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

[Aschwenker]

Hello @Aschwenker thank you for that in depth Question and Answer. It is super helpful.

I am also a long time reader and this is my first post.

I will be heading over to Disney on the weekend of February 21st and actually going to Hollywood Studios on that Saturday, February 22nd. I still believe that the Boarding Groups will still be in effect. We are a group of 9 going on Saturday and we will be there early to hopefully get a good Boarding group number.

My question is has anyone joined/added a boarding group of 9 people or more on the MDE app? I will be the one adding Boarding group, so I just want to know of anyones experience if they had a large group? Or should we break up our group into 4 and 5 member groups?

I appreciate any information all of you can give me.

Thank you

Under the hood, I believe reserving a Boarding Group is using most of the same functionality as reserving a Fast Pass. I have not had trouble reserving Fast Passes for 9 people before, so I cannot see why reserving Boarding Groups would behave differently.

You could break your group into a set of 4 and 5, but you will almost certainly be in different Boarding Groups and have to get that corrected or experience the ride separately. Be aware that at a certain point the ride has a limit of 8 people per color (you will see when you ride), so your group of 9 will definitely be separated at that point. I suspect you will get some fun dialogue associated with the separation.

 

[Ojo4]

Is there a place we can see how fast the boarding groups are all distributed each day?

 

[disneygeek90]

Is there a place we can see how fast the boarding groups are all distributed each day?

Thrill Data on Twitter has been trying to track. This was as of yesterday.

 

[Rob562]

on my fastpass return they had us bypass the opening shuttle and walked us into the hanger.
I was actually hoping to see the opening again so I am a bit disappointed.

Are you sure you're not mis-remembering that? Yours is the first report I've seen anywhere of the shuttle being bypassed. (In fact it was posted by insiders that if the shuttle system goes down, SOP is that the attraction closes until it's fixed, that there isn't a way to bypass it with guests)

-Rob

 

[matt9112]

Im a little upset that is is almost impossible for me to ride after driving an hour super early and im not going to do that. Im not going to set myself up. I will wait. My life wont be any worse not having riden it. Life goes on.

 

[hopemax]

5. On the front page where it says "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Access by Boarding Group", click on Find out more.

The day we went, once everything went live, this part disappeared for me. The page loaded, except for the most important chunk. Panic-mode engaged. Tried closing the app and reopening, nada. I remembered I had seen another place it had come up, so I had to click on the hamburger in the lower right, and then click Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. And then once I had a boarding group, the front page showed that chunk again.

 

[Ravenclaw78]

My family visits 2-3 times a year. We have never rope-dropped, and rarely get in lines with a wait time greater than 30 minutes. Typically, we get into the parks around 10:00-11:00 AM, and stay until close. We book Fastpasses for anything we really care about, and we're not big on roller coasters so the only really long lines we have to worry about avoiding are FoP, NRJ, TSMM, Frozen, and Peter Pan. Anything else, the lines will thin out later in the day. If we don't get to ride something on any given trip, it'll still be there next time. Obviously, Galaxy's Edge throws a monkey wrench into the works for DHS, and I'm not sure whether we'll rope drop or just write off RotR and MFSR for our trip later this month and try again in August, but generally we approach Disney much more casually than the die-hard rope-droppers.

 

[disneygeek90]

My family visits 2-3 times a year. We have never rope-dropped, and rarely get in lines with a wait time greater than 30 minutes. Typically, we get into the parks around 10:00-11:00 AM, and stay until close. We book Fastpasses for anything we really care about, and we're not big on roller coasters so the only really long lines we have to worry about avoiding are FoP, NRJ, TSMM, Frozen, and Peter Pan. Anything else, the lines will thin out later in the day. If we don't get to ride something on any given trip, it'll still be there next time. Obviously, Galaxy's Edge throws a monkey wrench into the works for DHS, and I'm not sure whether we'll rope drop or just write off RotR and MFSR for our trip later this month and try again in August, but generally we approach Disney much more casually than the die-hard rope-droppers.

