Adventures and Mousecapades: A Podcast About Disney

209. Theme Park Roulette: Hollywood Studios Edition

• Alicea & Nathan Novak • Episode 209

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What happens when you hand your Hollywood Studios plan to a roulette wheel on a July Tuesday? We tested it—standby only, all ride types in play, casual sit down dining, storms looming—and discovered how randomness collides with Florida heat, crowd flow, and the realities of queue waits. From a lucky late-morning villains show to a brunch at Oga’s that fueled vibes more than bodies, we followed the wheel into Smugglers Run, character meets, Slinky Dog at peak heat, Tower of Terror salvation, and a Baseline Tap House reset that saved the evening. We closed with Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, a quick AC break at Vacation Fun, and the sparkle of Fantasmic as fireworks framed the lessons learned.

Along the way, we break down practical tactics for Hollywood Studios without Lightning Lane: anchor your day with one morning headliner, a true midday meal indoors, and an evening show; group Galaxy’s Edge stops to reduce backtracking; use character experiences and theater shows as strategic AC breaks during storm windows; and respect the hidden time tax inside certain queues, especially Smugglers Run. We talk queue math, walk times, and why pretzels and charcuterie at Baseline can be the smartest thirty minutes you spend all day.

If you crave spontaneity but don’t want to sacrifice fun, this story-driven play-by-play will help you build rails around randomness. You’ll hear where we went wrong, where we got lucky, and how small choices—shade, snacks, sequence—compound into either energy or exhaustion. Hit play, steal our hard-won tips, and then tell us: would you trust a wheel to plan your park day? Subscribe, share with a Disney friend, and leave a quick review to help more fans find the show.

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Adventures & Mousecapades is a passion project from Alicea & Nathan Novak - two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse. We are not affiliated with Disney, nor are we travel agents. Opinions are our own.

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Nathan:

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, mantenganse a list with the must. Please stand clear of the doors.

Alicea:

Hello everyone. I'm Alicea.

Nathan:

And I'm Nathan.

Alicea:

Welcome to episode 209 of Adventures and Mouse Capades.

Nathan:

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Insert sound effects of party popping and horns and stuff. All the way. I don't like that song.

Alicea:

Okay. It's kind of weird. Happy New Year.

Nathan:

Woo. Happy New Year. Woo. Woo. You can quote me on that. Yeah. This is coming out a couple days before New Year's, knowing our podcast listening habits are probably like yours. You're probably not listening to podcasts at this time. So hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve. I hope your year's starting off fantastic. And let's let's have a podcast, shall we, Alicea?

Alicea:

Sounds good. Uh today we are going to do another park roulette.

Nathan:

Oh boy.

Alicea:

And we're at Hollywood Studios this time. Okay. And I'm going to have this be actually all roulette. It is all up to the wheel.

Nathan:

Oh boy.

Alicea:

We are not deciding anything.

Nathan:

Oh boy.

Alicea:

It's wherever the winds will take us.

Nathan:

Oh.

Alicea:

Okay. The park we're doing. Mm-hmm. It's Hollywood Studios.

Nathan:

Okay. That was not rouletted.

Alicea:

No. It it was, actually, but I already put it in ahead of time. Oh, okay.

Nathan:

Don't don't don't peek behind the curtain.

Alicea:

Our wait time?

Nathan:

Yeah. Oh, God.

Alicea:

Standby. God. Yay. Types of rides is going to be all the rides.

Nathan:

Okay. I can get behind this. Yes. Unlimited. Ha ha. Unlimited. All the rides. Are unlimited. Except you're waiting in long lines. Boo. Type of restaurants is going to be Bars and lounges, bars and lounges, bars and lounges.

Alicea:

Casual dining table services.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Could be worse. It could be worse. Month.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Alicea:

It's worse.

Nathan:

Oh no.

Alicea:

It's July.

Nathan:

Oh, crap.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

Okay. But really, how bad is it?

Alicea:

Week number.

Nathan:

Uh-huh.

Alicea:

There's more. I have to do the week number and the day. Week number, week number four.

Nathan:

Oh, great. So deeper into summer.

Alicea:

Deeper in the summer.

Nathan:

Huzzah.

Alicea:

Day of the week.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm. Like it matters.

Alicea:

Tuesday. Yay. That equals July 22nd, 2025.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Hollywood Studios was a five out of ten. Oh. Yeah. Not too shabby.

Nathan:

That's not horrible.

Alicea:

It had thunderstorms. The high was 90 and the low was 78. So cool spell.

Nathan:

Yeah. Great. I can't wait for the afternoon thunderstorm.

Alicea:

Uh park hours for this day were 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Okay. Um adult ticket price was $169. Okay. Lightning Lane multi-pass was $29.

