READ POST 1 & 2 FIRST-Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Planning and Information-*No Spoilers*

[Thenollyon]

Thank you to all who have been posting tips on getting boarding groups. This morning, 12/29, we left All Star Movies at approximately 5:15am. Took some effort to get an Uber or Lyft as drivers were not accepting the fare. Uber driver got us to the park at 5:45am. The line for RideShare drop off was massive. The driver had a previous fare to Hollywood Stuidios before us and he stayed there was no line at 5:00am. We did not take any bags so we bypassed bag checks. Tap/Turnstiles were already open 5:45 as expected. It was raining and many were taking refuge in Trolley Cafe and other shops open on Sunset.
For boarding groups, we each had our phones open and apps up. We followed the suggested steps above to stay in app and back in and out of my status screen. My wife was on WiFi and I was on Verizon only. At 6am, my cell connection and or app stopped responding whereas my wife on WiFi had no issues. We got group 34 (4 people). By 7am, our riding group was called. Thanks to all your tips for making this easier. Bonus: After the ride, they were handing out ponchos due to the rain. That was a nice sprinkle of magic (never had that before).

 

[ifan]

Phone tip: Before arriving at the park do a hard shutdown on your phone. Once in the park don’t have anything else running on your phone except the Disney ap.

I used to provide technical support for iPhones at Apple. This advice likely won't help at all (and can actually have the reverse effect.) Early iPhones/smartphones did have issues with multitasking and multiple apps open at the same time. That is when people suggested to "kill" unused apps. This changed maybe 3-4 years after the first iPhone launched, and there is no longer any need to "kill" or "close" apps unless the app is frozen. The software is designed to put unused apps in a saved state - and when you end an app, it has reload the app from scratch vs pulling it up in a saved state. I still hear people telling their friends to remove running apps in the background, but it is outdated information and only makes your phone work harder in the long-run.

From my playing around with the Disney app - if I keep the RoTR status page open, it does not auto-refresh. But if I tap the back button in the upper left hand corner and then click on "Find out more" - it immediately refreshes. This would be my recommended technique at open time. You don't need to reboot your phone, or kill the app, or exit out of the app. You just need to tap the back button and click on Find out more.

As for LTE vs WiFi...it's really impossible to tell which will give you better results. Towers and Wifi Nodes can only provide so much bandwidth in a given second. If there are multiple people in a group, I'd probably have one person on wifi and the other on LTE, just for a backup.

 

[dina444444]

Took 45 min from entering line to getting off. Very very fun and cool ride, can’t wait to ride again.

 

[dljohn]

No it doesn't. But once your bg is called you have 2 hours to go back

@yulilin3 Are you notified on your app when your BG is called?

 

[MIChessGuy]

I used to provide technical support for iPhones at Apple. This advice likely won't help at all (and can actually have the reverse effect.) Early iPhones/smartphones did have issues with multitasking and multiple apps open at the same time. That is when people suggested to "kill" unused apps. This changed maybe 3-4 years after the first iPhone launched, and there is no longer any need to "kill" or "close" apps unless the app is frozen. The software is designed to put unused apps in a saved state - and when you end an app, it has reload the app from scratch vs pulling it up in a saved state. I still hear people telling their friends to remove running apps in the background, but it is outdated information and only makes your phone work harder in the long-run.

From my playing around with the Disney app - if I keep the RoTR status page open, it does not auto-refresh. But if I tap the back button in the upper left hand corner and then click on "Find out more" - it immediately refreshes. This would be my recommended technique at open time. You don't need to reboot your phone, or kill the app, or exit out of the app. You just need to tap the back button and click on Find out more.

As for LTE vs WiFi...it's really impossible to tell which will give you better results. Towers and Wifi Nodes can only provide so much bandwidth in a given second. If there are multiple people in a group, I'd probably have one person on wifi and the other on LTE, just for a backup.

