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

Mac Tonight

Well-Known Member
One day I want a screen to touch me for a change.
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Mickeyboof

Well-Known Member
Oh the phones. I dined at the Blue Bayou some few weeks ago. Over the lovely music I kept hearing these shrill cartoon sounds. Turns out, a kid was slumped, frozen in place watching cartoons on an iPhone. The adults at the table really believe their child is more important than the dozens of people trying to enjoy a (moderately) pricy meal in a deliciously themed environment?

When I was a kid, restaurants were dazzling places where I couldn’t possibly be bothered by a screen. I was too distracted by the sea of people and conversations (none of which I comprehended, but tried to understand).

Besides the rare occasion I play the boarding pass game, I toss my phone in a locker and let everything go straight to voice mail. Don’t bother me, I’m at Disneyland.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Oh the phones. I dined at the Blue Bayou some few weeks ago. Over the lovely music I kept hearing these shrill cartoon sounds. Turns out, a kid was slumped, frozen in place watching cartoons on an iPhone. The adults at the table really believe their child is more important than the dozens of people trying to enjoy a (moderately) pricy meal in a deliciously themed environment?

When I was a kid, restaurants were dazzling places where I couldn’t possibly be bothered by a screen. I was too distracted by the sea of people and conversations (none of which I comprehended, but tried to understand).

Besides the rare occasion I play the boarding pass game, I toss my phone in a locker and let everything go straight to voice mail. Don’t bother me, I’m at Disneyland.
Kids could care less about eating at Blue Bayou. It's for the adults. All the theming is lossed on them so they need something to do while they wait for their expensive chicken nuggets or hamburger. I don't think I've ever taken my kids to eat there. They would never eat anything there. In Fact they can barely behave at Olive Garden and they are teenagers!
 

Mickeyboof

Well-Known Member
Kids could care less about eating at Blue Bayou. It's for the adults. All the theming is lossed on them so they need something to do while they wait for their expensive chicken nuggets or hamburger. I don't think I've ever taken my kids to eat there. They would never eat anything there. In Fact they can barely behave at Olive Garden and they are teenagers!

Kids must be worse off then I thought.

All I wanted to do as a kid was eat there.
 
My (much younger) 11 year old brother is a big fan of Blue Bayou. But still he watches YouTube on his phone. Of course headphones are required, as they are at home when he wants to watch stuff while he eats.

I don't understand how people would ruin the amazing atmosphere of the Blue Bayou with cartoon audio for everyone to here.
 

DavidDL

Well-Known Member
When I was a kid my parents would take me to the Blue Bayou and I loved it! Granted, cell phones weren't so much a thing at the time but Gameboy was a thing that I loved, though I wouldn't ever consider bringing it into the parks until I was much older and needed something to kill time with while waiting in lines at DCA.

I used to love looking up at the "sky" in Blue Bayou as a kid and watch for "shooting stars" as they went by. I also loved watching the folks go by in the boats. I know this discussion/my comment is off general topic of the thread but I also wanted to share briefly how wonderfully empty the parks were this past Sunday (light rain and Coronavirus scared people off maybe?), I told my wife that I bet I could walk right up to Blue Bayou and get a walk-in seat on a day like today and sure enough, they took us right in! Not only that, but they took us right to a waterfront seat and I got to have one of my favorite meals in the whole resort (Roasted Chicken Maison with soup and a mint juliep!). A phone did come out once from each of us.. my wife briefly at the beginning of the meal to photograph the menu (yes, she does that sort of thing but I love her for it because I like to look back on all her old posts and re-live our moments together) and once from me towards the end (after we'd paid) to check on our Maxpass status. Of course, the brightness was down in both cases, which is an option some folks need to remember is there! Heck, most phones at minimum brightness are less noticeable than the new lights they've installed on each of the menus.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
My (much younger) 11 year old brother is a big fan of Blue Bayou. But still he watches YouTube on his phone. Of course headphones are required, as they are at home when he wants to watch stuff while he eats.

I don't understand how people would ruin the amazing atmosphere of the Blue Bayou with cartoon audio for everyone to here.
The cartoon voices are probably from Disneyland vloggers.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
The audio is bad, but so is the garish light that comes off the devices.

The murky, dim light is as important to me (and the imagineers) as the soft music accompanying dinner.

No cellphones at the dinner table, ever, especially in public.

