READ POST 1 & 2 FIRST-Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Planning and Information-*No Spoilers*

[SouthFayetteFan]

Really seems like maybe the BG sizes are getting smaller, which would explain why they're filling up so quickly again and why they're running through them so much faster early in the day, isn't this the 2nd or 3rd day in a row where they seemed to be calling BGs faster than they had been?

Additionally supporting my claim that they aren't messing with # in a BG is the fact that their pace today suggests that they are only moving through approx. 10 BGs an hour. Maybe they increased the # in a BG today??

 

[dina444444]

Is it down? Been stuck on 60 for a bit, trying to figure out if I should go straight to AK(have FPs) or head to DHS. Group 63 here.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Is it down? Been stuck on 60 for a bit, trying to figure out if I should go straight to AK(have FPs) or head to DHS. Group 63 here.

At 61 now.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

I’m starting to wonder if the early opening is actually making thing worse crowd wise. If you don’t mind getting up early you can get a boarding group at HS every day and still have plenty of time to rope drop a different park each day and keep all your original plans. If HS opened at same time as other parks at least you would have to choose. I also wouldn’t be opposed to limiting VQ rides to one successful ride per week for these extremely popular rides that cannot keep up with attendance, but I’m guessing that would be a very unpopular decision

I, for one, am unhappy they moved my park opening time from 9am to 7am. I want to sleep! Lol.

I was doing the wait til exactly 7 method and hubby was refreshing and he got BG 35 at 6:59:30

Silly question but I've only been there for ROTR once, on opening day - how do you refresh the boarding group thing? I know with fastpasses you change the time...do you kill the app & reopen it? I keep seeing people saying to not even open the app until 7am/park open, or until they do the "Welcome to Hollywood Studios" announcement thing? Or is this just people worrying too much?

We arrived at the parking toll booths at 6:11. Were parked at 6:16. Reached the tapstyles and entered the park at 6:29.
We’re all prepared for opening the app to time for 7:00. They opened boarding groups early. This was our first time in the park so we didn’t realize the announcement meant that groups were open so we waited until 7:00 anyway. Got group 86. Still should mean we ride this afternoon, so I’m fine. Going back to the room for breakfast and a nap.

What happens if your app is open early, since I see a lot of comments about that?

 

[Kricketnp]

It looks like somebody hasn't been reading the chart...

I'm kidding - and I will help you, lol. In recent days, Disney has been handing out less "guaranteed BGs" so they've been going in 2-3 minutes BUT in practice many more people are riding. Since we don't have a handle on what BGs get handed out when, it would purely be a guess but I'd think on most days anybody in the park by 7:10 is getting a chance to ride. (And on some days people arriving at 8am or later are being called back)

Whooooops. Thanks though!

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

It's simple really... Disney was handing out on average 105 regular BGs on the days when they lasted longer. In the past 5 days they've only been handing out an average of 80 regular BGs. That difference of 25 BGs is why they are going to backups faster. BUT this also has no bearing on how many people are actually riding. Disney is attempting to accommodate the max # of people the ride will allow everyday so on this particular point, I wouldn't read too much into that. @yulilin3 has made a ton of comments on this already today basically along these same lines.

I get that they've reduced the number of "regular" BGs so that more of them are labeled as back-ups. It makes sense to have fewer people having an expectation of compensation if they don't get to ride (although they've always clearly stated that none of the BGs are guaranteed a ride, so giving out free tickets was never required, but is an understandable measure to take for guest recovery).

If all 80ish regular BGs are gone in 1-2 minutes, then I would have predicted an additional 25 (or even another 80) would go within another minute. But looking more closely at column 6 of the chart (the time back-up BGs are all gone), it appears that those 25+ back-up BGs are still lasting another 15-20 minutes before they're all gone.

So would that indicate that there are, on average, only around 80ish people in the park at RD feverishly trying to get a BG and after that initial mad rush, folks who are still just entering the park for the next 15 minutes or so are "leisurely" obtaining those back-up BGs (previously would have been regular BGs) as they enter? Otherwise, if there were 100+ people all trying to get BGs precisely at RD, I would expect all 100 (regular + backup BGs) to be gone within 2-3 minutes rather than the back-ups lasting so much longer. Does that make sense? That scenario seems unlikely to me, but I'm trying to fathom how else the back-up BGs would last that much longer.

If that pattern continues, it definitely reduces the stress of worrying that you HAVE to get one at lightning speed or else you're out of luck (still preferred to get one quickly, of course, given that the higher your number, the more chance they don't get to you for one reason or another).

Unless you're there on a crappy day like 1/77 or 1/22! Then all bets are off, it seems.

 

[ninafeliz]

Hey, everyone. Word of advice here. Don't get mad in advance!! You have no idea what's going to happen the day you go. Be prepared. Follow this thread. That's all you can do. RotR is a very complex bunch of stuff (that's the technical, nonspoiler term!) and it's still not working 100% of the time. In fact, I don't think there's any ride at WDW that runs 100% of the time.

