Sharing our early entry experience from rope dropping HS two days in a row, with very different experiences. Times are approximate. Hope this helps others:
Sunday 11/15
- We arrived at HS around 7:10. Our group was part of the first 10-15 people in line to open the park, which was cool. They held us outside the gates until about 7:30, when they started letting people in. We walked to RotR where we were held outside the tunnel until approximately 8. We were walked to the ride and off by around 8:10. Went from there to Smugglers (walk-on), and then did Toy Story Mania twice (walk-on), and then to Tower of Terror around 9, which was our first line of the day. The line was posted at 40 minutes, but took only 25-30. Basically, this was the ideal experience for us.
Monday 11/16
- We again arrived at HS around 7:10, again part of the first 10 in the park, and let in around 7:30. We went straight to Rise again, hoping for the same experience. We were walked to Rise around 8:15 . .. where we waited at three different points in the line/ride experience while they dealt with a ride that was not working and cooperating. All told it was after 9 when we got off, so not ideal. We went straight to Runaway Railway, which was posted at 50 minutes wait, but probably was more like 40-45 minutes. After that all lines were obscene, including coffee and breakfast. We tried to get breakfast at Rontos and were told we were not allowed to walk up - it had become so busy they were only taking mobile orders (which were not showing as available until noon - this was 10:30). This is where the inability to hop parks until 2 became, uh, mildly frustrating.
As you can see, two very different experiences. Don't regret the effort for either day - even day 2, which was feasibly the worst case scenario, we still got on the two most popular rides in the park by 10 without paying for IAS. But beware the experience can vary depending on time you show up and ride of choice to start