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

[dsdeleon]

So you start clicking join just before it changes to 7?

I (personally) have had luck clicking join at 6:59:56 but I start trying at 6:59:48. That’s what the practice is for, getting back to join if you are seconds early. I get nervous just thinking about it again lol

 

[Dave006]

Yes 1 hour

Yes 1 hour after your BG is called and your BG return window can vary based on how the ride is operating.

Dave

 

[intertile]

Yes 1 hour after your BG is called and your BG return window can vary based on how the ride is operating.

Dave

Just an FYI for everyone....our return time today was until 10:32am...everything went wrong and showed up at 11am. They scanned our bands and let us on. No muss, no fuss

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just an FYI for everyone....our return time today was until 10:32am...everything went wrong and showed up at 11am. They scanned our bands and let us on. No muss, no fuss

You're quite right that this can happen but there is no guarantee guests would be able to ride after their return time has expired. It's best to return within the window when at all possible and if in a case such as yours, ask and hopefully they'll get the great outcome and be able to ride as you did! Congrats! Hope you enjoyed it!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Just an FYI for everyone....our return time today was until 10:32am...everything went wrong and showed up at 11am. They scanned our bands and let us on. No muss, no fuss

You're quite right that this can happen but there is no guarantee guests would be able to ride after their return time has expired. It's best to return within the window when at all possible and if in a case such as yours, ask and hopefully they'll get the great outcome and be able to ride as you did! Congrats! Hope you enjoyed it!

Definitely helps to hear anecdotal evidence to see how frequently this happens. But I definitely agree, being allowed on can vary day to day and hour to hour. I'm sure if the ride isn't operating properly throughout the day, it'd be harder to get on later in the day if the downtime didn't affect your boarding group.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Second Hollywood Studios day and second success! Group 7 on Saturday and group 41 today. Thank you all for all the helpful hints!

 

[chicagodisfan]

Thank you SO much to everyone in this group! We were at Disney last week and were able to get boarding groups for both of our Hollywood Studios days despite me failing in every one of my practices! We had been on the ride the first week it opened in December 2019 back when it took 15-20 minutes for boarding groups to fill (those were the days!). We didn’t realize how competitive it had gotten, I had read about it but hadn’t actually experienced it, and so we were clueless and completely shut out on our October trip. Our boys were so disappointed. This trip I didn’t start practicing nearly early enough. I think I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and maybe only got 5 practices in, some at home and some there on our days before we went to the Studios. And my phone is pretty old, it’s a 4 year old iPhone SE, so I thought there was no way it would be fast enough anyway. We think my husband might have gotten through on one of his practices the day before, but then we couldn’t remember if it was the “not so fast” or “something went wrong” screen that he got. And when I did a speed test from our resort room, my numbers were so low! I think I got around 12 mbps on WiFi and around 9 on LTE. In any event, our story has a happy ending because I was able to get group 61 on our first day (called at 1:30 pm) and group 24 on our second day (called at 9:30 am)! Here’s what we did that ended up working for us:

1. I had moved the MDE app next to my iPhone clock app on my phone before the trip after having read that as a suggestion. I went on time.gov and learned that my iPhone clock was only .14 seconds off the official time so I figured I’d take my chances with the clock app.

2. A few minutes before 7:00 am, I opened MDE and scrolled to the AT-AT join button and then exited out of the app but left it open. One of my earlier failed attempts was because I opened the app for the first time at 7:00 am and the two seconds it took to load was enough to shut me out. But I learned from those mistakes! I had previously turned off location services, forced closed all other apps, and closed all other open browser window. I turned off WiFi and used data/LTE and DH used the resort WiFi, both of us trying from my account (he doesn’t have his own MDE account).

3. From the regular iPhone screen I watched the clock app as it went around from 6:59 and then with 15 seconds left I switched over to MDE and counted them out loud for both of us and watched for my phone clock to switch to 7:00 am. (One of my failed practices was hitting join before the switch and by the time I got back it was filled.)

4. The second it changed to 7:00 am I hit join — and this is the part I learned here that I think made all the difference — and I kept hitting join even before the blue button appeared and it was still greyed in. I could see where it would be and just kept pressing! I didn’t even register what the screens said. I just pressed, pressed, pressed. And thankfully, it worked!

Interestingly, on our first day I never got a confirmation screen that we got a boarding group and I thought I hadn’t gotten in. It wasn’t until my husband got the notice that someone else got a boarding group for your party, that I went back in to my virtual queues and saw that I had gotten it! The second day I got the notice right away that we had gotten in. Both days my older phone got it with cellular data. My husband’s phone is much newer and he was on WiFi and didn’t get it either time even though the speed test said the WiFi was faster. I was worried the WiFi might be glitchy so I figured I’d stick with data.

So I just want to thank everyone again for the invaluable help! We used Rider Swap so my sons got multiple rides and it more than made up for our October shutout! As an aside, both of our days the ride went down around group 61. My husband and sons were on the ride the first day when it went down and waited it out. It was about 45 minutes before they got it back online. On our second day with the earlier group, we got on around 10:30 am and it was seamless! Not a single hiccup and only a short line after scanning in. I told my husband to go back quick and use his Rider Swap pass because it was working so well. I’m so glad he did because we noticed later it went offline around groups 60-65 again at around1:00 pm. So if possible it might be a good idea to ride closer to the beginning of your window. We thought that maybe it overheats after so many hours of continuous use?!

