RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[wareagle57]

I wonder if implementing a Boarding Group system in all 4 parks, for the most popular rides in each park, would cause a decline in park hopper sales? Would well-informed guests choose to not spend the extra $$ for a hopper ticket if they thought they’d be shut out of the most popular rides by the time they arrived at their second park of the day?

It wouldn’t bother me at all. I think well informed guests would know just to hit those up on a dedicated day. I’d never plan on hopping to AK in an afternoon without a FP and think I’m going to ride FoP. And as it is, you’re only getting 1 FP for that over a 5 day trip. And maybe 0 for a 4 day trip.

The boarding groups would actually make it easier to ride all the in demand rides. I could have never ridden RotR 5 times in the last 4 days if not for boarding groups. I mean maybe I could have but it would have meant waiting 20+ hours in line. I wouldn’t have done that. And with other rides, the boarding groups are not going to run out as quickly as they do for Rise.

 

[billlaurie]

I couldn't wait to get home from work today to catch up and find out what happened on the scheduled 8 am day. I will be following closely for the next 11 days until my HS days on the 19, 20. Thanks to everyone reporting their experiences!

 

[Nvrgrowup]

First, I apologize if this has been asked and answered. My searching skills are about as good as my cooking skills.
Can an uber access drop off at 5:30? Is there a delay? Or is it quicker to get dropped off on the boardwalk somewhere and walk to the Studios?

Yes you can Uber to HS lot at that time in am.I would just keep watching the thread for possible changes to park openings.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I have all kinds of people in my MDE (I am the sole planner for 3 of them and I manage the plans for up to 7, depending on the particular group going to WDW each time). I don't understand why that simple fact would force me to have to visit a cm to join a boarding group.

What your plan should be is attempt to join a BG for the group in the park with you - only if you can’t join, head to the Guest Experience Team CM.

 

[joviroxx]

Yes you can Uber to HS lot at that time in am.I would just keep watching the thread for possible changes to park openings.

Thanks!

 

[sayhello]

The number of people on your friends and family list doesn't matter. You can select as few or as many people as you want for a boarding group. However, everyone selected must have entered Hollywood Studios.

Thanks for the clarification.

Sayhello

 

[wareagle57]

I'm interested in the idea of virtual queues in place of stand by lines at the very popular attractions, in conjunction with FP. I wonder if they could be managed in a way that would operate very similarly to current stand by lines, without the selling out and limits that have come with ROTR.

On the other hand, I would be worried about what it would look like at AK for example if a huge chunk of the SB line for FoP was let loose on the park.

AK desperately needs another D/E ticket that’s for sure. I don’t think it would be THAT big of a difference though. DHS has absorbed the crowd just fine and they are in almost as bad a shape as AK is with rides.

I think a big part of that is the fact that the BG are not a walk-on like FP are. They are the privilege to join the line, which can be capped at any point Disney deems necessary. So your BG for FoP could still hold an hours worth of people in standby. Right now the wait might be 3 hours, but that’s because 75% of riders are using FP and thus only there for a short while and not helping make the park less crowded. Not that many people are actually getting in that 3 hour standby line.

With any system there will be pros and cons, but I think from a guest experience standpoint, the boarding groups (aka Disneylands maxpass) create a more positive experience. It needs to be tweaked some for sure, and I’d like to see the option of waiting standby on most rides allowed. It could get too confusing to have rides broken up into too many different categories too.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Thanks for the clarification.

Sayhello

And here’s a blog post from Josh from Dec 7th:
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/p...h-early-opens-and-the-virtual-boarding-queue/

 

[DFelt1]

The number of people on your friends and family list doesn't matter. You can select as few or as many people as you want for a boarding group. However, everyone selected must have entered Hollywood Studios.

Ah-ha. That's not how I read it, but that makes complete sense and makes me much less panicked.

 

[wareagle57]

Any word on the highest boarding group today? It looks like they may easily get through them. I’m wondering if they might open them back up or open the line for standby.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Interesting chart on EasyWDW showing the average time a group was called the first three days. You can definitely see the ride has been working better later in the day. Also they are way ahead of the average today. Sitting at 70 now at 12:20. The average has been 70 at about 4:30.

View attachment 457737

Is it that the ride is working better in the day, or is it that the boarding groups get smaller by virtue of attrition? What I mean is, somebody who enters the park at 6:30 AM and gets a boarding pass for 2 hours later is probably sticking around. Somebody who enters the park at 8 am and gets a boarding pass for 10 hours later is less likely to stick around, therefore making the return rate later in the day lower and making the ride go through boarding groups faster as a result.

 

[rteetz]

Any word on the highest boarding group today? It looks like they may easily get through them. I’m wondering if they might open them back up or open the line for standby.

Should be low 100s.

 

[rteetz]

They hit 100

 

[elaine amj]

Any idea when they will decide? I'm longing to replace our TSM FP with Slinky in the 8-9 hour if it suddenly becomes available. Then we can RD TSM and maybe MFSR while waiting boarding groups to become available.

They extended to 8am openings through December a couple of days ago. I rearranged a bunch of FPs to the 8-9am timeslot for Christmas week. Funnily enough, the hardest one to work with was moving Frozen Singalong from 2pm to 12pm! I managed to shift things around so breaktime is around noon/1pm instead of 2/3pm. Perfect for a much-needed nap!

 

[virk4]

Are they letting in at 6 am? [I'm arriving Sat. 12.14.19]

 

[wareagle57]

Should be low 100s.

3 hours to go and at 100 right now. Part of me wants to go see if they open it up to standby or add more BGs.

 

[SirBill]

3 hours to go and at 100 right now. Part of me wants to go see if they open it up to standby or add more BGs.

Happily we can all see from the comfort of phone if they open up boarding groups again. I'm also curious if they open boarding groups, or do standby entry the rest of the evening... I think that would be great to let some people ride twice who stayed the whole day.

 

[heapmaster]

They hit 100

That seems quicker then the other days....They either broke down less (which from other site stats says this may have happened) or they have less people per BG...

 

[heapmaster]

3 hours to go and at 100 right now. Part of me wants to go see if they open it up to standby or add more BGs.

It appears they may have stopped at 100, im seeing progress in the group range on the lower end increasing towards 100, but stopped upper end of rage at 100...

 

[rteetz]

It appears they may have stopped at 100, im seeing progress in the group range on the lower end increasing towards 100, but stopped upper end of rage at 100...

Yeah 100 might be the end