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!
I know the older guest is not the demographic Disney is aiming for, but we do exist and we love all things Disney. We’ll be there the end of April and have no plans to visit HS. While I’d like to experience ROTR, I’m not that desparate. And aside from Mickey’s Runaway Railway, which will also be busy, there’s nothing else drawing us there.
Those long queues bother me the most. Even the one for the Jungle Cruise (which you used to able to walk right on). The People Mover, a ride no one was interested in a few years ago, is suddenly very popular. It’s only a matter of time before the GE CoP is added to that list.
We visit Epcot the most (especially during Flower and Garden) and this year booked a dining package just to ensure seats to see Don McLean perform, because there is no way we’d wait in that long line.
Been going to Disney for 48 years, and have never seen such chaos offered at such a high price point. The last few years, our trips have been relagated mostly to pool time, Disney Springs and fine dining. Still enjoy the Disney atmosphere though, if not the chaos.
So we are traveling there the week before Easter. Yes, the crowds will be insane but that is the week my daughter’s High School band will be marching in the Magic Kingdom so it is what it is. For the 6 days that we are going to be there, my wife and I have planned to get to DHS 4 of those days to try to secure a ROTR boarding group on at least 1 day. If we get a group, the other plans that day will have to take a back seat. Pretty crazy that will all of the planning that has to take place on any Disney trip that a family has to allocate so much time just to get into one park every day at opening to try to secure a boarding group. At some point all of the work is just not worth it. No system is perfect, but a family spending a whole week on property with no guarantee of even riding ROTR after doing everything right is just insane.
Disney managed to get their $$$ out of us … we usually just do 1 park/day (enough other things to do on property if we don’t like the park that day). But, this time.. we had to pull the trigger on parkhoppers.. because the reality is that we are going to have to go into DHS every day for this exercise (dumb!). If ROR is your vacation goal, there really is no other ticket strategy that can work to your advantage.
I like the virtual queue concept, however i think there is a better way to do it to relieve the rope drop crowds. Groups could be assigned in blocks throughout the day. There’s no reason guests couldn’t start signing up for the first block of groups prior to opening while waiting outside the park. Either using your phones location services, or having your magicband scanned before entry. The technology is clearly being used without you having to physically scan it for other things within the parks. Two hours after opening, the next block of groups is made available. This process would continue until all groups and backup groups have been reserved. Backup groups can be issued with each block. If you were in a backup group in one block and you weren’t notified to ride, you get assigned a group in the new block. If an entire block of groups and backup groups has been cleared before the next assignment time, they could release more groups to fill the current block. I believe this would make the process much smoother and reduce the early day sardine effect, and spread the crowd out more evenly throughout the day. It could even be a set number of blocks where the last block of groups is distributed at 2pm. I believe that would continue to drive guests to the park, but in a more fluid, less chaotic manner.
I think the reality is that Boarding Groups became an afterthought. Disney invested in the IT to create Boarding Groups for SWGE as a whole… then … it was found it wasn’t needed. BUT… after seeing what was at Universal with their new HP coaster… they knew they had to do something similar.. especially since Iger came out with that statement about “not wanting our guests in 11 hour lines”. My guess is that they repurposed their IT here and shoehorned it to fit without having to develop an entirely new system. At least that is how all this feels. It’s a shame really.. the Boarding Group concept itself is smart… which is basically a FP without a time assignment. What is dumb is the hoops that they are making the guests go through to get them (half baked).
You hit the nail squarely on the head Michael. It’s almost pathetic what they are doing with this mad rush mentality they are pushing on guests. A few simple code changes could make this all run super smoothly and relieve the anxiety the current system seems to be causing for so many loyal Disney fans.
Given the reliability of the ride I don’t see a way this would work. The ride would break down and the backlog of boarding groups would build up meaning people trying to get a group in the late afternoon block would simply never have a chance of getting on the ride. Everyone would still try to get a group in the morning I think and then still have a chance to get a group in the next block if they fail meaning no reduction in morning crowds and a far more complicated system.
It would work the same way it does now, but it would be better and more reasonable. Now if the ride breaks down repeatedly throughout the day, higher numbered BGs may not get to ride. The staggered blocks could take downtime into consideration, therefore, only providing a realistic number of BGs based on real-time service levels. Some groups still may not get to ride, but the number would be greatly reduced.
So if you wanted to ride RotR why would you take the chance of getting to the park later and trying to secure a boarding group? You’re effectively securing yourself a backup boarding group or no boarding group at all.
