Park Hopper Strategy for Star Wars Rise of Resistance
We return to Hollywood Studios for another attempt at experiencing Walt Disney World’s most popular new attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This time with a twist: we attempt to Park Hop between DHS and Epcot while making strategic use of FastPass+ for the most efficient day possible.
In last week’s Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Recent Rockiness & 8 am Opening Ride Report, we indicated this would be our next move. Crowds have worsened in the mornings at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, thanks to a mix of the later openings, increased awareness of protocol for the ride, and a general spike in attendance. (See our new Peak Crowds in Winter “Off-Season” at Walt Disney World for more.)
To compound matters, it’s the start of the Presidents’ Day long weekend crowds at Walt Disney World. (Expect today through Tuesday to be among the busiest days ever at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.) As such, we figured it would be a good day to test a more strategic approach to experiencing as much as possible in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot, instead of simply sharing photos of the crowds…
Arrival and entering the park was really easy. After a slight backup at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios parking toll booths, everything was smooth sailing. We got to bag check at 7:40 am and were inside the turnstiles by 7:45 am. I’m not sure what time they opened the park, but there was absolutely no line by 7:45 am.
From there, I made a quick loop of the park to get crowd photos (spoiler: it was busy) before heading over to Animation Courtyard to join a huge crowd of other guests lined up for Toy Story Land. We were reasonably far back, but still under the Voyage of the Little Mermaid marquee, so my expectation was a ~30-40 minute wait for Slinky Dog Dash or 10 minutes for Toy Story Mania.
The night before visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we made some speculative FastPass+ reservations in Epcot. Our plan was to try for a low boarding group, do a couple of Toy Story Land attractions, maybe something on Sunset Boulevard if time allowed, then Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance before bouncing to Epcot.
We had also dabbled with the idea of waiting until 50 seconds seconds after park opening, and intentionally grabbing a higher numbered boarding group then. Theoretically, this would allow us to do some rope drop attractions at DHS, bounce to Epcot, and return to do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and more once the crowds had cleared out in the evening.
You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? I couldn’t get the boarding group module in the My Disney Experience app to work at all, and Sarah scored boarding group 43 before 8:00:10 am. Since she already had a boarding group, I kept refreshing to see how long it’d take for my app to work. (If I were alone, I would’ve closed and reopened it.)
MDX finally worked for me right as the clock hit 8:01 am, at which point the virtual queue for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was already into the backup boarding groups. (I’m not totally certain, but I think the backup groups started around 8:00:50 am.) Backup boarding groups were fully distributed before 8:03 am.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m very happy that we were able to snag a primary boarding group, but it sort of threw a monkey wrench into the two options I had already mapped out in my head. A lower or higher number would’ve been ideal–we were sort of in no man’s land. That’s the nature of the beast, though, and is probably a better end result for a more spontaneous strategy.
As we began the slow march towards Toy Story Land, it became abundantly clear that we had underestimated the size of the crowd in front of us. We previously hadn’t been able to see the front of the line/mass of people, but it had obviously extended beyond where we thought.
The line for Slinky Dog Dash began well beyond Walt Disney Presents, and while it was stacked outside the queue at this point, it was still very long. Neither of us liked the potential gamble here, so we opted for Toy Story Mania instead.
That queue was also spilling back deeper into the land, and it easily would’ve been a 30 minute wait for Toy Story Mania at that point, too. Rather than cutting our losses, we opted for the ultimate consolation prize: Alien Swirling Saucers. No wait!
This presented literally no strategic advantage. It was truly a “make myself feel better about the situation by accomplishing something–anything” type of thing. It didn’t help that Sarah did not ride because the attraction makes her nauseous…nor did she cheer me on from the sideline.
Nevertheless, my great work spinning around with aliens left me revitalized and ready to pivot our day. We checked wait times at Epcot and noticed they were still very manageable. Previously, we wanted to avoid rope dropping Epcot since it was an Extra Magic Hours morning and we’d be behind that crowd.
However, that crowd was still smaller than the one at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We headed out to the car to grab my camera bag and some snacks, and then began the walk over to Epcot.
