RotR Important Details and Opening Day Timeline

My coffee arrived. That helps. It’s time for our BG, so I’m off!

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I’m definitely ok with waiting until park open for boarding passes, as I said earlier in this thread. Doing it randomly was just going to promote people showing up earlier and earlier. I hope they still have boarding passes in May. If they do it right, it sounds like it works.

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If they continued down the path of having to arrive at like 3:00 in the morning (slight hyperbole there), I would like it if they abandoned the BGs…but if they change it like they did today, it might make it more manageable/do-able.

I’ve also been wondering what the opening of ROTR on the west coast will ultimately do to the massive crowds for ROTR at HS…I’m wondering if it will ease up the demand.

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I like waiting til 7:00 to open the BGs but wish Disney would give everyone a heads up.

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Once again frustrating that Disney is flubbing the communication aspect of this. I wish they would have announced last night, “hey, this is getting out of hand so we’re actually not going to open BGs until after tapstiles and it won’t be till 7am sharp.” Some people wouldn’t have believed them because they’ve been burned before, but at least that way they’d set a precedent for honesty going forward.

The best part of this is that they were telling people 7am at the tapstiles and that turned out to be accurate. They’ve lied about that every other day basically.

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Day 14 Timeline 12/18/19
Link to OP

5:15am @Juls1020 DH through security
5:30am @Zebarnetts arrive at HS via Lyft
5:35am Zeb through security (60ft behind ticket windows)
6:20am @natalie_lawy through security
6:30am Park opens; guests held at Chinese theater
7:00am Published park opening; RD; BGs open Juls DH - BG 9; Zeb - BG 12
7:02am Natalie - BG 24
7:35am MDE starts issuing Backup BGs
7:45am Zeb (BG 12) joins queue
8:15am Zeb completes ride
8:45am @stlouie arrives at HS - BG 119
9:00am MDE stops issuing BGs
9:01am Natalie (BG 24) joins queue


*Red line is 12/18/19

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Yeah that’s the biggest problem. If they are changing the system to make it better for everyone, then that is fine. But it just stinks for everyone who got there early today due to hearing about the process on previous days. They just need consistency in the process which they should have figured out before it opened. Oh well! DH was able to get some other rides in and is now in line with his BG!

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Does anybody know if there’s a solution for a kid who needs to pee 30 minutes into this lineup?

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Problem solved, turns out we were around the corner from the first room (?), CM is taking her. BTW, this is the kid who was a hard sell on Disneybounding. Only agreed to play along on the understanding that bounding is ABSOLUTELY not about actual costumes. At 5.30am she decided she needed the hair and everything.

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Communication is definitely not a strength for Disney.

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Or IT

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Our outcries about Disney’s communication sounds like me when I’m dating. “I just want consistency! Is it so hard to communicate? Can’t we just get on the same page to save ourselves this trouble?”

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I’ve been following this thread since RotR opened. It sounds to me like they need to drop the BGs. It has just over complicated things. People appear to be so worried about getting a BG and if their BG will be called that its causing issues, not to mention the down times. Go back to the FPP system. This being said by someone who hasn’t experienced it first hand, yet. I’ll find out in February.

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Seeing that image with “problem solved” without reading the rest of your post was a little shocking! :joy:

Glad you were able to take a potty break. I’ve heard they added bathroom to FoP queue as well.

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We saw the bathrooms in the FOP queue on Monday night. Didn’t need to use it thought. Posted SB was 120. We waited 80.

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Hallelujah! Does this mean we can be there just before 7 (opening time for Jan 2) for equal chance at a boarding pass? Would you think that parking at 6 is early enough ? Disney has changed the opening times earlier the past 10 days TWICE. 4 am is just not happening in this family - no matter how much they love SW.

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VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE:

For those who haven’t followed along, they opened BGs ~30 min AFTER they opened tapstiles today, meaning there was little to no benefit to arriving super early. Everyone in the park by 7am had equal opportunity to snag a BG. Presumably there were some people who arrived early who still weren’t through tapstiles at 7:00am when MDE started issuing BGs, so you can’t arrive too late (maybe 6:30am). Initial BGs were gone by 7:35, Backup BGs were gone by 9:00am.

However they may have just been trying this out. They may have gotten negative feedback. They may not do this again. Or maybe they’ll just plow through with this new approach regardless.

My advice for tomorrow: Hedge your bets a little. Don’t arrive before 5am - it has never been necessary to do so. Don’t arrive after 6:30am - it’s still prudent to be early. If you want to be safe, arrive before 5:30am. If you are ok pressing your luck, arrive at the late end of the 6:30am window.

TIP: Disconnect from WiFi if you have a US data plan. Log into your MDE on two phones using the same master credentials. Alternate refreshing MDE every minute or so until BGs open up. Don’t trust what Disney says!!! Take their assurances with a huge spoonful of salt.

I’ll keep reporting here to see if a pattern develops with this new procedure.

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This is Disney.

A spoonful of sugar. :wink:

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I saw a report (and another person confirmed, though I know nothing of the credibility of either source) that there was a group touring Galaxy’s Edge from 5-7am (Earmarked Owners Summit) today, which likely accounts for not opening the attractions until 7am and I wouldn’t be surprised (though this is just speculation on my part) if that’s also why the Boarding Groups didn’t open right away. Disney opened Boarding Groups after they let people through the tapstiles last Friday, 12/13 and didn’t call the first Boarding groups until around 6:55 AM that day (on another day when I suspected there was a group touring the park prior to opening).

I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the big blogs jumped the gun on assuming this was a new procedure and the others just followed suit re-sharing the same “news.”

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@Jeff_AZ and other Liners- Even though things were different this morning, I wouldn’t have gotten my family on the ride without you and Jeff’s amazing data compilation on this thread. Thank you guys for all the tips, reports, everything. I read through every RotR post, chat, and report; to me it was a success and we had a blast! It was definitely a memorable experience and Disney is all about the memories for us. Jeff, I hope you get to go soon. Bright Suns!

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