You can have a FP+ for whatever and that ride may not be working when you get there and that was the only time you had to ride it. Even if they give you an anytime FP+ as compensation, it doesn't matter, because your chance to ride whatever it was is gone. This happens. It stinks, but it happens.

Want to ride the railroad? Too bad. It's closed until Tron construction is finished. I'm not amused by this at all, but I can't make them change things.

Approach this whole RotR BG situation with the attitude that you will get a BG. OK, so maybe you won't. Maybe something will happen and the ride will be down all day and no one will ride or your app won't work or you'll be the first backup BG that doesn't get to ride. But don't start thinking negative stuff now. It's not helpful. To you.

I have spoken.

Haha I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this was aimed at me ! Of course that’s the attitude to have and the way to look at this! I am so jealous of those of you who truly are that laid back and go with the flow, and don’t worry about possibilities, variations, worst cases, etc. I would love it if I could change my personality at this stage in the game, but I think that’s a losing battle . Maybe it will do me good to have it told to me periodically, though, to try to keep things in perspective! I will try, I swear. Although following sites like this aren’t conducive to that lol!

 

[dina444444]

At 61 now.

Yeah. I got my push notification at 11:35. Walking back into the park now lol

 

[yulilin3]

Haha I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this was aimed at me ! Of course that’s the attitude to have and the way to look at this! I am so jealous of those of you who truly are that laid back and go with the flow, and don’t worry about possibilities, variations, worst cases, etc. I would love it if I could change my personality at this stage in the game, but I think that’s a losing battle . Maybe it will do me good to have it told to me periodically, though, to try to keep things in perspective! I will try, I swear. Although following sites like this aren’t conducive to that lol!

in the wise words of Master Yoda

 

[pseudoswede]

I get that they've reduced the number of "regular" BGs so that more of them are labeled as back-ups. It makes sense to have fewer people having an expectation of compensation if they don't get to ride (although they've always clearly stated that none of the BGs are guaranteed a ride, so giving out free tickets was never required, but is an understandable measure to take for guest recovery).

If all 80ish regular BGs are gone in 1-2 minutes, then I would have predicted an additional 25 (or even another 80) would go within another minute. But looking more closely at column 6 of the chart (the time back-up BGs are all gone), it appears that those 25+ back-up BGs are still lasting another 15-20 minutes before they're all gone.

So would that indicate that there are, on average, only around 80ish people in the park at RD feverishly trying to get a BG and after that initial mad rush, folks who are still just entering the park for the next 15 minutes or so are "leisurely" obtaining those back-up BGs (previously would have been regular BGs) as they enter? Otherwise, if there were 100+ people all trying to get them precisely at RD, I would expect all 100 (regular + backup BGs) to be gone within 2-3 minutes rather than the back-ups lasting so much longer. Does that make sense? That scenario seems unlikely to me, but I'm trying to fathom how else the back-up BGs would last that much longer.

If that pattern continues, it definitely reduces stress of worrying that you HAVE to get one at lightning speed (still preferred of course, given that the higher your number, the more chance they don't get to you for one reason or another) or else you're out of luck. Unless you're there on a crappy day like 1/77 or 1/22!

You are absolutely correct in your reasoning. Let's just assume that there are 100 people per boarding group. If there are 9000 people tapped in by park opening, and all 9000 people are trying to get a boarding group, that means the first 90 boarding groups (80 regular and 10 backup) will be filled very quickly. Then there might be another 1000 people (10 boarding groups) parking their cars, getting out of Ubers, getting off a bus, waiting at bag check, waiting at the ticket booth, and waiting at the tapstiles also wanting to get a boarding group. The next 10 backup groups will be filled as those 1000 people eventually tap into the park. Then there are another 1000 people on a bus, in an Uber, walking from a nearby hotel, driving from elsewhere, or waiting to pay for parking. Eventually, they will tap through and get a boarding group.

If we are to use the 100 people per BG metric, then that also means January 3 was the absolute busiest day so far, with at least 15,999 people inside the park within the first five minutes of park opening (we had friends inside before opening, and they got BG 159 because their app crashed right at 7am).

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I am so jealous of those of you who truly are that laid back and go with the flow, and don’t worry about possibilities, variations, worst cases, etc. I would love it if I could change my personality at this stage in the game, but I think that’s a losing battle .

I definitely don't consider myself "laid back" but I have gotten better at going with the flow. The older I've gotten, the easier it is for me to deal with things not going according to plan, and being flexible, and tossing the plan aside on the fly. But I still do a lot of planning.

I like the phrase, "plan for the worst and hope for the best." I don't view anticipating what can go wrong as someone being negative or pessimistic, per se. Taking the time to consider potential hurdles can often allow you to avoid those pitfalls from actually occurring.

But then there are things that are just out of our hands (I'm looking at you, ROTR!), and all I can do is come up with the best strategy possible for success and then try not be too disappointed if it doesn't go my way.

 

[dina444444]

In line now. Line is in the outside queue but just barely. However it hasn’t moved at all since I got in line a couple minutes ago.

