Big Change for Star Wars: Rise of Resistance
We’re back with yet another park opening protocol change at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. This comes as Christmas crowds descend upon Walt Disney World and word of mouth together have meant more guests arriving prior to official park opening.
Official communications about operations for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios have been sparse and Disney has been largely silent about its procedures for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance–but we actually have an official announcement on this one from the Parks Blog.
With that said, there’s still reason to believe that what happened today and what Disney has now officially announced could change again in the near future. Either way, we know a ton of you are in the midst of trips and want to be apprised of all relevant info so you can make a semi-informed decision about how to approach Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance…
Beginning this morning (December 18, 2019), the Virtual Queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was not accessible in the My Disney Experience app until official park opening at 7 am. This was despite the turnstiles opening at around 6:30 am, which has been more or less consistent with recent mornings.
This was clearly a planned and coordinated approach, as there were prerecorded in park announcements, and Cast Members were similarly relaying this information to guests as they entered. We were not in Disney’s Hollywood Studios this morning, but huge thanks to reader Tom K, who emailed us a detailed account of his experience.
Here’s what he had to say, in part, about waiting to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios: “I arrived at HS about 5:15 AM. There were approximately 3,000 people there ahead of me. The lines at bag check were minimal. My spot was about 30 feet in front of the ticket booth — the crowd started at the tap styles. Several said that folks arrived before 4 AM to get there. By the time the tap styles opened, I estimate I was in the middle of the pack.”
Tom ended up seeking shelter from the storm in Starbucks, waiting until official park opening to claim a virtual queue spot. His My Disney Experience app froze at 7:01 am as he was attempting to join boarding group 22. When the My Disney Experience app relaunched, he was able to join boarding group 50. (Ouch.)
Right off the bat, this anecdote illustrates a couple winners and losers of the new (or temporary) approach. The first is that boarding groups are more like a hybrid lottery and first-come, first-served system–at least for the rope drop crowd.
If this continues, there’s literally no advantage to arriving super early. Everyone arriving between 3 am and 6:45 am or so–assuming it takes 10-15 minutes to get through the turnstiles–will have an equal shot at the lowest number boarding groups.
Whether this is a good or bad change is a matter of perspective on which approach is most equitable. We will let you draw your own conclusions here as you undoubtedly already have an opinion one way or the other. Our only quibble, as always, is that Walt Disney World is not communicating its new policies for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in advance, via official channels. However, that’s par for the course and there’s zero reason to expect a change there.
The second takeaway from that anecdote is that the My Disney Experience app is…not great. It’s no secret that Walt Disney World’s IT infrastructure often buckles under high demand, and having a few thousand people trying to simultaneously score boarding passes for the Rise of Resistance virtual queue certainly qualifies.
This means someone arriving at 4 am could end up with a higher number boarding group than someone arriving at 7:01 am just by virtue of one losing at MDX roulette. This will definitely be frustrating, and one unequivocal upside of the unofficial early opening is that it staggered demand and load on the virtual queue.
Per Tom K, boarding passes were still available as of 8:20, but gone before 9 am. It’s worth noting that Walt Disney World started indicating that guests above boarding group 121 were essentially overflow earlier this week, so there’s no guarantee those ~8:20 am boarding groups will get to ride.
The likely reason that Walt Disney World is adopting this strategy is for the deterrent effect on future pre-park opening arrivals. Normally, when a new attraction debuts at Walt Disney World, diehard fans show up at ridiculous hours on opening day–maybe opening weekend–and then rope drop crowds start skewing closer to official park opening.
Here, the first part of that happened and crowds got better for a few days before getting much worse. Christmas approaching is one reason for that, but the better explanation is word of mouth. As information has circulated from unofficial sources–together with nearly unanimous glowing reviews for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance–more guests are aware of what must be done if they want a chance to ride Walt Disney World’s new E-Ticket.
With the busy holiday weeks approaching, this had the potential of spiraling out of control. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a smash hit and guests are arriving earlier and earlier. The days we’ve visited this week have been bonkers, and these growing crowds outside the gates force DHS to open even earlier to accommodate them. This new policy going forward should reverse that trend, discouraging most people from arriving before 6:30 am.
In addition to this, no attractions will be open to guests prior to 7 am. Guests will be allowed onto Hollywood Boulevard and into the Trolley Car Café Starbucks and gift shops, but will then held prior to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. This thus doubly disadvantages the earliest guests to arrive. If this new policy sticks, there is really no reason to arrive at Disney’s Hollywood Studios before the published opening time.
As you’ve probably gathered from our previous posts, we’ve been fans of an approach that balances sleep and sanity with being up early to beat the crowds. As such, we’ve been suggesting getting to DHS between 6:30 and 7 am. Late enough to miss being stuck in a sea of humanity waiting for the gates to open, but still early enough to score a boarding pass and beat the crowds throughout DHS.
