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

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People in the know do post here and on other boards and we do know that SW:GE went about $600MM over budget per park, We don't know how much of that is ROTR but read the tea leaves - everything else opened on time or early vs Disney's announced dates, this is still requiring daily troubleshooting.

The build going over budget is a totally different issue than ongoing park earnings.

Also many other Disney rides have downtime, all the time. I don't think the troubleshooting this ride has to go through, is that extraordinarily expensive compared to the other rides even though it's a more complex system overall.

In fact because this ride is trackless, over time it probably has lower ongoing maintenance issues because they can easily pull individual cars out of service. What happens if the primary track dies in Pirates or Haunted Mansion? Not going to be working out of that one with an hour reset.

Other insiders have noted that attendance has barely budged at DHS, while at DLP it appears thousands of APs are leaving right after park opening every day (either to go to work and come back just for their ride later or because they didn't get a BG); they will count in attendance but Disney isn't getting extra $$ from them that day.

You even said either because they didn't get in, or to come back later.

The ones coming back later, will also spend money.

But even just the morning crowds are spending a ton on food and drinks.

Just from everything I have seen in person at the parks there is no way this whole new ride is not driving more sales for Disney, and in particular the boarding group system is helping that by allowing you to shop/eat when you would otherwise be waiting in line.

The good news is next Tuesday Disney reports earnings and the 2 things I am certain they will be drilled on ad nauseam by the big investors are Theme Park attendance and Disney+.

I predict pretty good reports from both areas.
 
Other than yesterday, they've been opening the turnstiles plenty early. If you get there early enough, you should have plenty of time to scan your tix in to the app and try for a boarding group on day one, if that is your desire.
Yeah I saw that. That is encouraging. So I am a first timer coming in this weekend. Go ahead and explain it to me as you would a child, if you are so willing, good sir. If the turnstiles open early (talking about a non-magic morning day like Sunday), does that mean my tickets get scanned and I have as much time between that moment and rope drop at 9am to upload my tickets into the app? Or is it a mad dash at 9am to upload and then drill into ROR?
 
When I played along at home today my red button actually turned red when I was on the page...

I would rely on that tho..
 
I don't always get an actual pop up. In fact, today is the first time I have. But on the ride status page, the first sentence should tell you they are now issuing backups. See what yours says there.

EDIT: backups gone as of 9:12
Oh, thanks! Will look for that tomorrow when I play along from work! I got the pop ups last week on my phone so I just assumed the same thing today. =)
 


How do you figure this is "hemorrhaging money"? You have no idea what total earrings are. None of us do.

For one thing, morning attendance over the past week has been juiced a great deal. Just because the attendance patterns have changed does not mean there are not more people overall. People that may not have been there in the afternoon were still probably there in the morning. The massive crowds that you never normally see in the mornings are spending money on food and merch. Dok Ondor's has had lines to get in, something you almost never saw before...

None of us have information enough to say how much extra money this is bringing in, but we can tell for sure that to date it has caused shifts in how the park is attended.

Also anecdotally it seems like more passes have been sold as a result of this (I bought one, never had a Disney annual pass before now). Over the long term that is not just passes sold, but more people in more parks buying things more often.

As for social media, you claim there are many unhappy people on social media. Where are they? I follow Twitter pretty carefully and even people who didn't get a BG don't seem that worked up by it, and greatly outweighed by the huge positive reaction. Try following the #RiseOfTheResistance tag for a few days and see what I mean:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/riseoftheresistance?lang=en
Your response feels a little intense to me... I was just providing some counterpoints to the idea that Disney is super-pleased with how this is all going down. I think the extra 24/7 work (over months) to get the ride running was pretty generally known to involve “hemorrhaging money.” And the last couple of weeks have been more stressful than celebratory, by the accounts I’ve heard.

I’m not as well-connected as some on the boards, but I’m acquaintances with lot of people who work for Disney, including a fair number of executives. They’re not people I know well enough to contact on my own, so it’s not like I have a direct pipeline to insider info on a regular basis (nor would I pester someone that way!), but we end up at lot of the same social gatherings, especially over the holidays. People talk.

And a lot of my former students are CMs now (one is now a handler for R2D2, for instance), so while CMs are notoriously poorly-informed in many regards, they do have some idea of what’s going on on the ground level, and we chat over social media and such.

So I’m not entirely speculating, is all I’m saying... but it’s not that serious; I’m just here to make conversation on a boring Monday morning! ☺
 
Hello! I’ve been following this thread leading up to my trip this past weekend and just wanted to add a timeline report from Sunday 1/26/20!

DEPARTURE
My boyfriend and I were staying at the Hilton Anaheim (convention center area; right across from the Toy Story Lot). We were not sure how early they were going to start running the Toy Story shuttles so we decided to walk from the hotel. We left our hotel room around 6:15, went downstairs to store our luggage and get Starbucks, and were out the door by about 6:30am.

