Reservations for SWGE at WDW?

[mickeyluv'r]

I have an interesting idea:

What if WDW offered some kind of temporary SW event set up outside of HS?

It wouldn't have to be all that elaborate: food booths, booths with freebies, character greet, maybe displays about the creation of the new ride. It could be set up over towards the Boardwalk hotel, or maybe use existing convention space at the Dolphin, Epcot area WDW hotels, or even Epcot.

It just needs to be something SW themed that draws folks away from HS, and gives them another way to experience SW themed stuff.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Wow I read a bunch of the comments and it’s interesting to hear everyone’s take and it course it will be really interesting to watch in unfold and see what actually does happen. I definitely don’t know what will happen but I do think this is a good time for Disney to learn from their pandora opening fails. Pandora/Avatar has such an insignificant fan base when compared to Star Wars. If Disney doesn’t institute some level of crowd control into DHS, I think it will be an epic mistake. Pandora was not a smoothly operated event at opening and quite honestly I was disappointed how they handled crowds and FOP wait times and to some degree Navi.

I think they should have instituted a ride reservation wait much like waiting at a restaurant. Instead of letting guests wait 4+ hours for rides, you’d stand in line to get a buzzer, not a FP, that would tell you, hey go get in line now but you’ll still have a 45 min to an hour wait. Now knowing that they can do an online reservation system like they did at DL I think they’d be remiss to not institute some level of crowd control.

Why let guests stand in line for that long when they could be eating, drinking and buying $200 light sabers???

 

[MomOTwins]

It sounds like Early Morning hours are the extent of their current plan for the first two months. I really wish I knew what there plan is for Nov. and Dec., especially around holiday times. My bet is on hard ticket morning or event events or dining prix-fixe packages like the new one they rolled out for festival of the lion king.

 

[fla4fun]

I think the combination of the EEMH and a virtual queue would be the best solution for WDW. EEMH gives the on property guests an advantage, while at the same time putting the onus on the guest to take advantage of it. Then when the park opens for regular guests, both on property and off property guests have an equal chance of getting in, so the off property guests don’t feel left out completely. Plus, as hard as it might be to believe, not every WDW guest is chomping at the bit to get in to SWGE. Some just don’t like SW, some don’t want to deal with crowds, and some are content to wait for the frenzy to die down a little before they dive in.

I am waiting to see what happens at DL on the 24th just to get a feel for what kind of crowds we might be in for. The significant difference in the number of hotels, as well as the differences between DL and DHS, will mean that it’s nearly impossible to treat both parks exactly the same way. However, if DL experiences huge crowds and wait times, I think it will mean WDW will have to utilize some form of virtual queue or other crowd control or there will be chaos.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I think the combination of the EEMH and a virtual queue would be the best solution for WDW. EEMH gives the on property guests an advantage, while at the same time putting the onus on the guest to take advantage of it. Then when the park opens for regular guests, both on property and off property guests have an equal chance of getting in, so the off property guests don’t feel left out completely. Plus, as hard as it might be to believe, not every WDW guest is chomping at the bit to get in to SWGE. Some just don’t like SW, some don’t want to deal with crowds, and some are content to wait for the frenzy to die down a little before they dive in.

I am waiting to see what happens at DL on the 24th just to get a feel for what kind of crowds we might be in for. The significant difference in the number of hotels, as well as the differences between DL and DHS, will mean that it’s nearly impossible to treat both parks exactly the same way. However, if DL experiences huge crowds and wait times, I think it will mean WDW will have to utilize some form of virtual queue or other crowd control or there will be chaos.

Looking at how Pandora was overrun at the start and how much larger a percentage of guests will be Star Wars fans, I have a bad feeling about this. Lucky for me I don't go until November so I can hold tight for the time being and learn from the suffering of others.

 

[DanBoris]

It sounds like Early Morning hours are the extent of their current plan for the first two months....

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. They very well could be waiting for DL to go into non-reservation operation before they decide on the exact plans for DHS.

 

[Dis Dragon]

I noticed in someone's VLOG from DL that Oga's was using a virtual queue. I'm not sure how reserving a spot based on hotel occupancy would work since WDW has 7 times the resorts as DL. Even if it was a virtual queue I would imagine that would top out in the first couple hours for the entire day, yeah I don't envy whoever has to minimize the impact this is to guests.

 

[Jason_79]

Wow I read a bunch of the comments and it’s interesting to hear everyone’s take and it course it will be really interesting to watch in unfold and see what actually does happen. I definitely don’t know what will happen but I do think this is a good time for Disney to learn from their pandora opening fails. Pandora/Avatar has such an insignificant fan base when compared to Star Wars. If Disney doesn’t institute some level of crowd control into DHS, I think it will be an epic mistake. Pandora was not a smoothly operated event at opening and quite honestly I was disappointed how they handled crowds and FOP wait times and to some degree Navi.

