We’ve been planning a couple of days at the parks after a Disney cruise in mid-March with a day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios each. The original plan was to go to the Studios straight from the boat, but now we’re rethinking the whole thing. Between Rise of the Resistance and the Runaway Railway, I have this feeling that park will be a mass of humanity with nothing to do except stand in line for everything. We could swap days and spend the day we get off the boat at Magic Kingdom and then spend our free day afterwards at HS, but I’m not interested in doing ridiculous things like arriving at the park at 3 am.
My temptation is to grab park hoppers, see about rope dropping the Studios day two so my son can sign up for Jedi Training and then see what can be done. I’m actually wondering about just booking my FastPass+ entries for Magic Kingdom that day to use after we’re done with Jedi Training. When you can only really get one FP for the main attractions at the Studios, it just seems to be too little for the casual visitor.
I like the park hopper idea. I was just at HS over Thanksgiving and it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, although the 2 rides you mention weren’t open yet. SWGE is so huge that it allowed for a lot of people to be in it without it feeling crowded. Even though I’d read about that it was different in person. What CL are you dealing with? That might make a big difference. And are you completely uninterested in AK or Epcot?
Unfortunately, the only full day we have for HS is a crowd level 10. I just ran a base plan for HS of some minimum things that we would like to do, and for 80 minutes of entertainment, we’d have over 7 hours standing in line. (2 hours at rope drop for the runaway railway, which probably would get cut.)
Unlikely we’d do Epcot or Animal Kingdom; on our first trip to Disney, we aborted our plan for Epcot mid afternoon and hopped to Magic Kingdom after some pool time. And Animal Kingdom was a relative yawner for our family; we have an incredible zoo in our community, so other than the shows, we were not impressed. (We left the Safari after 2 hours, looked at each other and said “we wasted two hours on THAT?”)
IMHO - until 2022 each park is getting at least one or more major attractions and will be crowded. Unless you are going during a slower time like Feb. / Sept. / Early Dec you are going to have to decide “is it worth it” to face the FOMO / 1st! crowds
Same. I get a bit of blow-back from ppl when I tell them this. After I’ve been on EE, Dino, FoP I’m basically done at AK. I might stick around and see ITTBaB or Lion King. IMHO - AK is a half day park because I’m spoiled by one of the best zoos in the US, as rated by USA Today, right in my city.
Since I’m ranting about AK anyway… the food is overhyped there too. For theme park food it’s great. However, I’m not going there for Pizzafari , Flame Tree (better BBQ at home), Satu’il Canteen or even Nomad Longue. (I haven’t had Tiffins, but a single restuarant in a theme park isn’t enough to draw me in.)
However, I’m not going there for Pizzafari , Flame Tree (better BBQ at home), Satu’il Canteen or even Nomad Longue.
While true about the BBQ, on our last trip to Disney World, Flame Tree was the best meal we had on-site all week. (Close tie with the Giordano’s Pizza we had delivered to our room…)
The funny thing is that due to the Boarding Group system, the masses of humanity have been showing up at 5am and then leaving as soon as they are done with RotR, or leaving and coming back later when their BG is up. So the mornings have been insanity but the afternoons and evenings have been relatively light.
So you could either 1) join the masses at RD and get a BG for RotR, and while you are there you can usually knock out all the headliners by 10am; or 2) skip the morning madness (and RotR) and come to the park in late afternoon and enjoy the relatively lighter crowds.
For my 10 year old son, it’s the #1 thing he wants to do. Hence why I started changing my plans to do the Studios on Saturday so that we can be there at rope drop.
Given that and the other parameters in your original post, I would consider the following:
(1) Day 1 - MK after you arrive (book 3 FPs)
(2) Day 2 - Book 3 FPs for afternoon in MK. Rope drop DHS. Sign up for Jedi training. Then, depending on the time of the Jedi training, head to TSMM. Then, depending on timing and wait times, try to get another ride in. Then head to MK so you won’t spend the day waiting in long DHS lines.
Crowds at HS are actually down, not up. It is only the new headliners where you will have to worry about crowds. But actually, overall, you should see lower crowds in the park, not higher.
AK as a zoo is a poor one at best. We go to several zoos and all of them are better than AK. Now, of course, zoos don’t have the theme park things, so we do those. Even KS, though, pales compared to the Safari at Six Flags Great Adventure.
I just ran a base plan for HS of some minimum things that we would like to do, and for 80 minutes of entertainment, we’d have over 7 hours standing in line. (2 hours at rope drop for the runaway railway, which probably would get cut.)
… Thanks!