Opinions: What's the better ride: SDD or TSM?

If we could choose to ride one twice with 7 & 5 year old boys, which one would you choose and why?

I couldn’t choose honestly. Both are awesome for that age. Why choose between them?

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Because I’m considering doing CL FPs, which will make it possible to repeat one of them on our second HS day. So, I’m just considering the planning.
EDIT to add we’ve never been before so I’m unable to have my own opinion!

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SDD. TSM makes my forearm sore (why yes, I am competitive), I can’t do it two days in a row!

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TSMM but if I’m paying for CL FP - SDD is the better value. I’m usually able to pick up TSMM fairly easily or the one time I couldn’t the queue was pretty short. This is very much a YMMV situation. My younger son refuses to even try SDD but TSMM may be my #1 ride at all of WDW.

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Ride SDD once during the day, and again after dark. Toy Story Land is beautiful at night. Like @AlyQ said, it is much more likely you will be able to pick up a FP for TSM or even ride it with reasonable wait (I mean 30-40 minutes, with somewhat interesting queue). FP for SDD will not exist (unless you’re very lucky) and waits will not likely be less than 60-90 minutes.

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Oh yes! TSL at night is a must - or predawn if that’s how you roll.

Interesting! I’ve not heard this before! Googling pictures now…I can reverse my order of attractions and make that happen I think

How do your kids like coasters? I had SDD and they found out after Barnstormer they were afraid of coasters so I ended up riding myself and dropping the other FPP. Pained me to do it.

Treat yourself to a grown up lemonade from Woody’s Lunchbox (tip: you can mobile order while in line for AS2 and it’ll be ready for you when you finish riding).

My kids were totally unimpressed with the other WLb offerings but I sipped maybe more than my share of the lemonade. I like to hit it up right before a leisurely walk to Fantasmic.

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Ask them. I got SDD for my DD7 for our recent trip and I was so proud of myself, but I had an inkling that she might not like the ride when I showed her a snippet of a POV of it and she balked. In person she was 100% a no go. We switched it out for alien saucers which made her very happy. We had already done TSM twice before in previous trips so I didn’t push for that.

I agree about showing a video. If they say no to SDD on the tv, I highly doubt they will change their mind in person. The ride is definitely more intimidating in person than on the tv.

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I love TSM, but my youngest, who also loves it, is so competitive that it ruins his day when his older brother gets a higher score. If your kids are like that, then be wary of TSM and Buzz Lightyear.

Now, if they just love playing the games, then I personally think TSM is better than SDD, and I enjoyed SDD. We did RD and it was worth it, but I was also glad I was able to do TSM with a FP, so we got both in.

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Oh is it! Be prepared for them to think it like fun on the video only to be scared when they see it. That’s what happened to us - 4yo kept talking about SDD then saw it and said no way.

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I absolutely love TSMM, but have found it to be a pretty easy FP to get day of (no idea how the tier changes will affect that, but I’d imagine not a ton since it is still competing with ToT and RnRC)… I’ve always found the only restriction on riding it multiple times is when my shoulder gives up vs when I can get another FP. SDD is underwhelming to me personally, but I would imagine would be loved based on the ages of your boys.

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Depends on the kid. If it’s me, then I’ll pick Slinky Dog, but I’ve traveled with some kids that don’t like roller coasters and other that really like trying to see how high of a score they can earn on Toy Story Mania.

Based on the scenario you mentioned with CL FPPs, I’d make one for SDD, because if it turns out your kids would rather ride TSM again, then that FPP will be easier to get if you need to change it during your trip (after they’ve ridden both rides on your first HS day.

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As of right now, 30 days out, there is no TSM FP availability. The new tiers will make same-day FP availability much more difficult across the board.

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@FlyerFan1973 and @ryan1 Both of your reasonings resonate. I see where it will make sense to grab what we know to be the more difficult FP up front, but I also worry about the unknown but likely impact Ryan is mentioning. Ryan’s thoughts on the tier changes impacts are why I’m even doing the CL FPs now. I wasn’t going to initially.

You’re right that the new tiers make things tougher to predict. Additionally, when the new Mickey Mouse attraction opens and folks have to choose between that, Slinky Dog, and Smugglers Run, then a Slinky Dog FPP will probably be a lot easier to get (and potentially less crowded at rope drop and other times during the day). However, in that scenario, you’d almost surely want at FPP for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, too (assuming it opens as an attraction that offers FPP).

Depending on how you’re planning to use your FPPs at HS you could also consider picking both SDD and TSM as your advance FPPs, even if you only planned to ride one or the other, with the idea that you’d be able to change the one you don’t want to something else that’s easier to get on short notice. Though, again, that’s tough to predict until you see how people are using the new FPP tiers.

You need to adjust your shooting style. Try to make your arm rigid with your elbow bent so that you have the cord almost pulled right enough to shoot. Then, use a wrist movement to shoot. Much easier to keep shooting longer that way.

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