Hollywood Studios a half-day park? I have to disagree.

[LizzyS]

Honestly, we did HS last because I saw so many comments people made about it being a "half-day park" or that it was their least favorite, but surprise of surprises, we really liked it and were there from about 9:30-5:30 last Friday! This day was towards the end of our trip and it was the day we waited the longest for a bus from POR to a park, so we were there a little later than normal for us.

My husband loved the music they piped out around the park, we loved the old Hollywood theme, and we really liked the Star Wars stage show and stormtrooper march that they put on at the half hour and hour, too. We watched the Indiana Jones stunt show, which was great, ate a late lunch at Sci-Fi (the stuff they show on the movie screen is so entertaining!), which was awesome, and watched the kids on the Jedi training stage a couple of times, which was totally fun.

We FP'd Toy Story Mania (one of my husband's faves), Tower of Terror, and Star Tours (didn't really need it for this one, but used it anyway).

This park is going to be upgraded to awesome when Toy Story Land and Galaxy's Edge open, obviously, but we really like it already and I can't imagine skipping it when I'm at WDW, tbh. I did enjoy peeking at Galaxy's Edge as they are building it after seeing the model of the land.

Anybody else love HS?

 

[Robo]

I have never considered any of the parks to be "half-day."
Those who do, obviously don't partake of all each park has to offer.
(They don't HAVE to, of course, but there's no way to "do it all"
if you only spend a half day at X park.)

Every trip for years, we spend multiple days (or at least parts of multiple days) at each theme park.

 

[LizzyS]

I have never considered any of the parks to be "half-day."
Those who do, obviously don't partake of all each park has to offer.
(They don't HAVE to, of course, but there's no way to "do it all"
if you only spend a half day at X park.)

Every trip for years, we spend multiple days (or at least parks of multiple days) at each theme park.

I agree! I didn't really take that "half-day" talk too seriously, but it seemed to be the least favored, so I think my expectations were lower and, therefore, I was pleasantly surprised!

 

[Tksolomom]

I think a lot of the reason that people think HS is a half day park is because they are only doing rides. A lot of people who aren’t first timers and have seen the shows, don’t want to see them again. I really like HS, and for me it is a full day park as well.

 

[georgina]

All a matter of preference. I have been enough times that I am no longer interested in the Indiana Jones show, but I always catch the Little Mermaid and sometimes Beauty and the Beast. I love TSMM and ToT, will ride RockN Roller Coaster sometimes and Star Tours every trip. Fantasmic and the evening Star Wars fireworks I wouldn't do every trip now, and I sometimes skip the muppets too. I do love the atmosphere in the evening with all the neon, so I usually go once first thing in the morning and another time at night.

 

[rg35]

Agree - we spent all day there in July (incl TS lunch and dinner) - from Rope Drop to Fantasmic. We rode Star Tours a bunch of times, rode TSMM multiple times, spent a bunch of time in the Star Wars launch Bay. The day is really as much as you want to make of it.

I have also seen people refer to Animal Kingdom as a half day park, but there is so much to do there I have no idea how (unless they're completely uninterested in things like walking trails and so forth).

 

[Mom2Stitch]

We always spend a full day there arriving at RD, breaking for lunch, and then back for Fantasmic which is one of our favorite shows. If we just went for rides it would be over with by 11 since there are only 4 rides going and we don't do ToT. We will be missing out on TSM in May I think since there will be no FPs for it then. Still we like to see the SW show, Indy, BatB, Frozen sing along (so I can torture my family ), and we have to hug Chewie and tell Kylo No we aren't joining him, and see all of the stuff at Launch Bay again. By the time we time it all out, it definitely fills out a day.

 

[SaintsManiac]

HS has the best vibe of all the parks, in my opinion. I simply love it.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

I have never considered any of the parks to be "half-day."
Those who do, obviously don't partake of all each park has to offer.
(They don't HAVE to, of course, but there's no way to "do it all"
if you only spend a half day at X park.)

Every trip for years, we spend multiple days (or at least parts of multiple days) at each theme park.

This is true of any park, other than maybe MK, depending on what type of rides/attractions you like. There are a lot of shows at MGM, but as a PP pointed out, many regulars like myself don't want to watch the same shows over and over every time, so that limits the choices. Even more so as I'm not a big thrill/music buff, so I have no interest in RNRC and have so far been too scared to try TOT (may try it someday). I would say the worst park for me is Animal Kingdom. With FastPasses, I could do everything I like (FoP, Safari, KRR, EE, and Bug) save for Na'vi River (I will not do the current wait times and will pick FOP over NRJ every time its available, so I usually skip it) by lunch time.

