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

[MisterPenguin]

Nah, January 5 is the 12th day (day 1 is Christmas day). Epiphany on Jan 6 is not part of the 12 days.

I stand corrected. Must've been some bad figgy pudding I had.

 

[Demarke]

Nah, the crush of too many humans is keeping me away. Plan is for next Saturday (11th). Yeah that’s marathon weekend but it always felt much more manageable compared to these past 2 weeks of insanity.

(note - I live 40 minutes away so more of a time commitment to go through the hassle of driving home and then back in the same day)

Plus everyone is up early to “run” so they can’t stand in line for a boarding group. Hoping that helps mitigate a smidgeon of people.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around bringing a toddler with me this early with no guarantee of an early boarding group. No way I can say, “ok we ride in 8 hours”

Pro tip - as a runner, I think the 11th or 12th makes good sense for you. I’m driving from SC to get to rope drop and knock out AK on the 8th, but a lot more will go to HS that day. I’m planning to go rope drop HS after the 5k. The first half of the 10k could make it before open on the 10th. But if it’s still 7am or earlier open on the 11th and 12th, few of any runners will be done by then. That’s when 20,000 runners and their families will not be cluttering the opening and it should be easier for everyone else.

In the FP era, Disney has trained people to either be completely anti-wait, or the other extreme have to be willing to wait longer (when you can't get a FOP FP, people are willing to stretch the 45-60 minutes to 90min-2hr). Second, ratio of AP holders to regular guests, ratio of repeat visitors to regular guests has changed, I think. If you are a local AP, there is no wait too long. You can play on your phone, talk to people, it can be a good time. If you're on your 10th trip in 5 years, with many more to come, does it really matter if you are in line for a new ride for 4 hours? So that's what people do.

Even as an AP I don’t really like FP, but mostly what it has done is make two twenty minute waits at Jungle Cruise and Pirates become one 5 minute and one 40 minute if you have a FP for one. The total time is roughly the same, but being in a standby that could stop and expand while FP builds frustrates me to no end (hence why usually follow the FPs these days). Plus, I truly believe that Pan and 7DMT would not be so long if FP had not made people compete for them because it appears to be a scarce attraction.

[Edit] while I haven’t always agreed with Mcclory, there is no doubt that Disney makes more on short term hotel families than local APs. Local APs may spend more over a year, but Disney thoroughly prefers filling Deluxe hotel rooms week in and week out with people spending way more per day.

 

[relic827]

They should’ve opened a fifth park for most of this new stuff...crazy idea that I’m not sure would solve or help anything, but hey it’d be kinda neat. An entire park operating with VQ and no FP would make for an interesting experiment.

 

[relic827]

Yes but HS was having a problem drawing crowds (like Epcot now) so they needed to transform the park. With SWGE and Toy Story it's now going to be the second biggest draw to MK (from fourth). Think of ride quality now. You have : TOT. RNR. TSM. SDD. ASaucers. ROTR. MFSR. as front line tier 1 attractions. That's better than every other park (dare I say even than MK, obv MK has more capacity). But it's now a comparable "teenage" park to counter universal.

I get the logic, but in a perfect world a brand new park would be a great excuse to test FP elimination

 

[flynnibus]

Think of ride quality now. You have : TOT. RNR. TSM. SDD. ASaucers. ROTR. MFSR. as front line tier 1 attractions. That's better than every other park (dare I say even than MK, obv MK has more capacity). But it's now a comparable "teenage" park to counter universal.

You listed alien saucers along side ToT, etc.. and used it try to argue superiority to the MK? That's some pure comedy gold there..

The biggest problem DHS has had is not its missing great attractions - it's that it was top heavy with without the supporting cast of attractions under the top level stuff. SW:GE helps by adding a massive chunk all at once.. and if the GMR replacement delivers then it will have some great headliners. Entertainment wise its still a mess... it's still full of way dated attractions and shows that are woefully behind it's peers.

 

[Rich Brownn]

Nah, January 5 is the 12th day (day 1 is Christmas day). Epiphany on Jan 6 is not part of the 12 days.

Jan 6 is Twelfthnight, so it is

 

[WDWTrojan]

Omg. I can't believe you can't understand this concept. That wasn't my vacation. That was an average family of 6 hotel guest vacation. And yes it's true that resort guests only come once every few years. Do you think it's measured you vs a single family? It's measures an AP vs. a resort guest.

Let's try this again. Your family of 6 comes every day for 365 days. It costs you $6k for passes (let's say your annual pass costs $1k person which I know is high). And you spend on average $200 for food, merch, etc per day. That's another $73k. So you spend $79,000. Let's say I do the same thing as a resort guest. I come and stay in the hotel for 365 days The room is $2k per night. The passes are $3k per week for the six of us EVERY week ( and pls don't say why don't you buy an annual pass b that will prove your are completely clueless). Every day for the whole year for hotel room, food, merch, etc it costs $20k (and that's low) per week That's over $1mm. Do you not understand the economics? And yes that room is booked for 52 weeks. Just a different family every week

What on earth are you talking about? You're comparing the revenue they make for the entire year on a room vs what they make off of each individual average resort guest. Someone who comes every two years with their wife and kid, staying at a resort, may spend $10k with Disney. Many APs are more valuable to the company than that, spending more than $10K in a two year period, on just F&B and merch alone.

