Hollywood Studios needs big help

[Daisy'sMom]

We went over to the Studios yesterday with family members that have never been to HS. I was so excited for them to experience a great park but left so disappointed. First the parking was terrible, whatever happened to making sure the rows of cars were neat enough for someone to leave without the fear of banging another car that is out in the lane?
THen we go on Great Movie Ride and the cast members mumbled thru it and no one could understand what either one was saying. They acted so bored.
Then we did the backlot tour. What a mistake. We were the last car to leave, they were closing it at 5. There was no recording to tell anyone what they were seeing, and no interaction. The driver and other cast member did not say one word. It was horrble.
One of the family members that we were with said he should have gone to Universal Studios and we had to agree.
Hardly any Christmas decorations except for the Osbourne lights. Cast members were so grumpy, disheveled and bored. Staggs is not a good leader after all.

[A Big Kid]

That pretty much sums up mytrip.

Disney used to do everything First Class. They KNEW by investing $$, they were going to get $$$$ back in return. Now it is all about cutting corners-from everything to castmembers to attractions.

[KevMcNJ]

I loved the place back when it was called MGM Studios.

But there was a gap in my life where I didnt get to visit WDW from 1991 until 2008. When we visited WDW in 2008 I couldnt wait to get back to MGM. But once we got there, I was disappointed to learn the place hadnt aged well at all. Heck it wasnt even called MGM Studios any longer!

When I visted in 1990 & 91 I could easily have spent an entire day at MGM. Now if I can walk down Hollywood Blvd for old times' sake and ride ToT and RnR Im ready to go

The Great Movie Ride is a time machine for me in that I can ride it and feel like Im 24 again but it feels dated and shopworn now. Doesnt help that they put that stupid hat right in front of that beautiful building so you cant even see the building any longer.

If theres no lines I could easily spend an hour in DHS and be ready to go on to the other (better) Theme parks

I know nothing about the inner workings of WDW. Im just a geek who is fortunate enough to be able to get there once every couple years. And I know not one person who works there but it almost seems to me like DHS is the theme park they dont know what to do with and is the theme park they wish they hadnt built

[joanna71985]

For GMR- some of the mics don't work very well. Maybe that's what happened why you couldn't hear the tour guide

Backlot Tour- it is not a spieling attraction anymore. There is supposed to be a recording that is played

[andypooh]

Hopefully Cars World will help revitalize the park

[Gator]

I agree it needs help, but not in the area you point to. Those issues just seem to be poor CMs, which is not what I experienced on my two days there. I thought the live stuff was great as usual. However, they do need another E-ticket attraction I think. And the Indy show could use a new script as well. Maybe another good dining option could help.

[missastrocat]

I haven't posted at all since our trip a few weeks ago, but my DH had never been to WDW, and he said that Hollywood Studios was his favorite park. We had one of the bad working microphones on the GMR and the CM kept hitting it trying to get it to work. We just giggled when it happened.

We didn't get a chance to even do the Backlot tour as it was out, and so was LMA until the next to last day of our trip. We went back out to Studios to see it and he really enjoyed it!

We did have to wait over an hour for ToT, because the wait said 30 minutes when we got in line, but then one side went down, so with only two elevator/rides working, it took over an hour in line. We had a nice conversation with the family behind us and tried to enjoy the time we had.

As someone who has gone to the park multiple times, I was a bit annoyed at the LONG lines at RnRC, ToT, and TSM (and all the fastpasses had been distributed by 11:30am), but I had to take a step back, and just figure that we got to do a lot of cool things, and we'll be back to do others. My DH on the other hand thought it was the best because he said it has a little bit of everything. I guess he thought it was neat that it was constantly changing, at least in his eyes.

[Daisy'sMom]

I would love to say the mic wasn't working on the GMR, however we were in the third row. Both cast members were mumbling and so bored. It was disgusting. The guy behind us said both should be let go. I agree.

[A Big Kid]

@missastrocat. The issue i have with your position is that, coming from Disney, its inexcusable. They charge more because, ostensibly, your are getting a better product.

[Aurora]

I will be interested to read everyone's trip reports from this past week re: crowds and CMs. From what I understand, they were expecting very large crowds this weekend and this could have had an effect on overextended CMs. Not excusing it, but hope to read what others' experiences have been.

Sis is down there now; they tried to pick park days based on crowd expectations. They went to Animal Kingdom Friday, got there after noon and said there very few lines but that the park was filling up as they were leaving later in the afternoon. They did HS on Saturday and Epcot yesterday. Avoided the MK for the whole weekend because of all the events, so they're going today.

So far they are having a wonderful time; they had very good experiences eating at the Brown Derby, Ohana's and Cafe de France. Loved the Osbourne Family lights. These are veteran park-goers but are not big internet users so I will try to post their experiences when they return.

