We’re planning a trip to WDW in April 2020. Our initial plan was to avoid HS for a few years, let the madness die down. We’re now having second thoughts, due to HS love. We want to hit that park, but not the Star Wars Land portion. Anticipating 10 crowd levels (naturally) for HS every day of our stay, is it really worth it? Do you think that the non-Star Wars portion of HS will be ram-jammed?
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The short answer is yes.
The long answer is - does it really matter THAT much? I mean, HS has a lot of shows. There isn’t much waiting in line for those. For the few rides they do have, are you interested in riding those? You could FP RnRC and ToT. Some of the other time you can see TSL, because I figure most of the crowd going there will be redirected to SWGE.
We are going over Thanksgiving for 7 days in park and doing 2 in HS. I anticipate trying to spend at least half a day in SWGE ( if it’s permitted at the time). If I can ride Millenium Falcon and Rise of the Resistance (if it’s open) I will consider it a success. I realize RoR may not yet be open by then, but it will be when you go.
If you take the data from the opening of Pandora at AK and apply it to SWEG / HS you should see about a 30%+ increase in crowds & queues. Maybe more with people being fans of SW far more than Avatar.
People are definitely going to head straight to SWGE and stay for hours in that area, but they’re not going to leave the park when done. They’ll spill out to Tot, RnR, TSL & etc… This is similar to WWOHP at Universal.
People dash to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Later in the day, after lunch, the other attraction queues skyrocket as they file back out into the other sections.
If you want to go to HS, don’t be put off by the crowds. They’re not dying down anytime soon. Go to TSL, Tot, RnR, Muppets – do M&Gs, see shows & etc… while everyone else is packed into SWGE. Then as your day winds down or a couple hours before close hop into SWGE and see if you can ride something with a nominal wait.
This is a common strategy for Pandora. You hop on Navi about an hour before park close and then jump on FOP as the last attraction right at closing.
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Man… a decade from now, I’ll be happy for the new lands at HS. But for now, I feel like Star Wars is ruining it. All I want is to tour the normal park, love the feel of it, DD11 loves Tot, Fantasmic, Muppet Vision, Sci Fi dine. I couldn’t care less if I get into the Star Wars stuff, but now it’s going to feel wicked crowded because of extra lands I won’t even enter.
I get it. However, WWOHP opened in 2010 and it is still pulling in large crowds at Universal. Furthermore, I don’t think this will be the last new attractions at HS or even SWGE.
Heck, no one is even talking about Mickey & Minnie’s RR opening in 2020. People are going to want to see that too, especially those that are waiting for RoR to open. I don’t think HS is ever, at least not IMHO, going to go back to being the park you could just stroll around watching “streetmosphere” characters and hopping on a ride or two. It’s going to be a full blown “must do” park for a lot of people who will skip Epcot and AK entirely.
How many days are you staying? What’s your plan?
I think if I was going 4 days or less I might avoid, 5 days or more I would go. I think you could do the stuff you want to do first thing in the morning with a short wait while everyone is in Galaxy’s Edge.
You just broke my heart right there. Broke it in two.
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My DD17 likes to call me “Dream Killer”. I’m torn about it too. I’m going to miss grabbing a turkey leg and strolling down Sunset Blvd. casually watching street performers and etc…
However, I’m looking forward to this becoming a “full day” park with lots of new attractions and revitalized sections, like Grand Ave.