READ POST 1 & 2 FIRST-Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Planning and Information-*No Spoilers*

[DGsAtBLT]

Agreed. Non guaranteed BG is non guaranteed. If guest relations does this for anyone who walks up with a non guaranteed BG (or no BG at all), that will turn into A) longer FP lines B) longer lines at guest relations and C) more entitlement than there already is on property.

I was thinking more from the perspective that a tech issue on their part is likely what made the difference between many people being able to grab regular BG and back up BG at opening yesterday, yet instead of resolving the actual issue they threw a bunch of token compensation at them.

Most days people who are there at opening and attempt to grab a BG immediately do ride that day. It shouldn’t be that much of a burden to fix it when the stars align on a very crowded day where ROTR has lots of down time.

 

[glocon]

I think this week is an outlier with the holidays, and hopefully next week will be better. That being said, when things get busy again (spring break, etc) we might be back to this boarding groups running out in the first few minutes unless they get a handle on ride breakdowns. My family won’t be at wdw this year at all, so when we go this will be a different beast- probably along the lines of FoP. But the longer it is open, the better a handle they will get on the tech issues so I think there is hope for those visiting in the coming year. This week is not what will be forevermore.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Looking at how the BGs are gone in 2 minutes now, how about the following system:

• As soon as you enter the park, you enter in your information to join a potential BG. No need to wait until opening, but you won't be assigned a BG yet.
• At exactly 7am (or whatever the opening time is), conduct a true lottery of everyone who signed in to assign BGs (so no "fastest finger" or tech issues leading to differing boarding groups as long as you were in the park).
• If there are any boarding groups still available after the 7am lottery, they're first-come, first-served.

This ensures everyone in the park at opening gets a boarding group, tech issues don't mean people miss a BG, and when popularity wanes it'll still work - the early arrivers will get the earliest boarding groups, but people who arrive later will still get one on a first-come, first-served basis.

This only works if they have enough boarding groups for everyone who arrives prior to opening - they would have to flex opening times to ensure that's always true. (But frankly they should be doing that anyway - the angriest people are those who arrive prior to opening but don't get to ride it. That's why openings were at 6am during the busiest week of the year).

Thoughts?

I really like this since it (largely) takes the Disney IT issue out of play. That is the part that is really frustrating to me. It also take the pressure off the system by allowing the staggered gathering of information. If this continues, I think they should also try to block people from riding more than once in 10 days. They should have the capability of doing that if they can block you from doing it the same day.

 

[Pyotr]

Today was crazy. We are back at our room but we got to ride it earlier. I want to thank everyone in the group. All the info provided defiantly helped me score boarding group 28.

The ride was good aside from the jerk in front of me who held his cell phone up and recorded the entire thing.. hey buddy, how about enjoying the ride? There are plenty of videos of it online.

 

[Bryan Burmeister]

Looking at how the BGs are gone in 2 minutes now, how about the following system:

• As soon as you enter the park, you enter in your information to join a potential BG. No need to wait until opening, but you won't be assigned a BG yet.
• At exactly 7am (or whatever the opening time is), conduct a true lottery of everyone who signed in to assign BGs (so no "fastest finger" or tech issues leading to differing boarding groups as long as you were in the park).
• If there are any boarding groups still available after the 7am lottery, they're first-come, first-served.

This ensures everyone in the park at opening gets a boarding group, tech issues don't mean people miss a BG, and when popularity wanes it'll still work - the early arrivers will get the earliest boarding groups, but people who arrive later will still get one on a first-come, first-served basis.

This only works if they have enough boarding groups for everyone who arrives prior to opening - they would have to flex opening times to ensure that's always true. (But frankly they should be doing that anyway - the angriest people are those who arrive prior to opening but don't get to ride it. That's why openings were at 6am during the busiest week of the year).

Thoughts?

