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!
I’m assuming they will allow a switch back rider if we are traveling with a toddler for Rise of Res?
Tom, we want to thank you so much for all your tips. We’ve had an amazing Christmas day at Disney Hollywood Studios. We were at the park for 6.30am, went through with very little wait time and at 7am got our boarding group (45), standing in line for coffee!! We had two phones on it, and were so high with excitement when we realised we got a slot! Your blog tips made our day perfect – been reading them at home in the UK for the Past few weeks so the kids could have the best Christmas day! Thankyou so much! Richard, Claire, Evie (14) and Harry (age 11 – loved it!) P-J
We were there the 20th and 24th. Both time got to park right after 6am, first time group 7, 2nd time i had to restart app and got to group 29. Today, on the 24th, the ride was broken feom 8am to 9am, they had Rey and Chewie coming through right the way, then hand out warer and snacks, then the blue hair lady.
We just got back…got to the park at 9:30 and still joined a boarding group at 10 am! We were boarding group 141. We did have a small hiccup when the ride went down for about 30 min. Right before our time was due to come back. We got to ride it though no problem by 8:30 pm. It was a breeze to get on as well. The ride was amazing! I was told you no longer need to come at 3am or even 6am that they have been having great luck with the ride with minimal breakdowns. We had 3 small little ones so getting there that early isnt even an option. I feel like if your there when the park opens to get onto a boarding group you will be fine now.
What are your thoughts about a 4 year old experiencing the ride (totally obsessed with all things Star Wars, including all the scary creatures) – too much for them to handle?
I think the beginning is too intense for a kid. The prisoner part.
My daughter is 6 and she’s not really into starwars but it kinda scared her. The beginning is a little scary for small kids. I kept telling her it wasn’t real and she was fine later on the ride.
I think it comes down to the child. If your 4 year old loves Star Wars including the scary bits, they’ll probably be fine. My 8 year old daughter was interrogated by a stern First Order officer. She thought it was hilarious.
We rode it yesterday on our first Disney park day. I found the pressure of it super stressful. We got up at 5, went to the buses but weren’t sure if one would come (no times were coming up) so we order an uber but he kept driving in circles and the bus came before he got there, (so we cancelled him). We arrived at HS at 6am. Already thousands of people there, we just stood in the crowd then they opened up at 6.30 so we shuffled forward with the throng. Bag check was quick, we were in by 6.45. I had the app open and bang on 7am pushed “Join boarding group” and hallelujah got boarding group 20. The guy in front of me got group 56. We went straight to line up for smugglers run, then did our fastpass for rock n rollercoaster, then back to GE as our boarding group had been called. So we had done both GE rides by 10am. Went back to resort for a rest in the afternoon, then back to HS and rode smugglers run with minimal wait around 10pm (40 minutes wait). Glad I’ve done it once. It really was the best ride ever, but I thought it was too much pressure worrying about whether we would get a boarding pass or not. I am sure there would have been many disappointed people.
Hi Tom, thanks for all the Galaxy’s Edge updates. Just curious if you have a guess of how many guests each boarding group holds?
We did Rise of the Resistance today! It was really nerve wracking inching forward ever so slowly in the rain (and me on my ECV unable to see much in the throng). Eventually scanned magic bands at 7.02am and got boarding group 65. We were called to board at 11.05am. No problems. Happy days. Epic ride!
We asked a CM who said each Boarding group consists of 64 people.
What time did u get to the park??
Hi Nicole, well we were told the buses started from our resort at 6am. We got to bus stop at 5.55am and must have just missed one because the next bus didn’t come til 6.20am. By the time the bus was loaded and we got to Hollywood Studios it was about 6.35am. But then you have to get through bag check and then join a queue to get into the park. That whole process took nearly half an hour. There’s thousands of people. And honestly it’s very stressful because you don’t know whether all the effort of getting there with the whole family (we had 8 family members) will pay off. I hope for everyone’s sake in the future they’ll offer fast passes for Rise of the Resistance.
We were at Animal Kingdom this morning (12/23) and talked to a couple who were at Hollywood Studios yesterday. She said they arrived at 6:00 and got boarding passes, but they were out by 7:15. We are going to try tomorrow morning – hoping you’re strategy works for us.
