We are flying home today, and I wanted to regather my thoughts about the last 2 days. Some of my posts yesterday from the line “jail” on ROTR were dictated into my phone and came out a little jumbled (or maybe my mind was going by that point!!)!
We were fortunate to get good BGs both Saturday and Sunday (14 and 27). After doing this process twice, we figured out that the first day we got it with an iphone X on Verizon, by the Nemo Subs. Second day we got it on an iPhone 7 on park Wifi near the Buzz gift shop. So for people from outside the US, there is hope on the Wifi but you need to be in a good location (thanks
@WonkaKid for the advice on this location!). Try to get away from people as much as you can. We had 6 phones going simultaneously by 4 people, and as you can see, the oldest phone on Wifi was the winner yesterday, so you never know. One caveat was my DH on an iPhone 11 on AT&T never got the button to go red either day, even with full signal and away from crowds (standing with DD who got in on Verizon on day 1).
On Saturday, the ride experience was flawless, BGs worked amazingly well.
Yesterday, we entered BG 27 and we found out later, the ride was ALREADY DOWN when they let us in line. About 50 people after we scanned in, and then they closed the line. How I wish we had stopped for a churro on the way and not gotten in that line!!! We were in line for 2 hours and 40 minutes. Never once did a CM come through. No snacks, no water like reported in WDW. Many walked back out of the line and asked the CMs that scan you in “what should we do”. Stay in line or lose your BG for the day was the answer for the entire almost 3 hours. They did let people out to get food or have a bathroom break. They kept announcing overhead that all “missions were suspended” for the moment due to First Order activity, and if you had questions, ask a CM. Well, the CM were saying we had to stay. At 2 hours, cheers went up and we thought the ride was up. It was not or went right down. At 2 hours 30, cheers again, and we eventually made our way to enter the ride, but then evacuated. ONLY then, were we given a FP to return later.
I completely understand the tech, and that it will go down and that is not avoidable with this type of ride. What is appalling and unacceptable to me is leaving guests without any option other than to abandon their only chance to ride this for the day (and for us, the rest of the trip) or stand in a line for almost 3 hours without any information. I understand one hour. Beyond that, give people a FP and clear the line. You are not increasing the number of people that can ride by doing this. You are just pushing them later and not trapping them. I will be writing an email, as they need a better procedure. We wasted 3 hours of our trip and were exhausted from just standing in the cold all that time (And we are healthy and fit, and our kids are teens so we don’t have health issues or little kids like many in the line did).
We were watching to see that the ride was ”reliably” up based on progressing through BGs for a while, then went back to try again. Honestly, I was afraid to get in the line and risk another 3 hours of waiting. I asked the CM when we got to the FP entrance if the ride was really up, and he said yes. We walked through the FP line (no one else in it) and rode successfully at around 2pm (I think). I think everything was working the same as Saturday, so I am not sure if anything was broken for our ride. We saw other families later in the day who had been in line with us, tried to re-ride and got evacuated again and eventually rode but waited in a long FP line when they returned)
At around 830, we walked by the line and it was enormous! They had apparently rapidly called back all the regular BGs (and surely some with FPs from earlier in the day). It would have taken hours to get through the line, by my estimation.
All in all, it was a great ride, and we were very lucky (and prepared with our 6 phones! LOL) to get early BGs both days that we tried. We had a mixture of experiences on the two days, and the second day was unacceptable only because of the way they chose to handle being trapped in line for almost 3 hours. That is an easy fix on their part and I hope that they will have a better system for those types of ride down times (clear the line earlier and issue FPs), as they seem to be unavoidable with this technology.
I hope all who want to ride get to ride, but I know that the numbers won’t be good for that for a long time or ever really. Once they get the ride running at capacity and have less downtime’s too, then they will be able to offer more BGs and more people will win the 8am lottery.
I still feel strongly that BGs are the way to go with this ride for now, as SB would be a complete nightmare.
Last little tip, if you have old phones without cell service, why not load up the app and give it a whirl on the WiFi? It actually worked for us yesterday, much to my surprise. More phones equals more chances, I believe!! MTFBWY!!!
Thanks to all on here and the WDW boards for all of the great help (and listening and sympathizing with me from the “jail” line yesterday!!!)!
