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

[BridgetBordeaux]

This ride can not be compared to TT or any other ride because of many factors...........
--SW rights are a huge thing to possess and the fans go back over 4 decades
--SWGE is presently the crown jewel of Disney and RotR is the centerpiece.
--These 2 (SWGE and RotR) are a central part of Disney's plan to draw in more and more people.
--Look at all the construction of roads and hotel rooms at WDW and within 5 miles of it over the past 2 years.
--The new Galactic Starcruiser deluxe hotel is also dependent on this Land doing well.

This poor performance is very embarrassing for Disney and diminishes the halo effect associated with the new land and the ride.

Yes, the guests are not happy and I assure you that behind the scenes, Disney is not happy either.

This reliability issue must be corrected soon................or else the harm will take quite a while to melt away.

 

[palmtreelover08]

But I think the reason they are giving the comp day si so that person is able to come in the gates the next day to ride the ride. As an AP holder you don't need that comp ticket to get into the gates.

I agree you should definitely still get the anytime FP and perhaps something extra, but can also see the other side of not needing to provide the full value of the comp ticket


but anyway, at some point they will stop doing this or racheting it down or something. As others have said, they don't give out comp tickets when Test Track or even Slinky Dog goes down

But with Slinky or TT, you have the option of waiting in standby for hours if you chose to- and can arrive at the park whenever you want. With this set up- if you are not in the park and assigned a BOG you are out of luck. If I couldn’t get a BG from the comfort of my room, or whatever time I chose to show up- I would be more understanding- but with this set-up, if you want to ride- they dictate your show up time and essentially what time you get to leave (if you leave after the ride). Just a tired- frustrated guest here.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I'm an AP holder (although, just happen to be one for the year because of a bonus trip), and I absolutely agree that we, and even people who hold multi day tickets with days left on them, don't need extra compensation past an anytime FP. I would definitely rather see them do away with the ticket, and instead allow the FP to expire further away than next day, allowing people to have an easier time fitting it into their plans.

I worry that that kind of thing complicates it too much from an IT standpoint, so I would also be okay with removing the compensation ticket all together and allowing people to approach guest services or GET CMs should they actually need it.

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

The more Disney does guest recovery for customer service / PR reasons, the sooner people will view guest recovery as a "right" to which they are entitled.

We are going for 6 days next week. We plan on trying for ROTR on Tuesday, with Wednesday & Thursday as backup days for us. If I don't get to ride (for whatever reason), Disney dosen't owe me anything.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I don't think of the one day tickets and FP as compensation for a screw up, more like Disney making it easy for someone to ride the next day.

They don't need to be compensating financially IMO, which is I guess how some people are viewing the ticket?

 

[matthewthompson87]

I think the issue is right now people are planning their trips around this ride and Disney wants them to.

Exactly.

I’ve got relatives and friends who haven’t been to a Disney theme park in a decade whose interest is piqued because of RotR. If they didn’t get a boarding group, they would likely understand the nature of a popular attraction with limited capacity and try again the next day... probably wanting to ride even more.

However, getting a boarding group raises hopes, excitement, and expectations tremendously. Receiving a BG then being unable to ride because of technical difficulties is a word of mouth disaster waiting to happen. Keeping people going home with stories of how well taken care of they felt... is well worth the trouble of significant guest recovery.

Comps and FP are “non-cash” compensation with barely any opportunity cost. It would be wise to continue it for as long as they want this to be the “must do” attraction driving guests to return or adding incremental days to stays.

Also, can I just say that “Chewie and Chips” in line is one of my favorite guest service recovery practices I’ve heard of in a long time.

 

[Taylormade0503]

But I think the reason they are giving the comp day si so that person is able to come in the gates the next day to ride the ride. As an AP holder you don't need that comp ticket to get into the gates.

I agree you should definitely still get the anytime FP and perhaps something extra, but can also see the other side of not needing to provide the full value of the comp ticket


but anyway, at some point they will stop doing this or racheting it down or something. As others have said, they don't give out comp tickets when Test Track or even Slinky Dog goes down

I think the fact that they are doing the Boarding Group system changes everything. The reason why they didn’t do comp tixs over at UO with Hagrid’s was that it was a first come first serve situation. With ROTR it’s sort of like booking a reservation at a very high demand restaurant and the restaurant saying that they can’t accommodate you even though you clearly had a reservation.

