Guests looking to experience Rise of the Resistance via the Single Rider queue should know that the line, once again, skips the pre-show experiences. Disney’s Hollywood Studios has had a bit of a lengthy saga with the Single Rider operations, playing around with a few different routes since introducing the option back in July 2024. We made it out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios earlier today to take a look at the latest operations.
Rise of the Resistance Single Rider Skips Pre-Shows…Again
Walt Disney World first began testing the Single Rider line back in July 2024. In short, operations have returned to what Disney first tested some 6 months ago. Shortly after opening the Single Rider queue, Disney modified the queue operations to take guests on an alternate backstage route, but the new route was even further backstage and broke any semblance of immersion that guests may have had.
In August, the Single Rider queue at Rise of the Resistance was discontinued after what appeared to be a testing period. In September, the Single Rider option returned and was more popular than ever. Word had gotten out that it was a wonderful way to “skip” the line at one of Walt Disney World’s most popular attractions, and we were noticing larger groups of guests entering the Single Rider line, happy to be split up to ride the attraction if that meant skipping the long standby queue.
Starting in October, Walt Disney World changed the Single Rider option again, this time creating the most immersive experience to date. Guests still walked through an unthemed backstage corridor, but they were finally able to experience both pre-show experiences before riding.
Unfortunately, the route through the pre-show experiences was rather short-lived, with the route changing back to the July 2024 route during the holiday season. We hadn’t been on Rise of the Resistance in some time, but we did ride it earlier today when visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and I wanted to provide an update on what you can expect when using the Single Rider option at the attraction right now.
Rise of the Resistance Single Rider (January 2025)
The one consistent throughout the operational changes has been where we start our Single Rider journey – at the entrance to the attraction. Because Rise of the Resistance was not built with a Single Rider queue in mind, the entrance is a little bit hidden. Look for the Cast Members to the right of the attraction’s main entrance for directions to the Single Rider entrance.
This is the actual entrance to the Single Rider queue, a short walk backwards through the attraction’s exit lane. From here, you’ll wind through a few outdoor rock formations before reaching more Cast Members who will direct you where to go next.
Once you reach the next Cast Member, they will be in charge of the Frogger-like choreography whereby guests from the Single Rider queue are smuggled into a backstage hallway right behind the regular guests entering the transport ship pre-show experience.
In short, the Single Rider guests walk behind the group of regular standby queue guests, likely for two reasons. First, you don’t want anyone from the Single Rider group sneaking in with the standby guests, so the groups don’t overlap. Second, and perhaps not even a consideration at all, is that you don’t want to break the immersion of the standby guests when walking a group of Single Riders out from a backstage area.
As you can see in the annotated photo below, the standby guests enter the transport ship to continue their immersive pre-show experience whereas Single Riders head around the corner through a backstage hallway to get to the Star Destroyer hangar room.
Once you get inside this room, more Cast Members meet you here to walk you across the room toward the Single Rider line. As has been the case since the start of the Single Rider offering, Single Riders go down the left side of this hallway, and standby guests use the right lane. Cast Members are present to monitor the lines.
Around the corner, the Single Rider line meets the standby line where Cast Members pull from the Single Rider line as necessary to fill out a full group. Note that if you’re using the Single Rider line with other members of your party, you should absolutely plan on being split up. Cast Members are still trying to fill out full parties via the standby line, using the Single Rider line sparingly which means that they’ll search really, really hard for a party of two from the standby line before pulling two people from the Single Rider line.
If you’re a party of two and looking to ride together without using the standby queue, check out the all-new “Double Rider” line in use at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run nearby!
As has been the case throughout the Single Rider saga, we don’t recommend that you use the Single Rider line for your first or even 8th time riding Rise of the Resistance. You’ll want to make sure that your first few times riding the attraction are via the intended pre-show experiences, which do an excellent job of immersing you in the full attraction experience.
Instead, we’d only recommend the Single Rider line for seasoned guests who have experienced the pre-shows plenty of times and who otherwise might balk at a 60-100 minute wait time and not ride Rise of the Resistance at all.
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!
