DHS Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

[yensidtlaw1969]

Went on the ride for the first time last week. It is fantastic, thrilling and heart pounding. I agree with some posters on here that the full queue experience is almost better than the ride itself. That lead up into and through the transport ship is perfection. So exciting. I'm not going to echo all the amazing things this ride has to deliver that others already have, but.....

My only negatives: I will say that the criticisms concerning the "lack of diverse settings/a maze of hallways and pipes" is very much my biggest gripe. And the fact that there are ZERO Stormtrooper AA's in the entire ride is just unforgivable. They paid money for, what?, almost 50 of them to stand in the hangar? The projected Stormtroopers are SUPER cool, but c'mon. Also they need to fill in the deadspace/transitions.

That being said, it is a top tier experience and I am so happy it exists. But far from perfect. (Hot take: Indiana Jones Adventure is better.)

I don't know if I agree that Indiana Jones is better - it definitely has some gaping weak spots that weren't covered up by the cool effects that have disappeared over the years - but I do think it's silly that there are no Stormtrooper AA's within the ride proper on Rise. Their projections all register as exactly what they are, especially the first onride encounter where you get real close underneath which puts you at an angle unsympathetic to their flatness. It would have made a noticeable difference for those to be AA's, even if their range of motion was more limited than the projection offers.

It does also bother me a little that those 50 Stormtroopers in the hangar all seem to be "minimatronics" - while they make for am impressive tableau when the Transport Ship doors open, none of them seem to offer either a meaningful amount of motion or any movement that feels actually lifelike. A few of them seem like they have oscillating fans under their helmets. It would have made a big difference if even a couple of them were given a bit more to do at odd intervals.

The guest is likely to wonder "wait, are they real, or are they just a bunch of propped-up empty suits?" and right now none of them really offer a compelling reason to believe they're the former and not the latter. Have one sneeze and make the guy next to him give him a look, just to shake things up. Storm Troopers aren't really known for being perfect soldiers, are they? I feel like they have a history of being able to convey some personality, which is important since the suits themselves work so hard to do the opposite.

I was very impressed with Rise, and none of this stood in the way of me enjoying it, but there do seem to be some things worth nitpicking. Though I understand that money does only actually go so far. Just because it mostly feels like this project was given a blank check certainly does not mean that was the reality, and I think for the most part they did a good job maximizing the money they spent. Relative to other projects in the last decade, at least.

 

[marni1971]

And the fact that there are ZERO Stormtrooper AA's in the entire ride is just unforgivable. They paid money for, what?, almost 50 of them to stand in the hangar?

The hanger figures are more “minimatronics“ rather than animatronics.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

The hanger figures are more “minimatronics“ rather than animatronics.

Yup. The stormtroopers are simultaneously unimpressive and really nice. The head movements do sell SOME people, but most see through it very easily.

The real stars of scene 5 is the size of the room and that gorgeous screen. Can you imagine if the screen was damaged or straight up didn't work one day??????

 

[RobWDW1971]

The hanger figures are more “minimatronics“ rather than animatronics.

All I can think of when I see them:

 

[Rob562]

But where do they load?

There are only 4 load rooms.

Load time is of the essence. So is unload.

*Minor spoilers*

All four load rooms can handle at least one wheelchair each, possibly two (though I think I read it's just one). The chair is assigned a specific color group, which is the front row of that particular car. The side of the car can swing open to allow transfer.

The multiple load rooms actually help keep the attraction moving even when there's a delay in one particular room because of slow loading. (Because of a chair or for any reason) When a room is ready to dispatch, the load CMs essentially tell the ride system their room is ready to go. The system will then dispatch them as soon as there's an opening. A wheelchair car doesn't need to wait for a specific opening in the dispatch order. If multiple rooms are ready, it's a virtual queue of first-ready-first-dispatched. One room can sit for a while with a slow load while the other three can continue to dispatch as they're ready.

The only time you'd have a slowdown or possible cascade stop would be if multiple rooms are slow loading and the remaining rooms can't keep up the dispatch demands of the attraction.

There's also potential issues at unload, but again there would only be an issue if both unload positions had slow unloads and the vehicles got backed up too much. I'd think one unload station could handle a slowdown at the other.

-Rob

 

[SplashJacket]

*Minor spoilers*

All four load rooms can handle at least one wheelchair each, possibly two (though I think I read it's just one). The chair is assigned a specific color group, which is the front row of that particular car. The side of the car can swing open to allow transfer.

