Hollywood Studios rope drop - how to best approach it?

[ChanaC]

My trip is in a few weeks and I’m going back and forth about how to tackle my Hollywood Studios day. Technically, it’s only a half day as we are trying to fit all four parks into two days, so we are most likely leaving HS around the 2:00pm park hop time. For some reference, we are going on Monday Dec 13th which appears to me a moderately busy day, and we already prepaid for Genie+. We are also staying on site and will get that 30 minute extra time.

My main goals for this trip are to get on RotR, MMRR, Slinky, TSM, and ToT. Everything else would just be extra. Honestly even TSM and ToT can be skipped.

My initial thought was to get up at 7, get the Slinky LL and the RotR IA. If we have the choice we would probably get the RotR IA for mid morning or early afternoon. Who knows what time we’ll get Slinky. Then at the 8:30 rope drop head right to MMRR. It seems like at rope drop most people are heading to Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land, and while there will still be a mass of people heading to MMRR it doesn’t seem as bad.

Now I’m rethinking things. The RotR IA will most likely be more expensive than the MMRR IA. Plus the MMRR line might not be that long later in the day. I subscribed to Touring Plans and they estimate that around 1pm it may only be a 40 minute line which isn’t too horrible. So if we see the line for it isn’t going down, it looks like they usually have IA times available throughout the morning because it doesn’t get sold out immediately like RotR. So maybe it’s best to just rope drop RotR and take more of a gamble on MMRR.

Anyone have any thoughts? Or has anyone been in a similar situation?

 

[KristaZ]

So in my experience, DHS is fairly easy to accomplish in half a day before park hopping (we regularly do on the day we leave and have an evening flight home - so we're only there until 1 or 2 and can get most things done). If I was going to pay for an ILL - I would personally go with RotR - I feel it's more "worth it" vs. MMRR, even though it's more expensive. MMRR just isn't a ride I'm willing to pay extra for (a sentiment I think many people favor, based on the ease of getting a return time).

This is how I would approach this situation:
Have 2 people ready to go with the app at 7am. 1 person grab RotR for whatever time you want that day, the other grab the first SDD - if you're right at 7am you should be able to get a time before 2. Pretty much plan on heading right to the park at that point. Last time we were there for rope drop, we got to the park at 7:30am and they were already letting people in the park (just holding them at various rides). We went right to MMRR and were on the first ride when they started running at 8:30. You can then pick 1 of 2 directions to go and get on things fairly quickly (this also depends on what time SDD you were able to get). You would basically be able to walk on TSM at that time, or hit ToT with a reasonable wait. ToT will be more likely to have a close return time available after you've either used SDD or hit your 120 min, so TSM is our preferred route. If you go with ToT, RnRc will probably still have a fairly short wait when you get off, or if you go with TSM you could hit Aliens fairly quickly. By that point you could hit whatever shows interest you to fill in time while you wait for your return times.

Last time we were there, we got on MMRR, TSM, Aliens, and RnRc by 9:15am - they key is arriving early and being one of the first ones on whatever ride you choose to do first, otherwise you lose whatever benefit there might be to getting there so early.

 

[ChanaC]

So in my experience, DHS is fairly easy to accomplish in half a day before park hopping (we regularly do on the day we leave and have an evening flight home - so we're only there until 1 or 2 and can get most things done). If I was going to pay for an ILL - I would personally go with RotR - I feel it's more "worth it" vs. MMRR, even though it's more expensive. MMRR just isn't a ride I'm willing to pay extra for (a sentiment I think many people favor, based on the ease of getting a return time).

This is how I would approach this situation:
Have 2 people ready to go with the app at 7am. 1 person grab RotR for whatever time you want that day, the other grab the first SDD - if you're right at 7am you should be able to get a time before 2. Pretty much plan on heading right to the park at that point. Last time we were there for rope drop, we got to the park at 7:30am and they were already letting people in the park (just holding them at various rides). We went right to MMRR and were on the first ride when they started running at 8:30. You can then pick 1 of 2 directions to go and get on things fairly quickly (this also depends on what time SDD you were able to get). You would basically be able to walk on TSM at that time, or hit ToT with a reasonable wait. ToT will be more likely to have a close return time available after you've either used SDD or hit your 120 min, so TSM is our preferred route. If you go with ToT, RnRc will probably still have a fairly short wait when you get off, or if you go with TSM you could hit Aliens fairly quickly. By that point you could hit whatever shows interest you to fill in time while you wait for your return times.

Last time we were there, we got on MMRR, TSM, Aliens, and RnRc by 9:15am - they key is arriving early and being one of the first ones on whatever ride you choose to do first, otherwise you lose whatever benefit there might be to getting there so early.

This is great, thank you! We’ll definitely plan on getting there early.

 

[MMSM]

I have heard crazy reports of logging on at 7am and getting SDD later in afternoon. I would need a morning. Has anyone got there LL for Smugglers Run?