READ POST 1 & 2 FIRST-Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Planning and Information-*No Spoilers*
- Thread starter rteetz
- Start date
- Status
Becky201068
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2019
Good luck!!
Disneyepcot
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
Did it turn red as you watched the screen without refreshing? Also, is there a way to have your group selected ahead of joining; because searching for and highlighting those in my group will take a couple of seconds.
SouthFayetteFan
Saving Money on Disney Vacations since 2006
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2014
Ladies and gentlemen....I present to you...BOARDING GROUP 129!
We have officially reached backup BGs today
We have officially reached backup BGs today
Eastern
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
Off topic but we never eat there.
Becky201068
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2019
Where do you go? We only have one day there.
NMbaseballmom
NMbaseballmom
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2012
They just called 131! So excited. Heading there now!
May the Force be with you on your journey!
Becky201068
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2019
dina444444
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
Up to 134 now. If things keep up you should be called within the hour.
CT Disney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2012
My DD and her BF will be attempting the BG grab on Tuesday morning. I will be at home (a thousand miles away) logged into our account and trying to grab them a BG as well. If it works, and I am faster than the cell phones that are actually in the park, I will start charging people for my services. 
(Just kidding of course). But I will report back on Tuesday and let you know how it went. My DD and her BF will be on LTE in the park and I will be on my unburdened home WiFi network. I’m genuinely curious to see which of us will be victorious.
(Just kidding of course). But I will report back on Tuesday and let you know how it went. My DD and her BF will be on LTE in the park and I will be on my unburdened home WiFi network. I’m genuinely curious to see which of us will be victorious.I love the Fairfax Salad at the Fairfax Fare!
Becky201068
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2019
I am, too, and have already enlisted my brother in Maryland to try for us on Friday!
billlaurie
Disneyfan
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2012
I thought Docking Bay was pretty good for a CS.
MIChessGuy
(Almost) Too Old for Roller Coasters
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2008
Is there a rough expectation as to when RotR will achieve 'reliable' operation, whatever that might mean? How long did it take, say, FoP or Hagrid to shake off their respective operational glitches from their opening weeks?
Disneyepcot
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
Answering my own question----When I try to practice at home I cannot choose persons in my group because "you must be in the park" to be selected to be part of the group. I suppose that you can preselect your group if everyone is in the park before the park opens. I still wonder if you must refresh for it to turn red. I still have a week to practice before I get to try it out at the park.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
I wanted to do a timing recap and analysis of our RotR day - Thursday 1/2. Park hours were 7am-9pm, although they were adjusted to a 10pm closing mid-day. On a side note, the fact that they scheduled 7am-9am hours for 1/1+ is pretty crazy given the huge crowds. I personally think they should have continued the 6am - 10am hours through this weekend. But anyway...
Most of this is a recap of posts along the way, but just wanted to get everything in a TLDR post, sorry.
For context, we're a family of 4, kids are 9 and 5. We are not Star Wars fans, although we're not not fans (if that makes sense) - we just don't know the characters and stories all that well, other than pop culture references and such. But we do like theme parks and attractions, so our motivation to ride was based more on wanting to experience the "hot new thing" than any sort of fandom motivation.
We have APs and have been going to WDW a few times per year. Our trips are usually on the shorter side - 2-4 nighters. Many of our visits have a purpose - a runD event, MNSSHP, special holidays like NYE, etc. - so while we do have a number of WDW opportunities in any given year, they are not unlimited. Our days are probably 1/3 structured, 2/3 non-structured, as a round estimate. By that I mean we'll do our FPs (often in the AM), maybe have a lunch ADR, then the balance of the day is left open for pool time, more park time, or wherever the day goes. We usually rope drop. I'm a sucker for fireworks, so MK or Epcot are frequent evening destinations.
That's more info than is really needed here, but I give that context because I think it's helpful to understand touring habits/perspectives and how this BG process fit our particular day. There are a lot of aspects about the way we approach park habits that might be totally N/A for others.
Honestly, we had debated not even trying RotR this trip. We were sort of already all messed up sleep-wise with 12/31, and there would be other trips - so no big deal to miss it. But being our last full day, spirits were high to give it a shot - so what the heck.
Being that we would be in the park at BG opening, my expectations were that we would get a regular Boarding Group with no issue... and with any luck we'd get one that would put us on the ride early/mid-day (we had wanted to catch HEA later that day... last night tradition). I knew the BG number could be anything, but still 'hoped' it would be something low.
