Hollywood Studios Hours: This Isn’t Working.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has been on a roll at Walt Disney World, getting through over 130 boarding groups each of the last 4 days, including 146 yesterday. On several dates, the ride has maxed out early, meaning it could’ve gotten through even more backup groups had they been distributed. We’re not quite ready to trumpet these as reliability gains as a long-term or lasting improvement, having made that mistake once before.
In addition to this, there’s more good news. Walt Disney World has once again extended park hours for DHS for the second half of March 2020. Disney’s Hollywood Studios now opens at 8 am and closes at 8:30 pm from the opening day of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway through March 28, 2020.
The two weeks after that and through April 19, 2020 are likely to be among the busiest of the year thanks to a combination of schools being off for spring break and the Easter holiday, plus the Star Wars runDisney weekend. As such, we’d expect those hours to likewise be extended to an 8 am opening. As good as this all sounds, it’s still not enough…
Over the past two weeks, we’ve felt the “consequences” of Disney’s Hollywood Studios moving from opening at 7 am to 8 am. As stressed in our last several posts about the boarding pass dash for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the delayed opening time makes it easier for more guests to arrive at DHS by rope drop. Many might argue it’s great for them since arriving before 7 am is a non-starter, whereas 8 am is challenging but doable with some effort.
However, this is a double-edged sword. The later opening time incentivizes more guests to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the morning, which in turn makes scoring a boarding pass more competitive. The crowds we’ve observed for 7 am rope drop as compared to 8 am rope drop bear this out, as do statistics. More guests have been arriving at DHS before 8 am on mornings with the later opening than on mornings with the earlier opening.
Stated differently, on days when Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened at 7 am, fewer guests arrived before park opening plus the following hour leading up to 8 am, than are currently arriving by 8 am. Back in the “good ole days” of 7 am openings, it wasn’t uncommon to snag a backup boarding group at 8:30 am, often much later. Almost every day for the last two weeks or so, all boarding groups have been gone by 8:05 am. Often earlier.
In case I’m still not properly articulating this, above is a graph from thrill-data.com that shows the distribution of boarding groups since Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened. As you can see, back in December (before the distinction between primary and back-up boarding groups) when the park was quietly opening at 6:30 am or so, boarding groups were often lasting until 9 am or later. (Note the gaps between the green and red plot points on the graph before January.)
As that moved forward to official 7 am opening times and a distinction was made between primary and backup boarding groups, the guaranteed ones went quickly but backup groups were still available over an hour after park opening most days. Move forward to 8 am openings, and we’re now seeing all three plot points on top of one another, meaning all boarding groups are gone immediately.
In other words, the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash has slowly morphed over time into something more closely resembling a pure lottery on some mornings. It started as a pure first-come, first-served system back in early to mid-December. Many guests who didn’t want to get up before 5 am understandably objected to this.
That approach was modified to the hybrid first-come, first-served and lottery system we saw from mid-December until mid-February. Since you could arrive an hour after rope drop and still get a boarding pass with a very high chance of riding most days, this wasn’t a lottery. It was the approach that we viewed as most equitable.
Currently, attempting to join the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue is often a lottery, albeit one with a very high success rate. With few exceptions, you must be in the park at rope drop in order to obtain a spot in the virtual queue–and luck determines whether it’s a guaranteed group or a backup one. If you have problems with My Disney Experience or need help from the Guest Experience Team, forget about riding at all.
To compound matters, if you “lose” this lottery or even don’t perform well in it, your alternatives are not great. Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run are instantly posting triple-digit wait times, and crowds are massive everywhere else in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As we’ve suggested in our Park Hopper Strategy for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, your best bet is leaving for a couple of hours and rope dropping Epcot.
This problem is not going away anytime soon. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens next week and will provide Disney’s Hollywood Studios with sorely-needed capacity. However, it’ll also draw more guests to the park, and those people aren’t just going to do that one new attraction and leave.
Then there’s spring break followed by Easter. Those crowds will start materializing around March 13, 2020 and will continue through Easter. Don’t expect peak season crowds to let up until April 20, 2020 due to a combo of lingering Easter crowds and the Star Wars Rival Run Weekend.
