With the reopening of Disney’s Hollywood Studios today after an unprecedented closure, Disney has implemented a “new” Rise of the Resistance virtual queue. The more that things change, the more they stay the same. The new virtual queue is a slight departure from the Boarding Group process that we “painstakingly” covered earlier this year. We watched the Boarding Group process evolve over time, going from something that allowed guests to leisurely stroll into Disney’s Hollywood Studios a couple of hours after park opening to something that was essentially a hyper competitive lottery that required families to set alarms for 5am or earlier to even have a chance.

Now, Disney is rolling out what they’ve carefully labeled a virtual queue, after initially announcing that no Walt Disney World attractions would utilize a virtual queue almost a month ago. Perhaps the biggest difference between the new virtual queue and the old Boarding Group system is that now, virtual queues will be distributed at 10am and 2pm (Updated 7/23), as availability allows. This, Disney hopes, will discourage too many guests from arriving right at park open (even though Disney has eliminated rope drop). We’ll have more thoughts on the validity of the claim that guests don’t need to be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios when the park opens in a bit.

We made it out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to check out how to use the new Rise of the Resistance virtual queue, and have a quick rundown of the process below.

To join the virtual queue, click the join button on the home page as seen below.

That will take you to the virtual queue page. If you don’t see the virtual queue “join” button (second image below), the virtual queue isn’t open.

The blue “Join” button will show up when there is availability.

After you click on the join button, you’ll be asked to create a party. Note that you can only add guests to the virtual queue who have entered the park.

From there, you’ll hit the “Join” button as seen above, and you’ll be placed in a boarding group! Make sure you have your push notifications turned on so you’ll get an alert when it’s your turn to ride Rise of the Resistance.

For our experience with the Rise of the Resistance virtual queue, check out our post here.