Star Wars Rise of Resistance Report: Recent Rockiness & 8 am Opening Crowds
Since our last visit to Galaxy’s Edge, a few things have changed with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Namely, Hollywood Studios has moved to a later opening time. In this report, we share our latest experience with Walt Disney World’s new flagship attraction, plus recent rockiness and unreliability with the ride.
While we knew it was an inevitability at some point, it did come by surprise that Disney’s Hollywood Studios moved to an 8 am opening time only a couple of weeks before the popular Presidents’ Day holiday, at a time when Walt Disney World is surprisingly busy.
Between the upcoming holiday and the aforementioned crowds, we figured the 7 am openings would be extended at least through the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. (Shows what we know!) Wanting to see how this delayed opening worked in practice, we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios yesterday…
We were once again at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios turnstiles 30 minutes before official park opening, making it through the parking booths and security checkpoint pretty swiftly. Unlike before, there was a noticeably larger crowd despite the turnstiles having opened shortly before we arrived.
Even with a longer line, getting through the turnstiles was still a breeze and took around 5 minutes. In large part, this was because no fingerprint validation was required, making the process far faster. After that, we stepped foot onto a very crowded Hollywood Boulevard.
It’s worth noting that you would not have to arrive this early to ensure you’re inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios by 8 am. After ~7:45 am, this is the line you could anticipate encountering, which amounts to a wait of under 3 minutes. (Above is a photo from around that time yesterday.)
Naturally, it was another overcast morning, as I cannot catch a break when it comes to beautiful sunrises in this park.
Inside the park is another story entirely. However, some of the congestion on Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards has been relieved, although you might not be able to tell from the photos.
Rather than having crowds gather in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run or Slinky Dog Dash, those rope drops were moved closer to their respective lands. This was a savvy move, and one that allowed Disney’s Hollywood Studios to offset the larger crowd of the delayed opening time with more physical space available to guests within the park.
Heading over to Grand Avenue, we see a pretty colossal crowd as of around 7:45 am.
I have no clue what the wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run would’ve been from my spot in this mass of humanity, but my personal answer is “too long.”
I didn’t stick around to find out, instead bouncing over to Animation Courtyard to see how things were looking for Toy Story Land’s rope drop.
A few things here are quickly worth noting. First, this crowd is smaller. Second, there are two “rope drop worthy” rides in Toy Story Land. Third, Slinky Dog Dash will have a longer line later in the day. Finally, it takes far less time from queue to exit to do Slinky Dog Dash than Smugglers Run, meaning you’re on your way to attraction #2 far sooner.
Above is the crowd for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge just before 8 am. At this point, the mass is backed up to the entrance of Star Tours. This is, again, despite Slinky Dog Dash being the objectively superior rope drop choice at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The crowd disparity between the two is still a bit baffling.
My guess is that this primarily is caused by a mix of confusion and Star Wars excitement. People are hyped to be there early for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, don’t quite know what to do, and that spills over into this. I don’t want to be the buzzkill who rains on the starship parade by pointing out that heading to Galaxy’s Edge first is irrational from a park touring perspective…but it is.
Over in front of Carthay Circle on Sunset Boulevard is where guests are being held for Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. This is the crowd as of 7:59 am.
While this is worse than it has been previous mornings, it’s still maybe 25% the size of the crowd for Toy Story Land, and 10% the size of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge crowd. Plus, this smaller crowd is split between two headliners. Everyone waiting in Grand Avenue is making the slow march towards Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.
If you’re sticking around Disney’s Hollywood Studios all day (whether you want to or not, you very well might be depending upon your Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance return time), Sunset Boulevard is also an objectively better rope drop option than Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Above are wait times yesterday as of 5:30 pm.
These times will vary throughout the midday hours, but a couple of things are consistent. First, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run wait times will peak shortly after park opening. Second, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror will both hit their highs in the afternoon. In short, you’re saving more time–not to mention having a more pleasant experience by rope dropping anything but Star Wars Land.
Moving along, what was perhaps most interesting is the number of people not rope dropping anything at all. Walkways, shops, and restaurant seating areas were all packed to a much more noticeable degree than when park opening was at 7 am.
