It’s a bittersweet day here at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with a lot going on — but not all of it positive. On the happy side, cooler fall air has moved in and some unexpected Dourney & Bourke items arrived in the park alongside a pair of limited release Star Wars ears. Unfortunately, that came with the final performances of the Disney Society Orchestra, some insanely long lines, and a fair amount of rain. Let’s head in and dig into the details.
First up, one of our smaller finds for the day, this new long-sleeve acid washed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster shirt. The style matches some leggings that turned up in August as part of a larger merchandise refresh.
Finding Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster apparel at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is not particularly surprising. Running into new Haunted Mansion boxer shorts, however, was fairly unexpected.
The big finds of the day, though, came in the form of Dooney & Bourke items — starting with this limited release MagicBand. The band features a dogs sketch pattern along with the signature golden Dooney & Bourke slider.
The dogs sketch print didn’t stop at the MagicBand, though, with three bags and a wallet carrying the same imagery also making their parks debut. Unlike the MagicBand, though, these bags were available back in March on shopDisney.
All of the items carry a similar print which includes dogs from a variety of Disney movies over the years.
Much like the Dooney & Bourke bags, this Star Wars droid ear headband was also available online several months ago and also made its very limited in-park premiere today. All of these limited release items were sold out by the end of the day, but restocks are always possible in the future.
Moving on from merchandise, another discovery today was the addition of physical distancing markers within the queue of Voyage of the Little Mermaid. These markings, however, are for use as part of an extended queue for Slinky Dog Dash — an attraction whose line routinely extends near Voyage, and those lines don’t appear to be getting shorter any time soon.
The line for the aforementioned Slinky Dog Dash stayed quite long for most of the day, which is to be expected these days.
Even the rides which haven’t been known for long lines during the nearly three months since reopening are beginning to experience some lengthy waits, in both time and distance. Star Tours’ queue extended down Grand Avenue today, for example.
Other attractions with long waits included Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was also in Runaway Railway and Slinky Dog Dash territory today, with an 80 minute wait posted around noon.
Elsewhere in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, despite using its boarding group system, the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance queue had backed up to the entrance to the land.
That wait can be worth it for a shot to actually ride the attraction. Thankfully, Rise seemed to be fairly reliable today with minimal downtime.
Finally, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster got in on the extended line action, with guests lining up as far back as Legends of Hollywood in the afternoon. As it turns out, long lines were simply a fact of life all over Walt Disney World parks today.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t merely attractions with long lines and waits. Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities was forced to use a virtual queue due to the demand today.
Even navigating walkways proved challenging, especially during the many rainy periods where guests huddled into spaces that were totally unsuitable for the number of people trying to cram in.
The market on Batuu, like literally everything else on Batuu, had a line with a 15-20 minute wait as well.
Rounding out our line coverage, Baseline Taphouse did a good imitation of the earlier Star Tours line, stretching a little ways down Grand Avenue.
In the late afternoon, crowds started to thin out slightly, perhaps as a result of the wet weather, long lines, or those who were solely interested in riding Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
On a more positive note, the afternoon rain let up long enough for a couple of the now-routine character cavalcades to make their way through the park.
We opted to hang out for the Pixar Motorcade, which includes some of our favorite Pixar characters — and, as we’ll see now, some of the last remaining live music in the park in the form of Green Army Men.
That’s right, we’ve arrived at the final day of performances for the Disney Society Orchestra.
The musicians, formerly comprising the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra, are being terminated after the conclusion of today’s performances, despite being a staple at Walt Disney World for 32 years.
True to their decades of bringing joy to guests, they went out with a bang and delivered an impressive performance tonight, as they have for thousands of nights prior. If you weren’t one of the lucky few to catch the final show, be sure to check out our video of the entire last set.
Thanks for joining us today for our mixed bag of Disney’s Hollywood Studios experiences. How are you feeling about the direction that the park has taken lately? Is it affecting your plans to visit the park or Walt Disney World as a whole? Let us know in the comments!
Looks like we will be canceling our trip.
I’m hoping that Disney world will NOT close down forever, because I want little girls to become little princesses in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and to have meet and greets with Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella in the Royal Hall 😊😁😀☺️🤠😸🙂❤️💙💜💝.
Way too crowded to be safe. Those poor cast members. Just burst out crying seeing the pictures of the old guys’ last performance. Such a shame there’s no way to save their jobs. I understand disney needs to do what it can for financial stability, I’m just worried upper mgmt is thinking too inside-the-box for future issues right now.