Hollywood Studios with littles

[Mike A]

Hi All,

sorry if this is a repeat post.

We have 2 small children, age 2 and 6, and we are heading down to WDW near the end of Nov for a week (everyone's first time there but me, and I haven't been in 20 years).

Our vacation planner has us going to Hollywood Studios while we are there. However, looking over what it has to offer, it doesn't really seem to justify a day with little kids. I am currently leaning towards skipping HS and spending an extra day in MK or AK, so it's not so rushed and there is more age appropriate attractions for the littles. Note, we are not getting hopper passes, so we are committed to the day.

But I wanted to check with the experts here before I make any changes

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[IrishNYC]

There's a Disney junior show there, and meets with DJ characters. The beauty and the beast show, muppetvision, TSMM.

 

[ProfessorMoliarty]

My opinion would be that without hopper passes you may have a better time with an extra day at one of the other parks. We are headed to WDW for a 3rd time with our now 2.75 year old and DHS is always a debate for us. First time we took her to meet olaf and do the minnie dinner at hollywood and vine. Second time we took her to meet Moana. This time we are leaving it as a "maybe" park hop the second half of a day, we are thinking about doing the toy story ride with her this time. Our daughter is not really a sit and watch a stage show kind of kid so even though she loves Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Mermaid it just wont work out for us. If your kids have the attention span for it though the stage shows there can be really great and that may make a difference. Also would depend if your 6 year old is into star wars as there is some fun to be had there.


IrishNYC brings up alot of other possible attractions to go to as well though.

 

[caliope]

I think it depends on your family and their interests. My DS, now 5, loves HS and has since he 2.5. He loves the Frozen show, Indiana Jones, TSMM, and anything Star Wars related. While we wouldn't do a park open to park close day there (full disclosure: we don't do that anywhere!) we find HS easily enough to fill half a day, combined with pool time in the afternoon and/or another park (when we have hoppers).

 

[ColoradoMom12]

It's a half day park for us. We go to HS towards the middle of our trip when we need a slow day with lots of pool time, or we combine it with a second day at Epcot. We do HS in the morning and WS at Epcot in the afternoon/ evening.

 

[anomamatt]

My kids are 5 and 3. Some of their favorite memories were from DHS... they loved Dis Jr. live on stage, meeting Sofia the First, frozen sing along, and Beauty and the Beast. I'm not sure they did any rides at DHS, but there is a lot of other stuff to do. I don't think it's a full day park for a family with young kids, but there are some really good attractions there that I wouldn't want to miss. Even without hoppers, I would do 3/4 day at DHS and 1/4 day at resort (pool, etc).

 

[AndreaA]

It has been half day for us. I would think most little kids haven't seen half the movies represented. Four-year old's aren't frequently watching Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Well at least mine weren't! They're eight and have still only seen one Star Wars movie and may half a dozen other live action films. They want nothing to do with anything loud and even potentially scary.

That being said, if you have a princess-loving little girl, there are a few good shows to see.

 

[CrazyHare]

We were there last week and my 4 year old loved it. We did the Toy Story Mania 3 times because she it was her favorite. We got a 4th and 5th fast pass for it. We all loved the Frozen sing-a-long and the Little Mermaid show.

She loves Baby Groot, so we saw him and Star Lord. We saw Buzz & Woody, Olaf, Chip & Dale, Minnie, and my favorite Sorcerer Mickey. We had one of our best character meets with Mickey when I mentioned Sorcerer Mickey is my favorite. The CMs had him kiss me while my husband looked mad and my daughter covered her eyes. It is a hilarious photo that the CMs suggested just from my simple comment.

She is tall enough (45 1/2 inches) to ride the Tower of Terror and Star Tours. She loved Star Tours, but ToT was not her favorite.

We ate lunch with the Disney Junior characters. But you can only dine with them at breakfast now.

We got there about 9:30am and left around 8. That's as long as she can do. It was hot, so we didn't rush. And we still didn't do everything we wanted. We missed the Beauty and the Beast show and Indiana Jones. And I think my daughter would have rode Star Tours 3 or 4 more times if I would have let her.

We enjoyed the park.

