How much time to plan for at HS?

[chris grecian]

Hello everyone! I'm planning our family's trip to WDW in March 2020. We have three kids (12, 9 and 5 at time of travel) and are thinking of breaking HS up into two days. The first day will focus on non-Star Wars attractions/areas like TSL, shows, ToT, RnRC, etc. and the other day at HS will focus on SWGE, Launch Bay, Star Tours and Jedi Training. Our thought in doing it this way is that it will allow us to see everything but have more downtime outside the parks and not feel too rushed. We'll already be doing full days at AK and EP, as well as long (but not open to close) days at MK, so I'm not sure trying to do RD to close at HS will work for my family.

My thinking is that if we got to HS at/near RD on our TSL/non-Star Wars day we could ride the rides and experience most of the attractions and still be out of the park by early afternoon that day. Is that realistic or too ambitious? Anyone else have experience on how much time to spend at HS on a non-Star Wars day?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

It depends on which rides you want to do. HS has always been a half day park for our family and we typically arrive at rope drop so that we can ride a headliner without a Fastpass first thing. (Especially since all the best rides are all in tier 1 )

I'm pretty sure we've usually done what we wanted and been out of there by 1 or so.

If you have two half days there you should be more then fine IMHO.

 

[chris grecian]

That is encouraging to hear and glad my thoughts weren't too optimistic. We'll plan on a partial day for our non-SWGE day and play it by ear and adjust accordingly as we closer to travel day. Thanks for your insight!

 

[NeuroCindy]

How many shows are you planning on seeing? I think that's deciding factor in my answer.

 

[chris grecian]

Don't think we'll do Indiana Jones, but we will have some interest in Beauty & the Beast, Frozen sing along and possibly Little Mermaid. My guess is if we can do two of those shows and still call it a day by early afternoon we'll do that and skip the remaining show.

 

[gharter]

It really depends on SDD. If you want to do SDD and have a FP, then be sure to arrive about 30 minutes before RD. GO to TSMM 1st and then AS2. You should be done before official opening time as they let you into TSL early. Then head to ToT and RnRC. Do ToT 1st as 1 side is down for refurb.
without an SDD FP, you need to be in line for the tapstiles at least an hour before RD to be at the front of the line to get to SDD. Last time we did RD, we were on the 4th train. When we got off, went to AS2. Headed to TSMM and the line for SDD was back to the entry for TSL.