Well, today’s the day. No, we’re not talking about Election Day in the United States (although that is today!), we’re talking about the day that Disney began to pilot the new Rise of the Resistance boarding group distribution process. Guests who want to ride Rise of the Resistance will now need to get up before 7am to jump on the My Disney Experience app to make a virtual queue “Boarding Group” reservation for Rise of the Resistance.
Disney no longer is requiring guests to be physically inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios to make a reservation, and the new, earlier distribution time is meant to allow guests from within driving distance to know if they will have a reservation for the attraction that day or not before heading out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
So, how did it go this morning? If we were to say that boarding groups lasted twice as long before selling out, that would sound pretty good, right? Unfortunately, we’re talking about the difference between 10 seconds and 20 seconds.
The Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group process is still extremely competitive at 7am and with a significantly lower amount of guests aware of the process. Whereas the average guest previously heard audio reminders playing within Disney’s Hollywood Studios reminding them about the 10am drop, it’s possible that a significant amount of people will show up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today unaware that Boarding Groups were handed out at 7am. So while 20 seconds is definitely nicer than 10 seconds, it likely won’t stay that way once the average guest (who doesn’t read Disney blogs) learns about the new process.
The new process wasn’t without its fair share of glitches either. While the only “glitch” that we experienced was the app not auto-adding guests to the boarding group, others experienced a glitch where the app said that they didn’t have a Disney Park Pass reservation, preventing them from securing a Boarding Group.
Ok, so lets talk about the positives. Guests now know by 7:01am whether or not they want to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While it may sound like a joke, Rise of the Resistance is understandably a large part of any visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and some guests may choose not to visit based on their success (or lack thereof) at 7am. Being able to make a reservation from the comfort of your home or hotel room is a lot better than the stress of trying to time your arrival to Disney’s Hollywood Studios just right to be in the park before the 10am drop. How far away can you be to get a Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group? We have reports from as far as Miami, FL which is some 200+ miles from Disney World. It’s likely that if Disney has a limit on distance, it’s far enough to allow guests to make up to a 3 hour drive or more.
In total, this change doesn’t move the needle in terms of creating a better chance for you to ride Rise of the Resistance, but it does prevent you from “wasting” a Disney Park Pass reservation on Hollywood Studios should you fail to get a Boarding Group and riding the attraction was your reason for visiting.
In a perfect world, we’d see Disney open up the standby queue while park capacity is still limited and allow guests to wait in line like every other attraction at Walt Disney World. In the meantime, at least guests don’t have to wait until 10am to be disappointed.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!