 

[elaine amj]

Lots for the 6 yr old, a little tougher for the 2 yr old unless she loves shows. We just took my 3 yr old niece who doesn't care much for shows. She LOVED Toy Story Mania (it really is one of Disney's best rides) and was in awe in Disney Jr. It really is exactly like the show came to life. We took her to watch the Little Mermaid show and she liked it well enough (my brother and I thoroughly enjoyed it though - brought back sooo many memories of growing up together with the movie on endless repeat as I was obsessed with it!). Also, she enjoyed Fantasmic a lot.

I don't think she did anything else there. Mostly, we amused her with her bubble wand (which kept her perfectly happy) while other in the party did stuff like rode Star Tours and go through Launch Bay. We also wandered through One Man's Dream - but that was for the adults.

That said - your 6 yr old would likely absolutely love Jedi Training. Neither of my kids care much for Star Wars but even so, they will always remember the time they fought Darth Vader. Yes, it is that memorable.

 

[Jarmo]

With a 2 year old, we tried the other parks but ended up back at MK everyday.

 

[Belle's Librarian]

I went in November with my 6 and 1 year olds. We enjoyed our day at HS, but we also had 2 days at MK and 1.5 days at AK. I'd definitely pick 2 days at MK over 1 day of MK and 1 at HS.

If you are already doing 2 days at MK and at least one at AK, HS is worth considering. Frozen sing along is a hit, so is TSMM. We saw Indy for the grownups, but the kids liked it too. My 6yo is old enough for Star Tours now, and loved it. My kids also love Fantasmic--now they ask to watch the video of it on youtube.

MK and AK are definitely our favorites, but on a longer trip HS can be fun for littles, too.

 

[Dismama2boys]

My kids LOVED it last fall - way more than I expected. My boys were almost 3 and 4 1/2, and they loved all the shows, character meets, all of the Star Wars stuff, just everything. Oldest did Jedi Training, which was the highlight of the trip for him, and rode Star Tours over and over. Granted, they cut their teeth on Star Wars, but they loved more than that at the park. TSMM was a huge hit, my little guy is Olaf obsessed, and they saw the Disney Jr show twice and would have seen it again if I would have let them. For us, it was a full day.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

We spent a full day there a couple of weeks ago and didn't have time to do everything we wanted to. We had DD7 and DS(almost)2 and they both had a blast. Since it is a smaller park, we didn't feel as rushed to get from one thing to the next and didn't feel as worn out at the end of the day. DS enjoyed the Disney Jr show, Pluto meet and greet (even though it was his third time meeting Pluto, it was just as special), looking at ducks around the lake, watching the March of the First Order, and Fantasmic. DD loved Star Tours (even though she could care less about Star Wars), meeting Olaf, Woody, and Buzz, and riding Tower of Terror. Both kids enjoyed TSMM, the Little Mermaid and Frozen shows and eating at SciFi. Would have liked to have made it to B&tB show, Indy show, and Muppets, but just ran out of time.

Just a heads up since you will be travelling with a toddler-- For any indoor character meets, you're not permitted to bring a stroller in line, even if your little one is sleeping. We learned this the hard way and I had to wait outside while DD met Olaf with her dad since DS was sleeping. Strollers weren't an issue for any of the outdoor meet and greets we went to.

There may not be a ton of rides at HS, but there's still plenty to do and see. If you find that you get done early, you could always leave and go back to your hotel for a swim. I think my kids enjoyed the pools as much as they did any of the parks.

 

[khertz]

Being that it is your first time, you don't have hoppers, and you have young kids, just skip it. They won't even know what they are missing. We have a few things we still like to go to DHS for on our trips, but with the park being in such a big overhaul mode, if we didn't have the option to hop we would likely skip it as well.

 

[Delirium]

There is a good chance your kids will like HS more than Epcot. So, if your decision is based solely on what the kids would like, you should factor that in.

As a general rule, I don't recommend skipping parks, especially for first time visits. But, we've almost always done extended stays (7-12 days) and used hoppers, so our touring decisions are much easier. And, I was blessed with kids that could close down a park, even at a very young age.

So, ultimately, you know your family best. But, I would not make the decision based on the belief that there is nothing at HS for small children. There is plenty there to fill a day for guests of all ages.

 

[leahlefler]

Without park hopper passes, I'd give it a miss with a 2 year old. My boys love it, but they are older and ride Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster. Your six year old would love it, probably, but there is more at MK for a 2 year old. If you had park hopper passes, I'd suggest going - but if you are committed to a day, I'd stick with AK or MK.