Guests Scored Star Wars: Rise of Resistance Boarding Groups Outside Disney World
In a curious development, several readers contacted us indicating that they were able to secure Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding groups from outside Walt Disney World this morning. In this post, we’ll cover the details and offer some commentary.
Normally, the My Disney Experience app validates that you’ve entered Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the day before allowing you to join the virtual queue. If you haven’t tapped in, you can go through the initial motions of joining a boarding group, but receive an error message instead of the confirmation screen.
Because milliseconds matter, we’ve been advising readers in our FAQ & Ride Guide for Star Wars Rise of the Resistance to practice at home. We are far from alone in offering this tip–it’s good advice! As a result, we’d estimate that tons of people outside of Disney’s Hollywood Studios are attempting to score a boarding pass on a daily basis…
Well, today there was no validation that guests had entered Disney’s Hollywood Studios when attempting the boarding pass dash in the My Disney Experience app. People were able to obtain boarding groups from anywhere. Not just in another theme park at Walt Disney World, but literally anywhere in the world.
Here are a some of the anecdotes we’ve received from readers:
“HELP! I just got boarding group 13! Only problem: I’m sitting in my bedroom in Minnesota!! I tried the timing out at 7am CST just to see if it would work (I’ve got time date screen shots to prove this). I have tickets linked to my account, but we don’t leave for Disney for another 3 weeks. What should I do? I feel like I need to tell someone. How could this happen?” –Gabe
Gabe was also gracious enough to share a screenshot reflecting the boarding group he obtained while sitting at home in Minnesota:
An hour or so later (presumably while he was still in Minnesota), Gabe was called back to ride. Here are a couple more comments we’ve received thus far…
“We’re headed to WDW next week and have been practicing the process to score a ride on ROTR while we’re there. I’m writing to share my experience from this morning.. Today, moments before the crack of 8 AM, from my home here in the Maine woods, I launched the WDW app, hit ROTR Find Out More, hit Join a Boarding Group, checked in our party of two and, lo and behold… the next screen declared I had scored (back up) group 89!! What??
How could that possibly have happened?!? They’re calling for heavy wet snow today in my neck of the woods, so I doubt we’ll get to Orlando in time to ride .. but we’ll be there next week!! Have you heard of this surprising result happening before? Has someone, from hundreds of miles away, managed to scale the WDW ROTR wall and score a boarding group? Would love to hear your thoughts on this. (Note: I do have a screen shot of this apparition). Lastly, I thank you and Sarah for your valuable, insightful (well written) blog, as I’ve learned so much from you both.” –Cynde
“Tom….Big problem with ROTR today….People not in park were assigned BG’s., including myself……….several people on one of the forums i was reading had same thing happen” –Mike
If you have similar reports, we’d encourage you to share in the comments below. (Just for fun, include where you are in the world.) We’d also really like to hear from guests inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as we can only imagine the disappointment and lines at the Guest Experience Team tents.
We’re also curious if/when/how Walt Disney World might release more boarding groups later today. A good percentage of guests won’t possibly be able to use redeem their spot in the virtual queue, since it’s sorta hard to catch a last-minute flight from Minnesota! Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance thus should get through all primary and backup groups, barring major downtime later today.
Some of you might speculate that this is a permanent change, and is occurring so that guests don’t potentially waste their time entering Disney’s Hollywood Studios. After all, this would mean on-site guests can try to score an elusive boarding group while lying in bed at Caribbean Beach or Art of Animation, and only take the Skyliner over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios if they’re successful.
With the recent crowds and chaos (read our Disney’s Hollywood Studios Hours: This Isn’t Working for more insight into that), this would theoretically be an improvement in the guest experience in the mornings at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Fewer guests would arrive, and the limited attraction lineup around the park would see lower wait times–among other things.
That’s one theory. We doubt it, though. Although Walt Disney World hasn’t released any official statement about this–and almost certainly won’t–we strongly believe that this was a glitch or error. It’s possible Disney IT is in the midst of tweaking the process and unintentionally pushed this change. Either way, we would not expect a repeat of this scenario tomorrow.
The problem caused by not validating theme park admission is that it’d significantly open the pool of guests potentially competing for boarding groups. As we stated in the above This Isn’t Working post, Walt Disney World needs to shrink that pool to avoid this becoming a lottery.
Expanding the day-of pool would lead to a precipitous increase in disgruntled guests within the park, and lower satisfaction among attendees. There’s definitely an argument to be made for expanding this pool, but that would necessarily entail shifting the timing of the virtual queue entry process. It’d need to be at least a day in advance.
At several points in the hundreds of comments to the This Isn’t Working post, we advocated for shifting the virtual queue to the FastPass+ infrastructure. From our perspective, that’s ideal. Use the same 60/30-day priority booking windows, potentially release inventory over time, but retain the boarding groups (rather than switching to return windows).
