Rope Drop Dilemma: Star Wars Rise of Resistance Report
After last week’s “frustrating foray” with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, I wondered if our late arrival strategy might be more of a hassle. We thus set out for Walt Disney World at the crack of dawn yesterday, opting to fight the rope drop crowd at Hollywood Studios. In this ride report, we’ll share our experience and attempt to resolve the dilemma of whether an early or late arrival is the best approach.
We got to the front of Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 6:25 am, where there was already a long line for security. This was the first time we had encountered any line for security at DHS since Rise of the Resistance opened; I’m not sure if it’s an anomaly or lower staffing is the new normal now that peak season is over. Either way, it still only took 10 minutes to get through bag check.
By the time we advanced to the turnstiles, guests had already been entering the park for a few minutes. While even our modest wait at bag check felt interminably long due to the slow/inconsistent pace (seriously Disney, get baggage scanning machines), this was a breeze. The tapstiles were not requiring fingerprint verification, so even though we were initially backed up beyond the ticket booths, we ended up inside the park and under Crossroads of the World by 6:40 am…
At this point, we could’ve continued forward as far as we could to the holding area in front of the stage (in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre). This would’ve been the ideal approach if we wanted to rope drop Slinky Dog Dash or Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.
However, the crowd up there was already massive, the area looked cramped, and also very bright thanks to the illuminated stage screens…and we hadn’t yet had our morning coffee. Plus, it was a foggy morning, and I felt that’d be perfect for some ominous photos of the Hollywood Tower Hotel:
After that, we waited for what felt like ages but was really just like 15 minutes. We could’ve arrived about 20 minutes later, but the problem with that is things could’ve taken longer. It seems like our existing advice of getting to the park 30 minutes before the official park opening time remains the best course of action if you’re planning on doing rope drop.
At around 6:58 am, we both began refreshing the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Virtual Queue page on the My Disney Experience app incessantly to see if it was live yet. It went live the instant our phones rolled over to 7 am, and we both tried to join boarding groups (for both of us–not individually).
We had zero issues with this process, and scored a boarding group instantly–within maybe 5-7 seconds of the clock striking 7 am. Yet, we were in boarding group 43. Others around us reported higher groups (we heard someone say something as high as the 60s) and lower (in the teens).
That range should underscore the luck of the draw involved, and illustrate why this is a hybrid first-come, first-served and lottery system. While everyone inside the park yesterday at 7 am received a primary boarding group, the return times on those would’ve ranged from the morning hours until late afternoon.
The whole point of us arriving so early was to see if 45-60 minutes spent earlier in the morning meant no park hopping or wasted time later in the day, so we decided to stick around. We thus immediately headed back to Toy Story Land, where Slinky Dog Dash already had a 60 minute wait by 7:05 am.
About 10 minutes after that, the line for Slinky Dog Dash already stretched back to Walt Disney Presents and had ballooned to 80 minutes. The line for the attraction peaked before 8 am at 100 minutes. In other words, the longest posted wait of the day was not in the afternoon, but in the early morning. Same for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run.
Elevated wait times were consistent among all headliners at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and it’s safe to say that the early morning advantage in doing these attractions as walk-ons or with minimal wait has all but evaporated. Had we been at the front of the pack, we probably could’ve done Slinky Dog Dash with an under 20 minute wait, but that would’ve been it.
No more “riding the wave” of the crowd through Disney’s Hollywood Studios, doing everything with a minimal wait before returning to your Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding group. Now it’s essentially a matter of picking one E-Ticket (at best), doing that, and then encountering the longest lines of the day everywhere else.
To compound matters yesterday, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance did not open and begin accepting boarding groups with the park. Still, our goal here was to avoid wasted time by park hopping, so we waited around until 8 am.
At that point, Rise of the Resistance still wasn’t open, so we decided to cut our losses and head out. We also had to get update photos from Epcot, so it’s not like leaving was a tremendous inconvenience. It turned out we made the right call, as the attraction didn’t start accepting boarding groups until around 8:45 am.
