We will be at WDW next week and the 7:00am opening for HS goes through, at least, the 20th. That being said, plans to get to HS should now be an hour earlier?? My husband is going to murder me but I MUST ride RotR !!
3 Likes
if opening is 7am i would get there 5:30am, but interested in others’ views
2 Likes
Oh lordy, I’m so glad I’m going in January. I couldn’t handle all this uncertainty. Of course, I won’t really have a good idea of what to expect until a few days before my trip anyways. I assume crowds are going to start getting insane next week through the holidays, and hopefully start to die down the first week of January. But who knows…
5:30am seems reasonable. A 7am opening is hard to predict. I mean, I don’t think everyone automatically shows up one hour earlier than they were going to. I think it’s more of a sliding scale. Some people just can’t get out of bed that early or get their kids out the door that fast.
So you still might be ok arriving at 6:30. But 6 or 5:30am would be better. Probably not necessary to get there before 5 still.
2 Likes
Keep watching this thread though! We’ll see what happens when the 7am openings start.
1 Like
I would not keep an 8 am HV res if park opening was 8 am. We did a 10:15 am breakfast at HV so we could RD the park and then eat when the crowds started to build up. The said, my family thought the food (breakfast) at HV was not good. None of us ate very much including DS2 who is generally not too picky.
2 Likes
Wow I just saw it too, 7:00 am it is. I guess now we need to be at the car by 5:20 not questions ask 
One thing to point out as they change park hours is that they often open up more FPP for the new hours. Liners on chat have been reporting snagging new FPP for SDD in January, for example.
5 Likes
Thank you! I was able to pick one up!
2 Likes
I thought this bit was interesting - @NYGIANTMickeyFan arrived at 4:45 and @jcophotog arrived at 5:30am and they were basically among the first to enter and were only 3 BGs apart. Diminishing returns for arriving earlier than 5:30am.
3 Likes
Just out of curiosity, how much time should one budget for getting through security and the tapstile? How much of a difference does it make getting there at 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, etc?
1 Like
At this point I’m slightly giving up on ROTR. It being my DH’s birthday and him being a casual fan and not a line person I can’t just drag him out of bed even earlier for a chance at the ride.
I think I’ll still plan to Uber by 6:15am and get there before park opens and try for an early BG. If i don’t get one early enough then I just don’t. It will still be a great day.
I did just snag early morning FPP for other rides so that’s good
1 Like
If you are there before security opens, you will wait as long as it takes until it is open. Same thing with tapstiles. But people who have arrived after security / tapstiles open have reported basically breezing through. At most, budget 10-15 min.
1 Like
Awesome. Thanks for that info. Pending the updates based on the new opening times, I’m shooting to leave the hotel by 6 and get through the tapstiles around 6:30-6:45. May try to push the departure time up a bit, but we’ll see how the rest of the family feels about that.
2 Likes
Another rough afternoon - at 61, this is the lowest BG called as of 5:00pm since the ride opened last week. But at least it’s open now (knock on wood) and hopefully they’ll catch up. It’s not exactly a fair comparison since they had 30-40 BGs from yesterday to fill in the gaps, but they’ve had 2 almost 2-hour periods where the ride was apparently down today, plus a couple 1-hour periods.
I’m anxious to see what things look like over the next few days with the new hours with posted park open of 7AM. Will park still unofficially be open by 6:30 or will it open earlier? We leave Saturday first morning at DHS will be Monday. I have a 10:10 Garden Grill ADR. So far it looks like I need a BG 20 or lower to make it to ADR or higher than 30 to be able to eat and get back.
Regardless of your BG, speak with a CM before you leave HS and they may be able to alter your ADR or give you leeway so that you don’t end up paying the no-show fee, or so that you can have a grace period on the back end of your BG when called. I have heard they have been very accommodating when it comes to ADRs that interfere with RotR.
5 Likes
I got my first ride today (Wednesday, 12/11).
Here’s a summary of my Rise of the Resistance experience this morning:
- 6:14 AM - Parked (Mickey 303)
- 6:22 AM - Through Bag Check
- 6:23 AM - in line for Tapstiles, but line not moving yet
- 6:31 AM - announcement plays describing virtual queues for Rise of the Resistance
- 6:32 AM - Tapstiles open (heard a cheer, then “Welcome to Hollywood Studios” played on PA
- 6:42 AM - Tapped into park, added to Boarding Group 30 (had to close and re-open MDE to get “Join Boarding Group” to not be grayed out)
- sometime between 7:43-7:48 - option to Join Boarding Group in MDE no longer availabe (greyed out)
- 9:24 AM - saw Boarding Group called on app (didn’t receive push notification)
Rise of the Resistance Queue/Ride Timings:
- 9:26 AM - in line, guests waiting through all of the caves starting behind waterfall, but moving steadily through each room
- ~9:55 AM - cast member tells guests in front of us there will be a delay, stopped in narrow cave, a couple guests are allowed to leave and return to use restroom
- ~10:00 AM - cast members walk through line with water bottles, then snacks (bananas, chips, and something else that may have been dried fruit)
- ??? AM - announcement on PA about ride stop, mentions that guests in stopped ride vehicles should remain seated (so, it’s clear the ride is stoped)
- 10:14 AM - cast member walks through line to collect trash
- 10:35 AM - line starts moving again
- 10:46 AM - Ready Room (with BB8)
- 10:50 AM - on Shuttle
- 10:52 AM - arrive on Star Destroyer
- 11:04 AM - Put in Detention Cell
- 11:06 AM - Seated on Transport Vehicle
- 11:12 AM - Done Ride
In tracking when my boarding group would be called, I called noted what groups were “Now Boarding” through the morning:
- 6:59 AM, 9-15
- 7:02 AM, 9-16
- 7:05 AM, 9-18
- 7:10 AM, 9-20
- 8:14 AM, 9-20
- 7:17 AM, 9-21
- 7:24 AM, 9-22
- 7:32 AM, 9-24
- 7:43 AM, 9-25
- 7:48 AM, 9-25
- 7:50 AM, 9-25
- 8:02 AM, 9-26
- 8:15 AM, 9-27
- 8:26 AM, 9-27
- 8:34 AM, 9-27
- 8:43 AM, 9-27
- 8:49 AM, 9-27
- 9:00 AM, 17-28
- 9:11 AM, 21-29
- 9:24 AM, 23-30
- 9:40 AM, 25-31
- 10:48 AM, 28-37
- 12:30 PM, 31-38
- 1:44 PM, 33-43
- 8:12 PM, 78-81
10 Likes
WOW FlyerFan1973 thanks for the detailed report. This is helpful, I guess arriving at the park at 6, may be just fine!
2 Likes
Thanks!
Today was another bad day for operations with lots of downtime. The good news is that I believe they issued fewer BGs - maybe 90 compared to 115 yesterday, and they got pretty close to 90 by the end of the day. The bad news is there are a lot of people who were evacuated who have FP that will likely be honored tomorrow, even if there are few whose BG was dropped.
Tomorrow is the first day with 7am opening. I’m very interested to see what happens. Will they open at 7am sharp? Or 6:30am as they have been? Or even earlier? I would bet on 6am opening.
I recommend arriving by 6am at the latest - 5am if you have the stamina. You will not regret the time investment in the morning if you are able to ride all rides by 10am and also knock out RotR.
Good luck everyone!
5 Likes