Lowered Expectations for HS

Dsjewell

Active Member
Just booked a 5 day stay at CR for June. We did three days last year and skipped HS entirely because TSM was down. Have 4,5&7 year olds. While they haven’t opened booking for EMM for TSL I’m assuming they will. With the kids not ready for TOT or RR yet. If we score EMM passes for TSL is it better to just plan a half day there and use the rest of the day as a rest by the pool?
 

belledream

Well-Known Member
You could always plan for a full day and leave early for the pool and relaxation if you feel you’ve exhausted all your entertainment options. Don’t forgot about dining. HS has some restaurants with kid-appeal. Maybe Sci-Fi? That’ll burn up and hour or so.
 
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Dsjewell

Active Member
Original Poster
We booked Hollywood and Vine. I’m sure we’ll love it just like the others. We have Cinderella, chef mickeys, Snow White, askerhaus, Ohana, bog booked, is h&v worth booking too?
 
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Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
We booked Hollywood and Vine. I’m sure we’ll love it just like the others. We have Cinderella, chef mickeys, Snow White, askerhaus, Ohana, bog booked, is h&v worth booking too?

Yikes! That's a lot of character dining. I'd say no to H&V unless the kids are super-into the characters on offer. In fact, if I were you I'd pare it down a bit, but obviously it's a subjective choice and you'll want to do what is most enjoyable for your family. You're already going to be meeting a few characters (Mickey & friends, some of the princesses), more than once, and spending many hours at restaurants. Each character meal can easily take over 2 hours, depending on how long you have to wait to be seated, and how efficient (or not) the character rotation is. It can get to be a bit much for little ones with short attention spans.
 
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JohnD

Well-Known Member
We booked Hollywood and Vine. I’m sure we’ll love it just like the others. We have Cinderella, chef mickeys, Snow White, askerhaus, Ohana, bog booked, is h&v worth booking too?

Find out which characters are there. You either get Disney Jr. or Minnie and friends (sometimes switching up seasonal outfits). Read the fine print carefully before you book so that you know the characters you're getting with your meal. Disney Jr. is at breakfast. Minnie and Friends (Minnie's Summertime Dine starting June 3) is lunch/dinner.

Otherwise, the meal is a buffet. Whether breakfast or lunch/dinner it's pretty much what you would expect of buffet food.
 
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Dsjewell

Active Member
Original Poster
Last year staying at AOA for our first trip was only a three day wild ride with only one character meal at Tusker House. This year staying at the Contemporary it seemed like a lot more doable to get in some character meals. Basically I've booked and overbooked with idea of scaling back once I figure out the FP situation. We have a 9:55 PM reservation at Ohana the night we land. Hoping we can get there landing at 7:30 PM. I have another dinner booked there later in the trip in case it doesn't pan out. We have Bippity at the castle book for DD and lunch at Cinderella after. Taking our two boys to liberty tavern for lunch. That night I have Snow White Booked at Wilderness, but since she will be at Askerhaus we may end up dropping that one. The boys won't be doing that one either. Really hoping the bookings open soon for Pixar Play Zone, that will be the character experience the boys will love.
 
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JohnD

Well-Known Member
Last year staying at AOA for our first trip was only a three day wild ride with only one character meal at Tusker House. This year staying at the Contemporary it seemed like a lot more doable to get in some character meals. Basically I've booked and overbooked with idea of scaling back once I figure out the FP situation. We have a 9:55 PM reservation at Ohana the night we land. Hoping we can get there landing at 7:30 PM. I have another dinner booked there later in the trip in case it doesn't pan out. We have Bippity at the castle book for DD and lunch at Cinderella after. Taking our two boys to liberty tavern for lunch. That night I have Snow White Booked at Wilderness, but since she will be at Askerhaus we may end up dropping that one. The boys won't be doing that one either. Really hoping the bookings open soon for Pixar Play Zone, that will be the character experience the boys will love.

Keep in mind that 'Ohana dinner is not a character meal. Only breakfast. I assume you already know that. But just in case. . .
 
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Dsjewell

Active Member
Original Poster
Went ahead and dropped the Hollywood and Vine, I remember some terrible reviews of the food. Has anyone had the prime rib at Artist Point? No one else in the family will get to excited over the menu, but I'm planning all this so I deserve meat.
 
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belledream

Well-Known Member
Went ahead and dropped the Hollywood and Vine, I remember some terrible reviews of the food. Has anyone had the prime rib at Artist Point? No one else in the family will get to excited over the menu, but I'm planning all this so I deserve meat.
Haha!!