During those peak season dates, expect all Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding groups to instantly fill up at park opening most days. That’s a long time for this problem to persist.
The silver lining is that there should be a temporary reprieve for the next 10 days or so, and all backup groups are unlikely to fill up instantly in this window of time before Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens. After that, all bets are off.
Which brings us back to the 7 am park openings. At least for now, those appear to be the “friction” that is needed to discourage enough Walt Disney World guests from attempting to join the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue at or shortly after official park opening time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
We’re not contending that this approach is perfect and doesn’t likewise have its own losers. Obviously it does–the whole idea is to discourage some guests from participating. Literally every single approach to allocating capacity for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is going to suffer from that problem due to a combination of high demand, low supply, and frequent breakdowns. There is no possible way to make everyone happy.
However, we contend that it’s the best system given the circumstances. It’s better for guests to be able to make the decision to opt out ahead of time, rather than putting in all of the effort of arriving early, using a park day at DHS, still potentially being denied a chance to ride, and then having to deal with the crowds & chaos. This is what has been happening with the current 8 am openings, which makes for an unpleasant day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Aside from the 7 am opening plus virtual queue, no other approach presents predictability and efficiency. If Rise of the Resistance were standby-only, the queue would fill up very early in the day and have to be cut at an undetermined time. That’s assuming there’s enough physical space to put everyone (there isn’t) and the line wouldn’t have to be dumped multiple times due to ride breakdowns (it would). Anyone thinking they could simply hop into line at the end of the day and wait it out should perish the thought.
Opening an hour earlier is also better than staying open an hour later. While we firmly believe Walt Disney World park hours should be extended considerably across the board (the current closing times are laughable given the peak crowd levels this winter), the solution here is not simply operating Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance later into the night.
Later closing times draw in more guests who want to take advantage of evening hours in the parks, which is the exact opposite of the goal here. It seems counterintuitive, but it’s the same idea as opening DHS an hour later–many guests strongly prefer staying late, which means a 10 pm closing would induce more demand/attendance.
There’s also the fact that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance still needs significant overnight maintenance. Operating the attraction from 8 am until 10 pm daily is simply not in the cards, as ideal as that might be for addressing its current capacity woes.
If anything, the other parks should have later closing times–especially Magic Kingdom–on a nightly basis. That’s tangential to the main point here, but the current crowds nonetheless necessitate it, and longer hours elsewhere at Walt Disney World could help pull guests away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Ultimately, the current approach for allocating ride capacity at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is not working with Disney’s Hollywood Studios opening at 8 am. Even as it has come under considerable criticism, we have been staunch defenders of the virtual queue and boarding pass system. Throughout this, we’ve been of the perspective that any scheme will create winners and losers, and this is the most sensible for creating “lemonade out of lemons.”
However, that’s in large part true because the virtual queue previously valued the time of guests, offered a predictable payoff, and favored tourists over locals (at least on weekdays). So long as you made the effort to arrive by 7 am, you’d be rewarded with a boarding group–maybe not early in the day, but at some point. Now, you can make the effort to arrive early, do everything right, and still come up empty-handed some mornings. In the process, you’re pretty much committing to spending time in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which may not be ideal given the wait times and crowds elsewhere in the park.
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
Do you agree with our assessment that Disney’s Hollywood Studios needs to return to 7 am official opening times for Easter and spring break season? Alternatively, do you prefer the later opening time even if it means scoring a boarding group is more difficult? Do you plan on visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios in March or April 2020? Do you agree or disagree with our advice and 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!
Tom, EXCELLENT article! From your mouth to Disney’s ears please! Does Disney read your articles? They NEED TO open HS at 7 am again! I will be flying to Disney next week. I will have ONE DAY, which will be Thursday, March 5 th to try to get the Boarding Pass. ONE day! Do you think that they might open HS early because it will be day 2 of the new Minnie and Mickey ride? What time do you think HS will open on March 4th for the new ride? What time do you think they will open HS on March 5th?
The simplest way to solve the on site advantage issue is to have a day of morning extra magic hours per week. If Disney wanted to favour tourists overall, that day could be a weekend day. I’m actually a little surprised this hasn’t happened already.