In other words, we think a change is due for how Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance distributes capacity. It wouldn’t surprise us if one is on the horizon after Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens and Walt Disney World has a couple of weeks to observe crowd flow and attendance trends. However, this is almost certainly not that change. If this is anything other than a glitch, it would be shocking. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and update this story later today (or tomorrow morning) as we learn anything new.
If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. This covers a range of topics from basics about the land and its location, to strategically choosing a hotel for your stay, recommended strategy for the land, and how to beat the crowds. 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
Were you in Disney’s Hollywood Studios this morning? Have any observations about guest reactions today? Did you accidentally score a boarding group from home? Do you agree with our assessment that this was probably an error? Or, do you disagree with our assessment and think this was probably deliberate? Have any theories about the future of the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? 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!
The problem is, I dont think they called any more BG’s after the first minute since all groups were gone in 40 seconds. I didn’t remove my group until approx 8:05amish (as soon as I realized i could remove myself and my group, i immediately did) so that likely means that anyone who was assigned a BG and not in the park, those dropped BG’s probably went unassigned
The problem with making this attractions FP+ booking is that there is not standby line. It’s one thing to know that an off-site guest won’t be able to obtain a 60-day fastpass, but that they can opt to wait 3 hours for a ride. Opening this up in the traditional FP system would essentially guarantee that no off site guests have a shot to ride. I’m definitely one of the people complaining that on-site advantages have been disappearing, but effectively barring every off-site guest just seems too undemocratic to me. Of course, today’s process was obviously way too accommodating for off-site guest!! 🙂
Sorry! Logic just set in – I suppose with a traditional FP designation, they’d have to add a standby line, no?
Kim from Calgary Alberta – Boarding Group 79!! We’ll be in the park in just over 3 weeks, so today was a practice day… who knew this was going to happen!!
Pulled Boarding Group 65 this morning from Winnipeg, Canada
Have been practicing for a couple weeks for our trip in early March and was shocked this morning to see the boarding group screen instead of the usual “not in the park” screen. Got BG 29 from New York. I always wondered how well I was doing with the practice and I guess now I know! Hope they can figure something out for those in the park today.
Just trying to keep tabs on the process as we will try on Monday and Thursday next week. And as always, we have alternate plans if unsuccessful.
I got boarding group #41 from Cleveland at 8:00 this morning. We have a trip coming up in a few weeks and I thought I’d practice. I even managed to get a boarding group for my older son with no ticket, who’s not coming along (crazy!).
When I realized it could be messing up people in the park, I “removed” us all from the group about 3 minutes later.
I’m at HS today and got backup group 76 at 8:00:03. Then I waited for 40 minutes at guest relations to find out if this was an intentional change and was told I was wrong that people outside the park got boarding groups and was basically told that everyone in the internet was lying, even when I showed screen captures. Not their finest guest relations moment.
Ouch! They’d be better off saying “We have no clue what’s going on.”
Man…I WISH I was lying. I’m the “Gabe” in the article above. I’m feeling really bad. I just wanted to practice so I could do my best not to let me family down when we finally go to DW in a few weeks. Instead I just contributed (inadvertently, I know) to some other families having really awful experiences today.
-Gabe
Feelin’ crummy in MN
you have no reason to feel guilty. a system glitch is not your fault. you were being proactive and should never feel guilty for trying to plan.
This morning was my first time practicing so when I got a boarding group from Seattle I didn’t realize that it was actually a done deal (Wasn’t aware of what the outside-of-Park standard error is) so didn’t know to cancel it (or even how to cancel) till I read this article at which point it was already too late. My boarding group was called a few hours ago. I hope this at least means they’ll get through all the boarding groups today.
I secured BG 16 from Nebraska this morning. Following along the discussion board on the Dis for the ROTR strategies, one user in the park that secured BG 90 and was following along with the rest of us that got them from offsite decided to stand in line to talk to the GET team. This is their response to her:
“Ok. GR rep spoke to me and then went and talked to people in the back. Then she came back and said “that’s not what happened and there’s no way that people not in the park got a BG. It’s not possible.” Then she told me that they are not adjusting anyone’s bg today. Given her first statement is obviously untrue, I’m not sure whether or not to believe that. If true I guess bgs will fly today. Time will tell.”
Wow, just insane!
I’m not surprised Cast Members on-site aren’t aware that this happened (or at least, weren’t aware at the time).
Hopefully someone higher up the food chain acknowledges this error, fixes it, and the decision is made to release more groups today. That’s the appropriate course of action.
More likely, Disney will just pretend nothing happened to save face, and the ride will close at ~5 pm today after getting through everyone in “record time.”
After getting group 12 from North Dakota, I interacted on Twitter with someone at the park who didn’t get a group, and he reported that the CMs flat-out did not believe him, so without any doubt it was a glitch. He did eventually speak with a “manager” who believed him (and the various screen captures he was showing them, like mine, which showed 7:00 Central, not 8:00 Eastern), but indicated they weren’t going to do anything about it.