 

[MiddKid]

If you’ve added them to a fastpass already, they should all be checked already when you go to join a group, I believe anyway

Can anyone confirm this? That the members of your group that also have FPs for that day will be pre-checked when you go to join a group?

I’m visiting soon with two families...9 people. I’m the trip planner. I’ll be the one trying to snag the BGs (assuming still active when we visit in Feb). I’ve been wondering if I’m going to need to take the 15 seconds to manually select each member of my party. This quoted response suggests they will all be pre-selected. Would love a second confirmation on that. If not, I’m going to kick a lot of people off my friends and family list from prior trips so the only people there are the 9 on the upcoming visit.

Great, thanks for sharing how much you overpay for a vacation and continuing to be ignorant of the facts. I'll go with my data that is accurate from years of working for the company. Again I point out that Disney has so many resorts on-property that the actual APs are a small dent in the number of people waiting at DHS in the morning. Second, your average resort hotel guest comes once every three years and spent about $10-12K with Disney on their trip. In the intervening 36 months, APs (who are often resort guests themselves) come many more times than that, buy/collect exclusive merchandise, eat on property, etc. These people often prove to be as valuable as resort guests over time than just a small period, every few years, while their kids are young. Unless your theory is just to give priority to those dropping at least $20K on two bedroom suites like you?

I’ve been trying to avoid this back and forth but the statement that APs prove to be as valuable as your typical tourist is flat out wrong. Not only do I also have years of working for the company, but I specifically worked with these numbers and pricing every day. The problem in the arguments posed here (and in other posts by others) is the constant mixing of individuals and frequency. These are not apples-to-apples. You cannot compare one guest who comes every three years with an AP. That is bad analytics.

APs have one primary function...balance demand. And in that, they are valuable. It helps with consistency of staffing and balancing fixed costs. If APs were these incredibly valuable guests, they wouldn’t be (except for the highest tiers) blocked out during the busiest times of year.

If you really wanted to compare value between the two, you need to match the visits across the visitor types. There are endless ways to run analytical comparisons but that’s for another thread. As a single example: take a sample family visiting on a 7-day on-site trip, once per year. Then find a comparable AP family who visits 7 days in one year. In this scenario the sample family staying on-site wins virtually every time.

The number one goal is to attract on-site guests for as long of LoS (Length of Stay) as possible. You can slice that up into endless segmentations as well...we knew at DL that the number one most valuable guest was your average Japanese visitor. Their merch spending alone dwarfed your typical US tourist (and is one of the big reasons Oriental Land Company can invest so heavily in their parks...their merch/food per caps are through the roof).

When did DL and WDW invest most heavily to grow their AP programs? Post 9/11 and post 2008 recession. To fill attendance gaps. APs are a nice to have to boost attendance, but they will never be the primary goal of achieving profitability targets. There are of course outliers in all segments, but the real money is with the tourists.

Speaking of targets, time to “Stay on target” and get back to RoR. This is for a different thread. Sorry for the diversion.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Can anyone confirm this? That the members of your group that also have FPs for that day will be pre-checked when you go to join a group?

I’m visiting soon with two families...9 people. I’m the trip planner. I’ll be the one trying to snag the BGs (assuming still active when we visit in Feb). I’ve been wondering if I’m going to need to take the 15 seconds to manually select each member of my party. This quoted response suggests they will all be pre-selected. Would love a second confirmation on that. If not, I’m going to kick a lot of people off my friends and family list from prior trips so the only people there are the 9 on the upcoming visit.




I’ve been trying to avoid this back and forth but the statement that APs prove to be as valuable as your typical tourist is flat out wrong. Not only do I also have years of working for the company, but I specifically worked with these numbers and pricing every day. The problem in the arguments posed here (and in other posts by others) is the constant mixing of individuals and frequency. These are not apples-to-apples. You cannot compare one guest who comes every three years with an AP. That is bad analytics.

APs have one primary function...balance demand. And in that, they are valuable. It helps with consistency of staffing and balancing fixed costs. If APs were these incredibly valuable guests, they wouldn’t be (except for the highest tiers) blocked out during the busiest times of year.

If you really wanted to compare value between the two, you need to match the visits across the visitor types. There are endless ways to run analytical comparisons but that’s for another thread. As a single example: take a sample family visiting on a 7-day on-site trip, once per year. Then find a comparable AP family who visits 7 days in one year. In this scenario the sample family staying on-site wins virtually every time.

The number one goal is to attract on-site guests for as long of LoS (Length of Stay) as possible. You can slice that up into endless segmentations as well...we knew at DL that the number one most valuable guest was your average Japanese visitor. Their merch spending alone dwarfed your typical US tourist (and is one of the big reasons Oriental Land Company can invest so heavily in their parks...their merch/food per caps are through the roof).

