Rise of the Resistance BOARDING GROUPS Superthread Part 1 *No Ride Spoilers Please* *PLEASE READ POSTS 1-4*

[BigOHawk]

You can go to the DLR website, scroll to the bottom, click on the Contact Us link. Use the email option. Be sure to include all your contact information and don't be surprised if someone actually does get back to you in a few days to a week or so, Disney Guest Experience CMs really do want to know what's going on and how it is affecting guests' experience at DLR. Be as calm and as detailed as you can be about what happened, when, where, what went wrong, how it affected your day, how it could have gone better, whether any CMs were involved (include names and/or descriptions if relevant), etc. This isn't about blaming or shaming or venting, but about trying to improve the current situation for future guests. Let Disney know that you know they can do better.

This X1000! A few years back at WDW, a few of us in our family got sick while on vacation to the point of not being able to visit the parks, etc. I heard via other resort guests saying this too and upon getting home, I sent a calm, detailed email explaining our situation and how it impacted our family vacation, park touring, etc and how we thought a bug might have been going around the resort. Someone called me within a week or two and long story short we got free park passes to come back and visit, which we used next year!

Also I had a billing error last spring that didn't get resolved for awhile, called WDW guest services and did get a free photo package and several days of extra fastpasses. I've found the key is not to yell or get mildly angry, stick to facts and usually something will be offered if you can get to the right person.

 

[Fuzeon]

Good Morning!

My two sons and I will be at DLR from Wednesday, 2/12-Sunday 2/16. We arrive around 2 pm, and bought 4 day hoppers to take advantage of our half day at DL. Staying at GCH. Since we don’t come to the park often, I was planning to use our three full days to try and get a BG for ROTR.

How would you recommend we plan our time at both DL and DCA, given our days, and desire to ride ROTR, likely more than once? Use all three EMH/MM to get inside DL for BG? What time do you recommended getting to security at GCH?

Thank you!

 

[ironband74]

Good Morning!

My two sons and I will be at DLR from Wednesday, 2/12-Sunday 2/16. We arrive around 2 pm, and bought 4 day hoppers to take advantage of our half day at DL. Staying at GCH. Since we don’t come to the park often, I was planning to use our three full days to try and get a BG for ROTR.

How would you recommend we plan our time at both DL and DCA, given our days, and desire to ride ROTR, likely more than once? Use all three EMH/MM to get inside DL for BG? What time do you recommended getting to security at GCH?

Thank you!

A lot of that depends on what your priorities are beyond ROTR.

If it were me, I'd use the opening afternoon/evening to enjoy Galaxy's edge, maybe do the Cantina (get a reservation ASAP if you want to do this), and any other GE experiences (Droid/Lightsaber etc), hit the Millenium Falcon, and maybe some other attractions in DL.

Thursday would be MM in DL, so I'd plan on that - enjoy MM and attempt a BG.

Friday would be EMH in DCA, so I'd plan on that...depending on if you rode ROTR the day previous you might bug out early to go scan into DL so you can get a BG. Or you could just make this your DCA day and not worry about it. You could also gamble and go over to DL after EMH is over since on Fridays the backup BGs have so far lasted over half an hour, so if you got over there say 10 after 8 you could probably get a backup with a decent shot at riding.

Saturday is again MM in DL.

I can't speak to doing security at GCH, only that most folks for the DCA EMH agree that using the main gate is better than trying to use the GCH entrance to get in.

Have a great trip.

 

[JWelch62]

A lot of that depends on what your priorities are beyond ROTR.

If it were me, I'd use the opening afternoon/evening to enjoy Galaxy's edge, maybe do the Cantina (get a reservation ASAP if you want to do this), and any other GE experiences (Droid/Lightsaber etc), hit the Millenium Falcon, and maybe some other attractions in DL.

Thursday would be MM in DL, so I'd plan on that - enjoy MM and attempt a BG.

Friday would be EMH in DCA, so I'd plan on that...depending on if you rode ROTR the day previous you might bug out early to go scan into DL so you can get a BG. Or you could just make this your DCA day and not worry about it. You could also gamble and go over to DL after EMH is over since on Fridays the backup BGs have so far lasted over half an hour, so if you got over there say 10 after 8 you could probably get a backup with a decent shot at riding.

Saturday is again MM in DL.

I can't speak to doing security at GCH, only that most folks for the DCA EMH agree that using the main gate is better than trying to use the GCH entrance to get in.

Have a great trip.

We've stayed at GCH a number of times. Unless you are in line VERY early at the GCH entrance it is faster to go to the main DCA entrance. Plus, I use my Starbucks fastpass (mobile order) and pick up my coffee on the way.

 

[ironband74]

Good morning Risers! I'm very curious to see how today goes.

The last three days have shown an interesting pattern of the attraction being pretty reliable in the first 4-5 hours or so of operation, and then tanking.

Yesterday, we hit 59 BGs just after 2pm before things went bad for the afternoon and evening
Tuesday, we hit 82 BGs just before 4pm before things went bad for the evening.
Monday we hit 63 BGs just after 2pm before a decent delay and then things went well for the rest of the evening.

If we see a fourth day of good morning ops, that could mean that they are getting into an overnight groove for getting the attraction ready for the day. Or it could be purely coincidence. Either way, interesting to watch the trends.