Prior to 1/2, for the 15 days since BGs had gone live at park opening regular Boarding Groups had filled in 36 minutes, on average. If I take out Christmas and NYE which were abnormally high, the average fill time was 29 minutes. The lowest regular BG fill time had been 9 minutes (12/26). The prior day (1/1) had been 20 minutes. I knew minutes were important, but I felt reasonably armed with proper expectations in check.
So for timing...
5:49am - Picture at the Maui statue in the Poly lobby (guess we wanted to document how we looked that early, lol)
I had been checking since around 5:30am, but bus times weren't showing in the app (side note, the bus wait time feature didn't seem to work well at all this trip, which was unusual). I searched for Minnie Vans via the Lyft app but none were available. We opted for a regular cab, one was waiting at the Poly cab stand...so effectively zero wait. As we were getting in the cab, I noticed there was a DHS bus at the bus stop, FWIW).
6:00am - DHS toll plaza, all lanes open and we got in a line 3'ish cars deep (getting through was quick).
Security was pretty quick / easy for the volume of people there. We had one bag, DW went through the bag line while the kids and I went to the no bag line.
6:15am - In line waiting for the tapstyles to open. "Lines" ended more towards the security gates than the ticket booths at that point. We stayed mostly all the way to the right (if facing the park) as has been suggested frequently here.
We made friends with our neighbors, helped some around us prepared for what to expect, etc. I overheard someone telling their large family that as soon as they tap in they needed to stop and join a BG. I couldn't help but gently correct him.
I am not sure what time tapstyles officially opened. It felt like we kept moving forward at various times - and it seemed like those of us on the right side were definitely moving forward more quickly.
6:29am - Past the tapstlyes near the Mickey / globe statue. No fingerprints were needed on this morning.
Thought about Trolley Car Cafe but the line was way out to Hollywood Blvd. No thank you.
We found a bench on Sunset Blvd, bundled up, and waited. A stand nearby had coffee with only one person in line (which quickly ballooned to 20 people in line, I got lucky).
All things considered I found getting to the park / entering the park / waiting in the park quite orderly and pleasant. Sure there are TONS of people, but it was pretty manageable. The staffing level of security and front entrance CMs is crazy high.
So spirits were strong as we waited in anticipation. I made sure the app was working, made sure I had good signal, got on the DIS, etc.
Around 6:50am I noticed I was having data issues connecting to the DIS and other websites. I closed all apps but MDE. The app randomly logged me out at one point, then wouldn't connect to get me back in. Then when it did, the SWGE page on the first page wouldn't show up. Overall my phone acted like when you're trying to use data at a big concert or sporting event - you have the bars of service, just nothing is connecting particularly quickly.
I was getting nervous as 7am was approaching. We weren't going to double-up and use DW's app, but since mine was acting wonky we decided she'd try too and I walked away to get somewhere else (not that that likely does anything, but made me feel better).
7am comes, they make the announcement. App isn't working right - the data connection just wasn't there. Kept getting this screen below (screen shot is from this AM, not my day, but is what I kept running into) and it would never "load" as it says it's doing. AT&T on LTE.
Random cheers start ringing out around. People are getting Boarding Groups. More cheers.
After 2-3 minutes of going back and forth, hard restarting the app, etc, the Join Boarding Group button finally turns red, only to get to this screen where the circle just spun and spun (again screen shot is from this AM, not my actual day).
It's now around 7:05am and I didn't really know what to do. Keep working on the app? People around me were moving on with their day. What the heck, how/why is this happening? I walk back to DW to tell her my troubles - she had the same issues but had been able to get Backup Boarding Group 135 at what I estimate was around 7:05 or 7:06 am.
Ok... "yes!".. we got one. But a (albeit early) backup? Yikes. I hadn't been following things quite as closely while we had been at WDW so I found myself really questioning if I had missed something important in my expectations/planning.
I think the speed of the whole thing is what made it so jarring for me. I felt prepared for all possible outcomes, but not with how quickly they went. Maybe I just had the wrong mindset going in, I'm not sure.
Not going to lie - at that moment I was pretty disgusted / put out at the whole thing. My attitude may have shown on my posts that day.
So... we take in what happened and commenced to go about our day. We putzed around DHS for a bit... then took the Skyliner to Epcot, had a breakfast sandwich in France (that place is so good). Frankly, it was exactly how we'd spend some park time anyway... so a perfectly fine day - just with a really early start. We ultimately made our way back to Poly as the weather had turned warm and the pool was calling - that's what the kids want to do most of the time anyway.
