RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[hiroMYhero]

Hypothetical question here for first week of December. We’re going to try to do SWGE on Friday, December 5th or Sunday, December 8th. Assuming they do NOT open the park early on Thursday, which of these do you think would be our best bet?:

- Fri 12/5. I’ve seen folks here talking about arriving as early as 6 AM for the 9AM opening on the 5th. Again assuming they don’t open the park early will people just wait outside in line until the gates open at 9:00 and then enter? And if you’re in that early group what do you anticipate as a wait time for ROTR and the other major SWGE attraction?

- Sunday 12/8. DHS has an EMH at 8:00 am that day. Again assuming they don’t open the park gateS earlier than 8:00 that day, I have the same questions as above. Any sense what wait times we can expect if we’re on the early side that day, what time do we need to get in line for the 8 AM EMH.

Many thanks

Thursday is 12/5 and DHS opens at 8:00a. Discussion in this thread is advising showing up at Studios at 5:00a.

Studios has been allowing guests to enter prior to park open and wait on Hollywood Blvd.

Follow this forum to see reports from 12/5 to get info for Friday. No one can predict wait times.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Cast members now have their schedules, hopefully someone will let us know what time they report to HS on 12/5.

 

[Lydia S]

Hypothetical question here for first week of December. We’re going to try to do SWGE on Friday, December 5th or Sunday, December 8th.

We’re visiting the parks at the same time and are having the same dilemma! We decided against opening day on Thursday, and for now, are scheduled to go on Friday instead. Our reasoning is that we think Sunday (being a weekend day) would be much more crowded with locals.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many unknowns this close to the opening date too. I am really surprised that extra Magic hours have not been announced yet. I know Disney can always add them last-minute, but surely they need to know at last the week or so before in order to schedule staff and print Times Guides?

Another thing that we won’t know is crowds and wait times. No soft opening for the ride, no announcements for pass holder or staff previews either. I would have liked to have heard opinions on the ride itself and wait times etc. before going either Fri or Sunday

 

[yulilin3]

We’re visiting the parks at the same time and are having the same dilemma! We decided against opening day on Thursday, and for now, are scheduled to go on Friday instead. Our reasoning is that we think Sunday (being a weekend day) would be much more crowded with locals.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many unknowns this close to the opening date too. I am really surprised that extra Magic hours have not been announced yet. I know Disney can always add them last-minute, but surely they need to know at last the week or so before in order to schedule staff and print Times Guides?

Another thing that we won’t know is crowds and wait times. No soft opening for the ride, no announcements for pass holder or staff previews either. I would have liked to have heard opinions on the ride itself and wait times etc. before going either Fri or Sunday

At this point the opening weekend times won't change. And I doubt they'll add emh as well.
No ap previews for sure and cm previews night still be done only for cm of swge
Now there's always the unknown when coming during the opening of this kind. If you are planning on rope drop just know that the park will likely open way before official opening time and plan accordingly

 

[yulilin3]

Cast members now have their schedules, hopefully someone will let us know what time they report to HS on 12/5.

I'll have information on this later in the day

 

[Boardwalk III]

Thursday is 12/5 and DHS opens at 8:00a. Discussion in this thread is advising showing up at Studios at 5:00a.

Studios has been allowing guests to enter prior to park open and wait on Hollywood Blvd.

Follow this forum to see reports from 12/5 to get info for Friday. No one can predict wait times.

I’ve corrected the date to read Friday the 6th. Sorry about that!

 

[rangerxenos]

unless you are going to go off property a lot, it will be much cheaper & more convenient to take an Uber or lyft a few times.
We have gone back and forth with renting a car this trip and decided not to.
The cheapest rental is $250 + gas. We can take roughly 20 Uber rides for what it would cost to rent.

Thanks, you helped me decide to not rent a car, I did the math and I'm saving over $300 between parking and rental. I still like the convenience, and I'll have to take the ME back to the airport (renting a car gained me another hour in the morning), but that's a big chunk of change.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

Thanks, you helped me decide to not rent a car, I did the math and I'm saving over $300 between parking and rental. I still like the convenience, and I'll have to take the ME back to the airport (renting a car gained me another hour in the morning), but that's a big chunk of change.