We continued watching the return progress in boarding groups, and saw that they were breezing along. So, at around 11 am when boarding group 41 was called we headed back over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Even as we entered the park, we noticed it had been stalled on 41 for a while.
Nevertheless, we headed back to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and saw that a slow trickle of guests were still entering. It wasn’t broken down! Eventually, boarding group 42 was called…and almost immediately thereafter, rope was put up around the entrance of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which had just broken down.
Knowing we’d be in for at least a 70 minute delay plus a surge of guests when the attraction came back online, I opted to take the Skyliner over to Epcot again. The smart move would’ve been doing MuppetVision or some other supporting attraction that didn’t have a long wait, but I still needed photos from Epcot.
Not long after arriving in World Showcase, our boarding group was called. We met back up at the front of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance around 45 minutes later and did the attraction with an average wait. Everything was smooth and firing on all cylinders–no broken effects or unnecessary queue. So that was a plus!
It’s worth noting that nothing we experienced yesterday (the ride opening late or breaking down midday) is out of the ordinary. However, had Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened with the park and had everything been running smoothly, it would’ve taken roughly 2 hours for our boarding group to be called.
Meaning that in a best case scenario, our boarding would’ve been up by ~9 am, and able to return until 11 am. While that wouldn’t have been sufficient time to do multiple headliners, we could’ve done Slinky Dog Dash plus maybe Toy Story Mania and definitely Star Tours.
Or, we could’ve done one of the three before heading over to Epcot to rope drop Frozen Ever After or Soarin’ Around the World. (We did not do this, but I’m guessing with Test Track currently down for refurbishment, the rope drop crowd is now slightly larger at these two attractions.)
This ‘best case scenario’ also assumes we would’ve been in boarding group 43, and not a better or worse position. True best case scenario would’ve been a group in the teens, and out of the park before 8 am. True worst case scenario would’ve been a crashed app and boarding group in the 80s. A boarding group in the 40s is about middle of the road.
Even though word has gotten out about the park opening and boarding group process, many guests still arrive at 7 am or shortly thereafter. Which, as you know, is too late. This means that until around 7:15 am, there’s still a steady flow of guests into Disney’s Hollywood Studios, all of whom are likely ending up with boarding groups in the 80-100 range, depending upon the day.
Following this, there’s a prolonged lull. Fewer boarding groups are distributed between 7:15 am and 8:30 am than are distributed in the first 15 minutes that the park is open. Meaning there’s usually minimal difference in arriving at 7:20 am or 8:20 am.
Both are likely getting backup boarding groups in the low to mid-100s. In both scenarios, it’s total luck as to whether either or both of those groups are called. Some days, we’ve seen Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance get well above 150. Other days, it doesn’t even hit 120. Obviously, your odds are better with a lower-numbered backup boarding group, but the point is that an hour difference later in the morning is not as significant as mere minutes right when the park opens.
The dilemma is thus whether arriving 30 minutes before park opening for rope drop is still the smart move, or if compromising on a late arrival is smarter. Sadly, the answer remains “it depends.” Is that extra hour of sleep critical to you? Are you staying at a Skyliner resort and wanting to use that to get to DHS? Do you have multiple days to try for a boarding pass? The dilemma remains unresolved because results are inconsistent and thus it really depends upon your preferences/priorities.
Overall, this marks the second consecutive “unlucky” experience we’ve had with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, but it’s worth emphasizing that our fortunes could’ve been much better on a different morning or with better/worse success in My Disney Experience. Just as our luck could’ve been worse back in December when things went so smoothly for us multiple times in a row.
On a final note, more than a few readers have asked us to “pick our side.” We share our ride report results not because we have some agenda–we don’t. One challenge in covering anything Star Wars-related is that many fans have made their minds up one way or another on literally everything before it even happens, and want our posts to fit with their agenda. Some cheered last year when we reported low crowds at Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland because it squared with their narrative. Others cheered at the large crowds for Rise of the Resistance, as it matched theirs. When it comes to Disney’s handling of Star Wars, we don’t have a dog in the fight. We’re simply sharing our firsthand experiences, for better or worse.
