We started the morning of our third day in Magic Kingdom and headed to Hollywood Studios a little after noon. For our family, Hollywood Studios holds the least interest. The boys aren’t huge Star Wars fans and Tower of Terror is definitely out as a ride option. (They do thrilling but not scary.) But we have to balance that with the fact that their absolute favorite ride in all of Disney World is there, Toy Story Mania. So skipping it entirely wasn’t an option. We figured a half day would be fine.
JB had used a birthday gift card to purchase Stitch hands and a Pluto hat in Epcot and he wore them the rest of our trip. As we were walking up to the park entrance, one of the security guards came over, borrowed his Stitch hands and did a hilarious Stitch impersonation. The voice was spot on. Even the security guards are talented and entertaining in Disney! We got a great laugh out of it.
We wandered around Hollywood Boulevard for a little bit, grabbed some snacks, and headed down Sunset Boulevard. The last time we visited, Mickey’s Sorcerer hat was still the centerpiece of the park so it took us a little while to get adjusted to the new Chinese Theater focus. It definitely felt different than I remembered and I missed the old setup. I loved that each of the parks had a towering focal point and I just don’t think the theater has that same presence for Hollywood Studios.
After successful rides on Space Mountain and Expedition Everest, the boys decided they were up for the challenge of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Hollywood Studios uses the same tiered FastPass system as Epcot and there was no question that we would use our Tier 1 for Toy Story Mania. So that left us in the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster standby line. This wait rivaled the Primeval Whirl debacle but was somehow more tolerable because it was due to normal crowds and not an issue with the ride. Of course, the boys have no idea who Aerosmith is so that part of the ride was lost on them but they were excited for the roller coaster itself. I could see a little apprehension building as we got close to the front of the line and they watched the cars shoot out like a rocket blasting off, going from 0 to 57 mph in three seconds. I was nervous for them because it would be their first coaster that went upside down in a loop. But they did not back out and both enjoyed it, although their reactions were typically different – RB wanted to go on it again immediately (which we did not because of the line) and JB said “That was great! I don’t want to do it again.” But this is my all-time favorite ride photo of our family…
From there we headed over to the Muppets courtyard and watched Muppet Vision 3D. The boys thought the effects were fantastic. They were reaching out to try to touch things and kept lifting up their glasses to compare 3D to real life. It was a fun show.
On our way over to Pixar Place we happened upon the March of the First Order. It was worth stopping and watching but again, my boys aren’t huge Star Wars fans so it wasn’t something we would have gone out of our way to see.
We finally got to ride our favorite, Toy Story Mania. It didn’t disappoint. The graphics and effects are amazing. There is too much going on to take it all in (especially if you are trying to remain competitive with your score) but every ride seems fresh and exciting because of the dizzying amount of activity happening all around you. Some of the roller coasters may have crept up in the boys ride rankings now that they are older, but I think this one will always remain close to the top of their lists.
After some debate, we decided to try to squeeze in a ride on Star Tours before dinner. This simulator ride is similar to Soarin’. The effects were impressive, but the theming of Soarin’ was more interesting to us. But definitely worth a ride for us!
We had dinner reservations at Hollywood and Vine for their character dinner, Minnie’s Silver Screen Dine. In my evil plot to get us to all the nighttime shows, I decided that we would get the Fantasmic Dining Package here so that we could get reserved seating at the show. This is SUPER expensive and I only did it because we had the dining plan. This meal alone was more than the cost of the dining plan for the day.
We waited for a while even though we had a reservation. But it was a fun character meal because you got 5 of the main Disney characters in one place – Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy. Mickey stays at the front of the restaurant for a photo opportunity on your way out and the other 4 rotate around the restaurant visiting tables. All of them were dressed to the nines in their Hollywood best. Donald was the most fun – he hid behind the pillar and kept reaching around to tap RB on the shoulder and after he signed JB’s book he held the pen up in the air and made him jump to catch it.
