Best Strategy for Hollywood Studios?

[21stamps]

Park opens at 9am and closes at 7pm.
We will have JTA in there and I booked the dessert party at 5:45 for Jingle Bells Jingle Bam.

Which means the only park time we have is 9am-5:30 minus the JTA stuff. I just cancelled our lunch reservation at 50s Prime Time, I think it will take too much time out of our day.

What time should we arrive at the park?
Should we avoid any certain times at Backlot Express? (I'm thinking we'll just eat lunch there)
Any other QS locations that people recommend for dinner?

I'm nervous that this is too short of a day, and have no clue how to fit everything in. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[21stamps]

Attempting to bump this and get some advice...lol

 

[Weather_Lady]

Park opens at 9am and closes at 7pm.
Double-check so you can be aware of whether there are any EMH for resort guests (or "Early Morning Magic," the cash-grab breakfast event) that might affect the crowd levels at the time you enter the park.

What time should we arrive at the park?
You should be there at least 30 minutes prior to park opening, unless there are EMH and you are a resort guest - then, be at the gates at least 30 minutes before that starts. If you want to be absolutely assured of getting to sign up for JTA, either make a pre-opening breakfast ADR at Hollywood and Vine, or arrive 60 minutes early so you'll be first in line at the tapstiles.

Should we avoid any certain times at Backlot Express? (I'm thinking we'll just eat lunch there)
Any other QS locations that people recommend for dinner?
The peak of lunchtime is from about 12pm -1:30pm. Arriving even shortly before or after that timeframe (e.g., 11:45am) will get you a shorter wait, although in our experience, the CMs do a good job of keeping things moving even at peak times. I can't really recommend any of the HS counter service places, although I'm hoping PizzeRizzo will garner good reviews once it opens. We've always had bad luck with weather at HS (blazing hot or pouring rain), so the indoor venues (Backlot Express and ABC Commissary) have been where we've gone. The food was "just okay" but adequate.

I'm nervous that this is too short of a day, and have no clue how to fit everything in. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

[OOPS - my answers to your initial questions got embedded in your post. Please expand it, above, to see them...]

There's no need to be nervous. Depending on how many shows you want to see and/or characters you want to greet, I think you can do most of HS in half of a day even with a 45-60 minute lunch, and still have a couple of hours left over for JTA. Here's my advice:

1 - If you have any choice in the matter, choose a mid-afternoon JTA time (e.g., no earlier than 2pm), so you can have your morning free.
2 - Make 9am/10am/11am FP+ for: (1) your choice of RnR and TSMM; plus (2) your choice of any 2 of Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Frozen or Indy (edited to delete an incorrect reference to GMR as a Tier 2 attraction, per @amjt660).
3 - At rope drop, head straight to JTA sign-ups (if you didn't have a breakfast ADR and couldn't be in the line already), and then head to the Tier 1 attraction for which you do NOT have a FP+, followed by Tier 2 attractions that are in the neighborhood and/or for which you don't have a FP+. If any line is more than 20 minutes in length, skip that attraction and attempt to get a 4th FP+ for it after you've used your first three.
4 - Fill in with shows as desired. Choose just one ahead of time that you all consider your "must do," and do additional ones if there is time.

As an example, my family's HS touring plan looks like this (estimated wait times are based on an estimated crowd level of "6 out of 10" by touringplans.com's reckoning, on a Saturday that has Extra Morning Magic (meaning there will already be guests in the park when we get there). We're not doing JTA so obviously that allows us to do a headliner at rope drop and not worry about coming back to do a show later, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how much you can get done in HS in just 4-5 hours of touring, if you time things right and use FP+:

Hollywood Studios - 9am - 2:15pm, on Saturday, November 19 ($EMM day)
1) 9:00am-9:30am: Rock 'n Rollercoaster. (Non-interested party members: TSMM).
2) 9:30am-10:00am: Tower of Terror (with 9am FP+). (Non-interested party members: 9:30am Little Mermaid show or 9:40am Disney, Jr!).
3) 10:00am-10:15am: Rendezvous in Pixar Place. Toy Story Midway Mania (with 10am FP+).
4) 10:15am -10:50am: Great Movie Ride.
[10-minute restroom/snack break]
5) 11:00am - 11:10am: Star Tours (with a [largely unnecessary] 11am FP+).
6) 11:10am-11:30am: MuppetVision3D.
[OPTIONS afterwards (will depend on group preferences at the time)]:
7A) 11:30am-1:30pm: 12pm Indiana Jones / LUNCH BREAK at PizzeRizzo, if open
7B) 11:30am-1:30pm: LUNCH BREAK / 1pm Beauty & the Beast
7C) 11:30am-1:00pm: LUNCH BREAK / 12:30pm Frozen Singalong
8) 1:00pm-1:45pm or 1:30pm-2:15pm: Star Wars Launch Bay (Non-interested party members: One Man's Dream, shopping).

