Just thinking out loud - instead of going to a FP+ system - how would people feel about RotR having two times during the day (Park Opening and maybe 1PM) for trying to get BGs? Could that help spread out the crazy crowds? Not at all advocating for this - but I have heard plenty of rumors about it going FP+ and I think that would be a mistake at this point in time. Perhaps in a year or so when things calm down (ha ha ha).
If BGs continue for much longer, my idea is getting your RotR BGs 30+ days in advance. You could prebook it like a Tier One FastPass – this would be your only Tier One option if you did this – no Slinky / MF:SR / MMRR. It’s not a FastPass. You’ll still have to go through the queue and be called back to the ride.
Any guests that don’t prebook can sign up for an non-guaranteed back-up BG on the morning they enter the park.
This would allow Disney can limit the number of guaranteed groups while still issuing as many “back-ups” as they want the day of. This would discourage ppl from showing up 1.5 - 2 hours before park opening. There wouldn’t be any complaints about not getting one because your phone service isn’t great or the app crashed.
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that wouldn’t go over well
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You’d have to limit it somehow… but you could still get a “back-up” BG on the day of your visit
I don’t think splitting the day would work well either. How do you communicate to people that they have to stop everything they are doing at 12:50pm to try for a BG? How many complaints will GS have over, “I was on a ride and couldn’t use my phone!!” or something similar?
Again… this is all hypothetical and just for fun to talk about. 
The newest rumor, through easywdw on Twitter, is that RotR is going to Standby queue only starting March 3rd or 4th. He does say this is a rumor. However, I don’t believe he’d mention it if he didn’t have a source.
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No system is perfect but I don’t think there’s a better one than the current BG process considering demand is going to far outstrip capacity for a long time:
- CON: Fact that you need to get there early is not ideal and not guaranteed, of course
- PRO, or rather offset to above CON: But by starting BGs at park opening (and not earlier), and fully staffed security / tapstiles, you don’t need to get there much before park opening to make sure you’re in the park. So folks showing up 1.5 - 2 hours early are just being overly cautious or doing it to RD something else (which they’d do either way)
- PRO: Way less time waiting in line than you’d have with standby only or than you’d have in standby with a FP option. See flight of passage, for instance. And standby only would push the “how early to show up for rope drop” much earlier, I expect.
- PRO: Getting a BG doesn’t impact other rides you can do. It’s an extra “fast pass”. Nor does a late BG keep you from getting additional FPs once you go through your first 3.
- PRO, mostly for Disney: BG process helps them manage (and mask) ride reliability issues much better than a prescribed hour fast pass window does
- CON, but modest: Hard to plan your day around an uncertain return time. But my experience was cast members are very accommodating at other rides / ADR if you missed something because of RoTR. So not a big deal unless you’re obsessed with your minute-by-minute schedule
I could see how a lottery the night before for a boarding group might be better in eliminating the need for an early morning arrival. But I worry unless you gave folks staying on property an advantage or you had a penalty for getting a BG through the lottery and then not using your BG, you might have a bunch of locals or near locals trying the lottery every night and only then making a decision whether to attend the next day. And it would likely make it much harder for folks on vacation to plan which park days to attend (assuming more folks will try the lottery than currently show up before park opening for a BG, which seems highly likely), so ADRs and FPs would suffer.
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I was thinking similarly- why not just book a slot in advance still using the SB line. This way you can better plan your day and if you’re going to be disappointed at least you know I’m advance.
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This must not happen!
As much as the BG thing is stressing me out, it would be worse to have to stand in a line that is hours long.
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I completely agree with this. The fact is simple that there are way more people who want to ride this in a given day than can ride it based on current capacity. The issues with going to FP are it limits it to hotel guests only (and I dont think that is a great PR move for Disney) but more importantly that FP assume a regular flow to riders throughout the day, and that just isnt the experience with RotR to this point. BGs are a great way to allow flexibility in how many groups are getting called back at a time based on uptime, etc. (like you said)
If they move to multiple times during the day, or even 30+ days out, you still have the same issue of having to rely on a phone or computer to get a BG in a very small window of time.
I just cant see them moving away from BGs any time soon. SB line would guarantee even earlier morning queues to try and guarantee a spot and people would be spending entire park days in the line which is not what Disney wants. They want them out of the line spending money!
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Personally, I don’t think it’ll happen until the ride can consistently operate without multi-hour breakdowns. They have to dump the whole queue when it does break down now. I even hesitated mentioning it. However, since we were already talking in hypotheticals & rumors I figured I drop that one in.
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I posted this hypothetical in another thread, but it makes more sense here.
If you could book BGs together with FPs, but having a BG blocked you from FP for the entire day, what would you do?
The question is to try to figure out what would be enough to make it into a real decision, and not something that everyone just does.
Does anyone know the no-show rate on FPs? At least with the current BG process, they are making sure those in the “quick finger lottery” were physically on site that morning at some point, which is a reasonable commitment level, I think.
Maybe they could give you a confirmation in MDE that you are showing as tapped in, let you select your party members pre-opening, and then at opening they just randomly assign BBG to all parties who tapped in? And they just go as far as they can? That at least takes lag and IT issues out of the equation.
I’m not sure there is much else they can do to make it more fair (besides the obvious of getting capacity maximized ASAP, which I assume they are already laser focused on). Any kind of advance booking will just move the lottery ahead and likely increase the no-show rate. (And possibly give an advantage to those willing to pay more, which may or may not be fair, depending on who you ask.) Given the downtime, any set return time would be mostly nominal and possibly reduce capacity, which is counter productive.
I guess having a SB line gives someone a better chance that have their heart set on that one ride, but not sure that’s a good mindset to cater to and nurture.
The one thing they could do is limit people to one ride in a 30 day period. That would allow more different people to experience the ride.
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What about doing FL resident AP blackouts on Fri. – Sun. and school breaks? (I might even restrict APs more, but I’d start here.)
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This website had a good article on why BG is the way to go.
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Thanks for sharing. That should be required reading!
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I like this idea. I would much rather know 30 days in advance if I have a chance of riding. Showing up and fighting with the crowds and then racing to get a BG on my phone in under 60 seconds is just too crazy stressful.
Maybe I’m missing something but I’m not seeing how that helps? It’s not like there is excess capacity during the week?
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no different than communicating anything else to people. Have some type of BG schedule on MDE that says “You will be able to reserve space in a Boarding Group at the following times: 8am 1PM”. No different than a schedule of the shows for the day perhaps. Just a thought.
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A good article, but I disagree with one of their points about FPP.
I agree that FPP doesn’t work for the current unreliable operations of ROTR.
However, I doubt Disney cares about making the ride equally available to onsite and offsite guests. They do want to avoid irate guests spending extra money to stay onsite and get a ROTR FPP only to be unable to ride. Same for VIP tours, paid after hours and early morning events, paid CL FPPs.
Also, FPP for ROTR will be gone well before 60 days out. I’m thinking 60+7 would be needed to secure it (maybe even + 10). FOP is still gone 60 days out.
Doesn’t that just make it even harder to plan your day? At least this way people have a general idea first thing in the morning if they even have a chance at riding? With scattered drop times, you could hang around through all the drops and not get a BG. This way you can decide if you want to go to a different park and try again the next day.
If the point is to be sure to use ride capacity until the end of the day, additional BBG accomplishes the same thing.
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not really. currently they are pretty lax if you miss a FP+ reservation because of RotR, so I can’t imagine how it would change your plans