A Reservation Procedure/System Must Be In Place for Galaxy's Edge @ DHS

Jason_79

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Hi Everyone,

If this has been posted plenty of times before I do apologise, however, after watching the most recent Walt Disney World Discussion Video/Podcast, I wanted to create this discussion topic.

Topic: Walt Disney World (as of June 6/2019) has not yet implemented some kind of reservation system for Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios. Since it was discussed briefly, I wanted to get a greater discussion going, because as the crew @ The DIS alluded to, (more specifically Pete) WDW has to do some kind of reservation system…………………….don’t they?

As it stands, the crowds will almost certainly be bordering on unsafe when you combine the length of line, amount of people and intense heat. Frequent water stations, bathroom re-entries and periodic shade, I feel won’t be enough. And I am sure there are even more safety issues I haven’t even thought of while composing this.

One idea was proposed by (Craig? Ryno?), was a dedicated FastPass entry to Galaxy’s Edge. This could work, but with the addition of a time limit similar to Disneyland.

What does everyone think WDW will do? If they do a free-for-all, I am confident in saying that it will go horribly wrong and will put plenty of people’s safety at risk.

I am hoping that the team @ THE DIS maybe dedicate a topic of discussion specifically to this, maybe it will put some more pressure on Disney in hopes that a reservation system is implemented.
 
I fully expect a virtual queue type system which Disneyland is doing starting June 24th. This basically is a FP of sorts for land entry.

Disney would allow the land to fill to their designated capacity and then once that happened the virtual queue opens on the app. Guests can then enter the queue and then get notified when it’s their time to enter the land.
 
I think that they need to do a reservation system because this kind of system completely eliminates the stand by queue to get into the land. WDW has had a lot of issues with stand by queues with pass openings and if this can be eliminated that would be better of the guest experience. The flaw I see in this is that WDW has more hotel guest so all the reservations would go to the resort guest and there might not be reservations available for non-resort guest. This could make the reservation system favor resort guest and make it hard for a non-resort guest to get into the land. Maybe the virtual queue could be a better option because it will be available to more guest regardless of if they are staying at a resort or not.
 
I think a virtual queue combined with time limit wristbands is the answer here.
EEMH is the hotel guest advantage- they can either enter Batuu for 3 hours or they can get their name down for a time (eg Maxpass in DL- fastpass isn’t running during EMH, but you can start grabbing FPS) do other things around the park (eg TSL) and then when Park opens for regular guests; the reservations kick in.
 


They're going to keep a close eye on DL after the reservation period ends so although there's no plan to add reservations to WDW, if DL is a mess who knows, they might reconsider.
 
I think a virtual queue combined with time limit wristbands is the answer here.
EEMH is the hotel guest advantage- they can either enter Batuu for 3 hours or they can get their name down for a time (eg Maxpass in DL- fastpass isn’t running during EMH, but you can start grabbing FPS) do other things around the park (eg TSL) and then when Park opens for regular guests; the reservations kick in.

I think you are spot on

I also think, eventually they will add hard ticket events (morning or evening) which will be another way to guarantee experiencing the land with low crowds

But the Disneyland system I just don't think will work at WDW due to # of hotels
 
I think you are spot on

I also think, eventually they will add hard ticket events (morning or evening) which will be another way to guarantee experiencing the land with low crowds

But the Disneyland system I just don't think will work at WDW due to # of hotels

I love the idea but logistically how do you get the bands on to people as their time window arises without causing huge lines just for the arm bands? I know it worked at DL but I feel like they have extra staffing in place just for that during the reservation period.
 


I love the idea but logistically how do you get the bands on to people as their time window arises without causing huge lines just for the arm bands? I know it worked at DL but I feel like they have extra staffing in place just for that during the reservation period.

I don't think it would be that bad - or just use magic bands. heck, another way to monetize the land - require magic bands
 
I love the idea but logistically how do you get the bands on to people as their time window arises without causing huge lines just for the arm bands? I know it worked at DL but I feel like they have extra staffing in place just for that during the reservation period.

Put the wristband on when you put your name down? It also means everyone in the party needs to be present.
 
