@pspoel With your boarding pass you waited in line for 3 hours? Ugh! That’s a lot of missed park time.
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Yes Jennifer, but we were already in the park at 7am, so did a lot in the meantime.
When we got the call that our group could board, 2:15pm, we got in the line.
And 5:15pm we got evacuated from the ride
My friend just arrived at HS (6:50am) and got BG 42
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I am pretty sure that when we rode at 7:15 am that the blaster light effects were down. I don’t know if that correlates to later break downs, maybe a precursor to larger failure, but it sure looks like Tuesday 12/10 was a rough day. Thanks for these updates! BTW, SA and I rode together so one of us is wrong LOL. (I think I am. We rode MFSR first 
)
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Thanks! I may have misunderstood someone’s post or just wrote it down wrong.
This morning they ran out of BGs at 7:40am. Hope everyone that wanted to ride arrived early!
Day 7 Timeline 12/11/19
Link to OP
4:45am @NYGIANTMickeyFan arrives at HS - security not open
5:29am NYG through security and first at tapstiles
5:30am @jcophotog75 arrives at tapstiles
6:30am Park opens; NYG and JCO through tapstiles - BG 9 / 12
6:45am @djy114 through tapstiles - BG 35
6:47am @mkmuzzy through tapstiles - BG 40
6:50am Accepting BGs 1-9
7:00am Accepting BGs 1-16
7:05am NYG (BG 9) joins queue; @wgr476 through tapstiles - BG 50
7:15am @chelledecam through tapstiles - BG 61
7:27am NYG completes ride
7:40am MDE stops issuing BGs
8:00am Published park opening; Accepting BGs 1-26
8:15am Ride down
8:55am Ride back up
9:00am Accepting BGs 16-27
9:30am Ride down
10:00am Accepting BGs 27-31
10:40am Ride back up
11:00am Accepting BGs 27-35
11:40am Ride down
12:00pm Accepting BGs 29-38
1:00pm Accepting BGs 32-39
1:40pm Ride back up; mkmuzzy (BG 40) joins queue
2:00pm Accepting BGs 36-47
2:30pm mkmuzzy completes ride
3:00pm Accepting BGs 39-47
3:05pm Ride down
4:00pm Accepting BGs 40-58
4:45pm Ride back up
5:00pm Accepting BGs 58-61
6:00pm Accepting BGs 59-75
6:30pm Ride down
7:00pm Accepting BGs 62-81
8:00pm Accepting BGs 76-81 (no more BGs called)
9:00pm Published park closing
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I wonder if they gave out fewer boarding groups today because they know a lot of people from yesterday will be returning to ride.
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For sure. I would guess they handed out 90 max.
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FWIW my general touring advice if you are most interested in riding RotR:
Get to the park by 6:25, which should be right before they open. Drive or take an Uber. I would bet against Disney transportation getting you there before the unofficial park open.
From Pop Century we waited 8-10 minutes for the Uber to arrive, and it was probably another 8-10 minute ride over to the park. Even better if you are social, look around and ask someone else waiting for their own Uber if you can split the fare with them. I went ahead and got an UberXL and took another couple with us Monday morning.
Once the park opens- likely around 6:30am, it might take 10-15 minutes to get in (Tuesday we moved all the way to the right after security, and since they had additional tapstiles open further to the right behind the ticket desks that far right section seemed to move well). After tapping in (which I think is a pre-requisite for getting your BG), immediately go to the app and snag the earliest BG.
After you get your boarding pass, great time to ride Slinky Dog and other attractions that normally have fastpass. Unless you haven’t done the Falcon- or that is your second highest priority below RotR, would recommend against doing that in the early morning since the ride generally seems to take longer from entrance to exit. (In contast Slinky Dog’s lack of pre-ride queue boxes don’t slow things down). It is awesome how quick the rides go without any fastpass riders trumping standby.
When your boarding group is called for RotR I would try to hit it as early as you can to avoid potential downtime/closures for that ride.
