Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

[justintheharris]

So.. why is no Disney media outlet talking about the fact that Rise of the Resistance is still operating at half capacity?

 

[marni1971]

So.. why is no Disney media outlet talking about the fact that Rise of the Resistance is still operating at half capacity?

Do you think they would?

 

[justintheharris]

Do you think they would?

Given the fact that it's in such popular demand and Disney seems to be sitting on their hands with fixing the issue, I would've thought it would be worth a mention. I'm not an expert but I can't help but speculate that since nobody is talking about the ride being at half capacity, Disney is completely okay with the fact that it's operating at half capacity because it gives the illusion the ride is more in demand than it actually is.

 

[Mike S]

Updates time:

1) Thus far Rise of the Resistance is seen as a massive success as far as quality of experience is concerned. Thousands of people are showing up every day at 7 am and pressing Join Boarding Group like mad to try to experience the ride. Attendance at Hollywood Studios is up hugely year-to-year. So in that regard, mission accomplished (although Disneyland is a different beast).

2) Galaxy's Edge itself is not receiving the same stellar reviews and is likely to see changes over time at DHS. Food sales are lower than desired (which says something in DHS where there are few food options). Retail sales are also lower than needed. Guest interaction with Rey is not what they'd like to see either, with less participation compared to Chewbacca and Storm Troopers. And everybody from management up knows not a single guest usually knows who Vi Moradi is, and those who do don't care.

3) With The Force Awakens as a barometer, Disney is now ready to make significant changes to the Star Wars brand considering The Rise of Skywalker will end up pulling around half the capital of The Force Awakens. This continues to the downward trajectory, opposite of the Marvel brand. Star Wars merchandise continues to significantly underperform except for Original Trilogy and The Child merchandise. Jon Favreau looks to take over Lucasfilm once Kathleen Kennedy's contract is over, with Dave Filoni taking over as Lucasfilm Creative Lead. Iger has already made it known The Mandalorian is the formula going forward, and you can expect to see the Disney trilogy emphasized less and less as time goes on. This has little to do with agendas other than the Disney trilogy is proving to be less and less profitable. As a result, expect to see MUCH MORE of the Mandalorian in Galaxy's Edge by September of this year. C3P0 and R2D2 Meet and Greets are also planned, and those could be as soon as May.

4) Decisions will be made in February as to how and when expansions are to take place with Galaxy's Edge. The actual decisions may be hard to get out into the public sphere. Leaks have been very hard to get as of late, and even I have had to curtail posts to a great extent (and in so small part due to media using my posts as if they have an inside source other than reading my statements -- kudos to those who have been honest in reporting what I've said while attributing truthfully). When YouTubers and bloggers post my information as if they themselves gathered the information, it makes sources go dark.

5) Downtime for Rise of the Resistance is somewhere in the ballpark of 40%... and that's with non-stop maintenance at night to keep it running. Some of the issues are that certain vehicles repeatedly miss sensors, resulting in ride shutdowns. Elevators sometimes have issues similar to Tower of Terror, which lock down the entire ride. Basically, there are just so many technologies in the ride that have to work and can't be covered in the event of malfunction, that Rise of the Resistance represents the anti-redundancy model for attraction design.

6) Smuggler's Run continues to receive poor guest reviews, which is exacerbated by guests having long queue times at DHS to ride it. It is generally agreed that at the February meeting, Smuggler's Run will receive a go-ahead for a new replacement mission which will feature characters from The Mandalorian. Storyboards and concepts for this have already been ordered.

7) Blue Milk changes are coming in June-July. Expect the fruitiness to be toned down a bit.

8) Cameron is pushing for an expansion for Pandora at Animal Kingdom to coincide with the new films coming out. The proposed new developments would take place south of the drum circle, taking up part of cast parking. I'm told this development would be mostly indoor, with high priority to absorb large numbers of people. This option is in competition with expansions at Galaxy's Edge in both DHS and DLR, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.

Any word on Rise of the Resistance -> Rise of the Rebellion considering your #3?

 

[trainplane3]

Given all the infrastructure in place to create the illusion that you're boarding the Falcon - not to mention the full-size replica parked out front - I'd have to assume it would simply be the mission that changes rather than the ship. No idea about how that would affect the host.

I do feel like a walkaround Hondo would do wonders for his image - knowing him only from MFSR, he seems like a pretty slimy though kind of funny character. Running into him out in the streets and having him play up that funny side while keeping a hint of slime seems like it would be a good time. Something similar to the way Jack Sparrow is played in the parks vs. his more "grown up" tone in the movies. And then if you've never seen Clone Wars, like I haven't, you'd at least have a chance to recognize him as that amusing character you ran into earlier on your way to MF.

You're incredibly spot on. He'd just be a fun character to have around regardless if you knew him or not. He was a somewhat serious character in the Clone Wars but started to turn a bit silly the longer it went on and by Rebels you have this:

The art style is a turn off to most but it's a solid show.

