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.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
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!
When we were there in October it broke down while we were on the ride, RIGHT before the climax! They escorted us off the ride and gave us passes to come back once it was running again. So essentially we got to ride the whole thing twice in one day!
That’s awesome!
We’ve experienced many, many breakdowns of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, but almost all in boring parts of the queue. This was our “coolest” location thus far, and we’ve never been lucky enough to have it happen on the actual ride.
@MomofTwins Your comment made me laugh because the same thing happened to me in early March!
We got stuck in an interrogation room and I was by myself (my husband was with our small children). All of the other guests and myself were first-timers so we were very confused – we were left alone for a really long time! Finally we started talking to each other and assured each other that something had to be going wrong, surely this wasn’t part of the experience! Eventually we were able to complete the ride thankfully!
When my husband tried to go and use his rider swap, the ride was broken down for over an hour. We didn’t have great luck that day!
We’ve also been stuck twice in that same room, thankfully for much shorter periods of time. It’s definitely the most awkward spot to be when the ride breaks down!
Back in October we made our first post shutdown visit. We experienced a ROTR breakdown while we were waiting in the queue. We sat for about 45 minutes before the line began to move. We happened to be in an alleyway between The Muppet Theater and the ROTR show building. The cast members were very accommodating by constantly checking on us and allowing those who needed to use it access to a staff bathroom while we were waiting. It felt a bit strange that to accommodate social distancing in this abnormal normal situation that we were brought into a backstage area and break the illusion of being on another world.
@Becky S
In my anecdotal experience talking with a Cast Member about my return time I found they would be very accommodating. I think if a) have a boarding pass, b) are very polite when asking and explain your situation they will accommodate you. I don’t think that’s the official policy, but it’s what was explained to me. HTH.
We once got stuck in the middle of Rise of the Resistance. All of the screens froze! I recorded a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwb6aSQEC8g
We could only get a park reservation at DHS for our arrival day. My plan is to try to book our boarding pass from the airport!
We go to WDW every 2 years or so. This is our first chance to be able to ride it. My primary concern is not getting a boarding pass at all, but my next concern is getting one that’s too early in the day! If I end up with a morning time, is there any way to change it to be after noon? I’m sure cast members deal with issues of RoR all the time, and I’d hate to add to that, but it might be our only chance at getting to ride it!
I’m not sure there’s a way that doesn’t involve talking to Guest Relations in the park. The unofficial policy might be for Cast Members at the entrance to accept any returns after their arrival time (without regard to the hour), but I’m honestly not sure–we haven’t tried since reopening.
Could you please clarify comments regarding 1 PM queue at Hollywood Studios? Are you saying you don’t physically have to be in the park at 1 PM. However, at some point BEFORE 1 PM, you have to swipe your pass at the park’s turnstiles, in order to get access to the virtual queue at 1 PM?? If that’s the case, it still excludes guests with park hopper tickets, but no reservation at Hollywood Studios, because they can’t enter until 2 PM, correct?
All of this is correct.
My friends must have been just behind you! They were stuck in the hanger bay and I actually was really jealous since I’d love to spend more time in that room!
We rode that ride later in the day. We were in the room with all the storm troopers. We had great photo ops in there. We were not able to finish the ride however. Luckily I got to ride it later in the week.
If this downtime was in reference to Saturday April 17th- we were also stuck in line but we were in the large room with the rows of Storm Troopers. Everyone was spaced out and we felt comfortable in such a big room. I appreciated the cast members offering to take us on restroom breaks if needed, too. Luckily it wasn’t too long of a wait and it was a nice break from the heat.
So all this info sounds great but it’s for ROTR in Disneyworld….any info / advice for ROTR in Disneyland , California…ill be going May 2…it says the park hours are from 9am – 7pm…when should I start trying to get boarding passes.?
Here’s our Disneyland-specific guide: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/star-wars-rise-resistance-disneyland-strategy-guide/
Note that some of this will be inaccurate when Disneyland reopens. We’ll update as soon as Disneyland confirms the exact details.
@Jim Cullen: You should read Tom’s RotR FAQ for all the details, but here’s the short version. The RotR virtual queue opens two times each day, at 7am and 1pm.
To be able to join the queue at 7am, you need to have a valid park pass reservation for DHS for that day. Obviously you can’t have already entered DHS at 7am, as the park isn’t open yet.
To be able to join the queue at 1pm, you need to *have entered* DHS that day. What Tom is stressing above is that you don’t need to STILL be inside DHS at 1pm to join the queue. You can leave the park and still join the queue at 1pm.
Can’t type… Congrats on being fully vaccinated? Pfizer, Moderna or J&J …saw the photo of your true bravery!
Thanks! Moderna, but I would’ve happily taken any of them (and as you saw from the photo, I HATE shots). The key for me is that all three are 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and death. At the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Ready to get back to normal now!
I grays on being fully vaccinated? Pfizer, Moderna or J&am. I saw the photo of your true bravery!
@Jamia “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?”
Hi Jamia, you only have to scan in at some point before 1pm. If you want to rope drop, grab lunch at 11:30, then head back to your hotel, you can do that and try for a Boarding Group at the 1pm drop.
Still confused it says the virtual queue system validates if you have tapped into HS. So you need to go to HS to tap in to get into the virtual queue??
I imagine it is much nicer to be in an area with CMs! We got stuck for 30 mins in a room by ourselves with one other guest sealed off from the CMs (won’t describe to avoid spoilers) and there was no announcement or anything and it was our first time riding so we were unsure at first what was going on! Was very odd.
We just got back from our first trip post park shutdown… and our first opportunity to ride RotR. I followed all your tips from inside the Disney bubble (Swan) and scored group 82. Hooray! It was amazing!! Second day from outside the bubble and didn’t get a group for 7am. Followed all your tips for the 1pm try – and scored group 141. Not to mention the ride had already broke down a few times that day already. Believe it or not – we still got on at approx 6:30! Incredible!! Thanks for all your advice. Highlight of our amazing trip.
@DJ, now I’m REALLY jealous!
Fortunately for me, ROTR broke down just as I was finishing the ride. This was in March. We were told to stay seated in the cars and cast members emptied and escorted everyone to the exit one car at a time.
I say fortunately because not only did we get 99% of the ride experience (the ride stopped just as we could see “the light at the end of the tunnel”), but they also scanned our Magic Bands to load what they called a “rescue”/return pass. I had to ask how that works, the CM said:
1) it’s only good for that day
2) to see when the ride resumes operating, keep checking the app to see IF/WHEN they resume calling up boarding groups
3) you MUST return anytime BEFORE the ride closes, which was 7pm. I went on other rides, ate dinner, and returned at 6:30pm.
4) although there was a line at 6:30pm, I politely asked the CM for instructions on how to use my rescue pass and they sent me to the front of the line, scanned my Magic Band to verify my rescue pass, and sent me down the MUCH shorter path bypassing all the others waiting in the usual line!
So, I got to ride TWICE in one day!
Best.Day.EVER !!
Afterwards, got to wander around snapping pics with very few people around and that fantastically gorgeous nighttime lighting on the mountains and land! Lucky me! NO complaints at all