All that would happen is you’d get a similar number of people getting to the park at opening and potentially even more coming throughout the day and more people disappointing at each block. It is bad enough having to apply for a boarding group at one time.
Here is a quick tip. My Wife and I got into the park, connected to the park WIFI, when the que opened at 8:00 a.m. we pushed the go button we won boarding group 29. We were able to get in the line at 10:30 a.m. the line took about an hour until we got on. The park Wifi is super fast… use it…. A cast member told us that the que filled in 59 seconds, there were people in tears not having gotten in the que….The falcon ride has a single rider line, my Wife and I went in seperately about 30 seconds apart. As “single riders” We ended up not standing in a 165 minute standby line, and we also ended up being pilots on the same ride ….wait time…. 15 minutes.
Interesting that it worked that way for you. Most things I’ve seen say to use LTE/data, as the park WiFi gets overloaded at 8:00.
Tom
Thanks for all the great info you have posted on ROR. I do have a follow up question. As I read all the information on how to score a boarding group from your blog and others I’m left a little confused. Do I use Disney wifi or my cellular carrier. Some say cellular as Disney’s network get overloaded and others say Cellulars get overloaded and use Disney. The other confusing point is many say everyone in your party should try to get a boarding group for the party (more trying more chance, someone wins) a few blogs I’ve read say this slows down the process and only one person should try. What currently is your view with the later park opening? We will be there next week. Thanks for your help.
Also, there is no geo fence right? We all get up, we all get tapped into the magic point before rope drop… nothing stopping us from walking out the exit and hopping a boat or skyliner for breakfast… just as long as we hit the button at the rope drop time.. right?
No only inside the park you can get a BG
Yes, Tom wrote in another post that as long as you scan into DHS, you can go elsewhere and still secure a boarding pass.
I have the same question regarding both my husband and I trying for a BP. One blog said we could use the same login information and another said he would need his own login. Wonder which is correct? One login or two…he won’t use the login of his own and I Know we can both be logged in on mine at the same time. We will be there the 19 – 26th
You can probably count on the week of April 19th being very busy as well. I know here in New England it’s school vacation week. Not sure about the rest of the country.
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.
Wrong. EMH does not get a BG. BG are offered at the normal park opening time for that day, not before.
What if they still did a lottery, but scraped the idea of people having to be present in the park and held it the previous night? If people with valid park tickets for the next day could all use the MDE app starting at say 9pm the night before the day they want to ride, it would still be a lottery (much bigger I suppose) but passes would be distributed the night prior and would this eliminate such insanity at park opening the next day. Just a thought…
I like this idea. It would allow people to better plan their trip and timing and may help control crowds too. I get they want you to “be present to win” as it now but it feels like the spillover from this strategy is an overly congested park with some not happy visitors every day.
Like they said there’s no easy answer to this and Boarding Groups is probably the best, but the idea of posting them the day before would really help people better plan their visits.
Imagine you don’t buy a park hopper for a moment. This is a real thing – people don’t buy them sometimes. So you’re locked into DHS as your park 2 months in advance. The day prior, you enter the lottery for a space and lose out. Mind you, every single passholder can participate every single day at no loss to them. There’s no cost. There is to you, the non-park hopper person. A big cost. You’re automatically at an appreciable disadvantage to the passholders who go to the parks all the time due to sheer numbers, regardless of where you stay or how much you spend. Doesn’t seem fair now, does it?
It’s impossible to make it completely fair. I’ve heard complaints of the current system not being fair to people with mobility issues and disabilities. Not that anyone is actually going to read this and switch to this, but I just think it makes more sense. The crowds can be problematic and even dangerous for some. It would also allow a little time to plan and manage disappointment should you not win the coveted boarding pass. It’s really just as “unfair” as people snatching up fast passes in advance for FOP, etc. Those budgeting and not willing to stay on grounds will not likely be able to get one. Did you know that club level rooms that stay for 3 or more nights can purchase additional fast passes 90 days in advance. Not many people know this. There are all kinds of “unfair” circumstances created by people that are willing to pay more. It’s just the way it is. I think it’s most unfair to leave people hanging until the morning of… After all, Disney is ALL about advance planning in every other circumstance. This system leads to stress and disappointment… things people who have doled out massive cash for a fun trip are trying to avoid.
Terribly disappointing. A decade or so ago, I watched as fellow stroller toting families of all shapes and sizes ran to get to the front of the tram line in the parking lot, cutting, pushing and acting oddly so far from the Disney spirit that I now take the walk, no matter how far to the entrance. I want no part of this behavior that The Disney Execs seem to capitalize on. I visit in May. I think I will let my husband attempt this by himself and I’ll do Disney as a vacation is meant to be! Relaxing and enjoyable
Completely agree that there is no magic solution that will work for everyone. It’s difficult to come up with a “fair” system, because everyone’s definition of “fair” will inevitably be a system that benefits them. Having said that….
