Long time lurker, finally got my shot at ROTR today. Thought I’d give a recap as I really enjoyed reading these leading up to my trip.
I’m staying at Pop Century with wife and two kids, 7 and 9. We arrived at bus stop around 6:30. Already the line was fairly long. Considered calling a Lyft, but we stuck it out and made the second bus, which left around 7 I think. We were through security and tapped in by 7:30.
We were not planning on rope dropping anything, so we went up Sunset Boulevard and sat on the curb. My wife and I were both signed into her account on
MDE. Both closed all apps. She was planning on a fresh start of the app about 10 seconds until 8:00 (based on some articles she had read). I opened mine up at 7:59, waited until 8:00 by iPhone time, counted 3 seconds and then clicked find out more. Join Boarding Group wasn’t active so I clicked My Status. I got the active button and everybody showed up. Got group 27. Kids immediately started screaming. Felt bad as I later saw some dejected people still looking at their phones a few minutes later.
Our Boarding Group was called as we were in line for a fast pass at RNR Coaster. We made our way back to the ride and found out it was down. Ended up going to our lunch reservation at Sci Fi at 12:30. Ride came back up while we were eating. Immediately went back after lunch and rode it. Amazing ride, everyone in my family was floored with how good it was.
At this point the down time and waiting for ROTR had screwed up our afternoon plans. We missed our Toy Story Mania FP and our MMRR was about to expire with a Droid Depot reservation 15 minutes away. Went to GET. CM there was able to switch the two FP’s to anytime FP’s. So we built the droid, then were able to do both FP’s after.
We ended up having a fantastic day. This was our first time back to WDW in 3 years. The growth at Hollywood Studios is amazing. I hope the experience for ROTR improves in the future as it was very stressful. We’re heading back to Hollywood Studios on Thursday. Hoping to ride again, but I’m so glad we made it today so some of the pressure will be off.