Star Wars Rise of Resistance Reliability & Sleep-In Strategy
Since Walt Disney World made Another Big Change for Star Wars: Rise of Resistance, it’s been smooth sailing over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The flagship ride of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has recorded several of its best operating days yet, breezing through primary boarding groups plus backup groups, and having minimal downtime.
In this post, we’ll take a look at the track record of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance since its last major operational adjustment and offer some speculation about the increased daily throughput/capacity/uptime. We’ll also offer thoughts as we begin the busiest 2-week stretch of the year at Walt Disney World, which will really test Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and the virtual queue.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we have a new SLEEP-IN STRATEGY for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. That’s right, it’s now possible to do this attraction without getting up at the crack of dawn. Although we still recommend the early rising approach…
Before we get going, let’s preemptively address common questions by directing you to our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. That covers almost every conceivable question you could have about ‘best practices’ for experiencing the attraction, and basic info about it.
It’s unclear why Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is suddenly experiencing less downtime and cycling through boarding groups quicker. There are rumblings that the underlying tech has received an update, which I envision as the equivalent of a patch to Cats being pushed out on opening weekend. (Except, regrettably, without Adam Driver or Daisy Ridley in CGI feline form.)
We have zero insight into the veracity of these claims. Test and adjust remains ongoing with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, so we should theoretically be seeing incremental improvements on a regular basis. However, a marked improvement occurred–to the degree of a breakthrough or aha moment with the underlying tech–that coincided with the new protocol.
Since last Thursday (December 19, 2019), Star Wars: Rise of Resistance has breezed through the backup boarding groups, notching several new ‘best operational days’ for the attraction. Above is a graph (courtesy of Thrill-Data.com) looking at the boarding group progress since the day before the new opening/virtual queue policy began.
With the exception of Saturday, when the attraction didn’t open until around 9:45 am, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has shown dramatic improvement in getting through boarding groups, with fewer ride resets and improved capacity. Even on Saturday, the attraction bounced back from the delayed opening and managed to get through most of the backup boarding groups.
On both Friday and Sunday, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance surpassed boarding group 165, with the upper limit primarily restrained by the number of backup boarding groups the attraction distributed. The best we’ve seen yet was on Friday when it reached boarding group 176.
If these trends continue, it’s probable that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will have a day (or multiple days) where it reaches boarding group 200 sometime this week. I wouldn’t be shocked to see this happen before the official 6 am park opening times begin between Christmas and New Year’s Eve at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Because I’m a dork like that, I’ve been stalking the attraction status in My Disney Experience from afar over the weekend. (I’ve taken 74 screenshots since Thursday…only one of which is an accidental screenshot of my lock screen!) Most days, Rise of the Resistance has been breezing through groups midday, slowing down into the evening hours.
My main observation has been that the best days have largely been attributable to no morning downtime. There was a stretch when it seemed like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was going down like clockwork roughly an hour after it had been running, and that largely has not been occurring of late. In fact, there have been a few recent days with zero downtime until late afternoon or early evening.
December 24, 2019 (9:10 am) Update: Yesterday, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance recorded its best day yet, making it all the way to boarding group 192 by 7:30 pm!
Today, the attraction is once again off to a good start, and didn’t run out of boarding backup passes until 9 am. Here’s hoping Disney distributed enough backup boarding passes and the ride has enough uptime to hit that 200 mark today!
What does all of this mean? The key takeaway really depends upon your rise-aversiveness, how many days you have at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, whether you’re an earlier riser, etc. Consistent throughout all of our Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance arrival advice, with every single change, is a recommendation of balancing sleep and sanity against beating the crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Unlike almost every other Walt Disney World planning resource, we’ve never recommended arriving before 6 am, instead aiming for an “optimal” time. Our view has been that waiting is waiting, and if you’re outside the turnstiles for 2 hours before they open, that’s still lost time.
