Boarding Groups are confusing

T

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
disneygeek90 said:
Fixed that for you.
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Original post said "If things settle down."

I know things look bleak, but remember three things:

  • It just opened -- very recently. It looked like things would never settle down for Hagrids, and I was getting on in 15 minutes in the single rider line like 6 weeks after its opening.
  • This is literally the busiest time of the year. It opened 12/5, so it had its understandable FOMO period of time, and then it went right into the Xmas FOMO crowds. Let's see how it does life gets back to normal and all those families have to go back to work and school.
  • Its operating at half capacity and on top of that is always breaking down. When you take ride vehicles off the ride it exponentially increases the bottlenecks.
I'm sure this ride will ALWAYS be popular, and will be the #1 ride on resort for years to come, but it'll be like everything else. You go on less crowded days and you're fine, or you get the FP+. You rope drop it or you jump in line just before close, etc. I wouldn't say all is lost when you consider these three factors. You're talking about 50k-60k going to DHS in a day trying to cram on a ride with a 900 rider per hour capacity (its designed for 1,800) that breaks down too. When you consider that most people are going so they can ride this, something has to give when you run the math.
 
disneygeek90

disneygeek90

Well-Known Member
Trackmaster said:
Original post said "If things settle down."

I know things look bleak, but remember three things:

  • It just opened -- very recently. It looked like things would never settle down for Hagrids, and I was getting on in 15 minutes in the single rider line like 6 weeks after its opening.
  • This is literally the busiest time of the year. It opened 12/5, so it had its understandable FOMO period of time, and then it went right into the Xmas FOMO crowds. Let's see how it does life gets back to normal and all those families have to go back to work and school.
  • Its operating at half capacity and on top of that is always breaking down. When you take ride vehicles off the ride it exponentially increases the bottlenecks.
I'm sure this ride will ALWAYS be popular, and will be the #1 ride on resort for years to come, but it'll be like everything else. You go on less crowded days and you're fine, or you get the FP+. You rope drop it or you jump in line just before close, etc. I wouldn't say all is lost when you consider these three factors. You're talking about 50k-60k going to DHS in a day trying to cram on a ride with a 900 rider per hour capacity (its designed for 1,800) that breaks down too. When you consider that most people are going so they can ride this, something has to give when you run the math.
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I changed it to "if", the original post said "once" ;)

Anyway, I'm sure eventually it'll calm down, but look at FoP. No one even cares about the IP and it's a consistent 2 hour wait even on "slow" days. People love Star Wars, and they love ROTR.

If/when it settles down, I wouldn't bet on that happening in the next year.
 
T

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
disneygeek90 said:
I changed it to "if", the original post said "once" ;)

Anyway, I'm sure eventually it'll calm down, but look at FoP. No one even cares about the IP and it's a consistent 2 hour wait even on "slow" days. People love Star Wars, and they love ROTR.

If/when it settles down, I wouldn't bet on that happening in the next year.
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Well yeah, my post was in response to the "if/when" thing. I guess technically you're right. We really don't have any way of knowing, and this could be special and something we've never seen. But I just don't think that a month when its been brand spanking new AND its been the Xmas holidays is a great judge how popular it will be. Hagrids looked like it was going to break the park and that it would never slow down, but its been more or less manageable most of its run now.

I think Rise will be the #1 attraction at WDW for years to come (maybe until Tron gets here) but I think we'll get to the point in February, May or August where we can at least a stand-by line and/or single rider line. Remember, some of those days where every school district in the country is in session, it can be hard to fill out the parks on a random Tuesday or Wednesday. I have no doubt that it'll be crazy on the weekends, spring break, and the summer but I doubt that they'll be at capacity for it EVERY one of those random days where the kids are SUPPOSED to be in school LOL.
 
disneygeek90

disneygeek90

Well-Known Member
Trackmaster said:
Well yeah, my post was in response to the "if/when" thing. I guess technically you're right. We really don't have any way of knowing, and this could be special and something we've never seen. But I just don't think that a month when its been brand spanking new AND its been the Xmas holidays is a great judge how popular it will be. Hagrids looked like it was going to break the park and that it would never slow down, but its been more or less manageable most of its run now.

I think Rise will be the #1 attraction at WDW for years to come (maybe until Tron gets here) but I think we'll get to the point in February, May or August where we can at least a stand-by line and/or single rider line. Remember, some of those days where every school district in the country is in session, it can be hard to fill out the parks on a random Tuesday or Wednesday. I have no doubt that it'll be crazy on the weekends, spring break, and the summer but I doubt that they'll be at capacity for it EVERY one of those random days where the kids are SUPPOSED to be in school LOL.
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Hagrids is still a mess. It's had even more operational issues than ROTR. I was kicked out of the queue after it was broken down over an hour and a half a couple weeks ago. I went back on Wednesday and it was down from 10am - 6pm.

Shortly after they reopened the wait time was 210 mins. With my fastpass I still waited 45 mins, it seemed extra slow in the last room so they must have been down a train or two.
 