Finally, ride MFSR. Sure the standby line will be longer but you will probably have done a good number of rides by that time.
Oh and finally finally- if you miss the ride because it broke down on you and you wind up with a paper fastpass- and for whatever reason you can’t make the ride later in that day (like us on Tuesday)- talk to a castmember, specifically guest relations. We talked to the guest relations by the front of DHS yesterday and they were basically able to do a make-good for the two of us. Specifically the CM looked at our plans and gave us a date-specific fast pass to RotR for our next Disney trip.
Cheers everyone and happy touring!
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GeekByExample, thanks a lot for all those useful tips, we will be there next week.
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Thanks for this info, that’s very interesting that they could issue a specific date FPP for the future, do I have that right? This could be useful to me as I have my one day at HS in April but then return in June for a longer trip. Although I’d try and talk them into those 1 day hoppers lol
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I just wanted to say thanks to everybody in this thread. All of this information has been extremely helpful. I think I’ve come up with a solid game plan for our visit on Monday.
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Just added the below information to the lead post. If anyone has data to add to the weight limitations or morning transportation, let me know.
- Weight Limitations: Lap belt rather than bar in ride vehicle; similar to Dinosaur - no issues noted
Transportation
- Ride Share: Ride share is the most reliable method for timeliness - drop off at HS (or use BWI as an alternate drop off you don’t mind walking 10 min)
- Minnie Vans: Reported running at 6:30am
- Parking lot: Reported open as early as 4:30am
- Bus: Reported running starting at 6:30am but schedule varies
- Boat: Boat schedule has varied - ask a boat operator the night before
- Skyliner: Reported running at 7:30am - schedule may vary
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Thanks Jeff_AZ for that info, Do you know if cars are waiting on long lines outside the parking lot, waiting to open, like it was happening on the opening day? Because if that is the case, I may just take an Uber.
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There were long lines on opening day but I haven’t seen anyone mention that recently. If you arrive at 5:30am the parking lot should be wide open and you will still be among the first in the park, so I don’t see a need to arrive much earlier than that. I would just do whichever option is fits your budget and needs.
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Hello All! First time poster!
I’m headed to HS on 1/29 and just got an update from TP that the park opening is changing from 9 am to 8 am. I’m a little bummed because I have a PPO reservation at Hollywood and Vine for 8 am that took some serious effort to get. What is the likely hood of Disney releasing additional reservations earlier than 8 am? And is it worth keeping this reservation now that it provides no PPO benefits?
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I would be shocked if they add reservations earlier than 8. I think you are out of luck, sorry. 
EDIT: And welcome to the forums!
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The good(?) news is that if things continue as they have, they will open the park early (~6:30am) anyway and the PPO would have been useless. Or things will settle down and they won’t open the park earlier than the 8am scheduled opening, which at least will indicate that RotR is operating more reliably and things won’t be as chaotic as they are now.
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Thanks Jeff_AZ, we were so happy when you mentioned that arriving at 6:00 should be ok, but now that I think that is a pattern for the park to open at 6:30 am. We should leave the Royal Pacific Hotel around 5:20 am, I think is a 35 minutes drive.
We are trying to avoid waking up at 4:00 am or even right at 5:00 am, if we don’t have to, because we are planning to stay until the fantasmic show, and the kids are going to be dead tired by then.
I’m trying to see how late can we show up to the park, and still be able to get an early boarding group, to make sure that even if the ride has issues, I would be able to ride it before the end of the day.
In the other hand getting a free park hopper and a fast pass, would be even better. lol
The other thing is that I want to enter when the park opens, so I can ride SDD, RoR and TT before those rides get busy. Someone told me that is better to wait until later during the day to line up for SR. So avoid Smugglers Run in the morning.
So getting in the car at 5:30 am will be a bit late for this?
Yeah, I was hoping for the latter. I’ll definitely be following the forums to see how things are operating as we get closer to our travel date. Thanks for all the info! It has been a great help!
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