Rise of the Resistance BOARDING GROUPS Superthread Part 1 *No Ride Spoilers Please* *PLEASE READ POSTS 1-4*

[Boku41]

How would you not be able to do anything else? That makes no sense. At the top of the hour, you spend the 30 seconds to try and snag the next set of BG. I'm not advocating Disney release them willy nilly, but on an hourly schedule. If you get one, cool. If not, you set an alarm on your phone for a minute before the top of the hour and try again. I already do a version of this when using Maxpass to keep track of when I can make the next one,

Take Indiana Jones for instance. Would you risk getting in that line and being inside at the top of the hour?

 

[rteetz]

Can you elaborate? Why not?

Rides can’t operate efficiently like that. No rose isn’t currently operating well as it is but that would only make it worse.

 

[baozi]

FOP I guess...

MFSR is nice, but it's not ROTR....not even close. 3-4 hours okay. POF is often this still. 5+ hours? 7 hours? That's a PR issue that Disney clearly is trying to avoid.

 

[rteetz]

MFSR is nice, but it's not ROTR....not even close. 3-4 hours okay. POF is often this still. 5+ hours? 7 hours? That's a PR issue that Disney clearly is trying to avoid.

It’s not just that. The ride isn’t operating at full capacity on either coast. Boarding groups gives disney more control and allows guests to have a more pleasant experience when there is downtime.

 

[Vysecity]

Seems best strategy is to have app opened on main page then hit the "learn more" exactly at 8, yes??

 

[ShellB]

I’m confused, I have questions-

I’m going next week Tuesday-Thursday. I figure Wednesday is my day to try and get on the ride. How early should I arrive to the main entrance? The Park opens at 9am, CD has MM.

I'm confused by the comments. Are boarding groups only open at the top of each hour? So every hour I should retry to get on?

 

[JoySK]

I’m confused, I have questions-

I’m going next week Tuesday-Thursday. I figure Wednesday is my day to try and get on the ride. How early should I arrive to the main entrance? The Park opens at 9am, CD has MM.

I'm confused by the comments. Are boarding groups only open at the top of each hour? So every hour I should retry to get on?

Can’t answer how early, as there’s only been 2 days and maybe some others can advise - but no, the boarding groups are available at official park open time and that is it. The debate for the last few pages is hypothetical.

 

[brightlined]

I’m confused, I have questions-

I’m going next week Tuesday-Thursday. I figure Wednesday is my day to try and get on the ride. How early should I arrive to the main entrance? The Park opens at 9am, CD has MM.

I'm confused by the comments. Are boarding groups only open at the top of each hour? So every hour I should retry to get on?

Ignore all of DLgirl's posts - she's spitballing ideas on how to improve the wait.

There's one release of all of the day's boarding groups exactly at park open. You'll probably want to be at DL's entrance no later than 8:30am.

 

[socaldisneylover]

Is strength of signal, and the # of bars, the most important factor to consider? How much is that impacted by the amount of people you are near who are also trying to use the app?

I know there's a lot of discussion about entering the app at the time groups open, but then there are others who say they had the app open already, and still were successful in getting the button to appear right away. If the key is really to have a great signal, then I would concentrate on only that the next time, and open the app just before 8 AM.

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

Seems best strategy is to have app opened on main page then hit the "learn more" exactly at 8, yes??

Yes, this is what worked for us. We had 3 phones (two iPhone XS Max’s and one iPhone 10, all on Verizon data). We had full cellular service (4 bars) at Ronto Roasters and maybe 3 people in the immediate vicinity - it was empty back there. The regular iPhone 10 is my work phone and tends to be more reliable at the parks, so I had the app open on that one, and we opened the apps on the other 2 at 8:00. My husband’s app wouldn’t open at all, and my 10 immediately went to BG 20 when I pushed the button, so I didn’t even see what happened on my other phone.

Based our experience, and all the app issues today, I would have the app open to the landing page showing the “find out more” button. And like another poster said before, if you have MP, try booking one before 8 am to make sure everyone in your party is showing up.