Nathan:

Not that we're allowed to buy it.

Alicea:

Nope. And Lightning Lane single pass for Star Wars was $20.

Nathan:

Okay. All right. But we can't buy that either.

Alicea:

No, we cannot. Let's start out. Let's see. Where are we going? Our first ride is show.

Nathan:

What?

Alicea:

Um, I don't think we can do a show first thing, actually. Oh, we can. We can.

Nathan:

Yeah?

Alicea:

We can do for the first time at well.

Nathan:

We could. We could get in.

Alicea:

Do you want me to spin for a show?

Nathan:

We could sleep in. Oh, spin for a show? Yeah. No, we're picking a show.

Alicea:

Okay. It's gonna have to be first time in forever because that's at 9 30.

Nathan:

Oh shoot. I do.

Alicea:

Or or Little Mermaid is at 9 20.

Nathan:

Oh God. Please don't do Little Mermaid. Oh, fine spin. Spin for a show. All right. You are so set on doing this with the random wheel of awesomeness. Oh boy. Oh, great. What?

Alicea:

Villains Unfairly Ever After at 10 a.m.

Nathan:

Oh, we're sleeping in, baby. All right. Okay, that's actually the first good thing that's happened to us in one of these games.

Alicea:

Okay, so I'm gonna write this down so we can keep track of stuff.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Villains at 10 a.m.

Nathan:

All right.

Alicea:

That show is like 15 minutes, I think.

Nathan:

Okay. And we haven't seen it yet.

Alicea:

This is true.

Nathan:

So looking forward to it.

Alicea:

Yay. So we are done with that at I'd say 1020.

Nathan:

Yeah. Okay. All right. What is next?

Alicea:

Next is food.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

1020 to food, okay.

Nathan:

A sit-down meal at 1020.

Alicea:

Uh-huh.

Nathan:

We are making some very interesting choices on this day.

Alicea:

Uh-huh. Um, all right, let's see what we're getting where we're gonna eat.

Nathan:

Yeah, what are our options?

Alicea:

Oh, okay. We're hitting Oga’s.

Nathan:

I have to eat at Oga’s?

Alicea:

Not necessarily. We could do, I don't yeah, there's I mean, it's listed as a casual table.

Nathan:

So seriously.

Alicea:

Uh-huh.

Nathan:

All right. Well, it's five o'clock somewhere. Let's have a drink.

Alicea:

Oga's space mimosas. Oga's at, let's see, we got to get over there. So 10 45.

Nathan:

Yeah, probably wait for a table. And we have to, of course, hang around for the musical stylings of DJ Rex. Yes. And uh what you think about spending what 45 minutes in there? Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. So we've had something to eat, well, more drink than eat. Um, space mimosas were fantastic.

Alicea:

They were.

Nathan:

Yep.

Alicea:

Fuzzy Tauntauns are yummy too.

Nathan:

Yeah. All right, what's next?

Alicea:

Oh, this is nice. Okay. Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run.

Nathan:

Hey, we're right there.

Alicea:

We are right there. How long did it take? Let's see.

Nathan:

Oh, you have the wait times.

Alicea:

Let's see. That was at uh what did we say? Like 11:15?

Nathan:

Yes, if math maths correctly.

Alicea:

That was 57 minutes.

Nathan:

Yay! Who put standby lines on the board? Maybe forget to put that one down next time, okay? Hey now. I'm just messing. All right, so we're waiting for an hour to go on Smuggler's Run.

Alicea:

Yep.

Nathan:

Sounds great.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

Uh, we're playing a lot of heads up in that queue.

Alicea:

Yes.

Nathan:

Yes.

Alicea:

All right. So we get on at around 12:15.

Nathan:

Mm-hmm.

Alicea:

And then the ride's like what, 10 minutes?

Nathan:

Yeah. I mean, once you get in there, there's usually a little bit of a queue up in there. Because you remember their wait times are to the pre-show.

Alicea:

Yeah.

Nathan:

And then you have to go wait for a turn or two up in kind of the the break room, I guess we'll call it of the Millennium Falcon. And then you get to your ride. Yeah. So let's say 15. Keep it, keep it uh Okay. Yeah.

Alicea:

So it's 12: 30.

Nathan:

It's 12 :30. Okay.

Alicea:

Next we have Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams. Oh. So we get to meet Mickey and Minnie.

Nathan:

I'm down with that.

Alicea:

That would take what, like 10 minutes to walk to?

Nathan:

Yeah, somewhere in there. And then it's a 35-minute wait, according to the table that you so helpfully included in our show notes. So 45 minutes. Call it 12:45. Stop and use the restroom along the way. Space mimosas kind of go right through you.