The multiple load rooms actually help keep the attraction moving even when there's a delay in one particular room because of slow loading. (Because of a chair or for any reason) When a room is ready to dispatch, the load CMs essentially tell the ride system their room is ready to go. The system will then dispatch them as soon as there's an opening. A wheelchair car doesn't need to wait for a specific opening in the dispatch order. If multiple rooms are ready, it's a virtual queue of first-ready-first-dispatched. One room can sit for a while with a slow load while the other three can continue to dispatch as they're ready.

The only time you'd have a slowdown or possible cascade stop would be if multiple rooms are slow loading and the remaining rooms can't keep up the dispatch demands of the attraction.

There's also potential issues at unload, but again there would only be an issue if both unload positions had slow unloads and the vehicles got backed up too much. I'd think one unload station could handle a slowdown at the other.

-Rob

Wheelchairs are only sent to the right loads so half of the loads should always be without delay.

Also, we had two wheelchairs in a single load.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So... were all the vehicles retrofitted with wider doors for handicapped transfers in the end or not?...

Ride car adjustments - I was talking a while back about one "delay" for RotR being the ride cars needed to be converted for ADA riders. See the image below and notice the cars have pocket doors that slide open/closed? For ADA purposes this is not wide enough for a person to xfer to the vehicle. They had to horizontally cut the door area and re-imagineer a way to make the doors safe for the ADS rider (no pinching, etc) and still allow the door to close. At the time, they were going to through several design ideas on what to do.

Image #2 is after the door was been cut, You can see all the potential sharp pointy things that a person transferring might get hurt on. They had to reattach a swinging door that would not pinch the rider. Last I knew, they did figure out what they wanted and have been converting cars ever since. YES they are converting them all. (38 of them)

View attachment 420298


View attachment 420299

See the area I marked in yellow? A person transferring cannot make it properly. the wheelchair/scooter needs to be able to pull up right next to the seat so they can slide right into the car. Too much gap - they have to shimmy inside the door and many can not do this.
I am disabled myself, amputee, and I know first hand. See second image - gotta have the chair right up to it to transfer.
If you've never had to do it, you can;t appreciate how important this is.

View attachment 420311

View attachment 420312

 

[WDW Pro]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

2) Galaxy's Edge itself is not receiving the same stellar reviews and is likely to see changes over time at DHS. Food sales are lower than desired (which says something in DHS where there are few food options). Retail sales are also lower than needed. Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers. And everybody from management up knows not a single guest usually knows who Vi Moradi is, and those who do don't care.

3) With The Force Awakens as a barometer, Disney is now ready to make significant changes to the Star Wars brand considering The Rise of Skywalker will end up pulling around half the capital of The Force Awakens. This continues to the downward trajectory, opposite of the Marvel brand. Star Wars merchandise continues to significantly underperform except for Original Trilogy and The Child merchandise. Jon Favreau looks to take over Lucasfilm once Kathleen Kennedy's contract is over, with Dave Filoni taking over as Lucasfilm Creative Lead. Iger has already made it known The Mandalorian is the formula going forward, and you can expect to see the Disney trilogy emphasized less and less as time goes on. This has little to do with agendas other than the Disney trilogy is proving to be less and less profitable. As a result, expect to see MUCH MORE of the Mandalorian in Galaxy's Edge by September of this year. C3P0 and R2D2 Meet and Greets are also planned, and those could be as soon as May.

4) Decisions will be made in February as to how and when expansions are to take place with Galaxy's Edge. The actual decisions may be hard to get out into the public sphere. Leaks have been very hard to get as of late, and even I have had to curtail posts to a great extent (and in so small part due to media using my posts as if they have an inside source other than reading my statements -- kudos to those who have been honest in reporting what I've said while attributing truthfully). When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

6) Smuggler's Run continues to receive poor guest reviews, which is exacerbated by guests having long queue times at DHS to ride it. It is generally agreed that at the February meeting, Smuggler's Run will receive a go-ahead for a new replacement mission which will feature characters from The Mandalorian. Storyboards and concepts for this have already been ordered.

7) Blue Milk changes are coming in June-July. Expect the fruitiness to be toned down a bit.

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

 

[Kamikaze]

Yup. The stormtroopers are simultaneously unimpressive and really nice. The head movements do sell SOME people, but most see through it very easily.

The real stars of scene 5 is the size of the room and that gorgeous screen. Can you imagine if the screen was damaged or straight up didn't work one day??????

One CM in ST armor walking around the hangar would sell the idea that those STs are also real.

