Thanks so much @Jeff_AZ – this is incredibly helpful for my planning for next week.
@DisneyDayDreamin and @dunegirl or any others, did you get advance notice that the reall opening time would be earlier than official, or you just took a guess? December 8 is 9am opening, 8am EMH, so I was planning 7:30am. (I know that EMH does not include RotR but if BGs are still being used it will allow getting in the BG queue) I’m wondering if I should plan to get there even earlier.
Took a guess. In fact I asked the front desk last night about transportation and they said buses would run 45 prior to park opening but we decided to take the gamble and get up early to walk from BC and it paid off in spades.
And complicating things, the TP crowd level prediction for December 8 at HS is flashing red at CL10!!! I am guessing that TP is anticipating a lot of local AP holders will be going, plus MVMCP is that evening so visitors will be avoiding MK.
Gonna give it a shot tomorrow morning. Getting a Lyft at 6:15. Wish us luck
Good luck! If I had to guess, I think you should be fine arriving that early. I can’t imagine it being worse than today! (But maybe my imagination is too limited. 
) If it were me, I would arrive no later than 8am to guarantee a reasonable boarding group, 9am and you risk not getting one at all. Hopefully those guidelines will shift back as the initial excitement wears off.
Do you think that a PPO ADR would give the advantage of a better boarding group than without? From this post, it sounds like it. I.e., MDE didn’t hold back on issuing boarding groups until “official” opening time, right?
Yeah I think that would help. Today, everyone was let in “pre-park opening” so it wouldn’t have mattered. But on days where they allow PPO ADR holders in early, it would definitely be a benefit, unless they switch off the boarding group system until park opening (which they might do later).
As long as I get a boarding pass that allows me to get to Takumi Tei by 6:30pm I will be happy
Oooooooh report back on this too please!
DFB said the whole multi-course meal was like 3 hours or something ridiculous like that. I’m curious if it really is. My palate is too unsophisticated to appreciate it - I’m sticking to Teppan Edo!
We were group 58 (arrived at HS by 7 am) and got into line at 1:05. Finished at 2:10!
I wanted to let you know that I did not receive a push message from Disney that the ride was back up. I stood around queue. I saw movement, I jumped in line 
It was only after I scanned in with my multiple experience fpp that I got the push notification.
My second BG was only obtained bc I saw that someone picked one up right before me (after they reported that the distribution was done). I tried, I got it. I’m hoping to get back to try to use it.
Thanks for the note - I added that to the summary as it’s an important detail.
I fixed / added your other data points the timeline as well. Part of Liner history!
Couple of things I gathered from videos and reports, Jeff_AZ’s great report covers many of these but a few observations any way:
at 2am they were possibly turning cars around at the gates, but after 3am cars started lining up. There was a long queue of cars when they started getting in at 4:20am or so.
plenty of people at the park entrance from 2-3am. At 5:25am people are seen cheering and heading in.
After a stop along the way, people were directed to Batuu and actually diverted far past the ride entrance to form a queue.
about an hour after entry at 6:30am, the first people are getting into the actual ride queue.
just half an hour later at 7am, the ride was down
there was a new queue (?) formed after getting people off the ride. At 8am, they started reboarding again.
Just realized I think I got the timing on this wrong. What time did you join the queue the first time before the breakdown?
I think there were reports of the first cars entering the DHS parking lot at 1am, according to WDWMagic.
I have already been there. What do you want to know. Best meal and service on property if you don’t include V&A.
I didn’t note the time we entered the queue but we were just a few groups back from load when they dumped the queue and evacuated the liners who were on at that point. So maybe just before 7? We were sent out of the queue at 7:10 or so.