The two new shows at Hollywood Studios debuted today! In this post, we offer some brief analysis about how these impact your day at Hollywood Studios.

Update: Scheduling Changes to Little Mermaid

Sometimes I feel like I’m too cautious in my touring advice. I honestly felt silly saying “let’s wait and see” in the next section. Unfortunately, it turned out I was right, as there’s already been a small change to the scheduling of the new Little Mermaid show. Specifically, it has switched to discontinuous operational hours, with three one-hour breaks in operations throughout the day.

How Does Hollywood Studios Touring Change on May 27?

As always, we start with a “launch day” caveat…

Sorry, We Still Have to Wait and See

Okay, the first thing to know about these two new shows is that you don’t need to throw out the entire Hollywood Studios playbook. If I were heading to the park today or tomorrow, my strategy would simply be my existing, time-tested strategy plus “try and get to the new shows when I can…probably later in the day…”.

I didn’t want to bury the lede and make this seem like a bigger problem than it is. With that said, we can still talk about the details of this change to the park, starting with the fact that any time something new debuts, it takes a few days (or weeks) for crowd patterns to settle.

I think the debut of these two new shows at Hollywood Studios, while not seismic in terms of their overall impact on the park, might still see some significant shifts for two reasons.

First, I don’t think the new Little Mermaid show will be super popular in the long run (the old one wasn’t, and this isn’t that big an upgrade). But people will always flock to the hot new thing when it first debuts.

Second, I think the situation around Unfairly Ever After is…challenging. People have been clamoring for villain content for years and now Disney has gone and given it to them in one of the smallest indoor spaces in the parks. I’m not criticizing the decision (above my pay grade), but I do think it means we’ll have a little more uncertainty in the initial days than we might otherwise have.

With shows every 30 minutes for much of the day, figuring out the “perfect” time to watch the show is going to be a real challenge. And as more people figure it out, crowd patterns will shift around. I discuss my strategy heading into the summer below, but if this is a “must see” you’re going to want to be flexible.

Unfairly Ever After Showtimes and Touring

If you check out the showtimes for Unfairly Ever After, you’ll see about 15 shows per day, with shows in the afternoon being only 30 minutes apart. In hindsight, this is unsurprising.

The most awkward thing about this show was that it was taking over a small space and going to face a lot of demand. Disney handled this by making the show somewhat short—15 minutes.

Of course, we’ll still have to see what demand looks like. You might need to wait 30+ minutes for this one, which, altogether, isn’t the worst. It means committing a full hour to the show, but if you know you’ll be able to get there, wait, and be done with the show in 60 minutes, the scheduling is at least straightforward (as opposed to getting to a show, getting turned away, and the next showtime being over an hour away).

But more shows is always easier to strategize than fewer shows. The bottom line is you can try to get to this one early. If that doesn’t work, just try again 1, 2,…or 14 times. The location isn’t optimal for having to run back and forth, but even if you only want to take one trip down Sunset Boulevard, you could check the line for the show before and between visiting Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage.

The Little Mermaid Showtimes and Touring

Unlike Unfairly Ever After, The Little Mermaid will just run “continuously” from about 9AM to 7PM, but like Unfairly Ever after the show is 18 minutes long (I’m not sure the logistics that determine whether a show is scheduled continuously or every 30 minutes).

As noted later in the post, I personally won’t prioritize this show, but I have read good reviews. If the timing worked out so that I could walk into a show or wait 15 minutes for it, then sure, I’d see it. But I’d prioritize the other four major shows in the park ahead of it.

The Little Mermaid — A Musical Adventure is expected to join Lighting Lane Multi Pass at some point, though it seems not to be available as of the debut. Generally, Lightning Lanes for shows should not be a priority. I wouldn’t focus on grabbing this one, but once you’ve gotten through a handful of rides you might opt to give a slot to it.

Bigger Picture

Hollywood Studios is already a fairly challenging park to tour in a single day. It’s got a relatively small ride lineup that’s heavy on popular rides—this means you’ve got probably four rides where you’ll either have long waits or just accept whatever Lightning Lane time you can get.

This isn’t a huge problem in itself—fitting nine rides into 12+ hours is usually possible. The challenge comes when you’re also forced to fit these rides around show schedules. Starting today, there arefive top-notch shows at the park:

Unfairly Ever After (New)
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure (New)
Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Frozen Sing-Along

Some only have five total showtimes.

