Don’t you have the time in the notification bar on your phone at the top? The moment the time transitions to 8:00 am, you “go!” I don’t need the seconds to countdown…just need to keep my eye on the clock at the top of the phone screen, which is visible even while in MDE.
Phones get their time from the cell phone tower, which should all be in sync with actual time.
We all do, of course, so if that is sufficient, we’ll have all 6 of us try for a BG, thanks!
Having one person as a timekeeper works - with 6 people, 5 trying for a BG is plenty. For parties with one or a few people, all you need to do is watch the time until about 5 seconds before and then switch over to the App.
Once one person gets a BG for their party, the rest of the people will be able to proceed up until the BG is issued and will simply receive a message that they already have a BG. No harm no foul.
There are still delays but it has improved. The volatility of the line in the graph below shows a stabiliziing pattern since early December when the ride opened. See this link for more data.
I was the only one that did it for my group of 7. I also had the best phone of the group. I just watched the seconds on the clock app and launched the MDE app about 10 seconds before park open. No issues. BG 15, 16 & 22. 15 & 16 I was by TSL, on Wifi. 22 I was by SWGE and on T-Mobile LTE (because the Wifi was not as good in the area)
Hi Meekomist! What type of phone did you have? My daughter and I have an iPhone 11 and my grandson has an iPhone XR, so probably the best phones? We also have a couple of older Samsung Galaxies. I assume your different BG numbers were for different days, right? If we want to get to MFSR first, where should we head for rope drop, TSL or SWGE (right or left)? Thanks!
One day my iphone XR (AT&T, no wifi, BG 28) won the race between our three phones that were using same MDE, the next day my old samsung galaxy s7 did (park wifi, BG 48), so who knows. For MFSR, go left towards SWGE.
Practicing this morning for next week, by the time the “Join Boarding Group” went active it was already stating BBG. I have not seen this happen on any previous attempts, so that’s a little puzzling. Certainly makes me a little worried about next week!
I was just practising as well and had a solid 30 seconds before it started mentioning bbg. Did it open exactly at 8 for you or a bit late?
I saw the same too. To be honest, if everyone was in a BBG then it evens the field and maybe it would stop the frenzy to get those elusive, exclusive BGs. BGs with no promises from Disney, just hoping to get through as many as possible.
i had come to conclusion its a few seconds later, as the person with fastest fingers generally wasn’t the one to get it. its only a second or two. like a cast member hits open when clock changes so if your reactions are faster than them its not open yet
11 Pro. I should mention, I also always used the My Status button to join the boarding group.
I was practicing at home this morning using the time.gov method, this was my 3rd time using it. I have MDE open waiting on the my status/join boarding group page (I tried leaving it on the homepage one day and my app restarted, so that’s definitely not the best option for me). I stayed on time.gov until 7:59:55 and went back to MDE, counting in my head. On the dot of 8, I clocked my status and immediately join boarding group was highlighted, I had the not so fast screen in about 7 seconds. This has been the same scenario each time I’ve practiced with time.gov so this will be my method on my HS day. I was really stressing about this before and worried about using the best method day of, but after practicing with time.gov I’m feeling a lot more confident and ready for my HS day. Now I just need to make sure my sister feels equally prepared and we’ll be ready.
Interesting. Today was the first day I practiced, and I had this app restart, too. I was fast enough getting back in that I could’ve gotten a BG, but was surprised by the restart. It took me back to the home map when I opened back up.
That seems to happen to me anytime I have the MDE homepage open and go to a different app. Most times I go back to MDE it restarts with that blue/purple screen and eventually the castle image. During the day it’s not really an issue but with something time sensitive like BGs and SDDs it’s a different story.
Might be a typo (or I am misunderstanding something). In the RIDE CLOSE column… I see 7:18 AM and 7:26 on Feb 6 and Feb 10. I think those are supposed to be PM not AM.
If MDE is regularly rebooting when you switch apps, you might see if there are places you can minimize memory usage. For instance, temporarily turn off any location services in apps where it is enabled. And reboot your phone well ahead of park opening to make memory as clean as possible.
Great suggestion, thanks! I don’t know if location is on or off but I’ll be checking.
I just looked at the overall chart and hadn’t realized that the first number of the backup group had dropped so low. When we were there in January we got 71 as a regular group.
Thanks for all the advice on practicing at home, I feel much more confident about trying again next Friday! That’s assuming I can run the Princess 5K fast enough to get to HS by 8!
Just to update from being at the park. If the ride needs to shut down for any reason during your window to come back, you are allowed to come back whenever you want until park close. The app will tell you that you missed your window, but scanning in works fine.
We were in BG group 2, it started at 9:20 return, 8 mins later updated to 2 hour return. We came back at 10:00 to ride but it was down, and the CM told us scanning in at anytime during the day would work.