Would you say this also applies, more or less, to a prepaid Android phone that uses Tracfone? It has limited memory and processing power compared to a modern iPhone. It uses 4g LTE, I think via Verizon but not 100% sure whose service it connects to.

 

[dljohn]

No it doesn't. But once your bg is called you have 2 hours to go back

@yulilin3 So when you boarding group is called are you notified on your APP? Also, why is RotR not part of EMH? Seems like their goal was to make RotR difficult in every way. ha

 

[Rindercella]

I used to provide technical support for iPhones at Apple. This advice likely won't help at all (and can actually have the reverse effect.) Early iPhones/smartphones did have issues with multitasking and multiple apps open at the same time. That is when people suggested to "kill" unused apps. This changed maybe 3-4 years after the first iPhone launched, and there is no longer any need to "kill" or "close" apps unless the app is frozen. The software is designed to put unused apps in a saved state - and when you end an app, it has reload the app from scratch vs pulling it up in a saved state. I still hear people telling their friends to remove running apps in the background, but it is outdated information and only makes your phone work harder in the long-run.

From my playing around with the Disney app - if I keep the RoTR status page open, it does not auto-refresh. But if I tap the back button in the upper left hand corner and then click on "Find out more" - it immediately refreshes. This would be my recommended technique at open time. You don't need to reboot your phone, or kill the app, or exit out of the app. You just need to tap the back button and click on Find out more.

As for LTE vs WiFi...it's really impossible to tell which will give you better results. Towers and Wifi Nodes can only provide so much bandwidth in a given second. If there are multiple people in a group, I'd probably have one person on wifi and the other on LTE, just for a backup.

I want this ^^ guy in line with me.

 

[yulilin3]

@yulilin3 Are you notified on your app when your BG is called?

yes, make sure you have the push notification on, on the app. You get to that on the settings tab

 

[Kathleen Glasgow]

Are the Starbucks on the dining plan?

Yes you can use snack credits for pretty much everything, even for those pricey Venti drinks.

 

[yulilin3]

@yulilin3 So when you boarding group is called are you notified on your APP? Also, why is RotR not part of EMH? Seems like their goal was to make RotR difficult in every way. ha

the attraction is not at 100% reliability, this is why they can't offer it for EMH and why BG are in effect

 

[vinotinto]

I'm contemplating skipping RoTR for our January trip and just riding it in April during my solo trip. We have a FP for Slinky Dog at 3pm and dinner at California Grill at 6pm. Our original plan was to get to the park around 11am, ride Smuggler's Run and the HS classics, and head out by 4pm to get washed up for dinner.

My fear is that we wake up at 5am, get to the park by 6:30 (7am opening the day) and end up with a boarding group that will force us to cancel our California Grill dinner. If this ride is totally worth skipping a signature dinner, please persuade me!

Is Disney waiving the ADR cancellation fees due to BG conflicts? If they are not, or it’s up to CM discretion, I would cancel the ADR at least a day in advance, rather than potentially getting hit with the cancellation fee.

 

[yulilin3]

Is Disney waiving the ADR cancellation fees due to BG conflicts? If they are not, or it’s up to CM discretion, I would cancel the ADR at least a day in advance, rather than potentially getting hit with the cancellation fee.

it's easier to keep the reservation and if you see that you won't make it, then modify the date of the reservation to another day to avoid the no show charge. But I also assume Disney would waive the no show if the problem is with the bg

 

[Miffy]

@yulilin3 Are you notified on your app when your BG is called?

I don't know if this has changed but two weeks ago when we were there the push notification appeared only on the phone of the person who actually made the BG reservation. The other one of us could look on the phone for the status but couldn't get a push notification. This may have changed since then.

 

[yulilin3]

I don't know if this has changed but two weeks ago when we were there the push notification appeared only on the phone of the person who actually made the BG reservation. The other one of us could look on the phone for the status but couldn't get a push notification. This may have changed since then.

