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

[MiddKid]

Just so interesting to me how many people are upset by the so called “lies.” I’m always of the opinion to research, plan ahead, and execute. If thousands of other people achieved something that I didn’t, then I did one of those three things wrong. Reading these posts I thought of a few personal examples:

• I remember getting on a soft open ride for Mission: Space. We had heard rumors that they were doing them. The “official” word if you asked Guest Relations was the official opening date weeks ahead. We walked over to M:S only to see CMs in full costume and stanchions set up. We asked the CM if they were going to do soft opens. He replied that M:S was going to open in a few weeks on X date. We hovered. Other people asked...same official response. Then 10 minutes later they dropped the rope and let people in for about an hour. So up until 30-seconds before dropping the rope they were “lying” but because I researched, planned ahead, and hovered I was able to experience it. The people who listed to the “official” word and left did not.
• I’m a skier. Powder days are what we all wait for. When a resort gets dumped on, the website still says the lifts open at 9am. My local resort, however, will open the lifts as early as possible. So despite a 9am opening, people show up at 6am on a powder day. The lift may open at 8:15. It may open at 8:35. Never know. The official opening is 9. This has a correlation to RoR in that untracked powder is a limited supply commodity. If you’re 20 minutes late, you’re not getting the goods. If I’m late to the line, I only have myself to blame. I don’t go complaining that the website said the lifts were opening at 9am.
• My family happened to be at DLR a few years ago the week that Wizarding World opened in Hollywood. My daughter and I literally had one day to make it work and it was the day after grand opening. Not being locals it was important to us and we arrived in the 6 o’clock hour with a published park opening time of 9am. They were doing boarding groups to the land and we were some of the first in. I don’t remember what time the gates opened, but it was earlier than 9am. We (and the hundreds of other people there) knew the demand and planned for it.

I know people are using the fireworks example (9pm launching early at 8pm) but that’s a totally different scenario. Right now fireworks are an every day thing that doesn’t reach capacity by 8pm. So yes, I would be annoyed. BUT...if WDW started a new Fireworks show that was the coolest, most groundbreaking show ever and it constantly filled to capacity then no, I wouldn’t care if it launched early. You should know the demand for it and show up early. I found myself thinking of DL’s Fantasmic where people would show up at 10am with blankets and save spots. The viewing area was generally full (this was pre-FastPass) by an hour before showtime. If they wanted to start the show early it really wouldn’t matter. The people who were there had been there for hours and people coming in late had no chance to get in.

We’re heading to WDW in February with a family that has never been. We are going to do everything needed to get on this ride during our small window and I certainly won’t simply go by what Guest Relations is telling me. If thousands of other people ride it on a day and I didn’t...that’s on me.

 

[brettf22]

I would love to see a comparison of each day so far side the ride has opened on
1. What time boarding passes were fully distributed
2. what boarding groups were called, by what time each day
I wonder if anyone has that info? Maybe Len Testa??

I'm not Len, but thrill-data.com has a nice graphing tool that allows you compare individual parks, attractions, etc. That being said, RotR seems to be having its best morning so far (note that they show "Wait in Minutes" as the y axis units, when it reality, it should be "Boarding Group #")

 

[xdan0920]

This is not just boarding a ride... This is trying to get on a ride that has way less capacity than the demand.... during opening week no less.

People accept they gotta be up at god-knows-hours to book the castle dinner... and be better than the others to get the times they want... but somehow struggle with the idea that it takes extra effort to get on the newest, biggest, most expensive and most anticipated attraction Disney has built in ages?

Ok...

Great comparison, only you did it wrong. I know I gotta get up early at 180 days to book the castle dinner. It's clearly communicated, booking starts at 7am 180 days out. Now, here I am, all set to go, and I get an error message "sorry everything is booked because we actually opened booking at 5:30 am" Guess I am the dummy in that scenario?

I know you aren't a blind defender of the brand, and I also know you are an intelligent poster, I'm struggling to see how you landed on this hill based on those things.

 

[splashtest]

Boarding 45-65.........wonder if standby may actually open tonight..?

 

[DCBaker]

Do we know how high the boarding groups went today?

At least 97.

 

[disneygeek90]

It doesn't look as if there's been any delay of note today. Hopefully it keeps up.

 

[Joeamc]

But Star Wars is dead, people... Oversaturated. No ride based on ST characters can can succeed. Galaxy's Edge is a ghost town. Disney made a $1B mistake.

