Here is my lengthy write-up from my two visits to HS on Saturday, February 22nd, 2020 and Thursday, February 27th, 2020 and the steps we took to secure RotR boarding groups using the lazy person's version of the
@Demarke method with a group of 14 people.
Pre-Arrival
Before arrival I made sure every person who was going to be in our group on Saturday were the only people showing up on everyone's Friends & Family list. If you weren't there, you were given a polite apology and the delete button was hit (this includes my parents, who didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon). I did have to call Disney for a few issues. The first was some of us had old "accounts" that we managed that Disney thought had plans with us, but didn't and they had to be removed by Disney. The second was part of our group was staying offline, and for some reason even though we accepted invites from their main party planner the other accounts didn't show up. #1 Disney just removed the people, #2 Disney needed the email address, home address and phone number of the main party planner to add the missing people under them. Once all accounts were correct, and everyone was seeing everyone and only those who would be attending on Saturday I practiced the
@Demarke method every morning for the two weeks leading into our trip, and read the messages in this forum constantly (good thing I work from home).
Saturday
Nine of the 14 people in our group stayed at Old Key West that night before dividing to Ft Wilderness and PO Riverside. So, baggage claim showed up at 6:15am to get our bags, and we opted for two Uber cars expecting it to be cheaper than the Minnie Vans/Lyft. Of course it was busy, so the Uber's were actually $3 more than the Minnie Vans. They arrived at 6:30am and we were at HS a few minutes before 7am. The other 5 people drove from their Condo and arrived a few minutes later. Upon arrival the lines to enter the park were very long, gradually getting shorter the further right you went. So, we went all the way to the right and found that one line short of all the way to the right was best as people went to multiple entry points where the far far right jammed into one. The bag checks were the same, don't use the first or furthest bag check as at times they only had 1 person managing multiple lines. The second from the far right was by far the shortest/fastest.
After scanning into the park we actually went straight into the queue at the entrance to SW Land. I know I'm supposed to go other places and stay away from crowds, but nope, we grouped all together and ended up being next to the edge of the sidewalk just steps past the Baseline Tap House. The second part of our group was able to hug the right side and join our group. Disney staff were allowing you to walk on the sidewalk there if you could show where the rest of your group was.
We decided to try both methods, 2 iPhone 11's and 2 Androids were to try the open from scratch (I think this is sort of the "fresh" method?) at 7:59:53, while 2 iPhone 11's and 2 Androids (mine is a Samsung Galaxy S8) had the app open and were to begin using the
@Demarke method at 7:59:58. Two people in the first group did turn off their phones and restart, the rest did not. All of us had force-closed all apps (except MDE if you were in the 2nd group) and turned off Bluetooth and wifi. I had installed an app called "Digital Clock" on my Galaxy S8 and at about 7:55 I opened it and we huddled together anxiously. At 7:53:53 I called out "Group A Go" and the 4 started loading MDE. At 7:59:58 I called out "Group B Go" and immediately switched to my open MDE app from the clock app, hit "Find Out More" on the front page->"Join Boarding Group" (because it was red)->Select All and joined the boarding group. I looked over the group and everyone's phones were spinning. Mine popped back up first with Boarding Group 3 and I yelled it at the top of my lungs with a big woohoo.
Three of the iPhone's crashed, and I told everyone else to force quit the app and reload it at which time they could all hit Find Out More and see they were in Group 3 as well, all 14 of us. (in my best Monty Python voice) "and there was much rejoicing"
We all proceeded to follow the mass of humanity to MF:SR while grinning like mad and snapping photos all over the place. Our spot in line ended up being right along the border to Toy Story Land, and when we looked at the app they had already started boarding groups 1-3 and it gave us initially an hour to return and MF:SR had already jumped to 150 minutes for stand-by. Looking at how far back we were for MF:SR, we decided to hop out and take the younger children on Alien Swirling Saucers (which I won't abbreviate on this family friend board, lol). And, of course 45 minutes in they switched it over to giving us two hours to return. But, while a carnival type spinner ride, it was actually pretty amusing, and kept the younger kids happy first thing in the park. After that we immediately headed over to RotR. One person (#15) in our group was 2" to short to ride, but Disney was very accommodating with the baby-swap. I did not have her on my F&F list since I knew she was too short and was also under 3 and would not need a FP+ for anything during the week.