 

[Kamikaze]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

Not the place for this, except for 1 and 5. And 5 is clearly incorrect. That would mean out of the 14 hour day, it would be down for 5 1/2 hours. Demonstrably not true.

 

[Mike S]

Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers.

 

[peter11435]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

2) Galaxy's Edge itself is not receiving the same stellar reviews and is likely to see changes over time at DHS. Food sales are lower than desired (which says something in DHS where there are few food options). Retail sales are also lower than needed. Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers. And everybody from management up knows not a single guest usually knows who Vi Moradi is, and those who do don't care.

3) With The Force Awakens as a barometer, Disney is now ready to make significant changes to the Star Wars brand considering The Rise of Skywalker will end up pulling around half the capital of The Force Awakens. This continues to the downward trajectory, opposite of the Marvel brand. Star Wars merchandise continues to significantly underperform except for Original Trilogy and The Child merchandise. Jon Favreau looks to take over Lucasfilm once Kathleen Kennedy's contract is over, with Dave Filoni taking over as Lucasfilm Creative Lead. Iger has already made it known The Mandalorian is the formula going forward, and you can expect to see the Disney trilogy emphasized less and less as time goes on. This has little to do with agendas other than the Disney trilogy is proving to be less and less profitable. As a result, expect to see MUCH MORE of the Mandalorian in Galaxy's Edge by September of this year. C3P0 and R2D2 Meet and Greets are also planned, and those could be as soon as May.

4) Decisions will be made in February as to how and when expansions are to take place with Galaxy's Edge. The actual decisions may be hard to get out into the public sphere. Leaks have been very hard to get as of late, and even I have had to curtail posts to a great extent (and in so small part due to media using my posts as if they have an inside source other than reading my statements -- kudos to those who have been honest in reporting what I've said while attributing truthfully). When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

6) Smuggler's Run continues to receive poor guest reviews, which is exacerbated by guests having long queue times at DHS to ride it. It is generally agreed that at the February meeting, Smuggler's Run will receive a go-ahead for a new replacement mission which will feature characters from The Mandalorian. Storyboards and concepts for this have already been ordered.

7) Blue Milk changes are coming in June-July. Expect the fruitiness to be toned down a bit.

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

Is this like how Frozen 2 won’t break a billion?

 

[WDW Pro]

Is this like how Frozen 2 won’t break a billion?

I stopped posting in that thread specifically because so many people were interested only in being argumentative rather than having a conversation. Frozen II performed phenomenally well long-term, staying well above projections from Week 3 onward. That seems to be because Rise of Skywalker performed so poorly over Christmas, which in turn saw families choosing to see Frozen II instead. We know that due to the fact that box office revenues were on track with projections while Star Wars was significantly low. Meanwhile Frozen outperformed over the stretch. I still think the movie is artistically less significant and less well-received than the original, but Star Wars did worse than I expected... and that opened up other films to do exceedingly well in that time frame.

Now, am I going to argue about this or continue the discussion in this thread? No. I'm not participating in rude, internet mob torch mentality. I would have predicted Rise of Skywalker at 1.4b... instead it barely is going to get 1.1b. I would have predicted Frozen getting around 850m... instead it grabbed up 1.3b. Sometimes a film underperforms unexpectedly to the benefit of another film. It's not a big deal, and it's certainly not worth engaging with people of significant manner degradation.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

2) Galaxy's Edge itself is not receiving the same stellar reviews and is likely to see changes over time at DHS. Food sales are lower than desired (which says something in DHS where there are few food options). Retail sales are also lower than needed. Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers. And everybody from management up knows not a single guest usually knows who Vi Moradi is, and those who do don't care.

3) With The Force Awakens as a barometer, Disney is now ready to make significant changes to the Star Wars brand considering The Rise of Skywalker will end up pulling around half the capital of The Force Awakens. This continues to the downward trajectory, opposite of the Marvel brand. Star Wars merchandise continues to significantly underperform except for Original Trilogy and The Child merchandise. Jon Favreau looks to take over Lucasfilm once Kathleen Kennedy's contract is over, with Dave Filoni taking over as Lucasfilm Creative Lead. Iger has already made it known The Mandalorian is the formula going forward, and you can expect to see the Disney trilogy emphasized less and less as time goes on. This has little to do with agendas other than the Disney trilogy is proving to be less and less profitable. As a result, expect to see MUCH MORE of the Mandalorian in Galaxy's Edge by September of this year. C3P0 and R2D2 Meet and Greets are also planned, and those could be as soon as May.

