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!
Thanks for all the good info … My date to visit DHS is 4/14 – which means it should be in the next block of dates to get the earlier 8am opening time – if that is the case when can I expect the time change to take place ? Is it a specific day or time that I can check every day or is it totally random ? I’d like to be able to try to get a Millennium Falcon fast pass for that first hour as I believe they will only be available once the time changes to 8am for park opening.
There is no question there should be fast passes for Star Wars rides. We were so upset with our day there. Felt like a waste of $$$$
We arrived yesterday at the park at 730am. Waiting until 8 to log in and try to reserve our spot. We were 83 boarding group. If it was a lottery then I consider us lucky. We finally got our turn around 4 in the afternoon. We already planned on staying in the park anyway. Once we got in line though they had a glitch and we were delayed a little but still got the chance to see it. For me the ride is amazing. I cant wait to do it again someday.
We were at WDW early February 2020 during later opening hours (8:00 a.m.) for DHS. We welcomed the later opening and ended up in BG 6 for RoTR on our first ever attempt at a boarding group. Granted, we practiced at home and followed all of the UG suggestions when in the Park. It was a breeze. We hopped on the ride immediately and then skylined it over to Epcot since DHS was so crowded. MOST of the parks are ridiculously crowded with long wait times for rides. Have no solutions for that problem except that It seemed to me that WDW employees were undertrained and the whole establishment understaffed. That was more disappointing than anything.
You got the understaffed and under trained correct. Upper Disney management has gone through every department the past year and cut cast members out of the operation. The higher ups don’t care about having enough staffing to take care of the guests who come anymore. They know that they will come anyway. Take a look at the staffing for the front desks and bell service for example. Fewer cast members to help out. Long wait times to check in and long wait for bags to be delivered. I work at Disney. There used to be 7 of us on a normal day, now it’s down to 4. All Disney cares about is profit and NOT guest service anymore.
How were you able to practice from home, just the logging in to the app?
I’ve done this, too. Although I did ROTR back in December when it was under a different format for getting a BG, I’ve been curious lately on how difficult it would be to get one now. I have been practicing some day from home, over 1,000 miles away.
At precisely 8:00 EST I start flipping back and forth screens in the app until I see the “Join Boarding Group” box go live. Then, I tap on it and it takes me to the screen where I can select who I want to get a BG for. Obviously, I am nowhere near HS at the moment and it returns a message that says not everyone I’ve selected is in the park. However, going through the motions up to that point is a good way to practice for the real things once you’re there.
I’m leaving in 18 days for Disney. This is my first time EVER that I’m nervous about going. I’ve never been in March (usually go in October or November). But this whole Hollywood studios thing is causing me stress LOL! We were able to pick some earlier Fast Passes due to the recent time change. But I’m so nervous that we will not be able to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance. What are the chances that Disney takes your wise suggestion and changes the the opening time to 7am?
We’re visiting during Spring Break (April 5-10) and already have tickets for the After Dark events. We’ve done Halloween and Christmas parties before, preferring the shorter park times over crazy crowds. I’m ‘on the fence’ about visiting Hollywood Studios at all. During peak season, in a park that is already seeing unreal capacity – what are the chances of scoring decent FP at 30 days? We’ve done Smugglers Run, love RNR Coaster, ToT, perhaps Star Tours and/or TS Mania. I’d appreciate anyone’s feedback on how well they’ve done booking FP, at 30 days out, during peaks. Mahalo!
We scored FP’s for Tower of Terror, Rock’n Roller Coaster, and Star Tours at 30 days out. We knew we probably wouldn’t get Slinky, M&M Runaway Railway, or Millennium Falcon. But we did get all of our FP for 8, 9, and 10 (am); so hoping for a miracle that maybe something will open up later for those 3 (I’m trying to be optimistic here). Otherwise we’ll be standing in line. Wish you luck, and have a great time! 🙂
Mahalo, KeKe! What you scored FPs for would be out ‘top picks’ based on teens in our party. Was early AM the main options? I’m curious if most folks are bypassing early FP times, in hopes of scoring RoTR boarding groups?
