Yeah, that’s the question for me. We are going in April and I really would rather not deal with chaos to ride one ride, but I am also not missing it.
I have been pretty confident that things will be different by then, but what will have changed between then and now? Fewer people trying to ride it? Not likely. Disney being unwilling to open the park two or three hours indefinitely? If they are solving for some crowd control issue, and that issue remains, then what do they do?
There is probably some segment of the population riding it now that will not be trying to ride it in April, but I don’t know whether removing that segment changes things significantly four months from now. Ugh.
That’s the park I’ll disagree with. I prefer no FPs at all. I really don’t like the FPP system, and wish Disney would do away with it. But, if they use FPP, then obviously you have to make use of it in general.
But with the build up of rides as HS, it is definitely a park that takes more time than it ever used to. Our May trip will be the first trip we’ve ever done 2 days at HS!
I think January will be a far better indication. I knew it would be chaos the first week or two…but then we are running into Christmas, so really, we won’t start to see any semblance of normal operation until January.
It will impact my game plan for our Star Wars day at HS if they keep the BGs in May. I was planning on us holding off going into the parks until after lunch, and then expecting to wait in long lines for ROTR and MMRR (and MFSR)…because I wanted to stay until night to see the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular…but if they have BGs, that changes everything.
I only have one morning to ride ROTR. January 6th. I was originally hoping to just get in line on January 5th in the evening and wait but now that may not be a possibility. The 6th has regular park hours, NO emh. Posted park opening is 9 am. What time do you think I will need to get there to hopefully get a morning BG? 7am? It’s a Monday. Any insight is much appreciated.
I’m going in October and expect that things will be relatively similar to the situation going on now (other than park opening which I think will be 8 am or 9 am in October). If the ride is a good as the reports, it’s going to be a mess for at least a year or more.
At some point after RotR become reliable without all the shut downs, I suspect WDW will offer some sort of upcharge experience for RofR whether it be EMM, Paid FP or something else. With all this demand, the opportunity seems too “good” for WDW to pass up.
I can certainly see it that way. Earn a free FPP just by getting up early! My issue is that my DW, DS, and DD would probably rather give up the ride than wake up at 4 AM and I will absolutely not. The burden of being the only Star Wars fanatic in the family, I guess. But I could sell them on getting up that early and spending half the day in the park and leaving the rest unstructured (for naps or whatever).
I guess what’s really bugging me is the uncertainty. My FPP 60 days out is 60 days out. I just hope for some clarity by then.
Boarding Group #46 Assigned a few minutes after 7am. In app notification for our BG at 10am. Scanned in at 10:05, got off the ride around 10:55am.
The extra hour in the park without any fast pass riders was pretty nice. Slinky twice, Midway mania, and then rock n roller standby wait started to go up after official open and fast pass riders.
Thanks for sharing this article. Based on the information he had at the time, his guess was reasonable. However, at 15 BGs per hour today, that would imply 3,000 riders per hour, which is beyond the capacity of any normal attraction. So unless they have changed the size of each BG, I would guess 100 is the most likely size of a BG (implying 1,500 rph) with 150 being the max (2,250 rph).
That is going to be a VERY long day. I’m not staying on site so I have to uber to the park. Therefore I can’t go back to my hotel to rest midday. That night I have MK after hours. So if I’m leaving at 6 am that’s about an 18 hour day or so. Ugggh.
Today they didn’t run out of BGs until 8:25am. And they’re plowing through them. So maybe a good sign that by January 6th you can get an extra half hour of sleep? People who arrived by 7:00am (like @GeekByExample) were off the ride by 11am. And got to ride a bunch of headliners in the morning. Not bad!
Downtime killed our chance to ride on Saturday before heading home too. At the park by 5:50, through the taps just under an hour later, got BG 24. We went back to our room to pack and do airline check-in. Arrived back at HS with about 15 - 20 minutes left in our 2 hour window. The ride was down. We were told it would be down for at least a couple of hours and that they would not call any new BGs until all of the previously called ones had time to go through (up to BG 27 I think). This was maybe 10:30. My mom and DD2 were back at the resort and we had plans in the afternoon at AK until we had to head to the airport at 3. We chose to head back to the resort and then to AK. By 11:20 or so someone was reporting on chat that the ride was up and they were in line with BG 34. So we were lied to on two accounts - how long the ride would be down and that they would not call any new groups so soon. We made no attempt to go back because we knew it would be a mess with all the new and old groups called. I guess we’ll ride it in 2021.
I abhor this about Disney! CMs are given canned responses that everyone knows are completely false and they deliver them with a smile.
I love virtually everything else about Disney (at least what they can control) but this aspect of the experience is dystopian. I’d expect better communication from the devil upon arriving in hell.
Assuming things continue as they are when your FP window opens, and the family are not on board with getting up at dawn (or even before), why not let them do their thing (sleep) whilst you do yours?
Book FPs for you and the family starting at a time that is acceptable to everyone.
Then if they don’t want to join you, you get up, go to DHS, get a BG and then do whatever you like until the st of the family join you. You have a 2 hour window to report when called, plenty of time to fit that in somewhere. Worst case you skip an FP to ride RotR.
I added this section to the lead post based on reports I have read on the chat and elsewhere. If anyone has experience, feel free to share in this thread.
See, these are the details that I appreciate Liners pointing out to me. I assumed that my whole crew has to be there to be included in a boarding group. If they don’t, and especially since we are staying at the Boardwalk, I’ve got no issue with going over there myself and reserving a BG for the rest of my slugabeds.
Sorry it appears you misunderstood. Your whole crew does need to be there. @Nicky_S was suggesting that you could ride on your own if your family doesn’t want to invest in the time and effort to get a BG.
