Hollywood Studios in May...

[tasmith1993]

My group of friends and I are heading down to WDW mid-may for 10 days. We got park hopper tickets for 4 days (we are also doing universal studios).

We will be starting out in HS May 20th (sunday). Is it crazy to think that we could be done with this park by early afternoon?

We'll go at rope drop (8am for EMH), and already have our fast passes set:
TOT - 9:25-10:25
aerosmith - 10:25-11:25
star tours 11:50-12:50

we'll go to toy story at rope drop since that's one of the favorites of our group.

I'm not sure how interested everyone is for fantasmic. None of us are big fans of star wars so most of that stuff we don't care about. I could see us trying muppets, voyage of the little mermaid, and walt disney presents show. Possibly doing TOT and toy story for a second time since those are our two favorites. If any shows we would MAYBE squeeze in the indiana jones show.

Just having those attractions I could see us being done with the park after our lunch reservation at 12:40.

Has anyone else been to HS just as a half day?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I’ll be perfectly honest and I’ll take for saying this, but we’ve been going to WDW since 2013 and we’ve never stayed more than a half day in HS.

 

[CAS239]

We usually only spend a couple hours in HS, but we go back at night as the Star Wars show is not to be missed imo. We also enjoy Fantasmic.

Some people spend a few hours there, some can spend a full day..all personal preference

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

This might be tough.
ToT & RnR have been down a lot imo. We have also arrived at ToT & been told they are ONLY allowing fast pass people on, so we were turned away.
The shows are at set times, so depending how the timing works out, you may end up missing a show you had planned to see at a certain time.
Lunch & dinner reservation/seating times are very rarely upheld at the exact booking time. If you have a 12:40 seating, you may be waiting until 1/1:15 before actually being seated.
You could definitely leave after lunch, but you may not have seen as much as you had hoped.
FYI: the Frozen Ever After show is funny & worth going. I mention it because I dismissed it during a trip when it had first opened & saw it this year & it was a huge surprise.

 

[tasmith1993]

I’ll be perfectly honest and I’ll take for saying this, but we’ve been going to WDW since 2013 and we’ve never stayed more than a half day in HS.

My first trip to WDW was 2011 and I think we spent the day there, but even then we didn't ride everything. Second trip was last year and we still didn't ride everything since we did all 4 parks with 2 day park hopper passes. This trip will be my third and I still can't see myself spending a whole day there depending on wait times.

We usually only spend a couple hours in HS, but we go back at night as the Star Wars show is not to be missed imo. We also enjoy Fantasmic.

Some people spend a few hours there, some can spend a full day..all personal preference

yes, we may try doing that and come back for fantasmic or the fireworks. I figured if we can fit in the 2 main rides we want to do we will be satisfied.... gives us more time to spend in the other parks. I highly doubt we will get to everything at MK in one day so going back there we could knock out whatever we missed on our MK day.

This might be tough.
ToT & RnR have been down a lot imo. We have also arrived at ToT & been told they are ONLY allowing fast pass people on, so we were turned away.
The shows are at set times, so depending how the timing works out, you may end up missing a show you had planned to see at a certain time.
Lunch & dinner reservation/seating times are very rarely upheld at the exact booking time. If you have a 12:40 seating, you may be waiting until 1/1:15 before actually being seated.
You could definitely leave after lunch, but you may not have seen as much as you had hoped.
FYI: the Frozen Ever After show is funny & worth going. I mention it because I dismissed it during a trip when it had first opened & saw it this year & it was a huge surprise.

Yeah I have noticed that as well. Also the toy story closures and all of that being up in the air until TSL opens. I don't think we will be too heartbroken over missing most things.. Our top 2 would be TOT and TSM. I remember going to the Beauty and the Beast live show on my first trip to WDW. I hadn't considered doing the Frozen show though, maybe we will consider doing that. No one in our group is big on frozen (i think we all think it's a little overrated honestly.... can't believe how popular it is) but we are doing the Frozen ride at Epcot this year.

 

[Nancy O]

Here is my tentative HS schedule which will be May 21. Note we are a group of 5 and one doesn't like ToT and some were indifferent to Fantasmic so there are two rides assigned to some of the numbers:



1: Toy Story Mania

2a: Rock N Roller Coaster (FP)

2b: Voyage of Little Mermaid

3: Star Tours (FP)

Lunch/Snacks

4a: Tower of Terror (FP)

4b: Beauty and the Beast

5a: Tower of Terror (FP)

5b: Meet Olaf

6: Indiana Jones Stunt Show (1:15 if all goes well or 3:15)

7: Break

8: Eat before we return to park

9: Frozen Sing a Long (6:30)

10a: Fantasmic

10b: More Tower of Terror

10: Star Wars Spectacular Show

Depending on what you want to do I think You can easily be done in a half day. Also, how did you get a Toy Story FP? I thought they were not issuing those any more.

 

[tasmith1993]

Here is my tentative HS schedule which will be May 21. Note we are a group of 5 and one doesn't like ToT and some were indifferent to Fantasmic so there are two rides assigned to some of the numbers:


Depending on what you want to do I think You can easily be done in a half day. Also, how did you get a Toy Story FP? I thought they were not issuing those any more.

No toy story FP, we got TOT, Aerosmith coaster, and Star tours. We are doing toy story at rope drop

 

[FastPasser.]

I’ll be perfectly honest and I’ll take for saying this, but we’ve been going to WDW since 2013 and we’ve never stayed more than a half day in HS.

Geez, even I spend more time than that and I don't get to do any attractions.

 

[Nancy O]

No toy story FP, we got TOT, Aerosmith coaster, and Star tours. We are doing toy story at rope drop

I see that now. I misread TOT for Toy Story for some reason. My bad.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

Hey, our HS day is May 20th too and our FPs are almost identical to yours. Great thing about hoppers, just hop over to Epcot. We are a SW family and it's my mom's first trip so we are staying, no hoppers.