If things continue as is the decision for the 14 members in my July traveling party will be not to even attempt this. The perk for Resort guest should be to do the sign in /lottery from their resort. The picture of the crowds before rope drop look frightening to me when with very young children in tow. People will be on phones, young children will be crushed up in a few inches of space and the possibility of them being harmed or lost is not worth a ride.
We are vising WDW in late August from the UK and I am already starting to worry that we won’t be successful getting a boarding pass in the 10 days we are there. I know I am probably worrying unnecessarily but there is still that thought in the back of my mind. We are staying in CB again (our favourite resort) and hoping that a combo of EMH & Skyliner will be in our favour.
Only 181 days to go………
Just so you know, the skyliner does not operate early enough to get you there. It starts at 7:30 which is not enough time to guarantee arrival and getting through security to be in the park before 8. And, RotR doesn’t operate during EMH.
No but at least with EMH we have a chance of getting a boarding pass before the general rope drop time. Also with regards to Skyliner, I had heard/read that they operate earlier if EMH at Epcot or HS? May be mistaken on that one.
Allison, when we first booked our trip (we were there 2 weeks ago) they had morning EMH listed for Hollywood Studios, but the opening of Rise changed all that. With the current ride demand and boarding group process, all the EMH for HS went to evening hours, and I have a hard time seeing that changing back to morning anytime soon.
It was our very first time to Disney World so I didn’t realize how often they make adjustments to hours. Keep checking those as you’re making plans for August. A lot could change with this entire process for ROTR before then. Good luck!
Thanks Mike! I am hoping that our 1st day in WDW will coincide with EMH at HS as jet lag (flying from UK) means we will be up very early that day.
My 15 yr old SW fan will be unhappy if we don’t get a BP at any point but we are there for 10 days so fingers crossed.
Our Aug trip is our 2nd as a family but my 5th trip in all.
Maybe it’s just me but when we went in December none of us so impressed with smugglers run or galaxy’s edge. And I definitely wouldn’t deal with what’s happening for any ride at wdw. We must have waited only 45 minutes to go on smugglers run and thought after “meh”. We will skip hollywood studios for a few years until the hype dies out. Rather spend two days at animal kingdom and a day at magic kingdom from opening to midnight during after hours Christmas party. Going thirty minutes before opening at AK and every year we wait about an hour for avatar. We have no problems going first week of December with lines. It’s lunacy to spend an entire day in line for a ride or two but maybe that’s just us . we are going to spend more days at universal and I guarantee they are banking on annoyed wdw guests which is why they are offering buy two days get two free specials.
But you never went on Rise of the Resistance ride.
Yes! Yes to all of this. Something needs to be done before spring break. Earlier opening – later closing. I’m very disappointed in Disney’s handling of the hours and boarding groups. Just makes the mornings at HS unplannable and unbearable.
I just have a question about the app and trying to secure a boarding pass. Should everyone in the party be on their apps trying at the same time to see who gets lucky? Or if we’re all linked together in the My Disney experience, will it only let 1 of us get a boarding pass even if all of us are trying?
My experience was that this depends on whether children under 13 (whose accounts are managed by a single adult) are in your party. In that case only the adult who manages their account can secure them boarding passes.
Yes, everyone in the party should be on the app trying to get a boarding pass. You will not get blocked out just because you’re all linked. FYI, in case you didn’t know…you do all have to be physically inside DHS to get a boarding pass.
Yes, everyone in your group should try at the same time. That is what we did. There was a glitch with a couple of people in our group getting a different boarding time but we were able to go to the Guest Experience Team and they were able to add them to our group.
You should have everyone who has the app try, but it will only confirm one boarding group for everyone. So if Person A has the faster connection and gets confirmed for BG 50 for everyone linked in the app, Person B will get a “looks like you already have a boarding group” error.
I found it very helpful to practice with the app prior to my trip. It will let you go through all the steps up to the point where you’d get a confirmation, but will say “looks like you aren’t in the park.” The practice made me feel a lot more comfortable on the day of because I was familiar with the interface. Good luck!
After witnessing this last week (and losing the 8:00:49 lottery) I’m not traveling to this park anytime in the near future. We were disappointed to not get a group even when we though we had the plan down, but the sounds of the cheers in one ear and the heartbreaking crying in the other were awful and not something I think Disney should be known for. This article sums up a lot of my opinion unfortunately.
