New Extended Hours & More for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
After overestimating with Galaxy’s Edge, it’s now fair to say that Walt Disney World underestimated the popularity of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. More adjustments are being made to park hours, Extra Magic Hours, transportation and more to meet the demand and popularity of what we called Imagineering’s most ambitious and impressive attraction of the modern era in our spoiler-free review.
Before delving into all of the changes, let’s preemptively address the inevitable questions by directing you to 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.
Additionally, it’s worth reiterating that even with the earlier official park hours, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is still quietly opening the park even earlier. On December 14, 2019, DHS opened shortly after 6:30 am, with a pretty large crowd outside the turnstiles before 6 am. The virtual queue was full before 7:45 am. More early opening speculation below–for now let’s cover what’s official…
From now until the end of the month, the official opening time for Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been moved forward to 7 am. The only exception to this is December 26-31, 2019. That’s the busiest week of the year, and on those dates DHS will open officially at 6 am.
These earlier openings will 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. Don’t be surprised to see future dates also receive extended hours as we draw nearer to them and Disney has a chance to evaluate demand projections. This is true even in what’s traditionally (but not recently!) the doldrums of winter off-season.
To accommodate for these earlier official opening times, the Disney Skyliner gondolas will begin operations at 6:45 am and run until 10:30 pm. These hours are valid only for the next week (through December 21, 2019), but we’d expect them to continue, with even earlier times following for Christmas/New Year’s week. Along those lines, Minnie Vans will begin operating at 5 am.
As covered in the FAQ, our advice would be to use Uber or Lyft rather than relying on Disney transportation that early. For one thing, that Skyliner time is still not early enough of an arrival to DHS and Minnie Vans are overpriced. Buses will also be running, but they’re spotty and this is a scenario where time is of the essence. (No sense in putting in so much effort to get up that early only to have transportation be what fails you.) If you’re unfamiliar with ride-share services at WDW, see our Guide to Uber & Lyft at Walt Disney World.
Next up, Extra Magic Hours. The important thing to note up front here is that Walt Disney World hasn’t modified its policy that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will not be operating during EMH. With that said, Extra Magic Hours have been moved from mornings to evenings at DHS for the remainder of December 2019 through January 26, 2020.
This is becoming something of a sore subject for us. We were planning on doing morning Extra Magic Hours tomorrow, attempting to test out the logistics from Caribbean Beach (where we’re staying for the opening of Disney’s Riviera Resort to see how the new amenities ‘plus’ the CBR experience), but now that plan is pointless. The upside is more sleep…unless we end up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios regardless.
In addition to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, park hours have been extended around Walt Disney World for peak holiday dates (except at Epcot).
We’re not going to go through all of these–in large part because I’m not 100% sure of the before v. after–but we did notice new 8 am and 7 am opening times for Animal Kingdom on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, respectively. (Extra Magic Hours at DAK have also been shifted earlier to accommodate.)
Magic Kingdom park hours have also been extended once again for select dates in December 2019 and sporadically throughout January 2020. It feels like this is the fourth time we’ve seen an update to hours for this month.
In addition to 7 am morning Extra Magic Hours for the week of Christmas (plus a 6 am general public opening on December 25), we now have some early openings and later closings in January 2020. These hours put the park roughly in line with historic averages, and underscore just why the preliminary calendar that’s released months in advance is totally unreliable boilerplate material.
Now for some commentary on the new hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With the new 7 am official park opening time, we are not expecting even earlier unpublished openings. Expect those times to stay in the 6 am to 6:30 am range, which is the same as they were when Disney’s Hollywood Studios was opening officially at 9 am a week or so ago.
In our view, the primary (valid) complaint about Walt Disney World’s protocol for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was that the park was opening several hours prior to the published time. Even guests who performed their due diligence and did research could end up being shut out of the attraction.
While we obviously encourage people to read unofficial resources like this blog to get unbiased/insider tips and not just the company line, that should not be strictly necessary in order to experiencing a new marquee attraction that is being heavily marketed. Reliance on DisneyWorld.com or Cast Members at the resorts should be sufficient for something as basic as that, with blogs and fan sites providing hacks and tips for ‘above and beyond’ insight.
