RotR Important Details and Opening Day Timeline

[quote=“Jeff_AZ, post:641, topic:66972”]
Advice for tomorrow: Arrive between 5:00am (morning BG) and 6:30am (afternoon BG). It is possible BGs will be available up until 8am, but don’t count on it.[/quote]

They shouldn’t have a backlog of uncalled groups or FastPasses from clearing the queue from today, so I’d guess they start with a low numbered Boarding Group (at least as low as they started with today) and maybe they’ll push the higher numbered groups up a bit.

At some point they’ll have to start pushing the capacity toward a more realistic long-term number of riders/day. They’re still not using most of the outdoor part of the queue (though, it’s filled up starting in the caves when I’ve ridden the last two days). It seems that they’re babying the attraction right now (which probably makes sense), so a small increase in Boarding Groups after a couple reasonable days of operation seems like a good guess.

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I’m very curious to see what they do! If they start increasing the number of BGs, that might be an indication that they actually are figuring out what’s causing the performance issues and fixing it. If they keep the number low, it probably means they’ve just been lucky a couple of days and operational issues will persist. Hoping for the former. :crossed_fingers:

Just watched episode 6 of The imagineering story…#ThanksShanghai. There was an interesting part on GE - MFSR - RotR. Was fascinating how they use virtual reality to design and the use of laser measurements for image mapping.

Makes me wish I was at WDW right now…even though RotR is still not at full capacity and reliable yet.

Not related to the thread but they did give a glimpse of a new animatronic at the end of the show related to Marvel. It was amazing what it was doing. I won’t spoil what character it is!

I don’t recall where I saw it ( forums are starting to blur together; might have even been here), but it seemed to speculate the reliability issues may be related to wireless access points not being able to keep track of all the trackless vehicles. For safety’s sake, the ride shuts down when they lose track of an R4 controlled car.

Maybe they are honing in on the network issues and getting close to being able to add more vehicles. Once we get a few days like today (or better), I could see them trying to load the network up with more cars…adding more BGs…possibly allowing multiple rides again…and maybe even a standby queue.

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Odd day today. The tapstiles opened before 6:20, but RotR just opened boarding a couple minutes ago, with groups 8-12.

More later.

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I wonder if they’re testing ideas to discourage the super early crowds. Getting there at 4:30 provides pretty much no advantage if the groups don’t open until 7:30.

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Day 10 Timeline 12/14/19
Link to OP
(Note: Lightning observed today)

5:35am @AlmostAlice arrives at HS, held at tapstiles
5:39am @lep33 through security, held at tapstiles
6:13am @Arliss19336 through security, held at tapstiles
6:15am @LaterLaurie through security, held at tapstiles
6:18am Park opens
6:34am Lep through tapstiles - BG 30
6:35am Alice through tapstiles - BG 41
6:41am Arliss through tapstiles - BG 53
6:53am Laurie through tapstiles - BG 76
7:00am Published park opening
7:05am @RememberTheMagic through tapstiles - BG 96
7:15am RotR opens - BGs 8-12; Twitter user reports BG 101
7:51am MDE stops issuing BGs
8:00am Accepting BGs 8-19
9:00am Accepting BGs 8-26
10:00am Accepting BGs 20-35
10:45am Ride down
11:00am Accepting BGs 25-46; Alice (BG 41) evacuated from queue
11:50am Ride back up
12:00pm Accepting BGs 26-47
1:00pm Accepting BGs 39-56
2:00pm Accepting BGs 47-71
3:00pm Accepting BGs 56-75
3:50pm Ride down
4:00pm Accepting BGs 69-85
4:50pm Ride back up
5:00pm Accepting BGs 72-88
6:00pm Accepting BGs 75-96
7:00pm Accepting BGs 89-107
8:00pm Accepting BGs 97-110 (highest issued)
9:00pm Published park closing

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There was a substantial thunderstorm that passed through the park around 7:00. That could have had some impact on today’s late opening of the ride, but that’s just a guess

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Interesting morning. Arriving at 5:30am was not enough to secure one of the first BGs but from what I’ve seen, 5:00am was still good. Those who arrived after 6:00am got afternoon BGs. Those who arrived after 7:00am had very late BGs (90+) that frankly may not be called. They kept issuing until 7:51am - presumably arrivals slowed down in the 7-o’clock hour so they issued fewer BGs during that time. I’m guessing 120+. Disney is taking a risk there!

