More 2020 DHS Hours Extended for Star Wars Rise of Resistance
There’s no end in sight to the popularity and high demand for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which continues to garner rave reviews from guests. Accordingly, Walt Disney World has once again extended park hours for Hollywood Studios in early 2020.
Unsurprisingly, Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been packed the last few days and the virtual queue is filling up quickly. In addition to taking a look at the latest hours extension, we’ll also offer some commentary and an update on the post-Christmas DHS opening experience and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance operations.
Before delving into this update, let’s reiterate once more that most questions you have are likely answered by our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. We’ve updated that with new info and more answers to questions readers that were frequently being asked by readers in the comments…
As another reminder, the official opening time for Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been moved forward to 6 am for the remainder of the year. That has been the opening time since the day after Christmas, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise since this is busiest week of the year.
Previously, these earlier openings were extended to continue into the new year, with January 1-4, 2020 also seeing 7 am openings. After that, 8 am park openings occur through February 1, 2020. The latest change now has added 7 am park openings for January 5-11, 2020. It’s worth noting here that January 12, 2020 is the Walt Disney World Marathon, and Mile 23 goes through Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is also notable because that Sunday traditionally marks the end of holiday crowds. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t be surprised to see future dates receive extended hours as we draw nearer to them and Disney has a chance to evaluate demand projections.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this happens in mid-January during the doldrums of winter off-season. Although staffing and operating attractions for an extra hour or two has a cost, we think it’d be a savvy move for Walt Disney World to meet guest demand for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (or at least attempt to do so).
Complaints about the process for accessing the attraction have died down since the last round of policy changes; now it’s mostly glowing guest reviews about the substance of the attraction. It benefits Disney to get as many guests on Rise of the Resistance per day as possible, as the positive word of mouth has tremendous value.
We haven’t been back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios since posting our last update, Star Wars Rise of Resistance Reliability Gains. We’re going to sit out the rest of the holiday season–these peak mornings are not indicative of what will happen in January or February 2020, so there’s not much future value in going now. We’ll be back one of the first days or two of 2020, and will have another update around then.
However, many readers have left comments on that post and our FAQ/Ride Guide, sharing details of their experiences with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. (We’re very appreciative of this; if you’ve done the attraction this week and are willing to provide a quick timeline and some commentary, please leave a comment!)
What we’ve learned from this and photos on social media is that it’s really busy. Well, that was pretty much a given. However, there have been other issues pretty much every day.
On December 26, the My Disney Experience app wasn’t working for a large number of guests, leading to long lines at the Guest Experiences Team stations. (If this happens again, our recommendation would be to find a blue umbrella away from the front of the park–one reader reported that Sunset Blvd had a shorter line.)
On December 27, the attraction opened late and never really hit its stride, resulting in backup boarding groups receiving cancellation notices early in the day. Since the number of backup groups allocated in any given day seems predicated upon how many were distributed the previous day, Rise of the Resistance breezed through all regular and backup boarding passes on December 28, and was finished before the park closed.
We share both of these occurrences because they’re things that could happen even outside of peak season. A morning with My Disney Experience not working for many guests was an inevitability, and something that’ll undoubtedly happen again. Don’t be surprised if there’s a day when it doesn’t work for anyone–that’ll mean some seriously long lines at the blue umbrellas!
Another thing that readers have been reporting is issues with transportation. Long waits for parking and guest drop-off, and Walt Disney World transportation not operating early enough to arrive 30+ minutes before park opening. This isn’t a huge surprise given the crowds this time of year, and the latter is causing the former.
Our advice here stands: drive or use Uber or Lyft rather than relying on Disney transportation that early. If you’re visiting in the next few days, give yourself a 15 minute buffer for the drop-off or to park. (If you’re unfamiliar with ride-share services at WDW, see our Guide to Uber & Lyft at Walt Disney World.)
The silver lining in all of this is that readers who have arrived early have reported success in doing other attractions in the park efficiently. This is something that definitely cannot be said for those who arrive later in the day, or even who rope drop other Walt Disney World parks that open later.
Going forward, we can continue to expect variations of these same things. Early 2020 crowds won’t be nearly as bad as the last two weeks, but popularity and demand for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is unlikely to subside any time soon. As we’ve noted, Avatar Flight of Passage still has similar morning fanfare; that attraction is based on a less popular franchise and is not as wow-inducing. (It’s still great, just not as great.) We’ll continue to keep you updated on changes in crowd/attendance patterns by guests, as well as operating hours and protocol by Walt Disney World.
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
If you’ve arrived early for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, what was your experience like? If you have an upcoming January or February 2020 trip, do you plan on arriving to Disney’s Hollywood Studios super early? 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!
FYI, the 28th it broke down twice for a total of a couple of hours. Broke down at group 61 for about an hour and a half then again about 30 minutes later. It definitely did not breeze through the day.
