DHS - FP for ToT or RR

[shmom]

We are going to be at HS on 1/3 probably at rope drop. There are four of us, but my husband and I let our teenage boys use our FP so they can do more rides. I have FP for Toy Story and Tower of Terror (2 each), Star Tours and something else that no one cares to do. My question, we will plan on heading to the roller coasters at rope drop. Taking that into consideration, and my boys are good with single rider lines, would it make more sense to get Rock Rollercoaster FP or Tower of Terror? And what would be a good time? Right now I have 10 a.m.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

We are going to be at HS on 1/3 probably at rope drop. There are four of us, but my husband and I let our teenage boys use our FP so they can do more rides. I have FP for Toy Story and Tower of Terror (2 each), Star Tours and something else that no one cares to do. My question, we will plan on heading to the roller coasters at rope drop. Taking that into consideration, and my boys are good with single rider lines, would it make more sense to get Rock Rollercoaster FP or Tower of Terror? And what would be a good time? Right now I have 10 a.m.

OK, the two tier 1's threw me at first but realized what was going on XD.

Caveat: This is what I've read -

Single Rider at RnRC is very spotty in terms of diminishing wait times so it might be better to get the RnRC FP and rope drop ToT. 10:00 AM is about what a lot probably do for a 9:00 o'clock opening when rope dropping. This leaves room for getting on a couple of other attractions before the crowds really get going.

 

[DavidNYC]

100% RnR. From our many trips that line is almost always longer and also always a harder add'l FP to get.

But if you're not planning on hitting Star Wars or Slinky Dog at Rope Drop (are you really not going to try for Rise of the Resistance???) you should be able to get on both RnR and ToT standby with little to no wait at least once each during that first hour. Especially with Rise of Resistance open - I'd suspect 90% of the rope drop crowd will head to SDD, Smugglers Run, or Rise of Resistance.

You're probably too late for Slinky Dog but I would have recommended that and just do both ToT and RnR standby at rope drop. And if they're looking for multiple rides, I'd get a FP for 9:15 or so with the aim of using the FP right at the end of the window (ride at 10) so that you 2nd FP can be at 10:15.

That all being said - if you do want to do Star Wars - I'd either make that rope drop priority or, better yet, go to Epcot mid-day and head back to DHS at night and do Galaxy Edge right before closing when lines have typically died down.

 

[Moonlight Graham]

If you are truly there at rope drop (i.e., before they start walking people back to the rides), it honestly won't matter which of those two rides you get a FP for, as it should be purely a bonus. You can just choose whichever one they like better. And as @DavidNYC suggested, it probably makes sense to move that FP up to 9:15 or so, which will allow you to use it any time before 10:30 based on when waits actually build up, and then you can set up your other two FPs for earlier as well which will allow you to either ride Star Tours earlier or burn whichever other Tier 2 you book so you can try to grab additional Tier 1 FPs earlier in the day.

We did rope drop at HS twice last week and headed up Sunset Blvd both times. We rode RnR first and then Tower twice by 9:20 each day. We could have very easily done RnR twice before moving on to Tower, but my daughter likes Tower better so that was the higher priority to do 2x. In any event, doing RnR first makes some sense because the overall experience is so much shorter (especially given that you skip the pre-show at rope drop). So if you want to do both, then doing RnR first gets you moving on to the second ride quicker, and in theory before any meaningful waits start to build.

For the sake of using round numbers, last week let's say there were 5000 people in the park at rope drop. When they started walking everyone back, roughly 4900 of those people were either going to Slinky or the Falcon. If anything, once Rise opens, rope-dropping Sunset Blvd will only get more pleasant, even if the overall park is more crowded. They should have absolutely no trouble riding both rides, likely more than once, before they'd even need to think about scanning in for the first FP.

 

[shmom]

This is great info. I could have gotten Slinky FP but it was for 7 pm and I doubt we would be around that long and honestly my boys would rather do bigger roller coasters. The problem with big boys, Sigh.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

If you’re actually rope dropping those two and ignoring SWGE I would FP ToT and loop through RnRC a few times a rope drop, especially because they’re coaster people. I think I remember reading they don’t always make you watch the preshow right at the start of the day.

Really though since they’re side by side and you’ll probably be 4 of a handful of people headed that way at rope drop I would actually FP neither and either let the boys do TSMM twice or all 4 of you can, getting both sunset boulevard rides done with stand by (RnRC first).