I agree. We are going in July and sadly we have decided it is not worth rushing to get there, the super crowds crushing in before opening as we will be with very young children. The current system sounds stressful and frightening for the young ones that must be with the adults.
Here’s the deal… We have a 7 day vacation booked at the end of May. I don’t get the point of having to physically show up at the park for a “chance”. I’d be ok with the option of indicating a preference on my profile that I want to ride it once. Disney can take all that data they have and assign me a day during my stay to visit HS to ride the ride. Send me a push notification with the assignment (or a couple of options) and I can adjust anything else I have planned if it conflicts. This can augment everything else they are doing. The only reason this is stressful is because they have it pegged to forcing folks to go thru the turnstile to qualify. They have enough info to be able to make offers based on length of stay (they know the tickets you have after all). No system is perfect ..but it is just dumb to force folks to go thru the gate to try for the lottery.
Tom, great content and summary of the situation. I know you’ve advocated in the past for giving on-site guests some perks, and combined with your 7am “recommendation”, I think this suggestion is the ideal solution.
I think you have the right idea in a general sense, but the problem I see with this is that it would create a pool way larger than attraction capacity–much larger than what’s happening now–as there’s zero friction.
You summed it up perfectly. Tom is right, there is not perfect system, but I like some of your idea here.
Michael, I made a separate longer comment about that “lottery” terminology if you look in the newer comments, but rest assured (if one can do that in this situation, haha) that it is NOT a lottery. A little hyperbole or frustration on Tom’s part calling it that.
People who have practiced using the app from home (you can do this any day at park open time) and know the clicking steps inside and out have a REAL advantage on someone going through it for the first time in the park. To suggest it’s pure chance is flat-out erroneous. No guarantees, of course, but you CAN put yourself in a better position to succeed.
Screw all this early morning *MUST* get up in order to even try and be lucky to snag a boarding group. Disney needs to just go to the Fastpass/Stand-by for it now. I think it will lessen morning crowds and maybe ease some tension. I’m going to Disney in May and I’m already stressing about trying to get a boarding group…vacations shouldn’t be stressful lol. I’d love more than anything to ride that ride and I *WILL* get up early to try and get a boarding group if I must…but they need to move to to FP+ and stand-by already…I’m still holding out hope they will before our trip…
See I think this would make opening crowds worse. I think everyone who didn’t have a FastPass (which would be the majority of guests) would be further incentivized to show up at or even before park opening to get into the standby line, which absolutely would fill up and be cut early in the morning if not right away. The crowds show there are a lot of people who are serious about getting on this ride, if Disney hadn’t made the decision that boarding groups would not be given out until official park opening I think you’d see people lining up at 2 or 3 in the morning if not overnight to try and guarantee themselves a spot.
Recommended reading: https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20200216/28666/just-open-line-make-it-fastpass-only-nope-heres-why-rise-resistances
I completely agree having done the early arrival dance (successfully but inconveniently) a couple of times now. Frankly, only Disney seems to be able to get away with this type of setup. If I were to buy a theatre or airline ticket and then found out I had to also go through some sort of random additional process that may or may not result in getting the seat I paid for – and they get to keep my money either way – well, you can guess what my reaction would be. Disney’s marketing machine promotes ROTR and Galaxy’s Edge relentlessly, but they never seem to mention the possibility (certainty for the uninformed) that you might pay to get into DHS and still not see them.
Disney doesn’t actively advertise the virtual queue system, period. If you were using only DisneyWorld.com to plan your trip and no third party sites, there is a very good chance you’d have no idea there’s even such a system in place. That’s what’s truly mind-boggling and frustrating.
Thanks, as always, for the grounded honesty, Tom. We are contemplating visiting Galaxy’s Edge sometime in the next year, but, as we live in a fly-over state, we can get to California almost as easily as we can get to Florida and we have been to both resorts in the past and appreciate them both for what they are. In your Disneyland RotR coverage, you say that CA has an advantage over FL. It looks like FL is a hot mess, but has CA devolved as well?
“It looks like FL is a hot mess, but has CA devolved as well?”
Not on weekdays…yet.
