The Solo Scale:

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Just like After Hours at Magic Kingdom and Epcot, Hollywood Studios has their own event where you can arrive late and party until the early hours of the morning. However, the question remains — is it worth it? When I attended in January 2025, the After Hours for Hollywood Studios ran from 9:30PM to 12:30AM and the cost ranges between $155 and $189 pre-tax in 2026. That gets you access to the park, rare characters, and free soda/water and treats. There aren’t any shows, so the question may arise: Is the After Hours event at Hollywood Studios worth the price?

I’d argue that it’s very worth it for a park like Hollywood Studios, but let’s get into the why.

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The Rides & Strategy Around Them

In my opinion, the rides are the reason you should do this event. At the best of times, Hollywood Studios is a rough park because it boasts so many e-ticket attractions (aka, super popular rides) and doesn’t have a people-eater ride that can disperse the crowds. No matter where you go, you end up stuck in a long line. With After Hours, that drastically reduces this problem.

Just because you have lower crowds doesn’t mean that the park will be fully empty. Plus, unlike Magic Kingdom which has a wealth of rides, Hollywood Studios has less. That means that you may still encounter lines and need to strategize. When I went, I did Rise of the Resistance as the event was beginning and people were leaving the park. It still took about 30 minutes to ride. However, the ride broke down and we had to be evacuated, which didn’t help.

Once the event kicked into full gear, Slinky Dog was a posted 25 minutes, but the line was pretty far to the back. This is where you have to weigh the strategy of what you want to do the most. For me, that meant going over to Sunset Boulevard to ride Rock n’ Roller Coaster and then Tower of Terror in a continuous cycle, managing to get on it three times in a row. You still have to watch the pre-show every time, so it will take up time. Keep that in mind when you’re factoring in your time plans.

In general, that’s the thing you’ve always got to keep in the back of your mind. You’ve only got three hours, so you have to be cautious about your time. In Toy Story Land, people are there for Slinky Dog which means higher times on Toy Story Mania as well. I definitely was expecting a walk-on, but wound up waiting at least fifteen minutes. Alien Swirling Saucers, however, was easy to get onto.

This means being flexible in your strategy, eyeing the lines, and weighing your decision of whether the time spent waiting is worth it or whether you’d rather have some snacks and head to a different area of the park. Keep in mind that there are no shows, so there’s already a shortened list of options for After Hours. Also, while I can’t prove it, it felt as though they might have pulled back on staffing for the event. Loading seemed to take longer at night than it did during the day. This might have just been perception, but the overall caution here is that things aren’t guaranteed to be a walk on, so make some balking decisions about the lines early if you’re going to After Hours at Hollywood Studios.

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The Food

This is where you’ll get similar fare across all events. No matter where you are, the options remain the same. Popcorn, ice cream treats (premium Mickey bars, ice cream sandwiches, and fruit bars), water, and pop.

They did it slightly different at Hollywood Studios. Here, they lined the pop & water on the top of the fridges so that they can be grabbed versus having to ask someone for one, which did speed up the lines slightly. I preferred this method, though it did also mean that several of the bottles ended up knocked onto the ground by accident by guests who didn’t realize how many they were grabbing.

As I mentioned in my Magic Kingdom After Hours post (LINK), you should bring a backup. They don’t care how many you take, so if you really want to get your money’s worth, you should take some bottles to go for the rest of your trip. Just like Magic Kingdom, the other restaurants won’t be open, so don’t expect a private dining event at your Hollywood Studio favourites.

The Atmosphere

Hollywood Studios tends to be a busy park because it has a lot of bigger attractions and not many people-eaters. That leads to long lines, no matter how many shows try and absorb guests. Maybe this will change with the new Monsters Inc land, but I truly doubt it unless we’re getting some rides with really good hourly throughput.

One of the best parts about the After Hours is the emptiness of the park while people go on rides.

The Entertainment

While there’s no dedicated entertainment at Hollywood Studios as there is in Magic Kingdom for After Hours, they still make sure that there’s something as a bonus. In this case, it’s the rare characters they’ll bring out. Recently, that’s included White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, characters from Mary Poppins, Bo Peep, and more!

In terms of shows, you won’t get any dedicated shows and the daytime shows are done for the day. If entertainment is what you’re after, you may want to purchase a normal park ticket instead.

The Cost vs Value Equation

Let’s be real. No matter how many benefits come with After Hours, it all comes down to price. So let’s do the math on this one and we’ll even give Hollywood Studios a chance by picking a high season After Hours versus a low season Park Day (you can probably guess where this is going):

As with Magic Kingdom, my recommendation here remains the same: After Hours is a fantastic option in lieu of a park day. Reduce the number of your park day tickets by one and insert an After Hours event instead.

To get more information, check out the After Hours page here to price out tickets and see if this works for your vacation.

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