 

[pseudoswede]

I definitely don't consider myself "laid back" but I have gotten better at going with the flow. The older I've gotten, the easier it is for me to deal with things not going according to plan, and being flexible, and tossing the plan aside on the fly. But I still do a lot of planning.

I like the phrase, "plan for the worst and hope for the best." I don't view anticipating what can go wrong as someone being negative or pessimistic, per se. Taking the time to consider potential hurdles can often allow you to avoid those pitfalls from actually occurring.

But then there are things that are just out of our hands (I'm looking at you, ROTR!), and all I can do is come up with the best strategy possible for success and then try not be too disappointed if it doesn't go my way.

It probably was easier for me since I have two teenagers. I basically told them the day before that RotR is super popular, boarding groups are could be extremely difficult to get, I will do my very best to try to get a boarding group, and, even if we get one, the ride could break down and we won't be able to ride. Like I said many many many pages ago, we truly lucked out with BG 14 and a fully-operational ride on January 3; regardless, even if we hadn't gotten a BG, we still had a very fun day.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

You are absolutely correct in your reasoning. Let's just assume that there are 100 people per boarding group. If there are 9000 people tapped in by park opening, and all 9000 people are trying to get a boarding group, that means the first 90 boarding groups (80 regular and 10 backup) will be filled very quickly. Then there might be another 1000 people (10 boarding groups) parking their cars, getting out of Ubers, getting off a bus, waiting at bag check, waiting at the ticket booth, and waiting at the tapstiles also wanting to get a boarding group. The next 10 backup groups will be filled as those 1000 people eventually tap into the park. Then there are another 1000 people on a bus, in an Uber, walking from a nearby hotel, driving from elsewhere, or waiting to pay for parking. Eventually, they will tap through and get a boarding group.

If we are to use the 100 people per BG metric, then that also means January 3 was the absolute busiest day so far, with at least 15,999 people inside the park within the first five minutes of park opening (we had friends inside before opening, and they got BG 159 because their app crashed right at 7am).

Cool. That's definitely encouraging as long as you arrive early and get into the park prior to RD.

The thing I didn't take into account in the way I described my thinking (which is why it seemed far-fetched), was that each BG equals an estimated 100 people. So, if each party is 4 people on average, that would mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 parties per BG, so maybe around 2500 parties in those 100 BGs (or 9,000-10,000 total people). Of course, the total number of riders is all that really matters, not the size of individual families within those BGs.

Describing it that way is a much more realistic illustration than how I was envisioning only 100 families in the park at RD! But wouldn't THAT be nice?!?!?!?!?

 

[blobberhead]

Boarding Group 56-73! Making good progress towards 99!

 

[MargeGriff]

We have been reading and studying this board since ROTR went live. Had a sinking thought yesterday when Disney added MFSR to the Fastpass tier one selections. My thought was this: what if all this prepping (reading, studying, worrying) leads to nothing if they offer FP+ for ROTR and discard the BG's altogether when my family gets there!!! ARRGH! Looking for comfort here....anyone?

 

[Miffy]

We have been reading and studying this board since ROTR went live. Had a sinking thought yesterday when Disney added MFSR to the Fastpass tier one selections. My thought was this: what if all this prepping (reading, studying, worrying) leads to nothing if they offer FP+ for ROTR and discard the BG's altogether when my family gets there!!! ARRGH! Looking for comfort here....anyone?

Well, you got daily doses of The Chart! Pure entertainment. And it's free.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Haha I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this was aimed at me ! Of course that’s the attitude to have and the way to look at this! I am so jealous of those of you who truly are that laid back and go with the flow, and don’t worry about possibilities, variations, worst cases, etc. I would love it if I could change my personality at this stage in the game, but I think that’s a losing battle . Maybe it will do me good to have it told to me periodically, though, to try to keep things in perspective! I will try, I swear. Although following sites like this aren’t conducive to that lol!

well, if it makes you feel better you are not alone! With all the planning and money that goes into a trip, while I know I will have a great time no matter what, I would still like to do all I can to maximize what I get out of said trip - so little changes like this do add some stress as it feels like something else out of my control/something I can plan for

I will say, at least for me it is more "stress or worry" than being "mad" .... but I worry and stress about all sorts of logisticy type things and this feels like a level 11/planning a land war in Asia complexity


Just one thing to add, and what helped for me, was to practice at home, watching as it got to 7am (or just seconds before) opening the app, clicking on "find out more" seeing if "join boarding group" was red or not, refreshing or back out and going back in to see - and then hitting it when I see it red, adding my family memebers and seeing all of that happening and the clock is still on 7:00 make me feel MUCH better about the process at least. Doesn't mean I won't stress day of, but it definitely helped ease my mind about that element (for now)

 

[dina444444]

And I’m off. Got off a little before 1. Took just under an hour all in.

 

[MargeGriff]

Well, you got daily doses of The Chart! Pure entertainment. And it's free.

Very true, very true.