When did DL and WDW invest most heavily to grow their AP programs? Post 9/11 and post 2008 recession. To fill attendance gaps. APs are a nice to have to boost attendance, but they will never be the primary goal of achieving profitability targets. There are of course outliers in all segments, but the real money is with the tourists.

Speaking of targets, time to “Stay on target” and get back to RoR. This is for a different thread. Sorry for the diversion.

You make valid points here (re: balancing demand, etc) and yes the goal is to keep people staying on-site and yes some APs visit a couple times a year and spend no money. However, it is not a fair comparison to take a sample family visiting on a 7-day on-site trip, once per year, then to find a comparable AP family who visits 7 days in one year. APs might spend less per day, but often spend more overall with the company - heavily investing in expensive merchandise, dining experiences, trips to other resorts, even often staying at resorts when technically "locals," etc. It's all part of the pie and courting frequent guests who might spend 30 days at the resort, albeit without a room, can be just as important as someone staying seven days with a room.

As an aside, if there's one thing Disney isn't great at, it's rewarding high value guests vs. with those who come once every three years and stay at All Star Music. There should be added perks, other than a nicer room, to choosing to stay in a Presidential Suite at the GF, for example, over spending $150/night at ASM. As it stands now, other than the standard Club Level service, you don't get much more in terms of benefits which is a shame. There's a reason why so many of these guests are staying at Four Seasons or off-property.

 

[disneygeek90]

Can anyone confirm this? That the members of your group that also have FPs for that day will be pre-checked when you go to join a group?

I’m visiting soon with two families...9 people. I’m the trip planner. I’ll be the one trying to snag the BGs (assuming still active when we visit in Feb). I’ve been wondering if I’m going to need to take the 15 seconds to manually select each member of my party. This quoted response suggests they will all be pre-selected. Would love a second confirmation on that. If not, I’m going to kick a lot of people off my friends and family list from prior trips so the only people there are the 9 on the upcoming visit.




I’ve been trying to avoid this back and forth but the statement that APs prove to be as valuable as your typical tourist is flat out wrong. Not only do I also have years of working for the company, but I specifically worked with these numbers and pricing every day. The problem in the arguments posed here (and in other posts by others) is the constant mixing of individuals and frequency. These are not apples-to-apples. You cannot compare one guest who comes every three years with an AP. That is bad analytics.

APs have one primary function...balance demand. And in that, they are valuable. It helps with consistency of staffing and balancing fixed costs. If APs were these incredibly valuable guests, they wouldn’t be (except for the highest tiers) blocked out during the busiest times of year.

If you really wanted to compare value between the two, you need to match the visits across the visitor types. There are endless ways to run analytical comparisons but that’s for another thread. As a single example: take a sample family visiting on a 7-day on-site trip, once per year. Then find a comparable AP family who visits 7 days in one year. In this scenario the sample family staying on-site wins virtually every time.

The number one goal is to attract on-site guests for as long of LoS (Length of Stay) as possible. You can slice that up into endless segmentations as well...we knew at DL that the number one most valuable guest was your average Japanese visitor. Their merch spending alone dwarfed your typical US tourist (and is one of the big reasons Oriental Land Company can invest so heavily in their parks...their merch/food per caps are through the roof).

When did DL and WDW invest most heavily to grow their AP programs? Post 9/11 and post 2008 recession. To fill attendance gaps. APs are a nice to have to boost attendance, but they will never be the primary goal of achieving profitability targets. There are of course outliers in all segments, but the real money is with the tourists.

Speaking of targets, time to “Stay on target” and get back to RoR. This is for a different thread. Sorry for the diversion.

I’m pretty sure it does not auto pick those you have a fastpass with, so you’d have to manually pick the other 8 out of your friend list.

 

[joup7]

Good morning, Blue 7 reporting in

They opened security at 4:45 today. This is the look at 4:53. I wasn’t first in line but when they opened up more ticket lines I got first in line at the 3rd scanner to the left.

I’m gonna be ambitious and try to rope drop MFSR and go for pilot. Will send periodic updates.

 

[joup7]

5:20, lines are back to the ticket booth. CM’s are making an effort to have actual lines at the turnstiles and it’s working.

 

[RSD Part Deux]

5:41a and ready to leave Boardwalk. May the force be with me this morning.

 

[disneygeek90]

6:11am reporting in

 

[disneygeek90]

6:18 open

 

[RSD Part Deux]

6:18 gates open

 

[joup7]

6:18 open. They are using fingerprints for scanning today. Holding for galaxys edge at the entrance to grand avenue.

 

[disneygeek90]

My line was not using the finger scan, though it appears most are. I was far right.

 

[deeevo]

Not sure people will be happy with this since the Skyliner doesn't open until 7am. Maybe the hours will change. I decided not to try for the boarding group this morning. To cold and I wanted to sleep. Maybe next weekend.

 

[RSD Part Deux]

My line was not using fingerprints this morning either.