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
Which is your preferred Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance strategy–getting up early to make it for rope drop or sleeping in a bit and taking your chances? If you’ve done RotR in the last few weeks, what time did you arrive, which boarding group did you receive, and when was your return time? (More data points helps other readers make informed decisions!) 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!
We were there during peak time from Jan 1-6. We went to DHS on Sat. We arrived at the park for bag check by 6:20am and we well into the park before 7am. One employee told me that day was the most crowded morning she had seen yet. A few min before 7am I started refreshing my app. At 7am I immediately got us registered and we were assigned boarding group 98. Our group was called later that day around 2:30/3pm. I will say it was totally worth it to get up that early. We rode the Millenium Falcon ride at 7am – waiting for 1.5 hours. But that was way better than the 4 hour wait time we had seen at various other times of the day during our trip.
I sure wish disney would implement a “you leave the park, you loose your boarding pass” policy, i think this would cut down on the need to be there at the butt crack of dawn to hope to get a boarding pass
Part of me says this sounds great – but then part of me is worried that I’ll get a boarding pass that won’t be called until 7-8pm and there really isn’t enough to keep my family busy in the park from open to close – or we may decide we want to go to Boardwalk for lunch.
You can leave. We did that. We went back to our hotel around 10am and took a nap. Ha! When they call your boarding group you have two hours to get back there.
Hi! We are planning to be in Orlando for one day April 23rd and want to do the Star Was experience. Is that a pretty busy time? Any advice?
I follow a few different websites crowd data and they all have it around the same, Resort itself: 4 out of 10 as far as crowds are concerned……..HS: 2 out of 10………….That data obviously doesn’t take into affect the opening of ROTR but the busiest weeks in April are typically Easter week and the week after. You are well after that on April 23rd (also my last day of a week long trip scheduled to be there) so overall not a bad time to go……..you have to be at the park 30 mins prior to scheduled opening if you want to ride (thats currently 9am but could change)
Mike, What site do you follow for the crowd calendar?
There are a few good ones, bnut the 2 main ones i follow are these:
1) https://yourfirstvisit.net/2019/01/26/2020-weeks-to-visit-walt-disney-world-ranked-in-order/
2) https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar
As one has to be in WDW HS park to even get a boarding group, is it impossible to get on if you are not there at rope drop? I have a 5 year old who wants to go but is not a morning person. I will be lucky to get her in by 9am! Does the whole family have to be scanned in at HS to be in the boarding group to get on? Our WDW trip is in late May/early June, is there any hope for us?
As it stands now, everyone who wants to get a boarding group has to have entered the park, you can’t get one for someone who hasn’t come into the park. However, I think there’s a decent chance that they will be using a different system (FP and/or standby only?) when you’re there in May/June, so there’s hope either way! Good luck!
We rode it twice using the rope drop strategy over Christmas break. Got there before bag check opened one day and at 6:30 on Christmas Eve. Got through and in the crowd both days. Got groups 47 and 48, even though a good 45m arrival time difference. Back at the park for Valentine’s week – will hit it at least twice – maybe even more as we’ll be spending multiple days in Epcot – but no reason to use Fastpasses there at all for us – don’t like Soarin or Frozen – but love all the e-tickets at Hollywood.
Ok stupid question. Do I have to be IN the park to log on to the app to get thr boarding reservation? We are going on the 31st of this month
You have to have scanned in and entered the park. What I haven’t seen anyone test is whether they have any sort of geolocation on the app that would prevent you from scanning in at ~6:30, immediately leaving and going somewhere else, and then using the MDE app to get a boarding group at 7, even though you aren’t technically in the park anymore. No idea if this works, but if it does then it might help out people who are crowd-averse!
