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

[Tom Morrow]

I know it's only day three, but, man, I thought the situation at Hagrid's was bad. Theme parks should probably stop opening highly anticipated rides before they are ready.

 

[networkpro]

Taking my boys Monday and Tuesday; last days of our Annual Passes. Suggestions for getting a boarding group? Show up at 6 am? Also, anyone know how their handling disability passes for this ride? Are they using a passholder line for park entry?

No passholder line this morning. For DAS since the queue is virtual I haven't seen any alternate means of entry (other than plaids)

 

[Kman101]

If they say "Park opens at 6" people would just come earlier. If they are coming at 4am now they will just try to camp out at 1am or something ridiculous.

I get what Disney is saying about this being a safety hazard, having cars backed up onto the road. However, their narrative that they must let the people in is just a cover story. Airports have the same issue at guest pick-up. Cars quickly back up and create a safety issue and block others from accessing their passengers. What is their solution? They have one or two safety officers out directing idling cars to keep moving. If Disney wanted to they could post signs that you cannot wait at the parking lot and have a couple of parking attendants force people to keep moving toward the exit and circle back when they open. However, that's not what Disney wants. They want the people to come in early. By booking all of the boarding groups early that means some people will be lingering all day, some more than 12 hours, in the same park. Others, who arrive and try to book a boarding group find they are full after they have already scanned their ticket to get in. Unless they have a park hopper or an AP they are stuck in the park because they have locked themselves into that park for the day. That means a larger number of guests occupying the park at the same time. Since boarding groups allow guests to go on other rides and take up FP's while waiting, this larger crowd occupies even more more queue space than normal. All of these resulting effects ultimately lead to larger than normal numbers of guests spending more time in restaurants, getting food from quick service stations, buying drinks or snacks, and shopping/purchasing merchandise. That's the real goal here: Increased cash reaping from the peasants of Disney kingdom. It's a genius business plan if you don't mind slimy sales tactics.

Bingo. Nailed it.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Taking my boys Monday and Tuesday; last days of our Annual Passes. Suggestions for getting a boarding group? Show up at 6 am? Also, anyone know how their handling disability passes for this ride? Are they using a passholder line for park entry?

Re DAS, first get a Boarding Group, then you get the DAS at the entrance of the ride only. Once your boarding group is called, DAS will use the FP queue to board quicker.

I believe TouringPlans posted on Twitter, let me find it

 

[POTC]

I messaged the WDW Guest services twitter account and they told me the virtual queue will open up at 8am tomorrow. So EMH and regular guests won’t be able to access the boarding groups until then.

 

[Kman101]

From the reports posted so far I would guess a late January/February visit might be a bit more enjoyable. But if waiting that long it might be better to wait till Mikey's ride opens in March.

It sounds like Rise is great when it runs properly. If I can just get this bitter taste out of my mouth from Disney's park management I would love to ride it for myself.

...We'll see.

Same. I have a definite bitter taste in my mouth at the moment and have lost my desire to try and rush there and ride. I'm probably going to wait until March at this point, (why not just go when both are open?) and I'm someone who can go 'anytime' (I live a little more than an hour away and of course have to work) and I really have no interest in trying again after yesterday and seeing how they did it today. And I can't wait to see it all hit the fan and be a cluster-you-know-what tomorrow when there's EMH.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Resort buses weren’t running?

Was on the way to the airport!

 

[VaderTron]

I bounced to MK, which seems pretty busy, but I had FP booked previously, so we’ll see if I have the energy to make it back for whenever 92 is due

So your boarding group stays in tact even when you leave the park? That seems like a mistake Disney wouldn't make. They should want to keep you hostage all day knowing you will buy more if stuck in DHS waiting all day to ride Rise.

 

[networkpro]

Same. I have a definite bitter taste in my mouth at the moment and have lost my desire to try and rush there and ride. I'm probably going to wait until March at this point, (why not just go when both are open?) and I'm someone who can go 'anytime' (I live a little more than an hour away and of course have to work) and I really have no interest in trying again after yesterday and seeing how they did it today. And I can't wait to see it all hit the fan and be a cluster-you-know-what tomorrow when there's EMH.

It was just coincidence that we were down here at the same time it opened, otherwise it would have been MLK weekend with the Shriners game before we would have attempted to ride.

 

[VaderTron]

To Disney’s credit, there are signs outside of the bag check and on walkway from parking lot noting boarding passes are gone. Downtime is not part of the plan.

Well I guess they have a bit of class left after all. It almost seems like a new hope of a return to better customer treatment is rising in my heart.

