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

[AlwithaB]

Is there a general consensus that today there seemed to be a very painful lag for the VQ to open up.....maybe it went live close to 30/40 seconds late?

If you feel you got in at 7am plus or minus 5 seconds, please speak up........as many are reporting hiccups that seem to indicate a slightly later opening of the VQ today.

I was at home on home wifi at 7:00 a.m. today trying to book fastpasses for my trip in February at the 30 day window. Had trouble on both laptop and phone with Disney giving me error messages on both. Cleared up after 2-3 minutes. Somewhat annoying but I knew there was no chance for SDD dash anyway, and just fiddled with some other ride times. Seems like a perfect storm of runners, HS folks, and home folks at 7:00 a.m. for fastpasses maybe pushing volume to Disney's systems?

 

[JavaLikesAgua]

Is there a general consensus that today there seemed to be a very painful lag for the VQ to open up.....maybe it went live close to 30/40 seconds late?

If you feel you got in at 7am plus or minus 5 seconds, please speak up........as many are reporting hiccups that seem to indicate a slightly later opening of the VQ today.

Today was bad. I heard disgruntled people 20-30 seconds into 7AM. Cheers came much later. I've gone the past 4 days before opening. Thursday was pretty iffy, but Friday and Saturday it was much better. I used WiFi on Friday and got us 44 when waiting 5 seconds into 7AM until opening my app from it being fully closed. On Saturday, I was on cell service with Verizon LTE in the AK parking lot. I used the Clock app to open my Disney app right when it hit 5 seconds. My friend did it too and his showed first - we got group 40. It varies greatly it seems.

I am willing to bet that if you have a newer phone you are more likely to load quicker.

Another thing - it could be a viable strategy to get away from crowds when doing this if you're willing to walk more. The most flawless I've seen it was in AK parking lot when nobody was around and was on good data. I know for fact that with so many people in one location, the requests and connections get bogged down.

Someone should try standing and hanging in DHS until 6:50-6:55, then leaving the park to walk anywhere they can where really nobody is present, and then trying it on their data.

 

[rcoy64]

Has anyone had success grabbing a Boarding Pass for RotR right at 7, then hopping to another park to RD EMH?

Heading down in a few weeks for a short trip and hitting all 4 parks in one day and the HS hours change to 7AM has really threw a wrench in our plans as we had originally planned to RD MK with an EMH of 8AM.

Original plan was:
RD MK, head to AK (which is where our initial FP are for), HS, then EP. We were fine with this since at the time, HS was a 9AM open and we were not going to worry about SWGE.
Just not sure if we have enough time to tap in at HS, be there long enough to grab a Boarding Pass, Uber to MK in time to RD and follow our plan above.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Heather07438]

Has anyone had success grabbing a Boarding Pass for RotR right at 7, then hopping to another park to RD EMH?

After you tap in and use a ticket at HS, you do not need to stay in HS to join a BG. We've seen reports of it working for those who tried, and now even the DL Info released for their opening of RoR next week explains that access to join BG is tied to using your park ticket. The system isn't checking that you're in HS, it just wants to know you have used a HS ticket that day.

Would give you a head start to rope drop Park #2. HS usually opens the gate 25-40 minutes before official open (The Chart has a column w/ these times). You could check in to HS roughly around 6:30am and be off! Then join a BG at precisely 7am from whatever rope drop line you're on.

 

[g-dad66]

no, sorry I wasn't clear - I know they keep changing the official park opening times and often a 9am official park open will change to 8am instead. I guess I'm asking if a posted 9am start time would ever change as much as being a 7am official park open. Seems like a big jump to me.

I think the next two weeks in January were originally scheduled for 9am openings. Then last month they were changed to 8am openings, and now every day is opening at 7am.

So a two-hour change can happen, and I'll bet it happens for the week before and after Easter (April 12).

However, if your trip is after April 19, then an 8am opening seems more likely to me than a 7am opening.

 

[rcoy64]

Great information and never thought of that! Would make a huge difference in attempting to RD MK that day. Thanks for the advice. Can you point me to any posts or topics where people have reported this?

