ROTR Strategy

[StarSeven7]

We're heading to DLR for 3 days for our first time in March. We've been to Disney World quite a few times but never Disneyland. I'm trying to figure out what the best strategy is for ROTR, which we haven't ridden yet anywhere. We will probably be getting Genie+ each day but would like to avoid paying the $20pp for 4 of us to ride ROTR. We plan to be there for rope drop, but I'm not sure if we would get there early enough to be at the very front of the line. And even if we did, we walk really fast but don't run, so when we've been at WDW at the very front, we've gotten passed when walking quickly to the line (Slinky Dog Dash) because we weren't willing to run and climb over things. So I'm not sure that we could be at the very front of the line for ROTR. Would this put us in a long line already right at rope drop? And if so, is it worth it to rope drop some other rides and get in line for ROTR later? I would say we'd be willing to wait up to an hour, after that I would probably try to convince my DH to buy ILL$. Thoughts?

 

[DontSpamMe]

Go at the end of the night, about 2 and a half hours before closing. It took us 23 minutes to get into the first room with BB8 with a posted wait of 65 minutes. The theory is all LL has been sold out and used which makes the line strictly standby.

 

[StarSeven7]

Go at the end of the night, about 2 and a half hours before closing. It took us 23 minutes to get into the first room with BB8 with a posted wait of 65 minutes. The theory is all LL has been sold out and used which makes the line strictly standby.

Thanks! The park isn’t closing until midnight when we’re there, so you think going around 9:30 is good? I’m not sure if we’ll make it that late with my kids but we could try!

 

[DontSpamMe]

They close the standby entrance early so it can be a little tricky, but maybe 3 and half hours before closing just to be safe (830pm). We got in line at 8 pm with an 11 pm park closing on a Friday night. When we finished the ride and walked back to the front they had already closed the standby entrance (8:45pm-ish). I would keep an eye on the LL return times on the app once those are gone then you know most who purchased have already gone through which speeds up the standby line. Doing it late at night is a gamble because the ride breaks down a lot and you may leave empty-handed. Good luck! Hopefully, you have the same fortune we did.

 

[StarSeven7]

They close the standby entrance early so it can be a little tricky, but maybe 3 and half hours before closing just to be safe (830pm). We got in line at 8 pm with an 11 pm park closing on a Friday night. When we finished the ride and walked back to the front they had already closed the standby entrance (8:45pm-ish). I would keep an eye on the LL return times on the app once those are gone then you know most who purchased have already gone through which speeds up the standby line. Doing it late at night is a gamble because the ride breaks down a lot and you may leave empty-handed. Good luck! Hopefully, you have the same fortune we did.

Thanks, I thought I had read that they close standby early so that’s good to know! I’m a little worried too about missing out on it if it breaks down and would probably prefer to try earlier in the day. Does anyone know if wait times seem to remain the same all day? I’ve been watching wait times on the Disneyland app and sometimes it’s fairly low throughout the day but I’m not sure if that’s a fluke.

 

[heatherenae71]

Thank you for this post! We're going to be at Disneyland next week (1 day for DL, 1 day for CA - no park hoppers - ugh). My husband and teens are NOT rope droppers *sigh* and ROTR is a must-do (but I really don't want to pay for ILL - haha!) I'm hoping we luck out and can ride it towards the evening without a 2 hour wait!

 

[brightlined]

Btw - for anyone trying late in the day - the best thing to do is look at the ROTR info page on the app the day that you're there - it has the hours of operation for the ride for the day on it. (Just search the app for "rise".)

For example, today it says it's open from 8am to 8pm. (The park closes at midnight.)



I have no idea if they stick to that, but that would be the safe play.

 

[disneylover102]

So I consider there to be 5 options to ride Rise. There’s advantages and disadvantages to each one.

1. Buy an ILL.

Advantage: very low stress or time spent to ride. You just reserve a time and skip the entire line. It’s always a very fast LL even when it’s backed up (now this is potentially a big problem for standby but usually it’s not too backed up).

Disadvantage: obviously $20 a person is insane for one ride. Honestly though when I’m just paying for me I do find it worth it.

