Rise of the Resistance BOARDING GROUPS Superthread Part 1 *No Ride Spoilers Please* *PLEASE READ POSTS 1-4*

Status
Not open for further replies.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.

I remember how I used to enjoy going to the parks and just enjoying myself with my family with little to no planning at all. We'd go in the off season, we'd sleep in, we'd do whatever. We'd wait in lines because "That's just the way it is." We didn't bother with fastpass and honestly thought it was something you had to pay for.

And we were happy to come back every few years and mosey and meander and just go with the flow.

Then, one fateful year (2010) we decided to bring my in-laws with us during the week between Christmas and New Years.

The first day was the very definition of a rude awakening. We got to the park around 10 to find it pretty packed. It was one of those days where they stopped letting people in around noon. We waited like 45 mintues for Mr. Toad's wild ride. We waited about 50 minutes for Gadget's Go Coaster. We headed over to DCA and waited for a long time to ride the Fun Wheel and then forever to ride California Screamin. And we left the park, battered, confused and disappointed because our experience, quite frankly...sucked.

But, oddly enough, I was not angry at Disney. I decided that the onus was on us to make the most of this vacation. The next two days couldn't go that way for me and my family and my in-laws.

So, back at the hotel, while everyone else slept, I researched. I took notes. I even bought a Ridemax subscription and read all the tips that I could find.

And the next two days were magical.

The thing that is hardest about this BG stuff is that you can do everything "right" and still not get on.

But that can happen with other attractions too. They aren't advertising that HM is down for extended maintenance. I doubt they will advertise that Indy is down for extended maintenance when it goes down later this year. If you didn't look at the web site you might show up to the park and discover that your favorite attraction is unavailable.

Or it might be 101 for the day. It happens.

The also don't advertise that fastpasses are needed to get good viewing for the nighttime spectaculars.

Heck, when I scheduled my trip between Christmas and New Year in like March, I had heard that ROTR was going to be open. It was expected that it would be open before the end of the year. If I hadn't done research, I might have gone to the park expecting it to be open.

But I would have been fine. Because a bad day at DLR is better than a good day most anywhere else.

If that had happened, I would have felt that it was on me, not Disney.

Yeah, it sucks that some people don't get to ride, and that some of those people are kids and there are tears and all that. I remember one trip we kept putting off going on Tarzan's Treehouse, and my then 3 year old really wanted to do it. And by the time we got around to it on our last day, it was dark and it was closed. And boy did he cry. All the joy we had for three days for that moment was just ruined. Did I get angry at Disney for closing it? Or did I tell my son that sometimes things don't go our way and get on with our lives?

There is a lot to do at DLR, Rise or no Rise.
Moral of the story always always goto Tarzan's Treehouse. Thanks for sharing so well written.
 
Obviously the interest on the ride right now are through the roof. This will certainly decline over time, but the ride will be in the top 2-3 most popular rides in both DL & CA Adventure for years.

But I'm beginning to realize that the BG's is more a result of the fact the ride is so unbelievably unreliable, that a day doesn't go by that there isn't at least one significant breakdown. This is the problem. That reliability may not improve over time. It hasn't improved to any great degree in almost 2 months at WDW, or 1 week at DL. I see no way they can stop BG's unless that occurs.

Rocket Rods.
In my opinion, Rocket Rods is a bad analogy.

Rocket Rods was an attempt to use something designed for one thing for something totally different, recapturing existing infrastructure in a misguided attempt to save money rather than build a whole new attraction.

This is an attempt to use cutting edge technology in a brand new space for which expense was really not spared.

DHS has had 50 days of public operation.
DL has had 7.

I suspect that if you compared moving average data for DHS of the first two weeks vs. the last two weeks, you will see that things have improved at least marginally.

If I had to guess for a system of this complexity, you'll start to see real progress after 100 days of operation. I think you'll see something approaching optimal operation after about a year.
 
Last edited:
All three of these parks are predominantly attended by locals, year round.
What is your source for this claim? I am not saying you’re wrong, but when I tried to find data about this I hit a blank. I can see that, due to it’s location, there are more local visitors in Disneyland than there are at Disneyworld, but I didn’t find anything to confirm or deny your claim that there are more local visitors at Disneyland than there are people who travel there. I’m not trying to start a fight, just wondering, because you sound so sure about this.
 