I would think, based just on time of year, that it might be more advantageous for you to attempt one early morning in late January as opposed to the busy summer months.

 

[larryz]

Im a little upset that is is almost impossible for me to ride after driving an hour super early and im not going to do that. Im not going to set myself up. I will wait. My life wont be any worse not having riden it. Life goes on.

 

[KevinPage]

So I got a “verbal” commitment from my kindergartener today that they will wake up at 5am this Saturday, so we can get out of the house by 5:30 and arrive at the parks by 6:10-ish.

This will allow us to get into the park stress free, both kids the obligatory restroom break before boarding groups even start. (Any chance I can get @cindy_k to work my phone and repeat her magic 11? ).

I had ZERO issues with boarding groups prior to the lottery system. But with an iPhone XR on AT&T I’m gonna be happier than a @realBobChapek at a Workforce Lay-off meeting if I get SUB 50 (which would essentially guarantee a morning ride).

I only have about 8 people in my MDE so will have to choose both kids manually, depriving me of precious seconds

Here is a point I have NOT seen discussed?

- are you using time on your phone to determine 7am OR waiting for Disney announcement?

- any reports of anyone sneaking in a BG at 6:58 or 6:59?

 

[Horizons '83]

Looks like they extended the park hours for DS tonight. Now open until 9PM

 

[Aschwenker]

So I got a “verbal” commitment from my kindergartener today that they will wake up at 5am this Saturday, so we can get out of the house by 5:30 and arrive at the parks by 6:10-ish.

This will allow us to get into the park stress free, both kids the obligatory restroom break before boarding groups even start. (Any chance I can get @cindy_k to work my phone and repeat her magic 11? ).

I had ZERO issues with boarding groups prior to the lottery system. But with an iPhone XR on AT&T I’m gonna be happier than a @realBobChapek at a Workforce Lay-off meeting if I get SUB 50 (which would essentially guarantee a morning ride).

I only have about 8 people in my MDE so will have to choose both kids manually, depriving me of precious seconds

Here is a point I have NOT seen discussed?

- are you using time on your phone to determine 7am OR waiting for Disney announcement?

- any reports of anyone sneaking in a BG at 6:58 or 6:59?

I used 7:00AM on my phone. I had a boarding group reserved before there was any announcement by Disney. I highly recommend not waiting for the announcement.

 

[Oscar Vega]

Thank you disneygeek90 and Aschwenker for your reply. I will look at my friends to see if I can remove any of them, just so I can save those precious seconds.

 

[socalkdg]

Just skipped first half of the ride. Went straight to holding cell skipping everything else.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Seeing several reports on Twitter that the shuttle is being bypassed.

 

[Andrew C]

Seeing several reports on Twitter that the shuttle is being bypassed.

Probably shouldn't run the ride at all without that piece. Sounds like a good way to grow a long line at Guest Services...

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Here is a point I have NOT seen discussed?

- are you using time on your phone to determine 7am OR waiting for Disney announcement?

Phone - time.gov became my friend!

Also, to anyone using an iPhone, I'd recommend having the MDE app available directly on your home screen and not in a folder, so you can see the time and click the app precisely at 7:00:00 (or whenever opening happens to be). When you open an app folder on an iPhone, the time seems to disappear.

 

[Surferboy567]

Seeing several reports on Twitter that the shuttle is being bypassed.

I believe that without the queue Rise is just not complete that would annoy me to no end if they skipped that part on my trip in 10 days. I’m worried that it comes to the point where they skip even more of the queue and just rush people to load.

Probably shouldn't run the ride at all without that piece. Sounds like a good way to grow a long line as Guest Services...

I couldn’t agree more.

 

[larryz]

Phone - time.gov became my friend!

If your phone is talking to a cell tower, it should be just as accurate as time.gov.

 

[flynnibus]

Thrill Data on Twitter has been trying to track. This was as of yesterday.
View attachment 439545

Man... these guys really need to learn how to organize data

Chart 1: Time after opening till group is closed
Chart 2: Simple opening time vs date graph aligned to same x axis as chart 1