Star Wars Rise of Resistance Ride Report: A Bearable Breakdown
We’re back with another ride on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Walt Disney World. This report from the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge headliner shares our latest ‘success story’ scoring boarding passes, and our first experience with the attraction breaking down in over a year.
Part of the reason we haven’t experienced any breakdowns is because we’ve been doing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance less. The main reason for that is because there’s not as much “newsworthy” happening with it. It’s not like the first few months when crowds kept ballooning, post-reopening when there was a lull, or even following the bifurcated boarding pass drop. The attraction has gotten more efficient in the last few months, but the virtual queue still fills in seconds.
Suffice to say, if all you care about is strategy, consult our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance for the ins and outs of the virtual queue–including our tips to improve your speed–rather than reading this report. It’s worth noting that there have not been any recent major changes to that ride guide. We mention this because we’ve seen a supposed “big change” making the rounds on social media. These reports are false.
These indicate that guests don’t have to be in Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the 1 pm boarding pass drop. This has always been the case. The virtual queue is not geofenced or based upon proximity—this functionality unlocks in the My Disney Experience app after you’ve physically tapped into the park’s tap/turnstiles. You can leave after tapping in and still join during the afternoon entry time from your hotel room or wherever. You could literally be inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios or in Duluth, Minnesota.
The virtual queue system only validates whether you’ve tapped into Disney’s Hollywood Studios, not your current location. We know this because we’ve spent a ton of time testing different strategies for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Regular readers might recall this, as it was a huge fixation pre-closure. In fact, our 1-Day “Resistance Run” Itinerary was built around this premise. This was savvy strategy while it lasted thanks to so few people being aware of this system quirk (or willing to do that much backtracking).
For what it’s worth, the system works exactly the same way at Disneyland. We’ve obtained boarding passes there from our hotel room and inside Disney California Adventure after first entering Disneyland. This is how the virtual queue has always worked on both coasts, but Disney has never officially acknowledged as much.
In fact, several pieces of Disney’s official info deliberately omit key advice because it’s more of a hassle for the company if guests know how these systems actually work. (For instance, the official line is that you need to be “nearby” Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the 7 am drop, which is untrue. You can be anywhere in the world.) It’s thus understandable that some fans might think this is a new development, but it’s not. Nevertheless, for those who didn’t know before, it is a useful reminder that you don’t have to be in the park at 1 pm–so don’t fear taking a midday break and trying from your resort!
Moving along, we followed our own “fast finger” advice for the boarding pass dash–mostly. We honestly prefer higher numbered groups because we don’t want to rope drop Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s a half-day park for us right now, and we far prefer being there in the afternoon and evening. Accordingly, I briefly paused before hitting the “Join” button. We definitely don’t recommend this to first-timers, as it’s a high risk approach.
My pause was not long enough, as we were called back at 10:40 am with an hour to return. We rolled up to Disney’s Hollywood Studios just in the nick of time, getting to the attraction at exactly 11:39 am. We probably would’ve been fine arriving late, but we don’t like being a hassle. Those Cast Members outside Rise of the Resistance already deal with a lot of guest-induced headaches.
Things started out well. None of the outdoor queue or overflow queue was being used, which is always a good sign. We met up with the line about halfway into the indoor queue, which is pretty consistent with recent experiences doing RotR.
I’m not going to fixate on the indoor queue or pre-shows as nothing has changed since our previous Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride report. Lots of photos in that, including photo spoilers. I’d prefer to keep this one spoiler free. (There’s also the “minor detail” that I didn’t take many photos of the queue or pre-shows since I wasn’t planning on writing a full ride report!)
Speaking of which, we’re still indefinitely avoiding Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance text or photo ride spoilers in most blog posts. I’m cognizant that the vast majority of you don’t care, and we’re obviously not the “spoiler police,” so we’re not going to demand that you not watch ride-through video or anything of the sort.
We simply want to give readers the opportunity to enjoy our posts without worrying about spoilers (beyond the major pre-show scene that is unavoidably plastered all over Disney’s marketing). We wouldn’t want the experience spoiled for us, and think those who have yet to ride deserve the same to the greatest extent possible. Due to the weird year that has caused many to postpone visits, we’re going to continue avoiding spoilers for this attraction until it’s been open for a full year of normal operations.