And to the original poster listing reasons why Disney doesn’t want long physical lines for SWGE. Every reason you listed is valid & absolutely true, but you forgot the #1 reason why Disney doesn’t want people standing in long physical lines to enter SWGE; or to get into the Cantina, or waiting for Smuggler’s Run.
When we’re standing in line- we aren’t spending our Galatic credits - on Batuu or Earth.
People standing in physical lines are not in the restaurants, they aren’t in the shops, they aren’t at Food & Wine festival next door.
 
WDW is too big and has too many visitors. If you did a reservation system you likely would be locking off a good portion of people. It has to be a rolling max capacity where if 10 people leave 10 people go in.

30,000 rooms 2 to 3 people on average per room means 60k to 90k people are just on site.
 
I was at opening hour, opening day at Disneyland. I was expecting utter chaos and pandemonium. It was the opposite. They had it worked out so well. A very pleasant surprise. I think WDW management is taking notes and figuring out how to duplicate that on a much larger scale. They were adjusting and making improvements by mid-day of the first day. The line at Oga's. Cantina was insane within the first hour. We were inside and the servers were absolutely overwhelmed. They were running around with their heads cut off. By the end of the day, they had a fix in place.

I think the virtual queue will be how WDW does entry into the land. Same for entry into Oga's Cantina. The tip to riding the Millennium Falcon is to go during the lull between times new groups enter. We had the 8am-noon spot. It was a walk on at 10:30 before the 11 group was let in.

The other huge perk is that both Disneyland and California Adventure had the lowest crowd I think I've ever seen. Almost everything was a walk on or a 10 minute wait. People stayed away in droves. This might be the same at WDW, and certainly for Toy Story Land.
 
30,000 rooms 2 to 3 people on average per room means 60k to 90k people are just on site.
A quick room search shows they are plenty of rooms still available well into October, Plus WDW has 3 other parks , Disney Springs and a couple water parks. Unless every single person goes to SWGE every day that number or whatever the number is should be divided by 6 or so.
All bets are off when the normal busy times start for October and the holidays...
 
should be divided by 6 or so

Sorry but divide by 6? So you think in October people would equally go to a water park as HS or MK? You realize the parks get 10x the attendance as the water parks annually correct?

I also didn't include 800 camp sites, 400 Cabins, 3000 DVC units.

A quick room search shows they are plenty of rooms still available well into October

Are you able to see the number of rooms available? Or are you simply looking at room category because here again you seem to be stretching as there is no ability to assume seeing a category means there is a mostly empty or mostly full room allotment. There can also be lots of people not booking waiting for fall specials if any.
 
You don't have to allow every single on-site guest into SWGE each and every day. At DLR, you get one reservation for SWGE during your stay. So WDW might be able to juggle their on-site guests that way.
As someone who is coming thousands of miles for trips we can only do once every 3-4 years, I desperately want some sort of guarantee that my family can get into the land--and not by standing in a physical line for hours with bored, cranky kids with their mom who hates the sun and heat also miserable.
The tiered FPs are already making me decide that OK, we will do Slinky or MM, but not both in one day to avoid spending our precious, rare vacation time in lines.
I am sad at having missed the opportunity at DLR, because it doesn't sound like anything as civilized is happening at WDW, unless enough people are scared off or the extra hours help meet demand. If I were going this fall, for sure my family would be the type to try to rope drop for 6am and then probably leave at noon, having been awake for 8-9 hours already. So that could be a boon for people who can't/won't arrive until later.
 
I am still waiting to see how they are going to limit the need to stand in line for those with DAS. My son is autistic and LOVES Star Wars. It's the most important part of his world right now but I cannot even consider taking him until WDW has some sort of plan announced about DAS besides they had considered those needs.
 
I am still waiting to see how they are going to limit the need to stand in line for those with DAS. My son is autistic and LOVES Star Wars. It's the most important part of his world right now but I cannot even consider taking him until WDW has some sort of plan announced about DAS besides they had considered those needs.
Have there been any reports out of Disneyland with DAS yet?
 
Have there been any reports out of Disneyland with DAS yet?

I have not seen any DL DAS reports (would love to read some if anyone has any to share). I have seen the wait times for some experiences that are not Smugglers Run pushing the threshold to what my son could wait (build your own lightsaber, etc). Makes me very worried about how WDW plans to handle this.
 

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