No it wasn’t. There actually were more times for late afternoon and evening. We just prefer to use all our fast passes as early as possible and then come back later and score some more. As much as I love to stay on property, in order for us to go a couple times a year we have to save and stay off property. But I sure could use some EMH’s right about now.
Good luck Jaye. I can totally empathize with your strategy here. We too were faced with the decision of whether we spend the $$ on parkhoppers or the after hours events — just to have a chance at enjoying the rides. This is where I’d say Disney has become broken. The struggle for having a “fun day riding rides” at the park isn’t nearly as bad on the West Coast. But, it seems that ever since FP+ entered the picture, the idea of doing as much on the East coast involves paying even more dollars for an “after hours” event. I guess I’m just getting too old for this stuff as I can’t seem to correlate the raise on normal hours gate prices with the experience these days.
You’re not too old – I absolutely agree! We’re from Seattle and usually time our Disneyland visits when there are party options as well. For all of us in our group, we’d prefer several hours in the parks with minimal waits versus a 12-hour day with 1-2 hour waits per ride. We’re also Universal Orlando fans and will knock out 1 day (park-to-park) by paying for express pass. I wouldn’t be surprised in the future, if Disney doesn’t offer a ‘premium’ type pass like Universal. If folks are willing to pay – there is ALWAYS a company willing to take $$$.
We got Tower of Terror, Rockin Rollercoaster and Star Tours at 30 days out.
We rope dropped Toy Story Mania because Slinky dog dash was a 2HR wait right off the hop. Did Slinky dog just before close with about a 30 min wait. Smugglers Run was a no go on fast passes for us but it also dies down later in the evening.
I agree with all of what you said, Tom. However, I think there should also be some attention paid to onsite guests. First, the transportation from the Disney resorts is not guaranteed to get you there on time. The Skyliner doesn’t even start running until 30 minutes before park opens. And bus service can be hit or miss. Second, there is absolutely zero incentive to stay on site to ride Rise, and due to the aforementioned transportation problems, staying onsite may actually be a hindrance to riding. It would be nice to see a day or two each week with an EMH morning where resort guests would get first crack at boarding groups.
I agree with this … Just common sense to me!
ok here’s my suggestion …..Disney needs to be open 24 HOURS a day! BAMM!
There you go, no long lines at 3am I bet … well maybe 🙂
I second that!!!
I hope boarding groups don’t start to be distributed earlier than 8am. I’m a “childless millennial” and it was hard enough to get to HS by 7:20 am so I could make sure I was in by 8am. I’m amazed that families with children are able to do this.
Many families with children don’t. Along with people with disabilities and some elderly with debilitating illnesses. But it worked for the majority, so it was good for everyone.
Yes, I agree it seems that Disney bloggers ignore the systems obvious problems in regards to what is doable for someone able bodied vs someone who is disabled or who have young children. I also think that a later start time was inevitable. Eventually they have to test the ride at more normal park hours with a capacity that is more like what the ride will be dealing with when it is a FastPass option. Maybe Disney realizes a different system will need to be developed to reach a more diverse population and is working on it right now, experimenting with a later start time could be it. I doubt it, but I can dream. Although I am not physically disabled I have a significant mental illness and drastically altering my sleep schedule by waking up 4-5 hours earlier than normal could really mess up my mood so I chose not to ride it on my last trip, I personally don’t think one ride isn’t worth compromising my mental health when I am already waking up earlier than normal on travel days. I do look forward to riding it when the kinks are worked out and it is a fastpass option or some other form of digital lottery than being physically in the park, which will hopefully by the time I go again in 1-2 years.
Boarding Groups were distributed at 7am or earlier for the first 2 months of the ride. It was only at the start of February they changed opening to 8am. And people showed up when they wanted and still got a boarding group several hours after opening. That’s because, 1 more spots are open, and 2, people knew that they would be available when they showed up – at least as long as the ride was reliable.