On the way, I modified our FastPass+ reservations, moving them forward to earlier times. I also managed to snag Frozen Ever After for mid-afternoon. Given that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance still hadn’t started operating for the day, I figured there was a reasonable chance we’d be able to ride.
It’s worth noting that when I booked this Frozen Ever After FastPass+ reservation (~10 minutes before official park opening time) there were multiple other times available. A strong refresh game will help if you’re trying to replicate this strategy and aren’t having as much initial success.
In retrospect, the best approach of all would’ve been to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios at ~7:30 am, immediately leave for morning Extra Magic Hours at Epcot, trying to score a boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in the comparatively uncrowded International Gateway area.
UPDATE: To answer questions we’re already receiving in the comments, yes it is possible to leave Disney’s Hollywood Studios and still get a boarding pass. We’ve done it. The only question is whether you can tap into Epcot before joining the virtual queue. I don’t know the answer to this (yet) because it wasn’t even possible to do this until very recently.
I do know that it’s possible to enter Disneyland, then enter DCA, and join a boarding group. Obviously, Disneyland is not Walt Disney World. We will test this strategy in the next week or two and see whether it works. (If you’ve already done it, please let us know!)
For anyone staying on-site, this would’ve been the perfect strategy. Even if you didn’t enter Epcot until ~8:15 am, you still could’ve run the table on headliners.
Frozen Ever After twice and Soarin’ Around the World once before 9 am would’ve been totally possible. (I’m guessing some people did exactly this, which would explain the Frozen Ever After FP+ cancellations/availability.)
As we approached Future World, we received a notification that boarding for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had been delayed.
This both vindicated our decision to Park Hop, but also underscored the reality that flexibility is key–the plan I had mapped out ahead of time simply wouldn’t have worked.
We didn’t get to Soarin’ Around the World until about 9:10 am, but it was still a near walk-on at this point. We lucked out with front row, dead-center seats resulting in global icons that were not bent!
As we left there, we noticed Awesome Planet was starting in zero minutes. This was not a strategically savvy move, but we did it anyway.
From there, it was onto Spaceship Earth to use our FastPass for that.
We finished that and bounced over to Mission: Space, doing the less intense orbit above earth. Sarah can’t do the orange version, which was convenient here because the green one had no wait.
Next up was our Living with the Land FastPass+ reservation, which came in handy because the wait time had ballooned to 30 minutes. (It was a walk-on when we did Awesome Planet, which wouldn’t have any wait all day.)
At this point, we were pretty hungry. The plan was to eat lunch at Sunshine Seasons, but in wandering around there, nothing looked particularly appealing.
With most of the high-priority attractions in Epcot knocked out and still a few hours until our Frozen Ever After FastPass, we looked at My Disney Experience for same-day table service availability. The first thing I saw was Beaches & Cream 20 minutes from then. More or less exactly how long it’d take to walk there. Perfect.
We had been putting off trying the reimagined Beaches & Cream, but this was the perfect chance to get that out of the way. We’ll have a full review soon, but the meal was a (very) pleasant surprise…until dessert.
That was our fault, though, as we took a gamble on something not in Beaches & Cream’s wheelhouse. If we had ordered a tried and true favorite, it would’ve been a great meal from start to finish. Moving on…
Back in Epcot, we still had a couple of hours to kill until Frozen Ever After.
Although the goal was to demonstrate an “efficient” day in Epcot, our normal afternoon in the park is pretty much just enjoying World Showcase and entertainment. We did the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along for the first time, watched Mariachi Cobre, did Gran Fiesta Tour, Canada Far & Wide, and wandered around.
We also enjoyed a bunch of the Epcot International Festival of the Arts offerings, several of which we hadn’t done before because we usually visit in the evenings after some of this stuff ends. (See if you can spot the hidden Sarah above!)
While Disney’s Hollywood Studios was packed and chaotic, Epcot was actually fairly chill for most of the day. So long as you don’t go in the evenings or weekends, Epcot is definitely your best option crowd-wise, right now.
