VQ/BGs (Virtual Queues/Boarding Groups)... Yay or Nay? (Better alternatives?)

[TrainsOfDisney]

The Boarding Groups keep the six hour lines away because they can control the number of people in line as they try to get to a reasonable throughput (

Those with experience at Hagrids can offer more thoughts but at this point would we still be seeing 6 hour waits? Or just consistent 3-4 hour waits? What did they see at radiator springs? Fop went down and had issues didn’t it? How did they handle that?

FoP has been open for almost three years now and lines can still be four hours long.

Last Sunday it was posted at 3 hours, I was impressed it’s stayed that popular and that’s a good thing. It’s a good attraction in Disney’s most impressively designed land to date imho. But that’s what you want right? A popular ride. I mean haunted mansion Had a 1 hour wait during my visit.....

 

[disneygeek90]

Wasn't it still functioning as first come first served for most of that, though? When did they switch to only allowing BGs when the park opened rather than letting people get them at 5:30-6 AM?

It switched on December 18.

 

[UNCgolf]

It switched on December 18.

I do think there's a difference in the type of people who are there for Christmas/NYE and the type of people who are there in the summer and that will have an effect on the number of people trying to get BGs, but that's just speculation. Good to know they were mostly okay over that busy period -- weren't there a couple of days in there though where even all the backup groups were gone 10-15 minutes after opening? Or was that more recently in January?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I do think there's a difference in the type of people who are there for Christmas/NYE and the type of people who are there in the summer and that will have an effect on the number of people trying to get BGs, but that's just speculation. Good to know they were mostly okay over that busy period -- weren't there a couple of days in there though where even all the backup groups were gone 10-15 minutes after opening? Or was that more recently in January?

Having been there both during New Years week and just last week, it’s not about the “type of people” it was the 6 am open vs. the 7 am. The 6 am open is much better for the guests, but it’s of course another hour of employment for everyone.

 

[UNCgolf]

Having been there both during New Years week and just last week, it’s not about the “type of people” it was the 6 am open vs. the 7 am. The 6 am open is much better for the guests, but it’s of course another hour of employment for everyone.

I'd say it's much better for a minority subset of guests than guests overall, but certainly it was good for the people who were desperate to get a RotR BG. I didn't know they were opening at 6 AM at that point, though. That definitely makes a difference too.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I'd say it's much better for a minority subset of guests than guests overall, but certainly it was good for the people who were desperate to get a RotR BG. I didn't know they were opening at 6 AM at that point, though. That definitely makes a difference too.

Better for guests meaning you’re phone could lag for a few minutes and still get a BG. I tapped in to the park at 6:05 and still got a guaranteed BG.

 

[MJJME]

Not really. Those who get there at 6:30 are closer to the front of the lines for security and the turnstiles than someone who shows up later and has to wait behind all those people and who may or may not get through the turnstiles before 7am. Basically, someone who is closer to the front is more "ready" to get themselves a boarding group than someone who is racing against the clock.

what? that is not true and makes no sense......as long as you are scanned in before 7am

 

[ImperfectPixie]

what? that is not true and makes no sense......as long as you are scanned in before 7am

How do you figure? If someone shows up at 6:30 and starts waiting to be let in, they're most certainly going to get in before me if I show up at 6:55 and still have to go through the turnstiles.

 

[MJJME]

How do you figure? If someone shows up at 6:30 and starts waiting to be let in, they're most certainly going to get in before me if I show up at 6:55 and still have to go through the turnstiles.

oh I misunderstood…….thought you were talking about being scanned in the park

 

[gerarar]

Love the Boarding Group process! During Christmas week, my family and I, as well as thousands of other people, were waiting excitedly on Sunset Blvd for the BGs to drop. It's a feeling of anticipation like no other. Also got to make some quick new friends by talking to people around us who were sharing the excitement with us. So many cheers once it hit 6:01am!! We surely didn't have a problem getting up at 5am, and hundreds of other people didn't either. You do what you must when you're on vacation. Even on cruises, we would wake up early so we can get a jump on excursions and activities that are going to happen.

Besides the initial experience of getting a BG, it's a nice convenience that we get to do other activities in the park while (virtually) waiting. We got to do all the shows, as well all the rides. The longest ride we waited for that day at HS was RnRc, which ended up being 1.5 hrs. Eventually we got called (our BG was in the 40s), and it was a mere 20mins until we got to the first preshow. From there it's an experience like no other.

I can't imagine what a free-for-all standby line would do and be. Waiting 3+ hours for ROTR, while the ride could go down at any moment and you would have to leave the queue. At least for something like FoP where we did wait 1-2hrs, it was operating just fine.

