Heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and hoping to be an early bird? We’ve got you covered!

This park is filled with SO MANY popular attractions, and it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to get them all done in one day (particularly if you don’t use Lightning Lanes). But if you can stomach an early morning in the park, you’ll set yourself up for success. We’re telling you where to go at rope drop…with maps!

What IS Rope Drop?

Before we kick off this list, we’ve got to chat about rope drop itself. “Rope drop” is the term used to describe the moment when the parks open for the day — it used to involve Cast Members literally dropping a rope to open parks or lands. Nowadays, rope drop is known as the strategy of arriving at the parks before they open in order to get the shortest ride waits possible.

In order to truly rope drop the park, we recommend arriving 30-60 minutes before Early Theme Park Entry begins (which starts each day 30 minutes before the park’s official opening time). Make sure you allow enough time for transportation to the park and to get through security when you arrive. If you have a good rope drop strategy when the park opens and you’re near the front of the crowd, you can realistically knock out at least 2-3 rides in the first few hours of the day with much shorter waits.

Rise of the Resistance

Perhaps the most popular ride that people will rope drop is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This attraction can get a long wait because of its cool technology and popular IP. If you want to do this ride first thing in the morning, you’ll want to turn to the left once you get down Hollywood Boulevard and go past Echo Lake to enter Galaxy’s Edge.

Choosing this attraction to rope drop means that you’ll likely be in some of the biggest crowds. Rise of the Resistance is also the park’s Lightning Lane Single Pass option, so it gets many rope droppers who don’t want to pay for the extra Lightning Lane or who didn’t purchase access before the Lightning Lane sold out.

We usually find that the wait time for Rise of the Resistance drops later in the day, so it’s not usually our recommended choice of rope drop strategy. Also, this ride tends to have frequent downtime or delayed openings, so if there’s an issue, you risk losing valuable time at rope drop.

See Our Guide to Galaxy’s Edge Here!

Slinky Dog Dash

Another common rope drop option is Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land. This ride has historically been the most popular of the Lightning Lane Multi Pass options in Hollywood Studios. To get in line for this ride, you’ll head to the right past the Chinese Theater, then follow the pathway to Toy Story Land. Slinky Dog Dash is located about halfway through the land on the right side.

Slinky Dog Dash pretty consistently has a long line all day, and it’s subject to weather-related closures that can make the wait time even longer when it reopens. The Lightning Lane for this ride is notoriously hard to snag, so if you can’t get one before your park day, Slinky Dog Dash makes a decent contender for rope drop.

If you head to Slinky Dog Dash first thing, you’ll also be able to avoid waiting in its outdoor queue during the hottest part of the day. It’s a win/win!

Here’s Our Guide to Toy Story Land!

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets

The third big choice for rope drop these days is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. This coaster was recently revamped to feature The Muppets and got an all-new queue, pre-show, and ride backstory. Since it opened at the end of May 2026, it has been VERY popular.

To get to this ride at rope drop, you’ll turn right down Sunset Boulevard just past the Starbucks on Hollywood Boulevard. Go to the end of Sunset Boulevard and turn left under the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster sign. The Sunset Boulevard route used to be the least popular (and thus a very good rope drop choice), but it has become very busy since the coaster update.

Since this ride is still new, its Lightning Lane Multi Pass reservations have been booking up quickly as well. It has a single rider queue that you can use, but we’ve found it to be iffy on reliability for getting you a shorter wait time. If this is a must-do during your visit, rope dropping could be the best choice.

We’re Answering Your Biggest Questions About This New Ride Here!

Tips for Early Theme Park Entry

Now that we’ve covered the big three, let’s talk about strategy! If you’re a Disney Resort guest, you’ll get Early Theme Park Entry, which allows you to enter the park and start doing rides 30 minutes before other guests. As we mentioned above, it’s a good idea to arrive 30-60 minutes before Early Theme Park Entry starts so you can be among the first in line. Since you’ve only got 30 minutes, you’ve got to make the most of it!

For Early Theme Park Entry, we recommend either going the Slinky Dog Dash or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster route. Rise of the Resistance is a very long attraction that will eat up nearly your entire window, even if you’re first in line. If you do Slinky Dog first, you can hit up Toy Story Mania immediately after. If you do Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first, we recommend going next door to Tower of Terror for your second attraction. Another good “secondary” attraction choice for either ride would be Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway — it can get a moderately long line during the day.

Tips for Regular Guests

If you are not staying at a Disney Resort and do NOT have Early Theme Park Entry, the hotel guests are going to beat you to those “big three” rides. If one of them is an absolute must-do, can’t-miss for your group, then head there and do it first thing when the park opens. If not, we recommend hitting up what we’ll call the “secondary tier” — the attractions that aren’t quite popular enough to be in the big three but still get long lines.

This list includes Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (especially since it got the makeover for The Mandalorian and Grogu), Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania. These rides will start to get more popular in the morning as the Early Theme Park Entry folks finish the big three and get in line for their secondary choices, but you might be able to beat them to these rides for the first wave.

So there you go — that’s our full rope drop strategy for Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Whatever you do, do NOT rope drop Star Tours. Trust us, it’ll have a 10-minute wait at some point later in the day and you’ll kick yourself. Use your rope drop time wisely!

Do you rope drop in Hollywood Studios? Tell us in the comments!