Hollywood Studios help...

[slbgnb]

Based on the wisdom of all the blogs/boards etc....Tour Guide Mike back in the day, Kenny, Josh....I've been doing RD for years.

Heading down in Sept (3-11) and have the same plan for this trip as well. Just read Josh's Hollywood Studios report and he's now saying for that park, it's better to go late in the day and avoid the mad rush that is now RD....

Any one have thoughts on this?? Thanks!

 

[redsbe]

With closure of sections and attractions, DHS has less to offer currently so we planned mid morning FP+ for the 3 big attractions and looking not to RD and use that day as a break from our usual early morning open the park at RD routine. Also very possible we will head back to resort for afternoon break and return in evening. Nice to have a break from early mornings/late nights as we tend to open and close the other parks during a WDW visit.

 

[lucky978]

I agree with previous poster - if you can get FP for the attractions you must see in the afternoon - then no need to be at rope drop.

 

[cassie58]

We always try to do RD to do TSMM 1st thing, so we can ride it again later with a FP. Ideally we go on EMH am so it is even less crowded. This is also helpful if you have more than 1 ride in Tier 1, so you do one early, and FP the other. There are also the Star Wars meet and greet that are good to do early. I still think it is never as crowded early, so would rather do things at that time, and take advantage of the cooler temps, and then take a break midday, go cool off in the pool or AC, if you want to come back for night activities. You could even take the boat over to the Boardwalk or Epcot WS to do a meal or walk around there for while, then head back for F! and fireworks. In Dec., due to flying in that day, we arrived around 11, and it felt crowded already. We were fine because we had set up FP and a meal, and were focused on being there to see the Osbourne Lts. one more time, but it wasn't our ideal scenario. You will be there at a less crowded time, so I am sure with FP you can do everything even you arrive later, it just depends on your preferences.

 

[tlmadden73]

If you've been there many times before and don't care about all the shows .. I don't see any reason getting there at RD unless you want to ride a ride like TSMM twice.

 

[snayak]

I agree with Josh (...like my opinion matters!) I'd FP+ what you can and not head over until lunchtime or even after that.

Maybe grab lunch, do 3 FP+s in the early afternoon and then standby the rest of the evening when the crowds hopefully thin out.

Should be a great day to sleep in and maybe hit the pool in the morning - there isn't a whole heck of a lot going on at the Studios right now, unless you count walls as attractions.

I would not do RD unless you had your heart set on JTA; once on TSMM is enough for us, same with TOT, but I could hit RnRC 2 or 3 times, mainly single rider so even with tiers FP+ still works for us.

 

[czmom]

If you want Jedi Training, you'll still need to do rope drop.

 

[slbgnb]

OK....seems so weird to not RD. My son did JTA last time, so he's good there. TSM would be nice to do twice, but we'll survive with just once. Right now we have 50s PT scheduled for 6:05 dinner. Should I move it to lunch and then just do lunch, FP's and go from there? Or leave it as a dinner? Thanks!

 

[disney world dreamer]

personally i love RD at HS.
and when i can go on an AM EMH day i love it even more.
we can usually do everything we care to do at HS by early afternoon and then we either go to epcot for the rest of the day or we go back to relax at the resort.
i definitely would not want to wait until the afternoon to go to HS.
thats just my family's style though.

 

[Mikie]

I am not naturally a morning person. I also read Josh's article with interest. If your whole purpose in going to RD is to do rides with minimal waits, it looks like that doesn't happen to a great extent at DHS, so it may be a "don't bother" scenario.

However, my last trip I did DHS thoroughly for the first time. We did RD for the purpose of Jedi signups and then did the whole day there through to Fantasmic. We needed the whole day! I find DHS hard to plan around show times, so that alone is tricky. We did 2 rides each (1standby 1FP) on RnR, ToT and Star Tours and also rode great movie ride standby and Toy story FP. Watched Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones, Muppets, Frozen Singalong, Jedi Training. Missed out on Beauty and the Beast, Animation Academy and One Mans Dream. Star Wars stuff wasn't there yet.

We needed RD just to have enough hours in the day, but if I were skipping lots of shows, I'd just wait til afternoon with FP.