UPDATE: Star Wars Rise of Resistance Virtual Queue
Walt Disney World announced there will be no FastPass+ and only standby lines during the phased reopening, but there’s one exception: Disney’s Hollywood Studios will offer a new virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. In this post, we’ll cover how it’ll work & differ from the previous boarding pass system, and offer some recommendations if you’re planning a visit. (Updated July 23, 2020.)
For those just joining us, the virtual queue and boarding pass system for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was the most divisive “issue” at Walt Disney World in the months prior to the closure. (Ah, simpler times!) We had a roller coaster relationship with the system, visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios before sunrise at least once per week from early December through early March.
We won’t rehash all of that here since most of you probably are familiar with it, instead fast-forwarding to the weeks immediately before the closure. At that point, frustration was setting in for us and most Walt Disney World guests, leading us to proclaim “this isn’t working.” We offset that with the slightly more upbeat Hollywood Studios: Walt Disney World’s Best Rides & Most Frustrating Park, which will take on new and amplified meaning with many DHS shows being dark upon reopening.
This background isn’t just filler–it’ll be important going forward and we’ll circle back to it in our commentary below. It’s also against this backdrop that Walt Disney World has made the last-minute announcement to use a new (or modified) virtual queue at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Here are the details Walt Disney World has released as to how it’ll work for guests with upcoming Disney Park Pass reservations to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
July 23, 2020 Update: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is once again be using virtual queue in the My Disney Experience app, but with a few changes to the process.
Most importantly guests will have an opportunity at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. to attempt to join the virtual queue. This means that, in theory, there is no need to arrive early to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the ‘boarding pass dash’.
Originally when Disney’s Hollywood Studios reopened, guests could join the virtual queue at 10 am, 1 pm, or 4 pm. However, the afternoon times seldom had much availability, and often resulted in guest frustration. Those two afternoon boarding pass releases are now being consolidated into a single 2 pm time.
We’ve been to the park several times since it reopened, which has confirmed much of our speculation below. You can read about these experiences in Our Disney’s Hollywood Studios Reopening Report: A Tale of Two Visits and Star Wars Rise of the Resistance Ride Report: Our Successes & Struggles. These are great resources to consult prior to visiting, as they’ll set your expectations at an appropriate level and provide useful ‘know before you go’ info.
Whether it’s your first trip to Batuu or you have joined the fight against the First Order before, there are a few important details to know before you arrive:
First, make sure you have the My Disney Experience app. Once you enter the park, log in to your account at one of the distribution times (10 a.m. or 2 p.m.). Once you have logged in, select “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Virtual Queue” on the home screen. You will be able to view the current status and next steps for joining the virtual queue.
The app will indicate when there is no availability for a specific distribution time. Some guests may join backup groups.
As long as your My Disney Experience account is linked to park tickets for you and the others in your group, you can enroll everyone in the virtual queue at the same time. In order to give as many guests as possible the opportunity to join the Resistance, each guest can enter the virtual queue no more than once per day.
Make sure push notifications are turned on for My Disney Experience so you will be alerted if your group is called to return. You’ll have up to an hour from the time of the alert to go to the entrance of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Please note that joining the virtual queue does not guarantee the ability to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
If you have any questions or need assistance with joining the virtual queue, Guest Experience Team Cast Members are stationed throughout the park. While you wait for your virtual queue group to be called, you can enjoy other experiences at Disney’s Hollywood Studios including the newest addition, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is one of the most popular attractions at Walt Disney World Resort–and one of the best. See our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Ride Review or Our Rankings of All 94 Attractions at Walt Disney World (scroll to the very top of the list!) for more on that.
The virtual queue is being used at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance due to its mix of popularity and unreliability. For now, all other attractions will use only regular standby queues to manage capacity and to maintain physical distancing.
In terms of commentary, this is one of those “why didn’t they do this sooner?!” ideas that sounds great in theory. And we really hope it’s great in practice, too. However, it still has potential problems and won’t necessarily obviate the problem of large crowds early in the morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
First and most obviously, there’s a limit on joining the virtual queue but not on attempting to join. This means that arriving at rope drop gives you two opportunities to attempt entering the virtual queue, whereas arriving at noon gives you one chance. The more you “play,” the greater your chances of winning.
Second, there are the persistent issues with uptime and reliability for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Given that all construction was paused during the closure, there’s no reason to believe these problems have been resolved.
This means that by the time afternoon rolls around, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance might be already having woes on any given day, and not be in a position to distribute more (or many more) spots in the virtual queue.
Finally, there’s still the reality that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a top-heavy attraction lineup (again, see our Hollywood Studios: Walt Disney World’s Best Rides & Most Frustrating Park). This is even more of a pronounced problem now, as there’s not much else to do in the park with none of the stage shows operating.
There are actually silver linings in this, though. One is that Disney Park Pass capacity for Disney’s Hollywood Studios is almost certainly dramatically lower than the other parks due to its crowd-flow and capacity issues. Another is that most rope drop guests won’t stick around Disney’s Hollywood Studios all day.