 

[mullysisters]

Just to make sure you're aware - there is no rope dropping RotR in typical rope drop fashion because there is no stand by line. Access to the attraction is only available by boarding group which you can get at park open.

Sorry I wasn't clear. I meant how large will the crowd be on Saturady vs. Sunday morning when I arrive for the normal 9am park opening. I mean I want to be closest to the front pf the line and having the best chance of getting a BG when I get in.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I think the fact that they are doing the Boarding Group system changes everything. The reason why they didn’t do comp tixs over at UO with Hagrid’s was that it was a first come first serve situation. With ROTR it’s sort of like booking a reservation at a very high demand restaurant and the restaurant saying that they can’t accommodate you even though you clearly had a reservation.

They make it crystal clear that back up groups are not guaranteed to ride and they don't compensate at all. Disney also doesn't automatically compensate if you "reserve" an attraction with a FP and cannot ride because it went down. Seems to be working fine. All they would have to do to stop the compensation would be to be extremely conservative as to which BG are regular ones, or just adopt the back up mentality (or every other attraction mentality) for all of them.

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

Just throwing our scenario into the mix. I’m an AP holder in Maine. My DH is not. Traveling down for a day and a half specifically so my DH can experience this ride. Our plane gets in at 1:30 p.m. - way too late for a boarding group; the next day we’re going all in at HS! Back to Maine at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. If we get a regular BG and he doesn’t get to ride, I’ll be (wicked politely) jonesing for that one day park ticket (good for more than the next day) for him as a next day FP does us no good. (If we don’t get it, so be it, we’ll still have fun!).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

One thing worth pointing out is that we do tend to get caught up in the negative days here (myself included). The ride has done very well on a number of days. The odds are in your favor that you'll have a good day! But like most things in life, we tend to focus much more on the negative than the positive. Similar to how people are much more likely to negatively review a hotel, a product, or a restaurant than to provide a positive review because we expect things to generally be positive.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Sorry I wasn't clear. I meant how large will the crowd be on Saturady vs. Sunday morning when I arrive for the normal 9am park opening. I mean I want to be closest to the front pf the line and having the best chance of getting a BG when I get in.

But being near the front vs the back won't make a difference. They'll let everyone in about 30 minutes before they open up the boarding group selection process. As long as you are in the park when that happens (or have tapped in at some point that morning), you are on equal footing with everyone else.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

One thing worth pointing out is that we do tend to get caught up in the negative days here (myself included). The ride has done very well on a number of days. The odds are in your favor that you'll have a good day! But like most things in life, we tend to focus much more on the negative than the positive. Similar to how people are much more likely to negatively review a hotel, a property, or a restaurant than to provide a positive review because we expect things to generally be positive.

I agree - though I am interested to see how tomorrow goes: was this a one day thing or the start of larger problems

But prior to today I htink there was really only one day they didn't get to the main BGs and overall, considering how complicated this ride is and the word that they had some issues in building the attraction, overall it has performed much, much better than I expected it to (or at least what I feared might be the situation)

 

[Taylormade0503]

They make it crystal clear that back up groups are not guaranteed to ride and they don't compensate at all. Disney also doesn't automatically compensate if you "reserve" an attraction with a FP and cannot ride because it went down. Seems to be working fine. All they would have to do to stop the compensation would be to be extremely conservative as to which BG are regular ones, or just adopt the back up mentality (or every other attraction mentality) for all of them.

The thing that your missing is that people have planned their vacations just so they can ride ROTR. Not giving out compensations would be a total nightmare for guest services. Also, I’m not talking about backup BGs.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Here's to tomorrow being a BETTER day!

​

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I would be OK with some limit on the number of rides one person can get. Maybe one a week is too strict, but blocking someone out for one or two days after getting a BG might help to loosen up the crowds in the short term.

I don’t see it happening though.

Same. And I also don't see it happening.

Before it was limited at all, I was all for letting people cycle through as many times as they were willing to put effort into doing. They're rationing access to this attraction in a way that is unprecedented (I think), so I wouldn't be mad if they took it a step further to maybe ease up on DHS mornings.

 

[kpd6901]

The more Disney does guest recovery for customer service / PR reasons, the sooner people will view guest recovery as a "right" to which they are entitled.

