I’m working on a MK touring plan, and I’m surprised that the plan does not put Space Mountain at road drop (12/29 with morning EMH). It puts it later in the day with a long wait even though I’m starting the day at RD with all the attractions next to space mountain. Thoughts?
I had that happen as well, I believe the answer is that on an even walking speed/distance plan, the time you are saving by hitting all of the other rides at rope drop outweighs the longer wait for SM later in the day.
When I doubted that or just wanted a particular ride at RD, I would optimize to get their best TP, note the waits, then drag SM or other ride up to first then hit Evaluate and see what happened and if I could live with the changes forced.
It also comes down to how much you want to ride that ride too, maybe sticking one SM at RD then another later with a FP, etc. Will influence your TP decisions. Everything is a trade off after all.
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Yesterday we rode it at rope drop at 8 am and it was totally a walk on…
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I always have a TP but often ‘go it my own’ on the first hour or so. We did am EMH at MK a couple weeks ago: RD SDMT (no wait) then headed over to SM (no wait) then Buzz (no wait), then Under the Sea (5min) then SW (5-10 min). By 9am, Frontierland was opening (basically a second RD), hit Big Thunder (no wait), Splash (no wait) by which time we started FPP’s and focussed on higher compactly attractions and/or less popular attractions. 4th, 5th, etc FPP’s were reserved for lessening any waits still on our TP and/or repeating popular favorites. No wait exceeded 15 min that day. RDing/FPPing/ending the day with ‘the right’ headliners is all you need to know. 
(eg SDMT is better for RD then end of the day, some attractions rarely have a long wait and get saved for when the crowds are the highest, some of the indoor shows w little wait are saved for mid-day when a rest is helpful, etc). PS Make sure your TP only includes Fantasyland or Tomorrowland attractions before 9am.
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Had something similar last year also. I just started my tp an hour after rd to allow a few other rides first. But as @JJT said its to do with the wait/ walk times and the wait times of the other rides later on…
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During this past week, we were able to walk on for Space Mountain three mornings at rope drop. Saw lots of people taking photos of the stand by wait time of five minutes.
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We RD SDMT on Sunday 11/23 (CL7) no EMH but 8am opening…managed to be in the coveted front and made it through in 15 minutes. We rode Tea cups, Dumbo and Barnstormer and then went to Space mountain and there was STILL only a 5 minute standby wait…probably at 8:30 or so. Everyone is running for SDMT and A&E at RD so I think the lines are less for SM.
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