Early entry strategy help during a crowded holiday time

Walt Disney World
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Good morning! We are traveling to WDW Dec 28-Jan 7. We have 3 park days Dec 29-31 (HS/AK/MK) and the other 4 days Jan 2-6 (E/HS/MK/AK). No park hopper. Staying on property with Skyliner. 3 adults and 5 kids (13, 11, 9, 7 and 2)

I’m struggling the most with a general plan for Hollywood Studios for our two days. We plan on doing early entry. We absolutely love SDD and TSM and RNR. Star Wars was newly opened the last time we went and we did not ride ROTR or MFSR. We would like to do ROTR and MFSR once and SDD/TSM/RNR both days if we can.

What would be the best early entry strategy given the timing of our visit (one day between Christmas-New years and one day the week after)? Should we even try to rope drop early entry and go straight to Rise or should we save that for the 2nd day? Trying to figure out what to do each early entry

I know the week between holidays is nuts. This year the Holiday breaks for school are all different. Some get the full week before Christmas off, some have a half week and our kids go right up to Christmas Eve. The week after New Years I’m also marathon week.

We are ok with buying Genie+ and ILL if it’s suggested during Crowd Level 9 days.

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The biggest issue with RDing Rise is that it is often down first thing in the morning. But with two days, you could risk it.

Here is my rec.

Learn about BG1 so you can maximize your LL times

1st HS day:

  • buy Genie+
  • pick up SDD as your first LL,
  • RD Rise - if Rise is down move to MFSR and the TSMM; if Rise runs ride it and then go to MFSR
  • Book RNR as your second LL
  • If you Rise was up and you haven’t ridden it yet, get TSMM as your third LL
  • Ride AS×2, star tours and see other shows in between your LL

2nd HS day:

  • If Rise was down the first day, buy Rise ILL
  • Rope drop SDD
  • Go immediately to RNRC
  • Come back to TSMM and whatever other rides you want to do

This assumes your preferance is to save money and not just spring for ILL and LL. If you know you will buy the Rise ILL then you can Rope drop something else!

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