Again, this sounds simple enough—if every show has at least five showtimes and there are five shows, you should be able to find amenable show times. But the problem is there’s a chance you’ll continually find yourself with blocks of 30 to 60 minutes to fill between shows.

Without Lightning Lanes, 30 minutes won’t be enough to get a ride in. Even with Lightning Lanes, a 30-minute block isn’t usually going to work out well because you still have to walk to a ride, wait in a Lightning Lane (frequently for 10 minutes), spend time on the ride, and then walk to your next show. 60 minutes is better, if you’re lucky enough to have the Lightning Lane timed just right.

The poor, unfortunate bottom line here is that spending money on Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios will be more important than ever (how villainous of Disney!). This isn’t because you need Lightning Lanes for the shows (you might, and we don’t yet know whether these new shows will have Lightning Lanes), but rather because building your schedule around the shows requires short waits for the rides. And you’ll still need some luck or thoughtful scheduling to get your Lightning Lane times to lineup with the shows.

The alternative is simply to plan not to see all the shows. I think this is totally reasonable, frankly. I think Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After will be “must-see”, and with its small space it will probably be the toughest to get into. (Update: As noted above, with so many showtimes, it at least won’t be impossible to get into this one.)

I’m also a big fan of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and the Frozen Sing Along (more fun for adults than you’d expect). But I’ll personally probably put The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage pretty low on my list most days. Ideally I’ll fit them in, but this is going to be a park where prioritizing is necessary.

Pre-Debut Content Begins Here

The remainder of this post is from before the shows debuted. Since you can now find video of the shows on YouTube, you won’t need my speculation about them anymore.

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure debuts May 27

New at Hollywood Studios beginning May 27 will be The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. This show replaces to old Voyage of the Little Mermaid show, which never reopened after the 2020 closure.

Here’s a quick snippet of how Disney describes the show, followed by some concept art and discussion:

Nestled in Animation Courtyard, Ariel, Flounder, Sebastian, Prince Eric, and more will take to the stage to retell the classic story of The Little Mermaid. This fully reimagined show will feature stunning set pieces, imaginative costumes, cutting-edge effects, skillful puppetry, and a bold new design aesthetic that captures Ariel’s imagination and emotions through her unique view of the world around her. Source.

Despite the description, I think you can see from the concept art that the big-picture structure of the show remains largely unchanged. It’s a dark theater that uses bright puppetry to tell the Little Mermaid story.

As we’ll discuss later, Hollywood Studios gets a bit tougher to tour with two new shows. I’m not bothered by this particular one playing it a little safe—keeping the old IP and overall design while giving it what looks and sounds to be a glistening polish.

Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After debuts May 27

And also on May 27, the brand new Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After show will debut. This show takes over the space formerly occupied by Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, back behind Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Again, here’s a quick snippet from Disney and discussion of some concept art…

They’ve broken through the Magic Mirror’s glass — now what? This immersive musical stage show brings the most devilish foes into our world to figure out, once and for all, who is the most misunderstood. Who has had the worst time as a villain? It’s time for these baddies to share their side of the story in a show full of theatrical magic, witty humor, and plenty of mischievous charm.
But in the end, it’s you who decides who has been treated the most unfairly. But…choose wisely. You never know who might have a poisoned apple up their sleeve. Source.

Two things capture my eyes in this concept art. First, you’ve got all the audience heads. This reminds me of how small the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy theater was—there are more people in that art than were ever in that theater. It’ll be interesting to see what this show’s capacity winds up being and how Disney manages what will likely be very high demand.

Second, the portraits on the top and sides of the frame catch my eye. Racing Academy had a huge wraparound screen. It looks from the edges of this image that the screen will remain in some form. It might even still exist behind the stage, too. This is overall a bit surprising because of—again—the size of the theater. It really feels like they’d need to demolish those screen in order to fit a reasonable number of people in here.

I’m interested to see how this potential mix of stage and screen plays out. It could work out magnificently. It could look really awkward and forced. Or I could be wrong, because my interpretation of concept art is just that, and maybe the screens are just gone, which makes more sense in terms of using the space.

Which show are you most excited about come May 27?

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.

When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!

Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.

Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.