If you have Hollywood Studios plans next week and have not looked at the park calendar yet, do so now. There is a detail in the operating hours for the week of May 25 that is easy to miss and genuinely important for anyone trying to get the most out of what is shaping up to be one of the most crowded days the park has seen in a long time.
Every day next week, Hollywood Studios opens at 9 a.m. with Early Entry at 8:30 a.m. for Disney Resort hotel guests—every day except one.
On Tuesday, May 26, Hollywood Studios opens at 8 a.m. Early Entry for resort hotel guests starts at 7:30 a.m. One hour earlier than every other day that week. One hour that is going to matter considerably more than an extra hour usually does at a Disney park.
Why May 26 Is the Day
Disney has not released an official explanation for the early opening but the context around May 26 makes the reasoning self-evident.
Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opens to the general public on May 26. The Passholder preview window, which ran May 21 through 23, sold out Hollywood Studios park reservations on two of the three preview dates within hours of the announcement going public. That is not the demand profile of a normal attraction opening. That is the demand profile of something that has been building for months and is about to hit the general public for the first time.
Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! also debuts on May 26 inside a soundstage as part of the new Walt Disney Studios area opening that day. The Mandalorian and Grogu mission at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has been running since May 22 and is already adding to the crowd pressure at a park that regularly operates with some of the highest average wait times in the resort. May 26 falls on the day after Memorial Day, a holiday weekend that already brings elevated attendance numbers, without any new attractions to add to the equation.
Disney read the room and opened the park an hour early.
What the Extra Hour Is Actually Worth at Disney
In most parks on most days, an extra hour of operating time is a nice bonus that makes the day feel slightly more relaxed. On May 26 at Hollywood Studios, that extra hour is the difference between riding Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets in a manageable standby window and spending the first part of your morning watching a wait time that climbed before you got there.
Disney Resort hotel guests with Early Entry access and a Hollywood Studios reservation on May 26 can be inside the park at 7:30 a.m. That is 30 minutes before Early Entry opens on every other day that week and a full 90 minutes before the general public would have entered on a standard operating day. For a ride opening that sold out preview reservations within hours, 90 minutes of head start is nothing.
General park guests who arrive at the 8 a.m. opening have a full hour more than what a standard 9 a.m. park day would give them. On a day when Lightning Lane pricing for Hollywood Studios is already near the top of the scale, reflecting Disney's own expectations for how crowded the park will be, that free extra hour is the most accessible crowd strategy available.
The Surrounding Days
Monday, May 25, is Memorial Day itself, and the park operates on standard hours: Early Entry at 8:30 a.m. and park hours from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, through Friday, May 29, all return to the same standard schedule. The early opening is isolated entirely to May 26.
That isolation is its own kind of message. Disney does not open a park an hour early for no reason. The fact that May 26 is the only day next week with different hours tells you exactly how Disney is characterizing that specific day relative to the rest of the week.
The Simple Takeaway for Disney
Set the alarm earlier than you planned. If you have resort hotel access, be at the gates by 7:15 a.m. on May 26. If you are a general park guest, aim to arrive at 7:45 a.m. Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets is going to have a line, and that line is going to build faster than most opening day lines do based on everything the preview period demand already showed.
The extra hour is there. Use it before everyone else figures out the same thing.
