Star Wars Rise of Resistance Disneyland Opening Report
This spoiler-free Disneyland Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride report covers our experiences with opening weekend in California. This also offers plus some preliminary strategy for arriving, using the virtual queue, and crowds, while we work on putting together our comprehensive guide to the DLR version of the attraction.
We made the decision to attend Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance’s opening day at Disneyland relatively last-minute. Given that the two versions are clones and we’ve spent too much time covering the DHS version, it initially didn’t seem “necessary.” However, given that protocol and approaches there have been a moving target, we figured it might be wise to see firsthand how things operate differently at Disneyland.
It also didn’t hurt that Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure started this weekend, which meant killing two birds with one stone. Plus, we miss Disneyland…and Southern California in general…and In-N-Out Burger, so any excuse to get back is a good excuse. This visit gave us the opportunity to do other things we needed to accomplish in the area, like eating a dozen or so Double Doubles…
Note that this is a basically a mini trip report rather than a comprehensive strategy guide. If that’s what you’re after, we’ll have one coming very soon. In the meantime, consult our FAQ & Ride Guide for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. That’s written for the DHS version, but there’s significant overlap.
Additionally, this post doesn’t touch the substance of the attraction itself at all. If you’re wondering whether it’s worth jumping through so many hoops and all the effort, read our spoiler-free Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Ride Review. Suffice to say, we call this the pinnacle of modern Imagineering.
Cutting to the chase, we left our hotel (Anaheim Del Sol Inn) at exactly 5 am on opening morning. We had mixed feelings about arriving so early, and expected it to be pointless. Joining us on the potentially pointless endeavor was Guy Selga of TouringPlans.
We opted to arrive so early because we had read reports on social media that the Esplanade was already filling up. We were concerned that Disneyland might deviate from the announced plan to open the virtual queue at 8 am, either by opening the virtual queue early, doing standby for Rise of the Resistance, or something else entirely.
We wanted to see that for ourselves and also be inside Disneyland by sunrise. Being inside the park before dawn topped my agenda, as it has been since the 24-hour parties since I’ve last seen a beautiful sunrise from inside the park.
If the sunrise was pretty, the rest of the day would be gravy for me. And it was:
The stunning sky was short-lived, and after that it was a lot of waiting in the cold. Main Street, Town Square, and the Central Plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle all were pretty packed with guests by 7 am.
It was becoming obvious that more guests were going to be in the park by 8 am than there was daily capacity on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
This means that rather the hybrid first-come, first-served and lottery system at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the system at Disneyland (at least for opening day/weekend) would be a pure lottery.
It wouldn’t matter whether you arrived at midnight and camped out overnight, or rolled up at 7:55 am. Everyone inside Disneyland by 8 am had an equal shot via the app of scoring a spot in the virtual queue.
I know some people who camped out overnight or showed up really early were upset about this, but I struggle to see why. Disneyland delivered exactly what was promised. All any “hardcore” Disneyland fans had to do was spend a few minutes reading the official Disney Parks Blog post or numerous reports from DHS. Sure, we also showed up early, but that was because we enjoy being part of opening day fanfare, and “just in case” Disney threw a curveball.
As I’ve said before about the DHS version, I’m not overly concerned with the system Disney uses for allocating the scarce resource of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance capacity. There is always (quite literally) going to be more daily demand for this attraction than there is supply. There will always be winners and losers. That’s the nature of the beast.
I have my own personal preferences, but I don’t think any single approach is inherently superior. I’d simply prefer a method of distribution that favors tourists and is properly communicated via official channels. At least in theory, Disneyland’s system checks both boxes.
At about 7:58 am, a hush fell over Main Street. This is about the opposite of what often happens on a Disney opening day, as the excitement begins to crescendo in the minutes leading up to official opening time. At about 8:00:15 am, that crescendo occurred, with a wave of guests expressing jubilation over securing their boarding passes.
