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!
There was definitely a glitch in the ROTR system today. As you have suggested, my daughter was practicing how to get in a boarding group this morning from her home in PA. I got a call from her at 8:02 that we were assigned a boarding group and it appeared to be real! In the meantime she released the assignments for the other six people in our group who will be arriving next week. However my husband and I live near Disney and have annual passes, so we high-tailed it over to Hollywood Studios, went through the turnstiles after 9am and walked right into ROTR with boarding group 11. It was a great treat for us and our first time on the ride, but I felt badly for people who were in the park at 8am and may not have gotten to ride. The lines at all the guest relations areas were long. This had to have been a mistake on Disney’s part.
You feel badly for others who couldn’t ride, but you as an annual passholder willingly abused an error in the system for yourself and don’t see the irony. This is America.
I’m curious, Customer Satisfaction, what you think would have been the “right” thing to do? They weren’t trying to scam the system. This was 100% on Disney. And as many on here have said, they removed themselves as fast as they could from those BG’s, but by all accounts no one in the park was able to pick them up, so they went to waste. I say if Jane was close enough to make use of them via her annual pass, what’s wrong with that? If she or her family had intentionally hacked in, then I’d agree with you, but she clearly feels bad for the people in the park who missed out. The problem here lies with Disney. Not some innocent annual pass holder who ended up with a nice bonus for the day.
Really hoping they get the BG process straightened out! Today didn’t sound any better!
Today they actually got through fewer Boarding Groups than they have all week. Today topped out at 76, with the ride closing early at 7pm. Other nights this past week capped anywhere between 127-148. Strange, given that fewer people were onsite to actually ride, but maybe proves what a previous commenter mentioned – all the offsite group holder numbers inadvertently held the line, as the powers that be would have to wait until their boarding windows expired before they could call another group. But why close off calling an hour early? Also, backup groups started at 51, the lowest number I’ve seen so far, it’s usually somewhere over 60. What a day for anyone who’s been following!
Three of us–my parents and I from Arizona–arrived at HS at 6:30 am on 2/26/20. We had app open, refreshed, used our own data vs WIFI, etc. did everything we were supposed to so we could get a boarding pass at 8 am. Nothing. The link stayed greyed out no matter what I tried with the app. It was maddening. I tried for 16 minutes…nothing. We asked Cast Members lining the streets what was happening and what to do about it. We were told to go to Guest Services to get on a standby list. When we went to Guest Services, they suggested there was no standby list. Guest Services recommended we come back and try again. My parents are in their 70s. They aren’t coming back…We were at Disney to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. This experience was the main reason we came to HS. We spent a year and thousands of dollars planning this trip…to learn of this app glitch makes our already disappointing experience beyond infuriating…
I’ve been at Disney from England since 14 Feb and can confirm ROTR ticketing system is a farce. Been in HS 4 days including today. First day 3 people tried to log on in our party of 4 at 8 am and no one got anything. Next day 2 of our party got BG 15. Following day Fri 21 I got BG 75 but this was before 8am and I only knew to log on at people around we were shouting they were in. Doesn’t surprise me there have been issues but some things don’t add up. Wed to Fri last week there were c105 boarding groups allocated each day and they completed well before park close. Sat and Sun there were more like 150 allocated and got through all of them (back up groups available after 8.30 Sunday but maybe because it was the princess half marathon and effectively impossible for those running to also be in the park for 8am.) Then Monday they cut the boarding Groups again (and got through them again) – why?
My suggestion is why not have a standby line or allocate passes for magic hours on Sunday evening. That way those who are in on site accommodation get an incentive and it doesn’t screw up what Disney consider a currently flawless process!
Also why not limit riders to one (or max) two rides per visit to maximise chances of most people getting on the ride? Annual pass holders could be limited to 1 ride per month.
I was at HS this morning and DID NOT get a boarding group at 8. Totally wasted my time getting up early, paying for an Uber and ended up with nothing. I leave tomorrow so I wont be trying again.
I was one of those who got boarding passes. From Texas. I didn’t even get on immediately at 8. I wasn’t watching closely but just happened to glance at my phone and saw it was 7 here and decided to give it a try. Got group 72. Then freaked out!!
Disney should add EMH in the morning and do the BG distribution at the beginning of EMH. This would at least eliminate the off-site guests and locals. This would improve but likely not eliminate the problem. This also benefits Disney financially since it incentivizes Disney hotel bookings (and the partner hotels bookings). Perhaps leave weekends without EMH.
that isn’t a bad idea, but they’d never do it.
Why would you encourage people to practice?! All you do is read and push a button. That takes practice?? You ruined people’s day at the park because they couldn’t get a BP. It blows my mind how people are complicating a simple and easy process. People need to stop relying on blogs and other people telling them what to do. Read and research for yourself. It is not rocket science.
If getting on the ride requires correctly using an app as fast as possible, why WOULDN’T you practice using that app to make sure you know where the buttons are and how to use it correctly?
