A Reservation Procedure/System Must Be In Place for Galaxy's Edge @ DHS

[mixmastertoy]

Theres a reason it opened in Disneyland first and there's a reason its supposed to end when it does... it will be a little more than 60 days for when it opens in DHS so they can decide plan A or plan B quick.

 

[JoeyMayo]

Theres a reason it opened in Disneyland first and there's a reason its supposed to end when it does... it will be a little more than 60 days for when it opens in DHS so they can decide plan A or plan B quick.

I always assumed they opened in DL first because it was just easier to do construction in LA due to the lack of unpredictable weather. I never thought of it as a testing ground but that makes sense.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

My problems with a virtual queue.
- Disney’s technology can’t handle it. It just can’t. It should be able to. It can’t. DLP was using virtual queues last summer for meet and greets with the Superheroes. I personally tried to join the queue; and I couldn’t. Between the glitchy WiFi, and the app (which by the way, was a separate company/app to the standard DLP app).
- As an international visitor (of which WDW has many) - you’re relying on Disney WiFi. Again- see #1.
And finally- the runners. There is nothing stopping Dad going into the park at 6am, booking his family for 12 noon and everyone laying in bed until 11:00am. Or the rest of the family heading to MK to Rope Drop there at 7 for 4 hours and coming over when it’s their time.
Even WORSE- the throwaway reservations @ Fort Wilderness for offsite guests and someone virtually joining the queue at 6am for their party of 12 that’s actually staying offsite in a 5 bedroom villa.

Depending on how it is to implemented the last point might not be an issue if you have to physically be in the park to get on a queue, everyone would need to scan their finger to get into DHS for their pass to be eligible to be on a virtual queue - dad can't go just himself and put his whole party on the list if the other people aren't "active in DHS"

I agree with the first part that relying on Disney IT is just waiting for issues to happen though

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I always assumed they opened in DL first because it was just easier to do construction in LA due to the lack of unpredictable weather. I never thought of it as a testing ground but that makes sense.

I think it also had to do with what other construction was going on at WDW and Orlando in general. And they had multiple attractions to clear in DHS and build Toy Story Land first, etc.

 

[Jason_79]

Theres a reason it opened in Disneyland first and there's a reason its supposed to end when it does... it will be a little more than 60 days for when it opens in DHS so they can decide plan A or plan B quick.

I am sure you are basing your opinion on nothing but pure speculation, however I sure hope your thought process is correct.

Disney likes to make money of course, and Paid/On-Site hotel guests will make Disney money. First come first serve paid reservations to on-site hotels guests is what I am sure will happen.

As bad as it it to say, Disney is expensive and they do not cater to all levels of budgets as a week at the All-Stars is expensive as well. Prices will never stop increasing, regardless of how many complain. One person cancels, another takes their place. It isn't something to endorse, but it is a fact unfortunately.

 

[Missyrose]

Now to go along with that I do think a reservation system could work in WDW but I think if they went that route they would have to just open it to everyone to book their time slots on their own and not guarantee reservations for onsite guests. If they guaranteed them for onsite guests they wouldn't have any left for offsite guests or locals.

Just to play devil's advocate, why would offering reservations to onsite guests first and then offsite guests be any different than how FPs for attractions work now? It's a pretty well-understood occurrence that certain attractions won't be readily available at 30-days out when the reservations become a free-for-all. So, in theory, Disney could offer a sizable portion of the reservations to onsite guests, say 2/3, then at a later date release the rest to any onsite guests who didn't get them before and offsite guests. You could even mimic the rope drop availability for standby and say the first 1,000 guests (without a reservation) to queue will get in.

 

[rteetz]

Just to play devil's advocate, why would offering reservations to onsite guests first and then offsite guests be any different than how FPs for attractions work now? It's a pretty well-understood occurrence that certain attractions won't be readily available at 30-days out when the reservations become a free-for-all. So, in theory, Disney could offer a sizable portion of the reservations to onsite guests, say 2/3, then at a later date release the rest to any onsite guests who didn't get them before and offsite guests. You could even mimic the rope drop availability for standby and say the first 1,000 guests (without a reservation) to queue will get in.

In theory your idea would work but logistically it’s not that simple. Each ride has a different capacity and not everyone selects the same rides every day or every hour. Let’s say you give 3000 spots every 4 hours. If you give onsite guests the first option all 3000 spots would be filled by onsite guests. I don’t think you can compare a single land to FPs for all four parks and dozens of attractions.

That’s 15,000 spots per day roughly. That’s not even half the onsite room capacity. Yes not everyone will want to go to SWGE that’s certain. I think the spots would fill up instantly if they went the route you are saying. I’m not saying Disney couldn’t do what you say but I’m not sure they would do that. Because of this I don’t think they will do the reservation system but I don’t think they will decide for certain until they watch how Disneyland handles the post reservation period.