For the first 95% of the queue and pre-show, we ran into no issues with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance backing up or stopping. To the contrary, the entire process moved smoothly at all points. Walt Disney World has gotten really good at pulsing boarding groups through to make for a seamless experience. Kudos there.
One thing we noticed is that the parties around us were far less mindful of physical distancing. This is hardly unique to Rise of the Resistance, and is a general trend we’ve observed throughout Walt Disney World since roughly the start of spring break. Six months or so ago, this would’ve driven us crazy. Not so much anymore.
Unfortunately, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance broke down as we were in the final brief line, just before the last pre-show. We were almost to the front of this line–literally a few minutes later and we would’ve been on the ride vehicles!
This is actually the first time we’ve had Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance break down while we’ve been in line since last January at Disneyland, when we endured multiple hour-plus downtimes that led to us just sitting in the queue. I’m guessing a lot of people have “replayed” scenarios where they could’ve been unknowingly exposed to coronavirus before it was a widely known thing–those were ours.
Thankfully, this had not happened when doing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios post-reopening. I’m not sure whether we got really lucky with that, or if we got so unlucky at Disneyland that we had a backlog of “Force credits” or what have you owed to us in order to restore the natural balance.
Previously, our plan was to bail if the ride were down more than ~15 minutes due to unknowns about ventilation and air filtration in the queue. Fortunately, we literally just hit our fully vaccinated date, so we’re no longer concerned about any of that. I’m glad we stayed, as we witnessed Disney’s health safety protocol for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance downtime.
The portion of the queue where we were stopped has a plexiglass divider, with guests on both sides. We’ve previously cast aspersions about the ‘proliferation of plexiglass’ at Walt Disney World, so I won’t rehash those here.
To Disney’s credit, Cast Members emptied one side of this queue, taking those guests to unused space in the pre-show area for even more physical distancing. This was a great move, and definitely should put minds at ease when it comes to potential downtime with this attraction. I don’t know if this was/is done in all portions of the queue, as the extra space may not exist everywhere, but it was a savvy move in this section.
Once that side was emptied out, First Order Cast Members walked through that side and further ensured physical distancing compliance in character. They made a few sharp comments to guests who were not.
This resulted in our line further spacing itself out, and extending back into the previous room. This type of thing would not be possible on most attractions since they don’t have multiple queues and pre-shows, but those also don’t have the downtime woes of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
It was reassuring to see this happening, which has presumably been the protocol since reopening. We don’t expect Disney to expressly detail the precise procedures for every single attraction (that’s obviously too in the weeds), but I’d rather know about things like this (or ventilation!) than the hygiene theater Disney so often stresses.
As far as ride breakdowns go, this one was pretty bearable. I’ll stop short of calling it “good” since it did involve sitting around for 30 minutes, but our location couldn’t have been better. We were right next to the First Order Cast Members, who did an exceptional job of staying in character and “interrogating” guests during the stoppage. We also moved locations right before the attraction came back online, giving us more time than normal in the final pre-ride staging area. It was pretty cool. Downright good for us, but we had no agenda in the park. First timers to Disney’s Hollywood Studios probably would’ve felt differently about it.
After the ~45 minute downtime, we proceeded with the next phase of the attraction and everything went smoothly from there on out. Not a single effect was out of order or in B-mode, which was great. As we shared previously, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has become more reliable in the last few months, with less frequent breakdowns and them lasting longer when they do occur. This has been a great development in getting more guests on the attraction, but efficiency woes and reduced capacity still hamper its overall numbers. Hopefully both can be remedied in the near future, as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is one of Imagineering’s greatest achievements ever, and it’s really unfortunate that some guests have the experience tainted by the stressful virtual queue.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you experienced a prolonged breakdown of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance since reopening? Was the ‘protocol’ similar to or different from what happened here? Thoughts on the 7 am and 1 pm Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue releases? Have you scored a boarding group from outside DHS? Will you be attempting to join the new/modified virtual queue on your next trip to Walt Disney World? 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!
I knew we didn’t need to be in the park at 7:00 a.m. but I reread that portion of the blog twice trying to make sure I understood. Do we not need to be in the park to do the 1:00 p.m. either? I thought that wasn’t an option only the 7:00 a.m. Can someone confirm please?