2. Rope Drop.

Advantage: if you do it right and it’s open at park opening you can have a very short wait and avoid paying anything at all… as far as money goes.

Disadvantages: there’s a lot: It’s commonly down at park opening (like it was open all 3 days I did it at opening last month at 9:00 opening times but closed 3/4 times at 8:00. And you really do have to be at the very front in order for it to be worth it. EVERYBODY goes there first besides a few smart souls who don’t want that work out. Your concerns about Slinky Dog Dash at rope drop is no different here. No matter how many times cast members say don’t run people run. If you can master the very fast walk like I do however if you are at the very very front you should have a short wait. If you’re a little behind that’s ok and you’ll still have a much shorter wait than normal. However don’t do it first if you won’t at least be toward the front because all 4 times I’ve successfully done it at rope drop I’ve walked on since I was at the very very front but by the time I got off (and remember even with no line the experience still takes about 15 minutes because there are 2 preshows and technically 2 rides) the entire queue was full besides the extended outdoor queue and stretching all the way through Galaxy’s Edge. Which is most likely much longer than you can catch it later in the day unless lightning lane gets backed up. LL doesn’t start until half an hour after park opening so at least if you do it first you don’t even have to worry about that at all for half an hour. But I do not recommend jumping in line if it’s that long. Do short waits elsewhere and wait in the middle of the day.

3. Standby in the middle of the day.

Advantages: very low stress as you can come to the park whenever you want or do other rides early and then just jump in line whenever you want.

Disadvantages: obviously the long wait time is not great. It tends to fluctuate between 60 and 120 minutes posted throughout the day, leaning closer to 120 when lightning lane gets backed up (which is more likely when the ride has been down earlier which happens frequently, sometimes multiple times a day). Watch for it to start to drop closer to 60 on the app but be aware others are doing that too and once it drops on the app everyone is heading over there. Also make your own judgment when you get there. For example look and see if the extended queue is open and if lightning lane looks backed up. If both are true you will have a very long wait. Also it really really really sucks when you’ve been waiting a long time to ride and then it breaks down. This is less likely with a short wait because you’ll get on before it breaks down. If it does break down I don’t recommend sitting and waiting for it to reopen if they tell you you can keep your spot. Yesterday for example I waited 20 minutes outside when it broke down. I did not keep waiting and I’m glad because it didn’t come back up for about 45 minutes.

4. Standby after it comes back up.

Advantages: if you’re right there ant can get there super fast when it reopens you can have a very short wait

Disadvantages: you have to get there really fast and drop whatever you were doing. Like today I had to get out of Star Tours when I was about to get on and hurried to Rise ASAP. Also if you don’t get there fast enough your wait can actually be worse than normal because of lightning lane being backed up more.

5. End of day

Advantages: you can get a really short wait at the end of the day sometimes and if it is open until the park closes (if the park closes at 8 or 9) you can hop in line right before the park closes and no matter how long the wait is it doesn’t eat into park time.

Disadvantages: it usually closes at 8 or 9 even if the park is open after that so it can cut into precious evening park time and also if it breaks down you don’t get to ride at all since it’s the end of the day

Check the app throughout the day to see when it’s supposed to close because usually they say at first that it’ll close at 8 but then toward the end of the day they might decide to keep it open until 9

 

[StarSeven7]

So I consider there to be 5 options to ride Rise. There’s advantages and disadvantages to each one.

1. Buy an ILL.

Advantage: very low stress or time spent to ride. You just reserve a time and skip the entire line. It’s always a very fast LL even when it’s backed up (now this is potentially a big problem for standby but usually it’s not too backed up).

Disadvantage: obviously $20 a person is insane for one ride. Honestly though when I’m just paying for me I do find it worth it.

2. Rope Drop.

Advantage: if you do it right and it’s open at park opening you can have a very short wait and avoid paying anything at all… as far as money goes.