The only solution I can think of is to limit the number of times each person can ride (to reduce demand) and to “schedule” them in advance, thereby limiting the number of attempts people will make (and the number of times they will be disappointed). E.g. if you stay on site for more than X days, or if you have a Y+ day ticket, you get a guaranteed* (* not guaranteed, but at least booked) ride, only one, on a particular day that you are either allocated or can choose in advance. If that’s the case, then there’s no stress of trying each morning, and no disapointments. Annual Passholders can ride Z times per month. It would certainly help distribute crowds away from DHS. Maybe the remainder can be allocated places through an actual lottery, like the Tokyo parks do for shows. Go up to a machine (or use the app) at any time before Xpm and you’ll get told if you have a place or not. At least presenting it as a lottery will negate the need to show up at a certain time and might mitigate the disappointment as you know it’s random rather than because you opened the phone app a milisecond too late/early. Perhaps those that are unsuccessful get a booby prize, like a Fastpass for Smugglers’ Run or Star Tours.
Another good idea. Like I said several days ago, it’s a hard pill to swallow for a family to spend thousands of dollars and vacations days to visit Disney to try and experience Galaxy’s Edge and still have no way of knowing if I’ll even get to ride the ride that made me interested in the first place.
All this makes me not even want to go. We love Disney so much but it seems that all of it has become too popular and the parks are not large enough to keep up with demand. Social media and YouTube have not helped… now everyone (including me) sees all the new things and everyone wants to go. It’s sad that you spend so much money and the crowds are so large even in the “off season” you can’t even enjoy it. We have a trip planned early Feb 2021 but I almost want to just cancel it. Even with an expensive room on Disney property you don’t really get any extras, maybe a hard-to-get fastpass on your 6th or 7th day of your trip.
Thank you for all your insight! We are going in August and hopefully a lot of the kinks will be worked out by then. To have a better shot at getting on Rise of the Resistance, do you think it’s better for us to go to HS on Sunday 8/30 when there is early EMH or Monday 8/31 when there is not? I assume the Sunday will be much busier, but I don’t know if EMH will hurt or help our cause. We are willing to get there at early as necessary. We will be at Disney several days and this is toward the end of the trip. I’d love any thoughts on this! Thanks!
I would suggest that you start trying on the earliest day possible. You don’t want to pin your hopes entirely on one single day of getting a BG and miss out. Milliseconds count when it comes to getting a BG, so the more chances you have the better.
Thank you! Yes, we definitely are trying two other days earlier in the trip. I just wasn’t sure which of those two last days was better.
8/30 has evening EMH, not morning (in fact, as long as the current process remains intact for Rise, I would expect there to never be morning EMH at HS). Keep an eye on this, though. Took our first visit to Disney World a couple weeks ago and the hours listed back when we booked the trip in Sept/Oct changed for multiple parks while we waited for the dates to arrive.
Also, getting there “early” can help you get farther up a rope drop line for another attraction, or simply give you the peace of mind that you aren’t cutting it too close, but otherwise you don’t need to get there super early. We arrived much later than planned both days there (arriving at 7:51 & 7:44, getting inside at 7:58 & 7:55 — way too close for comfort!). If you’re tapped in by park open time, you’re in the same boat as everyone else as far as ROTR is concerned only.
Our travel dates are April 20-27th this year. It will be our first chance to see Galaxy’s Edge, Gran Destino Tower, The Riviera, Mickey’s Runaway Railway, and the Skyliner. I’d love to see more moderate crowds that week, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I don’t understand the early close at Hollywood Studios. It has now become the premiere park for guests to visit due to having so many new attractions, and its hours should reflect this. A 7 am open and a 12 pm close until June should be the norm. I also miss the days when you could frequently stay at magic kingdom until 1 or 2 am. These nighttime hours were pure gold for riding with short waits and a reprieve from the heat of the day. We are getting to the point now that at mid-day in nearly any park is simply unbearable, with hour waits for most anything.
Same week for us (April 18-26). While a midnight close would be nice, they wouldn’t run RotR that late anyway, due to maintenance. Would help with other rides, though! The real problem is that as of right now, park opening is pushed back to 9 a.m. that week! If it doesn’t change, that’ll be a disaster.
