Hollywood Studios half day park?

[Mdsleiman]

The only day can fit in HS is our arrival day. Our flight gets in at 1pm and not sure it can it be done? I hate to skip it!!!

 

[Klayfish]

You probably can't do "everything" in HS in a matter of 4 or 5 hours, but you can still get a good amount accomplished. MDE will be your friend.

 

[hes122]

It can probably be done, but you just need to manage your expectations accordingly. It will really just depend on what it is you hope to accomplish during that time.

 

[SteveH]

Before Toy Story I'd say defiantly a half day park. For us the must do rides are Tower of Terror, Muppet;s (yes we love it still), Star Tours, Toy Story Mania! and Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster. Now with Toy Story Land that opens up several new rides, but I think it depends on the age of who's going, but I'd be inclined to go on Slinky Dog Dash and Alien Swirling Saucers if I can fit it in. I wouldn't use a Fastpass for Star Tours or Muppets.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

What rides and attractions are must see for you and your party? Solo? Kids? Height restrictions?

We are considering doing a half day at HS as well, but for us it's easy as my wife is pregnant and we have a 2 year old so we can't really ride anything anyways. We just want to see Toy Story land and now with Vamparina doing meet & greets, we kind of need to go. LOL

 

[siren0119]

It really depends on what's on your "Must see/must do" list, and what's going on at the park that day.

We assumed HS would be a half day for our family when we went last year. We did AK in the morning and then headed to HS for the afternoon.
We got on to all of the attractions we wanted, and even caught a couple of the shows.
That said, we didn't see everything in the park, and on our last day in Disney the kids were ADAMANT about spending more time at HS.
Next time we go down, we are going to allow for a day and a half, possibly two days especially with TSL open and SWL likely open the next time we are there.

 

[tonga]

Really depends on your party and what you want to see there. My DS9 is not a thrill rider and won't do Rock n Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror, but Hollywood Studios is his favourite of the parks. He loves Toy Story Mania and would ride Star Tours all day if he could. We haven't seen Toy Story Land yet and we're all looking forward to that. DS also enjoys the Star Wars meet and greets and will humour us with seeing the Muppets. We usually visit two evenings because Fantasmic and the Star Wars night time show are both must do's for us.

 

[LizzyS]

I went into our WDW trip thinking that HS was the least popular and a half-day park as I'd seen it repeatedly referred to as such here and elsewhere, but I ended up loving it and would do a full day there, if at all possible. Luckily I gave us a full day, anyway, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved HS.

 

[Tksolomom]

Half a day is better than none. As others have mentioned you won’t be able to see everything. I am going for a full day and still won’t fit everything in. As a PP mentioned, you will only be able to see one of the nighttime shows (Fantasmic or Star Wars/JBJB fireworks). You should be able to do the rides and maybe a couple of shows. I haven’t seen the Frozen sing along, which I have heard is good even if you don’t like Frozen). My family particularly likes the Indiana Stunt show, but that would depend on the ages of the people going.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It depends on what you want to do. It's more than a full day for us. We usually spend 2-2.5 days at DHS during a 10 day trip. My kids love it there. We don't go very often (every 3 years) so we like watching the shows and doing our favorite rides multiple times.

If it were only a half day we would focus on the rides.

 

[Amber Drogowski]

My son is 8 and not a roller coaster kid so we can definitely do the park in a half day.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

What can make it take long is that there’s a lot of shows so you’re held to the start times. It’s not continuous loading like rides. So sometimes you have these annoying 15-minute breaks where you don’t have enough time for a ride but it’s a little too early to join a line for a show. You have to just plot out what are must-sees.

 

[tinkerjo]

What can make it take long is that there’s a lot of shows so you’re held to the start times. It’s not continuous loading like rides. So sometimes you have these annoying 15-minute breaks where you don’t have enough time for a ride but it’s a little too early to join a line for a show. You have to just plot out what are must-sees.

