RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[Tink1987]

According to ThrillData on Twitter it’s running really well today - best day so far.

Did anyone arrive, with bags to check, around 6am this morning? I'd like to hear about that experience. I'm trying to balance the patience of my 1yo with my 9yo's strong desire to experience "Star Wars Land."

Also, when did Smugglers open today, and what was the wait like first thing?

We arrived at around 6:15 and there were two people in front of us as people had already been allowed through security. The back of the queue was by the ticket booths for us then.

 

[Heather07438]

Yeah - why not release 25 or so BGs (first come first served) as people enter for EMHs, then state that BGs are at capacity, please check back at 9am and then do a 2nd release for all park goers.

They can play with the BG numbers as weeks pass. They'll probably start on the conservative side, that is if this even becomes a thing.

 

[sachilles]

For me the argument against for staggered release of boarding groups is this.

By 9am or so in the morning, when they release them all, you know if you have a prayer of getting on the attraction.

If they released some every 2 hours, and you kept missing it, you might be upset. If you know by 9am that you are in or not, you can at least plan your day a bit better.

 

[jimim]

Yet again, boarding groups fill up before Disney says they will even be available, and before their posted park opening time. This is such a guest relations fail. They need to be honest.

I have been complaining about this with other parks since this summer. You never know when to show up or plan ur day. There have been many days that they let people in way way earlier than rope drop and we are already way behind even though we are catching first busses to parks. April’s trip we r doing no rope drops. We r done except for rise. But if it’s something we have been on before we r done. Just getting fast passes and that’s it.

 

[Heather07438]

I have been complaining about this with other parks since this summer. You never know when to show up or plan ur day. There have been many days that they let people in way way earlier than rope drop and we are already way behind even though we are catching first busses to parks. April’s trip we r doing no rope drops. We r done except for rise. But if it’s something we have been on before we r done. Just getting fast passes and that’s it.

I feel your frustration, been there. But I think on WDW's end it's hard. Whatever time they post needs to be 100% committed to, they can't start later than that or hell will erupt. So they post a time they can guarantee and if everything's on track sooner than that they can start letting guests in.

The good news is that we're all becoming privy to this operation method. Being early is usually rewarded.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Maybe they should have two separate boarding groups; one for APs and locals and one for everyone else who won't be able to come back in a week and ride it again if they don't get on.

Not all APs are frequent visitors, some are annual (with one trip at the very start of the year one at the very end), some are maybe twice a year. Not all locals are frequent visitors, its expensive and some do just go on very rare occasions, even less than annually. In addition, some once in a lifetimers or less frequent guests could be on a vacation with multiple opportunities to visit DHS.

I would really hate to see them starting to try to figure out who deserves to ride more.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

For me the argument against for staggered release of boarding groups is this.

By 9am or so in the morning, when they release them all, you know if you have a prayer of getting on the attraction.

If they released some every 2 hours, and you kept missing it, you might be upset. If you know by 9am that you are in or not, you can at least plan your day a bit better.

Totally agree. And knowing Disney 9 AM isn’t necessarily 9 AM, you know? It’s just an extended version of yesterday mornings refreshing not knowing will they keep wont they open the VQ. Also thinking about breakdowns, it would suck for someone sitting around waiting for the next BG drop and then it doesn’t come because they no longer are releasing due to backlog.

 

[CPanther95]

For me the argument against for staggered release of boarding groups is this.

By 9am or so in the morning, when they release them all, you know if you have a prayer of getting on the attraction.

If they released some every 2 hours, and you kept missing it, you might be upset. If you know by 9am that you are in or not, you can at least plan your day a bit better.

Yeah, I don't think anyone thinks a staggered release is a good idea.

 

[10CJ]

Yeah - why not release 25 or so BGs (first come first served) as people enter for EMHs, then state that BGs are at capacity, please check back at 9am and then do a 2nd release for all park goers.

I don’t even think they need to give a specific time. Just say more will be released later after official park opening. This way if there are issues during EMH they can still get those people through before adding more groups to the system.

 

[Museick]

Did anyone arrive, with bags to check, around 6am this morning? I'd like to hear about that experience. I'm trying to balance the patience of my 1yo with my 9yo's strong desire to experience "Star Wars Land."

Also, when did Smugglers open today, and what was the wait like first thing?

We arrived at 6am and I had a small bag. There were many bag checkers and it took less than a minute. Got here at 6pm and leaving at noon after riding everything, eating a quick lunch and catching the Starwars show at the front. What a great effort by Disney! Very productive day.

 

[CPanther95]

I don’t even think they need to give a specific time. Just say more will be released later after official park opening. This way if there are issues during EMH they can still get those people through before adding more groups to the system.

They are already opening up 85 or more right away. If there's a delay getting an initial group through, it wouldn't really impact anything.

 

[Museick]

We arrived at 6am and I had a small bag. There were many bag checkers and it took less than a minute. Got here at 6pm and leaving at noon after riding everything, eating a quick lunch and catching the Starwars show at the front. What a great effort by Disney! Very productive day.

Sorry meant got here at 6am, leaving at noon! Enjoy your visits!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Been following along all weekend. We’re here and our HS day is tomorrow. Looks like we won’t be riding ROTR. We bought the mid day tickets since we were keeping this trip non commando with my 78 year old mom with us and my autistic 17 year old nephew. My nephew can’t handle big crowds so even if we had regular tix no way could line up for rope drop. We were thinking with the park open until 9 that 9 hours would be plenty of time to wait Standby for those of us who were willing to wait a few hours, or get a DAS return time if they were offering them.