At the time, there was truly no perfect solution to that issue. As we’ve pointed out in other posts, opening week hype being what it is, if Walt Disney World announces the earlier time, diehards simply arrive even earlier…thus necessitating DHS to open the security perimeter and park itself to avoid safety concerns. In other words, the same problem would arise, but it’d move forward a couple hours even earlier.
Now that we’re outside the ‘opening diehard hype’ period and into the ‘peak holiday crowds’ season, it makes sense and is appropriate for Walt Disney World to communicate these early times to all guests to level the knowledge playing field, so to speak. At this point, there are only so many guests willing to get up at the crack of dawn, but at least by (mostly) communicating actual park hours, more guests are aware of the earlier hours and can get up that early, should they so choose.
The virtual queue and urgency of arriving early still isn’t being fully explained via official channels, but that’s par for the course. Walt Disney World also doesn’t fully convey the difficulty of scoring FastPass+ for Slinky Dog Dash, Avatar Flight of Passage, Frozen Ever After–or the difficulty of scoring ADRs for Be Our Guest Restaurant–when featuring all of those in marketing. That’s sort of the nature of the beast, though.
Ultimately, we’d expect the gap to continue closing between the unpublished opening time and the published opening time. We’ve seen this happen over the course of the last week, and we’d expect the same to occur this coming week and in both January and February 2020.
The one exception to this will be holiday weeks or peak season. As we noted above, guests crowding outside the turnstiles is a safety concern; you should expect Disney’s Hollywood Studios to open even earlier on any morning when crowd forecasts are higher (think Christmas to New Year’s Eve, Presidents Day weekend, etc).
When this hoopla and hype might die down? Well…Pandora has been open for a few years, and mornings are still pretty busy at Anima Kingdom. That’s for a ride based on Avatar—this is Star Wars, a more beloved franchise with a new movie about to be released. And Rise of the Resistance is better than Flight of Passage. On top of that, crowds are only likely to get worse, with other new additions and Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary around the corner. In other words, don’t think you can simply skip Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on your upcoming WDW trip and have an easier experience next time. It’s going to be popular and hard to do for years to come.
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 Christmas or January/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!
Horrible experience, over thousands of people got up at before 4am was informed by the park that it’s all in vein.
Wanted to share our experience as well to help other guests. We visited Hollywood Studios 12/16 and had done extensive research through your site and others and had a plan (thank you Brickers!). We arrived at the park at 6:15 (even with a 5 and 7 year old) and there was already an insane line outside waiting to get in. We were able to get in by about 6:45 and got boarding group #76. We spoke to other guests who got to the park at 7 and did not get a boarding group. We were called around 2pm and when we got to the line, the ride was broken down with no estimate of when it would be up and running again. Cast Members were telling guests that boarding passes missed due to the downtime would be extended to be good all day long. At that point we got very nervous about whether we would get to get on it. We decided not to let it limit our day, so we went on to do several other activities and around 5p it was back up and running. We went back, were escorted directly into the queue, and after maybe a 45 minute wait, we got to experience it! Let me tell you – 100% worth it – get up early, get in and get a boarding group, and enjoy an experience unlike any other! One helpful tip more people need to know – it takes the Disney app a while to recognize that everyone in your group is signed in – so go ahead and start walking to whatever you want to do first and just keep refreshing the app. Don’t panic if it takes even 5 or more minutes. Cast Members were telling guests this but many didn’t believe them and it’s worth reiterating that our experience reflected this.
With these super early opening times, is the entire park open? What do the lines look like for the other rides?
Yesterday, I got in at 7:06, 13 minutes after the park opened, and Slinky Dog Dash was already at 70 minutes.
Did you get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance?
We’ll be there on January 7, when there is a published opening of 8 AM. Do you think we’d be reasonably assured of getting a boarding pass if we arrived at the park at 7 AM?