Once they open TSL and especially SWGE, I think the "Half Day" talk will disappear for the most part.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

HS has the best vibe of all the parks, in my opinion. I simply love it.

MGM was my favorite as a kid - BLT, GMR, HISTK Playground, and Star Tours plus the various "How a Movie is Made" stuff. Interestingly, I didn't care for the Muppets show at the time (my parents always dragged us to it), but found it entertaining when I went again as an adult.

 

[rpb718]

At the moment it's still a half-day park for us. For example, we use hoppers and on our next trip I have it down for about 3 half-days.

 

[LizzyS]

Agree - we spent all day there in July (incl TS lunch and dinner) - from Rope Drop to Fantasmic. We rode Star Tours a bunch of times, rode TSMM multiple times, spent a bunch of time in the Star Wars launch Bay. The day is really as much as you want to make of it.

I have also seen people refer to Animal Kingdom as a half day park, but there is so much to do there I have no idea how (unless they're completely uninterested in things like walking trails and so forth).

We also loved Animal Kingdom! In fact, my husband said it was his favorite park!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We also love HS and spent almost two full days there. I love the shows, watching the actors play it up on the streets and my kids could ride RnRc, ToT and TSM 100 times each. We aren’t even Star Wars fans but we spend a lot of time there.

 

[LizzyS]

As someone who goes to DLR approximately yearly, I couldn't believe that Star Tours had a 10 minute wait at 5pm, lol.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My family has really grown to love HS!

We had kind of a rough experience there on our first big family trip when DS was 5. - He got lost in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground. That anxious memory (combined with the fact that he'd been too small for the headliners, so didn't get a chance to fall in love with them) meant that on the next few trips, if something had to be skipped or cut short, it was always HS we felt least drawn to.

But the last couple of times when we've done it as a half-day, we've all left wanting more. DS made me promise we'd do a full day there next time!

 

[teachmedis]

Hollywood Studios is my dh's favorite park. It's the only park on our upcoming trip that we've planned no break for...he's been more than me so I haven't seen many shows. We're doing one whole day, all shows and meet and greets. I'm over the moon excited for it. Once Toy Story and Galaxy's Edge is added, Hollywood Studios will require as much time as Magic Kingdom for us.

 

[bwang123]

At the moment it's still a half-day park for us. For example, we use hoppers and on our next trip I have it down for about 3 half-days.

Same here... Magic Kingdom is only an hour park for us. We go for about 12 of them each visit.

 

[shocker]

At the moment it's still a half-day park for us. For example, we use hoppers and on our next trip I have it down for about 3 half-days.

So really, it's a 1.5 day park for you. In order for you to get the amount of entertainment you want out of this park you've scheduled this much time. When others post its a half day park they mean .5 and done, don't need anything else.

 

[shocker]

DHS was my fav with the drawing class (now gone), did multiple times a day. My DD did Idol. Loved when Who Wants to be a Millionaire was there. Enjoyed LMA show. DS fav ride in all of WDW was GMR. ToT is a fav. F! is our fav night time spectacular. Was never a 1/2 day for us and its been billed as such since it opened. I remember having to shuffle the schedule to go back & finish everything we wanted to try. Now I know better. We'll see if this summer changes our mind.

 

[mshanson3121]

Honestly, we did HS last because I saw so many comments people made about it being a "half-day park" or that it was their least favorite, but surprise of surprises, we really liked it and were there from about 9:30-5:30 last Friday! This day was towards the end of our trip and it was the day we waited the longest for a bus from POR to a park, so we were there a little later than normal for us.

My husband loved the music they piped out around the park, we loved the old Hollywood theme, and we really liked the Star Wars stage show and stormtrooper march that they put on at the half hour and hour, too. We watched the Indiana Jones stunt show, which was great, ate a late lunch at Sci-Fi (the stuff they show on the movie screen is so entertaining!), which was awesome, and watched the kids on the Jedi training stage a couple of times, which was totally fun.

We FP'd Toy Story Mania (one of my husband's faves), Tower of Terror, and Star Tours (didn't really need it for this one, but used it anyway).

This park is going to be upgraded to awesome when Toy Story Land and Galaxy's Edge open, obviously, but we really like it already and I can't imagine skipping it when I'm at WDW, tbh. I did enjoy peeking at Galaxy's Edge as they are building it after seeing the model of the land.

Anybody else love HS?

So nice to hear for a change! Definitely not a half day for us, either!