Dad 2 M & M

Dad 2 M & M

Well-Known Member
graphite1326 said:
I have a question. Everyone keeps saying when your group gets "called". Called how?
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F2D6AAC1-7FD7-4A40-BF4B-1B39B96D2105.png
you’ll receive the attached
 
Dad 2 M & M

Dad 2 M & M

Well-Known Member
Trackmaster said:
Well, for one thing, I don't really go on the super crowded days. My typical day is a Monday-Thursday outside of the breaks (Xmas/Spring break/summer break). So I'm already going when its not that bad. And crowds at Disney start fast, peak midday, and taper off as the day goes on. When the day isn't that crowded, most guests are walking zombies at night time and the park is perfect.

But even when its crowded, I can pound in for what I just, just because there's so much activity and people release so much (and most people don't understand the tier system). And..., because I'm in a smaller group or by myself so I'm available for more FP groups. As long its the day of, I can generally get any FP+ I want on any day within 10-20 minutes of pounding. Yeah, its a little tedious but if you think about it, it makes sense when you consider how much you save by not waiting in line. And you can pound while you wait in line, after the merge point for your last FP+, during shows, and when you eat. So that's how I'm able to get so many tier 1's.

Honestly, what sucks about Disney is that there are just so few major rides at this point. The stuff they have is great, but you run out very quickly and just have to re-ride. I don't really care about the lower level rides (but I like some), the kiddie rides, the parades, and the walk-around stuff much.

To be honest, FP+ (as it was intended to be used, not the way I abuse it) would make a lot more sense if Disney had the number of major rides that they have. Disneyland has a full park. Disneyland Tokyo has a full park. USF has a full park (but I have issues with a bunch of their rides), and even Magic Kingdom* has a full park where it works. DHS, Epcot, and DAK are problems because there are really only 2-3 rides that are worth getting excited over a FP+ for. If there were 10-12 of those at the park, people would be happy with their FP+ line-up (and they could maybe give five instead of three) and not be disappointed that the good stuff was already gone.

*It has a full park, but people just won't let them remove and replace and they refuse to renovate. Its tough to get excited about a lot of the FP+ when its the same ride that your grandparents went on and you've been riding all of your life. I'm a fan of riding, re-riding, re-riding again, done that for a few years, putting it in my memory bank, and enjoying new experiences. I'm not so into riding the same thing every year of my life again and again and again...
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well done....and I’m glad to hear we are not the only that strategically select not only the days we attend, but equally important the time of day we attend....
 
T

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
bsiev1977 said:
Before March? I think that’s optimistic.
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Yeah, its just not that far away. The FOMO Star Wars guys all raced to DLR when Galaxy's Edge opened, but Rise opened here first, so they're all rushing here to get on this one. Maybe Rise opening in LA will help out a little too. I predict that in May we'll get an eye of the storm since enough time will have passed and spring break will be behind us. Then in September if we get some hurricanes we can really get some quality rides on it.

I think that Disney might want to ride to be reliable too before it goes on stand-by. One of the main reasons they're doing the boarding groups is so they don't have to give out all the complimentary Fast Passes when there are technical difficulties.
 
bsiev1977

bsiev1977

Well-Known Member
Trackmaster said:
Yeah, its just not that far away. The FOMO Star Wars guys all raced to DLR when Galaxy's Edge opened, but Rise opened here first, so they're all rushing here to get on this one. Maybe Rise opening in LA will help out a little too. I predict that in May we'll get an eye of the storm since enough time will have passed and spring break will be behind us. Then in September if we get some hurricanes we can really get some quality rides on it.

I think that Disney might want to ride to be reliable too before it goes on stand-by. One of the main reasons they're doing the boarding groups is so they don't have to give out all the complimentary Fast Passes when there are technical difficulties.
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I thought about it a little more, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the boarding groups stay until such time as they last the whole day without filling up
 
T

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
bsiev1977 said:
I thought about it a little more, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the boarding groups stay until such time as they last the whole day without filling up
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I don't know, I think that Disney should realize that doing this does irritate a lot of people and turns away a lot of paying customers. There are a lot of people out there who won't get to a park at 5 AM to ride a ride. I'm an early bird myself, and I have no way of making a ropedrop that isn't blacked out for that park. So there are probably tons of people like me.

I can see how it may be a necessary evil, but I think that the breakdowns are a bigger catalyst for the boarding groups than the demand. The boarding groups are more work for the park, and a lot of people off. Nobody likes waiting in line, but they expect it at a park. Plus, if its all stand-by and no FP+, they tend to be move pretty fast. You can eat through the entire queue capacity of Space Mountain in less than 20 minutes with no FP+.
 
ninjaprincesst

ninjaprincesst

Well-Known Member
It is not as bad or stressful as you are trying to make it other than getting up early to make sure you get a boarding pass you have a two hour window to return it did not affect our fastpasses droid depot, or dining in any way. The second day we rode it we got boarding group 15 and our group was called by the time we made it from the front of the park to SWGE.
 

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