We are not going until Sept/October 2020. Does anyone predict any sort of fast-pass system happening for this ride? I am so excited for our trip and Galaxy’s Edge was one of the reasons we put off going until 2020, I just don’t want to miss it!
Can anyone describe how bumpy Rise of the Resistance is? Are there sharp drops? I see the typical Disney warnings but am curious for certain members of our group. Thanks!
Hi Brittany,
I rode it and I can’t do really rough rides. It has a small drop but wasn’t really bad and doesn’t last long. In my opinion it was milder than Star Tours and I rode that once and won’t ride again. It does do quick turns but isn’t rough like Test Track which I can’t ride Test Track. It definitely feels like you are flying like FOP at some points. If they are prone to motion sickness they may not want to ride. Hope that helps some.
Tom, great photos as usual. I especially like the ghosted Skyliner station.
The boarding group system is interesting and I can agree that it’s not necessarily fair to all. I still have to laugh that anyone would include Frozen Ever After in the same group as actual good attractions. Worst makeover in Disney history. I won’t be wasting a FPP for it again. RIP Maelstrom…
Are people really having trouble getting into BOG? It’s not that great. Been there 4 or 5 times and good is good but not spectacular at all. The theming is awesome but I’d rather eat at Liberty Tree or Skipper’s Canteen. Or the Plaza.
Remember when there were no extended hours??? It was open to midnight many nights!!! No extra tickets and the crowds were not like they are now!
That’s what I remember from going as kid and working at MK in the DCP. 8-midnight most of ther year.
I tried to get to Hollywood Studios this morning from All Star Music. Missed the first bus by 30 seconds and the second bus had some issue, so it took 29 minutes to show up. I stood on the bus line and watched all of the boarding groups disappear. I’m trying again tomorrow only an hour earlier. For those who want a guesstimate, today’s boarding groups were gone by 7:35am.
In October, we took uber from Best Western to make sure we got there. It’s pretty cheap and far less stressful.
We went Saturday (12/14) and following advice of this blog we got to the park by Lyft 6:20 am. The security gates were open and everyone moved up to the gates- they started letting people in about 6:30. After trying to enter at about 6:45 but having trouble with our tickets and getting no help at the gate we finally got into the park about 7. We got boarding group 81 at that time and were called to go back about 3:30. We went right away and it broke down while we were in line but they were very nice about the wait- we got water and to meet a character so they didn’t have to flood the line. We got on about 4:30 and it was great! I can’t imagine how upset I would have been if it wouldn’t have worked out for us though.
We rode the Rise of the Resistance on Thursday, we got there via the Freedom boats from the YC. They were running well before we got on at 6 am. We arrived at 6:15 and there was a massive crowd past the security checks, there were cast members directing people into lines. Once we scanned into the park we got into a boarding group, 2 members of our party showed up 30 minutes after us and seemed to automatically join a boarding group…not sure how that worked. Luckily the ride didn’t break down before we rode. We left WDW this morning, I saw the Freedom boats operating again at 6am.
Thanks for the comment, this really helps as we are staying at The Dolphin next week, and were wondering whether or not we should walk or take the boats. We got burned trying to get to Hollywood Studios by boat this past April for rope drop of EMH, and it stunk.
anyone know what component of the ride it is that ‘breaks down’?
Arrived this morning at 5:30 after taking Lyft from BRV (tip: preschedule the night before!). We did see a bus leaving BRV right before our car came.
Park opened at 6:15. BG 26 and 30. Tip: we had to close the app and reopen it for it to recognize we were in the park. BG 26 called at 8:30, but opted to wait so we could all ride together. Got to BG29 and the ride shut down for about 75 minutes. Got on and done by 10:50. Yes, it’s worth the wait and lives up to the hype. No, would not do the 5am run again, but would arrive around 6:30am if we had no plans for the evening.