CMs would be much better off in general if they would just be allowed to say they don’t know an answer instead of saying something that is false from the get-go. it’s my understanding that “i don’t know” is not allowed, but wouldn’t that be a better strategy here?
BG 99 all the way up here in Canada!
Today was the first time I tried practicing. I panicked as soon as I saw that I actually got a boarding pass. I took a second to process there must be a glitch, took a screenshot and dropped the pass right away. I hope someone else was able to get it because I immediately felt very bad it somehow worked.
I would assume a lot of people are practicing to see how the app reacts, I wonder how many people off site were successful?
Did a quick “practice” this morning from my home in New Brunswick Canada as we flew home Saturday Feb 22nd after 21 days in Florida and I’ve got the post Disney Blues. Got boarding group 13, panicked and immediately dropped it of course but I’ve done tons of practice runs before, during and after our trip and never ever been able to get beyond the screen that said we were not in park. Today, BG13 from Canada AND…my AP expired last Saturday as well so no valid ticket media.
They should open fast pass or let people try for boarding pass from a Disney resort. If you don’t have a passhopper then go to HS and don’t secure a boarding group that would cause even worse guest satisfaction. Also staying in the Disney bubble should offer some advantage. We aren’t planning on going till they change it. Also the way they do this and Max pass at Disneyland it really forces you in the park early which doesn’t work for everyone.
I agree with Jocelyn!! There should be at least some allocation (maybe 40-50%?) to guests staying on property-possibly through the 60 day fastpass window or something.
Another option: 60 day fastpass availability say for Mondays thru Fridays for Dis property guests
Throw the Dis property guests a bone and give them more reason to stay at the Dis properties!
When paying more to stay on site at a Disney property there should be SOME kind of perk. Used to be extra magic hours for Dis property guests, but even now that has eroded.
On a second issue, I also don’t know why they aren’t extending the hours at Hollywood Studios for awhile (like months!) to at least handle some of the additional demand. Seems like even an extra hour per day would handle something like 1000 people possibly (assuming no more than the typical breakdowns).
Hollywood Studios closes so early usually…
i agree that on-site guests should be given some kind of advantage. i’ve thought if you have a reservation of at least, say 4 nights, you get 1 guaranteed BP for your party during your stay at disney’s choice of assignment of day. you take it or leave it and have to confirm your decision by a certain date or you forfeit. they could offer something like this but still keep it very strict while giving a better guest experience than what’s currently happening. if one chooses to go for an extra BP or forfeits their offered BP, that’s their choice.
Hmmm. I didn’t actually hit “Join Boarding Group,” but I’ve been looking at how fast they disappear. At 8:30 EDT, joining appeared to still be available. Let’s see how that goes. After your last post re the crowd mess, I’ve been tracking some throughout the afternoon. I’m amazed to see how many groups are actually getting called.
Yes! I did my first practice run out of curiosity this morning from Seattle and got BG 69.
Would Disney get through Boarding Groups any faster today though? I have no inside info but I assume new groups get called once X number of people scan in from the previous groups or their window expires; if that’s how it works, having people in other states in the Boarding Group would slow things down rather than speed them up, as they’d have to wait for the return window to expire (since obviously the app is a bit confused about where people are lol).
So far it’s not going any faster.
I got BG 36 from NW PA this am!
Im in Boston MA, was practicing for my trip (10 of us going in April) and got assigned BG 39 right at 8am………..I did immediately remove all guests from the group so they could put the inventory back into the system and the people in the park could ride………
Thanks for confirming that “Remove Guests” can remove *all* guests!
The problem is, I dont think they called any more BG’s after the first minute since all groups were gone in 40 seconds. I didn’t remove my group until approx 8:05amish so that likely means that anyone who was assigned a BG and not in the park, those dropped BG’s probably went unassigned
I’m in Fargo, North Dakota and got group 12 this morning. Like you, I also immediately removed my party. I mean IMMEDIATELY — less than 12-15 seconds after 8:00 — so I’m really hoping our spots were re-allocated to others in the park, but I’m not sure that’s a certainty. I guess the new advice to everyone could be “practice all but that final step”, lol.
I wish they would open ROTR as a fast pass type booking. We were lucky to score a boarding group when we went. I would have felt like our HS ticket was wasted if we didn’t get a boarding group since the ride was the main reason we went and the crowds were so insane that we didn’t get to do much else. If the system was different and we could have known in advance if we’d get a group we probably wouldn’t have even gone to HS if ROTR was off the table. We would have gone to another park instead – which would potentially help with the overall HS crowd issues.
This is fairly reassuring at least… I was pretty disheartened when testing the app at home and all backup groups were gone within 30 seconds. I couldn’t imagine how insane crowd levels must be today!
This is fairly reassuring at least… I was super disheartened when testing the app this morning and all groups, primary and backup, were gone within 30 seconds. This would certainly explain it!