Disadvantages: there’s a lot: It’s commonly down at park opening (like it was open all 3 days I did it at opening last month at 9:00 opening times but closed 3/4 times at 8:00. And you really do have to be at the very front in order for it to be worth it. EVERYBODY goes there first besides a few smart souls who don’t want that work out. Your concerns about Slinky Dog Dash at rope drop is no different here. No matter how many times cast members say don’t run people run. If you can master the very fast walk like I do however if you are at the very very front you should have a short wait. If you’re a little behind that’s ok and you’ll still have a much shorter wait than normal. However don’t do it first if you won’t at least be toward the front because all 4 times I’ve successfully done it at rope drop I’ve walked on since I was at the very very front but by the time I got off (and remember even with no line the experience still takes about 15 minutes because there are 2 preshows and technically 2 rides) the entire queue was full besides the extended outdoor queue and stretching all the way through Galaxy’s Edge. Which is most likely much longer than you can catch it later in the day unless lightning lane gets backed up. LL doesn’t start until half an hour after park opening so at least if you do it first you don’t even have to worry about that at all for half an hour. But I do not recommend jumping in line if it’s that long. Do short waits elsewhere and wait in the middle of the day.

3. Standby in the middle of the day.

Advantages: very low stress as you can come to the park whenever you want or do other rides early and then just jump in line whenever you want.

Disadvantages: obviously the long wait time is not great. It tends to fluctuate between 60 and 120 minutes posted throughout the day, leaning closer to 120 when lightning lane gets backed up (which is more likely when the ride has been down earlier which happens frequently, sometimes multiple times a day). Watch for it to start to drop closer to 60 on the app but be aware others are doing that too and once it drops on the app everyone is heading over there. Also make your own judgment when you get there. For example look and see if the extended queue is open and if lightning lane looks backed up. If both are true you will have a very long wait. Also it really really really sucks when you’ve been waiting a long time to ride and then it breaks down. This is less likely with a short wait because you’ll get on before it breaks down. If it does break down I don’t recommend sitting and waiting for it to reopen if they tell you you can keep your spot. Yesterday for example I waited 20 minutes outside when it broke down. I did not keep waiting and I’m glad because it didn’t come back up for about 45 minutes.

4. Standby after it comes back up.

Advantages: if you’re right there ant can get there super fast when it reopens you can have a very short wait

Disadvantages: you have to get there really fast and drop whatever you were doing. Like today I had to get out of Star Tours when I was about to get on and hurried to Rise ASAP. Also if you don’t get there fast enough your wait can actually be worse than normal because of lightning lane being backed up more.

5. End of day

Advantages: you can get a really short wait at the end of the day sometimes and if it is open until the park closes (if the park closes at 8 or 9) you can hop in line right before the park closes and no matter how long the wait is it doesn’t eat into park time.

Disadvantages: it usually closes at 8 or 9 even if the park is open after that so it can cut into precious evening park time and also if it breaks down you don’t get to ride at all since it’s the end of the day

Check the app throughout the day to see when it’s supposed to close because usually they say at first that it’ll close at 8 but then toward the end of the day they might decide to keep it open until 9

Thank you SOOO much! This is super helpful! I'm not sure what we'll do yet but this will definitely help us decide!

 

[Critter3]

So I consider there to be 5 options to ride Rise. There’s advantages and disadvantages to each one.

1. Buy an ILL.

Advantage: very low stress or time spent to ride. You just reserve a time and skip the entire line. It’s always a very fast LL even when it’s backed up (now this is potentially a big problem for standby but usually it’s not too backed up).

Disadvantage: obviously $20 a person is insane for one ride. Honestly though when I’m just paying for me I do find it worth it.

2. Rope Drop.

Advantage: if you do it right and it’s open at park opening you can have a very short wait and avoid paying anything at all… as far as money goes.

