Has anyone successfully booked RotR from the air? We have a 6am flight and don’t land until 8:30. I’d like to visit HS on our arrival day but hate to waste a day in the park without a “fair” shot at getting on RotR. I know we can try again at 1pm. That said, I know WiFi from the plane won’t be great.
We are arriving on August 21 with hopper tickets for six days to be used over seven days (counting our arrival day but excluding our departure day). We are generally planning to be in the parks in the mornings and then heading back to our hotel/pool (Coronado Springs) before going back to the parks early evening. This is a new approach for us – on our prior two trips, we toured the parks pretty much open to close every day, so we want to do something somewhat less grueling. That said, I hate to completely pass up a day in the parks in case we end up with bad weather or want to take a break in the middle of our trip…
Just given the way wifi works on a plane, I would be very surprised if it has a decent success rate for people trying from there. Still, worth a try then, and again at 1pm. I would choose a different HS though if it were me, if you can.
I thought I saw in the Lines App chat today that having more than one person from the same party do it can result in your party being split up. Otherwise yes, I agree I would both have friends/family try as well as do it myself from the plane.
I haven’t seen many reports of this happening but if it does, CMs have even known to allow the entire party in together even if one or more don’t have a BG, especially if due to an IT issue.
Hopefully you get in a BG at 7am, but it feels like a long day if you don’t and are trying for a BG at 1pm. I might try a different park on arrival day if that works. The BG inside the park means you could be there till park close on a day that you were up very early to catch early flight. Long day! Keep in mind ROTR does shut down at times due to technical difficulties so securing a BG doesn’t mean a guaranteed ride. It broke down when we were there, mid ride, fortunately it came back online a half hour later and we were in “recovery mode” so got on without any wait.
Definitely a long day - which we might not mind if we get to sleep in a little the next day. We did HS on our arrival day in October 2019, and stayed through Fantasmic. This was when Skyliner was new and broke down, so we ended up walking back to our room at BC, with me carrying a sleeping 5yo.
I do wonder if we might be able to try for RotR and if we don’t get it, change our park reservation that day. I think I read that is possible, assuming the desired park has availability. I’m guessing there may be a Boo Bash in MK, but I’m not sure if that will create pressure on the other parks the same way MNSSHP does.
Not to jinx it but have we heard about this happening at all recently? Although it still does seem to break down from time to time I can’t seem to think of a time that anyone has reported not getting to ride as a result.
Delay % of the day: There are some days when the ride is down up to 20% of the day, but that’s much better than last year when it was delayed as much as 40% of the day. Most days it’s down around 5%.
Max Boarding Group Called: Over the last month, most days 150+ BGs are called, but there are a few random days where it’s only 115-125. That’s still enough for the vast majority of people who get a BG to be called - in July - September, 100 would have been considered a great day. If you have a high number it will usually still be called a “Backup BG.” The last time less than 100 BGs were called was March 4th.
When we were there end of April, it happened a couple times . Each time it was down about a half hour. One time it happened mid ride/experience and a few of the riders didn’t handle the disappointment very well. Some colorful language directed to the Disney employees. Felt bad for them. I heard they are taking a beating, so give them an extra smile and a thank you.
There has never been a day where walk-on riders were accepted officially, but I do vaguely remember at least one person early on who hung out around the queue entrance and made friends with cast members and was let in despite not having a BG. That’s obviously not a bankable experience.
It’s estimated to be something like 50 people per BG x 100 BGs = 5,000 and then the rest (another 50-60 BGs = 2-3,000 guests) are likely issued at 1pm. Not exact numbers, just ballpark.