If we were doing Disney’s Hollywood Studios tomorrow (we aren’t!), we’d hedge our bets a bit and modify that to an 6:45 am arrival. Still enough time to be through the turnstiles at 7 am (or close enough to it), and with minimal time wasted. (This also makes our Skyliner ‘Rise (of the Resistance) & Shine’ Strategy a bit more viable.) Personally, I’d be inclined to arrive slightly later, as refreshing the My Disney Experience app and becoming frustrated if/when it crashes doesn’t sound like a good way of starting the day off on the right foot.
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
Have you rope dropped Disney’s Hollywood Studios recently? What has been your experience with crowds? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment and strategy? 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!
Any insight into how they’ll handle this in California? We have a Disneyland trip booked for January for basically the sole purpose of riding this so are eager to figure out how they handle logistics there so that we don’t blow it (we only have 1 full day so will have to get it right that day).
No clue whatsoever. I’d be surprised if Disney even knows at this point.
I think in large part it depends upon how reliable the attraction is when it debuts in CA.
We did rise of the resistance this morning and scored boarding group 16. We arrived at Hollywood studios at 6:30 and made it through the turnstiles with 2 minutes to spare…. I would disagree with your suggestion to arrive at 6:45. You won’t make it into the park before 7. I’d say aim between 6 and 6:15
Thanks for the feedback.
It looks like crowds are getting larger and larger, so I probably should move that arrival time back a bit.
My husband and I will be at Disney January 5-9th with DHS on January 6. Seeing all the changes they are making concerning DHS and the availability of a pass for Star Wars Rise Is starting to stress me out a little! We will continue to watch for your blogs, and hope for the best! Keep the information coming!!
This is finally a reasonable way of doing it!
There should be NO advantage of being any more than 1/2hr early, on site guests should be able to use Disney buses and still have equal chance vs a guest in a car.
They never should have issued boarding passes as guests entered, it should have always been an equal chance for first few thousand.
100% agree. this is the way things should have been handled from the very first day, instead of this nonsense of people arriving hours early, opening the park hours ahead of announced opening time “for safety”, and people showing up out of luck because passes were gone 2 hrs prior to posted opening time. call it a “lottery” if you wish to view it that way, but this is the fairest way to handle this while avoiding nonsensical people showing up hours before park opening and passes being gone before most reasonable people had a chance. this is much more fair for families who may not have otherwise known to show up 3 hrs before a posted park opening (and i can guarantee thousands of families had no idea and got the short end of the stick).
100% disagree. People spend tons of money on a Disney vacation and those with the resolve to get to the gate at 5am SHOULD have a better chance than someone arriving 30 minutes before posted opening time. Managing WDW crowds in general has always been about who has the motivation to show up early or stay late, or get on the computer right at 7am 60 days out to get those fast passes to Flight of Passage. With this new system it levels the playing field for the lazy or casual tourist and those with the will to make the extra effort will get hosed.
i agree that a system to give priority to resort guests who are spending the most should have been implemented, like EEMH for resorts guests only, but it wasn’t, and i disagree with everything else you said. this was an absolutely cluster—- of a way to handle it, and people showing up before dawn only contributed to the madness and it never should have been allowed. people should have had to wait in their cars until a set hour, not crowd the gate. FOMO much? the issue here was giving out the boarding groups before official park opening and not communicating that to guests clearly. that boxed out too many people from having a chance who had no idea. a set time is far and away the most fair if resorts guests aren’t given some other sort of priority.
Thursday 12/19.
I am not in the park today, but I just checked the boarding group status and they are still available at 10:10 AM.
Today is the first block out day for the Silver and Gold pass holders. That has likely reduced the stress on the system significantly.
Not sure where you were looking but we were in the park this morning. All the ‘regular’ boarding groups were booked out by about 7:35. It said up to boarding group 106 were regular for today. Waitlisted groups were then booking through around 8:00am then all the signs went up around the park that there were no more for today.
Interesting. I was simply refreshing the app on my phone and saw that I could book. I didnt try to do so since I wasnt in the park.
Your experience is clearly first hand and shows that one has to try to fully book to understand the situation. I stand corrected.
We were there on 12/18 and as soon as it hit 7am we started trying to get the boarding pass. And lije you mentioned it took us till about 715 to get one because the app was so slow. We ended up with boarding group 47, and our group was called at 10:05, we got in line at 1109 and it took us about 45 min from start yo finish. The ride is amazing!