We rode it twice this week (supposedly the first non-peak week of the year). Both days we arrived at the park at 6am, the first day with a backpack and second day without any bags to expedite security checks. They let everyone in through the front gates by 6:30 or a little earlier and we waited until 7am with our apps open. The first day we were able to score boarding group 11, which was called immediately and we rode it at 7:15am. They sent us through on what the staff called a “much more direct path” to the ride as there was no line whatsoever. The second time we recreated everything we had done on our first successful trip and the app glitched right at 7am, causing us to have to close down, restart it, and jump to boarding group 56. Others around us weren’t as lucky and only got backup groups and this was all before 7:02am! This time with boarding group 56, we got called at 11:45am and had to wait in a somewhat substantial ~30 minute line. It literally is the luck of the day and goes to show that you can plan ahead, but ultimately you have to be prepared for whatever happens. I highly recommend having at least 2 days to try for a pass if this is a ride you want to experience! And by the way, we were blown away by it both times! Totally worth the lack of sleep and anxiety of getting a pass!
Hey Tom! Just for fun, I wanted to give you one RotR strategy you haven’t covered yet, but will hopefully appreciate as a runDisney veteran.
Last Friday, a buddy and I were running the WDW Marathon Weekend 10K. We left the course around Mile 4.5 (just before the bridge by Swan/Dolphin, I believe) and ran the path to DHS. After getting through security and the turnstiles, we were inside the park at approximately 6:55. After shutting off our WiFi, we started updating the MDE app over and over until I snagged a boarding group for us right around 7:01. I believe it was boarding group 32.
After getting our BG, my buddy and I took a quick picture to commemorate the occasion, ran back to the course and finished the 10K. Our Disboards running group friends nicknamed us Rogue Two.
The whole process was super easy, though we got a few looks for being the only ones dressed for a race. A few folks asked us if we had just finished the race and we said, “No, we’re in the middle of it and have to go!” Great memory.
That’s amazing. Major props to you.
Does your entire party have to be present to get a boarding pass? Is it possible for just one member of a six party group to enter the park , get the boarding passes and notify the group of their number. Then either head back to the hotel or wait for the group to show up?
Everyone has to be in the park
I went Tuesday 1/14 with two of my kids (9 & 11). We parked at 6:30 and were in the security line by 6:38. I was nervous that we wouldn’t get a BP, but we got through security in 5-7 minutes and were waiting in front of the Chinese theater by 6:50. There were TONS of people and I was mentally preparing myself to miss the ride given the sheer crowd size. We logged into the the app right at 7a and were able to get boarding group 59. Two people right next to us got 14! They said a few folks who were on Disney wifi had trouble but we were on Verizon and it worked smoothly. We wanted to go straight to Smugglers Run, but by the time we got in line the wait was 120 minutes and we were afraid we’d miss our appointment at Droid Depot (9:15a). We ended up doubling back to do Star Tours and rode that without a FP in about 15 minutes.
Unless you get there uber-early, I’d recommend skipping SR first thing in the morning. My kids loved Star Tours and the refreshed mission was a treat to me too. For first-timers in Galaxy’s Edge, there is SO MUCH to explore and do that you can hang out there for a good hour or two and wait for SM’S wait time to die down. We ended up getting in line around 9:15a. By then, the posted wait was down to 60 minutes – we got on in less than 45. Our boarding group didn’t get called until 12:38p but by that time we’d hung out in GE, built Droids, drank blue milk and done a show.
I don’t see the wait time for this getting any better any time soon. I’m a fan of the boarding pass system because it helps service the fans who really, really want to ride, without excluding people based on price, Disney resort stay or some other factor. The worst part is the stress of wondering if you’ve spent a few grand on a Disney vacation and potentially missing out on this flagship ride. All of that goes away once you get your BP though. Once you’ve done the ride, you realize it was worth it. I’m sure others have had some disappointments, but it’s about as fair of a system as you can ask for.