Frozen Ever After was our final stop, and we knocked that out and shortly thereafter our boarding group for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was called.
In retrospect, we could’ve done things more efficiently first thing in the morning, but this day in Epcot went swimmingly in the end.
We took the Skyliner back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and went inside to get a quick feel for crowds (and some more pictures). Judging by the huge numbers of guests exiting versus very few entering, it was immediately clear the park was getting less busy.
Inside, this was even more obvious, as visible crowds and wait times had both dropped precipitously (and would continue to drop later in the afternoon). We had other obligations, so we didn’t stick around. However, it seemed highly likely we could’ve successfully used a modified version of our Half-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance would’ve been the big wildcard–we didn’t do it, but it appears that it broke down again shortly after we left and then began calling boarding groups in quick succession in a scramble just to get through the primary boarding groups.
Suffice to say, yesterday was another rough one for the ride.
There are a few takeaways here, most of which are fairly upbeat. First, entering DHS on an Extra Magic Hours morning at Epcot and immediately leaving for International Gateway is a top-notch strategy.
With that approach, you could probably make all of your FastPass+ reservations for midday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and do everything in short order at Epcot via the standby lines. We already have a hotel reservation and will be testing this approach once Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens.
Second, if you’re willing to be flexible and spontaneous, you can still leverage the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue to your advantage.
Again, think of this as a “bonus” FastPass+ (minus the fixed return time) that doesn’t need to be in the same park as your other FastPasses.
A lot of people have expressed anxiety in the comments to our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance reports, and that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to inspire.
If you are an obsessive, compulsive planner, this might throw you for a loop. The solution is to adopt a more go-with-the-flow attitude, modifying your schedule on the fly as necessary. (As our day demonstrates, this is totally possible.)
Third, Park Hopper tickets are almost essential if you’re trying to do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. We’ve said that before, but we’ll reiterate here.
Being able to bounce between DHS and Epcot is huge.
Finally, if you have Park Hopper tickets and try for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on both your Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios days (as demonstrated here, that’s totally feasible), your chances of experiencing the attraction at least once are nearly 100%.
There are some horror stories about people not getting to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and that has (we think) caused a disproportionate negative reaction to the virtual queue. Our goal with all of these posts approaching the attraction from all angles isn’t to scare you–it’s to prepare you.
Each time we’ve done these rope drop mornings at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we’ve showed up no earlier than 30 minutes before park opening. Every single time, we could’ve done Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance while also getting plenty of other things done. All planned day-of.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance absolutely does require strategy and knowledge, but once you have that, there’s really no sense freaking out about this. If you give yourselves two days to experience it and arrive shortly before park opening with a solid plan-of-attack, you’re virtually guaranteed success. Being willing and able to spontaneously pivot will definitely help minimize headaches with the new Walt Disney World blockbuster.
Still have unanswered questions about the attraction? Read our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which covers everything you need to know. If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. 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
Have you tried Park Hopping between Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot after scoring a Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass? What was your approach? Have you done morning Extra Magic Hours at Epcot after joining the virtual queue? If you’ve done RotR in the last week, what time did you arrive, which boarding group did you receive, and when was your return time? Do you agree or disagree with our 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!
Now you’re giving me hives. When you say logged into the same account, are you both on MDE logged in as the same user on two phones?
OR – I have a username and my husband has a username – and we both have the ability to make plans for each other and both kids. Should we each login to MDE as ourselves and both try?
Which is more effective?
Someone else asked a similar question down below, but honestly, I read it twice and still don’t really understand, so I have this same question…
All party members logged into ONE account and trying to get a BG?
Or all party members have their own account, linked, and trying to get BG?
Appreciate anyone’s help!
All party members logged into the same account
Hi Tom,
You seem to be going to Disney World more often these days. Have you moved to Florida? I only ask because in the past you’ve said you would never consider moving there because it would lessen the experience.
Tom, thank you so much for your tips on this! I was wondering if you found it better to use Disney Wi-Fi or to turn that off and use the cellular service on your phone when trying for a boarding group?
