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

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

I forget the exact wording of the announcements, but I'm positive they don't make any sort of reference to only being available for "seconds". There is no official Disney communication that I am aware of that goes beyond the phrase "very popular". Unless you know from personal experience, research, or had a cast member explicitly tell you... how would you naturally interpret "boarding groups are open starting at 10am"?

If I'm a normal human being and not Disney obsessed, I would probably check the park hours.. see "oh, they open at 10... ok cool, as long as I get in there pretty soon after that I should be good!"... Not that the gates have been open for an hour and 5000 people are already inside fighting over 3000 slots. Even if I was in the park, had the app already downloaded and signed in, and was aware of the time... how would I possibly know I need to be sitting directly on an app page with 8 seconds leeway to act with specific intent on a button I've never seen before that moment at 10am exactly? This is a major modern ride in a currently capacity limited park! Just knowing that alone, I would be incredulous if a CM told me that I was way too late at 10:05am, 5 minutes after official park opening. The headliner rides at the other parks don't work like that at all!

As an interesting aside, I have some friends that are local APs and Star Wars fans and had been in March to the studios for their first time just before the shutdown. They loved the Falcon and loved walking around the whole land. I asked them about Rise... They had absolutely no idea it even existed. They had never downloaded the app. Walked passed the entrance area thinking it was a meet and greet line or something. Had no clue.

You were the mom in the story huh?

 

[easyrowrdw]

Anyone here ever gotten Group 1? If so did they do anything differently?

Yes. Nope.

 

[DCBaker]

10am slots filled in ~9 seconds

 

[DCBaker]

2pm slots filled in ~10 seconds. Current groups called up to 61 (18 groups more than yesterday).

Pretty stellar run so far today, averaging roughly ~15 groups per hour.

 

[KevinPage]

2pm slots filled in ~10 seconds. Current groups called up to 61 (18 groups more than yesterday).

Pretty stellar run so far today, averaging roughly ~15 groups per hour.

Sounds good, let’s hope that continues tomorrow for birthday ride #40 (knock on wood)

 

[DCBaker]

120 is the last group of the night, called around 6:55pm (29 groups more than yesterday).

 

[KevinPage]

I am happy to yield to the advice of the expert! I was repeating what I had thought I had read here, and what I am sure I heard a cast member announce to all prior to the 10am launch. He was not, however, a bus driver, so I should have been more skeptical.

Our experience this afternoon certainly supports your veiw.

Like most employees at any given company, their “advice” can vary wildly. that person been dealing with the issue since day 1? Is this their first week on the job? Did a guest say we both tried and neither got it, so they assumed that was the issue?

Unless Lord @Joel tells me otherwise, I’m sticking with the plan

But yeah, if you are a regular day guest with no message board access discussion, it’s hard to fault the advice of a CM instructing someone what they think they should do. Plus there are multiple ways to skin a cat.

 

[flynnibus]

Just took this. RnRC is 55, btw.

View attachment 499479

Its freaking September and waits like these.... no one can win...

 

[Ldno]

Damn, I must have had the worst luck when I went there, boarding groups went up 71 that day and on top of it the ride was down for like 4 hours

 

[marni1971]

Advice from a Guest Experience Team cast member that seemed to help me get a 2pm group.

1. Dont’t use Wifi.

2. Shortly before 10:00am (or 2:00pm) go to the Virtual Queues page from the bottom right menu.

3. When the time gets to 9:59am (or 1:59pm) pull down that page one time to refresh. No need to refresh repeatedly.

4. As soon as your clock strikes 10:00am (or 2:00pm) press the Join Virtual Queue button as fast as possible. I don’t think it changes color or anything. You just need to hit it right at 10:00am (or 2:00pm).

5. Hit the remaining Join/Confirm buttons on the next two pages as fast as possible without hesitating or even reading. I think this was the key tip that helped me. Just click, click, click. The cast member said not to worry about selecting group members or making sure they are correct. If someone was missed, they will be able to help you add them afterward.

There’s no way on Earth a company can charge top dollar for a product and then have to offer advice like this. What a mess. Speaking of mess, I sincerely hope those screens are for tests. Flexible plastic will produce no end of reflections.

 

[RFM57]

Like most employees at any given company, their “advice” can vary wildly. that person been dealing with the issue since day 1? Is this their first week on the job? Did a guest say we both tried and neither got it, so they assumed that was the issue?

That's all true. The cast person i had referred to was making an announcement to all waiting in line for MMRR so one would hope he was speaking with some kind of authority -- but it still may not have been 100% accurate.

In any event, and just to be clear, the expert I was referring to in my perious message, was you!

 

[RFM57]

There’s no way on Earth a company can charge top dollar for a product and then have to offer advice like this. What a mess. I sincerely hope those screens are for tests. Flexible plastic will produce no end of reflections.

I believe you are referring to the plastic diveders on the transports in RotR. They may be a test, but I would guess they will remain flexible and not use rigid plexiglass. It was not until I was on the KS truck today that I realized the soft screens are most likely used in case a rider lurches forward and hits their head on it.

I do concur, however, that they impair visibility in several ways. We were fortunate to be alone in the RotR car and so sat in front of the screen (we had been assigned an Orange group and so I think we would have been in back if the force had not prevented another group in the car).

