DHS - hits and misses?

[fivi2]

We are going to wdw in August. My girls will be 7.5. We have never done DHS and plan to this trip. As of now, their interests skew a bit young (they still watch Jake, Sofia the first, Doc McStuffins, etc). We haven't watched any Pixar movies, and they don't like big coasters... (and they scare easily).

On my radar for DHS (assuming they are still interested in these shows):

Disney Jr. show (and emh dance party, maybe)
meeting Jake
Shrunk the Kids playground
Beauty and the Beast
Muppetvision
maybe Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Animation thing (academy? studio? whatever it is called)

Anything else?

(I know, everyone loves TSMM. I will have to see if I can get them to go on it. Last year at Disneyland they refused Buzz Astroblasters and TSMM).

What else is a hit at DHS? Thanks!

[jjordan]

My kids were 6.5 (girl) and 4.5 (boy) when we went last month. They both (especially the 4.5 year old) enjoyed the Star Wars ride. We also did The Great Movie Ride, which was definitely NOT a must-see. Yes for Little Mermaid (though Ariel was singing VERY FLAT when we saw it!), yes for TSMM if you can convince them (both our kids enjoyed it). They really liked the Muppets 3D, and on the way out of that my 4.5 year old boy spotted Lightning McQueen and Mater under a tent for a "character greeting." That was definitely the highlight of his day, though I doubt it would have the same impact for your girls. :) I think that's about it, though... If you and/or dh is able to do Tower of Terror, I have heard from multiple sources that it really is the best ride at WDW. My dh, who is not a thrill-ride type, went on it and talked on and on about what a good ride it is.

If you need/want a counter service meal or a snack, Starring Rolls is really good. :)

[cntrymoon2]

Another vote for TSMM here. And Fantasmic is worth staying for! Writers Stop Cafe is another great place for counter service, along with Starring Rolls. We like the Dance Party better than the Disney Jr Live on Stage show (which is puppets, not costume characters).
Have fun!

[fivi2]

Thanks guys! DHS won't be our first day, so I will see how much luck I have getting them on Buzz or other rides. I have heard TSMM is great, but I just don't want to drag them on! (I almost did in Dland!)

Thanks for the food suggestions.

We saw the Dis Jr stage show in DLand and they liked it well enough. There is a rumor that Sofia and Doc are joining it (I haven't researched it) which, along with Jake, would make their day. (as of now - who knows in August!) And I think they would love the dance party.

Thanks for the tips!

[egoldber]

Your DDs may not like The Little Mermaid Show. My younger DD spent most of it on my lap when we went last year. The Ursula part is really intense for some kids. There are always kids crying and many parents walk out with kids. It is dark and loud.

Fantasmic is my favorite fireworks show, but my younger DD cannot stand it.

Beauty and the Beast also has a couple intense parts, but the setting is less overwhelming (open air, not dark). We have not done the new Star Wars attraction.

My kids like the car stunt show (Lights and Motocars?).

Even though it is soooooo lame and sooooo cheesy both my kids ADORE The Great Movie Ride. :shrug: Just make sure to catch it at a time when it is walk on because it is soooo not worth more than a 5-10 minute wait!

TSMM is very fun, make sure to get your FastPasses as soon as you walk in the park!

Older DD liked the Studio Tour attraction, but be aware that it takes a long time (maybe 30 minutes?). It's easy to get "trapped".

Our fav CS is Pizza Planet, Writer's Stop and Starring Rolls (maybe breakfast only?).

[fivi2]

Thanks! We saw the traveling Broadway BatB so I am thinking they will be okay. I had heard that about mermaid so I am still on the fence (and fantasmic) . I really want to see fantasmic so i might force it...

I guess great movie ride is not the scary one?

I had heard the LMA one was a bit loud but we will see if it fits in.

Dh did Star Wars in CA so I will ask him but I was assuming we would skip it. (He might do it but not the rest of us) .

Thanks for the suggestions!

[hellokitty]

Voyage of the Little Mermaid is rumored to be axed. Probably b/c there is now a new LM ride at the new fantasyland.

If your girls are at all into star wars, you should sign them up for jedi academy. My boys loved it, but my friend's dd did it with my kids too and loved it. Be warned though, you will have to split up in that case. You and the girls (child must be present) will have to go and sign up for the jedi training as soon as the park opens and you will have to send your dh to fight the madhouse to get FP for TSM. TSM should be your #1 priority in terms of FP, they run out of FP extremely quickly.

If they light Lightening McQueen or Tomater, make sure they stop by the meet and greet. They are not, 'live," but you can get some nice pics.

Star Tours is great, and there are different missions, so you can go on multiple times and do different missions.

