Thank you for the clarification! So if we head to RotR at rope drop and are near the head of the pack, how long will it take?
The main problem with trying to rope drop Rise imo is its poor reliability during EE. If you luck out you’re fine, but if it’s on a delayed opening you’re basically screwed. To give you anecdotal data, I’ve rope dropped HS upwards of half a dozen times since the end of May over 3 trips this summer, the last being over Labor Day weekend, and it was down quite literally 3 of 6 times during EE. I wasn’t affected at all because I just buy the SP and rope drop Sunset instead. But I was very much reminded of why on these last few trips. The other issue is that more recently even when Rise is up and running they are not running it nearly as early as they used to. It used to be like FoP where if you were front of pack you could be off it before EE even officially started. Not so anymore. And with as long as the preshows are, even being front of pack by the time you get out and pop to TSL now Slinky’s line will have built considerably. You just get less done than if you do Sunset.
Personally I would just buy SP and save yourself the headache of the gamble. Walking in with LLs for the 2 worst rides in terms of waits and rope dropping Sunset instead while 95% of the park is elsewhere makes for a far less stressful and more productive EE, and tbh one far easier to pivot from in the event of downtime or delays. It’s what I advocate every time. The worst that happens with Tower at EE is only one side running at times but if you’re front of pack (something far easier to do with far fewer people rope dropping it), it won’t affect you because you’ll be in the first couple of loads anyway. I hit Tower, RNRC, and MMRR in that order. RNRC sometimes gets a delay but it’s so easy to just skip over to MMRR if that’s the case.
You mentioned EarScouts and Rob has an older HS EE video where he does this strategy as a Skyliner guest and seeing how leisurely his morning goes despite being extremely productive will sell this better than I can with words tbh.
When should we book our first LL for? Maybe Star Tours, since it's not that far from RotR and may still be near park opening time?
Gonna be 100% real with you, burners are not at all necessary at HS the way they are at MK and Epcot. I find that of the T1s only Slinky is hard to pull day of, and you should have already it prebooked as you walk in. The other Tier 1s are extra easy to pull day of and don’t sell out nearly as fast. TSM and Tower are easy prebooks for early AM slots, much easier to land than the equivalent high value T2s at MK. As long as one of those 2 are somewhere in the first hour of opening you’ll be fine. imo those slots are better used on things you’ll actually ride at an early hour, because TSM specifically tends to sell out fast and can be tricky to pull same day without later times even if you’re searching earlier in the morning. It can take a lot of refreshing IME.