Went today to DHS. We arrived at 5:23am and they opened park at 5:30 am. They cattled us into one spot and we then had to wait to the opening time of 6am to get a boarding pass for rise of resistance. Exactly at 6 we had a boarding pass of 48. The people around us had 36 and the other group 96. The ride did go down 2x before we went on. We were able to board by 10:45. All in all a good day.
Tom,
We are planning to be in Magic Kingdom on January 12th, but I just noticed that the marathon is going on in that park that day. How much of an impact should I expect from the marathon? If significant, should I consider another park? Thanks,
This may be a dumb question but, when multiple people in one party are trying to get a boarding group number for their group at opening time, is everyone signed into the same MDE account on different devices, trying to get through, or on different accounts that are linked? I have my group just in my account and am afraid MDE would jam up if multiple devices tried to use the same account at the same time. Thanks!
We had 4 people in our party and all 4 of us tried to get a boarding group at the same time. We were able to get into boarding groups on two different days. Both days, various members of our party got in first and added the rest of the group. We were told not to use Disney’s wi-fi service. We did have an issue on the 26th, and had to have a cast member scan our bands (I believe it was due to the fact that they only had us scan our bands and not use our fingerprint upon entering the park) but once we did that we were able to get into a group within seconds. Both days we were able to ride before 10:30 with boarding group numbers of 43 and 54. I would have as many try to get boarding groups as possible. Once your group has one, you can’t get another so it only seemed to help us.
We experienced the Rise on 12/18/2019. We did like everyone else and got up before the crack of dawn and stood in the line to enter the park. It was chaotic and that is being nice. Grown adults shoving to get in and stepping on people. An older gentleman collapsed and needed medical attention. I was appalled and the people stepping over and shoving to get through the front gate even though this gentleman was in need. This que is great to ensure you get to ride in somewhat of a timely manner but the entry into the park needs regulated. No solid lines or markers were up. Just park staff telling everyone to go to the sides which eventually merged in together which caused more havoc. We love Disney and have been 4 times in the last 5 years but sadly Disney needs to reevaluate how it handles entry and ride times for new rides.
Hello, I will be at DHS on Jan 13th. Any ideas on the expected park opening time for this date? and how early should I get into the park based on this opening time in order to get a group for Rise of Resistance?
Thanks!
Andres
My daughter and I are only staying one night at Art of Animation (12/14). So after reading this blog, looks like opening time at DHS will be 8:00am. IDK when the skyline will begin, so it seems like we should pack up the car, check-out, And drive over to DHS? Or do you think it’s better if we took the bus? I’m not positive what to do to get there in time to join the virtual queue? I’m not positive what time to get there? If the park opens at 8:00, should we be there at 7:00? Is that too late? Help…lol.
Oops please note I made a mistake we’re staying 1/14/20. Not 12/14!
Dec 29 – took first bus from Caribbean Beach at 515ish. Went through no bag line (way faster). Took tapstile to far right. In to HS before 6. At 6, three of us tried to get into app – my son was successful and we got boarding group 54. Did Toy Story Mania with no wait and then spent three hours mostly sitting out of the rain. Probably should have taken the skyliner back to the hotel and slept some more. But we did meet a nice couple from Georgia and talked to them for a while. Called at 945 am. The ride was awesome (our second time; also did it on Christmas Day). The park was crazy busy all day with lines for everything! Mobile ordering food helped. As did using “hidden” bathrooms behind RockNRollercoaster.
We went Saturday Dec 28. We were staying off site. We left at 5:18am. Arrived in the parking lot and parked by 5:38am. We had no bags (but bag check wasn’t that bad) and scanned band with no fingerprint and with no waiting. We were in by 5:50am. Had 3 people in our party and got group 56. Our boarding group was called at approximately 10:00am. The ride did go down while we were in the queue. We ended up waiting about an hour. They came around with giant cookies and water and meet and greets with Chewbacca and another pilot character. The experience was worth it! Another note: Smugglers Run was quickly at 90 minutes by 6am. By the time we made our way with the crowd it was closer to 130. My husband and son decided to use single rider a little later in the day (9:30 am) and only waited 30 minutes!!
We went on 12/26. We stared at Art of Animation We were told Skyliner would start running an hour before the first park opening by customer service, got to Skyliner at 5, not running and no hours posted anywhere as to when it would start so
We walked briskly to the bus pick up area. It arrived at 5:15. We boarded and arrived at HS at 5:30. They let us in shortly after but when boarding groups opened at 6 am and we tried joining one it kept telling us we couldn’t because two of our party members weren’t in the park(they were) tons of people around us were having the same issue. We did this visit very last minute and only had one day to see as much as possible so we opted to just come back another time instead of wasting time waiting to get it straightened out in the huge customer service lines. It was a bummer but we went in knowing we wanted to see and do as much as possible and with no expectations to ride the new Star Wars rides so we took it in stride but it was irritating and for those whose focus it was to get there that early specifically for Rise of the Resistance. I hope they’ve since fixed that glitch.