This is not a simple and easy process. If it was Tom wouldn’t have already posted over a dozen articles about it.
Lastly, you say that “people need to stop relying on blogs and other people telling them what to do,” and should instead “read and research for [themselves]?” What sources do you recommend for people to read and research for up-to-date information if NOT on Disney blogs? And isn’t reading and researching just seeing what someone else suggests you should do?
You seem like a real jerk. Sheesh.
People are “reading and researching” for themselves. That is how we have all learned that it is not as simple as pushing “a” button.
Pushing several buttons effectively can make the difference in obtaining a boarding group or not.
Obtaining a BG at 8:00:12 and 8:00:22 can be the difference in BG 20 and BG 70 and maybe not riding that day.
And every day to this point the app did not permit people to proceed to joining a group, so it was ok (and a smart idea) to practice.
I’m curious if you are so anti-blog, what are you doing on this site? And if you’ve researched this “on your own” at all, you’d know that fractions of a second count, so not being familiar with how the process works can mean you don’t ride. Andy and Cynthia both said the rest…
Thanks for all the info Tom!! I can’t wait to see how tomorrow goes and if Disney closes this extremely unhelpful loophole!
get a grip. you’re complaining about a blog, on a blog. think about that. by all accounts, the process is not as “easy” as you want people to believe.
I was at the park at 7am today for the 8am opening (and it was less crowded than when we had gotten there at 6am in the past for the 7am openings). I have ridden the ride before, so I wasn’t as frustrated as many around me, but my brother-in-law and I never saw the “join boarding group” go blue. It was greyed out despite our separate efforts to refresh and reopen the app constantly. Many others around us experienced the same frustration, while others got through (though I heard a group 109 right next to us within the first 30 seconds). I had great success with the virtual queue the two other times I rode the ride in January. Doesn’t bother me as much as I live close, but I can’t imagine how mad some were. I talked to a cast member to see if he knew what happened (I basically just gave him the above story), and he had a stock response of “The virtual queue reached maximum capacity in 32 seconds. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do.”
First of all, I have been following this blog for 4 years & this topic seems to be the most dramatic I’ve seen. Secondly, as much as I’m reading & trying to come up with a game plan for July, I am really hoping they come up with a better system. I really don’t want to pay for Park Hopper tickets. And if I did, I don’t want to start each of my days at Hollywood Studios, attempting to get a boarding pass. That being said, my son has watched everything Star Wars related & I don’t want him to miss out.
Amy,
One thing that might be getting lost in the shuffle of frustrations about the process is the attraction itself. It’s absolutely incredible–the best thing Imagineering has created in at least the last decade. I don’t want to definitively say that it’s absolutely worth jumping through all of these hoops (as everyone’s patience/tolerances on vacation are different), but I know my mind would’ve been absolutely blown by Rise of the Resistance as a kid.
Thank you for responding & I will continue to remind my daughters this, as my son will probably be easier to convince that it’s worth it. And for the record, now I’m even more excited about our trip.
Amy, I will second what Tom said! I was fortunate enough to ride 3 times on our recent trip and every single time everyone on the ride was absolutely blown away. It is literally jaw dropping, my mouth was agape the whole time and I teared up after the first ridethrough I was so happy. If you have a fan in your party it is absolutely worth trying for, and hopefully by the time you visit Disney will have a smoother/less stressful system in place for getting a ride.
Thanks Jared! I shared these comments with my son & we can’t wait!
In Hollywood Studios today, definitely never heard anything from Disney regarding issues with distribution. We fortunately were able to get boarding group 23, but I think backup boarding groups may have been gone by 8:00:30, or at least it seemed like it.
I’m in San Antonio, Texas and scored boarding group 38 while drinking coffee at home this morning. Was just trying to practice before our trip to WDW in 2 weeks. I got into the app and scored a spot at approximately 5 seconds after 8am EST. Personally I think it’s either a glitch or a sign that the boarding pass process is about to change. I’m sure WDW has people reading these posts to get feedback from the masses.
We missed out on getting BG today. When we heard about the glitch, we asked at Guest Relations if they were aware – they were not, and therefore could not say if it was a one time glitch or when it would be fixed.
I was at HS this morning and DID NOT get a boarding group at 8. Totally wasted my time getting up early, paying for an Uber and ended up with nothing. I leave tomorrow so I wont be trying again.
Glad we went yesterday! Got boarding group 2 as well, then managed fast passes for everything except slinkydog
Have friends in HS today who followed everything that they should in trying to get boarding passes and they were not able to get into one 🙁
We were there at 7:30am this morning and the option to join a boarding group never even appeared, it just stayed greeted out. Disney employees said it sold out in 30 seconds but did nothing to fix the issue so many were not able to ride the attraction
There really isn’t anything a cast member can do. If the virtual queue is filled, they are not allowed to let people in.
