Will guests ever be able to just get in line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? It’s the first of many questions that we will pose throughout this article as we explore how Imagineering’s most ambitious attraction ever is also one of Disney World’s biggest problems.

Billed as something “unlike you’ve ever experienced at Walt Disney World”, Rise of the Resistance is a roughly 30 minute experience that combines multiple ride systems and massive sets that put you right in the middle of the Star Wars action. In our opinion, it’s worth every bit of hype that it has received. The attraction is truly an “experience” with various Cast Member roles that live up to the parlance by allowing the employees to actually put on a show as they move you from scene to scene. Massive sets are smoothly navigated by a trackless vehicle as part of the third act of the attraction. Imagineering has taken everything they’ve learned since they were founded in 1952 and applied it all to Rise of the Resistance.

While the attraction is, without a doubt, one of Disney’s crowning achievements, their operations of the attraction is not. Enter: the virtual queue.

Boarding Groups

When the attraction first opened, it seems like every other article we wrote was about a change in the boarding group procedures or tips on how you can secure a boarding group to be able to ride. At first, it was simple – wake up at 4am and put in your time before the sun came up to make sure you were through the gates first and had a boarding group. Of course, it was simple for early birds, but families with children were often left out of the process completely if they weren’t able to get to the park before it officially opened. So, Disney changed that.

Instead of a first come, first served system, Disney moved to a scheduled boarding group opening window. They allowed guests to fill into the park before the official park opening time and then would open the boarding group window at park open. We wrote an entire piece on what that looked like on the day it changed. Back then, we didn’t like the change because it was the only “rope drop” experience at Disney World that didn’t value your time. As a matter of fact, the entire Hollywood Studios experience was so taxing on the average guest that we suggested that families visiting Disney World skip Disney’s Hollywood Studios entirely.

Today, after Disney World reopened from an unprecedented closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney has a similar virtual queue system in place where the boarding group selection window opens at a specific time. Disney did tweak the system to allow for two boarding group selection windows in case guests missed the first window. As always, guests are limited to one ride per day.

At this point, 9 months after the attraction first opened, guests are still having to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios before the park officially opens to even have a chance at getting a Rise of the Resistance boarding group. Thankfully, there is a 2pm window if you miss the 10am window, but the experience is still the same – boarding groups are distributed in seconds. Is this the guest experience that Disney wants for the flagship attraction at Walt Disney World?

The Runaway Solution

To understand the Rise of the Resistance situation as it is today, we need to go back to before the attraction opened in December 2019. We have to go back to April 2019 and a rumor that we exclusively shared here on BlogMickey.com – that Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway would be delayed into 2020. Days after we shared the rumor, Disney confirmed that Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway would miss the previously announced Fall 2019 opening date and not open until Spring 2020.

Back in Spring 2019 (and earlier), the thought was that Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway would act as a distraction of sorts for guests wanting to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. By putting a Mickey-themed attraction at the center of your theme park, it should help disperse crowds enough to make wait times for Rise of the Resistance somewhat reasonable.

As a matter of fact, Disney’s Hollywood Studios had seen a massive overhaul to create a more balanced experience – Toy Story Land would be a winner for kids and young families, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would be a huge draw for young adults and fans clamoring for more Star Wars content, and Tower of Terror and Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster would be classics that would always demand an hour wait. All that said, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway was supposed to be the solution, a cherry on top to turn Hollywood Studios into a full-day park, if not a multi-day park.

Disney has opened everything. Toy Story Land is a hit, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is performing well, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is pulling the longest wait times at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney doesn’t have any more tricks up its sleeves at Hollywood Studios, but the boarding group system remains in place. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for the Rise of the Resistance virtual queue?

Will We Ever See Standby?

We’re now a month past the reopening of Disney’s Hollywood Studios following an unprecedented closure for COVID-19. As part of their phased reopening plan, Disney is limiting the amount of guests that can enter a theme park via the Disney Park Pass reservation system. That means that no Disney World theme park is operating at 100% capacity right now. Based on wait times and crowd levels, each park is likely operating at, or in some cases well below, 30% of normal capacity levels.

With such a tight grasp on the amount of people who are even able to enter the park per day, it was surprising to us that Disney didn’t take this time to at least test a standby line. As a matter of fact, Disney even announced to Cast Members that they wouldn’t be using a virtual queue system for any attractions when the parks reopened. Of course, that didn’t turn out to be the case in the end, but it almost seemed like a no-brainer. That is, until we saw the lines at the Cast Member preview.

During the Cast preview of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rise of the Resistance was standby only, prompting a two to four hour wait throughout the day. Would we see similar waits if Disney were to open the standby queue to the general public? Maybe. Keep in mind that this was pretty much the only opportunity for Cast Members to ride the attraction in 2020. Demand for the attraction was extremely high, and maybe even artificially so given the fact that Cast have been blocked out from visiting since it opened in December 2019.

It’s likely that guest demand will be extremely high for Rise of the Resistance should a standby line be allowed. Guests will likely head there for their first ride of the day and wait times will be high at park opening. That said, Disney has effectively eliminated rope drop thanks to new park opening procedures, which would likely lead to a better “rope drop” experience than if Disney would have tested a standby line earlier this year. There are still crowds at park opening though, as evidenced by the lines that build at Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Having another headliner attraction would likely spread those crowds out a bit more evenly.

A Matter of Reliability?

Perhaps one of the reasons that Disney isn’t able to open the Rise of the Resistance standby line is because of the frequency in which the ride breaks down. Earlier this year, we asked the question: how often does Rise of the Resistance break down?

The answer back in February was an average of 3.6 breakdowns per day. Since then, the attraction has become slightly more reliable, but it will still break down periodically throughout the day. With an attraction this complex, it understandably takes some time to get it working again when it breaks down. When there is a breakdown, there is the question of how does operations handle it? Do they dump the queue? Do they make guests wait out the 30-60 minute reset for the attraction? Unfortunately, it seems like reliability might be the biggest factor holding Rise of the Resistance back from implementing a traditional standby queue.

The Worst Guest Experience at Disney World

Ultimately, we’ve arrived at the conclusion that Rise of the Resistance is the worst guest experience at Disney World (that happens on a daily basis). Not the ride itself, of course, but the experience of trying to secure a boarding group. There is a non-zero number of guests who try and fail to get a boarding group at both 10am and 2pm. With a park entry system that requires an extremely hard-to-get reservation to even enter the park, and the elimination of the ability to park hop, there are so many barriers to even getting the chance to be let down by the boarding group system.

It is not uncommon to see guests lining up by the dozens at the Guest Experience Team stands after the 10am or 2pm drop to complain about app issues, or worse, to ask how they can enter a boarding group.

So, as we look to the future, we once again ask: Will guests ever be able to just get in line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? As of right now, Disney hasn’t announced any plans to get rid of the virtual queue, even going as far as introducing new features to the My Disney Experience app to try and make securing a boarding group less of a headache.

With record low crowd levels and unprecedented control over the amount of guests that can enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we think now is as good a time as ever to try out a Rise of the Resistance standby line.

We want to hear from you! What has your experience been with Rise of the Resistance boarding groups? Do you agree that now would be a great time to try an implement a standby line? Head over to our Facebook page to let us know or leave us a comment below!