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 got to HS around 6:45 on Friday Feb 7th, waited and rope dropped slinky dog- we were standing near the bathrooms at the entrance on toy story land, and once we got moving it took only 30 minutes to get on the ride! We got boarding group 59. I was thinking this would mean an afternoon call, which worked perfectly for our schedule, but we started stressing when it seemed to be stuck on boarding 14 for what seemed like 2 hours. We had dinner reservations for 5pm, and that ended up being the time we were called. Due to the rockiness of the ride that day, we decided to show up to dinner and cancel our reservations (they won’t charge you if you physically show up and cancel- which was news to me and also a relief). It was a good decision since otherwise we would have been in the park past closing waiting in line, since it broke down again for about 30 minutes just as we were about to board. Overall we waited about 2 hours. And we able to snag a 8:30 reservation in Epcot in Mexico. It was our first time riding RotR, and we’ll worth the 2 hour line! I see how boarding groups are necessary, I wonder if they will ever go away for this ride. It just means you have to been a little flexible.
I spent a year planning our trip to WDW and your blogs were very helpful so thanks for that brickers. We live in Aussie so not only was this a trip of a lifetime but due to us likely to not get back for years if ever due to living halfway round the world we had to ensure each day at the parks was mapped out to fit in the other things we did in Orlando. We went to hollywood studios on the 31st Jan and the ride kept breaking down so we got told round 3pm there was no chance we were getting on. While I get that things happen and we weren’t the only ones affected, my son was devastated. So on our final day in Orlando when we had other things planned (3rd feb)my hubby and son got up at 5am And went back to Hollywood studios while my daughter and I did other things. Even though they were there super early they still got a group of 68, but they did get to go on rise of resistance so my son was happy. My comment is that for a new ride the break downs shouldn’t happen. There’s enough money in the Disney pot I would have thought to attempt to ensure this the ride runs glitch free? But maybe I’m missing something in the Disney world operations that only regulars know ?
There is technology in RotR that has never been used in rides before. Ever. Technology that was invented and designed specifically for this ride. Therefore some break downs and glitches could not have been foreseen. This same scenario played out with the new Hagrid ride at Universal Studios. I hope this helps 🙂
I have a question that I don’t think was touched on. What if you get a boarding group and they call you your group while you are at dinner or at another attraction/ride? What kind of time frame do you have if your group is called in order to ride it? What if you show up after other groups have been called?
All great questions, up until a few weeks ago, you were always given a 2 hour window to get to the ride. Now it seems to bounce between 1 and 2 hours. If you have a fp for a ride when you get called, even if the FP is for a little after, I’d do the FP first then head to rotr. If you’re already at dinner when you get called, just head to rotr after you’re done eating and explain you had an adr. Seems to be a lot of flexibility right now with the ride, mainly due to its unreliability. It’s better to finish current plans before doing rotr, then run straight there as you never know what’ll happen with the ride. Better to get 1 experience in then ditch the line only to have rotr go down and get no experiences at all, imo.
Though I will say, a lot of HS restaurants are being flexible with ADRs as well and as long as you talk to them first, will fit you in after the ride. However, if you get hangry like me, you’re better off eating first so you can handle waiting a bit better if something happens to the ride.
We did HS on 1/29 after a late night at MK the day before. Knowing we had a second day to come at HS we decided to not attempt the 7am rope drop. We got the the park at 8:30 and managed to get into a backup boarding group of 124. Through some miracle we were called between 5:30-6:00ish. We were able to ride that day and it was amazing. Since we were able to ride it, we decided not to do rope drop on our second day either (1/31). However we checked the boarding groups around 8am before even reaching the park and it was full. We walked away from the trip feeling like the luckiest people ever.
This is not about Rise of the Resistance.
It’s about your piece on DVC Reflections Resort on Bay Lake.
Our family has been coming to Fort Wilderness since 1973. It truly is a unique resort.
But there have been so many sad changes to it over the years.
They took away the train, and then River Country, both of which were such incredible experiences for all of us who got to use them.
Oh well, progress???? I thought no not!
But now with Reflections construction on Bay Lake sadly one of my favourite experiences is now also a thing of the past.
We used to cycle the exercise pathway between The Fort and The Lodge. Peaceful and beautiful.
A way to stay in touch with nature at it’s best.
Each ride we took we encountered deer. Right at the path side. One, two and sometimes a family.
As well as many other wildlife ‘ critters.
They were never shy, I would get off my bike and chat with them. Those big beautiful eyes staring into mine.
It was magical. Silent, trusting. I cherish those moments.
But this year, 2019/2020. Gone. Forever.
Disrupted. For what? Another mammoth nature disturbing money maker.
Fort Wilderness is something special but they keep taking away all that is unique to it.
It’s shameful and to me it’s destroying Walt’s legacies, his desire to try and leave things as natural as possible.
But who at WDW listens to the real people?