As for the ability to charge top dollar despite the problems, they SHOULD not charge top dollar, but they CAN because people will continue to pay it, in droves. Unfortunately, that's how far too many big companies operate today; charge what you can, not what it's worth.

 

[DCBaker]

10am slots filled in ~9 seconds.

 

[KevinPage]

I blame the last minute addition of allowing the little one to skip school for the slight delay in “MDE processing”

 

[Rich Brownn]

Just wanted to thank @Magic Feather for the good advice provided a while back. I was able to get a Rise boarding pass this morning!

Staying at Beach Club and one of the reasons I picked here is to be able to walk to DHS. You definitely have an advantage over everyone else by staying at a Boardwalk area resort. I walked over and as I was approaching around 8:30 I thought, am I way too early? Nope. Lots of people already there lining up waiting for security to open. Around 8:50 they moved us up and lined us all up outside the temp screening tents. There were already huge temp screening lines before the first Skyliner people started coming off the line. And the cars had just started to enter the lot when they let us into the screening tents.

I think it was around 9:10 when they let us into the tents, and from there I was good to go all the way into the park and walked right into MMRR with no wait. I rode MMRR, walked to Ronto Roasters for a morning wrap, and was sitting comfortably waiting for the 10:00 lottery. I made sure I had full signal bars on my phone and was flip-flopping over whether to turn WiFi off or not. I had a good connection and tested moving around the app to make sure it was responsive while connected to WiFi. It seemed like it was, so I left it on.

Was watching the seconds tick down on my watch with my phone at the ready and on the My Queues page. Right at 10:00, I clicked Join Virtual Queue, the blue Join button was on the next screen, clicked that and just clicked through everything else as fast as possible. Got Boarding Group 5! Very shortly after that, groups 1-5 were called, so I headed over and got right in with no wait. Fantastic ride!

As I was entering the queue, a mom was asking one of the Rise CMs why the app wasn't giving her a boarding pass as she was trying right then. He explained that they were gone and that they go in seconds. She looked so deflated. I'd love to know what her specific story was. Because while I was sitting waiting to try for mine, there were at least 2 separate occasions when the park-wide announcement was made about the need for a boarding pass and to get one through the app. So I'd love to know, people in her situation, did she hear the announcements? Did she arrive too late and miss them? Was it something else?

People tune out announcements. Back in the day of tickets we would routinely announce the attraction required a "E" ticket and remove it when approaching the turnstiles (like every 10 minutes so people heard it at least twice).

At least 50% of the people got to the turnstile and asked "which ticket is it?"

 

[Jones14]

Is there an internal goal as to when they’re hoping to toss the boarding groups? I can’t imagine they’re great for GSATS on the whole.

 

[DCBaker]

2pm slots filled in ~8 seconds. Current groups called up to 59 (2 group less than yesterday).

 

[DCBaker]

120 is the last group of the night, called around 6:45pm (same amount of groups as yesterday).

 

[KevinPage]

Some news and notes from today’s BG 52 adventure.

We were called at 1:26pm which is fantastic to me. Our first preshow room wasn’t even entirely filled, they were really humming today.

No delays at all, the timing and transitions between scenes was perfect, even waiting for your interrogation cell was a mere 2 minutes.

Once we got on the ride the probe droid laser was working but the next room my little one decided to pick her nose, and I look over and she was visibly upset and looked like a ketchup packet exploded onto her. Apparently she gave herself a bloody nose. If she was outside playing and walked into the house like that I might have did the panicked parent routine, but we were on Rise, so it was all good

Canons were not moving, so we did the Daisy but they were firing (lights/sound).

And best of all, I finally got some extra dialogue at the end (droid compensation, etc.). They had a few vehicles stacked at unload. It’s a great piece of banter I hope to hear again.

Also, none of the ride vehicles I saw at any point of the ride has the plastic barriers or anything.

We cleaned up the little one with a few baby wipes, did Smugglers Run and called it a day.

When we got home, wife surprised me with “that’s no moon, that’s a carrot cake”

 

[DCBaker]

Some news and notes from today’s BG 52 adventure.

We were called at 1:26pm which is fantastic to me. Our first preshow room wasn’t even entirely filled, they were really humming today.

No delays at all, the timing and transitions between scenes was perfect, even waiting for your interrogation cell was a mere 2 minutes.

Once we got on the ride the probe droid laser was working but the next room my little one decided to pick her nose, and I look over and she was visibly upset and looked like a ketchup packet exploded onto her. Apparently she gave herself a bloody nose. If she was outside playing and walked into the house like that I might have did the panicked parent routine, but we were on Rise, so it was all good

Canons were not moving, so we did the Daisy but they were firing (lights/sound).

And best of all, I finally got some extra dialogue at the end (droid compensation, etc.). They had a few vehicles stacked at unload. It’s a great piece of banter I hope to.

Also, none of the ride vehicles I saw at any point of the ride has the plastic barriers or anything.

We cleaned up the little one with a few baby wipes, did Smugglers Run and called it a day.

When we got home, wife surprised me with “that’s no moon, that’s a carrot cake”

Happy Birthday!