News Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Standby Line and Boarding Groups at Disney's Hollywood Studios

[monothingie]

What do you think they've been doing in RoTR for the last quarter? This is not 'build it, open it'. The thing has been in testing for ages - just not with the public. Softs are more about training and extra entropy into the testing. The testing and refinement are clearly more for this vs normal... but the harping on 'no softs' as if that would have magically replaced what was missing is naive as well.

Reports from insiders on this thread saying they were still doing construction up until November. I'm sure there was some kind of testing being done, as they try avoid the painters and electricians and laborers. But is that sufficient to open the ride for the stated deadline?

 

[DisneyJoe]

We're also immediately placing blame without knowing the full story... We don't know how/why these users failed. Was location services off? Were they too close to the front? Was their MDE app updated? Was the backend overloaded and not updating gate entry info efficiently? Was there something else?

What we do know is.. the system has worked for most people for a week. Maybe they had a failure.. maybe we had a rash of people with different failures?

One of my contacts always blames AWS - which makes me think that they may be using AWS wrong, or have it configured improperly.

 

[CastAStone]

Everybody says Christmas Day is crazy at MK. The only ride without FP right now is 7DMT.

Okay THAT to me is shocking.

 

[CastAStone]

It’s running at around half capacity. Being constantly hammered gives no time to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it in the future. It’s currently fire fighting on both sides.

Are they using Anaheim's ride to try to figure out solutions to Florida's problems? Or is it not that coordinated?

 

[DisneyJoe]

Are they using Anaheim's ride to try to figure out solutions to Florida's problems? Or is it not that coordinated?

Wouldn't that be logical? Assuming Anaheim's is in the same operational state as Florida's

 

[Wreckem]

Okay THAT to me is shocking.

I’ve been at Xmas multiple times. Fast passes are routinely available same day for most attractions at MK so it’s not really shocking. I booked 25 days out before and got space, btmr, and pan. The crowds are mostly people doing a day or two and staying off site. They haven’t researched Disney, etc. they are the average guests that don’t know any better. You will see massive queues for the fast pass kiosks during Xmas week etc. On Xmas Eve and Xmas crowd level is 6-7 for the first few hours of open and then you will see them starting to direct traffic. By about 1 MK is ultra packed and probably close to or at phase one for closures on both days.

Im never worried about crowds on holidays because most people don’t know what they are doing at Disney.

Also remember Disney discounts on site hotel rooms to ensure fairly high occupancy year round. So occupancy plays a role in crowds but it’s not the deterring factor. That’s said most on sites resorts are very full Xmas and New Years.

 

[flynnibus]

But is that sufficient to open the ride for the stated deadline?

I think the right thing to do is not play judge there and assume we know more than they did. What we do know is... Soft Openings do not create fixes or add time to the universe. They are a form of testing used to expose issues and exercise people and processes that don't get the same kind of stress in controlled testing. If the ride is failing in known ways... Softs do not fix that problem.

Unless we are finding out the ride is failing in unexpected ways... or cast and operations are not up to snuff... than the whole 'soft opening' angle is moot.

The reliability of the ride has been a discussed topic for what.. 9+months? So it's not like someone said "hey, its perfect!" and then it blew up when they put guests on. It sounds like the consistency of the ride and the way the control systems behave are the the bigger issues. This is the kind of stuff that needs test, adjust, and fix... and the leaks leading up to opening suggest that MORE of that was needed... and known to be needed. Not that people are being surprised by things that weren't exposed by lack of Softs.

 

[AshaNeOmah]

Numbers still lower than expected?

I surely hope so. Honestly, I'm kinda betting on it. Haven't been for that week in about 10 years. I'm not expecting 2009 levels, but I don't think we're gonna break any records either.

 

[Taypet]

Just curious, I will be going to Hollywood studios this Sunday 15th, what time should I plan to arrive? And what time did the actual park open today?
My husband really wants a boarding pass for ROTR

 

[DisneyJoe]

Just curious, I will be going to Hollywood studios this Sunday 15th, what time should I plan to arrive? And what time did the actual park open today?
My husband really wants a boarding pass for ROTR

It opened at 6:40am.

I'd arrive between 5am and 5:30am to get an early boarding group when the park opens

 

[disneygeek90]

Just curious, I will be going to Hollywood studios this Sunday 15th, what time should I plan to arrive? And what time did the actual park open today?
My husband really wants a boarding pass for ROTR

I'm planning on showing up about 5:30 tomorrow and Sunday. That should give a decent boarding number under 50.

 

[disneygeek90]

Group 45 called at 12:15

 

[brettf22]

At least Anaheim gets more T&A.

Any insight in to how Anaheim’s version is progressing?

 

[disneygeek90]

Rain predicted for tomorrow morning. (60-75% chance from 5am-8am). Wonder if that deters anyone.

It's raining currently but it was holding off mostly this morning when people would have been in line.

 

[Touchdown]

I cannot imagine what it is going to be like in Anaheim when this opens, WDW has a much larger proportion of tourists who don’t know better, if it opens there with the same low capacity with all of those highly knowledgeable, demanding APs I pity the poor guest relations CMs.

 

[Gabe1]

Is there anyone here that wished they waited another month to open the ride, or are you glad you had a chance to wade through this "mess" and actually get on the ride?

Minimally I wish they would have done soft openings until they could work through all the operational issues it is having. It closed for 2 hours just after he got off. So not ready yet. FYI he loved it. More than he anticipated.

I'll go further than that, and say I would have voted to not open any of Galaxy's Edge until it is all 100% ready.

I agree. It is similar to the piecemeal Fantasyland expansion.

My son this week got up at 430am Ubered to the Swan and walked to the studios because transportation from resort was running on posted opening time. By then slots would be gone. The rest of us opted to sleep as all of the Studios was horridly crowded and we only came in for the Christmas night shows for the most part. There are not enough attractions to absorb all the extra guests waiting for their slot time. It is just impacting the entire park

 

[wdwmagic]

Rain predicted for tomorrow morning. (60-75% chance from 5am-8am). Wonder if that deters anyone.

It's raining currently but it was holding off mostly this morning when people would have been in line.

nah I dont think so. People on vacation cant let some rain get in the way of things

 

[Lirael]

I wonder how different the opening would be if they had opened the Land in one go instead of doing part of it before and one ride now. I wonder if that would have helped overall opinion of SW land or made the park even more crowded

 

[ToTBellHop]

nah I dont think so. People on vacation cant let some rain get in the way of things

Certainly not in Florida. In California they act like the sky is falling.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I wonder how different the opening would be if they had opened the Land in one go instead of doing part of it before and one ride now. I wonder if that would have helped overall opinion of SW land or made the park even more crowded

I don't remember how glitchy Smuggler's Run was in August, but if they were both opened at the same time and both experiencing problems...I think public perception would have been disastrous. At least in the current situation, people are thinking more about how amazing RotR is than it's problems.