Alicea:

Uh-huh.

Nathan:

Uh-huh. And then a 35-minute wait. I don't like doing that math. Can we just call it 45?

Alicea:

No.

Nathan:

Well, no. Yes. It's a 35-minute wait, and then you actually have to do the experience. Yeah. 45.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

All right.

Alicea:

So that's one-fifteen.

Nathan:

1:30.

Alicea:

1:30. Oh my gosh.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Math. After this, we are doing food. Slinky dog dash. Oh, shh.

Nathan:

Well, that's an hour and a half mistake.

Alicea:

All right. So from there, it'll probably take us, what, 10 minutes to walk over there. So that'll be like 1:40. Get there.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Alicea:

Uh yep.

Nathan:

So it's uh 3:20, 3:10, 3:10.

Alicea:

3:10.

Nathan:

Is when we're done with Slinky Dog Dash after a 90-minute wait.

Alicea:

At the absolute best time of the day.

Nathan:

Yeah, let's go stand in the heat, babe. Ew. Hey, at least we got it done before the thunderstorms probably hit around uh, you know, 3: 30 or 4 o'clock.

Alicea:

Okay. So we're going out of this into into rain and thunderstorms.

Nathan:

And probably rides going down if they're outside. Yeah. But we got Slinky down down off the board.

Alicea:

So now we are going to meet Edna Mode at the Edna Mode experience.

Nathan:

We are okay. I don't know where that is. I don't either. Let's assume it takes us 15 minutes to get there. It's a 15-minute wait because nobody else knows where that is either.

Alicea:

Is that like where they have no, that's a celebrity spotlight. Yeah, I don't know where this one is.

Nathan:

I don't uh allegedly it exists. I don't know.

Alicea:

All right.

Nathan:

So there's no way for us to know. Nope. No.

Alicea:

So this would be what getting over there at what, like what did you say? Like 3:20?

Nathan:

Yeah. We'll call it 3:20.

Alicea:

It's a 35 minute wait.

Nathan:

No, it's not. It's a 15-minute late.

Alicea:

Oh, 15. I'm sorry. I was looking up above.

Nathan:

Yes, you were.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

Call it a half hour total. So 3:45. Okay. Gotta get that math back to being easy. Okay, so it's 3:45. We have impending doom of thunderstorms if they haven't already arrived. What's uh what's going on? What are we hitting next?

Alicea:

We are going to the Twilight Zone.

Nathan:

Okay. I'm gonna need some food. Can you please tell your wheel of spinny choiceness that I'm gonna do?

Alicea:

Are you gonna do food first? I only I only put food in there twice, so.

Nathan:

You don't really like us, do you?

Alicea:

Am I just I'm just gonna do food then. How's that? We're doing food. All right, and then we'll do Twilight Zone. Are you sure? You want to do food before Twilight Zone?

Nathan:

Hey, fine, we'll go do Twilight Zone.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

All right, it's gonna take us. Maybe we'll grab a snack on the way over from we'll sneak a snack. Don't sneak a snack. Don't tell the game that we snuck a snack and a drink. But, dear reader, we snuck a snack and a drink in here.

Alicea:

Snuck a snack.

Nathan:

Yeah, so Twilight Zone Tower of Terrors are 45. We'll call it it's 44. I'll call it 45 minute wait. Uh 15 minutes to get there. So we get there at four. We 45 minutes actually isn't that bad.

Alicea:

No. And I'd say done at five.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Alicea:

The ride's not fifteen minutes, but Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Nathan:

All right.

Alicea:

All right. Food. Are we still doing food or no?

Nathan:

We need food. I need it. It's been the last thing that we had was a sit-down meal, according to your little game, was at Oga's at 10:45.

Alicea:

Okay, fine. Well, very, very happy. Okay.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Baseline tap house. Yes.

Nathan:

This game is the best. Don't ever say, don't ever listen to me if I say this is the worst idea ever. This is the best game. Baseline is perfect. It's exactly where I'd want to go.

Alicea:

All right. So 15 minutes to get over there.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Alicea:

So 5:15. How long are we staying there?

Nathan:

Oh, here's the problem. It's probably raining. There's not a lot of places to eat inside.

Alicea:

No, rain's done by then.

Nathan:

Oh, perfect.

Alicea:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Thank you, Miss Marble. Um I uh 15 minutes to get over there. How long are we taking we're we're gonna sit for a half hour and just have a drink or two.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

And have some food.

Alicea:

Okay.

Nathan:

Charcuterie board and a pretzel.

Alicea:

Yeah.

Nathan:

Yeah.

Alicea:

So that's done at 5:45. Yeah. Next is Alien Swirling Saucers.

Nathan:

Okay. I can get down with that.

