RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

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People waiting that long to meet Anna and Elsa when they first came out.
Don't remind me. I jogged at RD to the meet and thankfully only had a 90 minute wait. Shortly after that people were being told crazy wait times.
 
I've got a feeling the cap boarding groups is going to be lower again tomorrow. I think the max is going to bounce around a lot the next few days as they figure out what they can actually do.
 
Groups 88/89 and beyond apparently are receiving this message:

View attachment 457384

What does it mean if I haven’t gotten this message? I’m group 109. I’m wondering if they know the people who already got to ride. It’s not a big deal since we did get to ride, but if they are giving us a pass for tomorrow I’d definitely like to go again without getting up and the crack of dawn.
 




I didn’t get a message but just checked and they’ve added a multi FP for tomorrow.

We don’t need the tickets since we have an AP. But does anyone know if we can give those 1 day tickets to someone else?
Yes you can reassign them just can’t sell them.
 
I didn’t get a message but just checked and they’ve added a multi FP for tomorrow.

We don’t need the tickets since we have an AP. But does anyone know if we can give those 1 day tickets to someone else?

If you have gold or lower you could use the ticket during the Christmas black out to see all the Christmas entertainment that runs during that time at MK. It’s like a free party minus free food and special characters, plus lots more people. You should also be able to apply it to an in-person renewal. We did that about ten years ago when we failed to read the blackout calendar correctly and my pass was blacked out...
 
Went to guest relations with my candlelight processional sob story and was given a fp for tomorrow. I think this is mostly due to the fact that we went over to try and use our rider swap and the ride is down for the rest of the night.
 
If you have gold or lower you could use the ticket during the Christmas black out to see all the Christmas entertainment that runs during that time at MK. It’s like a free party minus free food and special characters, plus lots more people. You should also be able to apply it to an in-person renewal. We did that about ten years ago when we failed to read the blackout calendar correctly and my pass was blacked out...

My renewal is next week so that might be a good option. I have something in my account called “Disney Family Holiday” valid through February. I’m not sure if that’s today’s comp (weird name if so) or a CM ticket I didn’t know we got.
 
Personally if an ADR conflicted with a BG time and I wanted to cancel it, I would go to guest relations to cancel it and politely insist they waive the fee and why. IME they're pretty good about that, but not a guarantee of course.

Yup, you could probably go to guest relations to have it waived. But, the GR line is always so long and so slow :) Seriously, it's my least favorite line to wait in. :rotfl:

When I hear someone say they got to the park 2 hours before opening and their boarding group still wasn't called until hours and hours later (and then it broke down again), to me that says major issues with downtime and not running at full capacity, not necessarily a huge amount of people in "line" in front of them. I still think a stand by line would have been so much worse, how many times would it have been cleared by that point in the day because of breakdowns? Maybe they could have gotten lucky and jumped back in right after it opened with a stand by line, but none of it is predictable and requires flexibility and little to no plans.

Oh, I totally agree that a stand-by line would have been worse. I was just saying that the VQ is going to equate to a longer wait time just by virtue of the no-pain-threshold aspect of a VQ.

2 1/2 years later, FoP can take over 3 hours. Hagrid had horrendous wait times. Without VQ, RotR would have way longer wait times than 4 hours. If its 4 or 6 or 8 hours of wait, you wouldnt pay a $10 per person penalty to skip that? Which I believe is a rare occurrence since you have a 2 hour window.

I can see the 2-hour thing being an issue if your ADR is in another park. I'm not sure if I'd pay the $10 per person; I guess it would depend on the size of my dining party, or how annoyed I'd be about paying for "nothing".


I'd like to present Exhibit A, Anna and Elsa meet and greet in Epcot. Back before they built their permanent location they were regularly drawing 5 hour (I believe) waits.

Just amending the bolded to say a "5 hour Dad wait". :laughing: Those poor (awesome) dads!

For the ADR thing though, as long as it isn't when the ADR time is or one that you've prepaid, you can modify it and change it to a future date and then cancel it. I had a plan to buy tickets for MVMCP the other day, but decided it was too cold. Had a Plaza reservation, but wasn't going to go to MK anymore since we decided not to do the party. Just modified the reservation, swapped it to a different day and then cancelled it. A DRC person told me this over the phone years ago.

It's tough with this being so unpredictable, but you've got to be willing to leave yourself open if you want to ride it but the ride is going to be around for many, many years so even if it isn't this trip...

Yup, I know about this work-around...the thing is, it's a work-around. Lots of people don't know about it and it involves knowing a way to avoid the fee that's not obvious or apparent. Most people will just miss the ADR and suck up the $10 fee per person. I'm glad you mentioned it though because it's a great one to know!
 
My renewal is next week so that might be a good option. I have something in my account called “Disney Family Holiday” valid through February. I’m not sure if that’s today’s comp (weird name if so) or a CM ticket I didn’t know we got.
Disney Family Holiday is a CM ticket. I believe blockouts still apply to that ticket.

