Me too, and I have only been home for 3 weeks. 
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I know people aren’t liking the whole filling the BGs before opening, but the more I think about it the more I think Disney handled it right. (Maybe)
- If a billion folks show up at 3:00 am, but Disney doesn’t let them into the park before 9:00, then when 9:00 comes the first half billion get the BG still as they would have either way.
- By granting the early risers entry first thing, it gives time for Disney to provide signage/indication right away that ROTR is full for the day. This means those who planned on HS for that day just to ride it can try a different park instead (particularly if they don’t have park hoppers).
- Those who planned to arrive for RD had no chance of getting into a BG either way.
Now, I said maybe because I still think it was a bad idea for Disney to open the ride before it was ready…but they had promised a date that folks were now planning on, which left them in a tough spot.
I am beginning to doubt our eventual ability to ride it in May though. Our plan was to arrive to the park in the afternoon and get in a line and wait. But if they continue the BG concept, that means we would have to get there super early on a day we had planned to stay until closing. We shall see!
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Exactly this!
If enough people are showing up before park opening to completely fill the ride for the day, it doesn’t matter if Disney let’s them and enjoy their day in or make everyone stand in line at the tapstils, those who arrive at park opening won’t get to go anyway. One could argue that if Disney made waiting before the park opens really uncomfortable, maybe less people would be willing to do it, and that they are making it to comfortable right now. I don’t believe that making people who arrived too early suffer a little bit would actually solve the problem, even if less people go, I think there would still be enough people there to fill the ride for the day, and I don’t think that they would deserve it more if they stayed 3 hours standing in a crowd doing nothing.
They could only start distributing BG at 9am, but this would mean giving up a couple of hours of ride capacity, and also would create a lottery at 9am with everyone trying at the same time and getting a BG or not at random, and also a random time. It could be better, but I don’t think MDE could handle it.
Another thing they could do was making lining up for RotR as uncomfortable as possible, so that not as many people are willing to try it. For me that is also not a better solution.
I have been trying to come up with ways in which Disney could have handle this better, and, giving the current ride reliability, I couldn’t. Having an official park opening of 6am for everyone, or having EEMH would have worked if they could trust the ride to be operating, but they don’t seem to be able to do that due to ride limitations.
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This might be too much to ask, but when you get back, would you consider uploading your photos to an album on Imgur or Dropbox or something? I love looking at them but it’s hard to binge on them using the forum on mobile!
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Exactly.
And from a mob scene/safety standpoint - letting them in and managing how the crowd proceeds makes a lot of sense too. And letting the rides start earlier also ultimately means the ride has more potential hours of operation —- if it worked all the time that would be more riders overall.
No.
It should be staggered. I’m working off of 3 hours sleep and even I figured this out. Or They should not allow people in excessively prior to posted park opening. Choose one.
If keeping with the current model:
Three groups. 1/3 PPO, allowing people into land to and fill up as we’ve seen so far. Once filled “all bgs filled. Please check Back later” If they do work through all BGs early, extend as needed.
2/3: 10 minutes after park opening(just to make it weird). New group BGs released. Any ride failure redemptions honored from morning group.
3/3 final and rest of BGs released. Around 2pm. And final ride redemptions honored.
This will also remove those who early boarded, and then immediately refiled for boarding, from the pool. (which was happening a lot yesterday until they all went away at 9).
As far as Non park hoppers getting screwed: tough. Don’t gamble an entire day on a single ride.
I’m here at 2 hours before posted park open and its already got a boarding for afternoon.
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I might! Sure!
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Yes.
I do agree with this point. They should have prevented double rides for now. They can do that no matter which way they handle things.
That wasn’t really what I meant. Only that if someone has 5 days, non park hoppers, they would like to know before entering the park they have no chance and can put off the park to a later day. If they don’t know until they enter, then they likely are out of luck for the entire trip. In the end, they still might not get to ride…but at least they can make a more informed decision before entering the park.
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That wasn’t my point. They should absolutely be allowing that. You’re ok with being told you can only ride the ride once a day, even when there’s availability? My way doesn’t necessarily prevent it should the BGs not be filled in the staggered. I’m here early, and if I am able to get through a quick ride and get another party before they’re filled, I absolutely should be allowed to do so.
If someone restricted me to a single Falcon ride back on the day In September when I rode it like 6 times in a row because people weren’t taking the right line, I’d be livid.
And as far as the “informed decision” they have as much chance as anyone with the staggered release.
I don’t think MDE could handle a staggered release. If they announce “BG distribution is paused for now, check back later” a lot of people would just stay on their phones refreshing, and as soon as it is out it would be a lottery of who clicks first. More people would try to go and fail (because right now they have signs letting people now there are no BGs before they enter the park, and even at the skyliner). It would feel more fair.
Maybe just a plain lottery would be better? Everyone that wants gets a boarding group, only some of those are randomly selected?
I don’t understand your point then.
But let be back up. I was speaking to the criticism on Disney handled things, not suggesting there are not other ways to hand things now that we have hindsight.
I am saying why I think Disney’s handling makes sense based on the info they had and have.
When SWGE opened, they feared large crowds and implemented the BG concept. But crowds were underwhelming and they opened the land up by evening to everyone. So there was no data to go by for filling to capacity.
So, Disney decides to do the same thing for ROTR based on this. But on day 1, they fill all timeslots and then some. This is a new scenario. So next day they decide to allow early arrivers to start through the gates early. This was a wise decision on their part based on what they had seen. And this is why I wanted to post why I think Disney handled things well.
Going forward, they can tweak things more with this new data, potentially doing so of the things you suggested. But you were able to suggest them based on the experience of how it played out.
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Yes and no. They can have a SB line. But only one BG per person per day until the initial chaos dies down.
Disney should have done what they did in California when SWGE opened. All people staying on property that night get a randomly allocated boarding pass for that day. This could go on for a month or more and be called a soft opening. With an official opening in January. If you don’t use your boarding pass in time, sucks to be you. If all boarding groups have been called the ride opens for standby. Or it closes for maintenance.
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Boarding starts at 10am to give them time to do maintenance and whatever.
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What’s for breakfast today?
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Bagel. And now nap. Cause there’s a dah tonight and a PPO (I think, need to check yet again) breakfast tomorrow. 
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Can’t blame you for a nap, there is no way in hell I would have made it thru MVMCP last night. We are going to try RofR again this afternoon using our fastpass. We had an early morning with the Sense of Africa tour which was awesome by the way.
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That is what I was thinking too. I am hoping that this is what they implement when RotR opens at DLR in January.
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Ugh, after a quick nap. I made a grave error: I packed.
Now I am sad. But at least I won’t have to waste time tonight doing it. So wooo
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