Maybe, when i went, about 2 weeks ago, my dd made the bg on her phone and both got the push notification. Make sure everyone's phone is set to allow push

 

[Miffy]

Maybe, when i went, about 2 weeks ago, my dd made the bg on her phone and both got the push notification. Make sure everyone's phone is set to allow push

Hmmm. My phone is set to receive push notifications, but I never got any for the BGs, since my sister was the one who succeeded in getting the BG on both occasions (December 13th and 14th). Anyway, I just kept refreshing the screen and saw what BGs were currently loading.

 

[intertile]

We left our offsite hotel at 4:30 this morning and were parked at about 4:50, through security around five minutes later. We were in front of the ticket booth, under the cover, but to the right. We got in fairly quickly and it was raining pretty hard. Purchased ponchos and waited under a store front. We couldn’t get the ‘join boarding groups’ to turn red until around 6:10 and it finally popped up for us both at the same time. Seemed like everyone around us already had their phones down and walking to attractions. We couldn’t find any cast members to help and couldn’t swim down stream to get back to guest services. We finally got boarding group 110, I’m a little frustrated with how it all ended up. We had two iPhones both trying on LTE. We ended up leaving the park for now, because of the rain. We have a candlelight package for this evening, hope our timing works well.

Just looking in at BG I see they are at 93. If your timing seems like a conflict with candlelight, go to one of the GET cm's or ride CM's and explain what happened. They can let you ride earlier. I've seen them do this for others, and have done similar for myself. There primary focus is on making sure everyone reserved a BG, and since yours are in the primary groups it's a real probability. Just be nice, and a little emotionally upset...you know like your stressing about getting back to room to shower and get dressed for dinner, you planned this trip all year and got to the park super early to get on experience and the app failed you. Worst they can say is no, but if you get the right person they will do it for you. I did something like that a few days ago...spoke to 3 cms, the third was the charm(obviously they were in different parts of the park)

Hope it works out for you.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hmmm. My phone is set to receive push notifications, but I never got any for the BGs, since my sister was the one who succeeded in getting the BG on both occasions (December 13th and 14th). Anyway, I just kept refreshing the screen and saw what BGs were currently loading.

I would view it like most things with Disney IT ... It "should" push you a notification but I would not rely on that and would periodically be checking status of what BGs have been called

 

[DisHmsklMom]

They are already up to BG 102. Looks like the backup BGs will have a good shot at getting on today.

 

[CT Disney]

And I believe this has been pointed out already, but you can, I think, make the BG reservations even if you're not in the park only if you're using the MDX account of someone who is in the park. That is, you can't log on to your own MDX account and just choose the people who are already there. You have to use one of their accounts. As I understand it.

I think I need clarification on this.

We are all managed under my husband’s MDE account...me, my kids, and my daughter’s BF.

For the upcoming trip, it’s just my DD and her BF traveling to Florida. We decided to just keep them under my husband’s mde account because they already had tickets attached and we didn’t want to deal with the messiness of splitting them off of our account.

While on their trip they will just log into my husband’s account to book everything.

So, I guess my questions are these:

1. Will my DD have problems booking a BG since she’ll be logged into my husband’s account and he’s multiple miles away in a different state?

2. Will I be able to log into my DH’s account from home and be a third person helping them get a BG?

Again, all three of us will be logged into my husband’s account...who will not be in Florida.

 

[ifan]

Would you say this also applies, more or less, to a prepaid Android phone that uses Tracfone? It has limited memory and processing power compared to a modern iPhone. It uses 4g LTE, I think via Verizon but not 100% sure whose service it connects to.

Not as familiar with android anymore - its been 4 years since I worked with most of those prepaid models. Sorry! Android is well known to not be as efficient with memory management - but that’s why most android phones also have a lot more RAM compared to iPhones. Even the cheapest ones.

There’s no way to really know how Disney has programmed these apps internally. All I can speak to is how the phones themselves deal with app and memory management. Hopefully crowds die down starting next week and make all of this a moot point!