Disadvantages: there’s a lot: It’s commonly down at park opening (like it was open all 3 days I did it at opening last month at 9:00 opening times but closed 3/4 times at 8:00. And you really do have to be at the very front in order for it to be worth it. EVERYBODY goes there first besides a few smart souls who don’t want that work out. Your concerns about Slinky Dog Dash at rope drop is no different here. No matter how many times cast members say don’t run people run. If you can master the very fast walk like I do however if you are at the very very front you should have a short wait. If you’re a little behind that’s ok and you’ll still have a much shorter wait than normal. However don’t do it first if you won’t at least be toward the front because all 4 times I’ve successfully done it at rope drop I’ve walked on since I was at the very very front but by the time I got off (and remember even with no line the experience still takes about 15 minutes because there are 2 preshows and technically 2 rides) the entire queue was full besides the extended outdoor queue and stretching all the way through Galaxy’s Edge. Which is most likely much longer than you can catch it later in the day unless lightning lane gets backed up. LL doesn’t start until half an hour after park opening so at least if you do it first you don’t even have to worry about that at all for half an hour. But I do not recommend jumping in line if it’s that long. Do short waits elsewhere and wait in the middle of the day.

3. Standby in the middle of the day.

Advantages: very low stress as you can come to the park whenever you want or do other rides early and then just jump in line whenever you want.

Disadvantages: obviously the long wait time is not great. It tends to fluctuate between 60 and 120 minutes posted throughout the day, leaning closer to 120 when lightning lane gets backed up (which is more likely when the ride has been down earlier which happens frequently, sometimes multiple times a day). Watch for it to start to drop closer to 60 on the app but be aware others are doing that too and once it drops on the app everyone is heading over there. Also make your own judgment when you get there. For example look and see if the extended queue is open and if lightning lane looks backed up. If both are true you will have a very long wait. Also it really really really sucks when you’ve been waiting a long time to ride and then it breaks down. This is less likely with a short wait because you’ll get on before it breaks down. If it does break down I don’t recommend sitting and waiting for it to reopen if they tell you you can keep your spot. Yesterday for example I waited 20 minutes outside when it broke down. I did not keep waiting and I’m glad because it didn’t come back up for about 45 minutes.

4. Standby after it comes back up.

Advantages: if you’re right there ant can get there super fast when it reopens you can have a very short wait

Disadvantages: you have to get there really fast and drop whatever you were doing. Like today I had to get out of Star Tours when I was about to get on and hurried to Rise ASAP. Also if you don’t get there fast enough your wait can actually be worse than normal because of lightning lane being backed up more.

5. End of day

Advantages: you can get a really short wait at the end of the day sometimes and if it is open until the park closes (if the park closes at 8 or 9) you can hop in line right before the park closes and no matter how long the wait is it doesn’t eat into park time.

Disadvantages: it usually closes at 8 or 9 even if the park is open after that so it can cut into precious evening park time and also if it breaks down you don’t get to ride at all since it’s the end of the day

Check the app throughout the day to see when it’s supposed to close because usually they say at first that it’ll close at 8 but then toward the end of the day they might decide to keep it open until 9

Thanks for the breakdown of the many options Disneylover. I was reading about another potential disadvantage of using the ILL, so wanted to confirm. I read that when you use the ILL you bypass the "preshows". I have never been so wanted to clarify.

 

[Critter3]

Thank you SOOO much! This is super helpful! I'm not sure what we'll do yet but this will definitely help us decide!

I'm in the same boat as you StarSeven, about not sure what the best plan will be. I'll have two kids (5 and 8) so the rope drop won't be one of them. We will have 2 days at DLR and 2 at DCA, so I think day 1 at DLR we will likely go with option 5 (I've heard that around 6 is also a good time because a lot of people will be out for Dinner). If the wait is still too long or if it breaks down, then I'll just shell out the cash on Day 2, lol.

 

[disneylover102]

Thanks for the breakdown of the many options Disneylover. I was reading about another potential disadvantage of using the ILL, so wanted to confirm. I read that when you use the ILL you bypass the "preshows". I have never been so wanted to clarify.

That’s not true. With LL you walk right up to the preshow. That’s where standby and LL merge. Now with LL you skip the entire queue which is honestly pretty cool but whether you do standby or LL you see the preshow, go on the first ride, watch another brief preshow, and then go on the main ride

 

[ianbikes]

Btw - for anyone trying late in the day - the best thing to do is look at the ROTR info page on the app the day that you're there - it has the hours of operation for the ride for the day on it. (Just search the app for "rise".)