I understand the way WDW has handled this and think the VQ is a great idea but still disappointed that we have no chance to try it.

As for yesterday’s EMH, having ROTR not running when there were so many people in the park was a waste. And officially announcing 8am opening of VQ then opening it at 7:15 was really ****ty of them.

They could have said VQ would be available for a limited number of guests during EMH (as they enter) and then used VQ for just the number of EMH guests they could reasonably expect to accommodate in the 2 hours then shut it down. reopen for the day with the note that VQ would be available first come first served when the park opens to all guests and note that parks sometimes open early to accommodate crowds.

when they announced the mid-day ticket I did think one draw back might be you don't have access to Rope Drop and with RotR opening, sort of getting access to it atrope drop is thus the cost difference to a full day ticket vs mid-day ... but didnt' consider that there wouldn't be access to those coming with mid-day tickets, just that you may have a crazy long line vs hitting it at rope drop. so definitely a bummer given that they didn't announce the boarding group structure prior to when you would have bought those tickets

 

[Rich M]

Yeah - why not release 25 or so BGs (first come first served) as people enter for EMHs, then state that BGs are at capacity, please check back at 9am and then do a 2nd release for all park goers.

why should they have to do anything special for non resort guest? If it was me I wouldn’t care if the non resort guest don’t get on the ride and I wouldn’t feel bad for it. Stay at a resort next time. It would be nice to see Resort guest get more perks going forward.

 

[Wreckem]

I have been complaining about this with other parks since this summer. You never know when to show up or plan ur day. There have been many days that they let people in way way earlier than rope drop and we are already way behind even though we are catching first busses to parks. April’s trip we r doing no rope drops. We r done except for rise. But if it’s something we have been on before we r done. Just getting fast passes and that’s it.

Rule of thumb to rope drop has been to arrive 1.5hours before an 8am official parking for quite a while now. I’d suggest 2hrs or more for DHS until RoTR calms down. But if you arrived 1.5hr early to DHS you should get a decent BG.

I’ll be at Disney Dec 22-Jan 1. My mornings at DHS are coupled with my Epcot nights(Dec 24 and 31. I did this on purpose expecting RotR to be choatic. My morning at Epcot is coupled with an evening at DHS.

My plans are, it the current system is still in place is to arrive at 5:30am on Dec 24 and 31 in order to get a low boarding group to be done with the whole park before 11. And then arrive around 7:30 on Dec 28 to get an early evening BG on my Epcot morning. Then head straight to Epcot to be there a hour before park opening.

I plan to watch the threads around the internet until then and adjust accordingly. Fortunately my DHS days are pretty flexible.

 

[10CJ]

They are already opening up 85 or more right away. If there's a delay getting an initial group through, it wouldn't really impact anything.

this was referring to limiting the BGs during EMH and then releasing more after park opening.

I think things seem to be going well on a regular day but the EMH process needs work.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

why should they have to do anything special for non resort guest? If it was me I wouldn’t care if the non resort guest don’t get on the ride and I wouldn’t feel bad for it. Stay at a resort next time. It would be nice to see Resort guest get more perks going forward.

I think it would be tough from a PR standpoint for zero off site geusts to have access to the ride. I certainly think resort guests should have increased odds, but those off site guests are paying the same $ for their park ticket as a resort guest and this ride is a park experience not a resort experience - so for someone to show up at 4am and have full priced ticket and be told, sorry those staying on site took all the spots I think it a bit harsh

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I think it would be tough from a PR standpoint for zero off site geusts to have access to the ride. I certainly think resort guests should have increased odds, but those off site guests are paying the same $ for their park ticket as a resort guest and this ride is a park experience not a resort experience - so for someone to show up at 4am and have full priced ticket and be told, sorry those staying on site took all the spots I think it a bit harsh

Not completely the same, but it reminds me a little of the FP+ roll out where for a time offsite guests were completely shut out of pre-booking (and I believe they had to use the in park kiosks as well, couldn't even use MDE) while resort guests could do it in advance.

There is precedent for them temporarily putting a damper on offsite guests touring. Obviously that didn't shut them out of rides, and it was before even 7DMT was around (wasn't Enchanted Tales with Belle the hard to get FP lol?), but they've toed the line before.

 

[Heather07438]

why should they have to do anything special for non resort guest? If it was me I wouldn’t care if the non resort guest don’t get on the ride and I wouldn’t feel bad for it. Stay at a resort next time. It would be nice to see Resort guest get more perks going forward.

Because off-site guests would gripe about paying full price for a ticket that doesn't include the whole park. As long as some of them get a shot, this issue can be avoided.

Also, the last thing WDW would want to do is totally discourage off-site guests from visiting on a certain day.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Not completely the same, but it reminds me a little of the FP+ roll out where for a time offsite guests were completely shut out of pre-booking (and I believe they had to use the in park kiosks as well, couldn't even use MDE) while resort guests could do it in advance.

There is precedent for them temporarily putting a damper on offsite guests touring. Obviously that didn't shut them out of rides, and it was before even 7DMT was around (wasn't Enchanted Tales with Belle the hard to get FP lol?), but they've toed the line before.

yeah, I am ok with "put a damper" on it - but with FP+ there is the option of standby if you are willing to wait. So yeah, off site it is hard to get FoP, 7DMT, etc. FP+ but you still have the option to you to wait in standby if you are willing to

To flat out say -" you are not able to ride ROTR at all, no shot at it, despite paying full price and despite showing up the same time or earlier as other people who will get on" I think is a bit different