Disney found a system that not only works for operations, but also benefits their customers. Taking 3-4hrs out of our day at Hollywood Studios to wait in a long line would put a dent in the stuff we would have been able to do. Glad such a thing existed for our trip, and I'm sure many people who are there now also appreciate it!!

We ended up doing the whole BG process as a family one more time in our WDW trip, on our last day. Got there in time, snatched a BG, then left for the other parks.

 

[Touchdown]

All right, for those of you not following the other thread, I attempted to join a boarding group, was in the park, opened the app, but due to my app pausing for at most 20 seconds I ended up with a back up group.

This caused me, for the first time in a really long time, to become incredibly angry. Here I was, I had done everything I was supposed to do, and I failed. To a Type A person, loosing control even when you follow the rules, is just infuriating. I don’t think I need to go on further about how that is an epic fail at a theme park.

This was not helped by the gigantic crowds at the studios. 2 hours after park opening every ride in the park had full queues and lines spilling out into the midway. This situation did not improve by the time I left (1pm) This park is experiencing peak crowds, it should be open for peak hours. Normally, that would be hours of 8-10 or 14 hours. This is not true in Epcot or MK (haven’t been to AK yet) so I’m not asking for every park to do this, just the one that needs it.

Ok, now onto my solutions to this possible problem to make things easier in no particular order:

1. Extend hours, keep boarding groups. Make it harder to rope drop by having it open earlier, preferably 6-8, but 7-9 is acceptable. That way, everyone at the parkat opening is guaranteed a boarding group by limiting the crowds.

2. Abolish boarding groups, stand bye only EMH for resort guests only 6-8 Mon-Fri. Park opens for everyone at 6 Sat-Sun pushing resort guests to go to DHS Mon-Fri, allowing APs a chance to ride. Have Rise have a “hard close” such that the line is cut off so that the ride stops cycling at 8pm every night.

3. Restrict access to the ride, give resort guests who stay 3 nights one Fastpass (2 for 6 nights, etc.) Give APs 3 Fastpasses a month (that expire at the end of the month.). No one else gets to ride until boarding groups are no longer needed.

4. Never open the ride in the first place and call this status what it truely is, technical rehearsals. Have signs up everywhere announcing that the ride is in this status and update the website and block off access to the resistance forest (at the tunnel and marketplace) when the ride is either not open or the queue is too full.

All of these I prefer to the current situation, but I feel the only practical solution WDW would be willing to try is #1. I truely think every ride should follow #4 until the ride is able to operate consistently. It’s a bait and switch and es off guests to do otherwise.

 

[MJJME]

All right, for those of you not following the other thread, I attempted to join a boarding group, was in the park, opened the app, but due to my app pausing for at most 20 seconds I ended up with a back up group.

This caused me, for the first time in a really long time, to become incredibly angry. Here I was, I had done everything I was supposed to do, and I failed. To a Type A person, loosing control even when you follow the rules, is just infuriating. I don’t think I need to go on further about how that is an epic fail at a theme park.

This was not helped by the gigantic crowds at the studios. 2 hours after park opening every ride in the park had full queues and lines spilling out into the midway. This situation did not improve by the time I left (1pm) This park is experiencing peak crowds, it should be open for peak hours. Normally, that would be hours of 8-10 or 14 hours. This is not true in Epcot or MK (haven’t been to AK yet) so I’m not asking for every park to do this, just the one that needs it.

Ok, now onto my solutions to this possible problem to make things easier in no particular order:

1. Extend hours, keep boarding groups. Make it harder to rope drop by having it open earlier, preferably 6-8, but 7-9 is acceptable. That way, everyone at the parkat opening is guaranteed a boarding group by limiting the crowds.

2. Abolish boarding groups, stand bye only EMH for resort guests only 6-8 Mon-Fri. Park opens for everyone at 6 Sat-Sun pushing resort guests to go to DHS Mon-Fri, allowing APs a chance to ride. Have Rise have a “hard close” such that the line is cut off so that the ride stops cycling at 8pm every night.

3. Restrict access to the ride, give resort guests who stay 3 nights one Fastpass (2 for 6 nights, etc.) Give APs 3 Fastpasses a month (that expire at the end of the month.). No one else gets to ride until boarding groups are no longer needed.

4. Never open the ride in the first place and call this status what it truely is, technical rehearsals. Have signs up everywhere announcing that the ride is in this status and update the website and block off access to the resistance forest (at the tunnel and marketplace) when the ride is either not open or the queue is too full.

All of these I prefer to the current situation, but I feel the only practical solution WDW would be willing to try is #1. I truely think every ride should follow #4 until the ride is able to operate consistently. It’s a bait and switch and ****es off guests to do otherwise.