Touring Plans published some interesting data about the boarding groups that seems very helpful for planning purposes. It allows you to see how long you would have had on any day from the time they opened the boarding groups until they were sold out. Also includes the park opening as a reference point:
https://touringplans.com/blog/2019/12/19/rise-of-the-resistance-boarding-groups/
So we live 3 hours away from Disney. Couldn’t afford to stay this time, but we really wanted to see the new land. On 12/6, all boarding passes were gone before we even got in the park. So on 12/13, we left home at midnight, got there before anyone else! Scored a parking spot in the first row, and waited nearly 4 hours for them to open the park. If they had not opened the boarding pass queue as you entered the park, and we’d missed it after being up all night, that would have been so unfair!
The ride was totally worth it! We love Smugglers Run also, the land is so well designed with all the little details that make it feel like Disney!
I’d gladly pay $25 extra a person to not have to wait or get up early for ROTR. Maybe that’s just me, but $100 premium for that ride is well worth it for the four of us. If we could pay ahead to reserve a time, and then enjoy the day and show up for that time, I’m all in.
We are pass holders from the NY/NJ area and it’s worth our time to pay extra. Wish that was an option.
We came on Tuesday and Thursday were in line by 6:30 ; we scored boarding passes 39 and 15 respectively. Great ride and I love the virtual cue! App worked fine. We were on Disney WiFi. Had two phones logged into the app both trying to get in; refreshed app multiple times. My phone was the fastest each time.
We were there yesterday and our app was saying we weren’t in the park. Had to find a cast member to scan us into a boarding group. Everyone around us was getting in the 20s, but we ended up 67. The ride itself was so worth the stress though.
What time was your boarding group called?
Brea, did you refresh (close and reopen) your app after you entered the park? I had to do that for the app to register my presence.
Hi all.
I’m travelling with my wife and daughter at the weekend.
If I queue and enter park myself, would this get everyone in my party a boarding pass???
Or does everyone in my party need to physical enter park to get the same boarding pass?
Thx in advance for reply’s.
It’s all together (except for days 1 and 2? of opening). Of course, you could go and do as some did when I was there on 12/13 when 4 people (2 teens and 2 adults) walked right through the crowd to reach their “placeholder” member who was halfway between the scanners and the ticket booths. I was 2 people away from their path. I’m pretty sure they would not have gotten past me without CM intervention had I been in their path.
Everyone needs to be in the park with you.
Bob – EVERYONE in your group has to be scanned in before they can be added to your boarding group.
No, everyone in your party has to scan tickets/bands to get into the park. Then it will allow you to get on a boarding group. If you did it that way only you will get a boarding group.
Hi Bob,
the three of you need to physically enter the park to get a boarding pass for the three of you. Enjoy .. it is very awesome.
I was in Disney last week …I was in Boarding Party 108….ugh! I think the ride must have broken down a few times…as the number was stuck in the 30s for quite some time. I didn’t make it on but I have to say that I was given an extra Fast Pass for the following day AND a 1 Day Hopper ticket for my entire party (there were 5 of us)! I am a resident and annual pass holder but I do have some blackout dates…so we will be using the park hopper on one of those days. I though that was really awesome of Disney to do that!! Going to try going in February to try again!
So if you want a handicapped return pass you are out of luck? On this ride.there is no way for us go that early in the day.
Yep. My son has autism and a DAS. According to Disney, if the whole party isn’t in the park to join a boarding group, you are out of luck. Quite simply, my son can handle about an hour in the park, so he cannot ride yet. It makes me so mad that people abused the old system (and this one) so badly that those who need the accommodation don’t have it. The system is meant, again according to Disney, for people with developmental disabilities and the like, not for people in wheelchairs that can access the regular lines and can wait.
We used the DAS last week. It’s a great system. Once you get your boarding group and your group is called you go thru the “fastpass” entrance. Once you get your boarding group you can leave the park then come back when group is called. That way we had no melt downs.
Tom – 180 days before our trip I thought by booking an 8am breakfast in HS when the anticipated opening time would be 9am for the park was a good way to get into the park early. Now with their new system I am wondering if this still gives us an advantage or if we should just cancel the breakfast (save some money!), but still arrive early to get the virtual boarding pass for RoR. I appreciate any help!
ShanM – I was at Hollywood Studios a few days ago. I arrived at 4:30am. The gates opened at 6:15am. I was able to get a boarding pass immediately after entering the park. I had reservations at Savi’s workshop to build a lightsaber at 8:50am. I was worried about missing my lightsaber reservation to ride ROTR. Luckily, it worked out and I didn’t miss it. I honestly would not recommend making any dining or any other reservations on the same day if you want to ride ROTR because you never know when you’re boarding group will be called.
Even if you’re called, you have a 2 hour window to get to the ride. probably not going to be an issue unless you’re called within 30 minutes of your reservation. At that point, I’d just go back to the ride and let them know you have a prior reservation and see if they can offer a fastpass to return when you’re done with the other reservation.
