Hi there! Looking for some advice…
I have an 8:30am reservation for Droid Depot on Sunday. We are off-site so this will get us into the park prior to opening for off-site guests. I want to know your thoughts on whether you think this experience would end in time for us to have any advantage in getting to either MFSR or SDD ahead of the 9:00am rope droppers. (I realize the 8:30am early entry folks would already be in the park)
And if so, which should we go for first?
Thanks!
Depending on how quickly you pick parts and assemble the droid, I think it is possible to finish in 15ish minutes. But that would be pushing it and you’d be rushing through the experience. If that is what you want, then go for it. With my DS6 and DS5, I think the whole process from walking in the depot to walking out was closer to 30 minutes. And I was rushing them. We were late for an ADR and I was frustrated, kept helping them with the assembly more than I should have. Looking back on it I wish I had just relaxed and let them enjoy it more.
I’m not sure about waits for MFSR or SDD at park opening, but SDD waits are usually long all day. MFSR waits can get reasonably short after the initial rush, especially at the end of the day. Same with SDD. A week or so ago at the end of the day, I practically walked on to MFSR and only waited about 30 minutes for SDD, which is more fun at night in my opinion. Toy Story Land at night is beautiful.
Some info that would help getting you better advice would be how large your group is and the date of your trip (high crowds or low crowds expected)?
Just re-read you post, you are going this coming Sunday?
If so, crowd levels are all super low. I do not think you will have any very long waits except for SDD and ROTR if that is in your plans. Maybe MMRR but if you get the Lines app and pay attention to wait times, you should be able to do that without a long wait either. I think I waited 20 minutes for that one.
I recommend you play around with a touring plan if you haven’t done that yet. It will help you account for walking time, ride time, show times, etc. With a good touring plan, I think you should be able to get everything done at HS in a day.
I wouldn’t rush it! Such a fun experience.
Thanks y’all!
JordanRunner, Yes we will be there THIS Sunday! 
I also have another reservation at 6:50pm that I’ve been hanging on to so maybe that one would be better so as not to rush the experience? I really don’t want to rush but I also don’t want to take too long because we are in a party of 6 and my DD10 and I are the only Star Wars fans in the group so I don’t want to hold people up waiting on us. I figured with the early morning reservation they could observe and not feel like they are missing anything since the park isn’t technically open to us at this time anyway.
I’m excited and hope that the crowd levels are looking to still be low. I do have a touring plan and it is telling me to do MFSR at 9:04 but it gives me a 45 minute wait. I’ve been trying to peak at wait times in the mornings and I don’t feel like it has been that long around 9:00am so I’m not sure if that 4 minutes is making a difference or not. It’s also telling me to do SDD at 10:27am with a 61 minute wait. While I feel like this is a reasonable wait time for SDD, normally, I think you might be right and I might be better to hold off until the evening for a shorter wait. Definitely not planning to do RotR until after 5pm for that same reason.
I think it would be tight
But I also think - why rush this?
If you could move it, I would
If not, I would not anticipate it being much of an advantage at all. I’m torn on where I’d say to go - probably MSFR for proximity
Yes
They may be scanning bands at the entrances to open rides to ensure that only on-property people get on them. That’s what they used to do for EMH - during morning EMH because people still had PPO ADRs and for evening EMH after park close to ensure that only those deserving the time by virtue of their resort stay were allowed on. So even if yo rush through it, you may not be allowed on the rides.
I’ve been wondering if they were doing something like this. I have no upcoming trip, or at least not anything actually planned, so this is more of a general curiosity.
I haven’t been since they started, but I would imagine if there are PPO reservations for things available they would either only be shown as available for those on site or at rides they’d be scanning magic bands, phones, or key cards before opening. And they’d have to for the evening hours.
I thought about this also and that would be totally fine. I wouldn’t expect to be able to actually get on a ride prior to 9am, just would like to be first in line ahead of the mass of the folks entering at regular time. I just am not sure that I would be be done with the droid experience in time to even make that possible. Ultimately, I feel like I’m going to take the above advice and do a later reservation and not rush it. Since I have 2 days scheduled at HS, I may even go in late that first day to take advantage of lower wait times in the late afternoon/evening.
When I got in there I was paralyzed by indecision. Like, couldn’t deicide what I wanted to make for a droid and just watched the conveyer belt go by. I would’ve guessed I was there an hour. But, looking at my photos - I got in there at 9:30 and was still out by 10:10.
So you probably could rush it, but I don’t think it would give you much advantage in the long run.
Thanks for your advice!
Will Disney ship the droid home? Outrageous cost? 
They will ship it and it’s not too bad
Good to know! I have the girliest of girls and she is DYING to build one! She has never even seen a Star Wars movie (gasp) but she knows all about this experience!
We shipped ours from the hotel (WL), they go by $ value of shipment, not size, so we shipped them in the boxes they come in. Two droids was like $17 total and we packed some smaller souvenirs (stuffed animals) in the boxes as well. Totally worth it. They quoted us 3 weeks for shipping time but it only took 5 days. Honestly the hardest part was lugging 2 droid boxes around the park and home to the hotel. If you are staying offsite not sure if they ship from the droid store or if you’d have to go to another gift shop in the park to ship. We had a stroller to carry the droids but another factor on timing your appt may be annoyance of carrying as the boxes are big (the fancier package with the special backpack makes it easier to carry but you may also want the box if shipping). We had a double stroller that basically acted as a shopping cart lol, if you don’t have a stroller may want to think about making the appt closer to when you leave.
This was a benefit of end of day reservation for this activity.
Down side was no time to interact with Batuu with our little guys