5. Lines are staying long later into the afternoon

On our pre-Labor Day visit, we noticed lines peaked around 1-2 PM and tapered off throughout the day. Like just about everything related to increasing crowds, this trend has partially changed.

On our most recent visit, lines quickly increased starting around an hour after rope drop, hitting a peak at around 11:30 AM. Combined with sweltering heat and the extra lines caused by the Mobile Order / credit card outage, we decided to take advantage of our room and left the park right around that 11:30 peak. A major goal of our visit that day (besides riding Rise of the Resistance) was to pick up one of the new Batuu Spira chips and to purchase our first legacy lightsabers, so we wanted to see if letting some time pass would see the outages resolved. This strategy worked, and after a nice afternoon nap, we returned to the park around 4:30 PM. If you are staying nearby and want to avoid the heaviest crowds, an afternoon break during peak hours might be a good idea during this season.

During our break, we monitored wait times closely. The longest line most of the day remained Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which hit 90 minutes by 11:30 AM (about an hour and a half after rope drop). This ended up being the longest time of the day. This dipped to 70 minutes by 1:00 PM then bounced back up to 80 by 2:00 PM after momentarily being surpassed by Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. The wait slowly decreased throughout the day until it finally hit only 40 minutes around 7:30 PM (half an hour before closing). This suggests your best bets for a shorter wait for this popular ride may be at either rope drop or shortly before closing.

Other E-Ticket rides like Slinky Dog Dash, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run, and The Rockin’ Roller Coaster all saw fluctuating times throughout the day. Here’s a few samples:

11:30 AM:

Slinky Dog Dash – 70 Minutes

Tower of Terror and Smugglers Run – 55 Minutes

Rock n’ Roller Coaster – 50 Minutes

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1:00 PM:

Slinky Dog Dash – 55 Minutes

Rock n’ Roller Coaster – 50 Minutes

Tower of Terror and Smugglers Run – 40 Minutes

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2:00 PM:

Smugglers Run – 80 Minutes (dipped to 70 by 2:30 PM)

Tower of Terror – 65 Minutes (dipped to 45)

Slinky Dog Dash – 55 Minutes (rose to 60)

Rock n’ Roller Coaster – 45 Minutes

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7:30 PM:

Slinky Dog Dash and Smugglers Run – 40 Minutes

Tower of Terror and Rock n’ Roller Coaster – 30 Minutes

The data doesn’t give us a simple formula, but we can draw the following conclusions: your best bet for hitting E-Ticket attractions looks to be within the first hour after rope drop or in the last two hours before closing. However, if you see a short line—and 40 minutes is short—go get in it!

6. Changes to lightsaber sales (and a shiny new Batuu Spira!)

On our last visit, we enjoyed a visit to Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities with unusually low crowds thanks to legacy lightsabers being moved to Savi’s Workshop. While this was super cool, build-your-own lightsaber reservations are back up and running, meaning that legacy lightsaber sales have moved back to Dok Ondar’s.

It wasn’t particularly shocking, but this meant you can expect some unusually long lines to get into this location during the day. It actually felt a bit like opening day all over again watching the line snake through the outpost. As long as you aren’t trying to get a high-demand lightsaber (like the upcoming Ahsoka Tano or rumored Cal Kestus sabers), you’re probably best off waiting until later in the day to visit Dok Ondar’s. We returned to Galaxy’s Edge around 4:30 PM and didn’t have to wait long to get inside. Crowds appeared substantially lower compared to the morning.

Inside Dok Ondar’s, we got through the legacy saber line quickly. This store has always been a bit of a nightmare for line management, but thanks to a careful system, we were guided straight into a short queue without any distancing problem. Guests can still handle the legacy lightsabers for a short amount of time to test them out, and the cast members here are just as delightful as ever. My husband ended up choosing Obi-Wan’s lightsaber (one of the lightest), while I eventually settled on Ben Solo’s club of a saber after the gregarious cast member (who always accuses me of being Vi-the-Spy) remarked that it was the second-heaviest. Ironically, we weighed the thing later, and it’s only about 9 oz lighter than an actual HEMA longsword. It also came with a snazzy belt clip, a fun addition to the Galaxy’s Edge experience.

Annual Passholders currently have access to a hefty 30% discount on merchandise that includes lightsaber accessories like blades, sheathes, and belt clips. The discount doesn’t apply to the saber hilts, but it definitely knocked out a good chunk on the blade cost. If you end up buying a lightsaber with a blade, you may want to just take the plunge and buy a carrying case. We ended up having to run to the car to store ours when we realized we had no idea where we would put the things on rides.

With gift cards back up, we also had the pleasure of finally procuring one of the rare Batuu Spira credit chips—a unique Disney gift card that looks just like a Star Wars credit chip. The latest batch have a silvery finish and are usually found in the back room of the Droid Depot (with the jewelry and kitchenware). These souvenirs are super-cool (they have a nice weight to them!), and we’ve wanted to pick one up since opening. Unfortunately, they require a minimum load of $100, and you can’t use Disney gift cards to load them. Thankfully, you can use Visa gift cards, which did the trick. Just make sure you keep them somewhere safe. Our friend at Dok Ondar’s warned us that all sorts of problems can ensue if you scratch the barcode on the back. We used ours to pay for our lightsabers.

7. Line lengths may not be accurate (especially for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run)

This one may sound like a bummer, but it’s actually good news—don’t be discouraged by long wait times during this season. The reason why is that lines may not actually be as long as posted.

We’ve noticed this in particular on two different rides on Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run (on both of our recent trips). Both times, we got into line with wait times listed between 20-40 minutes, yet we pretty much walked right onto the ride other than a short stop in the Falcon’s Dejarik table room.

We think Disney is using an old strategy that used to be common during the 90’s to early 2000’s—overestimating wait times. In previous years, wait times grew super accurate because Disney would monitor line lengths in real time by sending guests through with trackers (usually a simple card). During the current season, we haven’t seen that taking place, meaning wait times aren’t going to be as accurate. Rather than risking a bunch of angry guests, Disney assumably chooses instead of pad the wait times a little bit.

While this may vary from ride to ride, we’ve had pretty good luck with wait times less than 40 minutes on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and it seems reasonable that this trend might carry to other rides.

8. The park is still amazingly quiet about an hour before closing

Knowing we had a resort room to return to, we decided to stay in the park pretty much until closing time. The sun was in the middle of setting when we stepped off Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, and the resulting scene proved so worth the wait.

The final hours before park closing are your best chance to still experience some of the “empty park” phenomenon guests enjoyed after Walt Disney World’s reopening. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge takes on a truly magical look during this hour as the sunset casts blue and gold light over the spires of Batuu.

The park comes alive here and there as dedicated fans turn on lightsabers to catch pictures during this mysterious hour. We even caught the silhouette of Vi (the Spy) Moradi bidding guests farewell as she maintained an evening watch over the Black Spire Outpost. Without a doubt, the last hour before closing proved incredibly quiet, with the lowest crowds of the entire day.

In conclusion, despite increasing crowds, it still seems to be a good time to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Your best bet is to plan a full day at the park with a mid-day break to skip the heaviest crowds. If your goal is to catch the park with minimum crowds, visit on a weekday towards the last half of the day.

Enjoy this article? Keep reading to find out what Epcot is like right now, as well as learning if Disney resort hotels are worth visiting during the pandemic…