Tapstiles opened at 6:40.
Not exactly.
Even being at the front of the rope we had to participate in the running of the bulls. It would be much nicer (IMO) to tap through, open MDE, and snag a BG.
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How early did you get there?
Throughout Sep and Oct there were plenty of EEMH days at the parks to be enjoyed. I think itās awesome the park is open so early and wish they all would be! People are getting three more hours to tour and the BG is separate from FPP. I must be the odd one out. I think this is a win.
Iām chuffed that I went in November, a/k/a the month of lesser hours. 
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IMO there is a difference between EEMH days and a regular park opening that opens early unannounced. I would have no issues waking up early if I knew the park was going to open when it said it would, especially for EMH.
I was here around 5:30, took a minnie van.
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According to MDE the park opened at 7 AM today. @thedownsfamily says they opened at 6:40AM
I acknowledge that I am looking at MDE now. I was not looking last night. Did it say something other than 7 AM last night?
Ok the gloves are off, I just talked to the wife, we are getting up at 4:00 am. I just grabbed a Disney hotel across the street to crash in the middle of the day. There goes the budget!
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6:40 is early. You normally donāt get to queue for a ride at Disney until the park opens. BP is queuing. I also think some people are getting there so early at this point in hopes of the park opening sooner. But I digress. The opening for this attraction has been a bit of a mess. Hopefully opening calms down some before my trip.
True. You donāt get to queue for a ride but maybe 10-15 mins early (rope drop marches start at various times, but Iāve been off rides at 9:01AM). But IMO Iād rather be queuing than standing herded and preparing for the RD-run. Once you nab your BG you get more hours to tour the park.
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When I hear 7am, I would think BP would open at 7am. You still get your early park touring and no RD rush. Then people wouldnāt feel the need to show up at 4:30am. Early, yes, but not that early.
I understand your pointā¦but if they really waited until 7:00, people rush in and immediately starting trying for a BG all at once, blocking flow of traffic, etc. , but with the same end resultā¦all the people who arrived earliest would still end up with an earlier BG.
Honestly, while I think the BG system made sense initially, I still think they need to eliminate it soon:
- It gives a (slight) advantage to off-site guests over probably a majority of on-site guests.
- It is forcing earlier and earlier arrival times to guarantee getting a BG.
- Once you have a BG, it does almost nothing to take those people out of the system for the rest of the park, unlike other queues. If people are willing to wait, then those people are not filling queues elsewhere. This helps to balance the load of the park. But with the BGs, it means all those people āin lineā arenāt actually in line, and so are filling up other lines. So, for example, we wonāt see a drop in the waits on SDD or MFSR as a result of the opening of RotR, which is what we historically would have seen otherwise. In fact, it has the potential to make it worse.
- A regular line, without FP, means only those who are most determined will be willing to sacrifice other park time to ride this ride and wait the wait. But with BG, there is no decision to to made, and so it becomes a mad dash to be the first one to the park ONLY.
Of course, there are benefits to the BG system. Not saying there arenāt. But this method of BG handling doesnāt seem sustainable.
Iāll continue to wait to see what happens in January. But Iām souring on the idea of even trying RotR if this keeps up. I had enough of a time trying to convince my family that we might have to leave by 6:30, but now it seems like that would be far too late!
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Hmm. One thought I just had that might, perhaps, helpā¦wondering what others think.
But that is, if you arrive to obtain a BG, you have to sacrifice your Tier 1 FP for the BG. This would force people to have to make a choiceā¦and if they choose RotR, then they might have to give up SDD (for example), which frees up a SDD FP for someone else who canāt otherwise get on RotR.
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Disney could have announced a 7am opening time from the beginning and solve most of the opening days mess, but it seems like they werenāt confident enough that the ride would be operating well.
I think a lot of what is causing discomfort is that arriving early and getting a BG sounds too easy? If people had to stand in a long line or negotiate a large crowd it would seem like it is enough effort/sacrifice. Every ride that has more demand than availability is moderated by some amount of unpleasantness, either money (to get the best FPs), or waking up early (RDing), or decisions (when there are FP tiers) or just being willing to stand in a long line. With RotR they are only letting you āpayā with one type of unpleasantness, and there are enough people willing to be there before 7am to completely fill the ride for the day.
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Entered queue at 7:38am. Still in queue as of 8:13am. Will miss my SDD FPP. Havenāt moved in roughly 10min.
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We are starting our FPs at 10 am, We are waking up at 4:00 am, not because Iām concern about no getting a BG, We can get a BG by showing up at 6:00 am. We are going to show up that early only to be able to ride SDD, ToT and RR with minimum waits, as many times as we can.
We may wait a bit to get the Bg, I donāt want to be one of the first BG to be call
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Hadnāt really thought about it like thatā¦but I think youāre right.
This is an awesome thread, thanks to @Jeff_AZ for all the research and computations and everyone else for recording their personal experiences. I will be there next Weekend, originally was not planning on trying to ride but this thread gives me hope. Just hubby and myself and we are early risers staying at Swan, so get our early morning walk/exercise in and drink our coffee in line waiting.
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