That being said, the boarding group page does not auto-refresh, so if you are sitting on the page waiting for it to change, it won’t. You need to be on the home page and only open the boarding group page exactly at park open.
Do we know if the same thing happened with Disneyland this morning (afternoon)? I don’t have tickets on my account, but it looked like it was letting me go through the machinations of joining a backup group.
The app will always let you start the virtual queue process, but will stop you with an “oops” message if you don’t have any tickets linked, or on the next page if you haven’t entered the park yet. This morning’s goof appeared to ignore the whole “haven’t entered the park yet” thing.
I assume this was an Orlando-only incident, otherwise Anaheim-centric chat boards would already be reflecting this incident too.
I like the concept of BGs, and the advantages from the system, but would really like to see it made into a hybrid with FastPass. Something like the following:
1. Release 1/3 of each BGs capacity at 60 days (no 60+ bookings), spread evenly over all standard BGs
2. Release another 1/3, weighted toward the earlier BGs. Hold later BGs in reserve
3. Have day of drops for final 1/3, plus some possible BBGs.
You get the FP dynamic of being able to get access before your visit, with at least a rough timeframe. Is even between On-Site guests and Non. Day-Of drops become the standby line. And Disney still gets to buffer calling people to the physical line.
Really hope Disney figures it out. Like BGs, but not the RD crowds it is creating.
I’ve proposed a similar solution on other posts. I don’t understand why they can’t release some BG’s ahead of time so that people can at least plan which day to go DHS. Not everyone can afford to do park hopper on every single trip just to be able to leave DHS if not able to get a BG. Also, why keep high crowd levels and possibly ruin the day for people who are at DHS and don’t care about riding ROTR?
If and when the decision is made to make the virtual queue a permanent fixture, then something like that may happen. In the meantime, the virtual queue is meant as a temporary band-aid to cover up Rise’s terrible operation status. The last thing Disney’s going to do is start promising BGs months in advance when there’s no guarantee the ride will be able to open on any given day.
It’s really a mess in there.
I think that Disney will continue with the BG approach until the ride reliability is more predictable. If Disney goes to FP now, then “break down” days will result in thousands of FP holders (and those who have been waiting for hours in standby) will be unhappy customers. The problem Disney has is expectations. A FP holder and those in standby expect to ride. Under the current system, those who try to get a BG at 8am expect to ride too. Disney should be upfront about the odds and just say: “There is a chance that you will not get a BG even if you try to join at park opening time.” We all know this from the blogs, but Disney should be more upfront about it.
a disney IT glitch??? say it isn’t so!
if i were a betting woman, i’d bet this is the beginning of the end of the boarding pass system. people are accidentally reporting they are getting in, and the hackers and dubious people will now follow en masse to screw up the system for fun. guessing those people have already been trying, now they may have found a loophole to exploit.
In the park this morning and no boarding passes available within seconds of 8:00 am. Lines of people waiting to complain to guest services. They gave us tickets to try again tomorrow. Extremely unhappy with the broken lottery system.
End of day update — the ride shut down for the day at least an hour before park closing. Could have been earlier. Explanation from guest services when I picked up complimentary tickets for tomorrow was that IT was trying to make software more efficient and accidentally turned off a validation routine. It is supposed to be fixed. PLEASE do not test the fix tomorrow with practices as we will be there prior to 8 to try again.
While I agree a change is probably necessary, I am not exactly happy about it. I enjoy reading your articles and simply love your photography, but you are definitely biased to the on site guest experience. The only good thing about this process is that everyone is on the same footing for a change. I don’t have to fight for FP’s by “pounding the app” because all of them are gone before I even get to see them! I have no idea how I will ride the new Runaway Railway as I will 1) never see a FP and 2) not be able to rope drop it due to the ROTR crowds. I guess I will just hope for lines under 3 hours. I spent a lot of money on my AP and because of that AP I drop a significant amount of money in the parks over the course of the year. Some could argue as much as someone who comes once a year and stays on property at a value or even a moderate resort. Yet that person has a much higher chance at riding certain rides without a huge wait time over AP holders. So yes, this process is aggravating and I don’t enjoy getting up so early (I live 45 minutes away without traffic) but I have enjoyed at least having a chance at riding a high demand ride.
Even if this wasn’t intentional, I do actually think this is better than the current system. Even Tokyo doesn’t drag people to the parks on the vague promise of experiencing an attraction – it’s either FCFS with near-certainty of riding, or it’s a lottery scheme where it doesn’t matter what time you arrive.
I would argue that the app should make it crystal-clear that this is how it works, and also impose a penalty if the person doesn’t turn up for their boarding pass. Beyond that, I don’t mind if it’s held at 8AM on the day as a quasi-lottery caused by myriad factors about server overload and network speed, or if it’s a real lottery operated the day before. I only care about not having to turn up at 8AM to enter what by any reasonable definition is a lottery (and when you consider the cost of an Uber in getting to the park on time, it’s almost a paid lottery too!).