What “power” do those Guest Experience CM’s have? When you arrive in a large group (15 persons) but you don’t have them added to one person as a group what are the chances that when you hit the app for a boarding group at the same time that they all have the same group (or within one hour of so)? Can Guest Experience CM’s regroup guests in one boarding group?
Arrived to DHS on 12/29 around 5:35 AM. It was pouring rain and took some time to get through security. Entered the park at 6:10 AM and joined boarding group 119. According to the app, groups beyond 114 were considered back-up boarding groups. We were a little discouraged that within 10 minutes of the park opening we were in the back-up category. However, we were hopeful. Disney had a great day yesterday with ROTR as we were notified at around 2:15 PM that we could enter the attraction. It was beyond our expectation and nothing like any other attraction at Disney World. It is 100% worth the early morning wake up call to join the queue.
We experienced the attraction on 12/27 and have to say it was the most completely immersive attraction I’ve ever experienced. We had a bit of trouble securing a Lyft or Uber, but finally had one arrive at 4:50am to Shades of Green. There was another couple out front having trouble as well so we just invited them to join us (they gave me $20…which I handed to our driver after we were dropped off). We arrived at Hollywood Studios just after 5 and were admitted at 5:30. While waiting I made sure my app was up to date, closed all other apps and restarted MDE. At 6:00 (park opening) I attempted to join a boarding group and we were given #47. We headed straight for Smuggler’s Run and just after we finished we received a notification that ROTR was down and no boarding groups had yet to be admitted. Finally around 8:30 the first groups were called (we found out in Launch Bay) when several people announced it…all to thunderous applause! It was cool. We were called at 11:05am and returned after using our Tower of Terror fast pass at 11:30. We arrived at 12:15, entered the queue and the experience began around 12:50. It was wonderful! Although the attraction opened late I did notice 110 was the last group to be called.
On December 27th… We arrived at Hollywood a little after 6:00 AM. We were through the line by 6:30. We ended up with boarding pass 123. We Did not experience the ride. (We received the notice that group 123 wouldn’t be called around 7:00 PM.)
We went to DHS on 12/29. Arrived at 4am via Lyft-they let us into the park at 5:30am. The app didn’t go up for que until 6am on the button. My daughter was able to get our tickets right when the app hit and we were (party of 5) in group 36. We got on the ride at 8:45am.
When the rope dropped at 6am- from Chinese theatre, we were led by cast members to the Millenium Falcon- one of the first to ride for the day (by the time we got out of MF the mine was 2+ hours long), the ride was awesome. ROR Was amazing and worth the early morning.
I continue to be surprised at the lack of breakfast options at DHS. The hangry hits around 9:30 am, with very few options and super long line at Starbucks. Hotels don’t start serving early enough for these cues, either. A tip would be have breakfast items in your room before you leave or on the way.
You can mobile order or wait in line at Woody’s lunchbox in toy story land. That’s a yummy option!
I don’t understand why everyone in your group has to be in the park at 6 or 7 AM to get in on the pass. What if I have an older person in my group I have to make them get up at 4:30 So they can come to the park?
The process in place is completely fair. Trying to add party members to a boarding group who aren’t in the parks is essentially line cutting and not fair to those who all came and played by the rules.
I would speak to guest services, if your family member needs accommodations, maybe they could assist you. But normally yes everyone needs to be there.
We visited on December 27- left wilderness lodge at 5 am – I agree – plan on about 10 mins just to get to the Lyft drop off in the HS parking lot – it basically took longer to get thru the parking lot than it did to make it from WL. Also another tip- all 3 of us had the app open and trying to get the boarding pass for our party of 3 at park opening at 6am – which was good – I got thru and had our pass number – my husband and son couldn’t even get on the page to load. It was very busy but it was a nice and excited crowd – no pushing or shoving – I was pleasantly surprised!
We were there on Christmas. Arrived around 6:40 via the Disney bus from our hotel. Buses didn’t start running until 6:15. Bag check was quick as was getting through the turnstile. We were on Sunset well before 7. We were able to get our party of 4 into boarding group 14, which had a 7:40-9:40 arrival time. We were able to ride several rides before Rise of the Resistance. Had a great day. Thanks for the tips.
We were there on Christmas Day.we arrived before 6 a.m. for a 7 a.m. park opening.Crowd was already building.We were admitted onto Hollywood Blvd. about 6:30.Several announcements were made reminding guests that boarding parties would open at 7.At 7 boarding parties opened.We were able to join group 56.Our group was called at just after 10 and had 2 hours to report.we reported about 10:30.Everything worked fine and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride.We left the park around 4 and all parties had been called.
We stood in a packed crowd from the turnstiles all the way to security in the rain… and it was actually a pretty positive experience. Everyone around us was pretty happy – we were all there for the same reason. and lines were orderly with no pushing o trampling.
Getting very nervous for my 121-1/25 DL trip, which was booked prior to RoR opening date announcements. Can’t wait for you DL report!!