4) Decisions will be made in February as to how and when expansions are to take place with Galaxy's Edge. The actual decisions may be hard to get out into the public sphere. Leaks have been very hard to get as of late, and even I have had to curtail posts to a great extent (and in so small part due to media using my posts as if they have an inside source other than reading my statements -- kudos to those who have been honest in reporting what I've said while attributing truthfully). When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

6) Smuggler's Run continues to receive poor guest reviews, which is exacerbated by guests having long queue times at DHS to ride it. It is generally agreed that at the February meeting, Smuggler's Run will receive a go-ahead for a new replacement mission which will feature characters from The Mandalorian. Storyboards and concepts for this have already been ordered.

7) Blue Milk changes are coming in June-July. Expect the fruitiness to be toned down a bit.

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

This may be too early yet, but given that expansion pads for SWGE are in pretty different places at DL and WDW do you know if their expansion offerings would be different? It seems like it would be very odd to have the same attraction placed in the Resistance Outpost at WDW and in the First Order Outpost in DL, given placement of known expansion pads, but I'd also be surprised (pleasantly!) to see them develop a totally different new attraction for each coast.

 

[wdwperry]

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

 

[trainplane3]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

2) Galaxy's Edge itself is not receiving the same stellar reviews and is likely to see changes over time at DHS. Food sales are lower than desired (which says something in DHS where there are few food options). Retail sales are also lower than needed. Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers. And everybody from management up knows not a single guest usually knows who Vi Moradi is, and those who do don't care.

3) With The Force Awakens as a barometer, Disney is now ready to make significant changes to the Star Wars brand considering The Rise of Skywalker will end up pulling around half the capital of The Force Awakens. This continues to the downward trajectory, opposite of the Marvel brand. Star Wars merchandise continues to significantly underperform except for Original Trilogy and The Child merchandise. Jon Favreau looks to take over Lucasfilm once Kathleen Kennedy's contract is over, with Dave Filoni taking over as Lucasfilm Creative Lead. Iger has already made it known The Mandalorian is the formula going forward, and you can expect to see the Disney trilogy emphasized less and less as time goes on. This has little to do with agendas other than the Disney trilogy is proving to be less and less profitable. As a result, expect to see MUCH MORE of the Mandalorian in Galaxy's Edge by September of this year. C3P0 and R2D2 Meet and Greets are also planned, and those could be as soon as May.

4) Decisions will be made in February as to how and when expansions are to take place with Galaxy's Edge. The actual decisions may be hard to get out into the public sphere. Leaks have been very hard to get as of late, and even I have had to curtail posts to a great extent (and in so small part due to media using my posts as if they have an inside source other than reading my statements -- kudos to those who have been honest in reporting what I've said while attributing truthfully). When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

6) Smuggler's Run continues to receive poor guest reviews, which is exacerbated by guests having long queue times at DHS to ride it. It is generally agreed that at the February meeting, Smuggler's Run will receive a go-ahead for a new replacement mission which will feature characters from The Mandalorian. Storyboards and concepts for this have already been ordered.

7) Blue Milk changes are coming in June-July. Expect the fruitiness to be toned down a bit.

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

3. Filoni is a nerd and I love eveything he's done so far. Even the (completely personal opinion) vomit-inducing style of Star Wars Resistance, it's still a solid show.

6. Fly the Razor Crest? Or still keep the Falcon and change the host and mission? There's some good possibilities. I love Hondo but I understand if people don't know or like him. Now if he had a walk around character...

8. Please.

 

[marni1971]

When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

Sad but true.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

6. Fly the Razor Crest? Or still keep the Falcon and change the host and mission? There's some good possibilities. I love Hondo but I understand if people don't know or like him. Now if he had a walk around character...

Given all the infrastructure in place to create the illusion that you're boarding the Falcon - not to mention the full-size replica parked out front - I'd have to assume it would simply be the mission that changes rather than the ship. No idea about how that would affect the host.

I do feel like a walkaround Hondo would do wonders for his image - knowing him only from MFSR, he seems like a pretty slimy though kind of funny character. Running into him out in the streets and having him play up that funny side while keeping a hint of slime seems like it would be a good time. Something similar to the way Jack Sparrow is played in the parks vs. his more "grown up" tone in the movies. And then if you've never seen Clone Wars, like I haven't, you'd at least have a chance to recognize him as that amusing character you ran into earlier on your way to MF.

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Sad but true.

It's particularly sad as it's so easy to source a quote or a report. But, when one is trying to make a name for themselves unethically, that's not what happens.

 

[justintheharris]

So.. why is no Disney media outlet talking about the fact that Rise of the Resistance is still operating at half capacity?