Here's my experience from this past Sunday. We also live approx. 45 minutes away and had never rope dropped before. (I actually specifically checked times as the morning went along so I could report back on the boarding groups thread.)

5:45 - woke up
6:11 - left home
6:57 - arrived at parking structure, which is already busy with cars (ended up parked on Level 5, Finding Nemo)
7:18 - got into security line (lines were long and at this point we were getting nervous and regretting not waking up at 5:30)
7:38 - boarded tram
The one time I forgot to check was when we got in line at the entrance. While the crowd wasn't awful at that point (tram guy had said they were back to DCA earlier), it was still busy and the lines seemed to be moving slowly. We had multiple groups in front of us who had to get their photos taken, or questions, etc. Again, we were really nervous at this point that we might just miss getting in by 8!
7:51 - scanned and in the park, whew! Got BG 74 and while we had a lot of delays, did finally ride. But it was definitely a little too close for comfort for us. Being opening weekend I have no idea how this compares to a usual Sunday, but next time we go and try for ROTR, we plan on leaving a little earlier just to be safe.

Wow, this is such great information! Thank you so much! I will say that you get ready in the morning way faster than I do ;-) I would have totally been sweating it if I didn't get on the tram until 7:38...it's awesome that you still got in and got a BG.

We won't try until next weekend (Super Bowl Sunday?!), so maybe some people will report back as to how this coming weekend goes. Thanks again!
 


Just a quick thank you to all the advice out there! We had one day to make it work, and DANG that 45 seconds to get a spot goes FAST. We got BG76--which I at first thought was a back-up because yesterday's cut-off was 70. It took me about 2 hours to realize the cut-off was 80! (*eye roll at myself* and what a happy moment!) About 55 minutes from walking into the actual queue to walking out the exit.

The guy we met at lunch was really dejected with BG94, I'm so pleased to see he would have made it. :)

Good luck tomorrow and over the weekend, all!
 
It's also been shared that with the SoCal ticket deal they have been checking ids and taking photos, which is holding up the line somewhat.
 


Disneyland has 18M visitors a year and from blogs I've read, a guesstimate is some 25% are locals while the majority or not and the real spenders in hotels/in-park spending.

Disneyland counts visitors by turnstile clicks. On any given day, much more than 25% of the parks guests are southern California locals. Heck, I went to the parks almost 100 times last year. There are over one million annual passholders alone, who visit more than once a year. If each one goes 5 times that's 5M visitors right there. If I park hop, that counts as 2 visitors. The numbers are somewhat misleading.
 
Here at GCH, super stressed about tomorrow as we have to trade our military tickets for regular tickets at the turnstiles. A few quick questions:
I know we need to link our tickets (there are three of us with phones), we all have our own Disneyland app, can we all link our tickets to our individual apps? Or should we try and log in with one account?
Because we haven’t even gotten our tickets yet, part of me is just thinking of heading to DCA for EMH and just doing that and trying for RotR on Saturday during EMH. That’ll give us a day to wrap our heads around everything. I’m torn because I know it’ll be a crapshoot to even get a BG so I wonder if we should just go for it tomorrow? We leave Monday afternoon.
 
What is your source for this claim? I am not saying you’re wrong, but when I tried to find data about this I hit a blank. I can see that, due to it’s location, there are more local visitors in Disneyland than there are at Disneyworld, but I didn’t find anything to confirm or deny your claim that there are more local visitors at Disneyland than there are people who travel there. I’m not trying to start a fight, just wondering, because you sound so sure about this.

As of 5 years ago, Disney was telling cast members taking the traditions course that 80% of Disneyland visitors on any given day are locals, 20% from outside the "southern CA" area, as defined by the zip codes that cover fro Bakersfield down to the southern border.

I don't suspect that statistic has changed all that much. But, Disney has never and will never make the exact information public, so no one knows for sure. I go by the parking lots and the fact that most people who come from out of the area don't use them, yet they are usually almost full. Disneyland has around 25,000 parking spaces.
 
Here at GCH, super stressed about tomorrow as we have to trade our military tickets for regular tickets at the turnstiles. A few quick questions:
I know we need to link our tickets (there are three of us with phones), we all have our own Disneyland app, can we all link our tickets to our individual apps? Or should we try and log in with one account?
Because we haven’t even gotten our tickets yet, part of me is just thinking of heading to DCA for EMH and just doing that and trying for RotR on Saturday during EMH. That’ll give us a day to wrap our heads around everything. I’m torn because I know it’ll be a crapshoot to even get a BG so I wonder if we should just go for it tomorrow? We leave Monday afternoon.