Good call - most Disney buffets are pretty standard but H&V has been substandard in my opinion ever since they got rid of that massive ice cream/dessert bar. Your other buffet choices are much more unique in experience. :)
 
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bpadair32

Well-Known Member
Went ahead and dropped the Hollywood and Vine, I remember some terrible reviews of the food. Has anyone had the prime rib at Artist Point? No one else in the family will get to excited over the menu, but I'm planning all this so I deserve meat.

I just watched a YouTuber (thetimtracker) doing a dining review there. They were with another couple so they got 4 different dishes and they said the prime rib was the worst of all of them. The person that ordered it ended up barely eating it.
 
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Dsjewell

Active Member
Original Poster
That might be enough for me to drop that one as well. In my haste I now realize that I have this booked on the same day we're doing liberty tavern and cinderella which will use up my one table service of the day anyway. I'm not that wild about Tavern, I just figured I'd make the boys do the hall of Presidents and do that for lunch.
 
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docdebbi

Well-Known Member
I'm currently having trouble fitting everything in my schedule for DHS. Kids are 6, 8, 10. They LOVE indiana jones (fire = cool for boys), they want to do Jedi training, muppet vision, they still like little mermaid, want to do all of TSL, (toy story mania twice), star tours, beauty and the beast show, we always do lunch at sci-fi and then dinner mama melrose to get the fantasmic FP, star wars launch bay, and they're very interested in what's new with lightning mcqueen's racers....it's a full day for us!
 
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aliceismad

Well-Known Member
All the shows can take quite a long time at HS. Look through them, see which your kids would like, and plan your day by that. Lightning McQueen Racing Academy will be open by then, as well as the Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and Indiana Jones shows, plus the various Star Wars things.
 
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JohnD

Well-Known Member
All the shows can take quite a long time at HS. Look through them, see which your kids would like, and plan your day by that. Lightning McQueen Racing Academy will be open by then, as well as the Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and Indiana Jones shows, plus the various Star Wars things.

For the record, the Frozen show is very enjoyable at an adult level. Lots of jokes by the storytellers that would go over the kids' heads.
 
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JillC LI

Well-Known Member
That might be enough for me to drop that one as well. In my haste I now realize that I have this booked on the same day we're doing liberty tavern and cinderella which will use up my one table service of the day anyway. I'm not that wild about Tavern, I just figured I'd make the boys do the hall of Presidents and do that for lunch.
Liberty Tavern and Cinderella's Castle EACH use one table service credit so you're up to 2 for the day even without the one you plan to drop. Also, Artist's Point is 2 TS credits I believe. Make sure you have enough credits if you're relying on the dining plan for all these meals. Character meals are very pricey to pay for out of pocket. Use your credits wisely.
 
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13*Minute*Wait

Well-Known Member
There are lots of things to do at HS that your kids might enjoy, besides the shows mentioned.

If you're Star Wars fans:
My little girl(7) loves Star Tours. Its one of her favorite rides in all the parks. Depending on the day, the wait time can be really short, so multiple rides are easy. There's also the Jedi training, where the kids get to get on stage with Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. We also like to watch the Star Wars movie montage(proper name escapes me) that is shown in the center of the park multiple times a day.

Little girl also loves the Muppets movie. Its OK to me, especially after seeing it many times, but she really loves it.

There are many characters to meet/greet throughout the park as well.

We've also done various dinner packages that include VIP seats for Fantasmic, which we all really enjoy. Its an awesome show.

If you can't get FP+ for Slinky or TSM, you could ride that Alien spinner ride. Once again, its just OK to me, but my little one loves it. Wait times have always been reasonable to us.

With all that said, would I want to get there at rope drop, and stay until the park closes....probably not. But, there are plenty of things to do. At least you're sitting down a lot if you do a bunch of shows, so the little one's legs (and yours) don't wear out as bad. Hope this helps. Have fun!!
 
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drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Liberty Tavern and Cinderella's Castle EACH use one table service credit so you're up to 2 for the day even without the one you plan to drop. Also, Artist's Point is 2 TS credits I believe. Make sure you have enough credits if you're relying on the dining plan for all these meals. Character meals are very pricey to pay for out of pocket. Use your credits wisely.
You have it backwards. Cinderella's is 2 credits and Artist's Point (character meal) is one.
 
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