Thank you Tom! We (2 adults, 2 youngish kids) are making our first visit to WDW the last week of January, and I’ve been struggling to plan for our one day in HS. We’re seriously considering just skipping RoR, would that be crazy? None of us are Star Wars fans, but we are excited about Toy Story Land. Unfortunately our SDD FP+ isn’t until early afternoon (best I could get), and we have a Sci-Fi Dine-In reservation for 3pm (again, best I could get). Both of those experiences are higher priority for us than anything Star Wars. We’d also like to ride TSMM without a ridiculous wait. What I can’t figure out is, if we get there early to try to get a RoR boarding group, what the heck are we going to do with the rest of our time until early afternoon? Wait in crazy lines? Sir on a bench and eat snacks? We don’t have park hoppers. If we decide not to mess with RoR, when should we show up? Noon? Sleep is better than Star Wars for us, I think. 🙂
I’m not Tom but if I were you I’d either rope drop and prepare for a very frustrating long day or sleep in the morning and then head to HWS and see some shows after Slinky and hope for extra fastpasses that you value. That Slinky Fast pass is solid so I would go to HWS that day and sci fi is fun so worth the trouble. Then close down the park if the kids can handle it. It’s alot of dough and vacation time to spend for a half day but that’s probably what I would do in your case. Others may think different. I would rope drop and likely be frustrated in these current and probably future circumstances because I try to capitalize on the limited time I have in WDW.
Skipping Star Wars is not crazy if you’re not interested.
However, there’s lots to do in Hollywood Studios, just depends on what your family likes. They have thrill rides like Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster, you can do the other Toy Story rides while waiting for SDD FP time. There are street shows in various places like in front of the chinese theater and toy story land – the army men drummers are a lot of fun, stage shows for Frozen, Muppets, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Indiana Jones as well as a Cars movie experience. There are character meet n greets all over the park – Toy Story characters are a lot of fun but do have long waits throughout the day. Lots of shops and sights to see.
If none of that interests you, then yeah, wait til noon to show up, let the kids have fun in the hotel pool, etc. As for me, I’d at least get there before 10 to start watching the stage shows so you can say you did something at HS other than ride SDD. 🙂
Based on your priorities of SDD (great for kids) and Sci-Fi Dine-In (great for everyone), I think your intuition is good about a noon arrival. With kids, you’ve only got so many hours and it sounds like everything you want to do could be done in the afternoon and evening.
Jimmy and Erik raise good points about why you might want to arrive later or earlier in the day. If your kids would enjoy Fantasmic more, maybe arrive later to make sure they have enough energy to make it. If your kids would enjoy Beauty and the Beast and Indiana Jones especially, maybe arrive earlier to make sure you can work in all the shows you’d like to see while giving yourselves the opportunity to stick around for Fantasmic if you’d like. Fantasmic will be performed once at 8pm in the last week of January.
Suuuuper spooky picture of the Hollywood Tower. Thanks for capturing that.
We were in the HS two days ago. We were by the Chinese theater before 7, but It took almost a minute for me to get into a group and we ended up at 81. We had FastPass for Slinky and figured we were too far back for a short wait on Smuggler’s Run, so we were the first riders of the day at Alien Swirling Saucers. That turned out to be a mistake, because we then waited 45 minutes for Toy Story Mania, which was posted at a 10 minute wait when we passed it. After waiting 30 minutes for Tower of Terror and feeling the effects of multiple consecutive early morning marathon weekend wake ups, we decided to take our midday break before 9 am. It ended up really well, as we got Rock n Roller Coaster as a 4th FastPass and only waited about 40 minutes for Smuggler’s Run at 6:30.
We did almost the same thing! The difference being that a few days before I had a 7:40 fastpess for Toy Story Mania. But then after that it was, “well, we should go somewhere and get breakfast…”
I love your blog!!!! I have gathered sooooo many good tips and advice to use in Disney because of you and I’m very, very grateful. We’re going on a cruise in March out of Port Canaveral and I added one day onto the beginning so we could enjoy one day in Disney.