You can’t use the comp for upgrades or renewals because comps have no value. They work for park and FP access but have no monetary value.
 
Disney Family Holiday is a CM ticket. I believe blockouts still apply to that ticket.

You can’t use the comp for upgrades or renewals because comps have no value. They work for park and FP access but have no monetary value.

Thanks. Good to know I have a ticket I wasn’t aware of. And good to know that’s not the ticket I should have gotten today. I have a lot of people wanting to come next year so it would be nice to get this additional ticket to give them. Maybe it will show up later.
 
My renewal is next week so that might be a good option. I have something in my account called “Disney Family Holiday” valid through February. I’m not sure if that’s today’s comp (weird name if so) or a CM ticket I didn’t know we got.

Yes, the Disney Family Holiday ticket is the ticket that came with this year's holiday packet for CMs. Those are good thru February.

Disney Family Holiday is a CM ticket. I believe blockouts still apply to that ticket.

You can’t use the comp for upgrades or renewals because comps have no value. They work for park and FP access but have no monetary value.

Yup, the Disney Family Holiday tickets definitely have block-outs. My DH is a non-FL CM. We were in the parks last year for Christmas week. They were blocked-out the entire time we were there. (which is understandable)
 
You know, not everyone who goes to WDW knows about the DIS, or has access to that kind of historical information. She made plans based on what she was told (a 9am opening) and that was changed without her being told. I think she has every right to be upset.

Sayhello
I was thinking the same thing. I've been on DIS for years, but I'm not sure I know that they've done this historically--I'm mostly a DLR person, and I'm not sure they do this? My advantage over this woman was that I would have known to come look beforehand. Were I in her position, I would have been upset, too.

Tomorrow will be ... interesting. My faith in Disney IT is not strong. May the force be with them!
 
I was able to ride today (Saturday). It is as incredible as everyone says it is. But it was not without effort. I arrived at the park at ~8am on Friday (published park open at 9am). The sandwich board signs were already out saying all boarding passes had been distributed. I was a single rider and kept trying and got boarding group 88 on Friday just after I entered. Estimated time was evening. I verified that I could leave the park and not lose my place -- but the CM did suggest a screenshot my status just to be safe. Note you have 2 hours to join once your boarding group has been called. I was not initially optimistic as they got through ~2 boarding groups in 4 hours. But in the afternoon it seemed to pick up and when it got to 70 (I was 88) I decided to head back in.

I bided my time at Baseline Tap. From there saw the X-wing drones fly … SO cool. My boarding group was called ~6:50pm and made it through most of the "pre-show" areas only to be evacuated just before where you'd board the ride vehicles. It took them a while ~30 min to evac us. We received a paper FP in case the ride came back up that night as well as an electronic FP to our magic band for Saturday. I have an AP so I didn't ask questions but the way the CM explained it to me was that IF you didn't have a park ticket for the following day one was attached but I didn't get the impression it was something I could use further in the future or transfer to anyone else. I do see a 1-day in my MDE though so maybe after my AP expires I could use it? Not sure.

What I saw in the part I did experience on Fri night was enough to get me to try again. I arrived in Batuu ~10:15am Sat and it was down again with no ETA. The line extended out of the land and almost back to Baseline Tap. Disappointing, but I will say there were tons of CMs out to answer questions. It's super frustrating, especially when so excited to ride, but I think the CMs may feel worse than we do. I feel for them having to deal with this stuff.

I went and watched the Star Wars stage show and browsed around and by ~11 they had called a new boarding group so it seemed like it was up and running.

The Fast Pass entrance is past the regular entrance. They were a little blasé in letting people through (they just ushered me in) but later in the queue they did collect the paper fast passes we've been given. Someone asked if you miss anything significant in the regular queue when you do FP. I don't think so. You miss some lockers with the orange flight suits (names in aurabesh on the suits and helmets), the “water suit” Finn wears in rehab, some weapon storage... but I wouldn't say anything that is a do-not-miss (though could be some easter eggs that are beyond me).

The FP line dumps you out just before the briefing area.

Thankfully all went smoothly this time and I loved every minute. I can't wait to ride again (but it will be a while - likely until can book a FP). Overall it is incredible, immersive, amazing and basically every superlative being used.

They do, however, need to figure out what is driving the downtime and fix it. I am semi-local, happened to be staying on property for a few days and had time to burn as I know I'll be back. If I'd invested a day and a half of a limited trip on this I'm not sure how I'd feel.

Happy to answer any questions. To those attempting to ride in the coming days -- may the force be with you!! :darth:
 
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The sandwich board signs were already out saying all boarding passes had been distributed. I was a single rider and kept trying and got boarding group 88 on Friday just after I entered.

So even if all the boarding passes are distributed, you can still try to get in a boarding group as a single rider? How does that work? I thought the "Join Boarding Group" button is grayed out on the app. Or maybe I am misreading this totally?
 
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