 

[butterxcup]

So your boarding group stays in tact even when you leave the park? That seems like a mistake Disney wouldn't make. They should want to keep you hostage all day knowing you will buy more if stuck in DHS waiting all day to ride Rise.

You’re allowed to leave the park/disney property once you have your boarding group. I went on opening day at 7:30 and got group 86. I asked multiple cast members if I could potentially leave to another park while I waited for my time. All assured me I would be fine but if I didn’t make it to the park within 2 hours when my group was called I wouldn’t be able to ride. So after trying a few other attractions I left the park at 9:30, returned to my home for 4 hours (nap and actual productive stuff), returned at 2:30 once I noticed the 60s were being called, and was called on at 4:30 out of the park by 5:30.
Back again today and already left the park once earlier when the ride was shut down. About 10 more groups to go until mine so hopefully the ride can hold it together long enough this afternoon so I can get on before 4:30 today. We’ll see!

 

[Disney Maddux]

Holy... crap...

This was an absolutely amazing experience.

 

[VaderTron]

I messaged the WDW Guest services twitter account and they told me the virtual queue will open up at 8am tomorrow. So EMH and regular guests won’t be able to access the boarding groups until then.

But thousands will be inside the park at 8am. The second boarding groups open, thousands of boarding groups will be booked. By 8:01 you will be on boarding group 50 something. Better be in the park ready with your finger mashing the refresh button at 7:59. Even more likely, plan on that being a lie and the boarding group reservations opening earlier.

 

[VaderTron]

You’re allowed to leave the park/disney property once you have your boarding group. I went on opening day at 7:30 and got group 86. I asked multiple cast members if I could potentially leave to another park while I waited for my time. All assured me I would be fine but if I didn’t make it to the park within 2 hours when my group was called I wouldn’t be able to ride. So after trying a few other attractions I left the park at 9:30, returned to my home for 4 hours (nap and actual productive stuff), returned at 2:30 once I noticed the 60s were being called, and was called on at 4:30 out of the park by 5:30.
Back again today and already left the park once earlier when the ride was shut down. About 10 more groups to go until mine so hopefully the ride can hold it together long enough this afternoon so I can get on before 4:30 today. We’ll see!

Yeah see, Disney made a big mistake there. Surprising with all the money-centric plans the two Bob's have had in place lately.

 

[butterxcup]

Yeah see, Disney made a big mistake there. Surprising with all the money-centric plans the two Bob's have had in place lately.

To be fair I’m a major minority to be able to leave and return to my own home from the park. Most people I spoke to while in line for the ride that day at 4:30 said they went to one of the other three parks while waiting to return to the Studios. So Disney still got money throughout the day, just spread out between all the parks rather than just one from those waiting to ride.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Sounds like MMRR can't open soon enough!

 

[Kman101]

Even if they had waited to open the gates at 9 u still wouldn’t be able to ride getting there 30 minutes before opening. 10000 people would have already been waiting outside the gates since they started lining up at 4 am. Those people would still be first through the gates and first getting their spot in the virtual queue, filling it to capacity in the first 30 minute. Showing up 30 minutes before opening just puts you at the back of that huge line that takes an hour to get through the gates. So now you can’t get in until 10 am and you still can’t ride ROTR.

And that's still better than folks expecting a 9am opening only to find out, sike, we opened at 6. Either way a lot of guests will miss out one way or the other.

There's no perfect solution.

 

[Kman101]

Sounds like MMRR can't open soon enough!

Do we start lining up now ... ? Asking for a friend

 

[Jeffxz]

I had a second boarding group of 92 but now the app is saying I’m not in a group.
Did anyone else with a second boarding group for today get removed?

I have 92 as well and just checked, still there

View attachment 431203

so I stopped at one of the guest experience desks to try to see what happened.
Here is what I did, so hopefully others don’t make the same mistake I did:

• Got into boarding group 20 at rope drop
• When 20 was called, I scanned in and got in the queue
• While in the queue, I removed all people from the boarding group 20
• Created a new boarding group and got 92

On the way off of the ride they scan your band again and mark your boarding group as redeemed, this is where I lost my 92 group

I was able to confirm this is what happened, when the gr cm scanned my band they showed I redeemed my group 92 at 8:20am.

If you try this tomorrow, don’t let them scan your band on the way off the ride, or wait until you get off to rebook another group.

 

[networkpro]

1:10 boarding groups 28-45 . I'll update until group 59 then it's off to Epcot.