I think I captured most of the pre-RotR narrative.

Working on it.

Thanks Len!

 

[WDWTrojan]

As flynnbus has stated your average guest won't get in.
10,000 spots on ROTR and 30,000 guest.
20,000 will not get in.

That. Doesn't. Matter.

Everyone deserves a fair chance to get ride, even if they know they might not be able to. If Disney is explicitly telling people the park may open early but that boarding groups won't go online until 8AM, that isn't a fair chance. That is penalizing people who follow Disney's guidance and don't seek out social media for other non-official answers.

 

[xdan0920]

That. Doesn't. Matter.

Everyone deserves a fair chance to get ride, even if they know they might not be able to. If Disney is explicitly telling people the park may open early but that boarding groups won't go online until 8AM, that isn't a fair chance. That is penalizing people who follow Disney's guidance and don't seek out social media for other non-official answers.

This is literally the only way to look at this. There’s no room for subjectivity.

 

[flynnibus]

Great comparison, only you did it wrong. I know I gotta get up early at 180 days to book the castle dinner. It's clearly communicated, booking starts at 7am 180 days out. Now, here I am, all set to go, and I get an error message "sorry everything is booked because we actually opened booking at 5:30 am" Guess I am the dummy in that scenario?

The analogy was about your disgust for the 'average' comment - not the attraction opening time. Again, if guests want to be average.. during the most contentious, competitive time.. They are going to miss out. This is not a hard idea.

The 'average' person doesn't think '180 days' means within seconds of the exact opening time at 180 days.. but Disney planners know that's what it takes. Disney planners also know that if you want to be at the the front for something.. you don't show up at the posted time - you show up early.. sometimes hours early. This is what I mean by you can't be average. If you want the most exclusive stuff at Disney - there are things you gotta do above and beyond just being an 'theme park guest'. That's reality today.

The fact Disney released things early is not really the decisive point in the RoTR scenario. If there is 1000 things available.. and you are 3000th in line... it doesn't matter when handing the tokens out starts. You were not there early enough. People are whining that Disney opened availability early.. so what.. if you didn't get ahead of those other people in line, you'd miss out regardless. If you took '8am opening' as "well as long as I am there by 8am" that's your naivety.

People are blaming Disney for not sticking to a published time.. and ignoring the heart of the matter -- that you need to be ahead of your fellow guests if you want in. That's what I mean about not being average. The average is not enough.

Should we talk about AP exclusive offerings at Disneyland and the lengths people would go through to get those? Again.. if you just took Disney's posted times literally without any experience to know how to adjust.. you would lose. Why? Because it's competitive.

It's a limited commodity. No adherence to sticking to published times will change that fact. And until Disney switches to some lottery system... getting the limited commodity means it's a competition between guests to grab one of those spots.

 

[RobWDW1971]

The analogy was about your disgust for the 'average' comment - not the attraction opening time. Again, if guests want to be average.. during the most contentious, competitive time.. They are going to miss out. This is not a hard idea.

The 'average' person doesn't think '180 days' means within seconds of the exact opening time at 180 days.. but Disney planners know that's what it takes. Disney planners also know that if you want to be at the the front for something.. you don't show up at the posted time - you show up early.. sometimes hours early. This is what I mean by you can't be average. If you want the most exclusive stuff at Disney - there are things you gotta do above and beyond just being an 'theme park guest'. That's reality today.

The fact Disney released things early is not really the decisive point in the RoTR scenario. If there is 1000 things available.. and you are 3000th in line... it doesn't matter when handing the tokens out starts. You were not there early enough. People are whining that Disney opened availability early.. so what.. if you didn't get ahead of those other people in line, you'd miss out regardless. If you took '8am opening' as "well as long as I am there by 8am" that's your naivety.

People are blaming Disney for not sticking to a published time.. and ignoring the heart of the matter -- that you need to be ahead of your fellow guests if you want in. That's what I mean about not being average. The average is not enough.

Should we talk about AP exclusive offerings at Disneyland and the lengths people would go through to get those? Again.. if you just took Disney's posted times literally without any experience to know how to adjust.. you would lose. Why? Because it's competitive.

It's a limited commodity. No adherence to sticking to published times will change that fact. And until Disney switches to some lottery system... getting the limited commodity means it's a competition between guests to grab one of those spots.