I think they should have instituted a ride reservation wait much like waiting at a restaurant. Instead of letting guests wait 4+ hours for rides, you’d stand in line to get a buzzer, not a FP, that would tell you, hey go get in line now but you’ll still have a 45 min to an hour wait. Now knowing that they can do an online reservation system like they did at DL I think they’d be remiss to not institute some level of crowd control.

Why let guests stand in line for that long when they could be eating, drinking and buying $200 light sabers???

Agree 100%.

I shake my head at the thought of anything other than this happening.

 

[DisneyGuy758]

To an extent, I'm still worrying how this will affect our October trip (first week).

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. They very well could be waiting for DL to go into non-reservation operation before they decide on the exact plans for DHS.

60 days from today is 8/12/19.
A fair number of guests stay onsite at WDW for 9-10 days.
Folks arriving August 19 become eligible to book FP at 7am on June 20th, and every day after June 20 more guests will be able to book FP for August 29th.

Disney isn't required to announce anything by then, but it would kind of make sense for them to announce something in the next week.

 

[DanBoris]

60 days from today is 8/12/19.
A fair number of guests stay onsite at WDW for 9-10 days.
Folks arriving August 19 become eligible to book FP at 7am on June 20th, and every day after June 20 more guests will be able to book FP for August 29th.

Disney isn't required to announce anything by then, but it would kind of make sense for them to announce something in the next week.

They have made it pretty clear that there will not be fastpasses at opening.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Looking at how Pandora was overrun at the start and how much larger a percentage of guests will be Star Wars fans, I have a bad feeling about this. Lucky for me I don't go until November so I can hold tight for the time being and learn from the suffering of others.

Can't say I followed opening of Pandora too closely, but a number of rides have had problems on opening day, and some had frequent breakdowns for quite some times AFTER opening day (cough! Test Track cough!).

If WDW has a virtual queue, and the ride has new ride bugs/kinks/jitters, that could also be a problem. I suspect that's why DL was held to relatively low numbers.

Didn't FEA have a few glitches when it was new?

It is a lot to ask a ride and staff to from near zero (previews?) to thousands of riders all in one day.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

They have made it pretty clear that there will not be fastpasses at opening.

Yes, I got that, thanks, but SW isn't the only ride in WDW.

Onsite guests will book FP for 8/29, and they will be doing it very soon.

 

[rteetz]

Yes, I got that, thanks, but SW isn't the only ride in WDW.

Onsite guests will book FP for 8/29, and they will be doing it very soon.

Club level guests already have if they are paying for the 90 day window.

 

[rteetz]

If WDW has a virtual queue, and the ride has new ride bugs/kinks/jitters, that could also be a problem. I suspect that's why DL was held to relatively low numbers.

Falcon at Disneyland did have a slight down time but actually worked very well for opening day. I haven't seen any significant downtime from it as of yet.

 

[Mikeyjtecumseh]

Look how bad it was at universal today with its new RIDE let alone land

 

[sethschroeder]

Look how bad it was at universal today with its new RIDE let alone land

Except that is for the media and its day 1. They partly made it get out of hand today to steal all the headlines of how crazy the lines were (like Apple used to do with their new phone releases). Tomorrow they move to their virtual line system.

I don't think anyone is saying day 1 that the new land won't be an absolute zoo.

I would like to call out that it is the most expensive coaster ever created ($300m vs the next most expensive of like $100m which is Expedition Everest if I am not mistaken). So its going to be more in line with Resistance when it finally launches it would seem?

 

[Micharlotte]

Our trip was planned last year for August 29- Sept 11. We aren't planning on going anywhere near DHS until September 3 and then it's just to feel out the situation. We have one day planned to be up at 4:30am and at the park by 5am. I would much rather them have evening EEMH rather than morning ones. I'm kind of hoping they add some later hours as well.

 

[yulilin3]

Look how bad it was at universal today with its new RIDE let alone land

The ride has only a fraction of capacity as opposed to a land, i was there very early and although I waited a long time and it was very crowded it was all controlled, no chaos at all. TM went above and beyond

 

[Runnsally]

I’ve heard estimates that each 4hr reservation window at DL had about 3,000 people. The land itself looked uncrowded, but still a long wait to experience the cantina, sabers, etc. Any thoughts on how many people WDW will allow in at a time if the current system stays as is? Got to be at least 9,000 right? Otherwise, the queue to get in will be untenable.

Even if they allow a high capacity, I don’t get how this will work. The land will be full before 8a and it will be a 4hr wait to get into the cantina. Total cluster.