Keep in mind that spring break and summer are right around the corner. That could change everything.
While Walt Disney World has done a “good” job of redistributing crowds throughout the year, Disneyland has not. This is still the off-season at Disneyland (again, on weekdays) and until it’s warm during the winter in Southern California, there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon.
A little of a tangent from your post, but after visiting this past week I think something needs to be about closing at 8pm. We were able to get there in the morning for rise of the resistance but with wait times and having to go from one part of the part to another because of fast pass availability and waits for even places that you have reservations for the idea that the part closes at 8 is very early. I honestly think we needed about 1 to 2 more hours to get it all done.
IMO, Magic Kingdom needs to extend its closing time by about 2-3 hours every single night to help pull crowds away from the other parks (and improve the overall guest experience). On the park hours front, that’s the best solution.
They’re doing that… with the hard ticket events lol.
We were there last week with the 8 am openings. Boarding passes were gone within literal minutes, and every attraction is an hour plus wait right away. Needless to say, it was not fun. I had to refresh my app 2 times and in that little bit of time I was boarding group 101. I’m not sure if 7 am openings would have made it better, but it surely could not be worse.
We should not be surprised by the hours that have been cutback at all parks not just HS. This is due to the new President of WDW, formally of Disneyland, CA, who always cut park hours there to save money. He also there eliminated the every night showing of fireworks shows, to only weekends, so expect that next.
Every attraction is an hour+ wait has been a turn off for us in this fast pass+ era in general. I’ve seen Pirates and Haunted Mansion with artificiality high wait times all because they hold the queue for fp+ reservations. When it comes to enjoying the park, Anaheim’s system for us is far more fair. I shouldn’t have to hyper plan everything…. But again it seems that all fp+ accomplishes is ensuring that if you want to enjoy more attractions you will most likely be waiting in a (longer) line at some point.
Is it cynical to think that Disney likes these super packed mornings and long wait times? Like they were so embarrassed by the appearance of empty parks at SWGE on both coasts in 2019, that they like the image of super long waits? I mean Hollywood Studios looks like a miserable place to be nowadays.
I give them credit for trying to come up with an innovative way to solve … Nobody wants to stand in an 11 hour line (certainly don’t want pictures of that on Twitter after all)…. But it seems like it was only half thought out. As an IT person I certainly don’t want to be on call for the morning shifts! And I’ve experienced first hand when their systems go down and it isn’t pretty. The way it currently runs would actually seem to be costing Disney more in staff and resources (extra busses) to move all these folks to the park first thing in the morning for what could essentially be handled via mobile check in
I think that is cynical at this point. On opening weekend of Rise of the Resistance? Sure. I’d agree with you there–Disney wanted photos and articles about massive crowds in the LA Times, OC Register, Orlando Sentinel, etc.
At this point, it’s negatively impacting the guest experience to such a degree that would outweigh whatever negligible benefits come from the daily appearance (and reality) of crowds.
Yeah, but….
As you point out, Disney could greatly alleviate these problems through extending the hours, and they don’t. They greatly extended hours when SWGE launched because they knew that would help. And now when the crowds actually show up, the are running shorter hours. Just doesn’t add up.
I suspect extending hours isn’t possible. Just like the meltdown at Universal when their new coaster came online… there is most likely a certain amount of maintenance being required (daily) just to keep it running as-is. Extending hours at this point would narrow that maintenance window for their crew. I think that’s why we’ve also seen the story about them actually exceeding the backup boarding groups a few times now. I’d guess they are hesitant about expanding the capacity just yet. It’s still a new toy…. and I get not every ticketholder is necessarily going to get to ride “today”… but… lots of us aren’t day visitors… and we have to invest in travel to get there for that “once a year or two” trip. I have no problem being TOLD by Disney… come on Wednesday of your FL visit.. here is your boarding group. This “rope drop” thing is dumb and doesn’t provide a guarantee that during our 7 day trip we’d actually ride the ride!
Michael – I agree that Disney needs time to work on the ride. I agree that Rise of the Resistance is at its max capacity while balancing needs for maintenance.
The problem is that there procedures have made the rest of the park a MESS. Every ride in the park is slammed from the first minute of the day. Even if you don’t care a lick about getting on Rise of the Resistance, you can’t enjoy the rest of the park.
