last week, slinky was running with guests well before early open (which was 8:30am on that day, i think). i must have gotten to that line around 8:19 and still waited ~20 minutes. if you are at the top of rope drop you could theoretically be off slinky before early open. not sure i have seen this with any other attraction at any park - for example on our other DHS rope drop day, we were held in queues for ToT (and RnRC) until 8:30.
Wow that's awesome. My fear was I'd be waiting to ride Slinky for 45+ after early entry and wasting time. I felt like getting a late Genie+ time for Slinky and not able to get another Genie+ for 2 hours after the park officially opened really diminished a lot of the value of Genie+ for me my past trip.
I wondered about booking your 2nd LL two hours after official park opening and how that might be a disadvantage.
Last time we went to Hollywood Studios we fortunately got a Genie+ for Rise but got a LL for Slinky that wasn't till 11:30am. Park opened at 9am so I couldn't pick the 2nd LL until 11am. Of course by that time, the most popular ride we hadn't done yet (Mickey) wasn't until 1:30pm. Kind of a vicious cycle because then we had to wait another 2 hours for the next LL. It's the only park where I stress about the Genie+ system!
I worry about rope dropping SDD for fear it will be down first thing in the morning. I will be getting an ILL for Rise.
Love this comment. The feeling of the parks at night, darkened skies, with park lights on, is really something special. Sorry, this doesn’t really have to do anything with the OP’s original question, but just stating how much we love the feeling of the parks at night.
sample size of one, but yes, two queues were formed near the base of the tower, one for ToT and other for RnRC, and both were walked into the respective attractions at 8:30. preshows were skipped. like I said, we did both and still got on a reasonable line for rise right before official open.
my counter would be that early (pre 11am) genie+ LLs aren't that valuable for most of the other attractions because you can rope drop 2 or maybe 3 of them pretty easily. i would always spend my first genie+ on slinky - you're almost never going to luck into a short wait for that, plus it could be down at open, plus it's a short ride and worth riding twice if it works out.
100%. you're not rope dropping one ride, but like 2-3, and then taking advantage of shorter waits at stuff like smugglers and TSMM. by 10:30 you should be exhausted from all the early hour hustling and a 40 minute wait somewhere should feel like a break, haha.
Just curious - did they let you on Slinky before the official start of ETPE?We RD'd Hollywood twice this past Aug - and on one occasion we were first in line at Slinky Dog - I was literally the first person in the park have pictures of no one but me in front of the chinese theatre, entering Toy Story land, so cool. Anyway, I was at the front and talking to the CMs while they were testing the ride and stuff. And asked this EXACT question - they all agreed, you rope drop Slinky. They said at least twice a week Rise is down at opening, has a "delayed opening". They said slinky does occasionally, but they said its probably 4 times more likely that Rise does. And worse, as they suggested, and in fact happened that day. If Slinky is going to have a delayed opening they usually call it pretty early, were as Rise will wait until 2 minutes before its supposed to start. One of the CMs at Slinky that morning said they had been normally at Rise - said at Rise they all joked about how often the ride would be down. There was some comment he made like an inside joke saying they said about how bad Rise was for it, I can't remember now. But yea - we had a good like 15 min chat about it. My son (6) then got walked on to the ride by the Cast Members as the first ride of the morning, leading the huge line of people behind us, they stopped and let him pick where he wanted to sit on the first passenger coaster of the day - it was all that disney magic
Nope - I mean, I think they walked us in 1 minute early or something. But we stood there for quite a while we watched a single cast member ride the ride after the vehicles were all run a couple times without anyone on them. We got through the turnstiles at 7:29am for an 8am ETPE
This past Wednesday the line for ToT started moving at 8:22. RnRC was down at the opening, so perhaps the line was getting too long down Sunset Blvd and that's why it started before 8:30?
