Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Data

My experience today (Sunday 2/2): Arrived at security at 6:15, through everything and checked in by 6:35.

As soon as my second hand ticked over to 7, hit “My Status” and option to join BG was immediately available. Got BG 2! Single rider, guessing that helped. People next to me got 56, guy next to him got 75, poor woman in front of me was just mashing the Join Boarding Group button instead of My Status, by the time I noticed and told her it was too late :confused:

Was in the initial rush for Smugglers Run but they called group 2 at 7:19 so I headed over, finished the ride by 7:45, no hiccups/delays. Thanks to everyone in this thread for offering their advice!

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Y’all - I did everything right except one thing and wound up with BBG 94. :frowning: We arrived at HS this morning around 6:10, got into the park with no problem, got coffee and situated ourselves on a bench. I opened the app to make sure it captured that we were there and then closed it back down. Right at 7:00:00, I opened the app and walked through the steps I had practiced over and over at home - “Find out more” - and then got stuck. It wouldn’t give either option on the next screen - neither “My status” or “Join Boarding Group”. I closed out the app and tried again about 3 times. I finally figured out too late that I was fighting for cell data with the other people there and the page just hadn’t loaded yet when I would close it out and try again. I finally used my patience and allowed it to load. By then, I got into the BBG.

Lesson learned. We’re going to try again tomorrow.

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Which cellular company do you have?

One word of advice, you want to be already on the page that has the My Status button before 7, then when it ticks over to 7 hit My Status.

Such a bummer to be there that early and get a BBG, you never know, maybe you’ll get to ride today :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:. One question though, how was using data making it worse for you? Everything I’ve read seems to be the opposite, use data vs WiFi.

I added “Boarding Groups per Hour.” This is the daily average rate Boarding Groups are called per hour.


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Same data since 1/1/2020 (All days opened at 7am)

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I know there are a lot of unknowns, but what is the importance of the time the BBG closes if we don’t know how many BBG are given out or what percentage of BBG are called on a typical day? I mean, in theory, they could give out 2000 and close BBG at noon or give out 141 and close BBG at 7:21 and if they only call 140 groups either way, the BBG end time is irrelevant. Data is always good and I am loving this thread but I just wondered if I am missing something. Do you speculate that Disney is giving out just enough BBG to fill capacity in a best-case scenario day (using the switch to BBG to account for possible breakdown time as they compensate only those with BG that don’t get to ride)? Or are they giving out way too many BBG just to keep people happy from a PR standpoint?

I speculate that they are giving out just enough BBGs to get through if everything goes smoothly. I’ve seen lots of reports of people getting a BBG relatively close to the time they stop issuing them and still getting to ride or almost getting to ride, so I’m pretty sure they’re not issuing an insane amount of BBGs.

So the BBG close time is relevant but I would try to not cut it close for contingencies. Definitely be at the park before it opens if you want a guaranteed group. But don’t be disheartened if you don’t make it in time for whatever reason.

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That is very relevant info. Thanks. My next trip is much later this year, but I’m very interested in park operations data just for the fun of it :slight_smile:

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I’m scared for March given these crowd levels have been so low.

My husband did not love being woken up at 7 today (his sleep-in day) for “Boarding Group Boot Camp”, but this is a team effort, right? :grimacing:

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Crowd level is not correlated with getting a boarding group. You might just have to arrive a bit earlier to guarantee you are in the park before it opens. Hopefully by March, the ride capacity has increased.

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Relax! No need to stress or be scared. You are going to be at WDW and going to have a great time, regardless.

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I think we are going to try out the 8 am open time on Wed. We get up by 6:30 anyways. Have FP+ for SDD that day. What are the rope drop wait times like for MFSR? We thought about doing it on Friday, but the 6 yr old really wanted to go on SDD again so we did that one instead. (That line went fast once it got moving, we were before the turn at the Market for rope drop - but many may have went to TSMM because they were announcing that SDD was down)

:rofl:I have been struggling to get my husband to get up and practice with me!:grimacing:

Boarding group five this morning, got in line a little later than we could have at 8am… And we are still there in the ‘caves’ 90 minutes later.

What is the upper limit for waiting on a breakdown before they evac the whole ride?

Seems to me that Disney should now dispense with the 2 categories of BG and have one for all. The circus of the lottery to dish out 70-odd passes in less than a minute is absurd just so that a small group of guests can gain insurance against not riding. Just have one full set of passes (I guess up to about 150) available for the time it takes to go (seemingly anything between 20 mins and 2hrs), and leave out the ‘golden ticket’ 1st group altogether. It would almost certainly help to stop the heavy-heavy 1st thing crowds.

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They do it to protect themselves from having to give out free FPs and/or free PH ticket as they have been doing. They are keeping the BG size sufficiently low to ensure they can get through them…because if they don’t, they compensate those folks. Having a BBG keeps them from having to do this.

So, the BG/BBG split was effectively done for the benefit of Disney’s bottom line.

What happens if you miss a FPP while waiting in line at RoTR, whether due to a breakdown or simply longer line?