This!! We ride a few rides at HS but really enjoy the shows. These take up a good deal of time. I agree also with if you only have 1/2 a day to concentrate on rides. Before TSL you could get them all done in a few hours. I would definitely go and hit a few things and walk around if nothing else. Definitely do not miss it

 

[gharter]

It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to do all the shows, and SDD and AS2 and TSM, you probably can't.
Before TSL, I think HS was little more than a half day park, while you could easily spend more time.
Getting your FPs and effectively refreshing and getting more FPs will be an important strategy.
While not ideal, it can work.

 

[g-dad66]

If your flight gets in at 1pm, you probably won't make it to the park until about 4pm (assuming using Magical Express and staying at a Disney resort).

It will be hard to get a 4th Fast Pass by that point (except possibly for Fantasmic), so hopefully you can pre-book three FPs for the attractions you most want to do. You'll be faced with long Standby waits for the three Toy Story Land rides, Tower of Terror, and Rock n Roller Coaster. Standby wait shouldn't be too bad for Star Tours, and you can always do Muppets, Frozen Sing-a-Long, Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones (but check latest show time), Beauty and the Beast (also check latest show time), Walt Disney Presents, and Fantasmic.

 

[puffkin]

We were there last Thursday, 10/17. Flew in that morning and then decided to wait for our room at Saratoga Springs to be ready before heading to a park (we did lunch and walked around Disney Springs until we could get in the room). Got into our room around 2:30 and settled in before heading to Hollywood Studios. This is what we accomplished with an 8pm park closing time, with no rushing except for one quick dash at the end of the night:

Arrived at park around 4pm by car and walked in. Through bag/security and in park by 4:10.
Got in standby line for Frozen Ever After 4:30 show.
After show, did our 5pm-6pm window Toy Story Mania Fast Pass
Had dinner at Woody's Lunch Box
Headed to Star Tours and waited in the Standby line (about 10 minutes)
Stopped at the Baseline Tap Room and tried the beer flight
Headed to Rock'n Roller Coaster for a 6:20-7:20 window Fast Pass
Walked through a few shops then stopped at Scoops for some ice cream sundaes
Did our Tower of Terror Fast Pass 7:30-8:00 window

Slinky Dog had been down most of the night. Our plan after ToT was to try and squeeze into Fantasmic. However, I checked MDE and SDD had just come back up while we were in line for ToT, so we speed walked back there after ToT (the only time we rushed all night) and hopped in the standby line right before park closing time of 8. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes.

On our way out, the Star Wars fireworks were just starting, so we stopped and watched those as well with a great view.

We were back in the room by 9:15.

 

[KenHutch]

You can make any park a half day park if you have to and prioritize what you need to see and do but for my Hollywood is a 2 day park and when Star Wars opens I believe it will become a 1.5 day to 2 day park for a lot of people.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

If you take advantage of fast passes and go during a not crazy busy time of year you can probably do a good portion of the park in half a day. Like others have said, it depends on what your must dos are. I’ve made a spreadsheet of all the parks and what their attractions and shows are and Hollywood Studios has the least of things to do. But when I showed it to my kids trying to decide which park besides Magic Kingdom that we’d do a second day in, they unanimously decided Hollywood Studios because even though it has less things, they love all of them and will ride all of the rides multiple times. That’s just not the case with Epcot and Animal Kingdom for us.

 

[bladiator]

You can make any park a half day park if you have to and prioritize what you need to see and do but for my Hollywood is a 2 day park and when Star Wars opens I believe it will become a 1.5 day to 2 day park for a lot of people.

One day standing in line for the Millennium Falcon ride alone.

 

[KelNChrisKYDis]

We always do HS in a half day, but we are able to get there at rope drop for EMH and do it that way. It's definitely not our favorite park and we skipped it entirely last time because we didn't have hoppers. My husband & I are doing a couples trip in 2 weeks and we're planning to spend a half day again, with an optional half day later in the trip as well if we find we need more time.