I saw on another popular vlog that using your own data while trying to secure a boarding group is best.
Thanks for all the work and effort Tom (if you can call going to Disney World to test ride strategies work!). It’s been helpful in planning for our upcoming trip.
“In retrospect, the best approach of all would’ve been to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios at ~7:30 am, immediately leave for morning Extra Magic Hours at Epcot, trying to score a boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in the comparatively uncrowded International Gateway area”
Question: so you have to tap in to the park to register for a BG, but you don’t actually have to geographically BE in the park at the time?
CORRECT. The app does know know or care about your physical location. It only knows and cares about your ticket media status.
Okay so am I understanding this correct? It would make sense for my family to plan to arrive to hollywood studios 30 min before it opens. And get scanned into the park. Then leave right away and go to Epcot to be ready for rope drop and try and do some things like Frozen/soaring etc. but make sure right at 8:00 to secure our boarding group. Then woudl it make sense to have our fast passes at hollywood studios for the afternoon? So we could try and go back to do slinky and toystory options when they are less crowded?
I want to experience star wars land in full, but we also have never been to toystory land. We will have three 5 year old boys with us who I think will just love both lands at Hollywood studios. I select my fast passes next month (we are going end of May) so all these reports are ROTR are very interesting as I try to figure out what to do. Thanks!
The only possible downside to that I can see would be if you get a low number BG you’d have to return to HS in the morning if you don’t want to miss your group being called. You have a two-hour window once they call your group. You might be able to work something out with a cast member at Epcot to see if they can bump your BG to a higher number for the afternoon but don’t count on it.
I will relate my story of something I did back in December. Remember, this was before the current BG format, when you could join a BG as soon as you were scanned into the park, regardless of the time. I arrived at the entrance to HS at 4:45am and stood in line for 2 hours. They started letting people in at around 6:45. I was about 5 minutes back and still got BG #11.
My wife, who didn’t want to do ROTR a second time, and I had arranged to meet at the Early Magic Hour at the Magic Kingdom at 8:00am and do a split day with HS in the afternoon. I had hoped to get a high # BG but I was surprised that I got #11. I explained things to a cast member standing along Main Street and asked her if she could bump me up to a higher number that might be called in the afternoon. She scanned my Magic Band and did a little Disney magic on her laptop and said, “There you go”. She explained that I now had an all day BG, where I could come back anytime of the day. I thanked her profusely and headed out to the Magic Kingdom and arrived just before the Early Magic Hour started.
Anyway, if you get a low BG see if a cast member can work a little Disney magic for you.
Do you know how many boarding groups they were able to get through yesterday with all of the downtime?
They got through group 70, but started at 10, so 60 total groups. Group 71 was the first backup group, so no backup groups were called.
Ugh. Thank you for the information. We are out there next week and are really hoping to make it on.
Stay positive, David! I just got back from the park and every day I was there they got to group 100 or higher (I think they hit 117 one day); yesterday must have just been a really bad day downtime wise. Like Tom says, if you are able to try more than 1 day and follow his tips your chances of getting on are almost 100%.
I like your energy, Jared! I will report back after next week. 🙂 Thanks for the support.
Thanks to all of Tom’s tips and other messages of support we were able to score Boarding group 13 on our first try! The audible cheers at 8am and groans at 8:03 were resounding through the park. Thank you again for helping make this trip amazing for my son and his friends!
Tom, just got back from Disney World a couple nights ago and wanted to give you a huge THANK YOU for all of your reporting on Rise of the Resistance! I’m a huge Star Wars fan who delayed visiting until both rides were up and running and thanks to your great advice I was able to experience it 3 times during my trip while getting plenty of other things done. The first time we rode I was so happy I teared up; it was everything I could have hoped for!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the tips and reporting so I went in prepared. Like you, we were able to accomplish a lot of other things aside from the RotR by staying flexible and I had a fantastic trip.
Any thoughts when RotR might become a FP+ option? Maybe 2022?
When it stops breaking down all the time and can be treated as a “normal” attraction that can reliably stay open for the park’s full operating day.
