Hollywood Studios vs Animal Kingdom

[Vicki Rickerd]

For our trip in February I had originally done fast passes for AK on Thurs and HS on Sunday because of the early opening for hotel guests. Because of the way Disney has changed hours for HS, I am thinking of switching the 2 based on crowd levels. Looking for opinions from people who go more than once every few years.

 

[Future_WorldPhonencian]

Your poll is not clear, maybe re-word which park you would choose on either day. The hours for Feb will likely change at least 1-2 more times. The fact that you have already booked FP means that you should stick with your original plan. You likely wont be able to get FP that are "as good" if you give them up now. Dont get to obsessed about reworking your plans over opening/ closing times changing. If you want to "Rope Drop" at either DHS or AK keep an eye on the hours up until the day of and arrive at the gate AT LEAST 30-45 min before the announced opening time if you plan on doing FoP without FP or Rise at all.

A little more info would be helpful. Are you Park hopping, taking a break, and which attractions are you planning on experiencing?

Happy Planning!

 

[Vicki Rickerd]

Your poll is not clear, maybe re-word which park you would choose on either day. The hours for Feb will likely change at least 1-2 more times. The fact that you have already booked FP means that you should stick with your original plan. You likely wont be able to get FP that are "as good" if you give them up now. Dont get to obsessed about reworking your plans over opening/ closing times changing. If you want to "Rope Drop" at either DHS or AK keep an eye on the hours up until the day of and arrive at the gate AT LEAST 30-45 min before the announced opening time if you plan on doing FoP without FP or Rise at all.

A little more info would be helpful. Are you Park hopping, taking a break, and which attractions are you planning on experiencing?

Happy Planning!

Thanks for the info - we have park hopper tickets and will be driving. At Hollywood Studios the focus will be Galaxys edge, but it will probably be a full day with all the roller coasters ( I have young adult boys and a hubby who acts like one) We could not get fast passes for Slinky Dog, so will probably rope drop that.

The day we go to Animal Kingdom will probably be a half day. Rope dropping FPO and have fast passes for everything else we want to do.

We wont be back to Florida for a while so want to be able to experience Galaxy's edge as much as possible.

 

[Carol_]

This is my 5th WDW vacation in 6 months. (Long story)... We had 5 days, hit HS twice and still missed some rides. I never imagined I’d need so much time to cover HS, but it really has become an all day park. Schedule for it.

 

[jerseyduke]

I personally try to AVOID a park if it has extra magic hours in the morning. I find that the crowds are worse because everything thinks they should take advantage of the offering.

I will go to EMH at night at a park if all else is closed.

Personally I think slink dog is a much, much better ride in the dark, but that is personal taste, not really anything strategic. If the line is long I anti-rope-drop it, hop on line 5 minutes before park close.

Also keep an eye on how they are handling ROTR. Currently they are not allowing anyone to get a boarding group until the park officially opens. If that holds true, you have to make sure you are IN the park before it opens. (I liked it better the other way)

ETA: I go 5 to 6 times a year for a total of about 25 days. But I still do not have it all figured out.

 

[Nancyg56]

I think you need to know how Disney will be handling ROTR before you make a decision. Right not you need to be at the park for a boarding pass, and last week the park was opening around 6 AM. By 8:30 all passes were distributed. All members of the group needed to be present for a pass.

If this is still the process head over to DHS and get your pass, and depending on the return time, you could then go to DAK. This is how some of the folks we ran into were plannign the day. They had fairly late afternoon return times, so they skipped to another park.

If I had to make a plan today, and if ROTR was the priority, I would go directly to DHS and plan to stay there for the day. No hopping. YOu just cannot knwo what time you will be scheduled for a pass.

 

[Miffy]

If your focus is SWGE, then definitely do that park first. Because you might want to go again. We did RotR last week on Friday and had to do it again on Saturday. There was just no way we were going to leave WDW without doing it twice, if at all possible. And we got early BGs both days, so it worked out well for us.

FoP (I assume this is what you mean by FPO) is a must-do ride and Animal Kingdom is still my favorite WDW park.

You don't say how many park days you have planned at WDW and if you have hoppers. These are important considerations. On the 2nd day we rode RotR, we hopped over to DAK after we were done. Something else to consider is if DAK is open at night when you're there, because it's really beautiful there at night and also both Pandora rides often have not-bad lines very close to park closing, when the posted standby wait times are highly exaggerated.

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but maybe it's of some help anyway! BTW, I usually go to WDW twice a year. This just-concluded trip (we got home on Monday), we did RotR twice and rode FoP 7 times, all on FP+s, several of them procured the day we rode.

A year ago I would've said if I had to skip one park, it would've been DHS, even though I love TSM. Now my missable park--if I had to miss one--would be Epcot or MK (I'd have to decide between missing HM or missing Soarin').

Also, there's a great ride right outside DHS--the Skyliner. You can take a quick trip on it, just ride it from DHS to the hub and back or even use it to go from DHS to Epcot, which requires changing at the hub, but the system moves very quickly and it's a fun ride.

Edited for clarity.

 

[ohsewcrafty80]

I would do HS on the Thursday, forget EMH, it opens super early anyway. Everything is more crowded on the weekend and HS is definitely the hottest park between RotR, MF, & SD.

 

[epcotty]

Wow, tie vote at time of this writing. I say the 2nd option