Not Many Attractions (Rides) at HS

[Frozen2014]

For us with kids (6, 4) it’s a half day park. I’m hoping though that the changes in the fast pass tiers coming up might change this.

HS has far more rides now than it did before the changes. HS originally wasn’t supposed to be about rides. It was about making movies. Opening day had just one ride: the Great Movie Ride. Star Tours was added in ‘89; ToT in ‘94; RnR in ‘99; TSM in ‘08; then a ten year gap with Slinky and Saucers in ‘18; and of course Falcon and Rise last year. Then theres the long gap between GMR closing in ‘17 and MMRR opening.

If you do everything, including shows and m&g’s, and take your time looking around, it can be a full day park.

Interesting. Didn't realize it originally had just one ride. It's a shame then that Great Movie Ride is no longer around.

 

[Frozen2014]

Our first time it was full day bc we watched all the shows. But in the 2 visits since then we havent spent as long. Or we have had hoppers and went for 2 partial days due to the FP situation. I agree the shows arent super repeatable.

Yeah. We saw the shows last time too, but a lot of them are too young now (even for my younger one) or too girly for our son.

I do like however, what they did with Fastpaas. At least that will help with riding some of the headliners.

 

[Anna131517]

We always really enjoy HS just because it is smaller and more chill, and spend the whole day there. We ate lunch at Sci Fi this last trip and really enjoyed it. We like the 50’s restaurant and Hollywood and Vine. It also has nice shops.

 

[MarkS2112]

I'm mapping out all the rides at Hollywood Studios. Is it just me, or is there not really that many rides?

You have

• Slinky Dog Dash
• Toy Story Mania
• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Millennium Falcon Run
• Rise of the Resistance (which you can only ride 1 time at most)
• Star Tours
• Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway (coming March)
• Twilight of Terror
• Rock n Roller Coaster

For our family, our kids won't ride the last two (ToT and Rock n Roller Coaster).
Rise of the Resistance requires a boarding pass so at most, you can go once.
And I'm sure SDD and Millennium Falcon are hard to ride more than once without long waits.

The rest seem to be shows....Frozen sing along, Beauty and Beast, Little Mermaid, Disney Junior (all out for a 15 year old boy), Muppet Vision, Indiana Jones, Lightning McQueen...and then night time Fireworks and Fantasmic.

Still excited as some cool stuff, but is it still a full day park?
Then again, looking at Epcot, it's probably similar with a few really cool headliners and then you have the smaller things like Gran Fiesta, Figment, Living with Land, etc.

It’s a full day now. You cannot do all rides and shows in one day anymore due to wait times and fact that it is now busy due to GE. Every park will have waits for the popular rides. It’s really up to what you like. It has more rides than AK and Epcot.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We always really enjoy HS just because it is smaller and more chill, and spend the whole day there. We ate lunch at Sci Fi this last trip and really enjoyed it. We like the 50’s restaurant and Hollywood and Vine. It also has nice shops.

I have always loved the vibe at HS. I love Baseline, grabbing popcorn and a bench and people watching, listening to the music. Disney is more to me than rides.

 

[5kidsmommy]

HS and AK have always been the parks we spend less time at. Most of the shows are one and done for my family with a few exceptions. We will see in September if that’s changed with the new additions. Epcot as odd as it is is the one my kids always want to spend a lot of time at. They have always loved the world showcase. It’s been a couple years since any of the kids have come and our youngest is the only one going in September. We’ll have park hoppers so we will follow his lead on what he wants to do. I’m thinking he’ll want to spend a fair amount of time in both Toy Story land and the Star Wars areas.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We enjoy DHS and easily spend 3-4 half days there in the course of an 8-10 day visit.

I do not understand the "we're not Star Wars people so no interest" vibe. The Cars movies were pretty bad but Cars Land at DCA is really cool. Avatar was not worth seeing but Pandora is amazing. Not a fan of Aerosmith but Rock N Rollercoaster is a great ride. Galaxy's Edge is an Imagineering marvel in my opinion.

The park has the best thrill rides at WDW (for now) and the shows are some of the best. Indiana Jones show never gets old and the Frozen Sing-a-long can be done over and over! I love to see the little kids' faces when the snow starts falling.

Definitely plenty to see and do for us at DHS.

 

[midnight star]

Yeah when we went we did Star Tours twice, Toy Story mania, Alien Saucers, ROTR, Voyage of Little Mermaid, Star Wars Launch Bay show, Walt Disney show, Millennium falcon, and Slinky dog Dash all by 1pm. Then left. Granted we left early because we were exhausted from getting there at 5:30 am, but still. We didn't feel like we missed anything.

My friend who went to HS a few years ago said that was her least favorite park. So she is hoping with the new rides open she will enjoy it more when she goes back.

 

[cakebaker]

We park hop, so almost all park visits are split into half days with multiple visits to each park. HS is one we would normally visit the least, but at least 2 half days. That allows us to see Fantasmic and the fireworks as well as get tier 1 rides on FP. Our upcoming trip we’re going to HS more due to ROTR and SWGE. We’re not so ride focused though and find plenty of things to do at HS now.

 

[Delirium]

Tired old argument.

We have not been back since Star Wars opened, but would routinely spend at least 1.5 days at HS when have visited in the past.

Disney is about so much more than rides. The shows that many people dismiss are wonderful. They take a lot of time to see. We see most of the shows every single time we go. Some people consider the shows one and done. My question is Why? Because it's the same show they saw 4 years ago? Well, the Peter Pan ride at MK is the same ride it was 50 years ago, yet people would consider it blasphemy to skip it.