As such, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that we’d now suggest that you consider an arrival time of either ~6:25 am or ~8 am on days when the park opens at 7 am, or ~5:35 am and ~7 am when the park opens at 6 am. These estimated arrival times each offer their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. (We should also note that these times are “valid” through January 1, 2020. After that we’ll adjust once again.)
The advantages of the earlier time are obvious. You’re guaranteed a regular boarding group (probably below 80) and will have a chance to experience other headliner attractions before long wait times build. This is our recommended strategy, especially during peak season at Walt Disney World. (If you weren’t getting to DHS this early, we’d be recommending you get to another park that early.)
However, we understand that not everyone is an early riser–or wants to be up at that hour on what should be a relaxing vacation. (Counterpoint: when you booked a peak season trip, the notion of a “relaxing vacation” was already out the window if you wanted any semblance of efficiency.)
In any case, this is why we’re also tepidly endorsing the second, later arrival to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You could push this even further than our recommended times, that really depends upon your level of risk tolerance for experiencing the attraction.
By arriving nearly an hour after official park opening time, you are missing the initial wave of guests. This should mean less time waiting at bag check and the turnstiles (although lines are possible at both the next two weeks throughout the day given crowds).
You will without a doubt receive a backup boarding group with the later arrival time. That alone isn’t a huge cause for concern. Walt Disney World essentially rebranded the higher number groups as “backup” ones to hedge expectations (and curtail the distribution of free tickets and return FastPasses).
Every single day thus far, at least some of the backup boarding groups have been called. With backup boarding passes lasting until 10 am some mornings (they ran out at ~9:25 am on December 23, 2019), it’s not too difficult to roll up to Disney’s Hollywood Studios well after official park opening and still having a very good shot at experiencing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
The upside to having a backup boarding group is that you can leave Disney’s Hollywood Studios as soon as you enter, and walk or take the Skyliner over to Epcot. The idea with this approach is to have a high enough boarding group that you’ll be called to return after 3 pm.
The goal is to spend the day in Epcot and evening in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, minimizing daytime hours in the latter and avoiding wasted time bouncing back and forth between the two parks.
A 3 pm or later return time means you could roll up to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance as late as 5 pm. Even if you sit down for a late lunch in Epcot at exactly the time your boarding group is called, this is still sufficient time to make it back during your boarding window.
Since Rise of the Resistance’s opening week, we have not stayed in Disney’s Hollywood Studios the entire day once, always park hopping after we’ve “rode the wave” of low wait times at the DHS headliners. (In fact, there have been a few times where we’ve spent less than 5 minutes inside DHS and haven’t even walked past the Crossroads of the World!)
As repeat visitors who have little interest in the stage shows, we prefer to do a Half-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance slots into that surprisingly well without modifying the existing plan too much. During the holiday season, we also prefer being in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at night. The Christmas decorations around Echo Lake are gorgeous, and Sunset Seasons Greetings is a nice distraction.
Ultimately, this is another positive development in the ongoing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance saga. It’s a sign that this difficult-to-experience attraction will require less planning and fewer hoops to jump through as we head into 2020. As it becomes more reliable and predictable, we’re now wondering when Walt Disney World will scrap the virtual queue entirely, and operate Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance like a normal attraction.
That’s still probably at least several weeks away. In the meantime, hopefully this is some good news to start your Festivus off on the right foot! There will still be ample time later at dinner to gather your family around, and you tell them all the ways they (or Walt Disney World operations, as the case may be) have disappointed you over the past year.
If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. This covers a range of topics from basics about the land and its location, to strategically choosing a hotel for your stay, recommended strategy for the land, and how to beat the crowds. It’s a good primer for this huge addition. As for planning the rest of your trip, we have a thorough Walt Disney World Planning Guide.
Your Thoughts
If you’ve done Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance since the most recent policy change, what was your experience? What time did you arrive? Which boarding group number did you receive? When did you get called back? Do you agree or disagree with our recommended strategies? 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!