Starring Rolls is great. When we went in 2011 we went to the pizza place. OMG, it was a madhouse, I had to save a seat with the kids while DH got the food, otherwise, it was so difficult to find a seat. The food was ok, but if it is at all busy at the parks, then it will be crazy there. Starring Rolls has counter service, but it looks like a little bakery/cafe, so many ppl don't realize that they carry sandwiches (their turkey was very good on foccia bread!) and even sushi! If you buy their counter service meal, it is extremely generous. You get a bottled drink of choice, sandwich or sushi, fresh fruit AND one of their yummilicious cupcakes (I like their butterfinger cupcake). You need to go early though. If they run out of food, they run out, they don't make more. They have little cafe tables to be seated at outside, but seating is limited, and the store is so tiny, have two ppl go in to get the food, while two stay outside and save a table.

The great movie ride isn't scary at all. I think that they have Al Capone in a few scenes (a CM plays him), with fake gun shots, but it didn't freak my kids out.

I bet your girls would like the Beauty and Beast show. The acting is bad, but the kids like it, lol. It's an outdoor pavillion under a canopy, so feel free to enjoy a snack while watching the show.

Your girls will be old enough to do the tower of terror. IDK if it is too scary for them or not, but my two older boys did it for the first time during our trip two months ago. One was ok with it, one was freaked out, but since dh had bribed him with a ToT pin, he was ok with it, lol.

We skipped fantasmic last time, they ran out of seats. If you want to watch it for sure and want to do a sit down meal for the fantasmic pkg (they guarantee seating for fantasmic if you do the meal bundle), it might be the way to go. The sit down restaurants are kind of meh. We went to sci fi diner for the first time, b/c one of dh's co-workers raved about it. The food was ok, it was nice, b/c the kids were really quiet watching the movies, lol. One of my friends went to mama melrose last month and said that they liked it more than they thought that they would. So, if we go again and do the fantasmic pkg, we will do the one with mama melrose. Sci fi is the only one where you won't be able to do the fantasmic pkg, the other table service restaurants allow you to do it. Also, if it is a busy time, they sometimes have two showings of fantasmic. The later showing is supposed to be much less busy, so maybe that could be an option too, if you don't want to do the fantasmic pkg. I think that the best thing to do is to get food to go and bring it early to fantasmic to save a seat if you don't want to do the dinner pkg. It is rather dark and can be scary. So, we weren't crushed to not be able to go this time. My 3 yr old might not have been too happy.

We didn't get a chance to watch the disney jr show, but I heard it's great, esp if you have a jake fan.

The indiana jones show was ok. The lights and motor show was ok.

[egoldber]

I had heard the LMA one was a bit loud but we will see if it fits in.

It is loud, but it's also open air and roaring engines vs. loud and dark and menacing (like Ursula in VotLM). But it can be hard to fit in because they only do 3 or 4 shows a day and cancel shows if it is at all damp.


I guess great movie ride is not the scary one?

I think the "scary" part is there is a scene from Alien. Now, my kids have never seen or heard of Alien, so they don't get it at all. And unless your car happens to stop right under the "alien" it's hard to even see it. Younger DD did find the storyline with the CM a little scary, but nothing she couldn't handle.

[newnana]

Yes, dis Jr. is currently closed to be refurbed for Doc Mcstuffins and Sofia. DD would have loved this when we were just there for our first ever trip, alas it was closed.

DD hated fanstasmic. It was too scary for her and a bit of something got in her eye so that took her over the edge. I will say that we did the dinner package with Hollywood and Vine (50's style buffet) that DD said was the best mac and cheese she ever had. I was a fan of the chocolate covered strawberries. I liked that place because it was only 1 table service credit each and lots of healthy fruit options for DD.

DD loved toy story mania and we rode it 3 times. She was not a big fan of the buzz lightyear ride at all if that is any reference. Much brighter and cartoonier. and it's not so much shooting as carnival games, DD and I highly recommend it.

The other thing DD LOVED was not a stationary thing. There were 3 people wandering the park with movie filming equipment. The lady was supposed to be the director and 2 guys were the crew that did not listen well at all. Hysterical all the kids got in on the act. We saw them back in the area that looks like city streets for a movie lot, but I also saw them by the big hat.

We had lots of great character meets here, only place to meet Wreck it Ralph and Venelope, we met chip and dale, Pluto, skipped on stitch, etc. with hardly any line.

Have fun! In full disclosure DD will not watch any Disney movie all the way through because parts are still too scary for her. Not one. She LOVED Toy story mania. I wouldn't skip it and if you have Extra magic hours, go for this and make a beeline for it because when we were there they were out of fastpasses by 9 am or 10 am and it was a low crowd day.