The atmosphere was fun but the food was mediocre at best. Aside from a decent dessert buffet, there was nothing to write home about. I can’t imagine ever finding a buffet where I would eat $59 of food, and this one wasn’t even close. But the two goals of this meal were to meet the characters and to get to see Fantasmic without waiting in a long line. So from that perspective, mission accomplished.
So yes, that means that we DID make it to Fantasmic!!! Thankfully we avoided a complete and total breakdown of my nighttime plans. So, success! Or was it? I have to admit that when the show started I almost immediately regretted the lengths to which I had gone to get us there. It was super intense with a fair number of evil undertones. As Disney describes it, several “larger-than-life” villains gather to “turn Mickey’s dreams into nightmares”. Great. Nightmares. I looked at my boys faces and could see the future nightmares brewing in their own minds. (Side note, I read so much about how great the show was that I never bothered to read about the plot. My bad.)
But all was not lost. As intense and scary as some parts were, the effects were amazing and the kids were blown away by the pyrotechnics, laser lights, shooting water, and projected animations. And then a literal boatload of characters rode in to save the day (or night). When Steamboat Willie captained in a riverboat full of 25+ Disney characters dancing and singing, I knew everything would be ok.
Overall our Hollywood Studios visit was a great time, with Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster being huge hits with the kids. But I have to say that I don’t feel like the park has the same unified feeling as the other parks. It feels to me like a bunch of isolated and unrelated areas with no natural flow between them. The other parks somehow manage to bring disparate worlds together successfully (like the completely unrelated Future World and World Showcase in Epcot) but Hollywood Studios doesn’t pull that off in my opinion. And it just feels less Disney to me. It is an amalgamation of movies and characters that they have purchased and I think it takes away from the overall “Disney-ness” of it. I’m excited for the opening of Toy Story Land and hope that will bring Hollywood Studios back around to more of a Disney feel. (Conversely, I am not too excited about Pandora because I think it will introduce some of the same non-Disney distractions to Animal Kingdom and fracture that park a little too.)
So I have to admit that I feel like my planning was a bit of a failure. I figured out our park days almost completely based on ending each day in a park with a nighttime show and then we ended up seeing only 1 of the 3 shows and it ended up being the one that was scary and intense. I think either the fireworks or IllumiNations would have been a much better experience for us but that isn’t the way it played out. Such is life. My kids probably haven’t thought twice about it but as a mom and the family travel planner, I definitely have. I would chalk it up as lessons learned for next time around, but considering it will probably be 4 or 5 years before we go again, I think we’ll be in a pretty different situation by then, as the kids will be older, able to stay out later, and (hopefully) not so sensitive to scary visual effects. But it did not take anything away from our overall Disney experience so I’m cutting my losses and moving on.
Hollywood Studios Tips and Take-aways
- Star Wars fans will love it here. For younger ones, Jedi Training is an incredible opportunity to train and then fight Darth Vader. For older fans, Star Tours is fun and Star Wars Launch Bay will satisfy any mega-fan’s thirst for Star Wars history and memorabilia.
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is Disney World’s biggest thrill ride. If your kids (or you) are thrill seekers, this is the ride for them.
- Toy Story Mania is great for all ages. Everyone will love the theming and the game is smart enough to adjust the challenge level based on the rider’s performance so little kids don’t struggle with difficult targets.
- Minnie’s Silver Screen Dine Fantasmic Dining Package at Hollywood and Vine is not worth the money unless you are on the Disney Dining Plan. The characters are fun but the food is not great and the reserved seating for the show did not get us any better view than if we had just walked up at the same time and gone into general seating.
- If you have younger kids or kids of any age who are easily scared, you might want to preview Fantasmic online before going to the show. The show is intense and scary for some kids. There are plenty of YouTube videos out there that you can watch and decide ahead of time whether or not your kids will be ok with it.