We arrived at HS approximately 6:20am on Thurs. December 12 and there were already a lot of people in line. HS opened at 6:50 and we were inside the park right at 7am. There were 4 of us myself, my brother in law, my niece and 4 year old nephew. My brother in law realized he had forgotten my 4 year old nephew’s Magic Band and we were a bit nervous about that. We had our phones ready to go with the virtual que and my niece and myself were going into one and my brother in law went ahead and got himself one and then went to Guest Services to get my nephew his ticket guest services added my nephew to a que and just told us to let them know in Batuu and he would be able to ride with us. My niece and myself were boarding group 58 and my brother in law that had rode the day before (and Rise had broken down numerous times and) was in group 63 which worked out perfectly because with the 2 hour window we were all able to sit together to ride. We watched how quickly the boarding groups were called thru out the morning so we were fortunate that it did not break down during the day while we were waiting for boarding. Once our boarding was called to go ride we went to Batuu and straight to the Rise entrance. The line went very quickly and smoothly. I have waited since 1977 when I stood in line with my parents to see Star Wars and have loved these movies since then. Rise of The Resistance was amazing! I just wish you had more time to soak in the room with the Storm Troopers. The few of us that sacrificed and got up at 5:15 in the morning to ride it were so glad we did! Rise and Smugglers Run in the Millinum Falcon did not disappoint! We love them both!!
Hi, when you got there at the time you did, what time was your boarding group called? I’m trying to gauge when we will be free to eat and to head out to AK for our fast passes.
Thanks!
We were in group 54 on the 12th and got called at 11:45.
Hey Sara,
Our Boarding time Started at 12:20pm and we had til 2:20pm to board and we were group 58. After we got our virtual place in the que I looked around until Skyliner opened and rode that back to our Resort to rest for approximately an hour and then headed back to HS. Be prepared to change your plans just in case the Rise breaks down. It didn’t the day we rode but it had multiple times when my brother in law rode the day before. We just planned that on our HS day. Hope that helps.
So after the mid day magic half day ticket drama of getting that upgraded, I got to the parking lot by 6:30 AM Sunday, December 15th. There was a substantial crowd after security of around a thousand people I’d guess. The park opened at 7 AM and I signed on to the virtual Q as soon as I got scanned at 7 AM. Spots on the Q lasted maybe through 7:45 or 8 AM.
The app said I was boarding group 96 and advised me it would be ready in the evening. That was true. My boarding group was up at 4:30 PM, which suited me just fine. We finished our midday obligation and headed back to the park around 4 PM. The wait in line after check in was approximately 45 min or so. It was an excellent ride, no question. Very well done.
I was disappointed I couldn’t get on Smuggler’s Run at all, the wait was just too long even as a single rider. Usually waits are minimum on a single rider line, but I stood for a good 45 min with the line barely moving before I bailed. Next time, I guess?
Changing the EMH (after booking nearly a year ago) was more than a sore point for us. We do not book Sat night stays (more $ and more people), but did so just for the morning HS EMH. We checked out yesterday. Further, knowing that this type of last-minute change is now fair game, we won’t book Disney resorts again. It won’t affect Disney, but we’ll be happier. Before the rest of the family arrived on Friday, I was able to get on RoR. Drove to HS at 5:15; waited in “line” until about 6:45; got BG 22 (without the 5 min wait CS said we’d have after tapping our bands); entered cue at 7:47; 50 min breakdown wait; then a very nice experience with the rest of the ride.
My family and I rode Rise of the Resistance on December 10. We took a Lyft from the contemporary resort arriving at HS by 6:15. We were boarding group 31 and were told to arrive anytime between 8:30 and 10:30 for our ride. The ride was broken down many times though so we kept getting turned away. A few times we made it on the ride only for it to break down. We were escorted off and given fast passes 3 separate times! Our patience was tested. Around 5pm we finally were able to experience the ride in its entirety- 8 and a half hours after our boarding group was called! Long tiring day but the ride was spectacular.