 

[chimoe]

In theory your idea would work but logistically it’s not that simple. Each ride has a different capacity and not everyone selects the same rides every day or every hour. Let’s say you give 3000 spots every 4 hours. If you give onsite guests the first option all 3000 spots would be filled by onsite guests. I don’t think you can compare a single land to FPs for all four parks and dozens of attractions.

That’s 15,000 spots per day roughly. That’s not even half the onsite room capacity. Yes not everyone will want to go to SWGE that’s certain. I think the spots would fill up instantly if they went the route you are saying. I’m not saying Disney couldn’t do what you say but I’m not sure they would do that. Because of this I don’t think they will do the reservation system but I don’t think they will decide for certain until they watch how Disneyland handles the post reservation period.

There is just under 30k rooms in WDW (if you exclude non Disney owned). if you went through the same concept as DL, and had blocks every 3 hrs, with 3k(mabye 4K) people per block. You could have about 15k per day in the land.

Since every room requires a minimum 1night stay, that would mean over a 2day period, you could in essence get 30k visitors. I would assume that WDW has a low utilization rate in Sept month, and average stay would at least be 3days. So essentially if you run the numbers you could in fact get all the WDW guests guaranteed a land Rez and still allow for non guests to either use a virtual queue to get in day of (which will be very limited, maybe 10% allocation for non resort guest)

 

[rteetz]

There is just under 30k rooms in WDW (if you exclude non Disney owned). if you went through the same concept as DL, and had blocks every 3 hrs, with 3k(mabye 4K) people per block. You could have about 15k per day in the land.

Basically said that above. Disneyland did 4 hour windows which seemed to work very well so I would think they would stick with that if they did that.

 

[chimoe]

Basically said that above. Disneyland did 4 hour windows which seemed to work very well so I would think they would stick with that if they did that.

I know it was 4hr windows, but I thought they were letting new groups in every 3hrs. So everyone had overlaps. Right?

 

[rteetz]

I know it was 4hr windows, but I thought they were letting new groups in every 3hrs. So everyone had overlaps. Right?

Yes they overlap by an hour.

 

[sethschroeder]

There is just under 30k rooms in WDW (if you exclude non Disney owned). if you went through the same concept as DL, and had blocks every 3 hrs, with 3k(mabye 4K) people per block. You could have about 15k per day in the land.

Since every room requires a minimum 1night stay, that would mean over a 2day period, you could in essence get 30k visitors. I would assume that WDW has a low utilization rate in Sept month, and average stay would at least be 3days. So essentially if you run the numbers you could in fact get all the WDW guests guaranteed a land Rez and still allow for non guests to either use a virtual queue to get in day of (which will be very limited, maybe 10% allocation for non resort guest)

30k rooms, 80% full, 24k rooms booked, 2.5 people per room, 60k onsite guests

If you can only run through 15k per day it's a 4 day turn around. This is assuming low room booking after they announce this plan. It would be a 5 day turnaround if they sold out.

Now do you put in the terms a minimum night stay? What if nights sell out and you can't get 4-5 nights in a row? How would you enforce people not cancelling after locking in GE? How far ahead do you block this off? How long do you run this system as crowds are only going to get worse through January?

 

[Kc0912]

While I’m still not convinced that guaranteed reservations to onsite guests is the way to go. The other thing that everyone seems to be forgetting is that WDW guests tend to stay longer than DL guests do- which gives them more days to turn it around.
I still think it’s going to be too many though.

Also. I know we’re claiming that 50% of people aren’t interested in Galaxy’s Edge; but you watch that number drop dramatically when Disney sends you an email with a guaranteed reservation to enter the land.

 

[Bowen Family]

What confuses me is how HS/GE already has a scheduled 6am opening prior to WDW apparently knowing, or at least sharing, their crowd management plans for opening day. If there’s any hope of allowing a capacity crowd in that early without major problems, shouldn’t they know their staffing requirements well in advance? I mean, if there is a virtual queue assigning return times, how on earth do you get a 6am entry? Do they open up the virtual queue the day or week before?

And aren’t they running out of time to share these sorts of details? How does one possibly plan an opening day trip?

 

[yulilin3]

What confuses me is how HS/GE already has a scheduled 6am opening prior to WDW apparently knowing, or at least sharing, their crowd management plans for opening day. If there’s any hope of allowing a capacity crowd in that early without major problems, shouldn’t they know their staffing requirements well in advance? I mean, if there is a virtual queue assigning return times, how on earth do you get a 6am entry? Do they open up the virtual queue the day or week before?

And aren’t they running out of time to share these sorts of details? How does one possibly plan an opening day trip?