 

[WDW Pro]

This may be too early yet, but given that expansion pads for SWGE are in pretty different places at DL and WDW do you know if their expansion offerings would be different? It seems like it would be very odd to have the same attraction placed in the Resistance Outpost at WDW and in the First Order Outpost in DL, given placement of known expansion pads, but I'd also be surprised (pleasantly!) to see them develop a totally different new attraction for each coast.

They're essentially in the exact same locations, next to Kylo's ship. There's currently a tiny merchandise spot there, but it's designed to be a gateway in the future.

View attachment 442676

We likely will, but the two are competing for which will go in first. It's a question of which goes in within the next 2-5 years versus the next 4-8 years.

So.. why is no Disney media outlet talking about the fact that Rise of the Resistance is still operating at half capacity?

Virtual queue makes it very hard to get an accurate number. Meanwhile, when I report it's down about 40% of the time, I'm basically called a liar... which again, goes back to the rudeness some people demonstrate. On a side note, it's sometimes best for you if it does go down: if you're in the top 100 boarding groups and the ride goes down to the point you can't get on that day, you receive a free DHS ticket and a golden fast pass (now called a Multi Experience Fastpass+) for the next day. And the fact they have that ready to go means they knew and know the ride is down significantly.

Given the fact that it's in such popular demand and Disney seems to be sitting on their hands with fixing the issue, I would've thought it would be worth a mention. I'm not an expert but I can't help but speculate that since nobody is talking about the ride being at half capacity, Disney is completely okay with the fact that it's operating at half capacity because it gives the illusion the ride is more in demand than it actually is.

The ride is in significant demand. DHS is fully packed out at 7am every day. But the ride is almost always down several hours a day, or running significantly lower capacities to allow management to keep running diagnostics and clear it again. And trust me, it's a huge pain for management because people are in holding areas when the ride goes down, not just a queue. This means that those people are given free drinks and popcorn while they stare at Stormtrooper minimatronics for an hour or more.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So.. why is no Disney media outlet talking about the fact that Rise of the Resistance is still operating at half capacity?

Everything I've read online mentions operational difficulties.

 

[justintheharris]

They're essentially in the exact same locations, next to Kylo's ship. There's currently a tiny merchandise spot there, but it's designed to be a gateway in the future.



We likely will, but the two are competing for which will go in first. It's a question of which goes in within the next 2-5 years versus the next 4-8 years.



Virtual queue makes it very hard to get an accurate number. Meanwhile, when I report it's down about 40% of the time, I'm basically called a liar... which again, goes back to the rudeness some people demonstrate. On a side note, it's sometimes best for you if it does go down: if you're in the top 100 boarding groups and the ride goes down to the point you can't get on that day, you receive a free DHS ticket and a golden fast pass (now called a Multi Experience Fastpass+) for the next day. And the fact they have that ready to go means they knew and know the ride is down significantly.



The ride is in significant demand. DHS is fully packed out at 7am every day. But the ride is almost always down several hours a day, or running significantly lower capacities to allow management to keep running diagnostics and clear it again. And trust me, it's a huge pain for management because people are in holding areas when the ride goes down, not just a queue. This means that those people are given free drinks and popcorn while they stare at Stormtrooper minimatronics for an hour or more.

I 100% believe you when you say it's down 40% of the time. And while the ride is in high demand, I think Disney still wants it to look higher than it actually is and if it never gets out that it's running at half capacity, Disney will feel no need to fix the problem. In another sense, didn't that site that shall not be named make a list of things broken on Splash Mountain and within a month, they fixed a bunch of the issues?

 

[SplashJacket]

They're essentially in the exact same locations, next to Kylo's ship. There's currently a tiny merchandise spot there, but it's designed to be a gateway in the future.

Pardon my ignorance but are these the locations in question?

We likely will, but the two are competing for which will go in first. It's a question of which goes in within the next 2-5 years versus the next 4-8 years.

Do you mean construction begins in 2-5 years or completed in 2-5 years?

 

[MisterPenguin]

They're essentially in the exact same locations, next to Kylo's ship. There's currently a tiny merchandise spot there, but it's designed to be a gateway in the future.

In DHS, red is the expansion pad, yellow is the TSR, and blue is the surmised entry for the SW Hotel Bus/Shuttle...

In DL, however, the red can not possible by their expansion pad. The purple is....

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

They're essentially in the exact same locations, next to Kylo's ship. There's currently a tiny merchandise spot there, but it's designed to be a gateway in the future.

Oh! I thought I remembered hearing the main expansion pad at DHS was the area marked in blue below, which is where the Rivers of America are in Disneyland. But looking at this photo, there does appear to be sufficient space in that back corner behind Kylo's Ship at DHS the way there is at DL. I wonder if the idea is to expand the footprint of the land with new walkable areas, or if that plot would be used mainly for a new attraction. Or both?

The ride is in significant demand. DHS is fully packed out at 7am every day. But the ride is almost always down several hours a day, or running significantly lower capacities to allow management to keep running diagnostics and clear it again. And trust me, it's a huge pain for management because people are in holding areas when the ride goes down, not just a queue. This means that those people are given free drinks and popcorn while they stare at Stormtrooper minimatronics for an hour or more.