We scored boarding group 25, and the numbers around us were all over the place, ranging from the high teens to low 100s. The Disneyland app was distributing backup boarding groups before 8:01 am, and although signs didn’t go up indicating that the virtual queue was full until around 8:20 am, I’m pretty sure that the virtual queue was actually full before 8:05 am (if not by 8:01 am).
We spent much of the morning wandering around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which had a great energy thanks to all of the enthusiastic guests and Cast Members. After a couple hours wandering the land, our boarding group was called at around 9:40 am, and we returned to the entrance of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance around that time.
Shortly thereafter, the attraction broke down, and we ended up sitting in the queue for 60 minutes waiting for it to resume operations. (Cast Members were very clear that anyone leaving the virtual queue wouldn’t be issued recovery and would forfeit their boarding passes.)
Thus far at Disneyland, breakdowns have been just as common as they are at Walt Disney World. In addition to different ride systems having issues, two of the Audio Animatronics figures have also had sporadic problems. We witnessed one of these on day one, whereas on day two we had a perfect run. (After the attraction broke down again for roughly an hour while we were in line.)
In general, it seems that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is off to an even rockier start at Disneyland than at WDW. Both of the first two evenings have had prolonged downtimes, leading to very few groups making it through towards the end of the night. This is something of a surprise, as Disneyland’s version had an extra month of test and adjust.
The rest of our day, which we split between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, was pretty great. We got numerous attractions done, ate a lot, saw a ton of ducks & cats, and just enjoyed the exceptional ambiance at both parks.
After spending the morning hours in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we once again returned to close out the night there. We stumbled upon a lightsaber meet-up. At the time, we thought it was impromptu and just a cool thing that randomly happened. There’s a viral clip of Rey basking in the glow of lightsabers going around on social media–it’s from this.
That’s pretty much how the day was in a nutshell, and encapsulates why we love the atmosphere and energy during opening day. (There was also a funny moment with Chewbacca and the lightsabers; I haven’t seen any video of it, nor did I capture good photos.)
It was weird to see “crowd reports” from Disneyland from opening day of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which were all over the place nad often sensational. Video on social media before park opening showed the hub absolutely packed…but that was before guests could enter other lands. Below is that same scene about an hour later–nearly empty.
There were heavy crowds in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge first thing in the morning due to the fanfare over the new attraction and a few new food items debuting. Otherwise, Disneyland was not particularly busy for most of the day. About average for an off-season weekday.
I know we shouldn’t be surprised after last summer’s low crowds, but this did catch us somewhat off-guard. There were no AP blockouts, there’s a major convention in Anaheim, and the Southern California resident ticket deals were not blocked out for opening weekend. On top of that, Disneyland was cautious not to “over-communicate” and scare guests away with concerns of colossal crowds.
To be sure, it was not a ghost town at Disneyland–we’re not trying to give that impression. However, for a holiday weekend debuting a blockbuster new attraction with ticket deals and no blockouts, Disneyland felt a bit slow. (On the other hand, Disney California Adventure was busier than expected thanks to the kick-off of Lunar New Year.)
We would not expect these low-to-moderate crowds to remain. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, crowds have progressively worsened for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance due to a combo of buzz about the ride and greater awareness of the ideal strategy for experiencing it. (There’s some irony in people sitting out opening weekend to “wait out the crowds” only to find larger crowds when they do visit.)
In terms of preliminary strategy, our advice would be to arrive early but not ridiculously early. Parking has been hit or miss, with not all toll booths staffed and some redirections occurring. That’s the real wild card, which might necessitate more of a buffer if you’re driving.
Security has been smooth on all sides, so if you’re walking from a nearby hotel, you shouldn’t encounter any hiccups there. Same goes for the turnstiles, which have had long lines, but move fairly quickly. They move even faster on non-Magic Mornings, as those early entry days consume several turnstiles for that. (Magic Mornings don’t otherwise impact the virtual queue process and neither advantage or disadvantage anyone.)