It should go without saying, but this is a strategically poor idea. (Although still a better idea than being at the back of the pack on Grand Ave.) Even if your first FastPass+ reservation is at or shortly after park opening, you could rope drop something else via standby and do your FastPass+ attraction and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance if you somehow luck out with a low boarding group.
The question that remains for me is how an 8 am opening will look on a busier days, such as Presidents’ Day. There was not a ton of unfilled space in Disney’s Hollywood Studios by 8 am on this random weekday in February, so things could get really uncomfortable on a busier day–or if Walt Disney World sticks with those 9 am park openings scheduled for next month.
One solution is simply opening Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land before official park opening time. Both could soak up crowds and there’s no reason those attractions could begin running early. The alternative is letting things get even more uncomfortable, which is less than ideal for guests. With the later opening time, there’s also another option…
You could leave entirely and walk over to Epcot for that park’s rope drop. There are a couple of strategies that could work, but we couldn’t stick around to test them yesterday. Rather than spitballing here, we’ll follow up sometime next week. The general idea is intentionally securing a later boarding group for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, doing Epcot in the morning, and a late afternoon itinerary at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
We didn’t make it all the way over to Epcot, but we both (intentionally) did wait until after 8:00 am to attempt to secure boarding passes. Sarah got hers (group 97) at 8:01 am and I got boarding group 121 at 8:13 am. Backup boarding groups were available until close to 9 am.
The last group called yesterday was 120, and I’m not even confident that many people with that group number were able to ride since the attraction seemed to go down around ~6 pm and not come back up again for the rest of the night. (We weren’t there, so I’m not totally sure of what happened.) This means that anyone who joined the virtual queue after around 8:11 am would not have been able to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance yesterday.
Finally, it’s also been a rough week for Rise of the Resistance’s reliability. (Above is a look at boarding groups courtesy of thrill-data.com.) On two consecutive days, the attraction struggled to make it out of the primary boarding groups, calling the remaining guaranteed spots all at once towards the end of the day, and ending up only reaching groups 67 and 70 those two days.
Those are the worst two days Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has had at Walt Disney World, and they came back-to-back. If those were your only two days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (as a few readers indicated in the comments to our last ride report), I feel your pain.
Most other days haven’t been nearly as bad, with Rise of the Resistance reaching 110-120 with regularity. There have been delayed openings and breakdowns, but it’s always seemed to bounce back and get through a decent number. (“Cheering” for Rise of the Resistance to have efficient days feels like the lamest ‘sport’ ever, but here I am.)
While this is all frustrating, it’s ultimately the reason why the virtual queue is ideal for this unreliable attraction. Some readers who got shut out recently have indicated that they would’ve preferred waiting the standby line for a few hours for the guarantee they’d be able to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
On those particularly rocky days, that’s probably not how things would’ve played out. Rather, guests would’ve waited in line for several hours, perhaps endured a shorter breakdown, and eventually would’ve been dumped from the queue before the attraction closed for the remainder of the day. This has happened with other new attractions when they had rough days, and the time those guests spent in the physical line was totally wasted. To be sure, the virtual queue and boarding pass system is imperfect, but remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. With an unreliable attraction like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, this is the ‘lemonade out of lemons’ approach that causes the fewest headaches for guests.
Still have unanswered questions about the attraction? Read our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which covers everything you need to know. If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. It’s a good primer for this huge addition. As for planning the rest of your trip, we have a thorough Walt Disney World Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you been done the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash since the 8 am openings began? What was your approach? If you’ve done RotR in the last two weeks, what time did you arrive, which boarding group did you receive, and when was your return time? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We went on Feb 5- stepped in line to enter the park (opening time 8 am) at 5:45. We were close to front. Cast came through making sure everyone had working tickets several times. We got in quickly (no fingerprint) and waited. At 8 am we went load our boarding group and WE WERE SHOWN NOT IN THE PARK!!!!! Bad idea no thumbprint. A dash to the nearby staff got us boarding group 110. The ride didn’t start boarding that day until like 1 pm. They got to 64. I cried and cried. I’m not rich. I saved for a long time to take my adult boys, who live all over the country and get no time off, on this ride. And the one reason I was there didn’t happen. We had money for a one day pass and the boys finagled three days off (2 for travel one for park). We couldn’t “try again” which was all cast said. Furthermore, because of the no thumbprint the system had switched all our faces so when my son’s autistic wife needed to go to the resort for a break – he couldn’t get back in (again no thumbprint bad idea). So many visits to guest relations. AND the fast passes we did have they kept putting two on my husbands and none on my son EVERY TIME!! Nightmare. The only good part to that day was I was able to snag a Sa’vi workshop and watch my oldest’s as he nerded out and built a saber. It ruined this vacation I’d been planning for two years. WDW – has to figure this out. There are guests That come through those queues that aren’t APH, not locals, not DVC, from far away, and need to get additional jobs to have this experience. They have to stop releasing rides that break down assuming guests can just pop in on another day
We visited on 2/6 and worked to get into an open area, free of crowds and ended up getting Group 77 (which thankfully, that day, did get called). I can say 2 things for strategy at least on an iPhone –
1. I firmly believe being in as uncrowded of an area as possible Is important. Many people around me rejoiced far before I was able to join a boarding group.
