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!
I’m going in February when the park doesn’t open until 9am. Should I be there by 8:30? The virtual que will not open until 9am with the later park hours, correct? Also, I am managing my group of 7. I will be able to get my whole party in one boarding group from my phone/app?
Yes, arriving 30 mins early to get through security and scanning your entry ticket is a good idea.
And yes, as long as your entire group is linked to your account on your MDE, you can book the boarding passes for everyone.
IF you leave the park will you loose your boarding pass number?
No. Once you get your boarding number you can park hop or whatever. You’ll receive a text with ample time when it’s your time to ‘board’.
We traveled to WDW over Christmas break and visited DHS twice in 5 days. We put our faith in Uber after being told Skyliner would not run until 7:00 AM. If you choose Uber, allow ample time for driver to reach you. One morning took 20 minutes for driver to get to us. We were in the front third of the line…massive crowds! We entered park at 6:20 on our first visit. 6:30 AM on our second. Virtual queue opened at 7:00 AM as stated above. This system is a lottery. First visit we earned boarding group 91 and second was 76. The ride / experience was well worth being there at rope drop! It is an amazing ride for fans! Good luck!
Yes, it is a lottery but with a quick trigger finger you can get an early boarding pass as it’s first come, first serve. I got BG62 on the first try and BG14 a few days later once I figured out how to join a BG faster on the MDE app.
We are planning to go to DHS next Monday and are staying at All Star Sports. Should we trust the Disney bus service will get us there in time to get inside before park opening and get a boarding pass?
We resorted to Uber on our 2 visits to DHS over 5 days during Christmas break.
We went to Hollywood Studios on Jan 30th, arrived at 6:45am with two kids (5&7 years old) and after bag checking of 5-7 mins entered at 7:15am. We got boarding group 179, the Disney staff told us they were trying the most as after group 114, they didn’t promise we could make the ride. Luckily, at 6:15pm and checking the app every 30 mins, we got the notification to arrived at 8:06pm to the entrance of Rise of resistance! :). It’s an amazing ride! Really worth the effort to wake up early but try to make it the first park!
I regret planning a trip to Disney World. I have traveled all over the world so I’m not new to travel! This Disney World trip planning has taken the most time, effort, worry not to mention I went to Morocco last month for a quarter of the price. I have read everything that has been written about getting boarding passes for Star Wars: Rise of the resistance and I still don’t get it. And how in the world can we guess when the park will open when the don’t publish the times. traveling with 3 small children and have no idea what time to drag them out of bed because they have secret park time they won’t tell us…
Well, I will say the first time we went we used a Disney travel person to help us and that was invaluable. It made the experience so much more enjoyable and they know about all the nuances a 1st time Disney goer might not. The next trip we did on our own. It doesn’t cost anything to my knowledge…it was well worth it!! I’m not sure when you are going–or if it’s too late to contact a Disney trip planning person–but that’s alone can save so much angst! Ps. It is expensive…but we go about every other year and look forward to our trip each time
In order to do anything Disney World related, you’ll need the My Disney Experience app downloaded from your phone’s app store, as long as you have a android or Apple smartphone.
Once you have that, you can locate the park hours by locating the hours section, clicking all hours, then going to the dates you’ll be at Disney. With their most recent policy change, which will probably stay in place as long as boarding passes are used, Disney will only allow guests to request boarding passes at the time of the listed park opening time, no more hours earlier opening of boarding passes. Be sure to check the hours right before the trip and even night before going, just to make sure it hasn’t changed.
In order to ride the ride, at this time, you and your entire group will have to be inside Hollywood Studios, try to be there before park opens, then open your Disney app, and locate Star Wars section. When the park opens, you’ll see an option to get the boarding pass. Just follow the steps…. or, go to a guest service window and ask them to get a boarding pass for you.
Yes, this is a lot of work and yes, Disney is a bit full of themselves with the way this is being done, but if you have to ride the ride, you have to play their game. There are no back doors to get around this setup.
Enjoy your trip. I’ll be going in May myself. Only the second trip, but I agree the amount of planning for a Disney trip is crazy. If you can’t embrace it, you probably won’t have much fun, but id say, still check it out with an open mind.
So all you have to do is be inside the park and then use the app. HOW RIDICULOUS AND RUDE. So you get a number but no clue as to a time. You could be standing there at 6 am but not ride til 6 pm?.???? Am I getting this right? I
Can’t comment on the price but park times are published on the Disney website or on the MDE app. There are no secret park times. What do you mean by this? I’m in on vacation in Orlando right now as we speak and the park times are clear as day. Hollywood Studios has been opening at 7:00am but they let you in earlier but none of the rides or attractions are open yet. Same with Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, they have an opening time of 9:00am but you can get in around 8:30am. Again, none of the rides or attractions are open until park opening at 9:00am.
Of course planning a trip to Disney takes a lot of effort if you want to maximize your time and money. There are a lot of intricate details involved. For me planning a Disney vacation is exciting and fun. It’s too bad you don’t seem to share the same enthusiasm as you’re complaining about the price and effort it takes. What a shame.
Disney has gotten out of hand. I’ve been going once a year for 17 years and it has changed for the worse. This Star Wars ride is ridiculous. When I booked my NINE THOUSAND DOLLAR Disney deluxe vacation they said nothing of this nonsense. I assumed the ride would be fast pass like the rest. Now who knows If we’ll even get on.
It’s a truly first come, first serve basis. Arrive at HS 30 mins before opening and book your boarding group as soon as you can which is right when the park opens (7:00 or 8:00am usually).
We visited DHS on Dec 22. I read your recommendations ( THANK YOU) and having 5 kids In our group decided to take the risk and arrive at 6:45. I thought there is no reason to stand outside, let the initial crowd go. We actually got there at 7:05, we didn’t wait in the bag check line more than 5 minutes. We got in the park by 7:15 and I was able to join boarding group 102 for all of us. It was stressful because I consider myself an expert and this was new for me but I felt very accomplished when I got my boarding group. All boarding groups were full by 8:30-8:45. We road at 4:30pm and the ride was 10000 percent worth all the stress and blog reading! We loved it!
Amazing! I arrived at the park at 6:30am, started refreshing the app right at 7:00am when the park officially opened and was able to get BG62! Rode the ride at appox 1:00pm. Loved it and totally worth it.
Is there a new change to the boarding passes?
No
It’s 6:25AM on December 27. We got here around 5:40. Parked and got inside by 5:45. We walked around the stores and waited until the boarding groups opened at 6. There was about a 40 second delay before we heard people around us actually getting a boarding group. At 6:01 we got boarding group 45. At 6:02 the group next to us got boarding group 67. The app said all boarding groups had been distributed before 6:20. It’s going to be SUPER crowded this week.
Thanks for the report from this morning. For what it’s worth, backup boarding groups are still currently available. The main ones were gone quickly, but that’s fairly normal.
From what we’ve seen, it’s already been a busy week and has gotten progressively busy each day. This weekend should be bonkers. Have a good visit!
Yeah after I commented I realized they were still allowing people to get the “back up” boarding passes which they’ve been getting through lately. And the ride was shut down for a couple of hours between 6 and 9, but I didn’t keep track of the exact time. We finally were called at 10:55. It looked like they were calling at a rate of 10 groups an hour. From start to finish, we spent 50 minutes in the queue/ride/experience. Completely worth every second. Thanks for your help in knowing what to do. We wouldn’t have been able to ride it without your blog post.