As for attempting to join the virtual queue, we’d recommend everyone in your party each attempt to secure boarding passes for everyone right when the clock hits 8 am.
The successful person will receive a confirmation, while everyone else will receive an “Already in Boarding Group” message with the option to remove guests. (Pictured above.)
Do not simply wait for the button to go live in the app, which is what Disneyland is officially recommending. Instead, actively force refresh it or do a clean launch of the Disneyland app right at 8 am. Ideally, do a mix of approaches.
That’s what we’ve done, and have had success securing low boarding group numbers this way. Ultimately, everyone is going to develop their own theories about which strategy works best, and we’ve witnessed success with a variety of approaches–except sitting there and passively waiting for the button to turn red.
That about covers it for now, both in terms of preliminary strategy and experience at Disneyland for the opening day of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. We’ll be back with more follow-up posts next week offering further feedback from our experiences, crowd insights/trends/predictions, and further refined/more comprehensive strategy for improving your chances of securing a boarding pass.
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 Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you planning on visiting Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge now that Rise of the Resistance is open? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of opening day at Disneyland? Which boarding group were you in? Were you able to experience the attraction? Did you have any downtime? Are you a fan of this system, or would you just prefer FastPass/MaxPass and a really long standby line? 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.
I think this new system for this ride stinks. If you live near the park that’s one thing. If you take your kids every three years and fly to get to either park and return home without getting on the ride, well, you explain it to the grandkids. This already happened with the slinky ride. Disney forgot that the more hotels you build on site then the more people already within the park and only one ride of each kind.
So…let me get this straight. You showed up to Hollywood Studios and found Slinky Dog had a, what, 3 hour wait the entire day you were there and you complained and tried to explain to the grandkids that you weren’t going to ride it, right?
Now, as a way to prevent 5-10 hour standby lines similar to what happened at Universal Orlando over the summer for Harry Potter, Disney has offered a solution that means no standing in line and you still get to ride, just follow these 3 simple steps, which includes getting up early on 1 day of your vacation, getting to the park at/before opening, login to the MDE app to secure a boarding pass….And You’re UPSET about it?
Guess you can’t please everyone. but geez, what more do you want? Why not, instead of explain to them after the trip why the didn’t get to ride, explain to them before the trip, hey, in order to ride this one ride at this one park on this one day of our trip, we have to wake up extra early. I don’t like it, but as long as we do, we get to ride the ride at some point in the day, without having to wait in a long line or bypassing it because of the long line, like what happened at Slinky Dog a year and a half ago.
Yikes Erik, go eat a Snickers.
As someone who has never been to Disneyland (might be going with the family in April) how do you add your kids to the Disneyland app so they are in your boarding group? The assumption that I would be the sole proprietor of the the tickets via my app. The little ones won’t have a phone of their own.
Do you need every member of the family to sign up with a Disney account? Or do the tickets get assigned to a name?
Anything else I’d need to know/do? (for the boarding process)
It’s really simple and you only need one account. You’ll link everyone’s tickets either by scanning them in with a pic or manually entering the bar code.
Thanks!
After you buy your tickets, you link them by going to the menu, scroll down to “Link to account” and click on “link a ticket or pass”. Then you link the ticket and assign it to a family member. I’ve never had any trouble with it, so I would think you’d be able to get it figured out easily enough, good luck!
We are flying down to Disneyland next week 🙂 My husband and I have IPhones our 2 boys do not. We are both going to try to get Rise of Resistance boarding passes on both phones. We understand we can’t ride twice but both want to try joining a boarding group to increase our chances of actually getting a boarding group. I have a Disney account and the app on my phone. He has the app too, should he create his own Disney account or login with my account?
Thanks! I’m sure its pretty straightforward, just like being prepared. 😉
Apologies for the lack of responses here, but that’s because we’re still in California and our days are very full between early mornings to do this followed by other stuff in SoCal.