We are going for 6 days next week. We plan on trying for ROTR on Tuesday, with Wednesday & Thursday as backup days for us. If I don't get to ride (for whatever reason), Disney dosen't owe me anything.

The customer is always right, right? This has been a growing problem.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

The thing that your missing is that people have planned their vacations just so they can ride ROTR. Not giving out compensations would be a total nightmare for guest services. Also, I’m not talking about backup BGs.

People who have planned their vacations around ROTR may be back up group holders.

I won't be surprised to see them scale back up FP only, and eventually nothing, and I think at that point it will be (largely) accepted as the way things are.

 

[mom22boys]

First time posting and I read through many many pages, so hopefully my questions are acceptable!
1. We are not staying on property- therefore no magic bands. One day tickets were purchased via the MDE app. From what I understand, I'll need to take my confirmation email barcode to a ticket window and obtain the plastic cards. I have our 6 party members entered into my app from when I purchased the tickets and made our FP reservations, but will I need to take any additional steps to link our tickets in the app before being able to get boarding groups?
2. I've been reading that the general consensus is that a 6:30 arrival time allows you to safely be inside the park by 7am. With needing to check in at ticketing to get our plastic cards, should we allow extra time and if so any suggestions on how much? Do all members need to be present at the ticketing window to get the plastic cards or just the purchaser?
3. In instances of people that only have 1 day park passes, have there been any reports of Disney providing discounts for a return visit in cases of ride malfunctions? I know I've heard quite a bit about return recovery FPs, but I'm curious if anything is known about comps with a return visit. (Obviously this will likely be a non-issue, but I'm more just curious than anything!)
Thank you.

1. Yes, you need to link the tickets to the friends and family you have listed in MDE. I think the easiest way to do this is by logging into MDE on a laptop. Click on "My Plans" and then scroll down to where it says " _____'s Plans and Tickets." Hover over the park tickets icon and click "Link Tickets." From there, MDE will walk you through the rest of the steps.

2. At a minimum I would arrive an hour prior to park open. Honestly, though, my comfort level would probably want me there a little earlier. You just never know how long lines can be. Also, I am not confident on this answer, but I believe just the purchaser would need to be present to get your plastic cards. However, as I am guessing you know, all members of your party need to tap into HS to be eligible for a BG.

3. Yes, as seen today, as part of guest recovery Disney has been issuing a one day complimentary HS ticket.

 

[matthewthompson87]

They make it crystal clear that back up groups are not guaranteed to ride and they don't compensate at all. Disney also doesn't automatically compensate if you "reserve" an attraction with a FP and cannot ride because it went down. Seems to be working fine. All they would have to do to stop the compensation would be to be extremely conservative as to which BG are regular ones, or just adopt the back up mentality (or every other attraction mentality) for all of them.

I think you vastly underestimate how much Disney probably wants Virtual Queues and Boarding Groups to be a massive success. If they are, look for them to be rolled out to every possible attraction where they can be employed.

Standby lines or queues in general take up massive amounts of park real estate and are the biggest reason for the negative perception of theme parks as vacation destinations.

Again, think of this from the word of mouth perspective:

“How was your trip?”

A) “ It was great— Disney is doing virtual queues for their rides now, so we had to get up really early to get in the virtual queue but the new Rise of the Resistance was so worth it. Even when the ride broke down, Chewie came around and gave us free chips and water... and then they let us come back for free to try again the next day with NO wait even though they didn’t have to.”

Or B) “Oh my god it sucked. We had to get up at the crack of dawn to take a bus and wait in line at the gates. We FINALLY got a boarding pass but had to wait 7 hours to be called. Then their stupid ride that wasn’t even working right broke. Someone else in line told me it’s been breaking everyday. What are we supposed to do? Pay again to come back? We already wasted one day. We’re not going to waste another ever again. This is why we stopped going to Disney in the first place.”

It’s not just the nuance of the backup group versus regular group. With one, there’s an expectation you’ll get to ride. With the other, your expectation is set appropriately. But that doesn’t matter to the guest experience.

Option A more than compensates, it keeps the conversation on the cool attraction vs. option B doesn’t allow the conversation to get past the wait and inconvenience (or even help the guest get on the ride after the inconvenience).