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

[wdwmagic]

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is continuing to cause operational changes at Disney's Hollywood Studios into the New Year.

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Then putting the signs out IN the park is kinda “too late”. If that is their real motivation they need to be heading people off before they even make the decision to head to the park.

Imagine you are a guest without park hopper... now what do you do?

The signs are also out in front of the tapstyles. Then again, just inside.

 

[flynnibus]

I really don't understand how this works. So if your not onsite. They "let" you in at 7:25. But then everyone how is in the park can get on the ap at 7:45 to get a boarding pass? So basically once your in the park its an even playing field. It must be a huge back uo with everyone stoping once thru the turnstiles and looking at the ap. I am surprised we haven't heard report of the ap crashing.

Thats why they had a sneaky opening time for boarding group availability. Resort guests were in the park earlier... then around 725am they started letting the regular guests into the park (prior to the 8am posted time). Then at a time not previously announced, opened the app. So everyone who had managed to get past the turnstiles by that time had an equal shot. Guests reported here that they made pa announcements as well.

 

[flynnibus]

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.

Then dont plan on going right after the most anticipated attraction opens. This is common sense for anyone with a clue.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is continuing to cause operational changes at Disney's Hollywood Studios into the New Year.

www.wdwmagic.com

Moving morning EMHs to the evenings is wise. No more arguments about who can grab BGs at what time. Even playing field for all.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I wonder if Disney would follow the same policies if nobody left the park at closing time... you know, there's a huge crowd of people who don't want to leave, so we'd better just keep the park open for "safety."

Haven't they done that at MK in which the closing time was extended an hour or two that very day?

 

[disneygeek90]

Moving morning EMHs to the evenings is wise. No more arguments about who can grab BGs at what time. Even playing field for all.

Are they going to continue to have the Sunday morning EMH through December?

Edited: nevermind, I see December is included. That may tempt me into a Saturday and Sunday 6am arrival this week.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Are they going to continue to have the Sunday morning EMH through December?

@wdwmagic suggests no, but disneyworld.com and the app still show morning EMH this month, evening EMH in January.

 

[EdnaMode]

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is continuing to cause operational changes at Disney's Hollywood Studios into the New Year.

www.wdwmagic.com

Disney is obviously getting the message from disgruntled resort guests who had their EMH benefit degraded last weekend. If ROTR is running between 9 and 11pm, conclude boarding groups in sufficient time to turn on the tapstiles for standby for resort guests. That won't work for non-resort guests who remain in the park. That is a fair decision.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Operating hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios adjusted for December 2019 and January 2020 including a return of evening EMH

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is continuing to cause operational changes at Disney's Hollywood Studios into the New Year.

www.wdwmagic.com

What are the chances that they drop the boarding groups and just go Standby for the Evening EMH?

 

[ToTBellHop]

What are the chances that they drop the boarding groups and just go Standby for the Evening EMH?

That sounds impossible. They’d be mobbed at 9 pm and it can’t run til 1 am and then reopen the next morning. They have announced RotR is not part of EMH, so I imagine it will close at 9 pm.

 

[beertiki]

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?

Just like a 5 hour line will discourage more guests, waking up at 5am has the same effect. To do either, you have to really want to ride the ride. Most guests will not even think about waking up at 5am while on vacation.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Just like a 5 hour line will discourage more guests, waking up at 5am has the same effect. To do either, you have to really want to ride the ride. Most guests will not even think about waking up at 5am while on vacation.

BGs are more a requirement with this ride’s frequent breakdowns than with its popularity. I imagine BGs will go away once it stops frequently breaking down.

 

[Purduevian]

That was a solid plan until you realize that it probably would have compounded the problem not relieve it. It would have just drawn more people to the park. Then the sign out front would have been, "We're Sorry but the park is at capacity".

Didn't that plan also include opening RAT in time for SWGE? I seem to remember that being the main reason for choosing RAT over a BATB attraction. The simple solution to all of this would have been:
1) Leave Great Movie Ride open in all its outdated glory
2)Update the TSMM games on the same day as RotR
3)Have Rat open at the same time

MMRR would be further behind, but extra resources on RAT would have helped.

 

[disneygeek90]

Group 37 has been called. Seems like a decent start this morning so far. Hoping for no afternoon disasters like yesterday.

 

[beertiki]

After using the Virtual Queue (VQ) twice, I hope that it is used on every new attraction that is high demand for the first few months. Rope drop for FOP sucks. Its an uncivilized mob full of people who push, shove, cut you off, and wedge between me and my family. Everytime we do it, there are at least 3 people who I feel deserve a beating. The VQ is so smooth and easy. Scan, take 20 steps into the park, and get a group. Both mornings were so enjoyable. We rode TOT, RNR, and TSMM with no lines.

I hope Magic Band data shows lots of food and merch purchases in the two hours after a person gets their boarding group. Disney will see that a VQ is profitable.

 

[disneygeek90]

I wonder if this signals the end of the virtual quene and the beginning of FastPass.......Lets face it, if you cannot get on ROTR (virtual quene sold out by 8amish), in theory, the park would have the same demand as it did from Sept until Dec 4th.............They wouldnt need to keep it open later

I don't think it's running consistently enough right now to hand out Fastpasses with a specific return time on them. VQ works well giving them flexibility.

 

[wdwmagic]

What are the chances that they drop the boarding groups and just go Standby for the Evening EMH?

Currently they are not planning on operating during evening EMH, but it’s all open to change.

 

[Nunu]

So, I haven't been able to follow these forums like I usually do. Not only were we on vacation at WDW, but I've been Live-Trip Reporting too. We're still in Orlando.

We had assigned Dec 7, to be our DHS day (FP's set) , we thought we would be riding ROTR at some point on that day. Disney "officially" posted opening time was 9, so we went with that. Big mistake...

No social media for me either, just these forums.
We are visiting from another country, relying only on what Disney publishes on their website.

To say that we're leaving dissapointed for not being able to experience this new ride, is an understatement.

 

[CMR2013]

After using the Virtual Queue (VQ) twice, I hope that it is used on every new attraction that is high demand for the first few months. Rope drop for FOP sucks. Its an uncivilized mob full of people who push, shove, cut you off, and wedge between me and my family. Everytime we do it, there are at least 3 people who I feel deserve a beating. The VQ is so smooth and easy. Scan, take 20 steps into the park, and get a group. Both mornings were so enjoyable. We rode TOT, RNR, and TSMM with no lines.

I hope Magic Band data shows lots of food and merch purchases in the two hours after a person gets their boarding group. Disney will see that a VQ is profitable.

We are coming to DIsney Feb 8-12, and we are at AK on Sat the 8th, hoping to rope drop FoP, with 2 young kids, 9 and 6, hearing your input about FoP stinks, hopefully with EMH that morning we can get to ride the ride with under an hour wait.