I read your posts on both threads and I like (and have suggested) similar solutions that you have proposed. I th ink the point is, this is 100% not working as constituted. My suggestions would be:
1) limiting in state AP holders to ride once per week and out of state to 4x per month to be used any way they want
2) have EMH for resort guests on Tuesday's and Friday's where only resort guests can get BG and if they don't "sell out" then they are open to all other guests
3) have park open at 7am every day When morning EMH for resorts guests, opens at 7am for them and 8am for everyone else

Point is, I agree this version has runs its course and needs to be tweaked. I do believe they should keep BG though.

 

[disneygeek90]

The problem isn’t with the Boarding group system in general. To me there’s no logical reason why a month ago they were guaranteeing up to 130 groups and now we’re half of that.

Even with a later start there’s no excuse for ~6000 guests as an acceptable volume. Obviously we don’t know what they’re working toward that’s potentially causing the delays but they need to figure it out. Penalizing guests isn’t the answer and throwing in resort guest privileges would only add to the headaches

 

[MJJME]

The problem isn’t with the Boarding group system in general. To me there’s no logical reason why a month ago they were guaranteeing up to 130 groups and now we’re half of that.

Even with a later start there’s no excuse for ~6000 guests as an acceptable volume. Obviously we don’t know what they’re working toward that’s potentially causing the delays but they need to figure it out. Penalizing guests isn’t the answer and throwing in resort guest privileges would only add to the headaches

You are penalizing more guests the way it is now you realize that right? So you think it's ok that you ride for the 23rd time and these other people who are there for one day of their one week vacation can't get on the ride? Seriously? Just because it benefits you the most this way doesn't mean it's right.

 

[MJJME]

The problem isn’t with the Boarding group system in general. To me there’s no logical reason why a month ago they were guaranteeing up to 130 groups and now we’re half of that.

Even with a later start there’s no excuse for ~6000 guests as an acceptable volume. Obviously we don’t know what they’re working toward that’s potentially causing the delays but they need to figure it out. Penalizing guests isn’t the answer and throwing in resort guest privileges would only add to the headaches

Your argument lacks credibility

 

[MJJME]

The problem isn’t with the Boarding group system in general. To me there’s no logical reason why a month ago they were guaranteeing up to 130 groups and now we’re half of that.

Even with a later start there’s no excuse for ~6000 guests as an acceptable volume. Obviously we don’t know what they’re working toward that’s potentially causing the delays but they need to figure it out. Penalizing guests isn’t the answer and throwing in resort guest privileges would only add to the headaches

And there would be no headache or operational change whatsoever to open mornings EMH to resort guests twice per week. Your argument is extremely flawed.

 

[Touchdown]

You are penalizing more guests the way it is now you realize that right? So you think it's ok that you ride for the 23rd time and these other people who are there for one day of their one week vacation can't get on the ride? Seriously? Just because it benefits you the most this way doesn't mean it's right.

It’s not my 23rd time, it’s my third, I did a 6 night trip in December and now I’m back; I live in Wisconsin. I honestly was considering not trying again this trip but unfortunately I am taking my parents for a short weekend trip later this spring and my father is a huge Star Wars fan so I need to figure out a viable method to get him on the ride. So I’ll go one more time on Thursday. Also, casual visitors aren’t getting boarding groups under the current system, the passes were gone in seconds today.

 

[MJJME]

It’s not my 23rd time, it’s my third, I did a 6 night trip in December and now I’m back; I live in Wisconsin. I honestly was considering not trying again this trip but unfortunately I am taking my parents for a short weekend trip later this spring and my father is a huge Star Wars fan so I need to figure out a viable method to get him on the ride. So I’ll go one more time on Thursday. Also, casual visitors aren’t getting boarding groups under the current system, the passes were gone in seconds today.

Exactly my point. Casual fans, resort guests, single day passes, etc are not getting in At the expense of others who have ridden frequently, some over 20 times. Disneygeek, how many times have you been on the ride? Alot of the others on this thread have been same, multiple times at the expense of others. The other thread had a running tally. I'm going to guess 15 times?

 

[Touchdown]

Exactly my point. Casual fans, resort guests, single day passes, etc are not getting in At the expense of others who have ridden frequently, some over 20 times. Disneygeek, how many times have you been on the ride? Alot of the others on this thread have been same, multiple times at the expense of others. The other thread had a running tally. I'm going to guess 15 times?

Then what is your problem with my suggestions? I don’t prefer just increasing the hours, it should have been #4 but that ship has sailed.

I honestly would probably prefer #3, but think that #2 is the most viable after #1.

 

[disneygeek90]

And there would be no headache or operational change whatsoever to open mornings EMH to resort guests twice per week. Your argument is extremely flawed.

There’s over 30,000 resort rooms. How does guaranteeing that many passes help for capacity, reliability, or fairness? Even if it’s only a fraction (4000?) that’s a good chunk of the current groups distributed. To me there needs to be some effort in getting a pass or they’ll be even harder to come by.