Planning a 5 park day trip for late April, no hopper.
Day 1 - Undecided, will arrive at a park around 10am
Day 2 - Epcot
Day 3 - Magic
Day 4 - Hollywood
Day 5 - Animal (leaving Orlando mid afternoon)
Trying to decide between Hollywood vs Magic for that 1st day. TP shows we can do everything we want to do at Hollywood (day 4) and Magic (day 3) on those designated days.
The debate is I am fearful that we won’t be able to really get everything done in Hollywood (Star Wars, Toy Story, Jedi training, Shows) that 1 day, but also don’t think we need 2 full days there either.
Kids (ages 8-12) would prefer a second day at Magic since there are more rides to repeat and the character greetings.
I’d go wherever your kids want to visit. If that’s MK - go there. If your kids are happy, you’ll be happy.
I always consider MK to be a two day park - at a minimum. There’s so much to do there. Plus, when I think of “Disney” I think of MK. This is where I would go
If they’re not giant Star Wars fans or enjoy sitting and watching shows like Indy or Frozen then one day at DHS may be enough for you.
None of us are huge Star Wars fans, but we all want to do the new rides at least once. Not planning any droid or light saber building so hopefully 1 day there is enough.
I’d definitely pick MK over HS as a second day…although HS has quickly turned from a 1/2 day park to a 2 day park!
However, keep in mind that HS crowds have gone DOWN, not up since the opening of SWGE, so that helps. Plus, I feel there are things at MK that are nice to just take your time with (TSI, for example) that if you do a single day you just have to avoid or rush through. I like to be able to just meander through Swiss Family Tree house without feeing rushed. Lots to look at. That kind of thing.
Not that you can’t fill up another day at HS. We’ve added a second HS day to our May trip specifically for SW.
Are hoppers and / or things like EMM out of the question?
Sometimes, the $ extras are worth it. I won’t go into huge detail, but your situation is part of the reason we get hoppers. It makes planning what we want to do much easier.
If the kids want a second MK day I’d go with that. HS has easily been a 1.5 day park for us BEFORE SWGE but we like to see a lot of the shows and do alot of the M&Gs which together take up quite a bit of time. HS CAN be a more than one day park for some but MK is FOR SURE a more than one day park. And to @ryan1‘s point…things like the treehouse and TSI will likely be completely neglected during a 1 day tour of MK. TSI is likely one of my kids’ favorite things to do in all of WDW.