 

[IrfanC]

'Checking for Groups' (final screen) takes longer to load but was able to get a successful 7 am practice in today. One week from today is the day. This gives me an idea of how elusive the process has become, going into the break.

 

[KathyNY76]

Group 59 today!

I was nervous after 2 failed practices M & Tu.

Had to sit on the floor of Dolphin about 4 doors down from mine b/c data in my room was only 1-2 bars.

 

[gometros]

Dumb question. The thread title says to read post s 1 & 2, but the info has since been deleted. I'm going in two weeks and need to catch up on the latest techniques.

 

[kidnurse1137]

I've been practicing just pulling down to refresh right before 7 am until the Join button appears. Is it better to continue this practice or will the blue Join button appear without refreshing? (I'm on an iOs device)

 

[GBRforWDW]

Dumb question. The thread title says to read post s 1 & 2, but the info has since been deleted. I'm going in two weeks and need to catch up on the latest techniques.

I typically recommended finding the AT AT picture on the main screen of MDE and click the join button a few minutes before 7am and go back and forth a couple times to cache the page. Helps with loading the page at 7. Then sit at the AT AT picture until your phone changes to 7 am on the dot. As soon as the time changes, click join, join, join on the 3 screens as fast as possible.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Dumb question. The thread title says to read post s 1 & 2, but the info has since been deleted. I'm going in two weeks and need to catch up on the latest techniques.

Post 1 is still there with a lot of helpful information. Post 2 is no longer valid so the chart used in the past was deleted. Reading Post 1 should be helpful as well as reading the past few pages of this thread. If you have questions after that, people here will be more than welcome to help.

 

[CarolynFH]

Post 1 is still there with a lot of helpful information. Post 2 is no longer valid so the chart used in the past was deleted. Reading Post 1 should be helpful as well as reading the past few pages of this thread. If you have questions after that, people here will be more than welcome to help.

Is it possible to revise Post 1? Even if the positions of Pre COVID Closure and Post COVID Closure information could be reversed, it might help. I’m afraid many who are new to this get discouraged and don’t read all the way to the end!

 

[kylenne]

Today was my first time practicing in forever, the last time was before the closures, for our doomed May 2020 trip so I totally forgot how any of it works. I sat on the AT AT waiting for 7 and as soon as my phone clock changed I clicked Join ASAP and clicked again. I got “Just a moment!” and the No Park Reservation Found message. Does that mean I would have gotten one?

 

[IrfanC]

Today was my first time practicing in forever, the last time was before the closures, for our doomed May 2020 trip so I totally forgot how any of it works. I sat on the AT AT waiting for 7 and as soon as my phone clock changed I clicked Join ASAP and clicked again. I got “Just a moment!” and the No Park Reservation Found message. Does that mean I would have gotten one?

You did succeed. I wasn't so lucky today. It was a first time in many weeks that after I hit the Join from AT AT, Join button did not appear, forcing me to resort to pull down refresh to make it appear, but it was few seconds too late. I got the dreaded capacity full message. This had hardly happened to me at 7 am practices. I have switched to LTE recently and I seem to think it might be a culprit. But I know that I will not be able to take by fiber internet speeds with me, so have to prepare for using phone data and TMobile (LTE) connection. 5G tower signals near me aren't that stable.

 

[beesly]

Thanks to everyone for the practice tips! It really helped to make the real thing feel less nerve wracking.

 

[stltravelers]

We were able to get boarding group 24 this morning. I was on Hilton WiFi. I had the app open and clicked join repeatedly as soon as my Apple Watch clock hit 7. I did click join prior to 7 and back out to the home page again. We have another reservation tomorrow so hopefully that goes just as well! Thank you to all for all of the advice and reports in this thread.

 

[kylenne]

You did succeed. I wasn't so lucky today. It was a first time in many weeks that after I hit the Join from AT AT, Join button did not appear, forcing me to resort to pull down refresh to make it appear, but it was few seconds too late. I got the dreaded capacity full message. This had hardly happened to me at 7 am practices. I have switched to LTE recently and I seem to think it might be a culprit. But I know that I will not be able to take by fiber internet speeds with me, so have to prepare for using phone data and TMobile (LTE) connection. 5G tower signals near me aren't that stable.

That sucks, but I hope when it’s really “go time” for you that you’re successful. This made me think though...I’m a Verizon customer (Fios and Wireless) and I have a 5G MiFi mobile hotspot that I’m going to bring with me. Next time I practice I’m gonna try it while my phone is connected to that and see how it goes.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Thanks to everyone for the practice tips! It really helped to make the real thing feel less nerve wracking.

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We were able to get boarding group 24 this morning. I was on Hilton WiFi. I had the app open and clicked join repeatedly as soon as my Apple Watch clock hit 7. I did click join prior to 7 and back out to the home page again. We have another reservation tomorrow so hopefully that goes just as well! Thank you to all for all of the advice and reports in this thread.

Yay! Congrats to both of you! Hope you all have a great day!