From what I've now read (didn't want to spoil anything beforehand for myself) all effects were working, and wow, what a ride. I won't give any spoilers, but wow... no really, wow... I think I hurt my old-man neck trying to spin it around 360 degrees to take it all in. And a huge shout out to the cast-members of the First Order, they were great.
Thursday
On Thursday we lost our off-site people who decided their younger kids needed to sleep in, but gained my parents who were also offsite so we were at a group of 11 people. I spent Wednesday evening kicking people off everyone's friends list that weren't attending and adding my parents. At 83 and 81, they aren't very tech-savvy. But you will see my Father is an avid Star Wars/Disney dork like the rest of us. They are both Florida AP's, but hadn't been to HS since ST:GE had opened.
(Also, a note, I had purchased Photopass, and I was a bit nervous that the offsite family members would lose their earlier photopass photos, but they immediately showed back up after I re-added them following our ride.)
At 6:30am I got a call from my mother, that my Dad was so excited they had left their Disney Springs area hotel at 6:00am (haha Dad you nerd), and they were already at the park, and in line to enter. We took the golf-cart down to the bus stop at Ft Wilderness and had just missed the bus, so we again jumped an Uber. This day was much cheaper and only $13 for the Uber compared to Saturday's $33. Our other group members hopped an Uber as well from Riverside. Uber is allowed to go right to a room/building at most resorts. At the campground you have to meet them at the bus stop area. Anyhow, all of us got there a few minutes after 7am and I was on the phone guiding my parents to Star Wars land. Again, far right lines were the fastest, and the lines were a bit shorter than Saturday. Not sure if that was overall attendance or the fact that we were a few minutes late and people had already starting going into the park. Anyhow, my parents ended up about halfway between Baseline and the land entrance and I had them stand next to the sidewalk on the right edge. Again, Disney employees were very gracious and encouraged us to walk on the far right sidewalk to meet up with them. This time we only had 5 phones, 4 iPhone 11s and my Galaxy S8. I decided that we would only try the
@Demarke method, because the people doing the other method on Saturday never got close. Of course there was another group of people standing next to us also from Michigan. They were very nice, but clueless, so I explained to them what we were doing. This time I did a full shutdown of my phone (as did the others) at 7:45. At 7:50 I started my phone back up, everyone verified that wifi and bluetooth were turned off, opened the MDE app and my Digital Clock app. At 7:59:58 I gave the go command, switched to my MDE app, hit "Find Out More" on the front page->"Join Boarding Group" (because it was red)->Select All and joined the boarding group. Again, the iPhone's all crashed, but my Galaxy S8 pulled in a BG10. I was slightly let-down as I thought I was even faster than Saturday. I then turned to the group behind us just in time to see them jump up and down screaming 25! That was pretty cool and they thanked us many times as they would not have known what to do had they not been standing next to us.
A few minutes later initial groups were called, and they started at 10, so basically we ended up with BG1 in my mind, lol... This time we moved much faster through the line and got in line for MF:SR just short of the entrance. Again, RotR initially gave us one hour to return. We rode MF:SR (note to self, never let the 83 year old man drive again), and enjoyed it (I mean, we were flying the Millennium freaking Falcon. Something I've wanted to do since May of 1977 when I was 9 years old). Who knew that watching your Father pull back the lever to send us into lightspeed could bring so much joy. By the time we were off MF:SR they had updated again to a two hour return window, so we went over and rode RotR. The queue was much longer today, but I did hear it was not a great day for ride performance. Again, without spoilers it seemed to me all effects were working, and this time I was in the car that stared direct into the AT-AT front screen (on Saturday I was on the side). Again, awesome, and awesome to see my Dad's big grin when the ride was over. He is the biggest "Disney no longer does anything right" person I know (would probably do well on this forum at times), and to see his grin and satisfaction was fantastic. His only letdown was he couldn't get right back in line and do it again.
So, to wrap this up (yeah I know it's long), though I didn't follow the
@Demarke method to a tee, it worked fantastic, and if I ever run into you in the parks I owe you about 5-6 quality beers (or 4 Yub Nub's). I was the hero to everyone in our group as they all commented how they would have never made it onto the ride if it wasn't for me reading this forum and practicing your method. There were plenty of groans back in the line behind us. I can't imagine the letdown had I flew all that way, with all those friends and family members and spent all that money not to ride it. But, I also know I put in the leg-work to make sure we did, and it worked.
Saturday and that was her first time I had her setup and ready to go (talk about great luck timing).