Considering that the ride has been open for over 2 months without its reliability improving appreciably, your guess is as good as mine.
Practical question on the RoR boarding app. When more than one person is attempting on different phones, are you logged into the same account? Or separate accounts where both users have permission to book? My wife and I have generally just been using the same user account on different phones, but don’t want to risk this messing things up in my 30 second booking window. 🙂
I have the same question as Mike!
The official Disney policy is don’t do this…The outsider view is your mileage may vary…The people in the parks doing this and discussing on other boards says it works just fine. Essentially, if anything slows down the ability to get a BG, it’s not having multiple devices connected to 1 account as the issue. I’ve seen numerous people state they had multiple people connecting and a lot of times wind up in very low BG’s.
This is my exact question! I’ve been signing into my wife’s account to help plan our trip, and thought her and I should both try to log-in right at 8:00, in case one of our apps crashes. However, I’m worried doing that will cause it’s own mess.
I’m no expert but in many of the Youtubers who Vlog this stuff they often use two separate phones with the same account to snag boarding group. Of course they can only get one ticket each but it has saved them several times when one phone doesn’t load properly. When seconds matter I think it’s a wise move to have you and your other party members try at the same time.
So if we’re both logged in, we can’t get a BG for our kids too? Or do you mean one ticket person?
Craig, as long as your kids are part of your friends and family list on your app, you can get a boarding pass for all of you.
I was one of the unfortunate ones with group 80 yesterday so I lost out. Also a little frustrating that the skyliner isn’t running early enough to take that over even when staying in a skyliner resort. Has to bus over from Riviera. Hopefully by May they will be running earlier than park opening. They were in December…
Tom: Love your posts . . . Planning a trip to WDW in April and will attempt some of your techniques described in this post (particularly for MMRR). Two things: I’m curious again about the viability of getting RotR boarding passes outside DHS. I’ll look forward to your next post on that. Also, can you tell me how long it takes to use the Skyliner to get between DHS and Epcot? Thanks!
15-20 minutes depending upon lines in between, potentially longer if there’s a stoppage.
If time is ever of the essence, we walk between the two parks. However, we are physically fit and fast-walkers who do not have a stroller or small children.
I was also very curious about how long it takes to ride the skyliner between the two parks!
Do you think with the heavy early crowds the evenings are less crowded? I just can’t see too many people surviving rope drop to close with the early start and packed house.
Even if you didn’t park hop and were on a sky liner resort seems like maybe you could get more done by leaving and returning later in the day?
“Do you think with the heavy early crowds the evenings are less crowded?”
Absolutely. For many people–especially repeat visitors who have seen the shows–Disney’s Hollywood Studios is not a full day park.
Other people simply burnout after arriving super early in the morning. Even though DHS is only open until 8 pm right now, it’s still fairly quiet in the last two hours it’s open. (At least, compared to these bonkers mornings.)
at WDW now – was first in line for skyliner this morning – they left us on at 7:47am – we were thru security and in the park by 8:05 but no boarding groups were available. I guess if staying on property uber is the best bet.
yeah, today was a crazy day where all boarding groups, even backup, were gone within 75-90 seconds of park opening.
Backups usually last a bit longer, but with the holiday weekend, seems like they’re flying through them.
I was monitoring the BGs from over 1,000 miles away this morning and I saw that all BGs were gone before 8:02. I’ve never seen that before. I guess a lot of people want to spend Valentine’s Day at Disney.
Tom,
We are still deciding whether to go to WDW or DIsneyland Resort for our next trip, in 2021. Your continually evolving strategies for each park will be very helpful.
While this is not directly related to your park hopping strategy (so please excuse the off-topic question), it is related to something that you mentioned that is essential for me personally in making Disney plans: Motion sickness. I am impressed and jealous that Sarah can handle the green side of Mission: Space. Even that does me in. I can handle coasters, but any sort of motion simulator is the end of my fun for a while. My question is, how does Sarah fare on the Galaxy’s Edge attractions? I am assuming that Smuggler’s Run will be a no-go for me, but I have not heard if Rise of the Resistance presents any problems of this type. (I have similar questions about Flight of Passage, which opened two weeks after our last WDW trip.) Thanks. Keep up the good work.