Any theories on how they’re going to do this when they open the ride at Disneyland in January, with no magic bands, app, or virtual ANYTHING? We’ll be there in June and we’re hoping that if we miss it here we’ll be able to catch it there…
Boarding groups now open up at the advertised open time for Hollywood Studios. So if the park opens at 7am you don’t want to be there any earlier than 6.30am. Good luck. We did it today. Fabulous.
Disneyland does have its own app, very similar to the Disney World one. Instead of linking to your magic band it just links to your ticket. They used the Disneyland app to manage boarding groups into Galaxy’s Edge when it first opened, so they’ll likely use the same boarding group system for Rise of the Resistance.
Do you think they will give a 70-day (60 day + 10) heads up before changing to fastpass?
I could see that if they’re waiting until Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway before offering FastPass+ for all three new attractions. Otherwise, I doubt there will be that much lead time.
Just got off the ride and your advice is spot on. Thanks Brickers, we couldn’t have done it without you. Pure awesome!
We arrived 6:15 to 6:20am this mirnin-. It was a perfect morning. Got our bg 48 (called at 9:45). The walked on rnrc and tot. Then did tsmm and aliens. A great start to the day. Now, with triple digit waits everywhere, we’re headed back to hotel!
I would like to receive your blog thank you Cyndi Harkness
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Great post Tom, and thanks for the Festivus reference, it is great “for the rest of us”
Thanks for the great updates! My family will be at DHS on New Year’s Eve. We are planning on arriving early and then leaving after taking advantage of lower crowd levels to relax at our hotel. Do you foresee any issues with the park getting to capacity and being unable to regain entry later in the day?
We had a stellar day at Hollywood Studios on Friday! We arrived at HS at 6:45am, entered HS a little after 7am, got a boarding group in the late 70s, rode the Millenium Falcon via single rider, had some blue milk, visited the cantina with no reservations/no wait, ate a ronto wrap, rode Alien Swirling Saucers, left HS around 9:30am, went back to our hotel to take a nap and do some work, and were back in HS and riding ROTR at around 1pm. We spent the rest of the day having fun at Magic Kingdom for several hours before heading over to Trail’s End for marshmallow roasting and dinner.
Tom…Thank you for the service you provide us all. This is incredibly detailed and useful information! Going to give this a shot Christmas Day!
I got to DHS today at 6:25. Drove my car and got a good parking spot. Was in line for the turnstiles when they opened at around 6:35. Got through the turnstiles right at 7 and got into boarding group 40 and was called at about 9:30. The ride is everything advertised. They seem to be running at half capacity. It is a great experience now and I definitely see how they will be able to run at a fuller capacity in the future.
Great article! I love it when data geekery intersects w/ Disney as it’s my real job intersecting w/ a hobby, which is always fun.
I really appreciate your counterpoint. I’d extend it to be that if you traveling w/ younger kids during any season, and expect a “relaxing” trip you might need to re-examine your expectations. Note: in my opinion you can have a ton of fun without getting to relax all that much.
I doubt Disney will do it, but I’d love to see the virtual queue extended for an E-Ticket (or two) at all the parks (onsite hotel perk anyone?).
Merry Christmas!
“Note: in my opinion you can have a ton of fun without getting to relax all that much.”
I totally agree. For the most part, I hate relaxing while traveling. I subscribe to the mantra, “you can sleep at home.”
One of the big reasons why Sarah loves DCL is because it forces me to go at a more leisurely pace. Even then, I’m always up early and out late and find ways to busy myself. Confining me to a cruise ship (or island) does slow things down a bit, though.
Does each member in your group need to get on the app to get a time slot for this Ride or
through My Disney Experience App can you book your party together? I’m just wondering
when traveling with children how do you include them in on the ride with you if in deed you become lucky enough to get a time slot.
If you are all in a party together in My Disney Experience one adult can definitely add the kids to a boarding group. Look at the screenshot in the article (think it’s the 6th photo down) that has “Create your Party” at the top.
However, everyone in your party has to have tapped into Hollywood Studios for the day. Again, you all (kids included) need to physically have entered the park.
As an example of what you cannot do: send a parent ahead for park opening, and create a party while kids sleep.
As an example of what you can do: drag kids out of bed for park opening, create a party, and leave the park to let kids chill out until group is called (2 hour return window).
No, you should have one person do it and select all members of the group within the app – it works like getting a FP+ in the app. Note that all members you select have to have scanned into the front of the park.
Will be going in late January. Will have DAS as my husband has stage 4 cancer. Is DAS utilized for Rise of Res?