Opening the app and checking the latest BG number became the joke of the day. "What number is it up to Dad?" My wife turned to mocking me and our "plan" throughout the day (in good fun). Honestly in some ways I felt I had egg on my face for pushing the whole process with a yet to be successful outcome. While we all enjoy WDW for various reasons, I am sometimes a bit self-conscious about some of the Disney things I ask her/our family to do. I hope those that are the head planners can relate.
As the day went on I started feeling reasonably confident they'd get to 135. History was in our favor, and park hours were extended to 10pm at some point during the day, adding more confidence.
Around 5pm DS9 and I decided to head to Epcot to be closer to DHS just in case. An afternoon at the pool had left DW and DD5 tired and not up for heading back out, so they bailed. DS and I figured we'd have some dinner and watch Epcot Forever, worst case scenario.
Our BG was called at 6:22pm. We were in World Showcase at the time, so hopped to DHS via the Skyliner (LOVE that thing, BTW). We enjoyed the company of others in our cabin as we shared notes/stories about the day (we were all heading to RotR). Misery loves company! (I kid, I kid!)
I am not sure exactly what time we entered the line. I have a post about the line at 7:27pm, so shortly before then I guess. The line was exactly at the ride entrance, at which point I started a stopwatch. Total wait and experience time was 1 hour, 11 minutes.
The line moved reasonably quickly with no pauses of consequence. Strange mood in the line - I think everyone was pretty tired!
So... ultimately we got to ride, which made it a successful day. I wish DW and DD had stuck with us, but sometimes things just don't go that way with little ones when it gets later in the day. Stuff happens.
In retrospect I wish I had positioned ourselves closer to DHS so we could have gotten in line at our BG time - we would at least have been able to make it back for Epcot Forever if we had, which would have been a nice way to cap off the evening. But I was hesitant to actually go to the park - too superstitious!
Two days later I'm more at peace with the BG process, but I still don't like it and how it functioned on our day - an opinion I think is OK to have while also not having a 'better' solution in mind, or at least one worth discussing on what is fundamentally a planning thread.
Maybe it is true that we were hit with an exceptionally high crowd time which compressed BG fill time to an extraordinary degree, but it was still a highly stressful and chaotic few minutes that left a bad taste in my mouth. Being in a backup creates strange dynamics as you go about the rest of your day. In many ways BGs - in theory - fit a touring style such as ours.... but the tech and bandwidth issues were a downer.
And I missed HEA (or any fireworks) on our last night, which can not be forgiven! (just kidding, kind of)
I will be more than happy if and when the super-fast BG filling trend subsides in the coming days/weeks and my experience proves to be a 'bad day' exception.
Ok, now I feel better. If you actually read this, thanks for following!
And of course, thanks to everyone who has been contributing here over the last 30 days. The DIS is a great place to help plan trips and read about experiences that help manage expectations for conditions one may encounter on the ground. Like many WDW topics this is proving one that requires close observation and planning. This and the prior thread have been very helpful for many participants and observers alike - so THANK YOU.
Most of this is a recap of posts along the way, but just wanted to get everything in a TLDR post, sorry.
For context, we're a family of 4, kids are 9 and 5. We are not Star Wars fans, although we're not not fans (if that makes sense) - we just don't know the characters and stories all that well, other than pop culture references and such. But we do like theme parks and attractions, so our motivation to ride was based more on wanting to experience the "hot new thing" than any sort of fandom motivation.
We have APs and have been going to WDW a few times per year. Our trips are usually on the shorter side - 2-4 nighters. Many of our visits have a purpose - a runD event, MNSSHP, special holidays like NYE, etc. - so while we do have a number of WDW opportunities in any given year, they are not unlimited. Our days are probably 1/3 structured, 2/3 non-structured, as a round estimate. By that I mean we'll do our FPs (often in the AM), maybe have a lunch ADR, then the balance of the day is left open for pool time, more park time, or wherever the day goes. We usually rope drop. I'm a sucker for fireworks, so MK or Epcot are frequent evening destinations.
That's more info than is really needed here, but I give that context because I think it's helpful to understand touring habits/perspectives and how this BG process fit our particular day. There are a lot of aspects about the way we approach park habits that might be totally N/A for others.
Honestly, we had debated not even trying RotR this trip. We were sort of already all messed up sleep-wise with 12/31, and there would be other trips - so no big deal to miss it. But being our last full day, spirits were high to give it a shot - so what the heck.