ARRIVAL (8am DL opening, DCA EMH)
We arrived at security around 6:50am and there were virtually no lines at security, so we breezed on through and were in line by 6:55am. By that point, the lines were just about under the monorail line. By around 7:10am, the lines were about halfway to DCA and by 7:20am, they looked to be all the way to DCA. They started letting people into the park at 7:30am. Once scanned in, we walked down Main Street and decided to settle down at a table outside the Refreshment Corner.

BG SELECTION
Just before 8am, we made sure to close out all our apps and had it open to the Disneyland app for all of 7:59am. Once 8am hit, we both selected the “Find out More” button and my bf was able to snag us boarding group 18! His phone is an iPhone 11 Pro and he’s on AT&T. A couple sitting right next to us was able to get group 19. I’m not sure how fast regular boarding groups ran out, but backup groups seemed to last for about 20 min.

CALL TIME
I believe they started with BG 10, and they seemed to be moving pretty fast that morning. We had an 8:45am FP for Radiator Springs Racers and got in line at 8:40am. Our BG was called right as we were getting on the ride and we had about a 2 hour return window. Immediately after we got off RSR we went back over to Disneyland and got scanned in for RotR around 9:25ish. We were off RotR at 10am on the dot!

It’s been great following this thread and best of luck to everyone trying to get a boarding group!
 


Do you think it’s better to go on a MM day (if you don’t have MM) versus non-MM day since they start processing people through the gates earlier?
Depends how early you’re going to get there. If you’re going to be early enough to ensure you’re in, a NON-MM day gives you less competition. But a MM day may be less crazy at the gates... hard to tell since they’ve been opening early most days so far.
 
Unfortunately we booked through Get Away Today and the tickets are very specific about not being able to load them into the app until they have been scanned at the turnstiles. Kind of a bummer but we will have a great chance the 3rd day we're there during MM.
we have the same tickets and won't be off flight for the first day but if you are early enough you should be able to get in on time to try for the boarding groups.
 
Yeah I saw that. That is encouraging. So I am a first timer coming in this weekend. Go ahead and explain it to me as you would a child, if you are so willing, good sir. If the turnstiles open early (talking about a non-magic morning day like Sunday), does that mean my tickets get scanned and I have as much time between that moment and rope drop at 9am to upload my tickets into the app? Or is it a mad dash at 9am to upload and then drill into ROR?

Short answer: The first thing you said.

Longer Answer, as I explain it to my child:

When you have a digital ticket or a printed ticket with a barcode on it (if it doesn't have a barcode, you have to go to the ticket booth to exchange), the first time you enter the park through a turnstile they scan that ticket, take it from you, and give you a little cardstock ticket with a barcode on it. That barcode is the thing you scan into the app, scan at fastpass machines, scan to get into the park, etc. Typically, they also take your picture so that your likeness is attached to that ticket (to prevent you from buying a 5 day ticket, using 3 days, and giving the other 2 days to someone else). That ticket becomes your friend for the duration of your visit, and you carry it around. However, you can also scan the ticket into your Disneyland App, and then use the app to display your ticket for entry, or for getting fast passes, or for scanning into fast pass attractions to use your fast pass.

So, prior to ROTR, on a non magic morning day the normal procedure is to open the turnstiles about 30 minutes before park opening. So if the park opens at 8AM, at about 7:30AM they will begin scanning guests into the park. There is a rope strung across the hub and the entrances to the various lands, so you basically have access to Main St. At opening time, they "drop the rope" and you can enter the lands.

Now, since ROTR opened, they have typically been opening the turnstiles a bit earlier (yesterday not withstanding). Today, for a 9AM open, they opened the turnstiles at 8AM. The rope is in place, you can't go ride anything, but you can shop on Main St. or wait in line for Starbucks. So you have as much as an hour to do your housekeeping - scan your tickets in, buy MaxPass and book a fast pass (if you like), and basically chill on Main St. until the time comes to try for a BG. In addition, actual rope drop has been happening 10-15 minutes prior to "official" park opening. This allows folks to get into the park and spread out so that you aren't just in a crush of people on Main St. trying to get your BG.

Let me know if you need more detail :)
 
Yeah I saw that. That is encouraging. So I am a first timer coming in this weekend. Go ahead and explain it to me as you would a child, if you are so willing, good sir. If the turnstiles open early (talking about a non-magic morning day like Sunday), does that mean my tickets get scanned and I have as much time between that moment and rope drop at 9am to upload my tickets into the app? Or is it a mad dash at 9am to upload and then drill into ROR?
Yes. And test everything out.