With that said, I hope to have strategy guide/FAQ posted on Thursday that should answer all reader questions here (and much more). In the meantime, we’re glad to see other readers being helpful with responses! 🙂
Ok, dumb question, but how do you force the app to refresh?
not dumb, i was wondering the same thing. not that we have any trips planned, but might be useful info for the future.
Best way to do it is by closing out the MDE app so it’s not running in the background – every phone is different, so if you don’t know how to do that on your phone, a quick Google search will help you out. Once it’s closed out, reopen it.
Also, when you’re in the app and you click Find Out More for Star Wars, if the Join Boarding Group button is not red, and it’s right before or right at open, click the back button, then click find out more again. This is the faster way to refresh the screen, but it’s helpful to start the day by hard shutting down the app and reopening it, but do this 5 minutes or so before open so it’s fully loaded before the park opens.
Is there even a chance that the rider swap process would work on this ride? We’re a family of four with a toddler, and he won’t be going on the ride due to his acute fear of light sabers (just trust me). We’ll be there in last week of August.
YES! Rider swap works on RotR just like at all other rides. In the short-term, the catch is that everyone in your party that will be riding needs to join a boarding group. Once your boarding group is called, then you head to the entrance and let them know you’d like to do rider swap with the toddler, and whoever rides second can enter thru the fastpass line.
That said, August is a LONG time away. I would put my money on the whole virtual queue system being shut down by then, but we’ll just have to see.
Thanks for the info, Andy! I’m going to be watching for updates between now and August, and am thinking you’re right.
If you get a boarding pass, can you still get a fast pass for something else?
The RotR virtual queue/boarding passes are COMPLETELY separate from the fastpass system, and it can be accessed in the app whether or not you pay for the maxpass upgrade.
What no mention of the people who made counterfeit boarding passes on their phones and cut the virtual line.
That was hillarious
they don’t have to scan something when boarding? wow, that’s shocking that it took this long for people to make fake ones if all you have to do is show them a screen.
Thank you everyone for the tips! We were inside the park yesterday at 7:45 am and were on cell service with the app open. We refreshed, but not fast enough and wound up in group 99. We dropped it, thinking we could refresh our way into a better group but it didn’t work. Aside from the normal ‘people running and pushing’ the experience was really cool. People started cheering and the volume kept going up and it was very exciting to be there! There were some hang-dog faces in the crowd (including ours) but the rest of the day was magic. Crowds were surprisingly low and Max Pass got us on everything we wanted to do. We even saw celebrities: the IT guy from the movie ‘I feel pretty’, Buddy the Cake Boss was on BTMR with us, and coolest of all was Sarah Bricker at DCA. Extremely gracious and generous with info on the virtual que for our next attempt.
I confirmed with a cast member that you physically have to be in DL in order to receive a boarding pass. It will not work outside of the park or even in the esplanade.
FALSE. You have to have entered Disneyland, but you don’t have to STILL be there. It’s all about ticket media status, it has nothing to do with physical location.
You can scan into the park pre-opening, then immediately leave. You could even head over to DCA and join the virtual queue while rope-dropping rides there.
Did you actually do this?
I did this today and it worked. Scanned in, left the park, went to work, and got my boarding pass from my office. No issues. I also know folks who have scanned into DL, then hopped over to DCA and got boarding passes from there as well. As long as you’ve scanned into Disneyland, you can get your boarding pass from anywhere you want.
I’ve seen people complain about how unfair this system is and it utterly baffles me. I love this system. Yes, there is a chance you might not get to ride. There’s just as much chance that you will! And that chance is equal for everyone without having to waste enormous amounts of time and energy. There is absolutely no way they’d be able to manage crowd control if this were done any other way. This process allows more safe crowd control, tempers guest expectations, and allows more efficient planning on Disney’s end. I also love that you can enjoy other things while “waiting in line,” and I’m sure Disney loves that we’re able to spend money in the meantime as well.