I think this is a great idea. I don't even think it's strictly necessary to open so early they everyone gets a BG. If there are too many people, it's still just a lottery.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I still think they should go back to the thing where you enter a boarding group as soon as you get in the park thing. If people get there crazy early, people get there crazy early. At least it’s fair and rewards people who make a huge effort to ride the attraction. What I do know is this...the last few days have been nothing short of a disaster for Disney from a PR standpoint.

The problem is then Disney needs to staff security, parking lots, etc from what? 1am? Just 24/7? At some point it becomes impractical

I am all for the "first come first serve" when it was like 2 hours early but at some point you just have people lining up 13 hours early or whatever

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Maybe they could treat it like mousekeeping.

Disney locks guests out of the ability to join a BG for the length of their ticket for a gift card.

 

[Bryan Burmeister]

The problem is then Disney needs to staff security, parking lots, etc from what? 1am? Just 24/7? At some point it becomes impractical

I am all for the "first come first serve" when it was like 2 hours early but at some point you just have people lining up 13 hours early or whatever

I can't help but picture late evening arrivals picking their way through the crowd who is Waiting to enter DHS for the following day. Think Black Friday doorbusters.

 

[Miffy]

I’m confident they could come up with some restrictions that prevent everybody from all over joining every day, if they wanted to that is.

It could be a FP+/BG hybrid. They already prevent date based ticket holders from booking FP unless they can actually be in the park, they could require a ticket for the appropriate date for joining a BG. I would think they could do something to restrict AP holders from successfully securing a BG more than once during X amount of time. When SWGE was opening at DLR, didn’t they have people sign up for reservations for the land in advance? Same kind of concept.

It would be far from perfect, but I think regular BG filling faster than you can solve a problem with their technology is not okay. Even if it’s just for 2 weeks surrounding a holiday, that is a ton of people who I would guess are more likely to be infrequent Disney guests who are majorly inconvenienced for one attraction.

I know that there are some people on this thread (including myself) who have posted that they've done RotR more than once, however, I really don't think this constitutes a large group of people, i.e., enough people that the few of us who've done it (I rode twice--Dec 13 and 14) would have had a great impact on many other people's ability to get a BG. Of course, I have no stats for this. If there were thousands of people every day at DHS who had already done RotR and were trying to get another BG, I might agree with you about limiting the ability to get a BG in the way that you suggest.

I guess I feel it's already limited. You can ride only once a day. If you're on vacation and you want to ride RotR every day, why should you be stopped from at least trying? It's your vacation. Granted, it's someone else's--many some else's--vacation, too. But on that note, perhaps anyone who comes to WDW more than once every five years should have their FP+s for major attractions limited, since they're "preventing" someone else from getting a FP+ for an attraction they may have the ability to ride only once ever. Or, say, give up their ADR for a popular restaurant since they've already been there once and they're filling up a reservation that could be had by someone else who's never eaten there. Or stayed at a resort, etc., etc.

RotR is brand-new. They're still working out the kinks. When I was there on Dec 13 and 14, there were a lot of people queued up outside the entrance very early. There were no backup BGs then and, I think, not a host of bitter complaints by people who couldn't get to ride. Also, it took longer for the BGs to fill up. Were there fewer people there those days? Maybe. I have no way to gauge this. But it makes me wonder if the backup BGs are such a great idea since you may not get to ride if you get one of these. At that point, you have entered a lottery. For me, I'd rather get to the park, get or not get a BG, and be done with it so then I can arrange the rest of my day accordingly.

 

[Miffy]

There are restrooms in the queue

There are? I had no idea. We could've used one of those!

 

[Wrexali]

I am sure this has been answered before but after going through the first two pages and last two of this long thread I haven’t found it. Once you get to the park, how do you join a boarding group? Do you get in a physical line somewhere and get a paper ticket, or do it on the app but you have to be inside the park for it to work? I just want to make sure I am prepared for my trip next week and know what to do!

 

[dina444444]

I am sure this has been answered before but after going through the first two pages and last two of this long thread I haven’t found it. Once you get to the park, how do you join a boarding group? Do you get in a physical line somewhere and get a paper ticket, or do it on the app but you have to be inside the park for it to work? I just want to make sure I am prepared for my trip next week and know what to do!