It's not a big deal to convert your tickets. You just go to the gate as usual. Show your military ID and they will print you out the actual tickets and take your pictures. It takes like an extra minute. Once you are in the parks, have everyone open their app and log in and click on add tickets and just take turns scanning them in. This whole process should not take more than 5 minutes. If you go to EMH, that will give you an opportunity to get this stuff done with enough time to exit DCA and enter DL park. Just make sure you leave DCA 20 minutes or so before DL opening time.
 
We live 30 min away and got BG’s on Sat and Sunday. One benefit to leaving at zero-dark-thirty is that there isn’t much traffic!

Saturday (a DL EMH day): arrived Toy Story 6:10 am, in Esplanade at 6:40 am, gates opened to non-EMH guests at 6:45 am, and we were through the gates by 7:15.

On Sunday, we arrived to Toy Story at 6:45 am, gates opened at 7:15 am, and we were in the park around 7:30. We were nervous, but still fine.

So, parking/security/tram took about 30 min each time, and getting into the park took 20-30 min. I’d target a 5:30 departure, to allow a little wiggle room, and time to get in a good service spot and play with the app.

Thank you! I have read that near the Main Street Station has good service, but how did you determine a good service spot? Did you run speed tests on your phone? I'm not sure we'd have time to do all this...the whole process sounds stressful to me tbh. But my 11 year old Star Wars fanatic is dying to ride....
 
Thinking of going to DL late summer or early fall - how many entrances does GE have? Which is the best one to enter? And if we're staying at a place across the street, how early should we be getting to park entrance, based on how things are going now? We've already been to GE in HS and spent extensive time there (already did the sabers, droids, Oga's, RotR, and MF) but would like to see the rest on the west coast. Would obviously try and ride Rise in DL, and MF, so planning on something similar to what we've experienced.
 
Not really true.

Space Mtn: 1600 riders per hour
RSR: 1500 riders per hour
IJA: 1800 riders per hour

RoTR: hard to nail down an exact figure, but I've seen numbers ranging from 1250-2000 per hour

So, under normal operating mode, it's on par with the rest. This myth that it's a low capacity attraction needs to go away. It's only low capacity right now because it doesn't work properly yet.
At max through put ROTR can do about 2100-2200/hr. They won’t get there. Optimal is about 1800/hr.
 
Thinking of going to DL late summer or early fall - how many entrances does GE have? Which is the best one to enter? And if we're staying at a place across the street, how early should we be getting to park entrance, based on how things are going now? We've already been to GE in HS and spent extensive time there (already did the sabers, droids, Oga's, RotR, and MF) but would like to see the rest on the west coast. Would obviously try and ride Rise in DL, and MF, so planning on something similar to what we've experienced.

There are three entrances, two along Big Thunder Trail and one coming form next to the Hungry Bear Restaraunt. Either of the entrances on the trail are the shortest walk from the main entrance. But the one next to Hungry Bear drops you off closer to Rise of the Resistance while the other two are closer to Smuggler's Run.

Not sure about when to get there though.
 
Thinking of going to DL late summer or early fall - how many entrances does GE have? Which is the best one to enter? And if we're staying at a place across the street, how early should we be getting to park entrance, based on how things are going now?...
Given that ROTR has only been open for one week here, it's a bit early to predict all of this now. Keep following this thread and this board for the latest news, especially in the week or two right before your trip dates. That should keep you up to date on the latest tips and strategies at that time.
 
Here at GCH, super stressed about tomorrow as we have to trade our military tickets for regular tickets at the turnstiles. A few quick questions:
I know we need to link our tickets (there are three of us with phones), we all have our own Disneyland app, can we all link our tickets to our individual apps? Or should we try and log in with one account?
Because we haven’t even gotten our tickets yet, part of me is just thinking of heading to DCA for EMH and just doing that and trying for RotR on Saturday during EMH. That’ll give us a day to wrap our heads around everything. I’m torn because I know it’ll be a crapshoot to even get a BG so I wonder if we should just go for it tomorrow? We leave Monday afternoon.

Good morning! if your military tickets have bar codes at the top or the email you have does you can scan it into the app beforehand. Did it last year with the Military Salute tickets. Showed the email and they gave me paper tickets with a barcode matching what I had already entered into the app. Have a great time!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top