The only thing I find at all bothersome is how inefficiently the ride itself is performing. Disney World seems to have fallen into a good groove (with the exception of a very off day on Friday), easily surpassing 100- sometimes over 150- groups daily. You’d think with the extra prep time, plus tips from Disney World’s experience about what components are more prone to breakdown, Disneyland would have the advantage- but instead they’re struggling to reach half of Orlando’s ride capacity. Hopefully this will sort itself out in the coming weeks, like it did for Orlando, I’m just disappointed to see them struggling when they had so much opportunity to be better prepared.
I agree 100% on the complaints. I’d never stand in a 10 hour line (Harry Potter 2019 UO), but I don’t mind getting up extra early one or two days of my weeklong vacay to get a boarding pass that will allow me the ability to do more with my time. Do I think Disney would see 10 hour waits in HS? No, but I have seen 4 hours on bad days for slinky and millennium falcon, so you’d still see long long lines that would make me not want to ride. Boarding pass is a great solution that may not be useful for every ride, but it’s nice for some. Hint hint Pandora! Lol
The system is great for people who can be there at park opening. There are, however, lots of regular park-goers who can’t do that. If you’re an AP who wants to go to the park after work, and would be happy to show up at 4pm and wait in a 5 hour line, it’s frustrating that it’s not even an option for you.
Andy, you are welcome to take a day off and show up in the morning just like everyone else coming from out of town. Honestly, you already have the privilege of being able to visit the parks whenever you’d like! It seems a bit entitled to complain about having to follow the same protocol as everyone who is not so lucky as you to be local.
Hi Dew. I am not talking about myself. I am neither an annual passholder nor a Californian, neither privileged nor entitled.
Your original comment said that it “baffles you” why people are complaining about the current system. I’m pointing out that a perfectly rational complaint about this system would be from those who really want to go on the ride and would be willing to wait in a long line to do so, but can’t be there at rope drop, and as a result, CAN’T go on the ride at all. That is a *truly unprecedented* scenario at Disneyland, and not an inherently baffling thing to complain about. This whole virtual queue is temporary and the hype will die down and bla bla bla, but in the meantime, “I’m willing to wait in a long line, please just let me wait in a long line” is not an unreasonable statement, you know?
There is no realistic alternative to the virtual queue given the small load capacity of RotR. Giving an “option” of people arriving after work to stand in line won’t work–most of them would still be standing in line by the time DL closes! If you can’t get to DL until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, you’re not getting into RotR, no matter what system DL uses, period, given the fact that the ride fills up for the ENTIRE DAY just with the crowds present at rope drop!
They can make an amazing ride, and yet settle for mediocrity on how to operate a freaking waiting line? Puhlease, this can not be the best and only way to get crowds through. I refuse to believe that. I can understand mechanical and computer break downs far easier than this.
100% agree this is the most fair way. people complaining about “but i was in line all night, i should have a better spot!”. well, then don’t do that. someone is pretty dumb at this point if they are wasting all the time literally waiting in line anyway. i never liked the initial way they were handing out the boarding groups- opening before posting time without official communication they were doing so is what was unfair.
I was there the past three days. Here was my experience:
Friday: Arrived at 5am, in the park by 6am. Boarding group 119; didn’t get to ride as they stopped at 114.
Saturday: Arrived at 6:30; in the park at 7:30. Boarding group 129; didn’t get to ride as they stopped at 117.
Sunday; Arrived at 6:30; in the park at 7:30. Boarding group 98; didn’t get to ride as they stopped at 81.
Bummer of a weekend, and I’m super jealous of those of you who managed to get good BG numbers across multiple days…not sure why I was so unlucky!
Despite that, I liked the system and thought it was a fair, equitable, and balanced approach for handling the high demand for a ride that still has a relatively limited capacity. Instead of standing in an insanely long, likely 10+ hour queue, with the possibility of being denied access to the ride (and dealing with people cutting, holding places in line for larger groups arriving later, etc.), I knew where I stood right from rope drop, and was able to spend the rest of the day doing other things and enjoying the rest of the resort.