Children will be better adults if you just stick to it.
You should see all the people staring at their phone while they float by on the ride. I once sat behind someone that managed to have a phone conversation for the entire ride.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
You should see all the people staring at their phone while they float by on the ride. I once sat behind someone that managed to have a phone conversation for the entire ride.
They must have amazing service, because I lose signal as you go deeper into the caves and I have Verizon.....
 

TROR

Well-Known Member
How long would the wait times actually be if they were allowed to exist? I’d reckon 3-4 hours max. That’s preferable to a gambling system, I think.
 
Would they let you into the ride after your 2 hour window has passed? I'd think the boarding group screen would disappear after the time had passed.

Good question! They told me they couldn't move his number up to mine (totally understandable), but if i didn't use mine on time and instead showed up when his number got called, it wouldn't be an issue (that didn't end up happening, but I doubt they would have given me trouble).
 

DLR>WDW

Well-Known Member
How long would the wait times actually be if they were allowed to exist? I’d reckon 3-4 hours max. That’s preferable to a gambling system, I think.
The queue they built only seems able to hold about 1 hour of guests though. From what I can tell, Disney is moving away from large standby queues in favor of having a high percentage of FastPass guests instead. By doing this, they have to increase the ratio of FP to standby at the merge point, therefore greatly inflating the standby wait time. This results in a posted standby wait of 1-2 hours, even though there’s a very little amount of people in the standby queue. That long wait time discourages guests from hopping in line and instead opting for a FastPass, meaning the guest is now able to spend money on food and merch, rather than stand in a huge, expensive queue
 
The queue they built only seems able to hold about 1 hour of guests though. From what I can tell, Disney is moving away from large standby queues in favor of having a high percentage of FastPass guests instead. By doing this, they have to increase the ratio of FP to standby at the merge point, therefore greatly inflating the standby wait time. This results in a posted standby wait of 1-2 hours, even though there’s a very little amount of people in the standby queue. That long wait time discourages guests from hopping in line and instead opting for a FastPass, meaning the guest is now able to spend money on food and merch, rather than stand in a huge, expensive queue

I agree with this 100%, and I am also surprised they also built such a big beautiful waste of space (at least on the West Coast where space is a luxury). It's amazing to look at, but it's hard not to imagine switchbacks in the place of all that rockwork!
 
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smooch

Well-Known Member
I have marveled at that recent phenomenon myself! It's very sad to see these kids set up in a booth at a restaurant with an iPad in front of them, just staring blankly at the screen for an hour while the family meal plays out around them.

That said, I will selfishly admit that I love it when parents do that in restaurants because it means the kids are quiet and behave. Decades ago children under 12 were simply not brought out to restaurants fancier than a coffee shop like Denny's or Sambo's. But in the 1990's parents began dragging their kids with them to steakhouses and swanky restaurants, and the result was obnoxious pandemonium that we were all expected to put up with. But today, the Millennials bring their Precious Snowflakes out to any fancy restaurant they want, but the kids don't have the chance to become obnoxious because they are almost immediately lulled into a coma-like state by the iPad while the parents Instagram their appetizer and don't talk to each other. I love it! I can sit and talk with friends or family as if we are in a private dining room! And the waitress or waiter is often so happy to have focused human interaction from us that we get great service.

My family has a strict no-phones rule at any family event or meal. I credit my younger sister for that; she's been ruthless about it for the past decade and it's worked.

What is also working today is Rise Before Dawn. It really seems to do so much better when the park opens at 9am instead of 8am! Already at Boarding Group 90 with no delayed opening and no major breakdowns yet!

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I honestly never thought about the fact that it has kept kids quieter but I guess that is true. When I was really young, and I'm only 20 so I still am young, but when I was small enough to be a nuisance, my parents never took me and my brothers out when we were that young. However, we started going with our parents to dinners and stuff younger than most of their friends took their kids because they taught us to behave. We never threw fits, were also quiet and courteous to others, and I have a lot of scattered memories from when I was young of parents coming up to us almost any time we ate out and they told my parents we were so well behaved and they were amazed. I'm not sure what in particular my parents did to instill this behavior, I guess they have always just taught me and my brothers to be courteous and to be polite. While I do agree parents keeping their kids quiet with iPads is better than having them be loud, at least for the sake of other customers, at that point I say parents should either leave their kids at home if they can't behave for the meal. Teach them manners, don't sedate them with technology. I did also notice so many people at dinner or lunch or whatever were on their phones, adults do like to take pictures of their meals when they get the fancy looking rolls or whatever, but I would constantly walk by what I assumed was a couple on a date and one or both would be on their phones and ignoring each other. I never open my phone when I'm on dates with my girlfriend, and when I am with family I stay off my phone as much as possible. If there is a small lull in the conversation, I will check a notification if it's important, but I don't start browsing Instagram on my phone or whatever.

