Hollywood studios...how many days?

[wildlandmedic]

We have our trip coming up Nov 10-17. This year my DW, DS 6 and DD4 havent been able to decide on how many days to spend in Hollywood studios.

2 yrs ago we spent 1 day each in Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and AK, the remainder of our trip was at MK.

I am trying to figure out whether 2 days is justifiable or if we should just plan on 1.

We are not purchasing the park hopper option this year so we can spend that money on other things.

So, for those with kids around these ages, what has been your experience? 1 or 2 days?

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Do you want to see all the shows???? DHS is impossible to do in 1 day if you want to experience it all. If you just want to ride the major rides, take in 1-2 of the shows...you can do it in 1 day.

 

[Mom2JPL]

Every family is different...that being said, our first trip when my kids were 3, 2 and 1 we spent one day at each park, MK we spent 2. This past trip (our 2nd) we spent 3 days at MK, 1 day at AK, 1 day at Epcot, and 2 days at HS (kids were 5, 3 and 2 at the time). This year (February) we're planning on 3 days at the Studios, 2 MK, 1 Epcot and no AK (we're taking a break...not our favorite park). Kids will be 6, 5 and 3. Last year I didn't plan a park for our last day and let the kids pick their favorite...hands down Studios won! I was not that suprised...they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Toy Story Mania...and can't wait to ride it again this year (hence, the 3 days there this trip!). They also love Star Tours and all things Star Wars.

Oh, and we don't do park hoppers either. Not worth it to us. We get to the park at rope drop (or shortly thereafter), ride, play, have fun until lunch, eat lunch at the park, back to resort for naps/swim time, and then head out to dinner, which is either the same park or a resort or DTD. We don't mind doing 1/2 days at the park since our kids are early to bed, early to rise. Even if we try to keep them up, they get so tired they want to hit the hay by 8:30.

Have a great trip...sorry for the disertation...just giving our perspective!

 

[thebeesknees]

We spent 2 days there on our last trip. That way, we got to see all the shows and do every ride at a good pace with the kids and not feel like we were rushing from one end of the park to the other to make the next "performance". It also allowed my 4-year-old son to get his Star Tours fix. He wound up riding it 7 times over the course of 2 days, and I was glad to let him do that and not feel like we were missing something else and hurrying him along. But if you already know that your kids won't want to watch everything (Beauty and the Beast show or Little Mermaid, for example) then I think you could easily get it all done in a day.

 

[Darcy03231]

We were there in April 2009 and on the day we visited the crowds were light to moderate. I have older teens and we've been on multiple trips so we planned to skip a lot. We got there for rope drop and in about 1/2 a day did:

Tower of Terror (kids rode it twice, me once)
Rockin' Roller Coaster (kids only)
Toy Story Mania
Star Tours
Back Lot Tour
Beauty & the Beast show
Lights, Motors Action stunt show

The kids did their first ride on ToT and RnR while I was getting the fast passes for TSM.

If you want to see/do everything the park has to offer I would plan 1.5-2 days. If you're comfortable skipping a few thing it can be done in a day.

 

[AirGoofy]

Pretty much the same here. DHS is impossible to see all the shows, so decide if it is worth it to you. DW loves Fantasmic, so she would go just to see it. Two DDs (7,5) enjoy Belle and Ariel shows. We did not get to see Indiana Jones or Stunt Cars, which I would have preferred, but they did wait for me while I did Aerosmith RRC. Or, you could choose to split up and watch different shows and keep DHS to one day. Also, while park is not very big, given show times, we ended up walking from one end to the other. Perhaps we should have studied times better or went on EM day.

 

[We_love_WDW]

I would say 2 - to see all the shows and characters and rides...plus you can take your time. We are going the same exact dates Nov 10-17 and we are going to do at least 2 days.