Through the app. You don’t need to be in the park to use the app, but you have to tap into the park with your admission to join a boarding group.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I know that there are some people on this thread (including myself) who have posted that they've done RotR more than once, however, I really don't think this constitutes a large group of people, i.e., enough people that the few of us who've done it (I rode twice--Dec 13 and 14) would have had a great impact on many other people's ability to get a BG. Of course, I have no stats for this. If there were thousands of people every day at DHS who had already done RotR and were trying to get another BG, I might agree with you about limiting the ability to get a BG in the way that you suggest.

I guess I feel it's already limited. You can ride only once a day. If you're on vacation and you want to ride RotR every day, why should you be stopped from at least trying? It's your vacation. Granted, it's someone else's--many some else's--vacation, too. But on that note, perhaps anyone who comes to WDW more than once every five years should have their FP+s for major attractions limited, since they're "preventing" someone else from getting a FP+ for an attraction they may have the ability to ride only once ever. Or, say, give up their ADR for a popular restaurant since they've already been there once and they're filling up a reservation that could be had by someone else who's never eaten there. Or stayed at a resort, etc., etc.

RotR is brand-new. They're still working out the kinks. When I was there on Dec 13 and 14, there were a lot of people queued up outside the entrance very early. There were no backup BGs then and, I think, not a host of bitter complaints by people who couldn't get to ride. Also, it took longer for the BGs to fill up. Were there fewer people there those days? Maybe. I have no way to gauge this. But it makes me wonder if the backup BGs are such a great idea since you may not get to ride if you get one of these. At that point, you have entered a lottery. For me, I'd rather get to the park, get or not get a BG, and be done with it so then I can arrange the rest of my day accordingly.

This was in the context of a system that allowed people to join without being in the park and how to prevent everybody doing it every day they possibly could ride.

I argued before they limited it to one BG per day that it was an attempt to ration experiences at Disney that is not done for anything else, because you’re right, it’s not entirely different from stopping people from experiencing other popular attractions multiple times during a period of time. But since they’re doing it, I wouldn’t mind if they did it with the added benefit of eliminating the need to be at DHS to join.

 

[Matty123]

As an infrequent visitor, I truly hope that the BG system does *not* change (other than IT and ride tech fixes) before my family's visit. We have one day at HS over Presidents' weekend. We are huge Star Wars fans, but we don't have much money or time for vacations. The problem with the FP+ system from the POV of folks like us is that it relies on those two things. FP works for people who can afford (or figure out how to afford) to stay on Disney property for extended periods. (I booked the Dolphin for our upcoming stay in case FP was in play, but I'm really relieved that it isn't.) A FP system rewards folks who are truly Disney committed, but I have to assume Disney also wants to cultivate the business of families like mine (or why invest in Star Wars land in the first place?). If there were a FP system in place for ROTR, we would have zero chance of getting a pass. We might have the option of standing in line for 6 or 8 hours and still not riding. I'd much rather be in a virtual queue, wandering through Batuu, on our one day to visit. We're heading over to Harry Potter land for the remainder of our weekend nerdcation after SWGE, and if the ride for Hagrid's is 6 hours long with no guarantee of riding, we'll choose to invest our time in a way that makes more sense for us. Maybe we'll get back 5 or 10 years from now, maybe not.

The current system still gives a substantial advantage to people who really want to ride and put effort into it by getting there early. I get that we may not get the chance to ride, and I accept that. (We'll still have an amazing day!) At least I have a little bit of control, however. Putting me into a true lottery with people who aren't committed to the point of getting out of bed to be there would bum me out. I appreciate that I have a decent chance this way. (And if Disney can get its app working for everyone I'll appreciate it even more! ).

