For this Disney’s Hollywood Studios update, we start outside the park. As Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge gets closer and closer to completion, what used to be the smallest of the four Walt Disney World Parks is being expanded in major ways. Not only will the new Disney Skyliner have a station at the main entrance but the former Disney Resort bus loop has been closed and being rebuilt out around the other side of the water way in front of the park. This new expansion will not only add more stops needed since the original loop was built in 1989 but it should also open up the entrance area of the park to more free-flowing foot traffic and push out the parking lot tram past security to provide less of a build up in that area.
Inside the park, the summer crowds are still present with maybe a week or so before the post-Labor Day slow down hits for a few weeks.
Toy Story Land has proved to be a hit with well over an hour wait each day for Slinky Dog Dash Coaster being the norm and Alien Swirling Saucers sticking close to the hour mark. One of the unique things about the land is, now that the entrance to Toy Story Mania has relocated to that side of the park, the wait time has dropped from the high 100 minute waits to sometimes as low as 20 minutes for the standby queue.
Work next do in Sid’s Backyard (Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) is moving at light speed, with new set pieces and props being added almost daily. Just outside Toy Story Land, the former Pixar Place is now gaining a large backstage gate so the last of the construction walls can be removed from this side of the park.
In the Animation Courtyard, the former Princess theme outdoor shop has recently transitioned into a Toy Story theme In Character shop. In just a few days, ‘Disney Junior – Live on Stage’ will be closing the big book to make way for a new “Disney Junior Dance Party!” This high-energy, live show will feature characters from Disney Junior shows on TV, including Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Doc McStuffins, The Lion Guard and the newest hit series Vampirina.
Of course, before we can travel to a Galaxy Far, Far Away, we will be joining the birthday couple on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opening in 2019. Construction has now expanded out of the Chinese Theater facade and into the courtyard, which we can only take as a sign that things are chugging right along.
That’s all for now but stay tuned for more updated from Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Walt Disney World.