Glad I could help. I hear you, we like to convince too. For us, it will probably won’t be a cost savings as we go off property at least once a day for lunch or dinner but it will be nice to not have to stress of driving in the crazy traffic and finding a parking spot.

You could just uber to the airport from the park on your last day if you are tight on time. Still a savings of $250 . Either way, have a great trip!

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

I'll have information on this later in the day

Impatiently waiting!

 

[yulilin3]

Impatiently waiting!

My DD works this afternoon, goes in at 4, so she'll ask her co workers. She's always scheduled for the evenings so her schedule for the 5th has her going in 4pm to midnight

 

[Spridell]

Cast members now have their schedules, hopefully someone will let us know what time they report to HS on 12/5.

Yes this will def give us a better understanding.

 

[yulilin3]

Ok not a lot to be gathered. MFSR CM are scheduled to go in at 5am. the attraction takes 2 to 2.5 hours to turn on so that puts them ready for guests by 7am-7:30am. The Starbucks on Hollywood blvd is also opening at 7:30am, leading me to believe that they will walk people inside by 7am. We are trying to get more info from RotR CM but they have been basically sworn to secrecy, as in some have actually lost their jobs, so we will see if anyone is sharing their schedule times. I think being there by 6am at the latest is still the best plan

 

[Boardwalk III]

Ok not a lot to be gathered. MFSR CM are scheduled to go in at 5am. the attraction takes 2 to 2.5 hours to turn on so that puts them ready for guests by 7am-7:30am. The Starbucks on Hollywood blvd is also opening at 7:30am, leading me to believe that they will walk people inside by 7am. We are trying to get more info from RotR CM but they have been basically sworn to secrecy, as in some have actually lost their jobs, so we will see if anyone is sharing their schedule times. I think being there by 6am at the latest is still the best plan

Thanks so much...any idea if that CM timing holds for Friday the 6th as well ,or possibly an hour later with the 9:00 am start?

 

[Boardwalk III]

Those people must not know what happened Aug 29th. I was there along with thousands of my closest friends
Long story:
we thought the parking lot would be open all night like in the good old days of star wars weekends, alas, we arrive around midnight and it's closed and theey tell us it won't open until 3:30am, Disney security and OC sheriff there to keep people from waiting. Some started circling around while some decided to uber/park at one of the epcot resorts. They were held, along with everyone at the walkway preventing them from walking into DHS until the parking lot opened and then we all got in at the same time. The park was scheduled to open at 6am. They walked us into Hollywood blvd at 4am, walked us into SWGE with everything opened inside the land at 4:30am
Now, again, we don't know how they will handle RotR opening, we don't know if the parking lot will close for the night and we don't know if they will allow people to walk over from Epcot resorts whenever they want.

By the way, once you got into the land at 4:30 AM, how long did you wait in line to get on the headliner attraction?

 

[yulilin3]

By the way, once you got into the land at 4:30 AM, how long did you wait in line to get on the headliner attraction?

Lol, i didn't, i had done the attraction already during cm previews, but wait time said 6 hours but quickly went down to 3 about 2 hours after the park being opened

 

[yulilin3]

Thanks so much...any idea if that CM timing holds for Friday the 6th as well ,or possibly an hour later with the 9:00 am start?

Through that Saturday opening team goes in at 5am

 

[Lydia S]

Through that Saturday opening team goes in at 5am

So, do you think this means an 8AM opening time for Friday and Saturday as well?

 

[yulilin3]

So, do you think this means an 8AM opening time for Friday and Saturday as well?

They will play it by ear everyday. Depending on crowds they'll open earlier than scheduled, this still happens on a need to do basis at ak for pandora

 

[osufeth24]

Trying to decide if I actually wanna attempt this opening day

 

[mrsap]

Trying to decide if I actually wanna attempt this opening day

Same here . Have Oga’s around 5, but might just go in later at night. Decisions, decisions.