 

[CastAStone]

Is strength of signal, and the # of bars, the most important factor to consider? How much is that impacted by the amount of people you are near who are also trying to use the app?

I know there's a lot of discussion about entering the app at the time groups open, but then there are others who say they had the app open already, and still were successful in getting the button to appear right away. If the key is really to have a great signal, then I would concentrate on only that the next time, and open the app just before 8 AM.

Honestly it seems like the most critical thing is getting your app to show you the red button and then how fast you can scoot through the rest.

Yes, the server will take the requests in the order it gets them, so finding a quicker path is beneficial (there’s a reason every big bank pays millions of dollars a year to have a server immediately next To the NYSE server), but reading the thread, so much of the struggle of the people with later or BUBGs is getting the dang red button to show.

 

[CastAStone]

We officially made it to Backups! Should have 4-5 more hours of BGs too!

 

[ckb_nc]

I think that the boarding group solution that Disney has come up with is a pretty good one all things considered.

it is pretty fair right now - yes it’s an absolute lottery system; got 71 yesterday and 36 today.2 different phones right at 8. The rules are simple - been in the park at 8 and try. It discourages camping at all night and when we went in both times that part of the park was pretty calm.
Last evening rode behind us was the Imagineer who designed the ride vehicles. She was with her husband and her sister - so cool to see.
It was a axing both times and jaw dropping. Harry Potter was to me the high bar for immersion in Florida but thus ride is in a whole different category

 

[ckb_nc]

The ride is currently taking in at most half of its optimal capacity an hour and they don’t want a hagrid’s situation on their hands.

Exactly Hagrid was a near nightmare

 

[EmJ]

To be honest, all the arguments about what is the “fairest” method of distributing ROTR’s limited supply boil down to “if it suits my touring style and I got a boarding group, it’s fair” and “if it doesn’t suit my touring style or I didn’t get a boarding group, it’s not fair”.

There is no way on god’s green earth that Disneyland could come up with a boarding system that makes 100% of park goers happy. If they did FP with a standby line, the fast passes would also be gone in less than one minute after opening, and then everyone else would complain that they spent $84 for a day ticket to stand in line, and the ride broke down, and they didn’t get on anyway. Or if they did, they spent $84 to stand in line and ride one ride. BUT people who have the chance to go back a lot, don’t mind wasting a day in line, and want to sleep in might be happy.

I personally don’t think Disney will change the boarding group system for a long time, and not unless it either becomes unnecessary because interest has waned OR because a critical mass of guests are truly unhappy. Right now, it seems like this system works for almost everyone, with only a minority finding it unsuitable.

 

[montreid]

it is pretty fair right now - yes it’s an absolute lottery system; got 71 yesterday and 36 today.2 different phones right at 8. The rules are simple - been in the park at 8 and try. It discourages camping at all night and when we went in both times that part of the park was pretty calm.
Last evening rode behind us was the Imagineer who designed the ride vehicles. She was with her husband and her sister - so cool to see.
It was a axing both times and jaw dropping. Harry Potter was to me the high bar for immersion in Florida but thus ride is in a whole different category

That is SO awesome. It's times like that I love. Had chatted with Tony Baxter for a few minutes in SDCC a few years back and still goosed by that memory.

 

[VandVsmama]

It's only been 2 days so far. I think that rather than getting upset over the current situation, we should just be patient and see how it plays out. I've been also casually watching the WDW thread on this same topic and it's been interesting to see how the boarding group assignment times play out.

Some park guests will opt out of trying to get on ROTR for a few months or even a year or two. Some park guests are die hard fans and will get up super early to devote the time to being there for a chance at 8 am to get a boarding group. Others won't.

In a way, it's kind of similar to what happened for years with RSR in Carsland. You guys remember all of the threads & reports of people being in the long line FP kiosk line to get FPs for RSR right at DCA park opening? Or everybody jockeying in position to use the wide right technique so you had an optimal chance of being one of the first ones on the ride? And how there were complaints even back then that it "wasn't fair" to people who got there after the FPs were all gone for the day (they went like wildfire)? Well look at how many years after Carsland opened it is now and still every day, RSR runs out of FP.