For example, today it says it's open from 8am to 8pm. (The park closes at midnight.)

View attachment 646984

I have no idea if they stick to that, but that would be the safe play.

Good tip

 

[Belia]

Anyone know why ROTR stops running so much earlier than most other rides at the park?

 

[brightlined]

Anyone know why ROTR stops running so much earlier than most other rides at the park?

Maintenance is the main reason. There are a lot of moving parts, way more than any other ride - it's essentially three (or four) rides in one. It apparently takes several hours to do the full daily maintenance every night.

(They've never said as much, but I'd bet daily operations cost is another factor.)

They've basically had it running 12 hours a day since it opened. It's the same at WDW - it's less obvious there because DHS is usually only open 12 hours or so (and typically closes at 9pm).

 

[DLNEWBIEWDWVETERAN]

So I consider there to be 5 options to ride Rise. There’s advantages and disadvantages to each one.

1. Buy an ILL.

Advantage: very low stress or time spent to ride. You just reserve a time and skip the entire line. It’s always a very fast LL even when it’s backed up (now this is potentially a big problem for standby but usually it’s not too backed up).

Disadvantage: obviously $20 a person is insane for one ride. Honestly though when I’m just paying for me I do find it worth it.

2. Rope Drop.

Advantage: if you do it right and it’s open at park opening you can have a very short wait and avoid paying anything at all… as far as money goes.

Disadvantages: there’s a lot: It’s commonly down at park opening (like it was open all 3 days I did it at opening last month at 9:00 opening times but closed 3/4 times at 8:00. And you really do have to be at the very front in order for it to be worth it. EVERYBODY goes there first besides a few smart souls who don’t want that work out. Your concerns about Slinky Dog Dash at rope drop is no different here. No matter how many times cast members say don’t run people run. If you can master the very fast walk like I do however if you are at the very very front you should have a short wait. If you’re a little behind that’s ok and you’ll still have a much shorter wait than normal. However don’t do it first if you won’t at least be toward the front because all 4 times I’ve successfully done it at rope drop I’ve walked on since I was at the very very front but by the time I got off (and remember even with no line the experience still takes about 15 minutes because there are 2 preshows and technically 2 rides) the entire queue was full besides the extended outdoor queue and stretching all the way through Galaxy’s Edge. Which is most likely much longer than you can catch it later in the day unless lightning lane gets backed up. LL doesn’t start until half an hour after park opening so at least if you do it first you don’t even have to worry about that at all for half an hour. But I do not recommend jumping in line if it’s that long. Do short waits elsewhere and wait in the middle of the day.

3. Standby in the middle of the day.

Advantages: very low stress as you can come to the park whenever you want or do other rides early and then just jump in line whenever you want.

Disadvantages: obviously the long wait time is not great. It tends to fluctuate between 60 and 120 minutes posted throughout the day, leaning closer to 120 when lightning lane gets backed up (which is more likely when the ride has been down earlier which happens frequently, sometimes multiple times a day). Watch for it to start to drop closer to 60 on the app but be aware others are doing that too and once it drops on the app everyone is heading over there. Also make your own judgment when you get there. For example look and see if the extended queue is open and if lightning lane looks backed up. If both are true you will have a very long wait. Also it really really really sucks when you’ve been waiting a long time to ride and then it breaks down. This is less likely with a short wait because you’ll get on before it breaks down. If it does break down I don’t recommend sitting and waiting for it to reopen if they tell you you can keep your spot. Yesterday for example I waited 20 minutes outside when it broke down. I did not keep waiting and I’m glad because it didn’t come back up for about 45 minutes.

4. Standby after it comes back up.

Advantages: if you’re right there ant can get there super fast when it reopens you can have a very short wait

Disadvantages: you have to get there really fast and drop whatever you were doing. Like today I had to get out of Star Tours when I was about to get on and hurried to Rise ASAP. Also if you don’t get there fast enough your wait can actually be worse than normal because of lightning lane being backed up more.