All this aside, it looks like Rise is starting to figure out operation better and better as time goes on, as is expected. I am genuinely curious how long they are going to continue using boarding groups. There is absolutely no way they could just let people line up for the ride like normal, cause even if the ride operates all day with no breakdowns or issues, the hourly capacity is just so low. Do you guys think they're going to keep the boarding groups long term? Next time I visit I am going to do my best to get on the ride, I just hate that it is a lottery system. The fact that groups run out in like 30 seconds is such a turn off to me, while it is better than waiting 4 hours in a line, it just seems so sad to know within the first 30 seconds if you get to experience the ride or not for the day. I also wonder if Disney had opened Flight of Passage now, would they have used boarding groups? Or just left it as a normal line, since Flight of Passage can maintain a higher rider count? If they did use boarding groups, would they still be in use today? The ride still gets like 3+ hour standby lines, would that be enough for Disney to keep using a boarding group system?
 

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
I honestly never thought about the fact that it has kept kids quieter but I guess that is true. When I was really young, and I'm only 20 so I still am young, but when I was small enough to be a nuisance, my parents never took me and my brothers out when we were that young. However, we started going with our parents to dinners and stuff younger than most of their friends took their kids because they taught us to behave. We never threw fits, were also quiet and courteous to others, and I have a lot of scattered memories from when I was young of parents coming up to us almost any time we ate out and they told my parents we were so well behaved and they were amazed. I'm not sure what in particular my parents did to instill this behavior, I guess they have always just taught me and my brothers to be courteous and to be polite. While I do agree parents keeping their kids quiet with iPads is better than having them be loud, at least for the sake of other customers, at that point I say parents should either leave their kids at home if they can't behave for the meal. Teach them manners, don't sedate them with technology. I did also notice so many people at dinner or lunch or whatever were on their phones, adults do like to take pictures of their meals when they get the fancy looking rolls or whatever, but I would constantly walk by what I assumed was a couple on a date and one or both would be on their phones and ignoring each other. I never open my phone when I'm on dates with my girlfriend, and when I am with family I stay off my phone as much as possible. If there is a small lull in the conversation, I will check a notification if it's important, but I don't start browsing Instagram on my phone or whatever.

All this aside, it looks like Rise is starting to figure out operation better and better as time goes on, as is expected. I am genuinely curious how long they are going to continue using boarding groups. There is absolutely no way they could just let people line up for the ride like normal, cause even if the ride operates all day with no breakdowns or issues, the hourly capacity is just so low. Do you guys think they're going to keep the boarding groups long term? Next time I visit I am going to do my best to get on the ride, I just hate that it is a lottery system. The fact that groups run out in like 30 seconds is such a turn off to me, while it is better than waiting 4 hours in a line, it just seems so sad to know within the first 30 seconds if you get to experience the ride or not for the day. I also wonder if Disney had opened Flight of Passage now, would they have used boarding groups? Or just left it as a normal line, since Flight of Passage can maintain a higher rider count? If they did use boarding groups, would they still be in use today? The ride still gets like 3+ hour standby lines, would that be enough for Disney to keep using a boarding group system?
Isn't the capacity southing like 1,900/hr when it works right? That would be around the norm for most new attractions
 

smooch

Well-Known Member
Isn't the capacity southing like 1,900/hr when it works right? That would be around the norm for most new attractions

Hmm, I must have been confused and thought the number was lower, but that is when the ride works right. Especially since from what I've gathered from this thread the ride opens later than most and closes earlier than most, plus usually goes down at some point? Or even if it doesn't go down, it still is not operating at full capacity. Obviously that is normal with new rides and it takes time to get rides fully optimized, but I guess we just have to wait and see how long til that happens.
 
ED6E2339-A7CD-40AF-8671-5DA27E120867.pngGot to make up for not riding a few days ago! Scanned into the ride at 9:13, off ride 9:34am. Everything was working except the audio for Lieutenant Bek at unload because it was a little backed up, and the audio trigger didn't fire right. A small bug I'm sure.

I wonder if the BGs still being available is softer attendance or do they plan on going to like 200 today? Lol.
 

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