[etibbetts]

Wow, I'm surprised to read your post. I was just in Disney the last week of November and Hollywood Studios was great. We did the Great Movie Ride 3 times and all three were wonderful. The CM's got into their "roles" and had fun with it. We did the Backlot Tour and the recording did play, it was fine. Wait times for the big attractions were long, but that's not Disney's fault.

When my sister stopped to take pic's of my nephew and niece in front of the Tower of Terror sign one of their "bellhops" even came over to ham it up in the pics with them. Everyone we encountered was fabulous!

Sorry to hear you had some bad experiences. Hopefully it will be better for you the next time.

[missastrocat]

@ABigKid - I understand that your trip has been unlucky to say the least. It stinks, it really does. Hopefully there are some good bits to your holiday that you can make memorable for you and your family.

I did want to clarify and add that there were maintainance/workers on top of the ToT fixing it while we were there. I guess the microphones on GMR are not showstoppers.

I do understand the importance of the Disney magic and for me, this vacation was our 1st vacation since we got married, because we haven't been able to afford one in a very long time. I wasn't going to let lines, rude CMs, and bad experiences override the importance and FUN of this vacation. If WDW isn't fun anymore, lesson learned and move forward.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

I think it can depend on whether or not you have kids. We have 3 dd ages 5-7-10 and we actually axed an Epcot day to add a 3rd DHS day.

I agree some of the attractions are getting dated. Muppet 3D can probably go or needs retooling, especially in light of Mickey's Philharmagic, it just doesn't hold up any more. The new Star Tours is great, and each of the three days we went, we were basically able to walk on/off/on multiple times with no more than a 10 minute wait.

I wouldn't mind seeing another show. They used to have Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback performances, before they built the B&B stage. I'd love to see another show added in rotation somewhere.

But between getting character photos/autographs and doing the rides and giving the kids a break in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, I couldn't believe how fast the day would go.

As for GMR, its kind of lame, the favorite part for me is actually the queue line, which on our recent visit last week had little or no wait, so I couldn't see all the movie clips. But the ride needs changing.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Part of the problem is DHS has no identity... What is it? A working studio? A movie lot? Hollywood? It is a mess and a jumble of rides with no real point... The park lost its identity when Disney tried to make Orlando Hollywood of the east coast... Didn't work... Now, DHS really stands for nothing... The park needs a make over much like DCA did... And no, Cars Land (or a value engineered version of it) is not the answer...

[mom2morgan]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience :-( I LOVE DHS - it is my favourite park - and when I was there in September we had a great experience. I hope the problems you point to aren't the norm. I know it can be hit and miss, but we felt the CM's on that trip were all fabulous - hight point was the 2 young guys at Tower of Terror - we were getting into the spirit of pretending we were checking into a hotel and it was turning out a little creepy, and they TOTALLY hammed it up for us. Had my daughters in hysterics!

[Grizz16]

Three words: Star Wars Land

Do something similar to Harry Potter at Universal, incorporating the Star Tours buliding.

[brownie]

Sorry you had a poor experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We didn't experience any of this the two days we were at Disney's Hollywood Studios during INTERCOT 15. We had a rental car so we parked in the lot and had no problems leaving our parking spaces; the cars were spaced well. The Great Movie Ride went on without a hitch. The Backlot Tour was closed for refurbishment while we were there so we didn't get to go on that.

[BrerGnat]

I agree that DHS needs almost a complete overhaul, a la Disney's California Adventure.

It's a random mish mash of stuff that is loosely "movie" related, but it doesn't tie together in a cohesive way at all.

We generally dislike DHS and only visit to maybe ride Star Tours, ToT, and last year, to see the Osborne Lights.

I don't really miss DHS if I don't visit it during a trip.

[DisneyDawgette]

This used to be my favorite park, but I was very underwhelmed on our last trip. I didn't NOT enjoy the park and I will continue to go back, but the disarray and illogical layout did strike me as frustrating. However, I do really love ToT, GMR, RnRC, and other assorted experiences at the park! And after DBF's first encounter with Fantasmic, there's no skipping that park ever again!

BUT, with new acquisitions of LucasFilms and the continuing gift that Pixar keeps giving, they have plenty to work off of! They just need to start it! Just trying to keep the faith that it's going to happen soon!

[darthmacho]

They don't need to add a Star Wars theme, apparently it's already a wretched hive of scum and villainy...

Kidding. I really enjoyed our two visits to DHS this year, and was especially pleased with our meal at Mama Melrose. The park definitely suffers from a lack of direction which needs to be addressed with some long-term planning. Just do it Disney.