 

[Nvrgrowup]

Today was bad. I heard disgruntled people 20-30 seconds into 7AM. Cheers came much later. I've gone the past 4 days before opening. Thursday was pretty iffy, but Friday and Saturday it was much better. I used WiFi on Friday and got us 44 when waiting 5 seconds into 7AM until opening my app from it being fully closed. On Saturday, I was on cell service with Verizon LTE in the AK parking lot. I used the Clock app to open my Disney app right when it hit 5 seconds. My friend did it too and his showed first - we got group 40. It varies greatly it seems.

I am willing to bet that if you have a newer phone you are more likely to load quicker.

Another thing - it could be a viable strategy to get away from crowds when doing this if you're willing to walk more. The most flawless I've seen it was in AK parking lot when nobody was around and was on good data. I know for fact that with so many people in one location, the requests and connections get bogged down.

Someone should try standing and hanging in DHS until 6:50-6:55, then leaving the park to walk anywhere they can where really nobody is present, and then trying it on their data.

My family and I 3 of us rode twice over Christmas. First time I got the bg's on my 5yr old Samsung no wifi walking towards Sunset Blvd. Bg 23. Next time our son got them on his Apple 10 no disney no wifi got boarding group 10 walking past the Trolley Car.Both times we were on MDE app right at 7 am. We can drive ourselves crazy trying to figure the best way or just go with the flow and what has been working for most of us. And yes I know about Disneys IT.

 

[Weedy]

I was at home on home wifi at 7:00 a.m. today trying to book fastpasses for my trip in February at the 30 day window. Had trouble on both laptop and phone with Disney giving me error messages on both. Cleared up after 2-3 minutes. Somewhat annoying but I knew there was no chance for SDD dash anyway, and just fiddled with some other ride times. Seems like a perfect storm of runners, HS folks, and home folks at 7:00 a.m. for fastpasses maybe pushing volume to Disney's systems?

Keep watching to see if they change the Studios opening time. They have been changing it from 9am to 7am and people have been able to get fast passes during the extra 2 hours

 

[musika]

After you tap in and use a ticket at HS, you do not need to stay in HS to join a BG. We've seen reports of it working for those who tried, and now even the DL Info released for their opening of RoR next week explains that access to join BG is tied to using your park ticket. The system isn't checking that you're in HS, it just wants to know you have used a HS ticket that day.

Would give you a head start to rope drop Park #2. HS usually opens the gate 25-40 minutes before official open (The Chart has a column w/ these times). You could check in to HS roughly around 6:30am and be off! Then join a BG at precisely 7am from whatever rope drop line you're on.

The only potential danger to this is that you pull an early BG and miss your slot or have to basically turn around from MK to head back.

 

[JavaLikesAgua]

The only potential danger to this is that you pull an early BG and miss your slot or have to basically turn around from MK to head back.

This happened to us - somewhat. Had to push back MK FastPasses so we could get back to ROTR from AK. Wasn't too bad, but needs to be done on a flexible schedule.

However, a way around this is to wait 1 minute after 7AM hits. You are pretty much doomed for 80-90+ after that.

 

[aeasterling]

I haven't posted before, but just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU. This thread was a huge help to get acquainted with the BG process.

We were at WDW this weekend because my husband and son ran the half. Just a three day trip and today was our only shot at ROTR. I'll share my experience.

We left Poly in an Uber about 5:50. Party of 4. Had a slight delay due to the race road closures, but walked into the park at 6:25. Tapstiles were already open. We walked towards GE and stopped at the back of the crowd near the Frozen show. It filled in A LOT after we got there.

There was a bit of a delay. I'd say the button turned red for me about 7:02. I got BG 45 - the woman next to me got 14. We went back to MFSR when they started moving around 7:05. We were done with it about 8:30ish.

Here's where it got a little stressful. We are leaving today but decided not to check out of our room before leaving for HS, so my husband had to go back to finish packing and give our bags to bell services. Bad idea, given the road closures with the marathon! He left right after we rode MFSR. Our BG got called at 9:12, so we had until 11:12. Husband's Uber got stuck in traffic and I was sweating it a bit. But he got back about 10:30 AND the ride was down, so they would honor our return past the window

That worked out because we had Droid Depot res at 10:40. We finished there and we're back at ROTR about 11:20 and it was back up! Very little wait time to board and everything was working. It was AMAZING!!

So thanks again and good luck to all of you!

 

[aeasterling]

Also, if the ride had been up, my plan was we would have ridden and likely missed our Doid Depot res. I was planning to go there after ROTR and beg to get in later and hope they didn't charge me for no-showing. So lucky for us that the ride close worked in our favor!

