My opinion re: WDW and I can't imagine it any different for DL. It's going to be packed. There are folks that want to see it as soon as possible for themselves. The draw will be the imagineering, the land, the shops, the dining etc. They won't care about only doing one ride. And they will be back when the second ride opens.
I don't believe for one minute the better ride couldn't be ready on time. I think this was very deliberate of Disney to create two floods of visitors filling hotels and parks. The WDW daily EMH through October is to draw people in with the advantage and I'm sure it will work.
I am dismayed that it will open during my already planned week to be at Disney. At this point we will do DHS early in week and avoid the chaos opening will bring. If I were going anytime after opening day I would plan on huge crowds without much break for quite a while.
You may be right, but honestly, I don`t see it. If someone wants to build a trip around GE, why not wait for ROTR to open? After all, it`s opening this year, not in some distant future. And if someone gets to experience GE with just Smuggler`s Run, are they really going to plan another WDW trip just to experience one ride?
Of course, if a family goes to WDW once or twice a year, the opening of ROTR will be an added incentive, but they`re not changing their travel plans to experience the ride -- they go annually or every two years anyway.
I`ve read a lot of posts saying something like "I was hoping to miss the opening of GE" or "We considered changing our plans to avoid it", but few or none saying that they changed their plans in order to be there in the first months. However, when the land is complete, that will be an irresistable lure.
Finally, for the real Star Wars fanatic (as opposed to theme park fan), if you want to be among the first to experience GE,
Disneyland is the place. I think WDW fans keep coming partially or largely because of the new goodies that keep opening up, but it`s about the resort, not about individual lands, attractions, or franchises like Star Wars.