I realize it is no longer applicable to the new system, but I want to comment on our experience on this Saturday getting into the land and getting Oga’s and Savi’s reservations. I am going to write to Disney about this in the hopes that they use a different system when they open in Florida. It was terribly unsafe, and I was afraid me or my child would get trampled. We had both 11am and 8pm reservations on Saturday, so we got to try the running of the bulls twice in one day. 11am was bad, 8pm was horrible.
As others have said, there was a line 1.5 or more hours by Hungry Bear, but the CMs kept yelling out that they weren’t recognizing the line, “the line is not a line”, and telling us to just mill around near there and then rush in when they opened the path. Why would CMs be instructing people to just rush in? Once they opened the path, there was a huge surge of guests from the “line” and every other direction. People were hanging out in the lower patio of HB and then just crushed into the line from the left, jumping over the flower beds and shrubs. It is a narrow path and people were getting pushed all over the place. They stopped the line several times along the way and held it for 10-15 minutes at different points. When we finally got to the final “hold” at the entrance to the land, I was one person back from the front of the group, and I was on the right both sessions, trying for Oga’s. My DH and DDs were on the left, trying for Savi’s at the 11am session.
They made stern announcements about no pushing, no running etc. Then the orange pole CM started walking and letting people in. It was absolute chaos, and so much worse in the 8pm slot (I think there were more adult-only groups at 8pm, which made it a more aggressive crowd). People rushed into the Oga’s line from the left, shoving and pushing and yelling. CMs did nothing. Especially in the 8pm group, multiple people fell on a wet area of pavement, multiple people lost their shoes (Mine were pulled off my heels several times but I was able to shove my foot back in without losing a shoe). I let my DD 11 go for the Oga’s line at 8pm with me since I had made it in at 11am, and I felt like I knew what I was doing. Big mistake. People purposely separated us to get in front of DD, and they were pushing into the planters, trash cans, signs and everything else. A lady seriously injured her foot (but was wearing flip flops, so a terrible choice for this contact sport). Even though I was one person back to start, and right behind the leading CM, I was probably 75-100 or more people back when we arrived at Oga’s, maybe more. That is how many people cut the line and shoved into it.
This was the third weekend of the reservation system, so I felt Disney would have seen this over and over every day and have a handle on it. NO they did not. It was so dangerous and so poorly managed. The CMs literally did nothing to control the crowds; they just walked with an orange ribbon on a pole and didn’t look back. I do RD at every park and race for RSR and other rides, and I have never, ever felt unsafe until this.
I hope they do the online reservations only for the version in WDW from the beginning because these CMs have NO idea how to control a crowd safely. People were barbaric, and it was ridiculous.
We loved everything about the land, Savi’s, Oga’s (I did end up getting in during both sessions, but it wasn’t worth the risk after it was all said and done), MFSR, all of it. I feel like most of the experience was well managed. The race for Oga’s and Savi’s was a disaster, was dangerous, and hopefully doesn’t ever get repeated.