I am sure they are all having meeting about crowd control.
At the moment Disney has said no reservations, so the 6am opening will be open to everyone who get in line and make it into the land before it closes for capacity. After that the VQ will kick in and people will be able to get a virtual place in line for the same day. Once the entire VQ spots for the day are full I'm sure there will be a notification on the app that the land is at capacity for the day
What we should get information on is if they will allow overnight parking/camping out or not. And if not, what time will people be allowed to start queuing up
FP selection for most on site guests comes in 10 days, at the 60 day mark. I would be surprised if we don't have more info by then

 

[Bowen Family]

I am sure they are all having meeting about crowd control.
At the moment Disney has said no reservations, so the 6am opening will be open to everyone who get in line and make it into the land before it closes for capacity. After that the VQ will kick in and people will be able to get a virtual place in line for the same day. Once the entire VQ spots for the day are full I'm sure there will be a notification on the app that the land is at capacity for the day
What we should get information on is if they will allow overnight parking/camping out or not. And if not, what time will people be allowed to start queuing up
FP selection for most on site guests comes in 10 days, at the 60 day mark. I would be surprised if we don't have more info by then

Sounds reasonable. So do you think the first-come-first-served crowd in line for the 6am opening will have time limits on their stay? Like a coloured bracelet handed to you on your way in, similar to DL? Seems they'd have to in order for WDW to offer any assured return time in a VQ.

And I hope you're right about the 60 day mark. I'm holding a room at POP in case I decide to make this trip, but haven't booked a flight yet. I really want to be there for opening day, but I'm not going to make firm plans until there are more details available.

 

[rteetz]

Sounds reasonable. So do you think the first-come-first-served crowd in line for the 6am opening will have time limits on their stay? Like a coloured bracelet handed to you on your way in, similar to DL? Seems they'd have to in order for WDW to offer any assured return time in a VQ.

And I hope you're right about the 60 day mark. I'm holding a room at POP in case I decide to make this trip, but haven't booked a flight yet. I really want to be there for opening day, but I'm not going to make firm plans until there are more details available.

We will have to wait and see how Disneyland handles the virtual queue. I think that will impact the decision WDW makes.

 

[Jason_79]

I'm sorry,

But it is absolutely shocking to me that so many of you seem okay with any type of 'free-for-all', 'line up and wait until the park it at capacity', 'Virtual Que' solution to Galaxy's Edge. For a laundry list of reasons it WILL NOT work. I guess everyone needs to just see it to believe it. Shocking!

If it is anything other then some closely comparable solution used at Disney Land, it will be an unmitigated disaster.

Need recent proof?..................Universal Studios: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. 6 hour+ waits..................for one ride.

Star Wars crushes Harry Potter when it comes to popularity/crowds etc.

 

[yulilin3]

I'm sorry,

But it is absolutely shocking to me that so many of you seem okay with any type of 'free-for-all', 'line up and wait until the park it at capacity', 'Virtual Que' solution to Galaxy's Edge. For a laundry list of reasons it WILL NOT work. I guess everyone needs to just see it to believe it. Shocking!

If it is anything other then some closely comparable solution used at Disney Land, it will be an unmitigated disaster.

Need recent proof?..................Universal Studios: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. 6 hour+ waits..................for one ride.

Star Wars crushes Harry Potter when it comes to popularity/crowds etc.

It really depends on how they approach it. Everyone for hagrid knew we were waiting long hours, tm were prepared, plenty of water, food, entertainment along the wait queue.
There will always be a group of people that go into it blind and don't know about the waits. But if you're on boards like these you know and hopefully are prepared to wait if you ultimately decide to come.
It won't matter if they do reservations for us here like they did for DL, once it opens for everyone there will be huge lines. just look at pandora and tsland, still packing people in years after opening

 

[PrincessV]

I'm sorry,

But it is absolutely shocking to me that so many of you seem okay with any type of 'free-for-all', 'line up and wait until the park it at capacity', 'Virtual Que' solution to Galaxy's Edge. For a laundry list of reasons it WILL NOT work. I guess everyone needs to just see it to believe it. Shocking!

If it is anything other then some closely comparable solution used at Disney Land, it will be an unmitigated disaster.

Need recent proof?..................Universal Studios: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. 6 hour+ waits..................for one ride.

Star Wars crushes Harry Potter when it comes to popularity/crowds etc.

Yes, there will be long lines - but I think we're all perfectly aware of and prepared for that. Way back when, I waited hours in lien for Space Mtn, and Splash Mtn, and Toy Story mania - we're okay with it because we've seen it and know everything will be fine. I think it's simply about having reasonable, realistic expectations coupled with first-hand experience with how WDW has handled things historically. Some of us have been around many, many years and have full faith that WDW will not be the unsafe, "free for all," disaster some keep insisting on. We're simply willing to wait. I understand others aren't willing to wait, and that's fine, too - the easy solution is to not visit. I opted to skip opening Day of Diagon Alley and avoided the 8-hour wait for that. A month later, I thoroughly enjoyed by 3+ hour wait to ride Gringott's. Nobody's going to be forced to wait in long lines or use virtual queues.