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

[FCDub]

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.

It's not a PR disaster. That's outrageous hyperbole.

 

[yulilin3]

Here is what I don’t understand. If you get in line at one minute before park closing on almost any ride in any of the parks, you will get to ride the ride that night (outside of a ride breakdown after park closing), no matter how long the (inflated wait) standby time is. On this ride, they proactively cut off the BGs two hours (or more) before park close so they can presumably end the ride operations at or before the close of the park. I understand there is a certain amount of time needed to reset the ride overnight. However, if they give someone a BG (not a back up BG), I think they should accommodate those folks on the ride on that day, until whatever time it takes. This might make the ride go one more hour or so past park closing, but it would not happen every night or even often, as we have seen them miss accommodating the regular BGs only a handful of times since the ride opened. This way, if it is your last park day like some of the OPs, you aren’t left with a guest recovery FP and one day park ticket that may be completely meaningless to you at that point in your trip. Yes the CM would have to stay late to operate the ride late on these rare nights, but that happens nightly on popular rides like FoP and somehow Disney can handle that just fine.

All that you state its what usually happens with a wdw attraction. This one is different, they need to close early, it's not performing well so they are proactively closing it early to get it ready for the next day

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Now boarding 115-151. That’s a 36 BG spread indicating 18 groups / hr on average over the past 2 hours. They could potentially still call 27 more groups if they maintain this pace before the “2 hr stoppage point” that seems to be standard procedure!

 

[Eastern]

Where do you go? We only have one day there.

I have never gone to DHS for an entire day so it was never a problem. The last time I ate there it was probably still MGM Studios. I would look on the dining boards for current recommendations.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Now showing 118-158! I’ve watched BGs a lot over the last month and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a spread that large! 20 BGs avg over the past 2 hours!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Politely asking people to lower their phones, or take off their tall hat/mickey ears is perfectly ok. I hear people ask others to remove mickey ears all the time before shows. The last time I saw the Festival of the Lion King, the couple in front of me were both recording on their phones and blocking my view while doing so. I gave them to the end of the intro and when it became clear they were going to continue, I politely informed the man I couldn't see past his phone. He seemed surprised he was blocking someones view, spoke to his wife, and they both lowered their phones the rest of the show.

I would think many people aren't being annoying on purpose - they just aren't thinking/in their own world/etc and once you mention something it hits them and they feel bad and adapt

Granted, others are just jerks

 

[bizeemom4]

I would think many people aren't being annoying...

Granted, others are just jerks

 

[Revan46]

Obsessively following his thread for weeks paid off for us in spades this morning,
6:05-6:10- boarded bus at Poly
6:20- in bag check line
Tapped in by 6:40- no fingerprint
Opened app at 6:58- Att LTE
Turned red right at 7.
Got BG 18!
All 5 of us were trying, I just got in first.
For security and tapping in, I cannot stress enough how accurate the “stay right” advice is. DD’s and I went right. DH and DS went through no bag line and stayed middle. We were inside the park a full 5 minutes before them.
RotR was worth all the research and planning! Loved it and all of SWGE.
Off topic but the food situation in DHS is abysmal

Glad to see it's still working for some. Here's hoping no glitches on Monday :S

 

[ShadeDK]

Did you make the outdoor queue or did it start at the turret and went into the caves?

It started just outside the turret, wound around numerous switchbacks outside (mostly behind and to the left if facing the turret and parallel to the Grand Avenue entrance) and then finally into the caves (probably took about 20-25 minutes before entering the caves). As we were leaving I noticed that they had chained off that same outside section and there was a straight line from the turret to the cave entrance. Wasnt sure if I’d missed another section that wasn’t used (the FoP standby line can be disorienting that way) or whether that was it. MFSR has a relatively short outside queue line as well - and that one seems to spill out into the plaza often (end of line was past the Droid Depot the other night - but nothing like opening morning in August when it was back by the Grand Avenue entrance!).

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

All that you state its what usually happens with a wdw attraction. This one is different, they need to close early, it's not performing well so they are proactively closing it early to get it ready for the next day

That is improving it for the next day at the expense of the current days guests who have already invested their day and done their bit to participate. With all the push notifications on MDE they could definitely handle it differently IMO.

 

[dina444444]

Now showing 118-158! I’ve watched BGs a lot over the last month and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a spread that large! 20 BGs avg over the past 2 hours!!

I’ve seen the spread get huge first thing in the morning and again with the backups. They are up to 163 now.

 

[Eastern]

I wanted to do a timing recap and analysis of our RotR day - Thursday 1/2. Park hours were 7am-9pm, although they were adjusted to a 10pm closing mid-day. On a side note, the fact that they scheduled 7am-9am hours for 1/1+ is pretty crazy given the huge crowds. I personally think they should have continued the 6am - 10am hours through this weekend. But anyway...

This is a good recap in the sense that you seem like an average family trying to do this. (Maybe more knowledgeable about most Disney things but not RotR. ) I am usually the planner for our trips but I kind of left RotR planning to the last minute as we are also not Star Wars superfans but have watched the movies. Couldn't go this time so family went without me and I 'advised' them. They weren't sure they were going to try for the ride until that morning (Jan 3). Why not, right?