:wizard:

ETA: Here are some tips posted in this thread which I have saved:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...read-posts-1-3.3784461/page-138#post-61481540
https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...read-posts-1-3.3784461/page-138#post-61481500
https://www.disboards.com/threads/r...read-posts-1-3.3784461/page-110#post-61467660
 
Just over an hour in, and we're 23 BGs called. Strong start, the queue pre loaded 20 groups in the first 45, chilled for 15 minutes, and now has settled in to about a group every 5 minutes. I like that despite the very rough day yesterday they got an early start. Almost a third of the regular groups have already been called. Now to do some real work :)
 
Depends how early you’re going to get there. If you’re going to be early enough to ensure you’re in, a NON-MM day gives you less competition. But a MM day may be less crazy at the gates... hard to tell since they’ve been opening early most days so far.
We are planning on going tomorrow. I say “planning” because now my youngest is sick with what my oldest had last week when we had to postpone this and reschedule for this week. So fingers crossed the baby is feeling better enough tomorrow to go to the grandparents.

Anyway, it’s a MM and park opens at 9am. I’m planning to arrive at the parking structure at 7:30, so 90 minutes ahead of park opening. Hopefully that will be early enough to get through security and through the gate without too much stress!
 
I have gathered from this thread that it is vitally important to have an exact timer so you know exactly when it hits 8/9/10AM when the park opens. If you launch the BG process too soon, you apparently get kind of locked out for awhile as you try to refresh and get the buttons to work. So that is bad.

I do not have an Apple Watch. Can one trust the time on one's phone? Or is a special app needed? (I have heard people using app/data from NIST). My iPhone shows a second hand on the Clock app on my home screen. I assume I can just use that, right? Or watch that until the last few seconds, and have an alarm on my phone for the exact right time, and be in the app when the alarm goes off and then off to the races. Right?

FWIW, I just brought up on my laptop www.time.gov from NIST and looked at its time, and compared that to my Clock app and it matched. So I guess I answered my own question that I can use the Clock app and my iPhone's displayed time.

These screen shots do not match below as they were taken a few minutes apart....but show what I was looking sat.

Clock app on iPhone 11 - the red line shows seconds
468831

time.gov from NIST
468832
 
Why are people loading the app so close to 8? I think that's just paranoia to think that makes a difference. It's doing more talk back and forth to the servers at loading, and if everyone is doing that, it's going to be slower and could cost you a BG.

I do that like 15 mins ahead. Red button always comes up. I really don't do anything special. I still say it's the PING to the server that matters more than having super speed. Plus I've had multiple phone types (older iphone 5s and my newer Xs Max) and both seem to work just fine.
 
I have gathered from this thread that it is vitally important to have an exact timer so you know exactly when it hits 8/9/10AM when the park opens. If you launch the BG process too soon, you apparently get kind of locked out for awhile as you try to refresh and get the buttons to work. So that is bad.

I do not have an Apple Watch. Can one trust the time on one's phone? Or is a special app needed? (I have heard people using app/data from NIST). My iPhone shows a second hand on the Clock app on my home screen. I assume I can just use that, right? Or watch that until the last few seconds, and have an alarm on my phone for the exact right time, and be in the app when the alarm goes off and then off to the races. Right?

FWIW, I just brought up on my laptop www.time.gov from NIST and looked at its time, and compared that to my Clock app and it matched. So I guess I answered my own question that I can use the Clock app and my iPhone's displayed time.

These screen shots do not match below as they were taken a few minutes apart....but show what I was looking sat.

Clock app on iPhone 11 - the red line shows seconds
View attachment 468831

time.gov from NIST
View attachment 468832
I am actually not at all sure all the timing stuff makes any difference. It doesn’t when I’m playing along from home. On opening day, when we got group 46, I had the app open by 7:50 and was continually pull-down refreshing the “my status” page from 7:58 on until I realized other people were getting groups and backed onto the previous page and had the red button to join a BG.
 
FWIW, my smartwatch seems to be 4 seconds slower consistently with NIST so not sure what's up with that...wonder which one is correct?
Hmm. NIST is, well, NIST. National Institute of Standards (and Technology). They say what the time officially is. If their website is slow or the internet is slow, that would affect things. But my phone and their website were exactly in sync. So it would seem your watch is off?

:wizard:
 
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I am actually not at all sure all the timing stuff makes any difference. It doesn’t when I’m playing along from home. On opening day, when we got group 46, I had the app open by 7:50 and was continually pull-down refreshing the “my status” page from 7:58 on until I realized other people were getting groups and backed onto the previous page and had the red button to join a BG.
Again, I suspect that behavior is a little different between Apple and Android with regard to the app.

When playing at home on my Android, if I go into the "Find out more" even a few seconds before the appointed time, I find myself locked out until I close the app and restart. Status and Find out more show grey until I do.. However, if I go at time, I get the red button immediately.

Apple folks seem to have better luck with the Find Out More/Status cha-cha of going between those two screens until one of the buttons shows active.

As for timing, my phones seem to lag NIST by 2-3 seconds. I'm not sure where Disney's server gets its time cues from, It would be fun to line up a bunch of phones and hit them one second apart starting at 5 seconds 'til and see which one goes red. Since my phones lag NIST, when testing I've been hitting the button at 1 second 'til and finding that I get the button.

I'm guessing that the apple version pings the server to see if things are active each time you enter a status/find out more screen, and that the Android version pings the server to see if things are active the first time you open the screen in a given instance of the app.
 
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