The 8am openings also brought along a slew of unreliable ride days that effectively shrunk the number of boarding groups Disney was willing to dole out day to day, which resulted in boarding groups going in less than a couple minutes. Increased reliability over the last week has helped to up the total boarding groups available, which has allowed boarding groups to remain available longer.
I have a question. I’ve been looking at the boarding pass section in the app and from what I’ve read and done from home, it seems like there are only 2 clicks to get a boarding pass. (Once I try to actually get a pass it obviously tells me I can’t because I’m not in the park) Even if all passes are gone within a couple minutes the process only takes a couple seconds so as long as you are in the park at opening there shouldn’t be a problem, correct? Or does the app sit and spin forever after the second click and that’s why people are getting shut out?
You are correct. As long as you (and everyone in your group) are inside the park at opening, you can get into your app when the announcement is made that boarding groups are open. The problem we discovered is that if you are already in the app, there is often a delay for the button to show as being “clickable” (we had better luck not opening the app until boarding groups open). Also some providers just have faster service and I’ve heard the argument of using cellular data vs wifi but we didn’t find that effected us much. It really has become a luck of the draw kind of thing. We had to come back two mornings in a row because our group wasn’t called the first day. Boarding groups were literally gone within seconds. Super frustrating. Hate this current system. Good luck getting in a group and may the force be with you!
We were there about two weeks ago and were in the park at 7:40. At 8:00 we got a boarding group (#23). We used our own data, not sure if the Disney WiFi is still spinning/crashing like some people say has happened. In the immediate group around us some people got a back up boarding group and some didn’t get a boarding group at all. The problem is that with an 8am opening time they are actually going thru all available boarding groups by 8:02 on some days. So yes, it is two clicks if you are alone (it takes a little longer if you are selecting other people from your list) but you still may not get one because there can be more people than boarding passes. Especially on weekends.
We were at HS several times during the Xmas and it was a mess. Out of 3 tries, we rode once. Sometimes there is a internet connectivity problem where the app spins because hundreds of people are trying to do the same thing that you are and get a boarding pass at the same time. Sometimes the app doesn’t read that you (or someone in your party) is not in the park so you are unable to get a boarding pass. If someone in your party is able to get in a boarding group, then they should sign up. You can go to the Disney Experience people (they wear blue shirts, I think) who can override the system and get you in the same boarding group as the rest of your party. All I can say is that if your boarding group does get called, you should go asap so if the ride breaks down that you are at least in line and eligible for a FastPass for it whenever they getting running again whether that is later that day or tomorrow. We didn’t ride the first time because we waited to enter the line to have dinner and when we tried to enter the line, the ride broke down and they closed it to all boarding groups for the rest of the day.
This remains the most interesting question to me as well. The app crashing on them is one thing; so is the speed issue of WiFi vs cell (if it’s really dragging THAT bad for someone); but short of that, what are people doing wrong on the app that’s costing them a better group number, or any group?
Let me back up though. It’s more than 2 clicks the way I did it. I opened the app a couple seconds before 8:00, then clicked “Find Out More” (click #1), then “Join Boarding Group” (click #2), then “Select All” at the top (click #3), then “Join a Boarding Group” (click #4). I suppose if you’re already under My Status and refreshing, and don’t have any other people to add, that’s just 2 clicks.
Now, people who have large Friends & Family lists probably have it way harder if their whole group isn’t there. Finding the exact 7 boxes you need to check from your group of 18 would be a nightmare for this situation!
Okay… so I had the same thought as you going in, and ultimately didn’t feel any differently after. It’s just a few clicks – OF COURSE I’LL GET A GROUP. But… I was thoroughly prepared. I practiced getting groups from home for weeks. I knew the steps inside and out.
