ROTR - rope drop or ILL?

[MSRSDS3]

Going in late May and will be onsite so we'll have early entry. Whats the earliest time slot you usually can snag an ILL for ROTR if you are online at 7AM? We are debating trying to do rope drop vs ILL , we want to try to get out of park as early as possible the day we are planning this. Thanks!

 

[saraheliz]

I think they're available starting at park opening, we've snagged one with a time starting in the first hour of the park being open for sure.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This is 100% dependant of if RotR is open at park opening. If it’s running and you arrive at your resort transportation 90 mins before ETPE you can ride at park opening. If the ride is down, which is not uncommon, it will be very different.

If you want to guarantee you’ll ride it as early as the ride is available you would want to purchase ILL$.

 

[pens4821]

If I were in your case and for sure wanted to ride early, I’d probably just get an ILL. That way you could potentially ride a couple things first also if that interests you. The ILL line we never have more than a couple minute wait once we get to the merge point.

 

[kwdw]

When you can hit ROTR at early entry, it’s awesome. But it’s also really crappy when they let you walk all the way to the gates of Galaxy’s Edge to tell you it’s not opening and now you have missed the SDD option.

I’ve gotten an ILL for ROTR before noon a couple of times, and I’m not a super expert at using the app.

 

[SL6827]

IlL, no doubt.

 

[lentesta]

ROTR was down at rope drop just over 40% the time in 2023:



Last year we tested a dozen different rope-drop strategies at DHS. This one seems to work best:

1. Buy the ROTR ILL
2. As soon as you enter the park, ask a CM if Slinky Dog Dash will open at rope drop
3. If SDD will be open, ride that first. Then ride Toy Story Mania and then Smugglers Run
4. If SDD isn't open, ride Smugglers Run then TSM then check on SDD.

 

[jsergent]

I agree with ILL if you can spend the money. Buy that and then hit another headliner at your rope drop.

 

[boxer]

We are going around the same time, but we also jump in line right before park close. We have done this the last 3 or 4 visits--and end up waiting around 20-minutes at most.

 

[snowwite]

This is 100% dependant of if RotR is open at park opening. If it’s running and you arrive at your resort transportation 90 mins before ETPE you can ride at park opening. If the ride is down, which is not uncommon, it will be very different.

If you want to guarantee you’ll ride it as early as the ride is available you would want to purchase ILL$.

We planned and were there by 7 and when we got to the ride it was already broken down.

 

[jimim]

Park close and don’t look at posted time. Hasn’t failed us yet.

But if u don’t want to take a chance with the whole up and down open your wallet up.

It’s been up and down all week while we have been here. We r 4 days in and we haven’t even been over there yet.

It’s a fun ride. I like it more now that I have been on it a bunch of times. First time we went on I wasn’t blown away.

 

[sponica]

We are going around the same time, but we also jump in line right before park close. We have done this the last 3 or 4 visits--and end up waiting around 20-minutes at most.

I've done this and have been evacuated off the ride because it broke down and they weren't able to restart it....

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Save the money for the gift shops.

On our most recent visit, we hit Rise an hour and 20 minutes before closing time and were able to ride 3 times. You can’t do that in the morning no matter how early you arrive.

 

[hes122]

This is 100% dependant of if RotR is open at park opening. If it’s running and you arrive at your resort transportation 90 mins before ETPE you can ride at park opening. If the ride is down, which is not uncommon, it will be very different.

If you want to guarantee you’ll ride it as early as the ride is available you would want to purchase ILL$.

THIS. I was there earlier this week and it was not operational when we arrived at the beginning of EPTE. Because of other plans for the day, we weren't able to buy the ILL for it (the earliest window by that time was during our dining reservation at Epcot). In hindsight we should have gone straight to Galaxy's Edge anyhow and waited for it to open instead of heading to TOT. The wait time was never below 90 minutes the rest of the day.

 

[hes122]

I've done this and have been evacuated off the ride because it broke down and they weren't able to restart it....

In December I went to HS about 2.5 hours before park close just to do ROTR and Slinky Dog since I didn't get on them when I was there in November. I bought the ILL for ROTR to buy myself some more time and it broke down just as we were getting in the ride vehicles (and 40 minutes before park close). They gave me a multiple experience pass for the next day so I ended up going to HS then to get on it even though park hopping hadn't been on my agenda for that trip (AP holder so I didn't need to add the PH option to my ticket).