RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[wdw&sonny]

12:00: BG 55.

 

[goofy Jr. 88]

Following this thread is like a part time job. lol
Thanks to all for posting. The info is helping me prep my family.
We are looking forward to being sleep deprived in Jan. 2020.
"this is the way"

 

[marymoo86]

Gah - had my gameplan all set with the 8am open.

For 7am open - I don't need to be first. Mid-day to early afternoon is fine.

To achieve this and preserve some sleep - would this theoretically work?

Leave Swan at 6am - arrive 615 (rideshare unless boat is at dock)
Bag Check done ~630
Tapstiles ~650
BG in the 50s?

Dress kids (age 6 & 9) in clothes and wake them up at 530 to brush teeth and put on shoes. We can do hair in line

 

[SirBill]

I think maybe you misunderstood what I was trying to say. It’s true that the very first people to actually get to the ride with the first boarding group will have a zero minute wait. BUT those people waited for upwards of 2 hours outside the gate. So best case scenario they waited 2 hours to ride. And a boring wait at that.

I didn't think it was very boring, I spent a lot of it talking to the CM manning the turnstile... it goes by a lot quicker than you would think. With smartphones is it possible to really be bored anywhere anymore?

And that is a best case scenario. There is no guarantee that once you scan in that you’re immediately going to be able to book your boarding group in time to be in the first group called.

Here I disagree. If you are first or second through the turnstile, you'll always be able to get first, or at worst the second group - even with some delay in the app. That happened to me last Saturday, the app delayed a bit and I got second... but if I used the strategy someone just mentioned today, of walking straight over to a CM with an iPad while trying the app along the way over, I am pretty sure being 1st or second through the turnstile would always mean being in the first boarding group. Most people are using phones so the iPad people are not very busy.

If you end up in group 15 or so, then you’re going to be met with the same 30ish minute wait to the preshow that everyone averages throughout the day.

Getting there before 5am each day I never got close to that high a boarding group, for three days in a row. I also never had to wait more than about 10 minutes on my first ride, sometimes walking straight on, sometimes stopping at the equipment rack with the X-wing helmets which is very near where they take you into the briefing room.

Add to that most days so far the ride has broken down in the first hour while loading anywhere from
Group 12-25. That means unless you were one of the very first ones on, you’re now either evacuated and have to come back and wait again or stuck waiting additional time in line.

Yes, which is why it's so incredibly valuable to be first, or at the very least on the ride when it breaks down. Because then at least you'l have had a partial run through the ride and can enjoy it a second time when you come back.

I am by no means saying you shouldn’t line up at 4am. Anything could happen and the earlier the boarding group the better chance you have. I’m just saying everyone should think about what that actually gets them

I don't think 4am is necessary but I do think sometime before 5am is enough to guarantee a front (or very near front) position on the turnstiles, which is all important for getting one of the first boarding groups.

and if it’s actually worth it to them. What it gets you is essentially a ride earlier in the day.

What it gets you is not just an earlier ride, it's a ride with less wait and a much higher chance that you will rude uninterrupted. All of those have a lot of value. I agree people need to evaluate what is important to them, some people simply cannot be there that early. But after multiple days it's pretty clear to me what the value is and what you can obtain, which I have laid out here.

Don't forget some days people had multiple ride attempts through a day that were ended and they never did even get to complete a ride.

Yes, you’ll ride before the people who got there later. But the point of rope dropping the new attractions in the past (other than maybe on opening days) was not to ride it as early as possible. It was to avoid long waits and make sure you get to ride. There is now a much easier way to accomplish those 2 things.

From where I am sitting it does not seem that way, as by chance a later boarding group may never get a complete ride, or have to come back a second day to do so. The virtual BG help a ton in that in-between attempts you have much less standing in line. But the chance of accomplishing a ride in one day drops after the first few boarding groups.

If the ride were 100% stable I would totally agree with your assessment, but too many people are not even getting to complete a ride during a single day visit - if my whole goal of visiting the park was to ride this ride, showing up pre 5am presents as much a guarantee of this as you can possibly have. For some people it may be less important and showing up later is fine, but for someone who is reading this massive thread of posts I have to imagine the desire to actually ride is much more keen than the average park visitor.

Again, I am not telling anyone that has one shot to ride this to take any risks. But I do think there is very little risk involved in arriving at 6:15

Showing up then ensures you are riding sometime after the first breakdown, and at least one of the days from next week onward until after new years I am pretty sure arriving at that time means you will not get a boarding group.

Showing up before 5am is only a bit over an hour difference and then you are riding in the morning, probably four to five hours ahead of someone who arrived at 6:15am - and that is probably best case for the 6:15am people.

Probably sometime later in January arriving at 6:15am will carry no risk, though the ride is so good even then I'm not sure it will die down that much... wait times are still pretty bad for the best rides in any park. I really hope they can increase stability of the ride and open the full capacity soon, which would help tremendously. It could run so many people through It so quickly if it would just operate smoothly... I think it could handle visitor demand if it were running at full tilt.

 

[Disneyepcot]

I have been following this thread and it will help me plan my mid January schedule. Thanks everyone!
Is it possible that some delays are due to additional media groups or celebrities entering the ride. It may not have broken down every time there is a stoppage? If so, hopefully things will settle down a lot after the holidays; for our trips in mid January ; ).

 

[wdw&sonny]

12:30: BG 59.