Everyone is over-stressed when it comes time to do this. Who has the advantage? People who’ve done and/or have practiced it? Or people who only know they need to use the app but haven’t actually seen it in action? I suspect the latter group is doing too much THINKING through the steps instead of just executing a few basic actions. But maybe there’s more to it. I don’t know.
We were successful both times, getting groups 34 and 31. And the first time we seemed destined to fail – only got in the park with 90 seconds to spare (long story), and then the “Join Boarding Group” button wasn’t red after I clicked “Find Out More”; fortunately I leaned on my “TRAINING” and calmly closed the app and started over, since I felt that I’d be wasting more time trying to refresh. Even with that little hiccup, whole thing lasted 15-20 seconds max.
Last thing I’ll add: We didn’t bother getting in a long rope drop line for Slinky Dog or Smugglers Run either time. To the contrary, I wanted space away from other people for cell signal purposes (whether that was a real or imagined factor, I don’t know).
The app must have lagged a bit for me but I got boarding group #121 before the clock hit 8:01. We didn’t ride until close to 8pm.
We’re visiting HS on April 19th and I have to agree after reading your post, the 7 am opening would be better if it meant increasing our chance of scoring a boarding pass despite having to get up super early. Only consolation is that it’s also Extra Magic Hours so we can always leave the park and rest at the hotel a bit then head back.
Disney will be a petridish with this outbreak of coronavirus. Sell now and dont visit till this is over – all tourism is going down bigly…
Reading this, I think our plan is to NOT plan to ride this ride. I would rather skip one ride (phenomenal as it may be) than get my heart set on getting up super early, waiting around and then being disappointed.
I will say I think the fairest method would be to do a boarding pass type of Fast Pass. Let people sign up for, say, 80 fast passes a day, and they get notified when it’s their turn to ride. For example, they would select, instead of a time, boarding pass 50.
Yes, I know this means people who aren’t staying on property or in one of the related hotels would not get to ride for awhile, but it’s that way for many other big new rides. If Disney felt strongly about also offering an opportunity to other visitors (I doubt it), they could distribute say 20 extra boarding passes via this system each morning, plus backup passes.
In any case, we are not the typical Disney-goers. One disabled adult, one able-bodied adult, one small child who is probably still going to need a stroller. While I do not mind getting to the parks early – in fact, our strategy is to rope drop every park and go home after lunch for a nap – I would personally feel really disappointed if i organized our trip around this ride and couldn’t get it. I think we will instead think of this as a pure lottery. We’ll get to HS early just to sign up for Jedi Training, and we’ll enter the lottery. If we get it, hurray! If not, we’ll do Jedi Training, meet Doc, with luck get a FP for one of the TS rides (daughter won’t ride SD which does make this easier) and the Railroad (though I have no idea if my daughter will ride it since she hates roller coasters), and then go back to the hotel for the rest of the day. Maaaaybe hit the park again in the evening to see the Star Wars area and ride the other ride. Missing this one won’t be the end of my world. Sigh. I’m glad you have warned us in advance.
For the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway, the ride is a trackless adventure, so it’s nothing like a coaster. Hopefully that’ll make it easier for your daughter!
Please don’t be discouraged by the word “lottery” — because it is not a lottery. Assuming “equal” WiFi or cell connection and no app crashes (I know you can’t assume all those), you can give yourself an advantage by practicing using the app at park open time from home. People who go through the steps faster have an advantage. That would not be the case in a lottery. No guarantees, of course, but you can help yourself out in advance more than you realize.
I like your attitude and your other plans for HS. Our first morning there (the very first day of our trip — and our first Disney trip ever for that matter), I was gung-ho about getting a Rise boarding group. Once we did that successfully, we eased into Jedi Training signup, meeting Chewbacca and BB-8, then Doc McStuffins. Kids then did Jedi Training, we rode Rise, and that was a wrap on our morning at HS. Hopped over to AK after that.
This leaves me less than optimistic for my trip later this week. We have one shot at RotR and I’m so nervous we will have problems and miss out. We have FP+ for Smugglers Run. But really want to ride both rides.