 

[yulilin3]

Has anyone had success grabbing a Boarding Pass for RotR right at 7, then hopping to another park to RD EMH?

Heading down in a few weeks for a short trip and hitting all 4 parks in one day and the HS hours change to 7AM has really threw a wrench in our plans as we had originally planned to RD MK with an EMH of 8AM.

Original plan was:
RD MK, head to AK (which is where our initial FP are for), HS, then EP. We were fine with this since at the time, HS was a 9AM open and we were not going to worry about SWGE.
Just not sure if we have enough time to tap in at HS, be there long enough to grab a Boarding Pass, Uber to MK in time to RD and follow our plan above.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

If you look maybe 10 pages back, yesterday someone actually grabbed a BG at 7am , got the first BG of the day so was able to ride RotR right away and made Island's of Adventure rope drop to ride Hagrid's at 9am.
Remember you have 2 hours to return to DHS once your BG is called. it is totally possible to rope drop any other Disney park.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Looks like 168 will be it for another GREAT day! I'll wait until 8pm to finalize things in case something weird happens!

 

[PolyRob]

Looks like 168 will be it for another GREAT day! I'll wait until 8pm to finalize things in case something weird happens!

I will begin refreshing this thread at 8pm in anticipation of the post like it is MDE at 7am and I am waiting for a BG

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I will begin refreshing this thread at 8pm in anticipation of the post like it is MDE at 7am and I am waiting for a BG

And there might be some BIG news tonight...

 

[Laur4Sure]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. We will be in Orlando next weekend and only have 1 day (Sunday 1/19, MLK weekend) at HS. We'll be staying off site at a hotel near Disney Springs that according to Google Maps is about 10 minutes away. I have a few questions I hope you can help with.

We're planning on taking an Uber. The plan is to order the Uber at 5:30, and the park opens at 7 that day. Do you think that is enough time to get to the ride share drop off, get through bag check , and get into the park?

Anyone ever have difficulty getting an Uber that early?

We don't have magic bands, which I'm not used to. I believe I read that when we go to "tap in" I show my ticket confirmation and they give us a hard ticket. Does that take extra time?

I'm really hoping to maximize our chances to get a BG, so we'll adjust our morning plan if need be.

 

[yulilin3]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. We will be in Orlando next weekend and only have 1 day (Sunday 1/19, MLK weekend) at HS. We'll be staying off site at a hotel near Disney Springs that according to Google Maps is about 10 minutes away. I have a few questions I hope you can help with.

We're planning on taking an Uber. The plan is to order the Uber at 5:30, and the park opens at 7 that day. Do you think that is enough time to get to the ride share drop off, get through bag check , and get into the park?

Anyone ever have difficulty getting an Uber that early?

We don't have magic bands, which I'm not used to. I believe I read that when we go to "tap in" I show my ticket confirmation and they give us a hard ticket. Does that take extra time?

I'm really hoping to maximize our chances to get a BG, so we'll adjust our morning plan if need be.

For a hard ticket you have to visit the ticket counter or outside window of guest relations first. They open 30 to an hour before official opening time. Is there a way you can go to Disney springs the night before?

 

[tjmw2727]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. We will be in Orlando next weekend and only have 1 day (Sunday 1/19, MLK weekend) at HS. We'll be staying off site at a hotel near Disney Springs that according to Google Maps is about 10 minutes away. I have a few questions I hope you can help with.

We're planning on taking an Uber. The plan is to order the Uber at 5:30, and the park opens at 7 that day. Do you think that is enough time to get to the ride share drop off, get through bag check , and get into the park?

Anyone ever have difficulty getting an Uber that early?

We don't have magic bands, which I'm not used to. I believe I read that when we go to "tap in" I show my ticket confirmation and they give us a hard ticket. Does that take extra time?

I'm really hoping to maximize our chances to get a BG, so we'll adjust our morning plan if need be.

Re the bold:
Do you still have your magic bands from a prior trip(s)? If so just add your tickets to your MDE and use one of your MB's to enter - you don't have to have an onsite reservation to use a MB.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...
WE HAVE SET A NEW RECORD FOR BOARDING GROUPS PER HOUR!!
12.3!!!
MOST EFFICIENT DAY YET!!
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