They also went in with the expectation (promoted by me) that once you were through the gate you were good for a BG in the first 20 minutes or so. Summary: 3 people tried for a BG, got #91 in the first minute, ride breakdowns all day, went from expecting a 1pm call time to a 7:45pm actual call time. Through the ride in 1 hour 20 minutes (minor delay inside).

After all that, it was more stressful than anticipated. They liked the ride. 8/10

Good luck, future riders

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I’ve seen the spread get huge first thing in the morning and again with the backups. They are up to 163 now.

120-165. I’ve personally never seen it that large (45 BGs) but I don’t wake up before 9am either

Remarkably good performance today!! That is exciting after yesterday’s dismal result

EDIT: and now I see 122-168...a 46 group spread!

 

[Eastern]

Here is what I don’t understand. If you get in line at one minute before park closing on almost any ride in any of the parks, you will get to ride the ride that night (outside of a ride breakdown after park closing), no matter how long the (inflated wait) standby time is. On this ride, they proactively cut off the BGs two hours (or more) before park close so they can presumably end the ride operations at or before the close of the park. I understand there is a certain amount of time needed to reset the ride overnight. However, if they give someone a BG (not a back up BG), I think they should accommodate those folks on the ride on that day, until whatever time it takes. This might make the ride go one more hour or so past park closing, but it would not happen every night or even often, as we have seen them miss accommodating the regular BGs only a handful of times since the ride opened. This way, if it is your last park day like some of the OPs, you aren’t left with a guest recovery FP and one day park ticket that may be completely meaningless to you at that point in your trip. Yes the CM would have to stay late to operate the ride late on these rare nights, but that happens nightly on popular rides like FoP and somehow Disney can handle that just fine.

Maybe because this ride really implodes when it breaks down. Maybe they have to do more maintenance at closing. Who knows? Disney Mystery

 

[GADisneyDad14]

It started just outside the turret, wound around numerous switchbacks outside (mostly behind and to the left if facing the turret and parallel to the Grand Avenue entrance) and then finally into the caves (probably took about 20-25 minutes before entering the caves). As we were leaving I noticed that they had chained off that same outside section and there was a straight line from the turret to the cave entrance. Wasnt sure if I’d missed another section that wasn’t used (the FoP standby line can be disorienting that way) or whether that was it. MFSR has a relatively short outside queue line as well - and that one seems to spill out into the plaza often (end of line was past the Droid Depot the other night - but nothing like opening morning in August when it was back by the Grand Avenue entrance!).

I had the same observation about the line length as you. When we were there (a bit later than you) the line was at the ride entrance and I'm nearly certain we went through every possible switchback outside and inside. So it held around 50-55 minutes of steadily moving people. The one thing I'm not sure of is once inside there were a few doorways with CMs leading to other places. I'm 'assuming' those were just to backstage areas, the restroom, etc, and not to more switchback rooms, but not totally sure. Caveat that it was all new/exciting, so might have missed something.

 

[Eastern]

That is improving it for the next day at the expense of the current days guests who have already invested their day and done their bit to participate. With all the push notifications on MDE they could definitely handle it differently IMO.

Sometimes someone has to make a decision that gets someone mad no matter what they do.

 

[ShadeDK]

I’m curious what the atmosphere and crowd morale is looking like at official park opening at DHS while everyone is frantically trying to book a BG and results popping up?

Cheers? Boos? Any incorporation of this screen gazing into the themed experience?

A lottery you can enter until 30 minutes after park opening seems like it would take the pressure off. Plus the results of the lottery could be made into entertainment.

It’s a range of cheers, excitement, joy, contentment, frustration, panic, confusion, anger, dejection, resignation, relief and everything else in between in a short 5-minute window. I knew as soon as I heard yells and cheers that the lottery was live - and that the inability to get into the system was a problem that would compound by the moment. Honestly, the cheers were short-lived and most of the next few minutes were sounds of people angry, frustrated, and stressed. A lot of overheard conversations along the lines of “well, at least we got X” or “we tried - it’s all we could do” or “why did we go through all this and might not even get to ride??” It was actually very un-Disneylike. As we headed to the exit, there was a guy pulling his family to the side and trying to give them a pep-talk - not to focus on the negative and try and be positive and have a good day anyway. It was tough to witness.

Based on that - I’d have to say that trying to turn the lottery results into entertainment probably would not go over so well. It was a very emotionally charged scene with tired people trying to reconcile what just happened. Probably best to just leave it at that and not make it part of the show.

 

[Eastern]

I had the same observation about the line length as you. When we were there (a bit later than you) the line was at the ride entrance and I'm nearly certain we went through every possible switchback outside and inside. So it held around 50-55 minutes of steadily moving people.

My family also mentioned the switchbacks. Took them 55 minutes to get through to the actual ride.

 

[wisblue]

I would think many people aren't being annoying on purpose - they just aren't thinking/in their own world/etc and once you mention something it hits them and they feel bad and adapt

Granted, others are just jerks

That‘s the challenge with deciding whether to say anything when people do things to block your view. You don’t know if the other person is going to courteously and apologetically remove the obstacle, or get belligerent and make the whole experience even worse.

 

[shmom]

We rode in a boat on Navi River Journey with a woman who insisted on taking flash pictures of the entire ride. On a tablet. I’m sure she’s got extremely high quality images () of one of the most uneventful rides in Disney to look back on.

Personally she should have filmed Living with the Land. A lot more interesting than Navi.