@Kevin – “So you don’t have to be IN Hollywood Studios at 7am to get on the first que? Do you just need a ticket to the park that day on your app?”
Yep — we’ve tried the queue from our hotel room twice now (once successfully; once not). And I highly recommend that if you have a “digital native” in your party to hand them your phone to get you into the queue. These kids just have better phone reflexes and, as Tom says, a second matters. Every time I give my phone to one of them, we make it in. I also recommend using the speed test Tom includes in his RotR post. It helped us find a great place in the park for our best chance to get into the backup queue (that day — a table outside Ronto Roasters).
Is it weird to say I’m a little jealous of this experience? I’ve been blessed with three completely smooth, minimal wait time, fully operating RotR experiences. The first two were duirng the first week of operation in DL, and the third was a couple of weeks ago at DHS. Every time, I’ve thought, “I really wish they’d give us more time in these walkthrough environments.” I’m sure a 10-15 minute hold would have been prefereable, but it really does seem like you were in the ideal environment for a pause.
@Kevin – “So you don’t have to be IN Hollywood Studios at 7am to get on the first que? Do you just need a ticket to the park that day on your app?”
Correct, ticket and park pass reservation. This was updated when they made the switch to 7am boarding group drop instead of at Park Opening time last fall. It’s very convenient.
I learned a new word today! Who else had to look that one up?
Also, I’m so nervous that we won’t get a boarding pass when we’re there.
Re: Breakdown…That was our experience as well (i.e. they created and enforced distancing as you described). It was our first time on the attraction, and I didn’t have my bearings. As a result, there might have been some subtle differences b/w my experience and what you described that I am forgetting. Big picture, I specifically remember being thankful for the way they handled everything because it was early December and I was still questioning my sanity for being at Disney. The Cast also picked up that my daughter (can’t stand Star Wars) was quite anxious and they didn’t give her any of the First Order shtick. It was all very impressive.
Many parties seemed to bail around the 30m mark and request return passes during our breakdown, and then there was even more distancing :-).
So you don’t have to be IN Hollywood Studios at 7am to get on the first que? Do you just need a ticket to the park that day on your app?
We were there for Spring Break and it broke down on the boarding group before ours. We waited so long outside of the attraction that my daughter and I decided to ride Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway for a second time rather than wait any longer. As soon as we got in the line, they called our boarding group and we jetted back to the ride. We are not Star Wars fans (my 11 year old daughter has not seen any of the movies) but we both LOVED the ride. No issues once on (but we did wait in line for about 45 minutes).
We experienced multiple breakdowns on the week before spring break. We were in the outside queue the first time things halted, and they eventually routed us past the first pre-show and directly into that queue area. As we arrived in the plexiglass double line, things stopped moving again. The protocol was the same as yours, but with our side of the line retreating into the previous room. One noted difference is that cast members were out of character telling the kids that they were nice people in real life, so if anyone needed to use the restroom or anything else, it was ok to ask. After more waiting, the ride fully closed. They scanned our bands and were told to check the app for when it would re-open. This was a problem for us, because they don’t post the wait times of ROR, which we assumed to mean it was still closed. Eventually we walked by to check and were put right through.
Just curious – what day was this? We were there yesterday (4/18) and had boarding group 38. We made it through with no difficulty but I thought I saw some down time in the app shortly afterwards
I’ve been to MN way more times than I’ve ridden ROTR. Love MN. Spent two weeks there in sub degree winter.
FYI, the number one attraction in Duluth is the North Shore Scenic Drive. Absolutely beautiful, however I would point out this means the number one thing to do in Duluth is to get in your car and drive away.
“Although I did hear that Captain Kidd’s went out of business, so if you were hoping for food poisoning during your trip, you’re out of luck.”
Literally laughed out loud. Thanks. I saw an ihop was nearby. That shall suffice. Enjoy your trip. Hopefully they open everything on June 15, not just travel to the state. Guess you would have more time to test out the hotels if you can’t go to the parks.
Hi Tom. “bifurcated” I love the language you use!
We got stopped in this same spot back in October! It was our first time on the ride, so at first we weren’t sure if it was actually a delay or part of the “act”, since the CM’s never broke character. It was kind of cool to get some extra attention from them – my son loved it! We probably waited about 15 – 20 minutes before it was up and running again.
