I was here around 5:30, took a minnie van.
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According to MDE the park opened at 7 AM today. @thedownsfamily says they opened at 6:40AM
I acknowledge that I am looking at MDE now. I was not looking last night. Did it say something other than 7 AM last night?
Ok the gloves are off, I just talked to the wife, we are getting up at 4:00 am. I just grabbed a Disney hotel across the street to crash in the middle of the day. There goes the budget!
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6:40 is early. You normally don’t get to queue for a ride at Disney until the park opens. BP is queuing. I also think some people are getting there so early at this point in hopes of the park opening sooner. But I digress. The opening for this attraction has been a bit of a mess. Hopefully opening calms down some before my trip.
True. You don’t get to queue for a ride but maybe 10-15 mins early (rope drop marches start at various times, but I’ve been off rides at 9:01AM). But IMO I’d rather be queuing than standing herded and preparing for the RD-run. Once you nab your BG you get more hours to tour the park.
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When I hear 7am, I would think BP would open at 7am. You still get your early park touring and no RD rush. Then people wouldn’t feel the need to show up at 4:30am. Early, yes, but not that early.
I understand your point…but if they really waited until 7:00, people rush in and immediately starting trying for a BG all at once, blocking flow of traffic, etc. , but with the same end result…all the people who arrived earliest would still end up with an earlier BG.
Honestly, while I think the BG system made sense initially, I still think they need to eliminate it soon:
- It gives a (slight) advantage to off-site guests over probably a majority of on-site guests.
- It is forcing earlier and earlier arrival times to guarantee getting a BG.
- Once you have a BG, it does almost nothing to take those people out of the system for the rest of the park, unlike other queues. If people are willing to wait, then those people are not filling queues elsewhere. This helps to balance the load of the park. But with the BGs, it means all those people “in line” aren’t actually in line, and so are filling up other lines. So, for example, we won’t see a drop in the waits on SDD or MFSR as a result of the opening of RotR, which is what we historically would have seen otherwise. In fact, it has the potential to make it worse.
- A regular line, without FP, means only those who are most determined will be willing to sacrifice other park time to ride this ride and wait the wait. But with BG, there is no decision to to made, and so it becomes a mad dash to be the first one to the park ONLY.
Of course, there are benefits to the BG system. Not saying there aren’t. But this method of BG handling doesn’t seem sustainable.
I’ll continue to wait to see what happens in January. But I’m souring on the idea of even trying RotR if this keeps up. I had enough of a time trying to convince my family that we might have to leave by 6:30, but now it seems like that would be far too late!
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Hmm. One thought I just had that might, perhaps, help…wondering what others think.
But that is, if you arrive to obtain a BG, you have to sacrifice your Tier 1 FP for the BG. This would force people to have to make a choice…and if they choose RotR, then they might have to give up SDD (for example), which frees up a SDD FP for someone else who can’t otherwise get on RotR.
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Disney could have announced a 7am opening time from the beginning and solve most of the opening days mess, but it seems like they weren’t confident enough that the ride would be operating well.
I think a lot of what is causing discomfort is that arriving early and getting a BG sounds too easy? If people had to stand in a long line or negotiate a large crowd it would seem like it is enough effort/sacrifice. Every ride that has more demand than availability is moderated by some amount of unpleasantness, either money (to get the best FPs), or waking up early (RDing), or decisions (when there are FP tiers) or just being willing to stand in a long line. With RotR they are only letting you “pay” with one type of unpleasantness, and there are enough people willing to be there before 7am to completely fill the ride for the day.
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Entered queue at 7:38am. Still in queue as of 8:13am. Will miss my SDD FPP. Haven’t moved in roughly 10min.
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We are starting our FPs at 10 am, We are waking up at 4:00 am, not because I’m concern about no getting a BG, We can get a BG by showing up at 6:00 am. We are going to show up that early only to be able to ride SDD, ToT and RR with minimum waits, as many times as we can.
We may wait a bit to get the Bg, I don’t want to be one of the first BG to be call
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Hadn’t really thought about it like that…but I think you’re right.
This is an awesome thread, thanks to @Jeff_AZ for all the research and computations and everyone else for recording their personal experiences. I will be there next Weekend, originally was not planning on trying to ride but this thread gives me hope. Just hubby and myself and we are early risers staying at Swan, so get our early morning walk/exercise in and drink our coffee in line waiting.
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I agree. It would make more sense to be able to take yourself out of BP if you end up not wanting to wait. I’m thinking the area is probably already clogging with those looking for BP though. And if this is the way this is set up, I’m not sure I want to try it either. To me they are are going to have to change something, especially with another new attraction opening in March.
Still in queue as of 8:30. Have not moved in 30 minutes. No communication from cast about ride being down or any evacuation of ride or queue. Have not even made it to preshow.
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Started moving again 8:37am. There were reports online of snacks being handed out, but nothing made it to my section of queue.
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I’m with you. After experiencing the boarding groups last week, I love them! I would much rather wake up early, grab a BG then do other things vs waiting in line. I wish they would expand the BG to other high demand rides. RD is getting ridiculous with people throwing elbows, ramming strollers into people…etc just to get to the front of the line.
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Day 9 Timeline 12/13/19
Link to OP
4:30am First guests reportedly arrive at HS
5:05am @T_I_double_gah_errr arrives at HS
5:21am @HalfBludPrincess arrives at HS
5:26am HBP through security, held at tapstiles
5:29am @mikem1526 arrives at HS
5:30am @thedownsfamily arrives at HS
5:36am Mikem through security, held at tapstiles
5:50am @PagesNY1899 arrives at HS
6:40am Park opens; Tigger and HBP through tapstiles - BG 9/10
6:45am Mikem through tapstiles - BG 24
6:46am DF through tapstiles - BG15
6:54am HBP (BG 10) joins queue
6:55am Pages through tapstiles - BG 37
7:00am Published park opening
7:31am HBP completes ride
7:38am DF joins queue
8:00am Ride down; MDE stops issuing BGs
8:30am Accepting BGs 6-23
8:37am Ride back up
9:00am Accepting BGs 6-25
9:09am DF completes ride
9:45am Mikem (BG 24) joins queue
10:00am Accepting BGs 14-33
10:45am Ride down; Mikem completes ride
11:00am Accepting BGs 24-38
11:45am Ride back up
12:00pm Accepting BGs 25-39
1:00pm Accepting BGs 34-52
2:00pm Accepting BGs 40-58
3:00pm Accepting BGs 53-67
4:00pm Accepting BGs 59-77
5:00pm Accepting BGs 68-88
6:00pm Accepting BGs 78-98
7:00pm Accepting BGs 89-108 (Highest BG issued)
9:00pm Published park closing
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You can do this. Once you are in a BG and no longer want to be, you just remove yourself.
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