Theming of the lands, characters, restaurants, etc. That's the Disney experience just as much as the rides.

 

[Carol_]

We have a 4 year old and easily spend a full day at DHS every visit. Star Tours, Indiana Jones, and Toy Story Mania should start your 15yr old off, then Lunch then send him to Rockin Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror (to which I won’t willingly return because I like my stomach where it is, thank you.)

 

[slpeters]

Last time we went there were only 4 rides, we spent three half days there and feel like it's the only park we didn't actually "finish".

 

[CastAStone]

I LOVE the vibe at Hollywood Studios. You can certainly do all 9 rides in a day most of the year. I think several of the shows are worth it (Muppets, Frozen, and Indiana Jones are all favorites) but as a prior poster said, if you’ve seen them recently, they’re not particularly rewatchable (except maybe Muppets and Indiana Jones)

I just like spending time in that park. It’s small, it’s relaxing, and I really enjoy the architecture, streetmosphere, and scenery.

But there’s no getting around it: in September (when it had 7 rides), we spent the least amount of time at DHS of the four parks, 1 day.

And in that one day, we rode all 7 rides (SDD and MFSR twice), did 5 shows, the Dine In Theater meal, left for 4.5 hours for nap time, had a 30 minute ice cream break, did the entire Incredibles celebration (which is over now), and left before Fantasmic so the kids could get to bed.

 

[yulilin3]

I;m the biggest DHS fan here on the DIS (I think) To me it's the most well rounded park, with activities for all ages and all styles of people, also being the smallest it's awesome to go from place to place without being tired
For little ones: Disney Jr show and meet and greets. MMRR (opening in March)
For Tweens and Teens and thrill seekers: ToT, RnRC, SDD, ST
For fans of SW: well d'uh
For fans of shows: VotLM, FRozen Sing Along, Muppets, Indiana Jones, BatB
For fans of Pixar: TSLand
It also has the best improv troupe around, the Citizens of Hollywood
Walt Disney Presents and Launch Bay are great places to take it slow, in a/c and take as long or as little time you want exploring the exhibits
2 night shows: one with seating and a great story, the other for fans or SW
If you think about it the other parks are more mono-focused
MK definitely geared for kids and fans of slow attractions/lower tech (Tron will help with that)
Epcot: definitely geared for older audiences
AK: might be the second best well rounded park after DHS
So that is my take. Of course the beauty of the WDW parks is that they are not the same and that is why they sell so many tickets, people want to experience what every park has to offer.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I feel like HS is really more teen friendly than young kids. They don’t have much that’s going to appeal to smaller kids. My kids are at an age where it’s their favorite park because we love all the rides there, but they could care less for anything at Epcot besides Soaring. But I do keep a spreadsheet of rides at the parks and Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios all have about the same amount, mixed in with some big shows. Magic Kingdom has twice the rides.

 

[cakebaker]

Interesting. Didn't realize it originally had just one ride. It's a shame then that Great Movie Ride is no longer around.

We visited a few weeks after HS opened. We weren't there an hour and left. It was awful. They rushed the opening to beat Universal and it showed.

 

[yulilin3]

We visited a few weeks after HS opened. We weren't there an hour and left. It was awful. They rushed the opening to beat Universal and it showed.

in reality it was 2 attraction , GMR and Backlot Tour, that would last 2 hours, with no way of escaping. It was so long they installed the restrooms and quick service mid tour

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My kids are 13 and 19 and DHS is hands down their favorite park. We break up our days into AM and PM with our PH's and we easily spend 4-5 (or more) half days at DHS. And this was before SWGE. I can't imagine how much time we will spend there now.

My kids can and do ride ToT and RnRC 4-5 times in a row at rope drop or park closing time. DD13 absolutely loves the citizens of Hollywood. If she sees a performance when we are getting off of RnRC she runs like a bat out of hell to cop a squat and watch. She was actually picked last trip to partake in one of their skits. She loved it. One of them came into HBD lounge area when we were eating and he sat with us and chatted with DD for a bit. She loved it. I'm sure if you accumulate all the time we spent watching the citizens it probably equaled a half day in the park.

We like shows so we watch them. We don't go to WDW every year, we go every 3 years or so, so when we go we watch the shows again. Not all but some. When DS was 15 I 'forced' him to do the Frozen Sing A long. He really liked it. So much that when he went back for his senior trip at 18 he had his friends watch it and they enjoyed it too.

I've never seen a Star Wars movie but I am excited to see SWGE. From pics I've seen it looks amazing. My DS19 is into SW so I'm excited to see it through his eyes.

I love the vibe of DHS. I can easily stroll around there without riding rides. When my kids were younger I bought the Dis hype that it was just a half day park but it's so much more for us.

DHS is now our check out day park. I always get a late flight out and we used to go to MK. Now the kids want those last few coveted FPs at DHS.

 

[tguz]

It is a full day park for us (with an afternoon break to swim or relax a bit but we do that everyday) and we haven't been there since SWGE. The worst thing we did all week was the Cars show though. Never again.

 

[cakebaker]

in reality it was 2 attraction , GMR and Backlot Tour, that would last 2 hours, with no way of escaping. It was so long they installed the restrooms and quick service mid tour

You’re right! I totally forgot the backlot tour. Herbie and the house for Golden Girls is about all I remember of it though. It was our first trip to WDW. My kids were 8. I made the mistake of taking them to the MK first and it was like pulling teeth to get them to any other park after that so it was a rushed in and out with 2 kids whining the whole time. lol It’s much improved since then, wouldn’t miss going now.