Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opening reports and using Boarding Groups at Disneyland

[RobWDW1971]

I'm just going to throw this out there. I'll grant you my conspiracy theory is ludicrous, but so is the literal operation of this attraction. Still, I'm putting it out there because I can't stop thinking about it no matter how hard I try and how much I tell myself I'm an idiot.

Does anyone else think that the low capacity of Rise, the "lottery" boarding group nightmare requiring you to be there at opening and no guarantee of actually seeing the attraction undoubtedly resulting in people having to come back and try again is very convenient considering that the problem since Galaxy Edge opened is that no one was even coming to DLR. Now people have to come over and over just to try to get on the new ride!

Having people find out they are not able to get on the ride only after they have shlepped all the way to Anaheim is not good for them - that is not going to drive people to keep trying, but instead wait it out until they hear they are highly likely to get on the ride. The problem for them is AP's who are probably already swinging by a few times a month will go and try, but I wouldn't even think about taking a family of 4 and spend hundreds of dollars on admission alone to just "hope" we got on.

This isn't good for them, especially if word of this gets absorbed into the mainstream. Having moms tell each other "Don't even go, I heard there is no way to get on the Star Wars ride" at little Billy's soccer game is not a good thing.

 

[Disney Analyst]

After finishing the ride last night I noticed something that surprised me and might explain why BGs are not being called up to the very last minute of park hours.

When I entered the queue around 5:45 the entire open-air area was empty as was about 80% of the interior cave queue. I found the end of the line a room or two before the armory area. Less than a minute later the ride went down and being literally the last person in the cave I decided to stretch out on a laser-cut bench and stick it out while watching the SAG awards on my phone. I was there for well over an hour before the ride came back up and people started to trickle in behind me.

Once up and running it took about 15 mins to reach the very first pre-show where the cast member was letting about 15-18 people in at a time.

When I exited around 8:15 I was shocked to see not only every inch of the entire exterior queue was now full but the line overflowed from the laser turret nearly all the way down to the entrance via Critter Country. I can't begin to imagine how long the people at the end of that line waited to reach the first pre-show.

No wonder they stopped calling boarding groups shortly after 8:15.

this is exactly why they stop calling groups. Especially if there is downtime, they let all the groups come back anytime after that, so they have to account for the last few groups called, plus anyone who hasn’t scanned in yet. I’m sure the system tells them how many still need to be processed so they can make an educated guess on what the last group can be and what time.

 

[Ismael Flores]

So a few dozen bloggers.. vs how many dedicated AP people do you think have ridden more than once?

Disney theme park fandom used to be only a handful of websites. Kinda thing that would be done during spare time when not working a real job.

now you could walk around the park and bump into dozens of them and their entourage. what i find funny is when people see them and they want to take selfies with them as if they just saw some big celebrity

 

[SSG]

I don't get why people have such an issue with vloggers. They aren't hurting anyone or forcing anyone to watch. They are selling a product that a segment of the public want, which they couldn't do if people weren't willing to buy it (in the form of views for ad revenue).

 

[waltography]

Finagled a way to try my hand at the boarding groups again tomorrow. Truly can't tell if the late start + weekday timing will be a boon or bane for me.

Also, up to 70 right now at 4pm; I'm not salty about yesterday's performance at all.

 

[mickEblu]

I'm just going to throw this out there. I'll grant you my conspiracy theory is ludicrous, but so is the literal operation of this attraction. Still, I'm putting it out there because I can't stop thinking about it no matter how hard I try and how much I tell myself I'm an idiot.

Does anyone else think that the low capacity of Rise, the "lottery" boarding group nightmare requiring you to be there at opening and no guarantee of actually seeing the attraction undoubtedly resulting in people having to come back and try again is very convenient considering that the problem since Galaxy Edge opened is that no one was even coming to DLR. Now people have to come over and over just to try to get on the new ride!

I said this last week. I think it’s possible. Not probable. I absolutely think they re aware and happy with the “silver lining.”

 

[NateD1226]

A little more than halfway through the day and today's pace has been pretty good. A little downtime but not as bad a yesterday. 1/18 still leads for the best day so far.

 

[JD2000]

I have not been reading this thread; but any reason the boarding groups are not just distributed on a first come, first served basis at the gate?

 

[MisterPenguin]

I have not been reading this tread; but any reason the boarding groups are not just distributed on a first come, first serve bases at the gate?

What happened at DHS is that people were showing up earlier and earlier to be the first to 'rope drop' the ride. Crowds were gathering at 5:30 AM before they switched systems.

So, now, there is a hard and fixed time that availability opens. Camping out at 2 AM gives one no more a benefit than the one who showed up half an hour before opening.

 

[JD2000]

What happened at DHS is that people were showing up earlier and earlier to be the first to 'rope drop' the ride. Crowds were gathering at 5:30 AM before they switched systems.

So, now, there is a hard and fixed time that availability opens. Camping out at 2 AM gives one no more a benefit than the one who showed up half an hour before opening.