I am impressed by your use of the term ‘bifurcated’. Equally impressed that I actually know what it means (thanks to my wife).
We have done the ride several times, failing to get the early boarding pass just once, but was able to get it at 1pm from inside the park. I think we must have experienced it in B mode, A mode, all modes, as it does seem a bit different each time.
That’s a good point about Disneyland. I was getting wide eyed reading about the nightmares of the 2 months it was open prepandemic. At least it’ll be open 3 months before I try in early August.
Speaking of Disneyland, without having been there for a year, is the Best Western plus Park Place Inn still your #1 DL hotel? I booked it because of the price, proximity, and your recommendation, lol, but I keep looking at other places in the area as well.
“Speaking of Disneyland, without having been there for a year, is the Best Western plus Park Place Inn still your #1 DL hotel?”
Yeah, with the caveat that we haven’t set foot in Anaheim in over a year. Although I did hear that Captain Kidd’s went out of business, so if you were hoping for food poisoning during your trip, you’re out of luck.
We’ll tentatively be back in mid-June, and intend upon doing multiple hotel stays (and checking out others) so we’ll have more up-to-date info after that.
On a not related topic…. your lovely wife always looks so pretty in her dresses (as pictured here). I have always loved wearing dresses and skirts- I do most days simply because I am very feminine and it is comfortable.
But it never occurred to me to wear a dress in the parks until I started seeing her wear them. I realized it WOULD be much cooler to do so, rather than twill or denim shorts. If men knew how comfy dresses were- man kilts would be EVERYWHERE! So this year, I bought my twin and myself cute Haunted Mansion casual shift dresses online for our park day during our July beach vaca. We are doing AK and I know that park is especially hot.
Sarah is very skilled at finding comfortable dresses with pockets. (I don’t know why all dresses wouldn’t have pockets. Seems like it should be a given.)
Kilts are a hard pass for me, but I have dramatically expanded my collection of quick-drying shirts and shorts. UNIQLO makes some great, cheap ones. I also love Nike’s athletic shirts, but their polos have too boxy of a cut for me.
As far as being in the park, not being in the park, I will add that, on my second HS day after successfully riding RotR the first day, I tested out not checking into Hollywood Studios after failing the morning boarding group drop. I could have rode the skyliner over, scanned in and left real quick, but we were doing some cleaning and prepping for our beach day, so I just skipped going. I tried at 1pm anyway, just because I happened to notice the time. I was unsuccessful as suspected.
Don’t know how many would like to know that’s definitely the case or if anyone else had reported verifying that aspect, so wanted to share.
I didn’t care at the time, but after I got home and read about others going multiple times, I had wished I gone again, but oh well… We’re now planning a Disneyland trip for late summer, before school starts. Fingers crossed the reopening goes smoothly and OOS guests are able to visit.
Hopefully Disneyland has also taken advantage of the extended downtime and further improved the reliability of the attraction (I assume they’ve made the same upgrades as WDW–my understanding is those were software-based) and it now runs smoothly and is able to cycle through even more guests per hour!
I really hope they go to another way to avail people of ROTR. Even when I was there with tech savvy young family members no one could get a boarding pass.
The thought of having to go to Duluth, MN is frightening.
Hey now! That was not meant to be a joke at Duluth’s expense–just illustrating the point with a really remote location that also started with the letter D.
After a long, hot summer in Florida, I would embrace a winter visit to Duluth! 🙂
One tip for Rise that I didn’t see published anywhere, and I wish I would have known before I went relates to dining. I agree 1000% percent with not making the Cast Member’s that work outside that attraction complicated because I can’t imagine the complaints they deal with. That being said, Disney created a virtual queue system that doesn’t reconcile with their ADR system. I wish they told you if you have a dining reservation that coincides with your boarding time, don’t sweat it. If you show your receipt to the Cast Members outside Rise, they will let you on after your window has closed. This alleviated a lot of 1st world problems for us as it allowed us to enjoy our lunch, and actually chew.
P.S. We had a 45m-1hr breakdown in exactly the same place. The Cast Members crushed it, stayed in character the whole time, and made it tolerable.
I’ll update the FAQ to mention that point about ADRs, as that has also always been the case, and it’s an instantly-granted exception.
When you had a breakdown, was the protocol the same as what we described? Just curious whether this is standard operating procedure.