

Also, if you’ve seen the show, you might be aware of a spoiler-- one of the extras is always a plant, a stunt man in disguise. This may lead some guests to believe all the extras are fake, but this isn’t the case. At every show, the other extras are real guests, and the easiest way to get picked is to arrive early, sit close to the center front, and be LOUD!