Alicea:

It's always fun.

Nathan:

Yeah, absolutely. Uh what is our wait time? 37 minutes. 37 minutes. It's not too bad. It's not too great, but it's not too bad. Yeah. It's a fun little ride. Yeah. Alright. So it it's gonna take us a little bit to get over there. Not too much. So figure. Well, we're going slow. There's crowds. Keep it even. Get there at there at uh six. Get there at six.

Alicea:

Yeah.

Nathan:

I'm gonna do easy math 35. Pat it with 10. Maybe we had to stop and get a restroom break. Just call it uh six to six forty-five. Okay. 37-minute wait in there. Flexing a little time. I don't want to do hard math.

Alicea:

Makes it easier for us. Yeah, exactly. Next is uh Rock and Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. For now. Well, yeah, this is this was earlier this summer.

Nathan:

Oh, very true. Okay. All right. Okay. So we're walking to the other side of the park.

Alicea:

Yeah, we're just going back and forth. Most of it's, I mean, like 15 minutes for all this stuff.

Nathan:

So I'd say to to another 15-minute walk over there. Yeah. And then it is an hour wait. So we ride it at 8.

Alicea:

And it is a one-minute ride. Yeah.

Nathan:

Well, hey, hey, hey. It's like it's like 70 seconds. Um, I don't know how long it is. It's not, it's not that long. It's fun though. Yeah. It's totally fun. Uh, okay. All right. So we're we're basically done. Can we just call it eight and keep things even? Yeah. All right. So we're done at eight. Uh we're getting close to park close time, aren't we?

Alicea:

Park closes at nine, yeah.

Nathan:

We've probably got time for one more thing to do.

Alicea:

Let's see what we got. Yeah, because we can get in line at least one more.

Nathan:

Okay.

Alicea:

Oh, okay. Well, we're gonna sit down and watch Vacation Fun, an original animated short with Mickey and Minnie.

Nathan:

What is going through our brains? Why would we make this choice? Okay. Okay, sure. We're just gonna call this a walk on, although we have to walk over there. Uh it's a 10-minute thingy-dingy.

Alicea:

That's just that's just because it has to, yeah, it goes through.

Nathan:

Yeah, it's a 10-minute wait. It's basically a walk-on. Uh we're coming from the corner of the park over towards the middle-ish, a little past.

Alicea:

I think 10 minutes to get there. So like 8:10 to 8:20.

unknown:

Okay.

Nathan:

Fair enough. 8:20. Technically, we've got something else. Let's roll that wheel.

Alicea:

Show. We're gonna go do Fantasmic.

Nathan:

Uh okay. Um, we're gonna assume the thunderstorms have pushed through. Yep. Okay. Sounds sounds good. Question mark.

Alicea:

Because after vacation fun, we'd have to go wait in line for Fantasmic anyway.

unknown:

Very true.

Nathan:

All right. Closing the show, this the day with Fantasmic and Mickey shooting fireworks from his fingers. I like it. Do do do do do do do do do do do do dokay. I disagree with several decisions that we've made as part of.

Alicea:

We didn’t make this decision. This was the wheel. It told us what to do. I would not go in this order.

Nathan:

Do we have to have this discussion again about don't always trust technology, Alicia?

Alicea:

The name of the show is roulette.

Nathan:

Oh the name of the show. Look, you now we're gonna stick to it. All right.

Alicea:

Not a horrible day, though. Look at all the stuff we hit.

Nathan:

Yes, look at all of the things that I would have skipped.

Alicea:

We got to see the villain show.

Nathan:

We did. I I would not have gone to go see vacation fun.

Alicea:

No, I I don't know that I'd go to see the characters either, but that's okay.

Nathan:

I wouldn't go to Oga's at 10 :45 in the morning. Um agreed.

Alicea:

I also wouldn't have showed up late if the park is closing at nine. So Right.

Nathan:

Yeah. We kind of yeah.

Alicea:

Well There you have it.

Nathan:

Well, folks, there is our disappointing day at Hollywood Studios. Let this be a lesson to you of what not to do.

Alicea:

And now a word from our offspring.

Sterling:

Remember, we are not affiliated with Disney or their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences. We recommend working with the travel agent or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation. If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your Disney experience, please send an email to podcast at our mousecapades.com. Follow us. On social at our maskades. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and YouTube. Please give us a rating and review in your podcast app. It really helps people find us. And of course, don't hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages. Thanks for listening. We'll be in your ears next week.

Nathan:

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye!

Sterling:

Remember, we are not affiliated with Disney or there's subsidiaries. Subsidiaries.

Alicea:

Go for it.

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Alicea Novak

Host
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Nathan Novak

Host