But is it not a sort of lottery now?

 

[TP2000]

But is it not a sort of lottery now?

It is, but they are pretending its not. But it mostly is.

Which is another bit of information that tells me the ride can only handle about 8,000 riders in Boarding Groups per day, with about 4,000 extra Backup Boarding Group riders given out. I think a very full Town Square-Main Street-Central Plaza facility can hold 15,000 or more people, and daily there are thousands of people inside the park who are trying but aren't getting a Boarding Group there before they are all gone within 90 seconds of the App going live at 8:00:01am each morning.

 

[JD2000]

What happened at DHS is that people were showing up earlier and earlier to be the first to 'rope drop' the ride. Crowds were gathering at 5:30 AM before they switched systems.

So, now, there is a hard and fixed time that availability opens. Camping out at 2 AM gives one no more a benefit than the one who showed up half an hour before opening.

How was it before at DHS?

EDIT: I used google. And it was originally first come, first served. I guess with the current demand both are flawed.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Here is an idea.

A three day Parkhopper deal that comes with a guaranteed entry to RotR. The counting system would know, as the FP would print at the Turnstyle when entering. Yes, less guaranteed BG's would have to be issued to offset the offer.

But that would allow those planning trips to have a way to know they would get to experience RotR as part of their trip.

 

[TP2000]

A little more than halfway through the day and today's pace has been pretty good. A little downtime but not as bad a yesterday. 1/18 still leads for the best day so far.
View attachment 442578

Seriously you guys, we need to stop jinxing it! There are tourists depending on us.

You posted that "today's pace has been pretty good" right before they stopped calling Boarding Groups. The ride is now closed and has been stuck on Boarding Group 72 for the last half hour, since 4:15pm.

Wait Time for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland - Thrill-Data

Learn what to ride and when with wait times at Disney World, Disneyland, Universal Orlando, Universal Hollywood, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Cedar Point, and more

www.thrill-data.com

 

[disneygeek90]

How was it before at DHS?

Once you tapped in (anywhere from 1-3 hours before the posted open time) you could get a boarding group. The rule of thumb was to show up at 5:30 and they would open gates at 6:30, even though technical park open was 9am. Groups would be gone before the posted open time typically.

I did this strategy 3x before they changed, and 6x with the current model. The problem was people would arrive early and earlier, and operations couldn’t keep up with people arriving at 3am for the foreseeable future.

 

[shambolicdefending]

Does anyone else think that the low capacity of Rise, the "lottery" boarding group nightmare requiring you to be there at opening and no guarantee of actually seeing the attraction undoubtedly resulting in people having to come back and try again is very convenient considering that the problem since Galaxy Edge opened is that no one was even coming to DLR. Now people have to come over and over just to try to get on the new ride!

I think the more likely conspiracy is that they're using the BG system to try and mask just how few people are actually getting to go on the damn thing.

Relatively few guests (or media) are going to do enough online research to understand how bad the capacity problems are. Most will assume the BGs fill up so quickly purely because of insatiable popularity.

 

[TP2000]

I think the more likely conspiracy is that they're using the BG system to try and mask just how few people are actually getting to go on the damn thing.

Bingo!

If Mr. Testa is correct (and I'm increasingly of the opinion that he is) and this new ride has been averaging 700 riders per hour for its opening weekend, that is...

• Roughly the same hourly capacity as the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes when they are using seven canoes.
• Roughly 25% of the hourly capacity of Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Less than half the hourly capacity of Guardians Of The Galaxy.
• The amount of people seated on four (4) parking lot trams arriving from Mickey & Friends.
• Slightly more than the number of tourists who get food poisoning each day at Captain Kidd's Buffet.

 

[shambolicdefending]

Bingo!

If Mr. Testa is correct (and I'm increasingly of the opinion that he is) and this new ride has been averaging 700 riders per hour for its opening weekend, that is...

• Roughly the same hourly capacity as the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes when they are using seven canoes.
• Roughly 25% of the hourly capacity of Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Less than half the hourly capacity of Guardians Of The Galaxy.
• The amount of people seated on four (4) parking lot trams arriving from Mickey & Friends.
• Slightly more than the number of tourists who get food poisoning each day at Captain Kidd's Buffet.

Wait... those trams hold less than 200 people each?

 

[TP2000]

Wait... those trams hold less than 200 people each?

Google says they hold 225 people each, but have you seen the size of some folks nowadays?

 

[chadwpalm]

But is it not a sort of lottery now?

Yes and no. Computers run at at the nanosecond level. The clock strikes 8am and it could very well be a first come first serve as far a reservations go, but the several variables of how fast your phone is, your connection speed to the internet, how quickly you swipe, etc. pretty much makes it for all intents and purposes a lottery.

Even with bottlenecks, running at a micro or even milli-second speed can reserve as little as 1000 people per second. Maybe more.

Good luck all! I know I'll be playing my Rise Before Dawn lotto ticket this coming Sunday.