 

[amjt660]

One clarification is that GMR is also in Tier 1 not Tier 2

 

[Weather_Lady]

One clarification is that GMR is also in Tier 1 not Tier 2

My goodness, so it is! (Sorry - our last visit was in May 2014, before GMR was added to Tier 1, so I didn't know about that, but I should have checked...)

 

[21stamps]

[OOPS - my answers to your initial questions got embedded in your post. Please expand it, above, to see them...]

There's no need to be nervous. Depending on how many shows you want to see and/or characters you want to greet, I think you can do most of HS in half of a day even with a 45-60 minute lunch, and still have a couple of hours left over for JTA. Here's my advice:

1 - If you have any choice in the matter, choose a mid-afternoon JTA time (e.g., no earlier than 2pm), so you can have your morning free.
2 - Make 9am/10am/11am FP+ for: (1) your choice of RnR and TSMM; plus (2) your choice of any 2 of Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Frozen or Indy (edited to delete an incorrect reference to GMR as a Tier 2 attraction, per @amjt660).
3 - At rope drop, head straight to JTA sign-ups (if you didn't have a breakfast ADR and couldn't be in the line already), and then head to the Tier 1 attraction for which you do NOT have a FP+, followed by Tier 2 attractions that are in the neighborhood and/or for which you don't have a FP+. If any line is more than 20 minutes in length, skip that attraction and attempt to get a 4th FP+ for it after you've used your first three.
4 - Fill in with shows as desired. Choose just one ahead of time that you all consider your "must do," and do additional ones if there is time.

As an example, my family's HS touring plan looks like this (estimated wait times are based on an estimated crowd level of "6 out of 10" by touringplans.com's reckoning, on a Saturday that has Extra Morning Magic (meaning there will already be guests in the park when we get there). We're not doing JTA so obviously that allows us to do a headliner at rope drop and not worry about coming back to do a show later, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how much you can get done in HS in just 4-5 hours of touring, if you time things right and use FP+:

Hollywood Studios - 9am - 2:15pm, on Saturday, November 19 ($EMM day)
1) 9:00am-9:30am: Rock 'n Rollercoaster. (Non-interested party members: TSMM).
2) 9:30am-10:00am: Tower of Terror (with 9am FP+). (Non-interested party members: 9:30am Little Mermaid show or 9:40am Disney, Jr!).
3) 10:00am-10:15am: Rendezvous in Pixar Place. Toy Story Midway Mania (with 10am FP+).
4) 10:15am -10:50am: Great Movie Ride.
[10-minute restroom/snack break]
5) 11:00am - 11:10am: Star Tours (with a [largely unnecessary] 11am FP+).
6) 11:10am-11:30am: MuppetVision3D.
[OPTIONS afterwards (will depend on group preferences at the time)]:
7A) 11:30am-1:30pm: 12pm Indiana Jones / LUNCH BREAK at PizzeRizzo, if open
7B) 11:30am-1:30pm: LUNCH BREAK / 1pm Beauty & the Beast
7C) 11:30am-1:00pm: LUNCH BREAK / 12:30pm Frozen Singalong
8) 1:00pm-1:45pm or 1:30pm-2:15pm: Star Wars Launch Bay (Non-interested party members: One Man's Dream, shopping).

Thank you so much for this! I know that kiddo will want to ride Rock 'n Rollercoaster more than once (48" this year!!!) and we did Star Tours twice last time and ToT about 6 times I think (while everyone else was heading to Fantasmic).

I guess a lot is going to depend on how long we wait in line for JTA sign ups, and how long the show itself takes. I'm debating going back for Club Villian so maybe we could do a few more then...have no idea if this will actually fit in our plans though.