Thank you for sharing valuable insights to help us make informed decisions. My husband and I will be visiting HS in October. We’re huge Star Wars fans and Rise of the Resistance is a top priority. With reduced park hours and lower crowds do you still recommend arriving at the park 35 min. prior to rope drop? Also, thank you for sharing Disney’s Halloween updates. We booked Minnie’s Halloween Dine at Hollywood and Vine and look forward to the character interactions as we are still kids at heart.
Jan 5th, arrived at the park at 6:05AM. Through security and band scanned by about 6:30AM. Had my cell open and the Disney app visible but not open. As soon as the park officially opened at 7AM, I opened the app, checked off all 11 of us then hit “Join a Boarding Group”. Assigned Group 101. Group was called at 2:46PM. It probably took less than 1 minute to do this since by 7:01 several other members in my group were texting me that they knew we had a group. I had 11 in my group, 8 adults and 3 children. At least 5 of us were trying for a boarding group.
Some advice that I was given by a family that had failed on their first try but succeeded on the following day – they had the app open before the park officially opened which needed to be refreshed and the WiFi was spotty. I took their advice – didn’t open the app until 7:00 and used cellular not WiFi. :
So if there are more than one person in your group with a cell phone, all should try simultaneously. Only one will succeed (guess I was the lucky one.) Do NOT have the app open before the Park officially opens. You will only waste time to refresh the app. Also, do not rely on Disney’s WiFi – it may be spotty. Use your cellular service especially if the signal is strong. Good luck to all future riders and “May the Force be With You!”.
This is awesome advice that I took advantage of December 30th and 31st by starting at DHS, nabbing Rise of Resistance FPs: 6:12 1st day group 119, 6:04 group 90. 1st day we were discouraged by 90 min Slinky Dog Dash and instead headed to a 30 min Toy Story Mania and 40 min Tower of Terror. Both days we were behind a sea of people who arrived earlier than park opening but second day decided to try the supposedly 135 minutes Slinky Dog Dash line. Sure enough it was almost continuously in motion: we timed it and was only 45 minutes total!
Day one we then headed to Animal Kingdom and knocked out Dinosaur in a brisk 30 minutes (as a dino buff this was the only time I wished the queue was longer – really neat educational info and bones in the line!) before using our FP+ on a 9am Kilimanjaro Safaris. Lots of animals being fed and active at that time! Did the wonderful walkthrough animal exhibits and a 50 min Kali River Rapids with a 50 minute wait while watching the line times for most other stuff balloon. By leaving then for Epcot where lines were shorter, hitting DHS for a 415 pm Rise of Resistance, and coming back for a sunset Everest FP (and skipping Flight of Passage which had no FP+s 30 days out and lines were consistently over 200 minutes) managed to never have more than an hour long wait including a bunch at DHS were the wait times for Slinky Dog and Millenium Falcon got down to 40 minutes in the last two hours.
On the 31st we hopped to Epcot for the 8am rope drop via the parking lot entrance and got in a 30 minute Soarin’ line that moved briskly, walked right onto Living with the Land once and then a second time when joined by family members who were more sluggish from the previous day and had a 60 min Soarin, then went to Test Track and did a 60 minute single rider before heading back to DHS for a 1pm which actually had shorter waits then the day before. Left around 4 to get in a three hour nap before heading back to Epcot for NYE. Regretted leaving there to do gondolas for a 10pm 4th FP at DHS except for the projection mapping they did to Tower of Terror which was subperb. Epcot was so much fun – by waiting out everyone leaving we did a 12:55 walk on to Mission: Space which was the only big thrill ride we didn’t do.
By not bothering with Flight of Passage, waking up early the 30 days before to score good FPs, and doing double rope drops both days the 90 minute Millenium Falcon line we did mid-day on NYE was the longest that we did either day while managing to do all the stuff our 16 year olds wanted at the three not Magic Kingdom parks. No waits over 60 minutes otherwise! Even managed to see their fireworks from a distance in the Germany section of World Showcase at midnight which was great since they hit capacity at 1pm and had ginormous wait times.