2. Not having your app open before boarding passes become available is also important. I opened my app about 7:58 and began trying to join unsuccessfully while many around me got in. It wasn’t until I closed down and rebooted that I was able to get into a group. Time your reboot ahead of time so you know how long your phone takes to boot up the app, then be brave and wait just long enough for the app to be loaded and clicking ‘Learn More’ a few seconds after 8am.
Also – we arrived at 7 and ended up just siting around needlessly – so really get some extra sleep and just get there early enough to make it into the park and find a private place with maybe 10 min to spare.
Finally – just one note on a more human element of it all – for excited and eager children and family/friends the disappointment of not getting in a good group can be really tough. As a mom I really wanted to be able to do this for my family and my lo all but cried when we weren’t initially successful…while this may be unavoidable try to set expectations and have a fun plan regardless of the outcome so this one, unpredictable and seemingly impossible task doesn’t ruin your day…we were all so bummed, we actually left the park defeated.
Made it to the park today, Feb 7 @ roughly 7:15 and made into the park by 7:30. Found a spot by Indiana Jones to wait for the boarding groups. At 7:58, my gf and I opened the Disney app and waited. At 8 am, we both tried to get groups. I was not able to get a group on my phone (Android) but my gf did (iPhone). We got boarding group 9. By 8:40ish, we got in line. The ride broke down twice while we were in line making our wait time 2hrs. We eventually got to ride and exited Rise of the Resistance around 11:10am.
We were there today too. Got our boarding pass right at 8am and got group 90…but they only made it to 68 today!
Showed up early to Hollywood studios today Friday feb 7, tried to board rise of the resistance as quick as my refresh allowed, at 8am and was assigned to boarding group 86. After getting an alert around 5pm they apparently only anticipated making it to 75. We left the park after
they alerted us we would not make it to our number, at 5pm they were still in the 50s and had been for quite some time.
Yes, we were there yesterday too. Right at 8:00, we opened app and got boarding group 71. No backup groups called. Could have tried again today, but not worth it the risk of coming up empty handed. Instead, we did EMH at Animal and rode Flight of Passage. At least the ride works!!
Unbelievable! This Ride System is proving to be More Unreliable as Time Passes ? Weather the problems stem from design, or shoddy construction, it just exemplifies the ineptness of Disney Managment! How can a Land that Cost, How Much? one Bill! Be So Full Of Problems. BTW……The OverCrowding Pictures Are Sickening!
Went to HS Saturday Feb 1st, got Group 55 at 7:01 am. Got called at 11am. Went back Wednesday Feb 5th, got Group 55 again. The ride went down at least twice that day. Our group did not get called until 5pm. Wednesday was also much busier than Saturday, not sure why. Maybe because it was rainy Saturday?
Why did they do away with the fingerprint ID verification? Won’t that allow folks to scan in their family’s and friends’ Magic Bands who aren’t themselves physically at the park? (Which would not be fair…) Or are turnstile cast members guarding against this…?
Would be interesting to see someone tap in, leave, come back 5-10 minutes later tap in again and keep doing this for their entire party. Though, they’re probably still using photo id as a faster identifier than fingerprint, since they also take your pic when you first scan in as well.
So does your entire party have to be in the park with you to get in the queue on your MDE app?