ROTR is going to be the same way for the next 10 years. Will they use boarding groups forever? Who knows? I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

I suspect that after the first month, a good chunk of the local AP holders will have gone on ROTR once or twice and then will be satisfied with waiting a little while longer to go on it again. This will then result in the majority of rope droppers being, once again, tourists from out of town...people there on vacation/holiday...and some of those tourists from out of town will be willing to get up early and be there before 8 am. And some of those tourists will not be willing to do that.

So just give it a little time and things will sort themselves out.

It's been about 6 months now since the Millennium Falcon ride opened and ride wait times for that often hover around 45 min to a little over an hour from my casual observations. Honestly, compared to 3-4 hour wait times for Flight of Passage (which is affected by the frustrating nightmare known as FP+), 45 min isn't that bad. I do think that once boarding groups have been sunset and they go to only a standby queue, ROTR wait time will always be longer than the Millennium Falcon ride. So I'm betting about 60-90 minutes.

Once it's just a regular standby line, then all of our old tricks of being at the front of the line at the main gate before rope drop will totally come in handy. So will getting in the queue for the ride just before the park closes for the night...whoever's in the queue will still get to ride it even if the park is officially closed. We've done this regularly now for other rides on previous trips.

But in the meantime, I am SO THANKFUL for the DIS community here online because this is a treasure trove of info. Seriously...this place rocks. You guys are awesome.

 

[brightlined]

To be honest, all the arguments about what is the “fairest” method of distributing ROTR’s limited supply boil down to “if it suits my touring style and I got a boarding group, it’s fair” and “if it doesn’t suit my touring style or I didn’t get a boarding group, it’s not fair”.

Exactly this, but also: Day 2 of operations is too early to be talking about what "should" be happening. It's not like Disney is listening to a message board.

I'm not a mod, but I would strongly suggest that if people want to make suggestions on changing anything, they do so in another thread where it can be reasonably discussed without interfering with what's happening right now.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

To be honest, all the arguments about what is the “fairest” method of distributing ROTR’s limited supply boil down to “if it suits my touring style and I got a boarding group, it’s fair” and “if it doesn’t suit my touring style or I didn’t get a boarding group, it’s not fair”.

There is no way on god’s green earth that Disneyland could come up with a boarding system that makes 100% of park goers happy. If they did FP with a standby line, the fast passes would also be gone in less than one minute after opening, and then everyone else would complain that they spent $84 for a day ticket to stand in line, and the ride broke down, and they didn’t get on anyway. Or if they did, they spent $84 to stand in line and ride one ride. BUT people who have the chance to go back a lot, don’t mind wasting a day in line, and want to sleep in might be happy.

I personally don’t think Disney will change the boarding group system for a long time, and not unless it either becomes unnecessary because interest has waned OR because a critical mass of guests are truly unhappy. Right now, it seems like this system works for almost everyone, with only a minority finding it unsuitable.

Meh. I’m not sure it’s going to work well long-term. I don’t find it “unfair” or “unsuitable,” and I got on just fine yesterday, so I’m certainly not a fit for “it doesn’t suit my style or a didn’t get a boarding group.” I’m honestly thinking, “if I’m Disney, and I’ve got a huge hit on my hands, but people aren’t coming to my parks and a lot of people are unhappy anyway,” I’m looking to change that system. People love the ride. But park attendance doesn’t look great for MLK weekend. And that’s gotta be a problem for them.

It’s too early to say if that’s the case long-term, but if it DOES stay that way, I could see them changing it up.

ETA: I’m not complaining about the current system at all. I have zero emotional investment in what they do. I’m just considering whether it’s working well for Disney’s bottom line, which is what they care about, because they’re a business. And again, it’s way too early to tell right now! But what works at WDW, where this ride is in one of the less-popular parks, may be different than what works best here. That’s all I’m saying.

 

[ironband74]

Touch wood, but after the earlier breakdown it seems to have been going steady now for about 4 hours. At noon it was BG 32, and at 4pm BG 77, That's better than 10 an hour over a 4 hour stretch.

I can't imagine being one of the maintenance people assigned to this attraction. Super stressful, I'm sure.