This presents a golden opportunity for a late arrival strategy working well at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This was already true prior to the closure of Walt Disney World–it was the one park that had wait times peaking in early morning (as opposed to early afternoon for all other parks). Previously, if you didn’t care about Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, your best option was arriving to DHS in late afternoon.
Now, you’ll potentially be able to arrive in mid-afternoon and do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. You actually might have even better luck with this approach, as shorter lines elsewhere (due to limited distribution of Disney Park Passes for DHS) coupled with the lack of shows and other “filler” could cause guests to depart Disney’s Hollywood Studios even earlier than before on average.
Of course, all of this is just speculation at this point. How the multiple drop times for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will work and how they’ll impact crowd patterns in Disney’s Hollywood Studios remains to be seen. We have our theories, but we won’t actually know until observing trends as they play out for a couple of weeks.
With all of that said, we have no intention of rope dropping Disney’s Hollywood Studios to cover this from all angles in excruciating detail as we did in the past. We’re going to bank on that late arrival strategy working well, and will share how to leverage that. Hopefully, this new virtual queue system will make DHS doable as an afternoon park, with pool time, Disney Springs, or something else in the morning.
As we’ve discussed before, our perspective is one of risk mitigation and harm reduction, making reasonably informed and responsible decisions to venture out as safely as possible and avoid the riskiest situations when we do. Our First Day Back in Magic Kingdom experience was flawless, and we’ve been impressed with guest behavior, rule compliance, etc. However, rope drop at DHS is a different beast entirely. Like indoor dining, we view rope drop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios as a higher-risk situation.
This is because it’s very difficult to unlearn ingrained habits and behavior, and even guests with the absolute best intentions are bound to make ‘missteps’ in terms of physical distancing while waiting outside the turnstiles at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In that anxious and stressful setting, it’s an inevitability.
Ultimately, this is no knock on guests–to the contrary, it’s preparing you for what to expect. People are going to make mistakes during this period of temporary abnormal. So much of what we do happens on an instinctive level or while operating in ‘autopilot’ mode. (How many of you don’t even remember driving to work some days after arriving there? Certain behaviors become routine.)
Nevertheless, your mileage may vary, as might your personal comfort levels. Even if more congested than is ideal, rope drop does occur outdoors, so that’s a plus. Just don’t act surprised or upset when you show up to the park ~30 minutes before opening and things aren’t going perfectly (and as an aside, don’t publicly shame people for honest mistakes). It’s easy to foresee rope drop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios being one of the biggest reopening problem points.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you been done the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding pass dash? Will you be attempting to join the new/modified virtual queue at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Do you plan on arriving at rope drop, or will you utilize a late arrival strategy? 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!
Tom, have you had a chance to try the afternoon strategy yet? How’d it go? Thanks for your insights as always!
We are flying in for a quick weekend trip to celebrate my sons birthday so we only have half a day Friday and all day Saturday.
If we arrive at HS by 12:00 on Friday, how likely are we to make the 2:00 queue? Or should we not risk missing the 10:00?
I prefer to spend the day at MK as more to do and the half day at HS but can not risk not riding Rise of the Resistance as that is important to my husband.
Any thoughts? Suggestions? As I have to pick my Park when I buy my tickets.
Can anyone tell me, if you want multiple family members to attempt to join the virtual queue, do they need to all be logged into the same account or does each family member need their own account and link the tickets to the new accounts? Just want to avoid any mistakes…. thanks!
Also, zero rope drop crowd at about 10:02 AM. We had no line when we walked in.
So I went on 7/22 and I missed the 10 AM window, passes were gone within 5 seconds for the 1 PM and then I got backup group 60 at 4 PM. We were called within 45 minutes.
We were walking out of the park right before close and Galaxy’s Edge was EMPTY except for maybe 2 other families. I can’t 100% confirm it BUT it looked like the CMs at the RoR gate were letting people in who did not actually have boarding groups since it was empty.
Thank you for the info and I commend you on being safe and smart! I agree that rope drop at HS feels like it will be heavier risk and I’m glad you don’t feel you have to risk that for the sake of the blog. I’ll be looking forward to hearing how your later morning strategy works!
Curious, with the lines being so long for Runaway Railway. Do you think they will do virtual line for this too?
The line is not long in the afternoon. During the day on 7/22 it was going between 35-75 minutes consistently. After 3 PM it was 40 or less. We rode at 6 PM and it was walk on (with a posted 20 min wait time).
It was a Wednesday and it rained mid-day but essentially every ride was walk on.
It’s so sad that you are so anxious and stressed Tom and that it permeates your writing.
99.996% non-lethal to the non-nursing home population and compromised folks. Just like the flu. But it’s an important election year for the left.
Agree. So much propaganda out there.
Tom’s caution is warranted by the facts and stats: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu
I guess they may be updating the app. Yesterday morning I had the “ Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Virtual Queue” on my home page and on the page that the 3 lines takes you to in the right bottom corner in the app, last night it was gone. Hopefully it will be back by the 15th when they open. Anyone else missing it? Or am I looking in the wrong area.