Hi Tom! Ran into you yesterday and I was probably overly excited because I got boarding group 4. This is now my 3rd attempt at a boarding group and my record is 2-1. Here is what didn’t work: being on the wifi, and having the app open early. I also think that MAYBE being in the middle of a giant crowd didn’t help, but that’s total speculation. The next two successful attempts occurred when I used data, opened the app one minute before park opening, then literally stood there with my finger hovering over the button staring at my clock until the absolute moment it hit opening time. The cast members that were there were also telling people to do this. The first time I did this I got group 13, yesterday I got group 4. My “spot” is over by the lake. I wasn’t concerned with getting on others rides, so I was away from the crowds, but close to cast members in case something went horribly wrong. We were in the first group called and the ride broke down when we were near the end. We got the free backstage tour and were scanned for fast passes to use at anytime when it’s up and running again. We tried about an hour later and it was down again. Rode ToT, came back, and got right on. Everything seemed to be working perfectly that time. One thing: if it does go down you really have no way of knowing that. You can get an idea by checking boarding groups and if they aren’t changing then it’s probably down. Otherwise, there’s no way to know. I wish they could add an easy way to tell, like a “delayed” notice or something so you don’t have to make a trek from elsewhere for nothing. Other details, we got to the gate around 7:35 and were in a few minutes later. We had no bags, so it was all very fast. This was a girls trip, and my friend had not experienced any of this yet. She was amazed at how quiet the park gets just before opening and how it seems everyone is looking at their phone. It’s definitely an unusual experience!
awesome info, thx!
Hi there
When you say “literally stood there with my finger hovering over the button staring at my clock until the absolute moment it hit opening time.”
Does that mean you did not refresh at all and the boarding group button ungreyed at the right time or were you refreshing?
Thank you!
Hi Colin,
I’m on the opening page where it says “Find out more”, and I click that button right at park opening, then the boarding group button is active when the next page opens. Good luck!
Where by the lake is your spot? By what structure and are the cast members nearby at a permanent customer service location or are they just mingling about?
I get in the line by the member services umbrellas. Basically diagonal across the street from Starbucks. There’s a seating area there too, but we stood by some landscaping and stayed in the line.
If Tom is nice enough to not print spoilers, it would be nice if people leaving comments would follow that lead. We read the comments to get insight into what has worked for other people and it’s its frustrating when people feel a need to put spoilers. Please be courteous and follow Tom’s lead.
Thank you!
so reading most of the comments it looks like that 7 a.m. opening worked very well. Any chance Disney will see that soon and change it back. Planning a spring trip there sure hope so!! Tom your post really help to get us the best ways!! Thank you!
Tom,
Please provide directions to Rise of Resistance, once I am in DHS. We only have one chance to ride. Also, please explain what My Disney Experience has to do with getting a spot early. I read all your newsletters, they have helped very much.
Mavis, once you are inside the patk have the my disney experience app open. You can then get into the que for the rise of the resist3amce ride. I was there at 6:30 and was aboe to get into the que at exactly 7 am. Putting my group in group 55. Theu go quick!
It’s a virtual line that you “get in” at the precise time of park opening using my Disney experience app. There is no line you can get in to ride rise of the resistance if you don’t already have a boarding pass that you got using the my Disney experience app first thing when the park opened that morning (e.g., 7AM, 8AM, etc.). It’s useless to go to the ride before they have called your boarding group, which you can check on your phone in the my Disney experience app. Sorry in advance if I misunderstood the general thrust of your question, I’d just hate for you to think walking to the ride at park open would do you any good… good luck!
I noted that you said when you got in faster they were not using the fingerprint ID. Was that just a one time thing or something new? We ALWAYS have trouble with it because the kids don’t get their finger on it just right or forget which finger to use. 6 and 9 year olds, not 3 year olds mind you!
You can link their ticket to your fingerprint. Someone finally told me that after a week of having to help my then 5yo multiple times per day. Now it’s smooth sailing, I just use both magic bands and the finger matching the fingerprint I used to enroll for our passes! Hope that might help!
Interested to see what happens to the Smugglers Run standby line once it has FP on the 19th. The strategy of waiting till later in the day for the line to die down is fine now, judging by the wait times you posted, but will that be true in a few weeks?