Practice joining a boarding group every day from home at park open time. You’ll see the steps. You’ll learn the steps. You’ll know the steps. You’ll be able to try a couple different ways of getting through the steps and decide which you prefer. You’ll do the steps quickly when the day arrives and, barring any phone/app issues, you’ll get a good group number.
Tom describes it as a “lottery” but that’s not really true. Those who execute the steps quickly have an advantage, and you can do it faster if it’s not your first time going through the process.
Hours need to be extended across the parks. We ran the 10k and half marathon this weekend, and just got park tickets for Sunday after the half and today. The crowds are insane. On a Monday in February! It’s like spring break was 10 years ago, and hours then were 7am until midnight or later. We went to HS yesterday, just to see Star Wars land, get drinks at ogas and have a fun dinner. It was fun, but we were exhausted had low expectations. But today at MK we are seriously regretting buying park tickets. The crowds are miserable. Literally. Everyone seems unhappy. People who obviously didn’t plan are tired and baffled at the lines for everything. The counter service places don’t seem prepared for the crowds. As a result of the general misery, it’s not even fun to shop and people watch. We have a 1pm ADR at be our guest, and are counting the minutes. Then we’ll be leaving the park to get cocktails and go to the pool.
Louisiana schools are closed this week for Mardi Gras. It’s a popular time for families to go to Disney.
Great info, We are headed for Thanksgiving, curious to see how it goes then.
I wish Disney would go back to the original format when people were rewarded for arriving way early and they opened the park at 6:30ish, based on the crowds, and you could get a BG as soon as you were scanned into the park. We did that back in December on Day 6 of the ROTR opening and got BG 24 when we were a good 15-20 minutes back in line when they opened.
Two days later, I went back without my wife who I agreed to meet at the 8:00am Early Magic Hour at MK that day and I arrived at the HS gate at 4:45, about 5 minutes back from the front of the line. I still got BG 11. A wonderful cast member transformed it into a wild card BG, where I could return at whatever time I wanted that day and get on ROTR. We were doing a split day with MK and HS and it worked out well when I returned to HS that afternoon.
I haven’t seen one yet but I’m willing to bet that some people have written an app that interacts with the Disney app and does a quick process of getting a BG and a huge advantage over other people. I’m sure they are not going to offer it for d/l, as that would take away their advantage because everyone would have it on their phones.
I give up. Ive read blog after blog and, quite frankly, for the cost of our vacation I think its outrageous to have to practically camp out just to MAYBE get a boarding pass. What a stressful mess to add to what should be relaxing and fun. It’s a no for me.
I agree. I’m pretty sure when I explain it to my husband (the Star Wars fanatic) he would say no way, let’s not stress.
Anyone saying you have to camp out or get there super early is stuck in a different way of thinking. Get there a half hour early. Everyone inside at park open has the same chance once the boarding groups open up.
I’ll be at DHS in April and am wondering what a good time to arrive is avoid a bottleneck at the entrance. We have a group of 10 people ranging in age from 3 to 60, and trying to navigate a large crowd immediately upon entering does not sound like a fun time. We’re not interested in trying to get boarding passes, but will be attempting to ride Slinky and Smuggler’s Run at some point during the day (we have a FP+ for Runaway Railway).
We did both Slinky and Smugglers in the evening before park close and waited about 30 minutes for each. We were lined up outside Toy Story Land at rope drop and the line up was 120 minutes immediately for Slinky Dog. We did Toy Story Mania instead without much wait. I believe it the better ride. After riding Slinky, I’m glad I didn’t wait too long for it.
Thank you for the continued updates. We will be there later this week. Does anyone know what time the skyliner starts running? We are planning to be at DHS no later than 7am but aren’t sure that we will be able to get there by any disney-provided means.
Disney doesn’t provide any ways into the parks that early. You will have to find alternative transportation like Uber or Lyft.