Being that we would be in the park at BG opening, my expectations were that we would get a regular Boarding Group with no issue... and with any luck we'd get one that would put us on the ride early/mid-day (we had wanted to catch HEA later that day... last night tradition). I knew the BG number could be anything, but still 'hoped' it would be something low.
Prior to 1/2, for the 15 days since BGs had gone live at park opening regular Boarding Groups had filled in 36 minutes, on average. If I take out Christmas and NYE which were abnormally high, the average fill time was 29 minutes. The lowest regular BG fill time had been 9 minutes (12/26). The prior day (1/1) had been 20 minutes. I knew minutes were important, but I felt reasonably armed with proper expectations in check.
So for timing...
5:49am - Picture at the Maui statue in the Poly lobby (guess we wanted to document how we looked that early, lol)
I had been checking since around 5:30am, but bus times weren't showing in the app (side note, the bus wait time feature didn't seem to work well at all this trip, which was unusual). I searched for Minnie Vans via the Lyft app but none were available. We opted for a regular cab, one was waiting at the Poly cab stand...so effectively zero wait. As we were getting in the cab, I noticed there was a DHS bus at the bus stop, FWIW).
6:00am - DHS toll plaza, all lanes open and we got in a line 3'ish cars deep (getting through was quick).
Security was pretty quick / easy for the volume of people there. We had one bag, DW went through the bag line while the kids and I went to the no bag line.
6:15am - In line waiting for the tapstyles to open. "Lines" ended more towards the security gates than the ticket booths at that point. We stayed mostly all the way to the right (if facing the park) as has been suggested frequently here.
We made friends with our neighbors, helped some around us prepared for what to expect, etc. I overheard someone telling their large family that as soon as they tap in they needed to stop and join a BG. I couldn't help but gently correct him.
I am not sure what time tapstyles officially opened. It felt like we kept moving forward at various times - and it seemed like those of us on the right side were definitely moving forward more quickly.
6:29am - Past the tapstlyes near the Mickey / globe statue. No fingerprints were needed on this morning.
Thought about Trolley Car Cafe but the line was way out to Hollywood Blvd. No thank you.
We found a bench on Sunset Blvd, bundled up, and waited. A stand nearby had coffee with only one person in line (which quickly ballooned to 20 people in line, I got lucky).
All things considered I found getting to the park / entering the park / waiting in the park quite orderly and pleasant. Sure there are TONS of people, but it was pretty manageable. The staffing level of security and front entrance CMs is crazy high.
So spirits were strong as we waited in anticipation. I made sure the app was working, made sure I had good signal, got on the DIS, etc.
Around 6:50am I noticed I was having data issues connecting to the DIS and other websites. I closed all apps but MDE. The app randomly logged me out at one point, then wouldn't connect to get me back in. Then when it did, the SWGE page on the first page wouldn't show up. Overall my phone acted like when you're trying to use data at a big concert or sporting event - you have the bars of service, just nothing is connecting particularly quickly.
I was getting nervous as 7am was approaching. We weren't going to double-up and use DW's app, but since mine was acting wonky we decided she'd try too and I walked away to get somewhere else (not that that likely does anything, but made me feel better).
7am comes, they make the announcement. App isn't working right - the data connection just wasn't there. Kept getting this screen below (screen shot is from this AM, not my day, but is what I kept running into) and it would never "load" as it says it's doing. AT&T on LTE.
Random cheers start ringing out around. People are getting Boarding Groups. More cheers.
After 2-3 minutes of going back and forth, hard restarting the app, etc, the Join Boarding Group button finally turns red, only to get to this screen where the circle just spun and spun (again screen shot is from this AM, not my actual day).
It's now around 7:05am and I didn't really know what to do. Keep working on the app? People around me were moving on with their day. What the heck, how/why is this happening? I walk back to DW to tell her my troubles - she had the same issues but had been able to get Backup Boarding Group 135 at what I estimate was around 7:05 or 7:06 am.
Ok... "yes!".. we got one. But a (albeit early) backup? Yikes. I hadn't been following things quite as closely while we had been at WDW so I found myself really questioning if I had missed something important in my expectations/planning.
I think the speed of the whole thing is what made it so jarring for me. I felt prepared for all possible outcomes, but not with how quickly they went. Maybe I just had the wrong mindset going in, I'm not sure.
Not going to lie - at that moment I was pretty disgusted / put out at the whole thing. My attitude may have shown on my posts that day.
