Is Hollyhood Studios worth a full day?

[Becc1]

Planning our 1st trip to the world in 5 long years. We usually do at least 1 sometimes a day and a half (for SW weekends) at Hollywood Studios. I read that because of so many closures that it's become a bit of a half day park. I booked an ADR for the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose but now I'm second guessing myself because I don't want to have to sit around and wait for the show, especially if we've seen and done all that we want to. Our "dinner" ADR is for 3:45pm. The Food and Wine festival will be going on so I'd like to get back to Epcot if possible since we only have 1 day planned there this time. Can anyone give some perspective on what their visits to the park have been lately? TIA

 

[kellyepp1]

I always do HS as half day park and plan to this weekend during my upcoming trip. I love fantasmic though, so I do it as the second half of my day.

 

[TeamSy]

I can see doing a full day if you're doing SWW. For us it's half day and we do the second half of the day there to catch either Fantasmic (every couple of years) or now fireworks. I suggest pulling up a park map and seeing what interests you ride and show wise! I like the shops there a lot so we always plan a little time to look around as well!

 

[Delirium]

If you only want to do rides, it's a half day (RNR, TOT, Toy Story, Great Movie Ride, Star Tours).

If you want to do rides AND do all the shows, it's a full day (Beauty & the Beast, Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones, Frozen, Muppets, Disney Jr., Fantasmic)

If you want to do rides, shows, AND see characters, then it's more like a day and a half.

 

[jon18uk]

Planning our 1st trip to the world in 5 long years. We usually do at least 1 sometimes a day and a half (for SW weekends) at Hollywood Studios. I read that because of so many closures that it's become a bit of a half day park. I booked an ADR for the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose but now I'm second guessing myself because I don't want to have to sit around and wait for the show, especially if we've seen and done all that we want to. Our "dinner" ADR is for 3:45pm. The Food and Wine festival will be going on so I'd like to get back to Epcot if possible since we only have 1 day planned there this time. Can anyone give some perspective on what their visits to the park have been lately? TIA

Only two and a half attractions have closed. (Lights Motors Action stunt show, Backlot Tour and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

The decision on how long to spend at DHS hasn't changed. If you are going to watch all the shows (Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Frozen, Indianna Jones) then you need pretty much a full day. If you just want to do the rides, then you will need less time.
If you already have an evening planned at Epcot for Illuminations you might like to do Fantasmic, just for some variety in the nighttime shows, plus there should be Star Wars fireworks in the evenings (timings haven't been announced yet).
So if you feel you want to skip shows at DHS as you've seen them before you could spend the morning at Epcot and lunch on Food & Wine dishes, then hop over to DHS for rides, Fantasmic and Fireworks.

 

[yulilin3]

I have posted this same sentence in every "DHS/Worth it/all the closures" thread that has popped up
The only thing that recently closed was LMA and stores and a QS on Streets of America, all the rest is open.
Like others have said it depends on what you and your family like or plan on doing. The Citizens of Hollywood alone could take half a day to see, for all of their sets.

 

[Lisa F]

I'm planning two half days, which I suppose would make it a full day But I have a little guy who wants to do the jedi training academy so we'll show up early and go until we're done and then we're coming back for dinner/fantasmic/fireworks another night and will have to figure out what to do in between earlyish dinner and fantasmic, but I'm sure repeats would be just fine on a different day.

 

[VACamm]

If you only want to do rides, it's a half day (RNR, TOT, Toy Story, Great Movie Ride, Star Tours).

If you want to do rides AND do all the shows, it's a full day (Beauty & the Beast, Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones, Frozen, Muppets, Disney Jr., Fantasmic)

If you want to do rides, shows, AND see characters, then it's more like a day and a half.

I agree with this. We love the shows at Hollywood Studios.... it's definitely an all day park for us.

 

[Julylady]

We planned one full day at HS in early April. Midway through our trip we switch our second day st Epcot for another full day at Hollywood studios. Why? My girls 14 and 11 wanted to do all the rides and all the shows. Fast pass tiering doesn't allow for both Toy story mania and Rockin Rollercoaster on the same day. The biggest reason was that I have two new Star Wars fans due to the Force Awakens. We spent hours our first day looking at the Star Wars memorabilia and waiting for Kylo Ren and Chewwy.

I think the question should be is Epcot a half day park? We ran out of things to do at that park.

 

[Allison]

As with any park, it depends on what you are interested in doing at the Studios. For me, it isn't a whole day but that is because there are just a few attractions I want to experience. For someone else, it could easily be a full day. Take a look at what you want to accomplish and go from there. There is no one size fits all answer.

 

[hammie59]

For us it's a whole day because we like just being there, so we take our time.

 

[loves to dive]

As others have pointed out, only 2 things have closed so if you spent a full day there before and enjoyed it, you'll will probably still need a full day. I spend a full day there and don't even ride Star Tours (makes me sick) or RnRC (hurts my neck) and sometimes don't do TSMM (if I'm solo I'm not interested). I can spend all day just walking around and taking in the details in the store fronts and soaking in the atmosphere. Plus, I tend to ride ToT about 3 or 4 times back to back.

 

[Alice777]

We were there 4 weeks ago planning full day but couldn't find things to do (we didn't have park hopper) and wanted to watch the Star Wars fireworks, so we went back to resort for a nap and then went back.

Out of 4 parks and 2 days at Universal, HS was the only park we couldn't find things to do for whole day.

I guess it depends on how busy the park is. When we went at rope drop, we were able to do everything by 2 pm since park was not busy.

 

[caroline1851]

On our last trip, ds only wanted to do the rides, no shows, therefore, it was 1/2 day park for us. But to add in shows, def full day.

 

[xipotec]

Half day...or short day...Usually we sleep in that day or leave early for a Resort dinner.....
Full days if you shop everything or see every show and do not plan ahead...or ride multiple times....

or if your slow......

 

[Sevey13]

Planning our 1st trip to the world in 5 long years. We usually do at least 1 sometimes a day and a half (for SW weekends) at Hollywood Studios. I read that because of so many closures that it's become a bit of a half day park. I booked an ADR for the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose but now I'm second guessing myself because I don't want to have to sit around and wait for the show, especially if we've seen and done all that we want to. Our "dinner" ADR is for 3:45pm. The Food and Wine festival will be going on so I'd like to get back to Epcot if possible since we only have 1 day planned there this time. Can anyone give some perspective on what their visits to the park have been lately? TIA

Two rides and a playground have closed.

 

[coozieman]

Yes

 

[Bellhop97]

I agree with everyone else.. make it a half day..

 

[kdisser]

So far I have this planned as a short day for our upcoming trip we have 3 shows, 2 rides, the Walt museum and lunch at Sci-fi. We also have it planned on the EMH day for HS so that should help us a little (considering the shows wont open at that time) still have us being done and out by 3 that afternoon.

 

[Yahweh]

I may be in the minority but I don't think it ever was for us. We usually do HS for a couple of hours first thing in the morning when they have extra magic hours. We then walk or take a relax boat ride to Epcot, where we'd have fast passes booked and have lunch there.