Just to get back on topic: these were two of the busiest days and I would *not* have wanted to risk the second strategy. Rise of Resistance is AMAZING and even only signing on 10 minutes after 6 we were still in a “back up” group of 119 that didn’t get called until 4:15pm – 10 hours after park opened. Granted it won’t always be this busy either but having this sorted out first thing was less stress than if we had been uncertain until entering late. Thanks again for all the advice!
Today’’s Boarding Groups are going MUCH more quickly. Wonder why..
We arrived at 6:00 am on 12/27. By the time we got into the park and got the app working, it was probably 6:15. We were BG 92. We had to go back at 7:00 for an issue with one of our tickets and all the boarding passes were gone. We were notified around 4:30. Thanks so much for all the information!! It was an awesome ride!!!
28th Dec 2019: We arrived at around 6:45am today (4 of us) and were allocated Group 132. Reading some of the reviews made us nervous we wouldn’t get on, but no such worries as the boarding numbers rocked along all day.
We went back to hotel for a nap and then a bite to eat, and got back to DHS at 6.30pm, just in time to see our group called. Perfect timing!
Well worth the wait, and they were boarding groups 135-142 as I write this at 8:30pm. Seems the teething troubles were just that.
Thanks for the info in this blog – by following your great advice we had a great day
Walked up at about 7am on 12/27 and there was no availability. All boarding groups were closed. Rained on and off most of the day…crowds remained in this area. On the bright side was able to ride the Millennium Falcon through the single rider line pretty quickly. Just be aware on this ride it does matter what your pilot does… lol
On 12/27, entered the park at 6:50 and received a backup boarding group #149. Received an app notification about 10am that they would not be able to accommodate our boarding pass. Guest services confirmed that groups 146-152 would not be able to be accommodated. Seems like they got a late start today.
Came on 12/27 as well. In the park by 6:15, assigned group 132 and was cancelled at around 2 pm.
At 6 pm, they’ve just started group 107…not sure what happened today.
Hey just an FYI (Spoiler Free) If you are attempting to ride Rise of the Resistance after one of its many breakdowns. Make sure it’s working completely before you redeem your FastPass. Ask at Guest Services first and make them confirm it or at the ride entrance. After waking up and getting to Hollywood Studios at 5 am the first time 12/19 and having to wait a week to try and experience it again after a break down that happened late in the day in the 19th. I get on the ride walk through a room and completely skip the first part of the ride walk outside an emergency exit and into a large room. Completely skipping the majority of the story line and experiencing poor show walking outside to rollaway hedges and major plot holes. At least theme the reroute walkway. I wouldn’t have known any better had they put some effort into it. And maybe don’t open a ride before it’s actually ready and has all the kinks worked out….
Because I experienced half a ride they would not do anything but throw some fast passes for other attractions at me. Which I refused. Because I “experienced it” they would not reissue a FastPass for that attraction. Poor show Disney and poor customer service.
Trip scheduled for February 14th. Set up my fastpasses on December 15th. I keep watching your blog to see if things are going to change so I can jump on it. I am starting to realize that maybe I should stop stressing myself out and just ready what you’ve written most recently on February 1st. Ha. Thanks for all the info.
We went yesterday 12/26 and didn’t have a problem with the ride breaking down but there was a huge problem with the system to get a spot. Park opened at 6am, we got there by 5:30am and got in the park with minutes to spare. But when 6am rolled around the app didn’t recognize myself or anybody in my group as being in the park so we couldn’t complete getting a boarding pass despite multiple tries and continually restarting the app. I’m guessing about 10-20% of the people around me had the same issue cause we descended in a sizable horde on the guest experience tent at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Echo Lake. After standing there for 10-15 minutes the line wasnt moving but the unhappy horde by the park entrance was even bigger so we ended up sprinting down to tower of terror and the guest experience umbrella there and ended up in boarding group 81 at about 6:25am. Rode with no problems around 2pm. It is an incredible ride but it seriously felt like we were trying to get the last chopper out before Saigon fell to get a spot. I am not sure the stress of it was worth it.