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

I have been following this thread and it will help me plan my mid January schedule. Thanks everyone!
Is it possible that some delays are due to additional media groups or celebrities entering the ride. It may not have broken down every time there is a stoppage? If so, hopefully things will settle down a lot after the holidays; for our trips in mid January ; ).

I wondered the same thing with all the NPH, etc. sightings - especially a few days ago!

 

[kassonvike]

Does anyone know what full capacity is expected to be? How many guests/hour or day?

 

[Opie100]

Does anyone know what full capacity is expected to be? How many guests/hour or day?

Reportedly 1700 per hour -- also reportedly well short of that now.

 

[Opie100]

To achieve this and preserve some sleep - would this theoretically work?

Leave Swan at 6am - arrive 615 (rideshare unless boat is at dock)
Bag Check done ~630
Tapstiles ~650
BG in the 50s?

There will be considerably more guests coming to the parks for the holiday rush, which will impact outcomes. It would be great to see ride capacity increase concurrently, but it may be too soon for that. So there's no answer other than to keep watching and plan to arrive as early as feasible.

 

[wdw&sonny]

1:00: BG 62.

 

[jcthompson2]

I'm in a similar situation. 12/22-12/26, definitely going to HS on 12/24 (and possibly other mornings during our stay). I'll be watching this thread and other resources carefully to plan, but right now I'm prepping my husband and daughter for a 5am departure from our resort (AKL). No way I'm missing this ride!!

We're staying at AKL too!!

 

[jcthompson2]

If I were you, I would build some flexibility into your trip. Do you have park hoppers? If not, I would plan to visit DHS earlier in your trip and if you are unable to get into a BG on your first visit (and it is that important to you), you could try again on another day.

We do have hoppers, just trying to figure out how it all works. Someone else suggested we'd be able to go to DHS and then use the skyliner to epcot and still use our 9:25 TT fast pass.

 

[disravenlaur]

Plan on going next Wednesday during our week long trip. Hoping to take a Lyft from the Poly at 5am. Anyone have any experiences with Lyft as we have never done this before? Thanks for the great info in this thread, I've been watching this like a hawk trying to get prepared.

 

[wdw&sonny]

1:30: BG 65.

 

[TrolleyTrouble2713]

Vi Moradi is now playing telephone with the folks in the queue...
How long has the morning shutdown lasted previously??

They need to be careful, the queue sounds more fun when the ride is down than when it's up

i personally think I’d rather just plan to get there around 6:30 and follow this thread from the car/parking lot and then just enter whenever they actually open the gates and take whatever BG I get. Should still be somewhere under 50 that close to opening which means you’ll get on that day. I don’t think they’ve come close to that few BGs yet.

Anything could happen, but as long as you get a BG and have the whole day to ride it I think most people would prefer the extra hour and a half of sleep and not waiting shoulder to shoulder with people who didn’t shower.

As long as the line moves smoothly after opening, there's not much incentive to waiting in the throng, unless you really need to be somewhere else in the afternoon. My only full day ticket is for Sunday at HS, not the least of which because of this ride.

Definitely have to keep watching how this develops as I plan for my attempt on the day before the Marathon weekend 10K.

Today is hard to evaluate because I suspect that a lot of the people who arrived at 5 were hoping, if not expecting, that the actual opening would be earlier than 6:30. If it becomes the norm that they open the tapstiles 30 minutes or so before official opening, there might be less incentive to arrive that early. The question for me will be how much you gain by arriving two hours early as opposed to one hour early.

Well, here's a good dataset:

Arrived 5:48
In 6:38
BG 27

Went to a CM with a tablet to have it assigned. We are international and rely on wifi.

Arrive 6:05
In at 6:48
Boarding group 35

Bobby2443 arrived 17 minutes after Jaimetropmickey, entered the park 10 minutes after, and is 8 BGs behind them.

My times for today. Unfortunately arrived later than I hoped for.
Arrived at HS 6:36
Finished bag check 6:42
Tapstiles 7:07
Group 72

Thanks so much for everyone updating this thread as it helped prepare me for this day!

Sarahcar arrived 48 minutes after Jaimetropmickey (and 31 after Bobby2443), entered the park 29 minutes later (and 19 minutes later), and was placed 45 BGs behind (37).

 

[RenTern]

Alright, I need some advice. I'm going to be at Hollywood Studios next Thursday (19th.) I'm staying at Pop and planning to Uber/Lyft to the park, just need some guidance at what time you all recommend I try to arrive.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Bobby2443 arrived 17 minutes after Jaimetropmickey, entered the park 10 minutes after, and is 8 BGs behind them.



Sarahcar arrived 48 minutes after Jaimetropmickey (and 31 after Bobby2443), entered the park 29 minutes later (and 19 minutes later), and was placed 45 BGs behind (37).

This is sounding like a word problem on a math test

If Bobby leaves by car 15 minutes after Jan headed to the bus stop, but Jan just missed the DHS bus, how many boarding groups will Jimmy be behind Jan if the Skyliner is not running?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

This is sounding like a word problem on a math test

If Bobby leaves by car 15 minutes after Jan headed to the bus stop, but Jan just missed the DHS bus, how many boarding groups will Jimmy be behind Jan if the Skyliner is not running?

I was thinking the same thing!! Those math problems have prepared us for this time folks!!

 

[mrsap]

This is sounding like a word problem on a math test

If Bobby leaves by car 15 minutes after Jan headed to the bus stop, but Jan just missed the DHS bus, how many boarding groups will Jimmy be behind Jan if the Skyliner is not running?

I actually laughed out loud!!!! That was great!!!