5. End of day

Advantages: you can get a really short wait at the end of the day sometimes and if it is open until the park closes (if the park closes at 8 or 9) you can hop in line right before the park closes and no matter how long the wait is it doesn’t eat into park time.

Disadvantages: it usually closes at 8 or 9 even if the park is open after that so it can cut into precious evening park time and also if it breaks down you don’t get to ride at all since it’s the end of the day

Check the app throughout the day to see when it’s supposed to close because usually they say at first that it’ll close at 8 but then toward the end of the day they might decide to keep it open until 9

Thanks so much for the breakdown of options! My family is also a longtime WDW family but it looks like such a mess in Florida that we're coming out west this summer. The evening option seems like our best bet w/o paying for ILL (family of 6 so$$$). But really 60-90 min wait for 1 of the newest/greatest rides ever is not a problem at all- especially compared to multiple attractions in WDW with 3+ hour waits.

 

[disneylover102]

Thanks so much for the breakdown of options! My family is also a longtime WDW family but it looks like such a mess in Florida that we're coming out west this summer. The evening option seems like our best bet w/o paying for ILL (family of 6 so$$$). But really 60-90 min wait for 1 of the newest/greatest rides ever is not a problem at all- especially compared to multiple attractions in WDW with 3+ hour waits.

Are you going multiple days? If so you should be fine to do that strategy but just try to do it earlier in the trip rather than later if you’re ok just doing it once because it does break down very frequently

 

[DLRExpert]

I usually jump in line around 5pm-6pm.
Line tends to show around 70-60 minutes but the wait may be lower. Depends if the attraction has been down and people who have unused LLs need to use it before the attraction closes for the day.

I avoid Rope Drop strategy, because of the importance of being there early enough to be near the front of the Frontierland rope. You are basically, taking the same amount of time to get there early enough as you would if you wait until later in the day. On top of that, if the attraction does not open with the park, you cannot ride Rise anyways.

Or use the temporary closure strategy, but that has a lot to do with luck of being near the attraction as it reopens.

 

[Didi8367]

My neighbor went last month and they used the Rope Drop strategy. They only had one day in each park, so they wanted to maximize their chances of riding and, assuming they loved it, re-riding. Her rationale was that, if they left it until the end of the day and it went down, they could be out of luck. BUT, if they tried first thing, even if it was down, they could move on to other high priority rides in the general vicinity and keep checking back to see when it came back up and, worst case scenario, buy a ILL for it if it looked like it was going to be down for a while—something you can’t do if you put it off until the end of the day.

Luckily for them, it was up and stayed up, so they didn’t have an issue. They were “near the front” of the Rope Drop crowd and didn’t run (because they were with her early 60s aged mom) and ended up waiting about 30 mins.

My fam and I are going in June and this will be our strategy.

Hope that helps! Would love to hear an update after you return. I’m curious which strategy you’ll choose and how it worked for you.

 

[StarSeven7]

My neighbor went last month and they used the Rope Drop strategy. They only had one day in each park, so they wanted to maximize their chances of riding and, assuming they loved it, re-riding. Her rationale was that, if they left it until the end of the day and it went down, they could be out of luck. BUT, if they tried first thing, even if it was down, they could move on to other high priority rides in the general vicinity and keep checking back to see when it came back up and, worst case scenario, buy a ILL for it if it looked like it was going to be down for a while—something you can’t do if you put it off until the end of the day.

Luckily for them, it was up and stayed up, so they didn’t have an issue. They were “near the front” of the Rope Drop crowd and didn’t run (because they were with her early 60s aged mom) and ended up waiting about 30 mins.

My fam and I are going in June and this will be our strategy.

Hope that helps! Would love to hear an update after you return. I’m curious which strategy you’ll choose and how it worked for you.

Yeah, I don't think I want to wait until later in the day for the reasons you mentioned. I think we might try for rope drop, but abandon that if we feel like we're too far back in the crowd to get on the ride with a short wait. If that's the case I think we'll just watch wait times during the day and if it doesn't seem to get lower than an hour wait we'll just bite the bullet and pay for a ILL$. Although knowing my husband, he will not be able to pay that money in the moment, he will find it too painful! Lol!