So... we take in what happened and commenced to go about our day. We putzed around DHS for a bit... then took the Skyliner to Epcot, had a breakfast sandwich in France (that place is so good). Frankly, it was exactly how we'd spend some park time anyway... so a perfectly fine day - just with a really early start. We ultimately made our way back to Poly as the weather had turned warm and the pool was calling - that's what the kids want to do most of the time anyway.
Opening the app and checking the latest BG number became the joke of the day. "What number is it up to Dad?" My wife turned to mocking me and our "plan" throughout the day (in good fun). Honestly in some ways I felt I had egg on my face for pushing the whole process with a yet to be successful outcome. While we all enjoy WDW for various reasons, I am sometimes a bit self-conscious about some of the Disney things I ask her/our family to do. I hope those that are the head planners can relate.
As the day went on I started feeling reasonably confident they'd get to 135. History was in our favor, and park hours were extended to 10pm at some point during the day, adding more confidence.
Around 5pm DS9 and I decided to head to Epcot to be closer to DHS just in case. An afternoon at the pool had left DW and DD5 tired and not up for heading back out, so they bailed. DS and I figured we'd have some dinner and watch Epcot Forever, worst case scenario.
Our BG was called at 6:22pm. We were in World Showcase at the time, so hopped to DHS via the Skyliner (LOVE that thing, BTW). We enjoyed the company of others in our cabin as we shared notes/stories about the day (we were all heading to RotR). Misery loves company! (I kid, I kid!)
I am not sure exactly what time we entered the line. I have a post about the line at 7:27pm, so shortly before then I guess. The line was exactly at the ride entrance, at which point I started a stopwatch. Total wait and experience time was 1 hour, 11 minutes.
The line moved reasonably quickly with no pauses of consequence. Strange mood in the line - I think everyone was pretty tired!
So... ultimately we got to ride, which made it a successful day. I wish DW and DD had stuck with us, but sometimes things just don't go that way with little ones when it gets later in the day. Stuff happens.
In retrospect I wish I had positioned ourselves closer to DHS so we could have gotten in line at our BG time - we would at least have been able to make it back for Epcot Forever if we had, which would have been a nice way to cap off the evening. But I was hesitant to actually go to the park - too superstitious!
Two days later I'm more at peace with the BG process, but I still don't like it and how it functioned on our day - an opinion I think is OK to have while also not having a 'better' solution in mind, or at least one worth discussing on what is fundamentally a planning thread.
Maybe it is true that we were hit with an exceptionally high crowd time which compressed BG fill time to an extraordinary degree, but it was still a highly stressful and chaotic few minutes that left a bad taste in my mouth. Being in a backup creates strange dynamics as you go about the rest of your day. In many ways BGs - in theory - fit a touring style such as ours.... but the tech and bandwidth issues were a downer.
And I missed HEA (or any fireworks) on our last night, which can not be forgiven!
(just kidding, kind of)I will be more than happy if and when the super-fast BG filling trend subsides in the coming days/weeks and my experience proves to be a 'bad day' exception.
Ok, now I feel better. If you actually read this, thanks for following!
And of course, thanks to everyone who has been contributing here over the last 30 days. The DIS is a great place to help plan trips and read about experiences that help manage expectations for conditions one may encounter on the ground. Like many WDW topics this is proving one that requires close observation and planning. This and the prior thread have been very helpful for many participants and observers alike - so THANK YOU.
twodogs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2012
Here is what I don’t understand. If you get in line at one minute before park closing on almost any ride in any of the parks, you will get to ride the ride that night (outside of a ride breakdown after park closing), no matter how long the (inflated wait) standby time is. On this ride, they proactively cut off the BGs two hours (or more) before park close so they can presumably end the ride operations at or before the close of the park. I understand there is a certain amount of time needed to reset the ride overnight. However, if they give someone a BG (not a back up BG), I think they should accommodate those folks on the ride on that day, until whatever time it takes. This might make the ride go one more hour or so past park closing, but it would not happen every night or even often, as we have seen them miss accommodating the regular BGs only a handful of times since the ride opened. This way, if it is your last park day like some of the OPs, you aren’t left with a guest recovery FP and one day park ticket that may be completely meaningless to you at that point in your trip. Yes the CM would have to stay late to operate the ride late on these rare nights, but that happens nightly on popular rides like FoP and somehow Disney can handle that just fine.
yulilin3
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
You have to refresh for it to turn red unless your login in at 7am. Click, pick people, join bg
yulilin3
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
FoP didn't really have any major issues
Hagrid's is still going through them with late start or early finish of the attraction each day
- Status
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