 

[Miffy]

Looking at how the BGs are gone in 2 minutes now, how about the following system:

• As soon as you enter the park, you enter in your information to join a potential BG. No need to wait until opening, but you won't be assigned a BG yet.
• At exactly 7am (or whatever the opening time is), conduct a true lottery of everyone who signed in to assign BGs (so no "fastest finger" or tech issues leading to differing boarding groups as long as you were in the park).
• If there are any boarding groups still available after the 7am lottery, they're first-come, first-served.

This ensures everyone in the park at opening gets a boarding group, tech issues don't mean people miss a BG, and when popularity wanes it'll still work - the early arrivers will get the earliest boarding groups, but people who arrive later will still get one on a first-come, first-served basis.

This only works if they have enough boarding groups for everyone who arrives prior to opening - they would have to flex opening times to ensure that's always true. (But frankly they should be doing that anyway - the angriest people are those who arrive prior to opening but don't get to ride it. That's why openings were at 6am during the busiest week of the year).

Thoughts?

My thoughts are this: When I was there Dec 13 and 14, after you tapped in at the tapstiles, which opened before the official park opening time, you could then try for a BG. This rewarded the people who got there earliest.

WDW only implemented the join-at-official-park-opening system I think the week after I was there. After that was in place, everyone was thrilled because this meant that they no longer had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get to DHS and wait in line. They could sleep later and get there at 6:30 and get into the park at 7 (assuming that was the opening time).

And I'd say that the majority of people on this thread were quite happy with that system and didn't want to go back to the earlier system, since it'd mean people would be queuing at DHS earlier and earlier in the mornings.

Your system might work, but you're going to alienate the people who don't want to get there early.

One way to ameliorate this potential problem--people getting to the park at 3:45 a.m. or something--would be to have the DHS parking closed before X a.m. At least one wouldn't be competing with people willing to basically camp out overnight.

 

[yulilin3]

My thoughts are this: When I was there Dec 13 and 14, after you tapped in at the tapstiles, which opened before the official park opening time, you could then try for a BG. This rewarded the people who got there earliest.

WDW only implemented the join-at-official-park-opening system I think the week after I was there. After that was in place, everyone was thrilled because this meant that they no longer had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get to DHS and wait in line. They could sleep later and get there at 6:30 and get into the park at 7 (assuming that was the opening time).

And I'd say that the majority of people on this thread were quite happy with that system and didn't want to go back to the earlier system, since it'd mean people would be queuing at DHS earlier and earlier in the mornings.

Your system might work, but you're going to alienate the people who don't want to get there early.

One way to ameliorate this potential problem--people getting to the park at 3:45 a.m. or something--would be to have the DHS parking closed before X a.m. At least one wouldn't be competing with people willing to basically camp out overnight.

Closing the parking lot won't matter cause people can walk to DHS which is the basic problem

 

[Wrexali]

Through the app. You don’t need to be in the park to use the app, but you have to tap into the park with your admission to join a boarding group.

Thanks! So at park opening time the day we are planning to go there I should open the app and jump on it?

 

[dina444444]

Thanks! So at park opening time the day we are planning to go there I should open the app and jump on it?

Yes. You may have to back out of the SWGE section and re click it a few times for it to give you access.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I think there are two pretty uncomplicated ways to fix the problematic days which don’t require a system overhaul (although it’s fun to speculate!).

More ipad CMs roaming around the crowd, compensation for back up BG snagged right at park opening. I think those are two basic things that would help a lot with days like yesterday.

 

[Miffy]

Closing the parking lot won't matter cause people can walk to DHS which is the basic problem

Oh heck. I hadn't thought of that.

Well, there's gotta be some as-fair-as-possible way to fix this. I'm hoping that it's just these last few days with people still on vacay, the ride being so new, and the local AP blackout over.

Really, I was sure I wasn't going to get to ride when I was there, since the ride had been open only a week at that point, so I was thrilled that I was able to.

WDW will figure this out. Won't they?

ETA: I totally loved RotR. That's why I absolutely had to go back the following day, even though I knew I might not be able to get a BG and knew I might end up having to give up my hard-won FoP FP+ as well.