Thanksgiving for 10 days, ROTR (No Spoilers)

jerseyduke

Home is just where you stay when not at WDW
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Just returned from FL after being down there 10 days.

A few comments/observations:

The Crowd levels for T-Day and the days to follow were in line with what I expected based on previous experience. They were high, but not crazy high considering it was a Holiday weekend.

I started my stay at Grand Destino Tower, which I thought was great. While it was a little modern for my taste, it really was very nicely done. And considering it is a "moderate", I have to say it was awesome.
The room there was nicer than my room at my home resort for this trip, Boulder Ridge. It made me realize how awful the studios at BR are. I am ok with it since I am almost never in the room, and i chose BR because of the resort as a whole, not the rooms. That being said, when people talk about the newer resorts being point hungry, I think it is just. The bathroom in a BR studio is a closet. Its literally like a value bathroom. Go over to the Grand Floridian and the Poly, with the spit bathrooms - There is no way those studios should be the same as BR studios - so there being point hungry seems fine to me.

The crowds: I go same time every year, either the first or second week of December. This year the crowd was well beyond what it has been in the previous 5 years. I hope it had a lot to do with ROTR.

ROTR (No spoilers):

Love the virtual queue. The 2nd time I experienced it I was over in AK when I got the notification. Slipped on another attraction then went back to HS.
Hated the communication. The first time I experienced it (Friday the 6th) I got assigned a boarding group. Got the call around 7:15 or so. Since they had let people in early they opened Toy Story land. The early opening was unannounced, so it was a great time in TS land with very short lines, so I took advantage and headed over to ROTR about 8:15. I get there only to be told "There are not currently boarding any more passengers". What is this now? Your boarding pass is good for 2 hours after it is called. On the MDE app it says a Boarding Pass does NOT guarantee you will get on. So here I am thinking, if hour 2 expires and they do not do any more boarding, I guess I don't get on? ***?

What really happened was this - the attraction was down - and this is why no one was boarding. Not one CM could tell me that, and that I had nothing to worry about, that my 2 hour window would be extended. I thought the attraction got too crowded or something. But they had to do everything in Batuu code. It made it confusing. I was left thinking I got to the park at 6 am, and because I didnt run to ROTR the moment my boarding group was called, I might not get on. I was pretty annoyed, and needlessly so.

They never officially announced the early park openings, and they probably should have. A lot of people got to the park at 9 (official opening time) only to find out the boarding passes were all long gone, and those people were upset. I got there at 6 am Friday morning and the crowd filled in area between the magic band touch points and the ticket windows - Not too bad. Got there again at 6 am Saturday morning and there was double the number of people there. I figured weekend = more locals, but I was actually parked closer to the gates, so no idea there. I think they have to say parking lot opens at 5:30 and gates at 6 or something like that. IDK. I think Disney has a challenge, I am not sure of the ride's daily capacity, but it may not be enough, and people may be lining up long before official park opening for months to come, but who knows.

Anyway, point being, if you are going down in the near future and ROTR is on your wish list, get to HS hours before it opens.
 
I went same time frame but decided that I would not venture into star wars land as I have no desire to wait for anything over 50 minutes. I will be back and will ride when the newness has worn off or they start giving fast passes for it. I too felt the big surge in crowds during this time. It didn't affect me as I made fast passes for rides I wanted and dinner reservations were made in advance. It did make for uncomfortable closeness walking in parks which stopped me from enjoying the ambience. I'm thinking of changing my vacation time as I hate hordes of people. My family went to universal for the day, buying front of the line passes and said the park was empty compared to WDW. Had a great time but in future will plan more offsite as well
 
I’m going in January but I think I’ll wait for my June trip to try for ROTR though I hear nothing but good things completely opposite of Falcons Run which seems to mostly be disliked. Though I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing experience about the boarding group system should definitely help for when I do try. Especially if I do decide to try on the January trip.
 
I got BG 24 on Tuesday 12/11 ... arrived at 6:15 am and the park opened at 6:30. My BG opened at 7:30am and I was on and through the ride by 8:30am. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Would suggest people follow the threads on the forum that talk about people’s boarding experiences and park opening times. Helped a lot.
 



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