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

[DCBaker]

40 is the last group of the night, called around 6:35pm (40 groups less than yesterday).

 

[brettf22]

On my way out, I had to stop at guest relations (for something non-RotR related). Luckily I got into GR before they stopped calling boarding groups. As I left, the GR scene was getting ugly.

 

[DCBaker]

10am slots filled in ~9 seconds.

 

[DCBaker]

2pm slots filled in ~6 seconds. Current groups called up to 21 (8 groups more than yesterday at this time).

 

[gorillaball]

How many years into this nonsense will we admit this is entirely unacceptable? Amazed at the continued pass we are giving WDI for this mess.

Well, it’s 9 months in with a few of those months closed so I think we still need to hold out a little hope. How long did it take for Test Track to get to a level of reliability?

 

[marni1971]

Everybody involved with the project should be fired.

Those who approved each level of process should have their bumps felt.

 

[DCBaker]

36 is the last group of the night, called around 4:30pm (4 groups less than yesterday).

 

[easyrowrdw]

WDI opened a massive E ticket on both coasts that have such unacceptable reliability and capacity that people have 5 seconds to join a lottery to maybe be able to ride it.

Everybody involved with the project should be fired.

That they apparently didn't use every available moment during the park closure to fix the ride is the most egregious offense, IMO. I remember people suggesting they just shut down the ride and work on it. They actually had the chance and what did they do with it?

 

[techgeek]

Well, it’s 9 months in with a few of those months closed so I think we still need to hold out a little hope. How long did it take for Test Track to get to a level of reliability?

TT had growing pains, and most of the modern E-tickets had pretty lengthy test and adjust periods. Some, like FoP, could manage that better with parallel theaters that could be down but still allow some capacity. Probably the worst outright failure in WDI history was Rocket Rods, since they were forced to abandon the ride and the tech completely after a short high profile run.

But, none of the modern E-tickets, save perhaps Indy, were this grand in scope and a ‘must ride’ for so much of the park audience. The trend towards obvious thrill rides has a way of self limiting ridership. A lot of people simply don’t ride roller coasters, or take one look at TT’s high speed run and opt out.

I doubt any of them generated such consistent and loud guest relation response either. The core problem is the park can still barely stand on its own without the Rise experience.

RotR can pretty much be ridden by everyone, what thrills it has are well hidden, and the studios has become ‘the thrill ride park’ in many ways... all that meaning a much larger % or the gate is a candidate to ride. It’s the perfect storm of supply and demand in an E-ticket, even if running flat out at design cap.

WDI opened a massive E ticket on both coasts that have such unacceptable reliability and capacity that people have 5 seconds to join a lottery to maybe be able to ride it.

And not only did they build two off the same blueprints, they greenlit a third copy in Paris sight unseen. Without a fallback consolation attraction in the land. Be interesting to see how that works out.

 

[donsullivan]

That they apparently didn't use every available moment during the park closure to fix the ride is the most egregious offense, IMO. I remember people suggesting they just shut down the ride and work on it. They actually had the chance and what did they do with it?

When Disney shut everything down in March, every single facility was evacuated and virtually nobody was allowed into any building for any reason other than security or critical services. Nobody was authorized to work in the building for many, many months so the most they could do was software work which they could do from home, but nothing could be done inside the building. Maintaining an attraction was not classified as essential services so they just shut it all down until it was deemed safe to return around June sometime when the preparations for re-opening began.

 

[donsullivan]

TT had growing pains, and most of the modern E-tickets had pretty lengthy test and adjust periods. Some, like FoP, could manage that better with parallel theaters that could be down but still allow some capacity. Probably the worst outright failure in WDI history was Rocket Rods, since they were forced to abandon the ride and the tech completely after a short high profile run.

But, none of the modern E-tickets, save perhaps Indy, were this grand in scope and a ‘must ride’ for so much of the park audience. The trend towards obvious thrill rides has a way of self limiting ridership. A lot of people simply don’t ride roller coasters, or take one look at TT’s high speed run and opt out.

I doubt any of them generated such consistent and loud guest relation response either. The core problem is the park can still barely stand on its own without the Rise experience.

RotR can pretty much be ridden by everyone, what thrills it has are well hidden, and the studios has become ‘the thrill ride park’ in many ways... all that meaning a much larger % or the gate is a candidate to ride. It’s the perfect storm of supply and demand in an E-ticket, even if running flat out at design cap.