Sarah is fine on both Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attractions. I’m guessing she couldn’t do Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run more than once–and it may cause an issue if there were a lot of crashing–but she has been fine thus far with it.
Rise of the Resistance is zero problem whatsoever. She could do that repeatedly (if that were somehow an option) without issue.
I am also interested in this question, as we are planning a trip with my Mom who is a no-go for motion simulators. I can also give a partial answer. Smuggler’s Run is a motion simulator. I would say it is significantly less stomach churning than Star Tours, but if you are averse to all motion simulators (and it sounds like you are) then you should probably skip it. But I haven’t done RotR.
My husband also gets motion sickness, similar to you he’s fine on coasters but motion simulators get tricky for him. He can’t do Star Tours or Mission: Space, did pretty well on Smuggler’s Run but did mention feeling slightly queasy afterwards. He *loved* Rise of the Resistance and Flight of Passage; they were his two favorite attractions we did and he had zero motion sickness complaints about either.
Just a tip for those with motion sickness, I also suffer from it and always bring Dramamine with me to the parks! I take it about 45 – 60 minutes before a ride I think will affect me and I have no issues. It lasts about 4 – 6 hours so hopefully even if you have a long queue wait it should still be effective. The only ride I haven’t tried is Mission Space either side, just because I’m concerned even Dramamine won’t get me through that one! Lol! But I’ve used it on Smuggler’s Run, RotR, Flight of Passage, ToT, Star Tours, and various coasters and it has worked great for me!
Patrick – we take 1/2 a Dramamine or Bonine to take the edge off the effects of the rides. This works great at Disney and especially well at Universal where most rides have that “up-down-all-around” factor! Two things: get non-drowsy version if available; try at home before hand to see how you handle it. Of course check your drug interactions checker if on other medications. Good luck and have fun!
We’re anxiously awaiting our 30 day mark to make FPs for Spring Break March 23-29. We’ve got HS planned for day 2 (3/24) and had planned on rope drop (which as of right now is scheduled for 9 a.m.) to try for ROTR. The plan was to then stay in the park for the day till our boarding group was called. We even made a sit-down dining reservation at 1 p.m. realizing we may need a break.
The plan was to see what FPs were available at the 30-day mark and make them at HS, knowing that the later in the day it got, the more we could just wait in standby lines.
Now I’m wondering if we’d be better off still planning a full 10-hour park day, but spending the first half at EPCOT. Seems like you did ok there with FPs on the fly. I’m guessing we can’t make EPCOT FPs and still get ROTR? But we could get ROTR and then make FPs in another park afterwards? Does that make sense?
Jessica, am following your post as we will be there that same week. HS on the 26th.
Was also going to grab some fast passes for that day at our 30 day window. But now wondering about EPCOT. Have fun
You can have Epcot FastPasses and still get a Boarding Group. I went this week and had Epcot planned for Day 2 and Hollywood Studios for Day 4 of our trip, after reading Tom’s posts we decided to try for Rise of the Resistance on the Epcot day so we’d have another shot if we didn’t get on. Left all my Epcot FastPasses as originally booked, snagged a guaranteed boarding group and then spent most of the day in Epcot as planned, hopping back to Hollywood Studios once our group was called.
Wow! Leaving HS before getting ROR boarding pass would have never crossed my mind. I guess I just assumed you had to STILL be in the park to grab the attraction’s boarding pass at official park opening time. I would love to hear if anyone has actually done this.
This idea of going with the flow is wrecking everything we have been conditioned to think about visiting Disney World. Thanks for your posts. Please keep trying different strategies to help those of us that get only one shot to visit every few years.
You can do it, but…if a technical glitch happens when you try to get your BG and you’re out of the park, it’s gonna be hard to get corrected. Some people report friends/family missing when they try to get the BG even if they scanned into the park – If this happens, get your BG anyway, then go to GET CM and explain the situation, they’ll help you out. Other tech glitches are happening like app freeze, etc. It’s better to be in the park and able to talk to someone than to miss out entirely because you left the park too early.