May the Force be with You.

 

[Angrose]

Good morning Risers! I'm very curious to see how today goes.

The last three days have shown an interesting pattern of the attraction being pretty reliable in the first 4-5 hours or so of operation, and then tanking.

Yesterday, we hit 59 BGs just after 2pm before things went bad for the afternoon and evening
Tuesday, we hit 82 BGs just before 4pm before things went bad for the evening.
Monday we hit 63 BGs just after 2pm before a decent delay and then things went well for the rest of the evening.

If we see a fourth day of good morning ops, that could mean that they are getting into an overnight groove for getting the attraction ready for the day. Or it could be purely coincidence. Either way, interesting to watch the trends.

May the Force be with You.

Hoping for the best this morning. Lines aren’t quite back to DCA yet, but they opened gates early for MM.

 

[cuteinnocent]

Hoping for the best this morning. Lines aren’t quite back to DCA yet, but they opened gates early for MM.

What time were gates open for MM? We will be there on Sat!

 

[Angrose]

What time were gates open for MM? We will be there on Sat!

I think it was 7:50am. They just opened the main turnstiles at 8:15 and the lines are moving fast. Of course my brother isn’t here yet so just letting everyone go ahead until they get here.

 

[harmon54]

My friend is at WDW and ride went down right now - she said they got snacks and pics in line! I am sorry but that seems like it would be easy to make uniform in both parks using a BG system- I would probably write and email or something if I got stuck for long with no compensation.

 

[ironband74]

Regular groups gone at 9:01:00

 

[MommyLove]

Ok, I can share our experience from yesterday, a Wednesday with DL park opening at 9am and early entry over at DCA at 8am.

We arrived at the parking garage at 7:21am. It opens 90 minutes before park opening, so we were sitting in a stopped line of cars that stretched to just inside the covered part of the entrance, waiting for 7:30am. They started taking cars in promptly at 7:30am.

After getting lucky with a line split at the parking garage, we were one of the first cars through and we were directed to Pixar Cars level. There was one line (two tables) for security at first, and then shortly a 2nd line with two tables opened and we were on the tram (the first tram of the morning I believe) by 7:46am.

In the turnstiles line by 7:52am with the Monorail track hitting at about half way the length of the lines. There were short lines over at DCA for early entry there. By 8:02am it appeared to me from where we were standing that the DL lines reached all the way to DCA. By 8:07am they started letting us in at DL, I'm guessing to alleviate the congestion in the esplanade.

We got lucky again by noticing a short line behind a planter and we were inside DL by 8:11am. DH needed some coffee so we got in a short line at Starbucks, then waited for the rope to drop which it finally did at 8:54am.

We went over to the Splash FP machines, not to race to be the first ones there, but... what if the whole app system went down and the only people that would get BGs were the ones using the machines?? Not likely I know, but it was REALLY important to us to cover all the possibilities that we could. So to answer this question:

Where did you pull your BG from?

My DH and I were both in line at the Splash FP machines, him on an iPhone, me with my Galaxy S10, both of us on T-Mobile. (DD didn't end up going with us).

Now, I'd been playing at home (using cellular, not WiFi) and my S10 and every time I had no problems getting the orange Join Boarding Group to light up immediately at park opening. BUT TODAY WAS NOT THAT DAY. We used the second hand on DH's Apple watch, and I was not able to get an orange button, even after clicking on My Status. DH was the one that scored BG 20 for us. We were elated, of course. And with them starting BGs at 8, we had our boarding group called by 10:03am! We were in the queue by 10:07am. And without any slowdowns in the queue or RotR experience, we were off by 10:34am.

Thanks again to those who have shared their experiences and graphs! We had an epic day that started with an incredible morning!

 

[ironband74]

Backups gone at 9:02:00

 

[BigOHawk]

Can't even get a backup BG at 9:02 playing from home!

 

[laugard]

BG 8!!!

 

[BigOHawk]

So does the Thursday EMH theory hold true in that there are just "that" many more people at DL on a Thursday vs. Wednesday, etc?

 

[ironband74]

74 and up are backups. Suggests that they will start at BG 3?

 

[TheyCallMeStacey]

With the crowd in the morning, i want to be sure to be early enough to get through the LONG lines we've been seeing on this thread. Our first park day is next week on Thursday with an opening of 8 and MM at 7. If we get there by 7 should we be ok? Also - is there any note of people being on US Cellular's network. I see a lot for other providers and just don't know what to expect for ours. THANKS TO YOU ALL for this thread and the great information provided!

 

[karenc15]

Can't even get a backup BG at 9:02 playing from home!

Same experience here

 

[Angrose]

BG 28! Sitting on curb in front of train station, iPhone 8, AT&T. CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!

 

[IsleofDisney]

Playing along at work today - seemed like there were no back up boarding groups. Did anyone else experience this?

Also, I noticed when I played along yesterday that if I opened the app at the park opening hour, select Find Out More, the Join Boarding Group button is greyed out. I hit My Status button, select the blue outlined Join a Boarding Group and was greeted by the back up boarding group message. This morning, I opened the app around 8:58am, when 9:00:00 hit the Join Boarding Group on the ROTR landing page was active and would have been able to get a BG if we were in the park.

I have a fairly new Android phone, v10 & was on work WiFi. I'll try again tomorrow with cell data.