We’re not staying at a Disney resort this time but we plan to get a park hopper pass for the day. We want to do only Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. Because we won’t be able to do magic hours for either park; based on the crowd trends, which park do you think we should hit first? What should that plan look like? Obviously, Star Wars is the biggest attraction for us wanting to do HS on that day. Any help or suggestions that anyone has would be greatly beneficial to me at this point.
If Star Wars is a priority you have to hit Hollywood Studios first and get there at or before opening so you can get the RotR boarding pass. You may want to be flexible on your plan to change parks. If you get a boarding group over 50, you may just want to leave right away to Magic Kingdom, do as much as possible there before your boarding group is called, then leave MK with enough time to get back to HS.
You could also do what Tom did and pay attention in the app to the boarding groups being called and when they get close to your group, head back before it’s called that way you’re already there when it is called. Smugglers Run is usually easier to get on in the evenings, so that’ll be a plus side to coming back to HS later in the day.
You’ll also probably have more and better rides to choose from for FP’s in the Magic Kingdom, but without knowing what your boarding group will be, it’s hard to say if you should book them first thing in the morning or wait til mid day or later. If you want to guarantee a higher boarding group, wait til about 5 minutes after HS opens before clicking to get a boarding group, since most people will get theirs as soon as it’s available, but main boarding groups usually take about 15 minutes to complete fill up. Doing this will ensure that morning FP’s at MK will be the best bet to use them up as well as get other stuff done before your return to HS.
I think it is easy to forget that for a lot of Americans, disney vacations longer than 4 days are not possible either due to work schedules as is the case for me or due to budget. For a lot of people, they have only one day at HS, and can’t risk a “backup” group that might not be called. I don’t mind showing up prior to rope drop and getting a 6pm return time, but I would mind showing up late and not getting to ride at all.
Any advice for someone visiting HS, but not planning on doing any of the Star Wars attractions? My wife is not a fan and my kids are 2 and 4.
Would you suggest not bothering to get to the park for opening so we don’t have to deal with the lines getting into the park?
If you rope drop HS, you can still get in shorter lines for Toy Story Mania (do first) and Alien Swirling Saucers, if the kids are into toy story, otherwise, those lines can fill up quick, but depending on the day, waits aren’t usually more than 30-45 minutes. Otherwise, yeah, skip rope drop. If you’re planning more on doing shows at HS rather than rides, they mostly have scheduled starts at 10am or later anyway, so you won’t miss much by waiting til later in the morning to go for those.
Tom……Have you been able to verify that ROTR will be open during EMH in March? If so, do you think this could coincide with a switch over to FP+ with the opening of MMRR being March 4th?
Hi Tom. Love your blogs. I was wondering if you thought they might do away with the boarding passes at some point for Rise of the Resistance. Headed there in May for 4 nights. My son’s on the Autism spectrum and am worried about getting there with him when the park opens, in those crowds. It would crush him if we couldn’t get on the ride. I know he would have no problem waiting in a line but to not get on would be terrible. I understand the reason behind the boarding groups but if I’m paying thousands to go to Disney and I can’t get on a ride because I can’t get there at rope drop, then that is pretty aggravating. I’m actually thinking of cancelling the trip and waiting to see what happens.
I have a trip booked for April 16-23 and I am also thinking of cancelling and waiting to see what happens……….Why they dont have any perks for this ride for resort guests is puzzling to me. Even if were to only have 2 days per week early EMH where only resort guests could book a BG it would be better than this current system
Exactly. It’s a mess right now.
I would reach out to Guest Relations about your son’s needs to see if they could get you a spot with a boarding group, even if you can’t be there at rope drop. Disney is usually very good about that sort of thing.
Thank you. I am going to email Disability Services to see if they have any suggestions. I would hate to cancel the trip over this. Seems silly.