I’ll be back later this week to try again, and hoping for the best.
Dang man, that’s so unlucky. I hope your next attempt is successful! You deserve an A for effort though! Lol
Thanks! I’ll take the “A for effort” anytime. 🙂 Andy is correct in his reply to your second question – all three of my groups were considered “backup” groups.
Also meant to ask, we’re any of your boarding groups guaranteed? If so, did Disney give you anything for not making it through? Just curious. You don’t have to disclose if you don’t want to.
No. Backup groups start around 80, so none of Chris’s groups (119, 129, 98) would have been normal ones.
And this is why it’s a stupid system. How is that fair? Imagine you can’t go back next weekend and try again because you spent $10,000 to go and have a once in a lifetime week in Cali? Just saying I disagree.
Good questions, and I’ll try and explain my line of thinking. If I were in that situation, I would first of all hopefully have done enough research ahead of time before spending $10K on a vacation, to avoid the grand opening of a major attraction like this, which is bound to attract large crowds, and suffer teething problems and downtime.
But let’s suppose for the moment that I still decided to do the once-in-a-lifetime trip to SoCal this past weekend. If they used the standard queue system, I’d have spent all three days at the park, standing in line all day, for a shot at riding one ride, with three small kids in tow. Doesn’t sound like an ideal way to spend $10K, in my opinion. I’d rather have the BG system, miss out on the one big new ride, and still get to experience the rest of the Disney resort for each of those days.
I think the spirit of your comment really boils down to the fact that it’s not fair that I get the chance to try again later, as a local passholder, whereas the out-of-town tourist doesn’t have that ability. And under either system (BG vs. traditional queue), you could make the same case. I could have missed the cutoff in a traditional queue all three days, and still be saying “I’ll try again next week”, whereas the out-of-towner doesn’t get to do that.
In any case, I can see how you might view this system as unfair. I don’t think it’s perfect – no queuing system is – they all have flaws and gaps and pros and cons. But I still think this strikes the best balance, and gives folks, for the most part, the most optimal experience overall. Unfortunately, until the demand goes down and/or capacity increases, there’s going to be disappointed people every single day no matter what they do.
Dang! You have a great attitude about it. Hope you can get on soon. Out of curiosity, did you do the refresh method or did you shut off all other apps and then login to try to get a BG?
All three times I was trying the refresh method, so next time I am going to try closing the app and launching it right at 8. Ironically, I did that yesterday from work, and my first attempt I got right in and didn’t get the “backup group warning” message…so I think that might actually be the way to do it, like many others have suggested. We shall see in a couple days!
This was our opening weekend experience for anyone who is looking for more data.
Thursday the 16th:
My husband and I checked in at the Disneyland Hotel.
Friday the 17th (my birthday!):
We made the short, rainy walk to Disneyland at 2:30 am. We were about 10th in line. As Tom noted, arriving this early was totally unnecessary, but the time went quickly. At 5:30ish am, they let everyone in the park. After eating some breakfast, we headed over to Galaxy’s Edge. We found a good spot by the Ronto Roasters and at 7:55 am just started refreshing the “My Status” page over and over again. 8:00 am hit, and the button wasn’t coming up, so my husband went back to the RotR “Find Out More” page, and then clicked the “My Status” button. That got him in right away and we were boarding group 49! For the sake of science, I have Verizon on an iPhone 11, he has T-Mobile on an iPhone 6.
We were called at about 1:30 pm and waited in line for about 30 minutes. The ride was just as incredible as everyone says it is (I actually started crying at one point because I couldn’t believe what they had accomplished). However, even though I’ve avoided spoilers, I suspected we got the “B Show”, only because I didn’t see any animatronics that blew me away. However, I still thought it was the best ride I’ve ever been on (and I rode Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage four times last November).
