I think Spring latest. FP+ helps Disney sell rooms. They won’t want to delay that longer than necessary.
I’m probably a fan of the BG because I stay off-site (have non-DVC timeshare) and don’t mind getting to the parks for rope drop. So I’m happy they have started this new process today, although do agree the should have given at least a days warning. I don’t mind the variability of when you might ride. I have just built that into my plan so that scheduled activities have a 75-90 minute gap.
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Update -
With BG distribution not starting until the official park open - today’s BG distribution lasted about an hour before running out.
That’s about 30 mins longer than before, but shows that this style of distribution is not stopping people from getting to the park 2+ hours early and waiting for RD
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It’s worth mentioning that even without a splashy new ride people do regularly line up a good 60-90 mins early anyway. I don’t think the 2 hours is too much more extreme.
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Not trying to start a debate, but before RotR you could basically walk into DHS about 30 mins before RD with nominal/ low crowds.
60 - 90 RD waits have been more typical at AK and MK. However, you can almost walk on to FoP this week at RD.
This is the RD at AK yesterday -
This is the RD at DHS
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Agree about not debating. But last month we were at parks close to 60-90 mins early and there were always people before us. I agree people arriving just 30-60 were also likely to have similar benefits as those super early. But if you really wanted front of the rope you were still doing early.
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While there isn’t a benefit anymore to getting to DHS at 4am, it will be interesting when the tide of guests rise if it starts taking longer to get into the park on time for the VQ drop. Today, if you were there at 6:30am wasn’t a prob. But that could change. The counter to that is that we have 6am opens starting 12/26, and I doubt they will have crowds larger at 5:30am than they have now at 6:30am. We’ll see.
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IMHO - it’s gonna be worse. This is the busiest time of the year - more so with Christmas week having two weekends in 2019. (People are arriving today / tomorrow to start their holiday vacations)
With the ride not running more than 50% capacity and BGs gone within an hour after opening people are going to line up as early as DHS will allow - probably 4am to ensure they get a BG to not “spoil” their trip.
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It is the busiest time of the year, for sure. I just doubt 12K people will show up at 5:30am. We’ll see. But at least it sounds like the ride is handling well over 50% capacity at this point. And Initial BGs actually lasted until 8:15 today.
FYI - I did say …
About an hour may be loose language, but I’m not going to debate the exact time. Did they run out at 8:15am or 8:12am or even 8:17am?
Please don’t be one of those people who goes around saying “actually” to try and make yourself sound more authoritative. No disrespect intended. However, was there really any need to try and correct me? We are both Liners and WDW fans and should be united in our fandom.
No sweat. I’m tracking initial BG ending particularly closely because we have members in my family (incl. me) that get ill when rising unusually early so we are hoping to get there as late as possible and still get an initial BG. Good news is that backup BGs are getting called quite a bit, so hopeful that’s a trend that continues!
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IMHO - if you are going anytime soon and they are still doing BGs, you should still be able to arrive at 6 - 6:30am and get a BG. It may not be an early BG time, but you’ll get in. People were reporting arriving to security this morning at 6:40am and getting in a regular BG.
Personally, I think they’ll have standby open & operating after the holidays. (2 - 3 weeks)
EDIT - Update: Back-up BGs lasted until about 11am! So that’s encouraging!!
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For anyone interested:
The ride capacity of RotR is 1,800 people per hour. This means in full operation with no breakdowns it should take in about 23,000 each day.
However, it is only currently hosting about 10K people per day. (This number is reported by Len from Touring Plans and Alicia from the Park Stop Podcast)
This means it is currently operating at approximately 40% capacity.
This will be the last update I do for RotR BGs. The ride has been improving every day, and is already calling Boarding Group 63 as of 11AM (EST). Now, that BGs will not be able to be reserved until scheduled park opening, there’s not much that can be learned from these posts.
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Another way of looking at ride capacity is that they are averaging 10-12 groups per hour, and each group likely has between 125-150 in it. That puts the hourly capacity right now at around 75% of what it is designed to handle at peak.
Was this number from Len as well? I’ve heard numbers thrown around but haven’t seen an official (or credible) source.
I’ve read a 1,700 number so I estimate it to be somewhere in between there.
He says it on Disney Dish episode #247 from Dec 9th. He says he got the number from one of his “unnamed sources”
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Hmm…I saw an article that said 2000+. So, who knows?
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Rounding up maybe? Someone knowledgable on disboards stated that Imagineering claimed it was designed for 1,700 and was at 1,000 on opening day. But you’re right, hard to know for sure. 1,800 has also been an oft cited number for MFSR.
MFSR is 1600 / hr. That one has been confirmed by TP’s statistician Steve Bloom
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