We enjoyed them immensely last year and the year before that. That was due to the cast member who walked around giving us Disney History and trivia (I am ashamed that I forgot his name and his wife’s name). We made a special second trip just to sit on the pavement and listen to him throw out all the trivia and ask his wife for validation (who was also a CM doing crowd control). The fireworks are good to do once, but we kept coming back for the CM interaction.
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That is very few FP. I suspect FP in this case would generally be booked out to at least 60+10 and only those guests staying on site for 10+ (or more) days would have a chance to get a FP for this ride. Not sure how that is any more fair than the current BG situation.
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Seems like WDW could make it just a flat 60 day FPP and not allow any + days or like I posted earlier…
At the very minimum WDW could have offered morning EMHs but not start booking BPs til regular park opening. That way resort guests would at least have the opportunity to be in the park when BPs opened up.
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Yes, I suppose this is feasible if WDW really wanted to find a way to give resort guests an advantage for RotR. For whatever reason, WDW decided not to.
As reported by another Liner, WDW also is currently is not including RotR as an option for VIP tour guests who are paying $3,000+ per day extra for their VIP tour guide. So clearly, WDW has decided to make RotR equally available (or unavailable) to all guests.
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So only two stoppages today, maybe they are getting things figured out?
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FWIW, Len said on his podcast (Disney Dish) that WDW communicated to him that they do not offer RotR to VIP tours because the ride is not yet operating reliably, and they would not want guests to pay so much and then be wasting their time with a ride that isn’t operating.
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Ok. I retract that portion of my post, but the main point of my post remains the same.
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Today was a pretty stellar day for RotR. There were two instances where the ride was down for an hour each, but otherwise the ride was continually adding BGs all day from about 8:30am till 3:30pm - 7hrs straight. There may have been downtime in there but not significant enough to cause a full evacuation of the line and ride. The last BG called was 91 a little after 6pm. I assume that was the highest issued, but can’t confirm. They did not open the line to standby or issue additional BGs.
Tomorrow, they may issue more BGs than they did today - I’m guessing 115. Also, there will be fewer FPs floating around for people who were bumped. So that should keep waits down and BGs should be called more frequently tomorrow unless there is more downtime.
If you need a morning BG, arrive between 5-5:30am. There is still no measurable benefit to arriving earlier than 5. If you are ok waiting to ride until the evening, arrive around 6:30am. Don’t expect a BG if you arrive after 7am.
Good luck!
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If you get there that early for either of those rides, you’ll be at the front of the RD pack and will have an “instant” BG!
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Here’s today’s update. I arrived earlier than yesterday, but the line was pretty much in the same place as I saw the day before, but I lined up in a better position (to the far right, where they are doing construction, so you have access to more tapstiles that are blocked off by the construction fencing), so I got an earlier boarding group than yesterday. The park opened a little later than yesterday (though still close to 6:30) and I finished the ride an hour earlier than the day before.
Here are the details.
Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios
Thursday, 12/12/2019
- 5:48 AM - Parked (Mickey 303)
- 5:56 AM - Through Bag Check
- 5:57 AM - in line for Tapstiles (on far right side, near construction walls, but line not moving yet
- 6:35 AM - announcement plays describing virtual queues for Rise of the Resistance
- 6:37 AM - Tapstiles open (“Welcome to Hollywood Studios” played on PA)
- 6:44 AM - Tapped into park, added to Boarding Group 28 immediately after tapping in
- sometime between 7:17-7:19 - option to Join Boarding Group in MDE no longer availabe (greyed out)
- ~7:30 - Queue Closed, Ride Down
- 8:25 AM - Queue Reopened (people were lined up at least a few minutes before, so there must have been some indication from CMs that re-opening was imminent)
- 8:53 AM - saw Boarding Group called on app (didn’t receive push notification + my group was called a little earlier, but I was talking to a CM and wasn’t in a rush to get to the attraction)
Rise of the Resistance Queue/Ride Timings
- 8:59 AM - in line, guests waiting through all of the caves starting behind waterfall, but moving steadily through each room
- 9:36 AM - Ready Room (with BB8)
- 9:39 AM - on Shuttle
- 9:42 AM - arrive on Star Destroyer
- 9:45 AM - stop taking pictures and get in queue for next phase of attraction (queue is backed up all the way to the room you enter the star destroyer)
- 9:56 AM - Put in Detention Cell
- 9:58 AM - Seated on Transport Vehicle
- 10:03 AM - Done Ride
In tracking when my boarding group would be called, I called noted what groups were “Now Boarding” through the morning:
- 6:47 AM, 12-20
- 7:00 AM, 12-22
- 7:09 AM, 12-24
- 7:14 AM, 12-25
- 7:17 AM, 12-25
- 7:19 AM, 12-25
- 7:27 AM, 12-26
- 7:51 AM, 12-26
- 7:58 AM, 12-26
- 8:10 AM, 12-26
- 8:21 AM, 12-26
- 8:30 AM, 12-26
- 8:33 AM, 12-26
- 8:36 AM, 12-27
- 8:53 AM, 12-29
- 8:58 AM, 12-29
- 9:06 AM, 12-30
- 9:19 AM, 12-30
- 10:08 AM, 25-37
- 10:18 AM, 26-39
- 10:30 AM, 27-42
- 10:46 AM, 29-45
- 10:48 AM, 29-45
- 11:13 AM, 31-50
- 11:57 AM, 36-55
- 12:53 PM, 47-62
- 8:12 PM, 76-91
- 8:42 PM, 81-91
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A very good day. The only other day that was better according to my simple math was 12/8. Both days had only two ride shutdowns.
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Awesome day! I’m envious of everyone who is getting to ride!
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I presume you’re planning to put all this information to use yourself, hopefully sometime soon?!
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I will be at WDW in May but I’m hoping to hop down to DL in Feb/Mar after it opens there. For now just vicarious enjoyment. 
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Line as of 5:51am today, 12/13. People at the front of the line arrived at 4:30am. Tapstiles not open as of 6:06am.
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This is getting crazy. Now that word is out, more and more people are getting there earlier and earlier it seems.
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Line practically to bag check as of 6:30, tapstiles not open.
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What a nightmare for us lol, we will be there next Wednesday.
Yes, I hope they stop opening so early by the time my May trip comes around. We will be using buses, which traditionally start around 6/6:30am. I really don’t want to deal with Uber/Lyft for my family of 5. And I don’t want to wake up that early in the morning.