Nobody unless there is a $ sign attached.
So… there’s my rant for whatever it’s worth.
Thanks
Not a happy camper!
We were there yesterday, February 7, and it was a complete nightmare. Logged into the app at 8 o’clock with everyone else, got boarding group 64. We arrived at 7:30 AM. We were there yesterday, February 7, and it was a complete nightmare. I logged into the app at 8 o’clock with everyone else, got boarding group 64. We’d arrived at 7:30 AM. We didn’t get called until about 5:45. We were in line until after 7. No chips or snacks or whatever. When we got out, it was 7:40. We were so broken down by that point, it sapped most of the joy out of it. Boo.
We visited HS on 2/2 and followed all of your tips – took an uber to the park, got there about 5:55 am, made it through bag check, and waited with the crowd for the gates to open. Gates opened around 6:30 with no finger scans. There were 5 of us in my group, and we got boarding pass 57. We had one park per day tickets, so we spent the day there. We also did the EMH that evening, and we waited until about 9:30 to ride Smuggler’s Run. We encountered minimal lines, and we were able to get off the ride and walk right back on. The same cast member loaded us, and he was super excited to see us again – he knew that meant there wasn’t a long line at closing time. He gave our “crew” some great tips for our second run. We did it all again on our last day (2/6) just adjusted to the later opening time. We were thrilled to get boarding group 10, as we had to leave the park by 3:00 to fly home. We were only given an hour to return when our boarding group was called. We did experience a delay in the queue, and the cast members handed out bottled water, bananas, and chips. Not sure what caused the delay – it wasn’t down as long as we expected. We are so appreciative for all of your tips. They worked perfectly!
We were there on Wednesday and got group 39. The ride broke down mid morning, but we were called around 1:30. We waited about 45 minutes to get on the ride, and the sound went out when we got in the ship part. We were exited out of the ride and were given a fastpass for when the line went back up, which it did around an hour later. We got on immediately with fastpass and thankfully it all went well that time. Interesting that it was apparently the worst day yet.
My experience. Stayed at riviera and planned to try for a boarding pass on Tuesday Feb 4, an 8am opening. Skyliner was not running til 8am, so that was no advantage for arrival. We left hotel about 7:15 and opted for Uber since this was our last day. We did see buses arriving to pick up guests though. We were through tapstyles with at least 20 minutes to go. No significant wait at bag check (we didn’t use) or taps. Crowds were spread out, not overwhelming in any area by my opinion. We waited in the Chinese theatre area as we weren’t sure if we were going to stay in the park or leave. It would be based on our boarding group number. We got 45 and chose to head back to the hotel for breakfast. Because of EMH earlier in our stay at Hollywood we had ridden tower, rockin, Star Wars, toy story and falcon already. We held fast passes for slinky later that day. We debated staying in the park and having breakfast at Hollywood & vine as reservations were available but opted for the hotel. If you can catch EMH earlier in your stay like we did it allows a lot more flexibility on a Rise morning. Wait times jump pretty quickly.
Any one else having this happen today? In addition to the Fast Pass changes I mentioned below, I have had a few more arbitrary changes happen this morning:
“There has been an unexpected change in the operating schedule of an attraction or show during your upcoming Walt Disney World® visit. Your FastPass+ selection for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM on 03/02/2020 is no longer available.
As a replacement, a new selection was made for Muppet*Vision 3D from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM on 03/02/2020.”
and this one:
“There has been an unexpected change in the operating schedule of an attraction or show during your upcoming Walt Disney World® visit. Your FastPass+ selection for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith from 8:10 AM to 9:10 AM on 03/05/2020 is no longer available.
As a replacement, a new selection was made for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith from 5:05 PM to 6:05 PM on 03/05/2020.”
Me! I tried calling and there was a 30 minute wait! Not cool!
We now have three “wild card” fast passes and one for Mania. It keeps flipping to something else like Little mermaid or muppets 3D.
I did too! Funny thing is, the ride that they canceled (Avatar) was on the list of other experiences we could ride. I called and spoke with someone who said the My Disney Experience is having technical difficulties and to check back later this afternoon.
As much as thinking that we have three wild card fast passes that we can use for anything that day, I fear that when they clean up the glitch I will end up with nothing.
I had the same happen to me. So excited to get smugglers run and then gone. Logged back in and got another time for smugglers run and they dumped it agsin on me. I wrote an email to them but got no response
My question is what are people using to count down to 8:00 AM? My iPhone as far as I know doesn’t have seconds as a clock feature.
We had another guest in our party pull up a clock on their phone to countdown. Not sure what they used. Sure you can find an ap.
Check out the iPhone clock icon, there’s a red seconds hand. When it reaches 7:59.50, open the app, but keep a count in your head and do not click find out more until you know for sure it has hit 8am.