Saturday the 18th:
We had Magic Morning through the Disneyland Hotel so we arrived at 6:50 am (so much better than 2:30!). We did a few rides, that parked over by Small World at 7:50. At 7:55, we had the “Find Out More” page open and ready to go. We closed out of all our other apps. For husband had run out of data the night before so he was on Disneyland WiFi. We clicked the “My Status” page right at 8:00 am and surprisingly enough, my husband’s phone went through right away and we got boarding group 19! So Disneyland WiFi wasn’t the total death sentence we thought it was going to be.
We got called at about 10:30am and waited 15 minutes in line. We were through most of the pre-show when the ride broke down. We were giving a fastpass to come back later. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: it seems they only give you fastpasses if you’re past a certain point in the pre-show. People waiting in the queue were told they had to stay or they would lose their spot in line. Also, the fastpass they give you looks like a normal “Multiple Experience Fastpass” that you get when any ride breaks down. Take care not to accidentally use it for another ride!
We had heard that the ride is usually only down for about 70 minutes at a time, so we wandered back over to the ride at around 12. The ride was already back up, despite having no indication on the app. This served as well as we were the only people in the fastpass line, which took us right to the start of the pre-show. This time we got the full “A Show”, and I still can’t believe that something I was calling “the best ride ever” just a day ago was even better than I thought it was.
Best of luck to all of you planning your trips, and may the force be with you!
So does each person in your group need to (a) have their own app and account setup and then (b) scan everybody’s ticket from the group into each app? Curious as to how exactly you group up as a family.
We are two “childless millennials” (the horror!) so we didn’t have to worry about kids’ tickets/passes yet, but I think I can still answer your question.
a) Not everyone in the group NEEDS to have their own app and account set up. One person in your group with the app and an account can scan everyone else’s tickets/passes into their app, regardless if they have an account or not. That being said, I think the more people in your group that have the app and an account, the better. It increases your chances of getting a good boarding group (or even getting one at all), if you have multiple people in your group trying at once. That way, the fastest phone can win. This means that everyone with the app and an account will need to scan in everyone else’s tickets. If four accounts that are not linked try to get boarding groups at the same time, it is unlikely that they will end up in the same group, and it does nothing to increase your chances.
That being said, I understand that kids under a certain age probably don’t have their own smart phones. I think two parents trying at once can manage just fine (or even one parent–we’re already seeing the massive rush for boarding groups slow down).
b) No matter what, have everyone’s tickets scanned into SOMEONE in the group’s app before the virtual queue goes live. So say Mom is going to use her account and app to get a boarding group for the whole family. She needs to scan the tickets of every member of her family into her app, regardless of if they have a Disney account or not. It is imperative to do this before the virtual queue goes live. Otherwise, all the boarding groups will be gone by the time she’s scanned in her family’s tickets.
How do you create your group ahead of time in the app? I don’t see anything for linking people together.
It’s your friends and family list in the My Disney Experience app. If you bought tickets for everyone in your group, you’ll all be together. Otherwise, you can click the menu in the app, select My Profile, then click family & friends list and add people there.
MDX is Disney World only. Disneyland uses the Disneyland app, which doesn’t have friends & family lists.
Even though this is about Disneyland, I’m wondering why Disney World releases all of the boarding passes at once instead of throughout the day? (I know why they changed it from first come, first served.) This encourages everyone to virtually hop into a line at once and hope for the best as everyone knows just to be in the park at 7am? Nobody does this with a physical line – (die hard fans will wait for 4 hours, but not every single person at the park.) Releasing boarding passes throughout the day, (since DIS refuses to pay to play or fast pass for resort guests often traveling long distances and paying higher resort prices than off property travelers) – seems a much more accurate way of directing how flow occurs naturally. I also think for many people east of the Mississippi, California DL is a hassle. We’ve experienced all of the extras of WDW (Magical Express being a big one!), a short flight and a rather cheap flight if you fly Southwest) compared to flying to California, and how much more expensive Cali is in general than Florida so that could be a reason for lower crowds. Whenever I have friends who do travel to Cali, they usually travel to more than just Disneyland and only really enjoyed the scenery, not the over priced rooms, health conditions and travel hassles of going to Cali in general. Way harder to plan a maybe once in a lifetime vacation if you’ve never been before. And from my friends who have been repeatedly, still overpriced and a hassle.
