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

[AshaNeOmah]

It's better than 12 hours in standby.

While I agree for the guests who get to ride, the 12 hour standby is much clearer as to how the park and attraction operates. I suspect the 5 AM crowds are only going to get larger as the month progresses, since that's literally the only chance you've got to ride, and fewer of them are going to get BGs. Is this behavior still justifiable when even the people who arrive pre-6AM can't get a BG because the morning crush is so large?

 

[BrentSienna]

What time did you arrive and tap in?

Approx. 7:30am.

In line currently for Star Tours with a 15 min wait. Already been on Tower of Terror and Rockn Roller coaster.

 

[mikejs78]

A local friend in the industry got to the park this morning at 0620. They got boarding group 31. No more groups signs came out at 0750. Got called to the line at 0930.

I heard from someone that they got a boarding group shortly after 8. I'm wondering if the signs went up before they turned off access.

 

[Tom Morrow]

So in other words the example you gave of your friends anecdote did not support your position at all. You are now resorting to what if's but the fact of the matter is your friends were able to ride ROTR, and there complain that they had to "wait" 12 hours is meaningless.

I explained why it is, and why the issue isn't about the waiting but but rather that they were within minutes of not getting a chance to ride at all. I mentioned ~12 hours because that put them at just about park close to further emphasize how close they were to not getting on at all. I'm not going to continue with this back and forth.

 

[Crunchie9]

You putting the blame on guests not doing their "due diligence" isn't right. Disney themselves make it appear as if using their website alone is enough to be successful in achieving your Disney vacation goals, but those of us who spend any time here know that isn't the case.

This is my first trip since I was 7. Im now 35. I’m also a professional buyer, supply chain manager. Research and planning is just par for the course.
Same reason I was able to get to the leaf game for 5:30 and allow my son to fist pump Austin matthews and others when they come out of the shoot for warmups.

research will always set the select few apart from the general masses.

 

[marni1971]

I heard from someone that they got a boarding group shortly after 8. I'm wondering if the signs went up before they turned off access.

I would expect so. Limit demand before removing it.

 

[AshaNeOmah]

research will always set the select few apart from the general masses

For a theme park ride where daily tickets are $100 for 30k+ guests? We're not talking courtside seats or backstage passes here. A theme park ride is not (and should not be) an exclusive experience once you've paid the admission fee. Regardless of the fine print, the assumption to have the ability to ride the ride is included in the cost of admission.

 

[Tom Morrow]

The passes were gone before 7:40. Perhaps it was a glitch or someone accidentally cancelled theirs. And boy would that suck!

 

[mikejs78]

I explained why it is, and why the issue isn't about the waiting but but rather that they were within minutes of not getting a chance to ride at all. I mentioned ~12 hours because that put them at just about park close. I'm not going to continue with this back and forth.

I do think it's a relatively hard situation. Yes, they could turn away guests from DHS, not open the gates, etc. But the logistics of where DHS is located and the fact that it isn't simply private property but the RCID, complicates matters. Having lines of cars in the breakdown lane of Buena Vista Drive, or traffic jams preventing people from getting to other locations (hotels, other parks). I'm not sure what a better solution is. Certainly not an 8-10 hour standby line....

 

[mikejs78]

For a theme park ride where daily tickets are $100 for 30k+ guests? We're not talking courtside seats or backstage passes here. A theme park ride is not (and should not be) an exclusive experience once you've paid the admission fee. Regardless of the fine print, the assumption to have the ability to ride the ride is included in the cost of admission.

So how do you handle the fact that there are way more people in the park than can ride on this or any ride?

 

[VaderTron]

the surrounding areas not designed to hold that volume of cars

I'm going to give you an opportunity to recant that. I know you aren't saying that the dozens of resorts, Disney Springs, multiple gas stations, hundreds of I-4 restaurants and more in the Lake Buena Vista area cannot hold a few thousand cars. I understand you want me to be wrong, but at least try to prove me wrong with substantiated facts.

 

[marni1971]

So how do you handle the fact that there are way more people in the park than can ride on this or any ride?

Build higher capacity rides? Don’t open them until their ready? As stated above, on a normal day the average DHS capacity who want to should all be able to rise Rise once if it runs at capacity.

 

[AshaNeOmah]

So how do you handle the fact that there are way more people in the park than can ride on this or any ride?

That's not my problem. I'm not paid to solve those issues for them and haven't had years to figure it out. I've got a couple engineering degrees. If they want to hire me to help, I'll be there for an interview in two weeks.

Honestly, I don't let them in a 4:30 AM for an 8 AM opening. Make it known weeks ago and turn those cars away. I know the ramifications of this have been discussed, but it's not like Disney hasn't done this for literal decades, have been planning this ride for nearly 5 years, and have preached 'just wait until Rise to judge Galaxy's Edge."