 

[tasmith1993]

I see that now. I misread TOT for Toy Story for some reason. My bad.

I tried for toy story! lol I didn't realize until after booking all our FP that they wouldn't be having FP for it during that time.

Hey, our HS day is May 20th too and our FPs are almost identical to yours. Great thing about hoppers, just hop over to Epcot. We are a SW family and it's my mom's first trip so we are staying, no hoppers.

Nice!! Sounds like we had about the same game plan for the morning! lol. Yes it is a short trip over to Epcot, we may do MK instead though. HS is our 3rd park day, so we will see how much of MK and Epcot we miss on the first 2 days. Hoping we can use the extra time to do anything we miss!

 

[KenHutch]

Sadly I must be the only strange one in this group. We still spend 2 full days in Hollywood (my favorite park). We do most of the shows, even the kids ones.

 

[DWeav]

Sadly I must be the only strange one in this group. We still spend 2 full days in Hollywood (my favorite park). We do most of the shows, even the kids ones.

Our family too. So many people on here say they do the park in half a day. Obviously they skip many things.

 

[KenHutch]

Our family too. So many people on here say they do the park in half a day. Obviously they skip many things.

At Last People who love the park as much as me. I really loved the place before they announced Star Wars. Now my 17 year old claims it is just so I can get the carrot cake cookie on 2 days. And someday I will forgive them for closing Great Movie Ride. But not this decade.

 

[Delilah1310]

OP - I think your original plan is doable if you are there right at rope drop to get TSMM done in a reasonable amount of time. With a half day in the park, with those other attractions outlined, though, I don't know if you will be able to ride a second time - depends on the standby line, obviously.

You can also move your FPs up. For example, if you finish with TOT by 10am, you might be able to modify your Rock'nRoller Coaster one to a 10-11 option. And then when you are done with that one at 10:15, you might be able to modify your Star Tours to a 10:15 to 11:15. then you can try for 4th FP earlier in the day. That might help to expedite some of the other attractions on your list, or get you to a show earlier.

I heard somewhere that the Walt Disney Presents is an Incredibles 2 preview starting mid-May ... don't know if they will show anything else in there with it. I guess the walk-though part is still open, but no "One Man's Dream" movie if that's what you were hoping for.

Have fun!

 

[FastPasser.]

I heard somewhere that the Walt Disney Presents is an Incredibles 2 preview starting mid-May

That's correct, the 10 minute sneak peek preview will begin on May 18.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

Sadly I must be the only strange one in this group. We still spend 2 full days in Hollywood (my favorite park). We do most of the shows, even the kids ones.

I agree with you. We don't do 2 days, but I really struggle trying to fit it all in to 1 day, and we don't even ride ToT. This trip we are planning an extra night to hop back over for F! it's one of our very favorite shows.

 

[tasmith1993]

OP - I think your original plan is doable if you are there right at rope drop to get TSMM done in a reasonable amount of time. With a half day in the park, with those other attractions outlined, though, I don't know if you will be able to ride a second time - depends on the standby line, obviously.

You can also move your FPs up. For example, if you finish with TOT by 10am, you might be able to modify your Rock'nRoller Coaster one to a 10-11 option. And then when you are done with that one at 10:15, you might be able to modify your Star Tours to a 10:15 to 11:15. then you can try for 4th FP earlier in the day. That might help to expedite some of the other attractions on your list, or get you to a show earlier.

I heard somewhere that the Walt Disney Presents is an Incredibles 2 preview starting mid-May ... don't know if they will show anything else in there with it. I guess the walk-though part is still open, but no "One Man's Dream" movie if that's what you were hoping for.

Have fun!

Yes, that’s what we plan on trying to do. Hoping that TSM doesn’t take too long, though I know lots of other people will be heading there at rope drop as well, especially with no FP being available.
I figured we would go early in our FP times if able so we could try to move them up.
Riding a second time will totally depend on the wait time. If we happen to catch them with a short wait (30 min or less) then I’m happy to do again for our favorite rides.

One Man’s Dream isn’t a must see for me, I did watch it on my first trip to WDW. An incredibles preview would be pretty sweet though, so we may add that into our must dos.

That's correct, the 10 minute sneak peek preview will begin on May 18.

Nice! I didn’t know that. We may add that to our list of must do’s.

 

[loves to dive]

If you added up the time we spend at HS it would probably total a full day, we just don't do it all at once. We always have hoppers so we will do a few hours at a park then hop over to another one. We are not ride centric and tend to take it slow and just enjoy the details of all the parks, which is the advantage of going as many times and years as we have been going. Could you leave after lunch and have done what you want to? Sounds like it. If you wanted to see all the shows and go in all the stores and ride all the rides and eat a TS meal, then I don't think you could do it all in one day.

 

[tasmith1993]

If you added up the time we spend at HS it would probably total a full day, we just don't do it all at once. We always have hoppers so we will do a few hours at a park then hop over to another one. We are not ride centric and tend to take it slow and just enjoy the details of all the parks, which is the advantage of going as many times and years as we have been going. Could you leave after lunch and have done what you want to? Sounds like it. If you wanted to see all the shows and go in all the stores and ride all the rides and eat a TS meal, then I don't think you could do it all in one day.

In theory I’d love to do everything there is to offer in every park. At least once to say that I’ve done it
But with 1 Park per day I don’t see that happening. With what we are doing I’m just hoping to do as much as we possibly can in the days that we have. We aren’t big on the parades so we skip all of those for rides/shows, which gives us a little more time.

We’ll see how we manage this year. If we don’t get to do everything we want, the ln I’m hoping next year I can convince everyone we need a longer trip!