Also regarding the lightning, there is a small portion of the RotR queue that is outdoors, including the entry to the transport vehicle, but I would guess that it does not affect the ride running thanks to the overhang above the ride entrance. Otherwise they wouldn’t have opened the ride at 7:15am. I could be wrong.

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Need a larger data set for a real pattern to emerge. We also need them running at full capacity. If you had to guess with the data we do have so far:

*BG distribution is ~80 BG/hr
*BG called before noon are ~50
*It goes down at least once every morning

Every time the ride goes down, that reduces the BG by noon by about 5.

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It does when you have to be in the park to claim the BG. The people who arrive at 4:30 get BGs before the people who arrive at 7:30 because they get into the park before them.

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Right now, where you line up can make a huge difference in when you get through the tapstiles. There’s currently some sort of construction going on outside the ticket booths that blocks access to several tapstiles (at the far right if you’re facing the park entrance). Once you get past the ticket booths, you then have access to all of those tapstiles, so those right lines flow much faster than those on the left.

Of course, this only applies to folks who arrive after the crowds have already filled the area between the tapstiles and ticket booths, but that’s happening pretty quickly these days. I parked at 5:55 AM today, was through bag check and in line at 6:04, tapped in at 6:28, and got Boarding Group 30, which was called at 9:25 AM. I zipped through the queue, too, compared with other days, getting in line at 9:57 and finishing my ride at 10:40.

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There’s a good chunk of the queue that’s outdoors. They haven’t filled most of that thus far (since there’s also a huge queue indoors, too), but it’s there and one of my rides started in line outside the caves that lead you to the ride. There’s also the potential that wetness from guests could be perceived as an operational problem that might slow things down. The worst of the storm was past the Studios at 7:10.

Again, I don’t know if that contributed to today’s late opening or if there was something else going on. The only other odd thing I noticed was there was a chunk of the parking lot already occupied when I arrived today and all of those cars appeared to be gone when I returned to my car to leave the park. So, another purely speculative conclusion might be that some group was being taken through the ride this morning, though I saw no evidence of that nor did I hear any word about that nor do I know why all those folks would have driven there own cars to the park.

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Thanks for the additional data! I saw on chat a lot of people complaining about choosing the wrong line at the tapstiles, costing them quite a bit of time and BGs keep ticking up every minute. Sounds like “go right” is the best advice as long as the construction is going on.

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Yeah, I screwed this up the first morning I was at the Studios for rope drop on this trip. It doesn’t matter if you arrive crazy early and get in line before the crowds fill in all the available space between the tapstiles and ticket booths (since you’re already in a line at the point), but once that happens in makes a huge difference.

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Up to 71 at 2:00pm! That’s 15 BGs in the last hour.

One thing that I haven’t pointed out yet is that the data I’m collecting is somewhat dependent on the BGs being a consistent size, both within a day and over time. I wouldn’t put it past Disney to change the BG size just to screw with people like me who are watching. They could easily halve / double capacity but also do the same/opposite to the BG size to hide what’s going on.

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This is the info I was looking for. Thank you all for posting it. I will be there Monday and will be arriving somewhere around 5AM. I will report my status. I’m not sure what stay to the right means, but hoping to recognize it when I get there.

Sorry for the edits

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Thanks FlyerFan1973 for this info, so doesn’t matter if you are the first or if you come later, try to go to the right tapstiles? We will be there this Wednesday.

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Heard Dan Z. speaking with Jim Hill on the Lucas podcast today. What Dan heard is the problem with the ride is everyone’s cell phones! They are interfering with the wireless access points and causing the shutdowns. They lose track of some of the vehicles and need to shutdown.

Tell everyone to ditch the phones until they figure out a frequency that is not impacted by all those iPhones.

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Another good day - only two 1-hour instances of downtime. No significant holdover FPs for tomorrow - it will be another fresh start.

Tomorrow, arrive between 5-5:30am for a morning BG. Arrive by 6:30am to get any BG that is fairly likely to be called that day. You may be able to arrive as late as 7:30 or so with BGs still being issued, but no guarantee that they will be available or called.

Good luck!

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I read a rumor about this, but I also heard that the WiFi used by Disney is separate than the frequency used by cell phones, so it shouldn’t interfere. But it’s all rumor at this point. Disney likely doesn’t want anyone to know the real problem until it’s solved. We’ll find out what happened on the Imagineering Story in 10 years. :wink:

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