My husband and I took a couples trip in late December. I think on Dec. 21st, we went to HS after its open time, and scored a return group to ROTR of #92 (I think). We then left and headed to Epcot. But more than an hour and a half after opening, we were able to get a boarding time. Although the weather turned rainy and cool that night when we returned, first we rode ROTR at 7:30 pm, then we rode MFSR with practically no wait & did a ride on Midway Mania with almost no wait. I’d like to know how crazy evenings have been at HS lately. Does the craziness of the morning mean folks leave before the end of the night? I know the rain helped (a lot) to clear out the park for our trip.
I experienced this and while I got lucky (backup boarding group but was able to ride), I totally agree it is a lottery.
I disagree with your conclusion though. The answer is not less lottery, but more lottery. Nothing sucks like getting up early *and* missing out on a ride. Get rid of the requirement to demonstrate your commitment in turning up while it’s still dark – why does forcing hardship on people improve the guest experience? – and let people enter the lottery via app the day before. If we’re worried about no shows, add a penalty – no further entries for the lifetime of the pass. If we’re worried about locals taking all the slots, limit the number of wins in a given period. This really isn’t complicated… Tokyo manages it.
Not all guests are created equal in the eyes of the mouse. What they should be doing is prioritizing those guests who are spending the most money: on property stays. Let them book boarding groups via MM+ (that’s why it exists) and take up one of their three slots. As of right now, it doesn’t count against those, which means that they can virtually queue for 2 attractions at once plus physically queue for another.
Locals and APs need to go to the back of the pack if they aren’t staying at hotels; a lottery system the day prior for them for a remaining 20% of capacity (along with hotel guests, off-property guests, etc) is basically how you should appropriate that to limit the number of people coming into the park at 8AM. Period. End of story. You need to cater to the people blowing $1K/day, not the people who consume nothing but ice water and a pretzel in the park with their $540 annual pass.
I was going to disagree with you, but giving some further thought, Disney already does this sort of thing: we are paying $189 extra for the two of us to do the early morning magic Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom next week. This provides limited access to all the fantasyland rides for about an hour and a half before park opens (plus breakfast). This will be the third or fourth time doing it and to us it’s worth it. Able to loop through Peter Pan and Seven Dwarves several times each with zero wait.
We did the same thing for Toy Story land, but that is no longer available.
I wonder if it would work for Star Wars Land ?
i agree with this. on-property guests should have some kind of advantage. book a stay of at least x-number of nights, and you’re offered a guaranteed boarding group on one set day on a deadline to confirm, take it or leave it, and you get only one for length of stay. if you take it, you don’t have to be up to do the lottery. if you leave it, that’s your choice and you subject to the lottery. i would think something could be done, but they’ll never do this.
Alan, I believe you are working under several misconceptions. First, not all Annual Passholders live in Florida. Even with the 15% discount to renew, our APs this year costs $1100 per person. Since we live in the northeast, we also pay for airfare, a Disney resort each time we visit during the year, and meals and other incidentals. The price of the Annual Pass includes PhotoPass and a discount at some restaurants and shopping. BUT… we wait on the same security bag check lines as everyone else, and we go through the same process as you to get into any attractions. We get nothing special that way. I waited right along with the madding crowds to get a boarding pass for ROTR. I wait 60 days before my arrival to book FP+. I jump through hoops to schedule the things my family enjoys, and I do it just the same as everyone else. APs are cost effective for those who visit often. That’s it.
Can’t say I disagree with Alan on this. While a day-of virtual queue arguably makes this more dynamic, WDW hasn’t really varied in the number of boarding groups it has distributed over the last couple of months.
I’d probably simplify it further within the existing framework: use the FastPass+ system to distribute boarding group numbers with the same 60/30 day windows. (I still think boarding group numbers over return time windows is the right approach given the ride’s lack of reliability.) If there ends up being a conflict between boarding group returns and other reservations, let the Guest Experience Team sort that out day-of.