Part of me has to wonder which way Disney will choose to go in response to something like this - do they look at the headaches and say "never again will we build something this crazy", or do they look at the upside and think "so this is what it takes to get this sort of reaction, let's keep going big"?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Meanwhile, when I report it's down about 40% of the time, I'm basically called a liar...

You were told it was demonstrably not true. That makes you wrong, not a liar unless you were deliberately wrong.

Here's the past two weeks below. The ride is down when the line is flat. That's not near 40% of the time....

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Pardon my ignorance but are these the locations in question?

Do you mean construction begins in 2-5 years or completed in 2-5 years?

I would hazard a guess that the the images I've quoted are the areas in question - Pandora simply because it aligns with what he said, but the GE one seems like this in particular because it's the one that has backstage area clearance that matches at both DL and WDW. If they built on the pad you mapped in your first image they wouldn't be able to build a direct copy at DL without carving into Fantasyland and through the new Railroad track they just laid a year ago.

 

[SplashJacket]

You were told it was demonstrably not true. That makes you wrong, not a liar unless you were deliberately wrong.

Here's the past two weeks below. The ride is down when the line is flat. That's not near 40% of the time....

View attachment 442717

View attachment 442718

Could the 40% encompass partial downtimes? Such as half ride functionality?

In DHS, red is the expansion pad, yellow is the TSR, and blue is the surmised entry for the SW Hotel Bus/Shuttle...

View attachment 442709

In DL, however, the red can not possible by their expansion pad. The purple is....

View attachment 442711

I thought the red was the primary expansion pad in WDW but the usable space in there is significantly smaller than Rise all the while being a very complex shape that would need facades to hide the show building.

The far cheaper option would be to place the show building behind already existing facades in the same area as Disneyland.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Could the 40% encompass partial downtimes? Such as half ride functionality?

40% of *capacity* sounds right. Though, I think recently it's more like 50% at DHS.

Poor DL is at 25% capacity.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I thought the red was the primary expansion pad in WDW but the usable space in there is significantly smaller than Rise all the while being a very complex shape that would need facades to hide the show building.

The area in the red is about 1.8 acres. Same footprint as the box for RotR.

If DHS wanted to go really big like a huge indoor coaster, it has the option of going into the parking lot behind RotR/MFSR.

 

[WDW Pro]

You were told it was demonstrably not true. That makes you wrong, not a liar unless you were deliberately wrong.

Here's the past two weeks below. The ride is down when the line is flat. That's not near 40% of the time....

View attachment 442717

View attachment 442718

Your data is wrong. I don't know where it's coming from or how it's tabulated, but I was at Hollywood Studios on the 17th and 18th. Both days RotR went down for multiple hours at a time throughout the afternoon (it went down as early as 10am on the 17th). Additionally, you'll note the ride operates different than every other attraction; other attractions take guests until right at closing... RotR stops taking additional boarding groups 2 hours prior to closing every day. That's two hours less of uptime every single day. The charts also don't take into account times where boarding groups are slowed due to operational difficulties, but the ride isn't down to the point that the line goes completely flat. You can see that downtimes occur in this manner by the fact that there is such a huge difference in the numbers of boarding groups that make it in on any given day.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Your data is wrong. I don't know where it's coming from or how it's tabulated, but I was at Hollywood Studios on the 17th and 18th. Both days RotR went down for multiple hours at a time throughout the afternoon (it went down as early as 10am on the 17th). Additionally, you'll note the ride operates different than every other attraction; other attractions take guests until right at closing... RotR stops taking additional boarding groups 2 hours prior to closing every day. That's two hours less of uptime every single day. The charts also don't take into account times where boarding groups are slowed due to operational difficulties, but the ride isn't down to the point that the line goes completely flat. You can see that downtimes occur in this manner by the fact that there is such a huge difference in the numbers of boarding groups that make it in on any given day.

That site's data is not a hill I'm willing to die on!

 

[WDW Pro]

I would hazard a guess that the the images I've quoted are the areas in question - Pandora simply because it aligns with what he said, but the GE one seems like this in particular because it's the one that has backstage area clearance that matches at both DL and WDW. If they built on the pad you mapped in your first image they wouldn't be able to build a direct copy at DL without carving into Fantasyland and through the new Railroad track they just laid a year ago.

You got both of them right, although DLR expansion can go farther north than you've highlighted (which will require some demolition). Neither land was designed for expansions to go into the elevated terrain sections intended to hide the area.

 

[marni1971]

Given the fact that it's in such popular demand and Disney seems to be sitting on their hands with fixing the issue, I would've thought it would be worth a mention. I'm not an expert but I can't help but speculate that since nobody is talking about the ride being at half capacity, Disney is completely okay with the fact that it's operating at half capacity because it gives the illusion the ride is more in demand than it actually is.

I can assure you they’re not sitting on their hands but to say anything would be an admittance the ride wasn’t ready to open.