This post is accurate yet describes everything that is wrong with a WDW “vacation” today.

 

[flynnibus]

That. Doesn't. Matter.

Everyone deserves a fair chance to get ride, even if they know they might not be able to. If Disney is explicitly telling people the park may open early but that boarding groups won't go online until 8AM, that isn't a fair chance. That is penalizing people who follow Disney's guidance and don't seek out social media for other non-official answers.

So if you are behind 12,000 people at the gate when you show up.. and Disney opens the system at the right time. Do you get on? No.. because the time really isn't the thing blocking you. It's the 12,000 people who got there before you.

People are being penalized because there are others willing to do more than they are... not because Disney opened a queue early. The contention is between availability.. not hitting a time mark.

 

[Tom Morrow]

That. Doesn't. Matter.

Everyone deserves a fair chance to get ride, even if they know they might not be able to. If Disney is explicitly telling people the park may open early but that boarding groups won't go online until 8AM, that isn't a fair chance. That is penalizing people who follow Disney's guidance and don't seek out social media for other non-official answers.

Yeah, I'm not sure how people are having trouble recognizing this as terrible guest service. Disney is being super vague and arbitrary about when to get to the park and also flat out lying. The same way I have hated that for the last six months, Universal never set a hard closing time for Hagrid's queue so it closes an arbitrary different time every day, Disney is making guests gamble on when to arrive at the parking lot and arbitrarily opening the park early while flat out lying about when they will and when the boarding passes will drop.

What I think needs to happen: don't let people enter the parking lot until an hour and a half before scheduled park open. Announce this. Stick with it. Station CM's at the parking lot entrances to prevent people from entering if you have to. Second: Do not let people enter the park until 7:30 (for an 8:00 opening). Post this, stick with it. They're not doing any favors by letting people park and camp at 4:30, 5:00 AM, allowing for massive crowds to build up because they're unsure of when they'll actually be let into the park.

 

[flynnibus]

This post is accurate yet describes everything that is wrong with a WDW “vacation” today.

Yup.. yet some posters still defend to the death that Disney is no different than traveling anywhere else and justify it as normal... Blows one's mind doesn't it?

I don't like it - it's just reality until Disney does something different to change it. And ironically enough.. the VQ is probably the first 'customer friendly' change I can see them making in any of their availability systems in ages. Compared to every other commodity reservation model they have...

I am pointing out that if people want to complain... they should complain about the right thing and take personal responsibility for what they can control. Things like 'but they opened the gates early!!' are just cop-out excuses that are looking to point fingers vs digesting what really is going on as a whole.

 

[drew81]

Christmas week is going to be fun.

 

[flynnibus]

What I think needs to happen: don't let people enter the parking lot until an hour and a half before scheduled park open. Announce this. Stick with it. Station CM's at the parking lot entrances to prevent people from entering if you have to. Second: Do not let people enter the park until 7:30 (for an 8:00 opening). Post this, stick with it. They're not doing any favors by letting people park and camp at 4:30, 5:00 AM, allowing for massive crowds to build up because they're unsure of when they'll actually be let into the park.

While this may seem more 'fair' on paper.. it doesn't make things better in practice. In fact, it tends to make things worse. Traffic is now multiplied.. people try to hang out where they shouldn't be... etc. This 'displacing people' instead of handling them normally just creates all kinds of new problems.

The better solution is to handle crowds in the controlled manner.. not try to fight it back. Which is why there are processes like letting people into the park up to main street prior to opening... you absorb the crowd, not try to fight it back.

There has to be a balance here.. because you can't flex forever in every direction... but trying to be militant is a paper victory only.. it doesn't help the boots on the ground situation.

 

[flynnibus]

That is penalizing people who follow Disney's guidance and don't seek out social media for other non-official answers.

And we've had WDW planning guides for nearly 40 years for this exact same reason... and why 'Disney vacation planning' sites are the biggest Disney sites on the topic of Disney.

If you strictly went on Disney supplied info... you're at a disadvantage to those who did not.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Christmas week is going to be fun.

I'm planning to show up the morning of 12/22 all like

 

[Epcot_Imagineer]

I'm planning to show up the morning of 12/22 all like
View attachment 431801

Twice the pride preparation, double the fall.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Twice the pride preparation, double the fall.

I just hope the ride doesn't pull a Dooku and die. And if it does, I hope it will quickly pull a Sidious and come back to soothe the souls of upset fans.