I was there on Tuesday, which was the very first day of the 8am opening. My group totaled 6 people. We arrived to the parking lot by 7:20am. Security and park entrance lines were very short. Hardly any line at all. We were in the park easily by 7:30am. Hollywood Boulevard was not crowded, could easily walk around. Lots of people in the food/concession lines getting coffee and bakery. We headed to the Toy Story Land line and waited. By 7:59am I was on my phone trying for the boarding pass. Got in immediately at 8:00am and secured a 58 boarding pass. Our number got called at 1:00pm. We arrived at 1:40 and completely finished the ride by 2:30. Had to wait a bit in the second part, like 10-15 minutes, but we were able to get through the whole ride. Loved it!! Worth getting up for. The rest of the afternoon wasn’t too bad. After using our 3 fast passes, we secured a Tower of Terror FP, and then a Rockin Roller Coaster FP. Not as crowded as I was expecting. We’re from Wisconsin, so we had one shot as this, and everything worked out great!
We were in HS on Feb 4. Got to the park at 7:15, through bag check and scanned in by 7:30. Then got in line for Toy Story Land. 8:00 got boarding group 34 for ROTR. Our boarding group got called at 10;15. Rode Smugglers Run about 5:00 with only a 35 min wait.
Awful start to the day. Slinky dog down when tried to rope drop it. Got boarding group 88 when got through at 801…and ROR started out the day broke down too. Hollywood studios land of break downs this Saturday
Can some please go iver how you “get in” the virtual queue on the app???? Does it just pop up on the app when you open it or is there a icon or series if icons and steps that you have to go through to get there. There is alot of talk about opening the app at the right time but still curious what you need to do after that. Talk of grwyed buttons and such is a bit confusing.
Tom has step by step instructions with graphics here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/virtual-queue-star-wars-rise-resistance-tips-info/
You can also practice at home, just follow the steps at 8am est from home. You can go through all the screens, but the final screen will say you’re not in the park instead of giving you a boarding pass.
Got to park on Super Bowl Sunday at 5:30. Was about ten feet from ticket both waiting for opening at 6:00. Went straight to front of old American idol building were they were holding everyone. At seven we went on app and got bording pass 17. We’ve they dropped rope we with about a thousand other people pushing and shoving made it over to to ride falcon. It was crazy We got on ride within the first few groups and had an 11:00 for rise of restance. Got to walk around and see everything Weill we waited. Wanted to have sonething fir breakfast or coffee nothing their very few places to grab something and what their was was to crowed bring your own snacks. Was a crazy morning but it was fun and worth it rides are great. Don’t recommend to do this with small children not safe you could get hurt
OK just had an odd thing happen: as I was shifting fast passes around with the earlier opening time for March 2, I had Smugglers Run, I refreshed the screen and it disappears and in its place I see this “Replacement FastPass+ Plan”. I receive an email with this:
“There has been an unexpected change in the operating schedule of an attraction or show during your upcoming Walt Disney World® visit. Your FastPass+ selection for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run from 9:45 AM to 10:45 AM on 03/02/2020 is no longer available.
As a replacement, you may now visit one (1) of the following FastPass+ experiences any time from 8:00 AM on 03/02/2020 through end of normal attraction operating hours. (Not available during Extra Magic Hours or Special Ticketed Events)*”
And it can be used for anything at Hollywood except Rise of Resistance.
So we call this an uber-fastpass that is good for the day. We have gotten that in the past when a ride has gone down (typically Space Mountain) but never a month out!
and now the Slinky Dog FastPass I had at 9:05 has been converted to the replacement so now we have two “wild-card” Fast passes to use at anything that day!?!?! how odd. Maybe I broke the Fast Pass system?
This happened to me too. I spoke with someone who said there is a technical issue with My Disney Experience today and to check back later.
We were there at rope drop (8am) yesterday as well. We hung out by Indiana Jones and got Boarding Group 11!!! Even with this low group, we did not make it off the ride for 3 more hours. They did not start boarding at all until closer to 8:30, and they called us around 9. 10 minutes into out waiting time, the ride broke down for about 45 minutes. They sent Chewbacca out to take pictures with everyone in the line as well as sent snacks and water which was very nice. It broke down one more time after we had been in the pre-show, and we were delayed once again even after boarding the ride vehicles. All that to say, even with our luck of securing a very low boarding group, it was a 3 hour ordeal.
i got to the park thursday feb 6 at 6am. we were 17th in line. got into the park at 7 am. headed straight to toy story land. 1 st in line for slinky dog
they held the rope drop till 802 to accommodate star wars phone signup. i am convinced that an algorithm exits for the time you enter the park as everyone around us got an early boarding time. i was #10.
Looks like 8 am opening time has been extended through March. I was able to shift some of my fast passes to earlier slots and l am seeing the hard to get Slinky Dog and Smugglers run pop up. I am looking at week of March 1-5
Sunday EMH at HS has been switched to evening through August as well.
Correction. 8am opening extended through March 14. Not the entire month (yet).