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!
Arrived 5:40am on 1/29/20. Security process smooth – lots of personnel. Around 30th in my line to enter – there were numerous lines. Entry started at 6:15am for 7:00am official park opening. Crowds dispersed to three rope-drop areas. Both my husband and I opted to use cellular data instead of wi-fi for virtual queue. At 6:55am, I opened mydisney experience app, clicked on “find out more” for ride and waited on next page showing two buttons – “my status” and “join boarding group”. At 7:00am, I clicked on the “my status” button, added friends and family to boarding group from my list on next page and then clicked on button to join boarding group from there. Got group 4. My husband stayed on the main page and clicked on the “find out more” button at 7:00am – took him to the page where you add family and friends from your list to your group (he did not proceed further as I had already secured our boarding group number). Proceeded to Millennium Falcon ride first and then to Resistance ride. Must have been smoother day for Ride of the Resistance than others have reported as I believe the boarding groups well surpassed 100 by around 7:00pm.
Jan 29. My husband and son arrived to HS at 6:30am this morning. Their Uber driver said they were way too late and needed to be there at 4am which caused some slight panic. They were in the park for opening and ended up with group 97 (hopefully they get called). They had fast passes for 7am toy story, 8am star tours, Ogas 10:30 and Indiana Jones 11:30. My husband said it was all very calm and the park doesn’t feel crowded.Hubby was told it takes about 7 minutes from scanning park ticket for the mobile app to recognize you’re in the park.
Was in the park on January 4th; arrived at 6:30am and was through security and ticket check by 6:50am got boarding group 50 and was on the ride around 12pm luckily as they had many issues that day. Talked to several guest who said they got into the park at 7:01am and it was already sold out. Here are some tips to get on the ride and for the ride:
1. make sure your ticket and magic band are activated before you get to the park; you can not afford that delay
2. don’t rely on disney transport; book and uber or walk from the Swan/Dolphin hotel – and leave plenty of time – the uber took us 25 mins vs the normal 10 min trip
3. don’t bring a purse or bag; the delay checking your bag costs too much precious time
4. go all the way to the right once you are through security, the ticket check in there is much shorter and will save you at least 5 mins
5. have the app open to the star wars galaxy edge section as you enter the park (don’t waste precious time finding it after you enter the park) it will pop up to reserve your boarding pass the minute you are through but ensure all of your party is through too before you book everyone in
6. do not refresh/close the window on your app unless it fails, you are in the app waiting for a spot – woman next to me entered park with me, closed her window out got boarding group 101 when I got 50 ps she never got on that day they didn’t make it that high
7. once you have your boarding group don’t think the disney employees or the app will tell you when it will be your turn the timing is a little sporadic; what we learned is if you are 50 or under stay at the park if you are over 50 you can leave and come back as you won’t be on until at least 11am and since you get 2 hours you have time to get back
8. when you go to the ride (ps go to the bathroom prior it’s a long experience) check in and take your time walking the hallways as it will slow down closer to the ride so you might as well take in the scenes
9. keep a phone out and take pictures there are great shots throughout
10. play with the characters particularly the guards – they will not only play back (in character) but you will notice they will position you to have a front row seat on the ride when they see you are very engaged
11. when leaving the ride if you had any issues (like an over talker in front of you etc) tell an employee so you can re-ride it as once you get off you can’t get back on
12. order the blue milk post ride via your app and relax and relive the experience
Wow! What excellent information, thank you JJ, I’m going to print this and bring it with me…lol!
We got BG 18 by logging in right at 7 am. Our boarding window was 730 to 930. Stood in line for 50 mins. Best ride ever!
A not so magical experience. We arrived to park at 7:05 on Jan 2nd and didn’t get a boarding group so on Jan 3rd we got up extra early and arrived to park at 6:00 am on Jan 3rd and got boarding group 101. They cut off boarding groups at 94. They were offering fast passes for Jan 4th but our flight was leaving early Jan 4th so that didn’t work for us. We talked to 5 different client services people regarding it being our last day. The easy fix would have been to accommodate those people who were unable to return on the 5th the opportunity to ride . Or even better stay open later and let people ride who had received boarding groups that day. There was no empathy or willingness to work with us. A very disappointing experience.
We arrived at 545 and the line was nutz
Crazy crowd here on Jan 4th at 650 am.
Betting all BPs gone in 10 mins