Erik- You make a very valid point. If you have difficulty while trying to access a ROTR boarding group, you can wait in line to speak with a cast member. That would be impossible to do if you were already at the International Gateway. Thanks for your comment.
Erik definitely makes a good point.
It’s a gamble both ways–you could have a problem that no one can help with outside the park, and you also could have a faster connection that enables you to score a lower boarding group.
I would note that it’s a very small percentage of guests who have a problem versus those who don’t. You hear more online reports about issues, but that’s because people are biased towards reporting negative experiences. Judging by the number of people we see around the Guest Experience Team umbrellas each morning, <5% of guests have any sort of issue.
That’s very True Tom, but…if you’re on your once every x year trip, it’s a lot more difficult to swallow being in that <5% group, than if you're able to frequently visit HS and try again. Now…This holiday weekend has seemed to affect guest numbers in a crazy way – all boarding groups gone in less than 5 minutes the last 2 days. uggh. that's nerve wracking for those that haven't ridden yet, and tech glitches and ride (un)reliability are adding to it.
I do want to point out, a lot of the app issues came up with the release of MDE 5.8. Yesterday, they released 5.8.1 and most people that I've seen have reported much better success with the new version.
One other negative about leaving HS before 8, if you end up with a boarding group in the first 10-15 groups called, you'll be right back in HS within 1 to 2 hours. Overall, I think a best of both worlds strategy, if you want to do EMH at Epcot is to hang out at by the crossroads until you secure your boarding group. If it's over 30, you can feel confident you'll have a couple hours before being called and a couple hour return window, so you can head to Epcot, and still have 40-45 minutes of EMH at Epcot plus an hour or two of low crowds still to be able to get everything done then head back to HS for the rest of your day. This is all just the view of an outsider preparing looking in, so as Tom likes to say YMMV 🙂
“In retrospect, the best approach of all would’ve been to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios at ~7:30 am, immediately leave for morning Extra Magic Hours at Epcot, trying to score a boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in the comparatively uncrowded International Gateway area.”
Wait! You can scan in to DHS and leave and not actually be in the park when boarding groups open? How did I not know this?
He got BG while in HS, then hopped to Epcot. Must be inside HS to get BG.
That is what he did do that morning but this paragraph sounds like he is saying to scan in at DHS so you are “Live” for DHS and then leave before park opens and join a boarding group while waiting at Epcot’s international gateway for its emh park open.
Makes sense if this works, it’s not like you scan out as you leave the park and your ticket remains active for the day.
See update in the post above–you can leave DHS and still obtain a boarding pass.
“Must be inside HS to get BG.”
NOPE. The app does not know or care about your physical location. It ONLY knows and cares about your ticket media status.
Tom, great article and something I’ve been considering doing for our upcoming trip in May. Do I understand you correctly that you can tap into DHS and leave before getting a boarding group? My previous understanding is that we would have to go to DHS, wait until 8, get a boarding group and THEN go to Epcot via the skyliner. If you can leave DHS before 8 and still get a BG then this is definitely the best strategy.
You do not have to stay. The app does not know or care about your physical location. It ONLY knows and cares about your ticket media status.
i’m finding each and every one of these reports thoroughly interesting, even though i have no trip planned out right now. i proudly fall into that ocd planner group mentioned, so i guess i want to be prepared in the very unlikely event i somehow find myself at one of the parks sometime soon. i get anxious just because i seem to have the worst luck in the world with stuff like this. i’m the person whose paperwork is constantly lost or misfiled, my internet goes down 10 minutes before my dining window opens and i have to rush at predawn hours to my mother’s house to use hers (true story), we run into dorian, stuff like that. i would have to have the best luck in my life ever to score a boarding group if i was there, lol. i do very much appreciate the spirit of all the posts though, and it certainly wouldn’t be because i wasn’t following all the tips if i was there and managed not to get a group.