I *think* that you can guarantee entry to Rise of the Resistance by getting a reservation with Oga’s Cantina, the droid depot or lightsaber workshop? You’d have to then pay for whichever experience, but that might be a way around it if disability services can’t help. And the experiences look pretty cool! Plus you’d have a known time. I have a daughter with an anxiety disorder and know how much predictability helps. Can anyone confirm this approach?
unfortunately you cannot guarantee entry to Rise of the Resistance by getting a reservation with Oga’s Cantina, the droid depot or lightsaber workshop. Only way to get on ROTR is by entering a BG
The reservations for the restaurant/shops only guaranteed you access to the land when they used the boarding groups the day Galaxy’s edge opened. There were no ride guarantees with those reservations.
If I get an early boarding group but want to get a higher one to come back later in the day can guest services switch me or do I need to keep whatever boarding group I get
I’m in the same boat. I need an afternoon boarding group (really anything after 12pm) so it wont mess up my FP plans or lunch res. I believe that I saw somewhere that you could accept or decline and pull again, but every blog I read is focused on getting a BG ASAP, so i’m not sure.
I have read (but do not have personal experience) that people were able to toggle out and get back in and get a later boarding group but it seems risky to me………I would def try guest services since they can prob just out your spot back in the quene
Hello! We stayed at Pop Century, were at DHS on 1/8 and 1/9, and got boarding groups 16 and 15 on those two days, here’s our experience… we were told buses would start running at 6am for the 7am opening time, but by 6am two or three full buses had already departed. The skyliner did not start running until significantly later. We left Pop Century around 6:05 on 1/8 and maybe at 5:55 on 1/9. We spent around 15 minutes getting into the park, and lined up to go to Toy Story land for rope drop before 6:30 both days. There were multiple announcements before park opening about the boarding group procedure.
Now, here’s my boarding group strategy… it’s anecdotal, obviously, but I did get groups 16 and 15 the two days we were there. A few minutes before the 7am park opening, I closed the Disney app (and other apps I wasn’t using, just because). The theory I heard is that the app is faster to load the boarding group page from a fresh start than it is to reload it when it’s already open. Right when I saw the time switch over to 7am, I opened the app and booked the boarding group. Other folks around me booking at the same time got around group 50. Maybe this strategy is legitimate, maybe my Android phone is faster, maybe I was just lucky, who knows, but I figured I’d share.
After booking the boarding group and high-fiving some folks around me, we more or less walked onto Slinky Dog. After that, though, lines were long everywhere. Good luck to all attempting it in the near future!
Hi Tom! Love the updates. Thank you! For getting your boarding groups, am I understanding that you and Sarah both tried to get BGs from different MDE accounts for the both of you without any problems? I’m hoping that is a glitch free option to have a back up in case one person’s app crashes.
Thanks so much for keeping us in the loop!
Hi Kristin, to answer your question, that is exactly what my husband and I did on 1/10. We each refreshed our own MDE app just before 7 am and both tried to get boarding groups. I was able to score boarding group 30 in ~15 seconds. I think it is a good plan to have multiple people trying in case the app crashes.
Thanks Justine! I’m glad to hear it works 🙂 Appreciate you sharing your experience!
Hi Tom. Been following you and Sarah for years now. Thanks always keeping us informed. Apologies if I missed this in one of your posts. How do we manage getting on the same boarding group when we have multiple people in My Disney Experience app? We have six people. Can I do this at one time for all six people or does each person do their own separately. We are hoping to all get the same boarding group if possible.
You can practice any morning at scheduled park opening even from home. It asks you who you would like to include and you just hit ‘select all’ . It will just not let you book unless you are scanned into the park.
Thanks Mike!!
I agree with your “depends on the day” theory. We went to DHS on January 5th. Entered the park right at 7:00, but weren’t able to get our boarding passes right away, had to refresh quite a few times. We ended up with boarding group 168 and we were called to board a little after 6:30. We arrived to board at 7ish and were able to get right on.