I reported on Thursday about my nearly as smooth as possible experience with ROTR: BG 23, called just after 7:30, tap into attraction at 7:45 and off by about 8:15. Virtual walk on to first preshow element and only one place in between segments that was probably slightly longer than ideal, but not in a way that affected the experience (describing that in more detail would require a spoiler).
Our experience on Saturday was an example of how you have to be flexible and maybe have alternate plans if getting on ROTR is a high priority for you. When we made our original plans for this trip for Marathon Weekend, we obviously didn’t know what the procedure would be for riding ROTR, though we knew we would want to try to get on it if possible. Our original plan for Saturday was to go for AM EMH at DAK partly because travel there is not affected by the half marathon. We got FPs at DAK, including one for FOP at 12:30, which I think was the earliest I could get. Our daughter,who was running the half, planned to meet us there after she cleaned up, mainly to ride FOP. We then planned to go to Epcot later in the day.
Once we knew about the ROTR VQ procedure our daughter who wasn’t there on Thursday wanted to take a shot at it. We were hoping for an early BG which would allow us to ride ROTR and then go to DAK or, failing that, a later BG that wouldn’t be called until early afternoon so we could return briefly to DHS after using our FOP FP. But, the ROTR gods had different ideas, and we got BG 59, which we knew would be called between about 11 and 12 if there were no significant delays. So, after riding TOT and RNRC (single rider) we headed over to DAK and watched the BG calls as we did attractions there. It was apparent early that BGs were humming along, and when they reached 53 by about 10:30, we decided that we would head back to DHS because our group was almost certainly going to be called too early for us wait until after using our FOP FP. As we were leaving DAK we could see that the calling of new BGs had stopped, apparently indicating that the ride was down. But, we continued on and, about the time we boarded the bus to DHS they started calling new numbers again. I’m getting a little fuzzy on the exact time, but BG 59 was called just as we were entering the park about 11:30. We tapped in to the ride not long after that, but the line was was almost out to the entrance, so we knew we would take awhile to reach the first preshow. The CM at the entrance said it would be about 45 minutes.
After winding steadily through the queue for about 30 minutes, the line ground to a halt and after that an announcement came that there would be a delay of 20-30 minutes, maybe longer. I wish I had known at that point that we were one turn away from the final room before the preshow door because it might have been less discouraging, but after 30 minutes we were on our way and we entered the preshow area about 5 minutes later. As far as I could tell from my one previous experience, we saw the whole thing, and went through smoothly from there. But we obviously were not able to use our FOP FP.
One little postscript on this. After going to Epcot for a few hours, one of my daughters said she wanted to see the HEA fireworks show at MK. We really didn’t think about it until we were on our way, but without planning to do it we had our first experience of visiting each of the 4 parks in one day and doing at least one major attraction in each (if you count HEA as a major attraction).
All in all it was a successful day, but it is more fun not having to get up at 5 AM to try to get in one of the initial boarding groups and then having to pay attention to BG numbers for several hours after that. I think the attraction is amazing, but I wouldn’t be subjecting myself to that process twice in one trip except that I was willing to accompany my daughter who was doing it for the first time.
, I've seen conflicting information on YouTube about whether or not your full party has to be "tapped into the park" to be included in a boarding group (i.e., my wife wants to sleep in while I go and get the family signed up.) I think I read here that that won't work -- everyone has to be tapped in. Can someone confirm that for me? Thanks!