If you stay at a Disney resort each time, great. In that case, you’re falling under the category of “gets benefit from staying on property”. That’s what’s relevant. Right now the negative effect for a local or a non-local AP who wants to go every single day they can and try to get a ROTR boarding pass is…what aside from some time? There is no huge cost, especially if you already plan to go to the parks. If your primary interest was to ride ROTR, you as an annual passholder could just go stay in Bonnet Creek for less money. I mean you’ve been on everything there a thousand times, right? So just stay at the Hyatt or whatevers there andshow up to get a boarding group. If you fail, you go back to your hotel and sit in the pool. If you succeed? You go back to your hotel and sit in the pool. That’s the OPPOSITE of the kind of visitation they should be encouraging.
Rick – I would pay $250, no questions asked, for a guaranteed ROTR boarding pass. Not even a thought in my mind. It would absolutely be worth it to me.
Agreed…. staying “on property” should have its advantage with all of this. Over the years, Disney has widened many of the perks (extra magic hours) to partner hotels. While there can be arguments for and against that, the reality is from a consumer point… it has diminished key advantages to paying the premium of staying on property. With Magic Bands as the room key and tickets tied to the individual’s profile… Disney KNOWS the visitor and CAN prioritize based on that data. They know that I’m staying at Old Key West… they know that I came into my room last night at 11:36p.m…. they know that I bought a Starbucks at Disney Springs this morning… they know I’ve been to Epcot after afternoon this week. This is a problem that BIG DATA can and should indeed solve…. and I make no apologies for that fact that staying on property SHOULD be an advantage. Just like paying for a Disney tour gives you ahead of the line access… pay to play is a reality.
We will be there next week. What time do they actually start letting people into the park? Our plan is on Monday to rope drop Rock n Roller Coaster/Tower of Terror and try to get boarding pass for Rise of Resistance. Luckily we have a few wild card fast passes from the fast pass debacle a few weeks ago so we can accomplish a lot early, even with crowds, then bail to Epcot or Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.
On Thursday we will be in Hollywood for our second attempt for Rise of Resistance. We also have fast pass for Mickeys Runaway Railway.
So I go ok we are in good shape for both days. But as always, we have back up plans.
For all the reasons you stated, I am in complete agreement on both the 7AM opening and that the virtual queue-boarding pass system is the best method for the foreseeable future. When I was there in mid-January and they let us into DHS at 6:30 for a 7AM opening, the stand-by lines for ALL the E-ticket rides were immediately 60-90 minutes or more. I got my boarding pass, looked around for anything do-able (but not to be), had breakfast at Woody’s Lunchbox, and then left the park. It happened to be a night with evening EMH, so when I returned at 8PM, I easily got onto Millennium Falcon and other rides (but not Slinky Dog Dash…still over 90 minutes right up to the end). Yes, Disney, open DHS at 7AM!!!
i totally agree. i was thinking to myself over the past couple weeks reading yours (and others) updates with the hours tweaking and thinking the 8am opening doesn’t appear to be a solution here. the straight 7am opening was the best of everything offered thus far. these next couple months in particular will be very interesting. i still think if i was dead set on trying to get on ROTR i’d be still trying to get out to disneyland instead.
“I’d be still trying to get out to Disneyland instead.”
Agreed, and that was the motivation behind this post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disneyland-versus-disney-world-star-wars/
Ultimately, it’s so much easier to park hop between Disneyland and DCA, and if you do somehow lose out on a boarding pass at Disneyland (which hasn’t been happening on weekdays–but it’s also not spring break/Easter yet), you’re still in Disneyland–the greatest theme park in the United States. I think DHS has made tremendous improvements in the last few years, but you’d have to be crazy to prefer being there over Disneyland.
i just wish schedule and budget would allow a quick trip to DL, but not this year i’m afraid. we’ll see what 2021 brings on the vacation front.
I’d go to Disneyland instead if it made a lick of sense for me, but I don’t live west of Dallas and I actually have to show up to an office and do work on a consistent Mon-Fri schedule with the expectation that time outside the office is PTO. It’s a 6-7 hour difference of time spent having fun vs. time spent in Ubers/buses/airplanes for me and, oh yeah, it isn’t any cheaper. However, to be blunt, there’s not enough at either park that’s new and interesting to me outside of SWGE to spend actual vacation time going to them right now vs. other interests. Either way I’m rolling the dice.