I’ve harped on this numerous times. Our party has a couple of disabled people and Disney expecting us to fight the crowds early in the morning with the hope of getting ROTR passes is ridiculous of Disney. They are basically treating the disabled the same as everyone else when clearly that isn’t right. They need to allocate passes for the disabled who want to ride but cannot and should not be expected to fight like normal people for those passes.
I agree completely. We have the same problem. I and my daughter are both disabled and there is zero chance that we could be there at rope drop especially when there is STILL no guarantee that we even get a boarding pass. There needs to be a way to allocate passes for the disabled.
When Disney changed their policy due to the disabled controversy they didn’t win over any fans in our house. IMO it’s lousy. They are treating the disabled just like everyone else. We just don’t have to wait in line we just have to wait somewhere else in the park.
I don’t know why Disney created a ride that wouldn’t accommodate a vast majority of people even if the park isn’t crowded. Seems like poor execution IMO
We travel from the UK in August for 2 weeks and I’m already stressing over this. Tom, can you see this format staying like this through the summer or do you think they will introduce the FastPass system in line with others?
My view is that this system stinks.
At what point does a Disney vacation simply become too much work? I am done with Disney; the price hikes, thr monetization of every. little. experience., the falling service, the ridiculous amount of planning required.
Not for me. Have at it friends! Virtual ques and 6 months ADRs and ever increasing prices–they are all yours!
As a DVC member… a couple of years ago we hit a situation where we had to change a DVC booking (non-WDW property) and the inventory left at the time was Disney World. We decided we’d do a week Parkless. Guess what? We had a blast! Disney Springs has a ton of great food options (no need for Epcot)… there’s a bowling alley and movie theater (we saw Guardians II)… and for the “ride” aspect we spent some $$$ on a fireworks boat cruise. With the continued raising of prices at the gate… going Parkless is looking better and better.
We are going to DHS this Friday (28th) what would be an ideal arrival time in your opinion? I have already warned the family it will be crazy busy and it will be an early morning and a very long day (we are going to Villain’s After Hours!!!! woo hoo) that night too. And then attempt to rope drop for flight of passage Saturday morning with our EMHs. Deep breaths… deep breaths…. HAHA!!!
My 11 year old son and I went in December’s for the 7am opening. We got there a little after 6am and were pushed into a big mass of people waiting to get in. It was encouraged to fill up every space. For my son, who was shorter than most, it was very overwhelming to feel so crowded for so long. Once we got into the gates and received our number, it was a huge sigh of relief. The ride was definitely cool, but given all of the other rides had very long waits and given the stress of being jammed in with so many others for so long in a very tense environment, I don’t think we will try to go back to that one. In my opinion, it is definitely not a great environment for kids to be in. I can’t imagine going in later with bigger crowds, going through that and then not getting to ride. No thanks!
I totally agree with your assessment. DHS needs to address this issue and make this process easier for guests. As a vacation club member, I believe that we pay a lot to call Disney Home and not being able to secure a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance takes away from the magical feeling of being part of the Disney Family. Please bring back 7:00 am opening and extend park hours.
I definitely agree earlier opening times would help at DHS! I went to HS this past Saturday 2/22, and we arrived at 7am for 8am opening time and were inside the park by 715am. We camped out near the information station at the front of the park and waited for 8am to try to get ROTR boarding passes. My phone lost 80% battery power and my group of 3 including myself were a bit nervous if we’d be able to secure passes but somehow my 20% battery life phone got us boarding group 20! It felt like a miracle! Thank you so much for all your tips because it was so helpful in getting prepared for this! We went for my boyfriends birthday and he’s a big Star Wars fan so this made his day! We were on the ride by 9am that day and they seemed to do really well getting through lots of boarding groups that day. All of that said it was worth the hassle and research but I think I’m good for a while lol!
I think the major question here is – how did your phone lose 80% battery in 45 minutes? Lol
I see where Tom’s coming from but I think he may be underestimating how much the fact that the word about this procedure is out now vs. a couple months ago is affecting crowds. The ride has been open for 3 months at this point which is plenty of time for word of mouth to spread about how the boarding groups work. I’d also believe cast member’s are probably doing a better job of preemptively providing this information to cut down on complaints about people not knowing what to do (I already knew about the boarding groups when I went a few weeks ago but I was also told by the cast member at the hotel during my check-in when she heard me mention I was a Star Wars fan).
Also it seems to be pretty accepted knowledge that the closure of Shanghai and Hong Kong are leading to cuts at the US parks, which might be why they are hesitant to extend opening to 7 am. It’s just an hour but given the sheer amount of staff needed for the parks that’s a lot of payroll that accounting probably doesn’t want to spend.