[fivi2]

Thanks again! I guess it must have been the alien scene I had heard was scary. Good to hear it isn't bad.

It sounds like there is a lot more than I had realized ... yikes. Planning is hard.

We haven't actually been on buzz either - they freaked out at the talking buzz in the queue (California) and refused to go on it. But I will try for tsmm.

Thanks everyone!

[newnana]

by back lot I do not mean the backlot tour. I had heard about the alien scene and we decided to skip it until DH can go with us. We were just wandering the park exploring and were back in the city street area not on any sort of tour when we ran across those folks.

[georgiegirl]

We were there in November, and my DD was 6.5. She absolutely loved the Beauty and the Beast Show. She also loved Toy Story Mania, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, the Disney Junior Show (the bubbles and falling gold deblooms at the end are awesome), the Little Mermaid Show (I thought it was lame.). She's also a dare devil and she liked the Tower of Terror, but it is scary, so unless your kids like scary things, I wouldn't do that. She liked Star Tours (she's a big fan.). What else...we did see the stunt show, which she liked, but my 3 year old was a bit scared from the loud noises. She wanted to go on the Rock n Roll roller coaster, but she was an inch too short. My kids aren't into meeting characters. In the past, we've done the Great Move Ride and the Backlot Tour, which both kids enjoyed but didn't love. I liked the great movie ride because it is cool in there and you get to sit and relax a while.

[icunurse]

We went in Oct 2011 and are planning to go back this Oct. My kids were 4 and 7. We arrived about an hour before rope drop to get a good spot to sign up for the Jedi show. So, when the rope dropped (stay to your left), he walked quickly with DS to sign up for the Jedi Academy and a rushed with Dd in a stroller to get our fast passes for TSM. DS ended up being in the first show, so I literally ran across the park to catch his time as a Jedi. Thank goodness the park is small!

Loved Beauty and the Beast. Always love the Muppets. Little Mermaid was okay. Fantasmic is my favorite show, so we did the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose. I really liked the food, DH wasn't as impressed, kids wolfed theirs down. The seats at Fantasmic weren't the greatest, which you'd think they would upgrade a bit because of the package, but I also wasn't waiting in line for over an hour, either.

Disney is doing some new thing with being able to book Fastpass times prior to your trip. I really don't understand it and there hasn't been a ton of info out there, but you might want to look into it before your trip to see if it can help you out.

[jjordan]

My 6.5 year old was pretty freaked out by The Great Movie Ride, fwiw.

[ett]

We just got back from WDW yesterday. We weren't planning on doing Hollywood Studios originally, but the boys really wanted to go on the Toy Story ride, so we decided to go. The Toy Story ride was a hit and we would have gone on it again if the line was not so long, even at the end of the day. We ran to get fastpasses for the ride as soon as we got to the park. Star Tours was also a hit with them and they did that twice.

The Art of Animation section was also a hit. The Animation Academy is there where they teach you how to draw a Disney character. The class runs every half hour. We didn't do it until the end of the day but it seemed like many of the other people had been there more than once. They do a different character each class. Even DS1 who is not an art person at all enjoyed it.

The Indiana Jones stunt show was a miss for them.

We also went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, Muppets show, and Beauty and the Beast show. We skipped the Little Mermaid show based on what I read here.

The middle part of Fantasmic with the villians was too much for DS2. His head was in my lap and I covered his ears for that part.

[BayGirl2]

My DS gets scared but was ok with Fantasmic! at DL and we'll do it again at WDW. I prep him by watching YouTube videos of any questionable ride. He understands they are pretend, but then he can tell me no too scary or ok. If you haven't done that with your DDs I'd suggest it. TSMM is not at all scary to him. With F! he found it a little scary at first but loved it in person. For a while he would ask to watch the video of "the dragon show".

[inmypjs]

I'm really glad to read everyone's feedback. We are planning to go to HS because my DS8 is super excited about anything Star Wars. I was planning to have one adult get Toy Story fast passes and one adult go with the kids for the Jedi activity, but beyond that I wasn't sure. My daughter loves Ariel, but I'm inclined to skip TLM show now. I think she will get enough princesses at Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, Cinderella's table and the rest of Magic Kingdom. I am not looking for anything too loud or intense.

[newnana]

Since DD is into Ariel, I would make sure when you go to MK that you go to Ariel's Grotto. It's right next to the Ariel ride and is a separate line. It was a 30 minute wait when we went, and DD was not overly into Ariel before that, but after she significantly elevated in DDs status. Ariel's Grotto at MK is the only place you can meet Ariel in her tail. The one we met was beyond fabulous. She was hilarious, engaging, and talked to DD quite a bit even though there was a line. Completely worth the wait.

[inmypjs]

Thanks for the tip!