Our current ROTR plan in May is to get a boarding group and leave immediately for Epcot (assuming they’re still doing 8:00 am openings then, we can hit rope drop at Epcot). Then just work around whatever time we get for our BG.
For our March trip I think the strategy will be the same as we used in November with the addition of trying for boarding group for Rise of Resistance. We will show up about 30 minutes early, get into the rope drop area for Rock n Roller coaster and Tower of Terror do those right away then using fast pass for other things.
We have two days planned for Hollywood in the morning and attempts for Rise of Resistance. I was able to get fast pass on one day for Smugglers Run and Mickeys Railway on the other day. If all goes well, we will head over to Epcot one day then Magic Kingdom on the other day.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios around 6:15 am on Sunday, February 2 for a 7am opening. We stood packed in with the masses until about 6:30 when they let us in. It only took 10 minutes at the most to get into the park. Then, we sat in front of Graumann’s while most other people either bolted for Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story land. They were letting them wait at the entrances of those two areas rather than staying by the theater. I was planning to rope drop Tower of Terror. At 7 sharp, I was refreshing my phone and didn’t get in right away. After a few moments, I got boarding group 83. That was a day that they flew through the groups, and we were in line for it by 1pm. It went down twice while we were waiting, but thankfully it was up again fairly quickly both times. I had been reading all your posts and strategies for getting a boarding group, and I’m happy to say we were successful! Your spot-on advice helped us many times on our trip.
We were at the park on Tuesday (01/28), on a bus by 5:30am in the park by 6:30am and ended up in boarding group 49. Group called around 10:45am. There was a section of the ride that was skipped (the part where the wall crumbles behind Kylo REN).
So we are going to Disney World September 5-12. We have gone numerous times and have a good grip on the parks. My concern is that everyone wants to do the new Star Wars ride first. I read your posts but find I’m a little confused still. We would head to DHS on the 6th but do we go at park opening or 4 am? How do you get a boarding pass and if you get there first thing could your boarding still be at 7pm (just a random time)? I just don’t want to have to keep going back to that park trying to get boarding. Thank you kindly!
Planning a trip the end of August and this Rise of the Resistance stuff is giving me anxiety. I hope we get to ride it but it sure looks like it can consume all of your vacation planning. Staying on site so I am making FP 60 days out. I plan my park days based upon what FP I get. With this strategy, if I get Flight of Passage at AK on a Thursday evening…that is where we will be spending our time. I really don’t want to get up extra early each day to visit HS on the hopes that we will get to ride. If we do get a boarding group, if we aren’t called back until the evening it will interfere with whatever fastpasses I have at other parks. Seems like a huge headache but, of course, we will do it til we ride…..
i agree. i have no trips planned out right now, but i’ve been following this and it just gives me anxiety. my trip wouldn’t be ruined by not riding a ride, but if i was there, i just can see myself enjoying things because of all the build-up and stress this seems to be creating.
Will be super interested to see an update once runaway railway opens–wondering what the rope drop situation will be like and where they will hold people lining up for it.
Went Tuesday 2/4. In the park at 730. Headed towards galaxys edge and realized it was futile to try that first. We got group 39, signing up ASAP at 8. Signed up over by tower of terror and was the very first group of the day to ride the tower, and got on rockin roller coaster all before 9. We were called to board rotr around 11:15 and were on the ride at 11:50. Very smooth and a lot quicker than I expected. Waited an hour immediately after for smugglers run.
Hi!
We are visiting in April and none of us are interested in the Star Wars attractions. Should we still arrive early? Sleep in? Try to do Epcot in the morning and HS in the afternoon? Half of our group are first time visitors and the the rest of us are veterans. We love to ride and our last visit was during the building of Slinky Dog Dash.
Appreciate the tips!
*Feb 5th we arrived at HS at 7a and scanned into the park by 7:22a. Boarding groups were gone in around 2.5 minutes. We got Group 17
*Feb 6th we arrived at 7:10a and security was a breeze but scanning into park took around 20 minutes. (We suggest lines and all the way to the right) Boarding Groups we’re gone in less than one minute, butwe got group 16
***My husband timed loading his MDExperience app and opened his app that many seconds before the stroke of 8a. We had success with early groups both days because of that