I am really excited to have th is opportunity. I had a hard time securing a pass in March with everyone else trying at the same time. Good move Disney! Thank you Tom for always having great info to share!
Do you think Savi’s workshop will reopen with the park, or will that experience remain closed due to social distancing?
It’ll remain closed.
Will we be allowed to leave a park and then come back later in the day if we want?
Yes you can
Tom, Do you know how DAS/rider swap works for this ride? Thanks!
Prior to the closure, if you secured a boarding pass and needed DAS access, you would report to the ride at your boarding groups’ time and then CM’s would scam your bands and send you through a separate queue. I believe the rider swap was going through the same way as well.
It’s still the same. We used it 2 days ago.
Was kind of hoping that you wouldn’t have to actually be in the park to get a boarding pass. Since we have to reserve our park days now, they should already know who is going to be there on any given day and I would imagine that the vast majority would want to ride RotR.
Agree! It would be lovely if you could be on Disney World grounds proper and if you have a reservation that day for DHS, be allowed to join the queue from wherever you are.
Hey Tom, this is unrelated, but has there been any more info released about annual pass holder refunds for the remaining term? Just wondering if something was announced and I missed it as more info was promised early July.
With U.K./US travel unlikely to resume any time soon, I’m regrettably in the position of needing to go down this avenue 🙁
I called in April to cancel and my platinum pass was refunded for the days it was closed on Monday. I got 383.18 back to my CC. I think they are still working through the people who called in and then they will set up something for the people who waited.
I’m curious to see how this plays out. I can’t imagine this idea wasn’t thought of before now, which makes me think there is some drawback to it that made Disney opt for the previous system, but with the current pandemic that drawback is now more appealing than letting huge crowds form at park opening. Hopefully it goes smoothly and they can keep this system going forward, it does seem less stressful than the old version (which worked fine for me when I was there in February but those 10 minutes around park opening did make me anxious!).
interested to see how this goes, not that i’m going to be there anytime soon. but i envision the major rope drop crowds will persist, even in spite of the limited capacity. people are still going to have FOMO, but i just hope they are actively encouraging social distancing and not going to allow the crowds we saw in previous months in one location. i don’t know what time the park is opening but i hope with the later time that means the entire park will be open and CMs will be encouraging people to spread out as they wait to access the system. i would go away from others myself but as people become focused on trying to board, they may lose sight of how close they are to others.
I’m very curious to see how this new system plays out. Previously, if 120 boarding groups could access RotR in a given day (good day!), then will they release 40 boarding groups for each time slot and all 40 have to be used before the next opening? Will the ones that have backup boarding groups from 10 am be given priority for the next time slot if they aren’t given an opportunity to ride? We’ll be in HS on July 19th, and our plan was to go early then take a mid day break and return. If we can get that first time slot, our plans may have to change. Decisions decisions
Sarah please let me know how this goes. I’m curious as well as if you book a 10am and don’t get it do you have to rebook another time or get automatically moved to the next time. We are considering going to HS in a few weeks.
I am very happy to see this as I figured that it was going to be a MAD house at rope drop. I kept wondering how they could do social distancing with the way things were with Rise.
“Another is that most rope drop guests won’t stick around Disney’s Hollywood Studios all day.”
Is there a chance, however, that guests who enter Hollywood Studios will be more likely to spend most of the day there due to the fact that there is currently no Park Hopper? It seems to me that people would be wasting the value of a day’s ticket if they don’t stick around longer.
Also, I wonder how they will handle back up boarding groups with three chances to join. Will they have back up groups for each joining time and go through them as time allows until the next joining time arrives?
None of this really applies to me personally, as we already had our Florida trip last month and opted to keep our ticket credits for next year with the hopes that things will be in better shape by then. Your post just got my mind wheels turning, and I figured these would be questions others would have as well.
As always, thanks for all the work you do. It is a tremendous help for us when we are planning our trips!
“Is there a chance, however, that guests who enter Hollywood Studios will be more likely to spend most of the day there due to the fact that there is currently no Park Hopper?”
Yep, that’ll definitely happen, too.
However, it’s also going to be disproportionately Annual Passholders at first–many of whom have experienced Rise of the Resistance already. Will they want to wait around in the heat once they’ve done everything–and could just go home and enjoy the A/C?
So many variables make it hard to predict–it’ll be worth keeping an eye on how it all plays out.
Very good observation. That’s why we rely on your expert experience so much as a help and guide when navigating the parks!
Yes, it will be very interesting to see how it all plays out. Although we are not going anytime soon, we will definintely be keeping tabs on all the happenings.
This is one of those things that stresses me out the most about our upcoming trip. Hopefully this queue system will give much better odds – which it must just by the factor of already limited crowds – but isn’t guaranteed to since they will probably also be limiting the number of people per group. With park jumping no longer an option, we will just have one day to attempt scoring a pass, so I’m preparing myself for disappointment despite my optimism that this will work out. I’ll definitely be waiting for your review on how this works in process!
Maggie I have the same feeling. Preparing for disappointment. But hoping it will work out since we only have the one shot at it.