Or open the land for resort guests 6-9 AM every morning for the rest of the year. See how that better distributes crowds. It's crazy they did it for MF:SR bit not for RotR.

Being purposefully deceptive about operating hours and procedures definitely wouldn't be in my Top 3.

 

[Touchdown]

As someone who got the “rewards” can I say that no, I don’t prefer it. Under normal conditions I usually only do one morning EMH (AK and that’s only because I think the Safari is much better early in the morning.). I do not like getting up at 4am and having to take an afternoon nap, I would much prefer 15 hour park hours to be 9-12 midnight then 6-9. I was really looking forward to not having to do this again after I had to in October, at least I only need to do this twice this trip.

 

[Piebald]

I havent read much of the commentary here and I get the fact that the expectation that one must arrive at 6am or earlier to ride a ride may be ridiculous but to be honest...the early bird gets the worm. Or in this case, the savvy planner gets to ride.

When I went to Tokyo Disney I planned meticulously because that park requires meticulous planning. Showing up at opening to buy tickets? Forget it. No plan of attack on how you want to tackle the FP situation there? Tough. Didnt check the crowd calendar and showed up on the day the churro queue is 1hr? Oh well. I only feel bad for people who may have only had like one day to figure this out because they planned the trip far ahead and we had no knowledge the boarding group system would be utilized. But beyond that...does it stink? Yes it does. But Disney requires planning the same way me wanting to watch the sunrise over Mt Fuji or wanting to see gorillas in Uganda requires planning. When I was a CM the level of poor or entire lack of planning was astounding. Of course I miss the days where Disney required a little less planning and more impromptu fun but everything in the world is now blogged about and everything is crowded and requires planning.

 

[AshaNeOmah]

At the end of the day your ulterior motive is that you just want automatic boarding passes for resort guests cause that serves your puropses.

No, I don't and I'm tired of arguing that with you.

 

[Crunchie9]

For a theme park ride where daily tickets are $100 for 30k+ guests? We're not talking courtside seats or backstage passes here. A theme park ride is not (and should not be) an exclusive experience once you've paid the admission fee. Regardless of the fine print, the assumption to have the ability to ride the ride is included in the cost of admission.

Capacity constraints operate in all aspects of life. Theory of constraints means you finite forward schedule the bottle neck station and backward schedule from that point on.
Just like I was online at 7:00am sixty days out to book my fp rides.
Ps this site is a blessing. Wouldn’t be such an “expert” if it wasn’t for all you dedicated AP locals who know this park inside and out!!
Thank you to everyone who is contributing

 

[AshaNeOmah]

When I went to Tokyo Disney I planned meticulously because that park requires meticulous planning.

What did you base that planning on? Did you rely on any posted information by Disney or the OLC? If you do that here, you're not riding Rise.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I do think it's a relatively hard situation. Yes, they could turn away guests from DHS, not open the gates, etc. But the logistics of where DHS is located and the fact that it isn't simply private property but the RCID, complicates matters. Having lines of cars in the breakdown lane of Buena Vista Drive, or traffic jams preventing people from getting to other locations (hotels, other parks). I'm not sure what a better solution is. Certainly not an 8-10 hour standby line....

During Christmas through New Years they close off the parking lot entrances at times, and it doesn't result in people parking on the side of the road, waiting for them to re-open. If people were denied entry to DHS for being too early, they would likely be informed of when the parking lot will open, and go find a parking lot somewhere.

Also, maybe I'll end up eating my words on this, but the standby line wouldn't necessarily be as long as the virtual queue times. A virtual queue pass, once you have it, requires no commitment. Once a ride's physical standby line starts reaching the two, three hour mark, people would start saying "no thanks, I'm not doing that." Having the option to queue up is at least more fair.

 

[mikejs78]

That's not my problem. I'm not paid to solve those issues for them and haven't had years to figure it out. I've got a couple engineering degrees. If they want to hire me to help, I'll be there for an interview in two weeks.

Honestly, I don't let them in a 4:30 AM for an 8 AM opening. Make it known weeks ago and turn those cars away. I know the ramifications of this have been discussed, but it's not like Disney hasn't done this for literal decades, have been planning this ride for nearly 5 years, and have preached 'just wait until Rise to judge Galaxy's Edge."

Or open the land for resort guests 6-9 AM every morning for the rest of the year. See how that better distributes crowds. It's crazy they did it for MF:SR bit not for RotR.

Being purposefully deceptive about operating hours and procedures definitely wouldn't be in my Top 3.

They have done it primarily for MK, which I think is a different beast given how the roads and such are structured. I don't think it would work for DHS.

I do think going back to the daily 6-9 EMH, having a limited number of boarding groups for that time, and then opening up the boarding groups again at 8:30 would be a decent solution.