2018: A Bad Year to Visit?

[ucfknight]

HS is a bit under construction

Understatement of the century! In 4 weeks there will be a total of 4 rides open in the whole park.

 

[monorailsilver]

We haven't been since 2013 and I am planning for August 2018. It would be fabulous if people decided to hold off a year for my sake, lol!

Looking at your list of vacations in your signature block, looks like to haven't been since Summer 2011. There are several new things to see since that time even if you are waiting for Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land to complete. The list includes, but not limited to:

• New Fantasyland (ex: Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride)
• New Soarin'
• Frozen Ever After
• Happily Ever After fireworks
• Pandora
• Nighttime Animal Kingdom (Rivers of Light show, safari at night, etc.)

Also, the new lands for Hollywood Studios are at least a year away and the first year will be brutal since everyone is going to make this their first priority. If this is a "one and done" type of vacation, I would probably postpone until 2021-2022 during the 50th anniversary since Epcot is getting a lot of attractions as mentioned in D23 today. However, one thing is that WDW will always be changing with new attractions to keep up with neighboring theme parks. For me, a trip every 2-3 years keeps me interested and new attractions pop up to make it feel like I am never getting bored with WDW. Since 2011 was your last trip, I would try to go either later this year or next year and schedule another trip during the 50th anniversary.

When we last went they were building the mine train so I am excited to go on it! And soarin too!

I am not a frozen fan but I will still go on it, assuming I get a FP or don't have a long wait. I have seen the happily ever after fireworks on live stream, they are OK, maybe better in person?

My older 2 kids told me we can skip pandora. I don't like pandora so that sounds good to me! And AK is my least favorite park so ROL doesn't interest me in going back there at night.

Oh and toy story land, I hope it is open when we go and I could care less about Star Wars, that ship sailed in 1983!

 

[Princess_Kirky]

Understatement of the century! In 4 weeks there will be a total of 4 rides open in the whole park.

It was my MN Nice way of saying it.

 

[PK Disney Dork]

We are AP holders and visit multiple times a year. We understand all the construction that will be going on over the next five years, but honestly we love watching the progress.

 

[Mopedmom1]

My older 2 kids told me we can skip pandora. I don't like pandora so that sounds good to me! And AK is my least favorite park so ROL doesn't interest me in going back there at night.

If your kids like thrill rides they may regret that decision. Flight of Passage is a MUST do! Na'vi River, not so much. The Land is very pretty at night, even if you don't care for Avatar.

 

[Carl4628]

Only going to the Christmas party this year and are waiting until the rest of the construction is complete before we stay another week on property. Happiest construction site on earth...

 

[monorailsilver]

If your kids like thrill rides they may regret that decision. Flight of Passage is a MUST do! Na'vi River, not so much. The Land is very pretty at night, even if you don't care for Avatar.

They don't like Avatar, I don't like avatar, my husband is a hit or miss.

My oldest isn't a huge thrill ride person, my middle is more of one and he is the one that said we can skip it and my youngest doesn't care. They have been watching YouTube videos. I can't ride it as I would be motion sick and the same with my DH. I did body Wars and star tours once, figuring I would try each and I kept telling my self find the dot, stare at it, don't move, keep focused on that dot.'

I really dislike AK (I know gasp...), we skipped it when we took my youngest on her first trip because we really only wanted to do the safari and eat at pizzafari and that wasn't worth the bus ride. It just not a must do park for me. Heck I am good with skipping all of AK but my oldest, the non thrill ride kid wants to go on Everest again-which makes me a little motion sick on the backwards part. Give me Its a small world and I am happy! So half morning at AK and give me Epcot or the MK at night and I am happy Happy happy! Well as long as Iluminations doesn't go bye bye, then I will be so sad.

Heck I have no interest in going to Star Wars land either, I know crazy!

Thanks for your input though. I used to be more of a thrill ride person but as I aged and stopped going on them, my body can only take so much.

 

[wonderstruck88]

I had this thought too - we're planning our first trip with the kids next year and I'm a bit bummed that so many things will be closed with the new ride yet to open. But then I remind myself that it's their first trip! They won't know any differently, and they'll still have a great time at Hollywood Studios since Disney Junior, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story are some of their favorite things. I'm just going to cross my fingers that maybe we'll be lucky enough to hit soft openings for Toy Story Land (we're visiting like a week before Memorial Day) and think about how great it will be that the youngest should be tall enough for everything when all the new stuff does open, since at the moment I'm not sure he'll be at the 40" mark by next May.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Our next planned trip to WDW is in 2022 to see everything that is now on the cards open. Mind you we have a fair distance to come (Australia) and try to time it so that it has maximum impact.

If we were closer we'd go a lot more often, construction or not, so I say, go for it and have a great time!

PS: will get a bit of Disney magic this October with a day @ DLR on a fast west coast trip to see your fabulous parks... National & Theme LOL!!!

 

[mindeola]

There is no bad time to visit! HS is not nearly as bad as some make it out to be. It is still an all day park for us. Plus, like others have said, you'll have TS Land in summer next year.

Pandora has opened since you were last there.

 

[tlmadden73]

Even though there will be consturction, because of it, there is going to be new stuff every year for a while .. and frankly there has been new stuff every year for the last few.

I've been going every 18 months or so since 2014 and every time there was always something new:

2014 - The Frozen Sing-Along show, New FantasyLand. A lot of construction at AK.
2015 - Experienced more of new fantasyland that we missed last time. A lot closed at DHS and Disney Springs.
2017 - Star Wars Launch Bay, new Soaring (and we just missed Pandora/River of Lights by a few months).

Yes . .there was a lot of construction going on every time, but we still had a good time every time. The construction at DHS is pretty much hidden away in the background, so all that has done is "shrunk" the size of the park. Though it is limited on attractions. If you go in late 2018, you'll have Toy Story Land to check out.

I hope to go back in 2018 for Toy Story land. 2019 for Star Wars Land .. 2020-2021 for Tron and the other new things they announced.

 

[AngieInOH]

I'd have to agree with most of the others. GO!!! It doesn't sound like you have any plans on stopping your routine trips of every couple of years. No reason to stop them now!

Seeing all of these announcements of new things has me second guessing my planned trip in Jan 2019 (because I want to see all of the new stuff)..... but it will be my last trip with my girls being a "child" in Disney's eyes and we love getting the Dining Plan (huge price difference). I'm just hopeful we'll get to do another trip down the road.

 

[kay1864]

Understatement of the century! In 4 weeks there will be a total of 4 rides open in the whole park.

That's a bit of an unfair criticism. Since its opening there have been only 5 "rides" (Backlot wasn't exactly a "ride" in the usual sense). DHS has always been a "rides and shows and exhibits" park. The only one closing in 4 weeks is GMR.

Indy, Beauty, Fantasmic, etc are still open. LMA is a definite loss, but Streets and Shrunk the Kids won't be missed since Toy Story (with rides!) will be replacing them.