Is it just me or do they seem a bit vague about how exactly the virtual queue will work after June 23?
No, it’s not just you, but that is kind of what I expected, given the magnitude of this (and the level of enthusiasm about it by die hard fans).
I figure that Disney’s policy makers and crowd control wizards don’t, at this point, even know themselves how they will work this.
What they are planning right now sounds fairly straight forward: Letting people into SWGE in the early morning until the land reaches capacity and then use some kind of same day reservation system for the rest of the day. I bet you that there will be a lot of changes, adjustments, and tweaks throughout the rest of the year, based on what they find out to be working and based on what bottlenecks become obvious down the road (for example, it seems that—right now, during the “advance reservation” period—everybody is a bit surprised to find the Cantina and Savi’s to be having many more issues, due to their extremely limited capacity and high level of desirability to visitors, than, for example the MFSR ride).
I am sure that there will be other surprises for both Disney and us after June 23, and any access/crowd control systems are likely to be modified here and there as result of that (including maybe, different decisions about what exactly constitutes “capacity,” based on how long people decide to stay in the land and how many decide to come now vs to wait for the ROTR ride).
To put out too many details right now would project a level of confidence they probably don’t have at this point, given the scale of their task and the many variables that are involved. It would also risk guest crankiness at sudden changes of the “but I read online that...” kind.
I guess, based on past August visits, that there are a few things that we can pretty much count on. Early August (which is when my family and I go) tend to be crazy busy, so I don’t think the whole “if SWGE drops below capacity during the day, people can just go in without using the virtual queue” thing will apply to us. My prediction is that crowds will swell quickly and stay high throughout most if not all of the day, so getting there early will most likely be key, especially if you have specific experiences that you want to do instead of just moseying around and taking it all in.
I hope that they will decide to include it into Magic Morning and that they will come up with some kind of perk for Resort guests (for example, when Guardians had just opened, Resort Hotel guests with keycards were allowed to ride for an hour after closing). So far they have NOT announced anything like that—probably for the same reason as I mention above: not wanting to overcommit to certain policies which they, if they don’t work out, then have to then scrap again.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the current trend (relatively light crowds in the rest of Dland and CA) holds throughout the year. We were in the parks when Cars Land had just opened, and it was similar: people piling into the new land, and the crowds in the rest of the parks were fairly light throughout.
Whatever will happen, this thread and the board overall will be great resources, allowing us to hear of and fact-check rumors and to benefit from late June and July travelers’ experiences and reports. Hopefully, by the time we’re there, Disney will have worked out the worst kinks, and it will be a great experience.
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