So you can join a boarding pass only if you’re in the park? if you’re near in your hotel is not possible? =(
We’re going to HS on 1/23. We currently have a reservation at 50’s Prime Time at 6:20. We’d planned to go directly to the Star Wars fireworks right after dinner. We’re seriously considering cancelling our reservation. What happens if they call us during dinner? Even if we have 2 hours to get over there, we’d be rushing dinner and missing the fireworks entirely. If we’re lucky we’ll get in an earlier boarding group, but since you have to cancel ADRs 24 hours in advance, we can’t wait until that morning (after we have our BG number) to decide.
We canceled breakfast yesterday. I’m so glad we did. Would have made it much more stressful trying to get through the line. Complete disorder at the front gate.
We were at DHS at 6:45 today. Buses weren’t running at Bay Lake yet so had to take a Minnie Van, only thing that was available at the time. It was almost 7:30 before we made it through. Boarding Group 94 and were called at 5 pm. The weather today was a huge factor. Seemed like a lot of people left before they made it onto the ride. They had close to 30-40 boarding groups going at once. We actually took the Sky Liner over to Epcot for lunch and came back. Made for a nice change of pace to breakup the day.
Have to appreciate the irony of months of Extra Extra Special Pixie Dust Magical Hours (or whatever they were called) with no demand. Now that there is demand, this nonsense.
Yes, those extra, extra magic hours would sure come in handy right about now.
If you read through our old ExEMH posts, we totally called this. Not that they’d change policies every week with RotR, but that ExEMH would actually be necessary once it opened, but that they wouldn’t offer the perk.
It would’ve pissed off some people, but they should’ve just moved ExEMH to December when they announced the RotR opening date back in July. Hindsight is 20/20, though.
My family got to the park around 6:40, but couldn’t get into the park until nearly 7:20. Our boarding group was 95(!) which we got the instant my dad got into the park; we didn’t have any app issues, luckily.
We were at DHS today. Husband and I arrived around 6:15. The rest of my family arrived closer to 6:45 and I was worried they wouldn’t make it. They went to the far right of the crowd waiting and got into the park before we did – we were in the middle. So there’s another helpful tip since crowds seem to bottleneck. We were in groups 50 and 82 and got them done before 3:30. They boarded more than 150 groups. Definitely was planned out well! Thanks for all your helpful tips! Made it possible for us to see such an amazing ride!
We were at DHS yesterday (Tues, 12/17) and arrived shortly before 5 am. We were about 20 deep in our line at the tap point, with about a dozen tap point lines. I asked one lady who was 2nd in our line what time she arrived – 4:30. By 5:30, the lines were well behind the ticket windows and before 6, they were at the bag check. Cast members were milling around before 6 giving (false) hope of a very early opening. They finally opened at 6:30. We were able to get a boarding group 7 slot. It was unseasonably warm and very humid even at 5 am with no fans running, which made for an uncomfortable 90 minute wait. After entering the park, we managed 2 quick rides on Toy Story Mania (0, and 5 minute wait, respectively) before heading over to RotR.
We were also there Tuesday 12-17. We arrived at 5:25, and were waiting behind the ticket windows for the park to open. Got boarding group 23, Rode Slinky Dog once, and Midway Mania twice before our group was called shortly before 8 am.
Wow, all of that just seems scary to me. I know that the waiting- to- enter- crowd probably doesn’t out number the Magic Kingdom at Christmas crowd (as I’ve seen those scary pictures of a herd of humanity at a stand still). It seems that passholders of a certain value level and those staying on property the day they are visiting DHS should be given the first option to board and do so without all of this nonsense of having to be able to be in the park at opening, only to have an app crash, then get passed over, after paying possibly thousands to get there and for the person with a 1 day ticket to snatch it all because they got lucky. Call me a snob, but if you pay more, you should play more.
Yes – this
I am a passholder, and my opinion is the opposite. Those staying on property get to pick Fast Pass 30 days ahead of those not staying on property. Depending on its level, an annual pass gets you all those free photos, and discounts on shopping, dining, and hotel rooms. One of the things I like most about Disney is that all ticket holders have equal opportunities once you’re in the park. The way FP+ is designed, in park, is wonderful…no matter how much money you have, it works the same for everyone. Other parks charge for that. I have my complaints about Disney, but this is one I think they get right.
If you are a passholder you have several possibilities to ride ROTR. I am coming from Germany in May paying hundreds of Dollars to get there and I have only this one day to ride it.
Do you have to be at DHS in order to access the virtual queue? Or can you just go on the app at Park opening to secure a boarding pass?
You have to be scanned into Hollywood Studios to be able to get a Boarding Group.
You have to be inside DHS with your MagicBand/ticket scanned before you can access the virtual queue.
When will the buses from the hotels take you over? 5:30 am?
I don’t mind opening at the published time, but I’d much rather be held outside the taps tiles like they did for a while than on Hollywood Blvd. Being crammed in there, followed by the pushfest to SDD or wherever is the least fun thing in WDW.