And not only did they build two off the same blueprints, they greenlit a third copy in Paris sight unseen. Without a fallback consolation attraction in the land. Be interesting to see how that works out.

Every major E-Ticket, with new ride systems and technologies has always had a long test and adjust phase with reliability issues. We just didn’t live in a social media world where everyone in the world was instantly aware of the issues like they are today. This is absolutely not a new phenomenon- it has been happening for decades on new complex attractions.

I’ve referenced many times before the major issues they had with the ride system in Spaceship Earth. The rotation systems didn’t work right so they had a cast member at the top to push the ride vehicles into the rotated position with their foot because the ride system wasn’t locking them in. Then at the bottom was another CM on a stool pushing the vehicle with their foot to lock it back in the other direction. This went on for a very long time after the attraction opened.

 

[easyrowrdw]

When Disney shut everything down in March, every single facility was evacuated and virtually nobody was allowed into any building for any reason other than security or critical services. Nobody was authorized to work in the building for many, many months so the most they could do was software work which they could do from home, but nothing could be done inside the building. Maintaining an attraction was not classified as essential services so they just shut it all down until it was deemed safe to return around June sometime when the preparations for re-opening began.

Essential, shmessential. It's an arbitrary designation. If Universal could continue construction, then why exactly couldn't Disney perform repairs?

 

[Twirlnhurl]

I’ve referenced many times before the major issues they had with the ride system in Spaceship Earth. The rotation systems didn’t work right so they had a cast member at the top to push the ride vehicles into the rotated position with their foot because the ride system wasn’t locking them in. Then at the bottom was another CM on a stool pushing the vehicle with their foot to lock it back in the other direction. This went on for a very long time after the attraction opened.

I agree. Certainly Spaceship Earth in 1982 had just as much demand as Rise has today. Heck, SSE is the first thing you see when you enter Epcot, and it is the icon of the park. While I imagine a sizable minority of DHS guests don't even realize that Rise exists and think the big ride is Millennium Falcon.

 

[Twirlnhurl]

Essential, shmessential. It's an arbitrary designation. If Universal could continue construction why exactly couldn't Disney perform repairs?

In hindsight, Universal was probably right to continue construction, as their risk management strategies during the pandemic have been far more consistent throughout than Disney's. However, in mid-March, it was far from obvious what the correct move should be.

 

[donsullivan]

Essential, shmessential. It's an arbitrary designation. If Universal could continue construction why exactly couldn't Disney perform repairs?

Disney chose a very conservative approach to the safety of its employees back in March in every single part of the company. Those rules prevented anyone from entering any building during the shutdown except roles deemed essential such as security. That included all of the attraction buildings, construction sites, all of their office buildings around the US, etc.. In fact, most of the office space is still under those restrictions. Those constraints didn't start to loosen until June when they were preparing the construction and installation of all the distancing equipment thoughout the property in advance of the re-opening. Most of the Imagineering and construction teams were not back to work at that time and only started coming back in August.

 

[easyrowrdw]

In hindsight, Universal was probably right to continue construction, as their risk management strategies during the pandemic have been far more consistent throughout than Disney's. However, in mid-March, it was far from obvious what the correct move should be.

The right move regarding new or ongoing projects (delayed vs cancelled, etc) is one thing. The right move regarding the most popular ride in the park that was plagued by reliability issues seems pretty simple to me.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Those who approved each level of process should have their bumps felt.

Can you clarify what you mean by this?

 

[RSoxNo1]

Every major E-Ticket, with new ride systems and technologies has always had a long test and adjust phase with reliability issues. We just didn’t live in a social media world where everyone in the world was instantly aware of the issues like they are today. This is absolutely not a new phenomenon- it has been happening for decades on new complex attractions.

I’ve referenced many times before the major issues they had with the ride system in Spaceship Earth. The rotation systems didn’t work right so they had a cast member at the top to push the ride vehicles into the rotated position with their foot because the ride system wasn’t locking them in. Then at the bottom was another CM on a stool pushing the vehicle with their foot to lock it back in the other direction. This went on for a very long time after the attraction opened.

Nothing has been as bad as Flight of Passage while remaining open.

 

[donsullivan]

Nothing has been as bad as Flight of Passage while remaining open.

Nothing has been anywhere the level of complexity either.

 

[gerarar]

I’m pretty sure it was said before here that WDI wanted more time to fix and tune the ride, but Ops/TDP wanted to open it as soon as possible before the holidays, hence its early December opening.