pay fastpasses are very likely a future reality. disney by no means “refuses” to use pay fastpasses. it’s slowly rolling out across more platforms if you research it. maxpass at disneyland, club level at wdw already offer forms of pay fastpasses.
eventually, pay fastpass will probably be a reality for all. free ones will still probably exist but be pretty useless. i imagine there will be a pay feature of some kind with that new “Genie” app they announced. you’ll probably have to pay to utilize it, like a touringplans account, and be promised guaranteed fastpasses of some kind, and they will probably tier subscriptions that offer you more or less depending on what you’re willing to pay. i would be shocked if they don’t do that. i promise you disney regrets fastpass was ever a free service to begin with. i have no official insider info, this is just me reading the writing on the wall over time.
Have your heard any reports or have any thoughts on if the app is slower when you have more tickets attached? I’m planning on going on the 29th with 5 or more people (possibly upwards of and wonder if our chances of getting a boarding group will be lower because of it. Also does it work like max pass where as long as your ticket has been scanned into the park for that day, you will be allowed to join a boarding group? I have also considered the idea of leaving the after getting scanned in to go somewhere with faster network speeds / better wifi. Thoughts?
We had 7 in our group and got boarding group 34. Yes, you have to have your tickets scanned before you attempt to get your group. Im not sure about leaving- seems risky to me. We were close to the front of the park where you first come in and most people around us had success. Good luck!
Thank you! I’ll reply with an update after the 29th!
Did you run into anyone claiming/bragging about using a fake boarding pass? Do you have any insight on what was happening? I hadn’t heard this happened til today when a friend was telling me about it. That’s crazy all BPs were gone in 5 minutes!
This wouldn’t be possible unless the fake pass could somehow fool Disneyland’s scanners. In which case, people would’ve made fake MaxPasses ages ago.
My guess is that someone saw the first layer of boarding pass ‘checkers’ at the attraction entrance, assumed that’s the only way they were checking passes, and surmised that those could be forged. A ‘rumor’ probably spread from there. However, there’s a scanner within the queue itself that I highly doubt any fake pass could trick.
Thats what I was thinking as well. Were the scanners not doing their job? That’s what this article claims https://wdwnt.com/2020/01/photo-guests-cheat-to-ride-star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-at-disneyland-on-opening-day-forging-fake-boarding-passes/
Hopefully that’s not happening and it was just some wild rumors getting published as fact. Glad you didn’t see it happening.
Thanks Tom! I’ve been monitoring it closely as I’ll be there tomorrow. Can’t wait!
I look forward to hearing how early you think early enough is to get there in the am. We’ll be staying at the Desert Inn and are hoping to ride Rise each of the four days we’re there, Jan. 29-Feb. 1. Ahhhh!!
You teased it early on and then don’t address key points readers want to know. 1) how many double doubles was it and 2) animal style?
I award you zero points.
1) Thus far only two–strong emphasis on “thus far” (Had to get caught up on all the Disneyland menu changes first.)
2) YES, OF COURSE. (How little do you think of me?!)
Do you have a screen shot of the page where you add someone to your boarding group? Do you just type in their name? You say there is no point to get there early, but isn’t it better to be the closest to the turnstiles when it opens. You beat out everyone behind you. Thank you!
They start scanning people into Disneyland well before the park officially opens, like 7:30 for an 8:00 opening. So anyone who can get scanned into the park between 7:30 and 8:00 has an equal chance when the boarding group button becomes available.