We attempted this ride this past Thursday, dec 12th. We took the bus from Caribbean beach resort (the Skyliner was not open yet), left Jamaica at around 6:20am. We had 2 kids and a double stroller with bags…so was in longer line. We were in and booked the VQ by 7:00 and was boarding number 75. We had no problems tracking this all day. We made it to the point right before the main event…. the ride goes down…. so they gave us a fast pass to use again later that day or the next day (for another ride not RR. We decided to wait if our because we did not have a PH pass. We waiting until later around 8:30p when the ride was back up. We used our FP and all jokes aside got to the same spot…. nope down again due to technical difficulties. They gave us a multi park FP to use and a park hoper. We decided to try again the next day as we were not doing the Christmas party at MK. So we arrived to CBR via bus from MK around 6:30 arrived close to 7 and took they Skyliner right over! (Amazing fast lines and hardly a wait) went straight to RR and used our FP Waited and rode it in about 30mins. We all LOVED it! My kids (Star Wars fans were so excited… my 7yo said it was “totally AWSOME and EPIC.
My husband and I have a five day trip planned for the end of January and our plan for our first day (planned before knowing about the VQ for RotR & the changing park hours) was to go to the morning EMH at HS and then go to another park for the rest of the day – with the current knowledge in hand and the change of park hours from morning EMH to evening EMH, we are still going to go to HS EARLY, probably 1-2 hours before official park opening at 8am so as to have the best chance of getting into the VQ, ride RotR and then leave HS for a different park and not take advantage of the evening EMH. We have another full day and a possible third day available for going to HS during the rest of our trip if we for some reason don’t get on RotR that first day we can re-attempt this strategy – hope it works!! CAN’T WAIT!! Thanks for all the helpful info!!
Do you know which park you’d head to after HS that Sunday? Epcot would make the most sense since you could walk or take a boat ride and be there for their rope drop too. And if you ended up getting a later boarding pass to rotr, it’d be just as easy to head back to HS in the 2 hour time slot once you’re called. No matter how you slice it, should be fun time.
Tom Or other readers,
What is the best real-time resource for recent Hollywood studio unofficial opening time? Is there an online forum or blog page? Is it best to ask at one’s resort? Perhaps your advice for this week will still hold in early Feb?
We are going to be there on the 27th and on the 30th official opening is 6AM. What time do you think it will actually open? 5AM?
In the same boat! It’s so frustrating trying to predict when we need to get there just to have a shot.
I am so annoyed at myself for not realizing that Rise of the Resistance was doing a boarding pass system. I left for Disney World just a few days after it opened and didn’t want any spoilers for the ride so I didn’t look up any info on the ride. I was at Hollywood Studios on 12/10 and got to the park at 9am because thats what time it said it was going to open. By the time I realized you could only ride it with a boarding pass it was already full. I was so excited that my trip was going to be after the rides opening. And now I feel like an idiot for not knowing the requirements to ride. I did a ton of research for this trip but missed an important fact and I am so sad that I didn’t get to ride it and now it might be a few years before I will get to ride it.
Thank you for sharing your experience. On January 13th we are going with my brother’s family who hasn’t been in 8 years. I am “Julie the Cruise Director” for my entire extended family and make their Disney vacations “magical”.. I will need to do more reading on this new ride so I appreciate all the feedback Tom Bricker and his readers will share.
I’m a family planned too. Just remember they all need to be scanned in at the park to join the queue. I have a nephew with Downs and we asked a small group to come at 730 with him for safety/comfort. The only consolation they could offer was to let him ride in my spot. I’d already ridden. Instead of cruise director my family called me the Danny Tanner.
Good idea. Stalk the website too. Make sure you watch the park hours. They changed the day before our trip. Watch MDX , on the SWGE section. I looked everyday to see if I could figure out when BGs ran out.
HI, I will be there this Saturday, December 21, so if I’m reading this correctly, once you are IN the Park (scanned in tickets) you have to rush to get in your APP to get into a Group to get on the ride?? You can’t get in a Group until your feet are in the Park gates?? I’m confused. But again Cindy, I rather be a Planner and at the Gates at 6am so I can get on the rides, sleep is overrated anyway!!
Such a bummer that Disney did this the first week. Sorry you missed out. It’s nice not having a 10 hour wait in line for 1 ride, but posting inacurate opening times is not good, especially when you have to be in the park to get a BP.