I get that. IMHO - The same people who have done RD at DHS to be there at for the 10am drop in the past are going to be the same who wake up at 6:30am. I don’t foresee a significant increase in people overall. The bulk of people going to DHS are already there for the 10am drop. But… we are all just guessing until we get some data. (Or as my DW says - “borrowing trouble”)
(FYI - If you want to quote someone in your reply, just highlight the original text. A “Quote” option will pop up and you can click on that. You won’t have to repost the entire message. Hope that helps!)
Park Reservations are due to Social Distancing measures & capacity. This is done specifically for resort / out of state guests. I’m not a fan of it either, but it’s better than travelling all the way there to wake up and find out you can’t get into the park you want that day. (Imagine how sad your kid would be getting to the gates of MK to be told you have to leave…)
I’m still “Team Stand By” too, but I don’t know what problems this new system will cause. If people start booking DHS & switching it’s going to make DHS less crowded. Plus, it won’t “overcrowd” another park as they have their own reservation caps.
(IMHO - Locals / APs who don’t get a 7am RotR BG will either just not go at all because they know in advance and resort guests will keep the DHS reservations and try at 2pm. Most visitors / vacationers who go to WDW are not as obsessed as us here and won’t think about or try to switch. They just stick with what they already have in place.)
I was wondering about that! Does that mean only 1 person per group can try now or is that just their way of trying to help with confusion? Does this actually apply to those of us on the forum? I mean we ARE pretty knowledgeable and confident in our skills. At least I like to think I am.
I am thinking that HS park reservations are all going to be gone soon because that should be the priority and most are going to book it more days than needed. Then because that is booked so early you May see some other parks fill up their reservations which then starts a ripple effect of more angry people that can’t get into HS or MK because all the passes are gone. Which in turn would mean person does not get BG at HS and tries to change parks and is stuck with one or two options at best.
I would still like to see them limit the number of times anyone can ride to give a better shot to the “once in a blue moon” visitors that have never had the experience.
Maybe something like…
Once in any 14 day period
Twice in any 2 month period
4 times per year
While many people would still book multiple HS days, if they were successful the first day, they would have no need to keep trying for an additional ride so would hopefully switch to another park immediately. And make AP holders be a little more thoughtful about when they want to try.
I know people could work around this by using multiple tickets under similar names, but I think most people wouldn’t go that far.
I understand what you are saying but we rode it twice in January and on our trip a couple weeks ago it was not a must do but we still wanted to ride it again. We have been 3 for 3 on riding it but if I was not allowed the chance to ride it then that does not feel right.
I think the most equitable way to use this ride would be:
Eliminate BG
Load one ride on everyone’s magic band
Scan band when you want to get in the standby line.
This seems to be the most fair. You won’t have people throwing a fit because they did not have a chance. You want to go wait in line for 2 hours then go for it. I on the other hand would be doing most of the park and hoping the ride works well that day and I walk on in the afternoon.
But I will willingly give up a second ride for someone who hasn’t had a chance. (Our family actually did in January when we lucked into a second BG walking into our HS Day 2 at opening and decided to drop them. At least, we hope it went to someone like that.) That feels a lot more right to me than forcing people to “earn it” by standing in a line for hours for no need.
Or, I guess could make BG only for those that have never ridden it and put everyone else on standby? Is that an improvement? It doesn’t feel like it. Just lots more standing in lines. And people would definitely try to circumvent that system.
ETA The ride doesn’t have enough capacity to accommodate everyone at HS on a given day. I guess I’d rather see everyone get a chance once than make people on a once-ever trip to WDW have to spend a large part of a day standing in a line.
This seems like a fairly easy fix for Disney. The overwhelming majority of infrequent or sporadic WDW visitors are going to be longer trips. So all Disney needs to do is allow anyone with at least a 4 or maybe 5 day ticket book their BG in advance.
So if the ride worked well pre pandemic it had the capacity of 1300-1700 an hour. So with HS allowing 11,000 people in a day that would be 8.5 hours of operation. We all know that HS is opening almost an hour earlier most days so if they ran the ride from the beginning they would theoretically be close. I know with Covid restrictions some of that changes and also the ride has never been really reliable.
I mean if Disney wants to get greedy that could just charge for the ride like the local fair. Ha
We’ve tried this in another thread and I think it’s probably impossible to tell, but we came up with an estimate of maybe 50% of park attendance (when limited by COVID) can ride RotR in a given day. But adding capacity (through plastic barriers) they are possibly getting closer to matching demand. Who knows?
Yeah I agree. I’ve been hearing that some people think that they will have even less time to secure the BG. But I really think you will have more time now.
