There are 3 of us that will be trying to get in a BG. Hopefully between us we can get a spot. We plan on visiting 2 days to HS so we pretty much have 4 chances to ride at least once. Keeping our fingers crossed we get in!!
1 Like
We had it happen twice, and both times a CM added our 4th or 5th member to the boarding group.
They made us fill out a paper once, but it seemed pointless as it was in pen and just my name and phone number and adress or somthing like that.
2 Likes
If you’re worried, take a screen capture video of your 10am run and if there are any technical difficulties, show the video to the cast member. It’s helps to have evidence!
3 Likes
I was watching Touring Plans Instagram page and their intern, Yoel got BG 1 at RotR today! Here are the steps he took (not sure which of these made the biggest difference):
- Arrive 9:30am
- Sit at Woody’s Lunchbox
- Sign out and sign back into MDE about 2 minutes prior to 10am
- Went back and forth from home screen to BG page until right at 10am, then went through all steps to get BG
Whether you get BG 1 is obviously pure luck, but getting a good BG seems to require the following:
- Have multiple people trying to get a BG for your party.
- Be in an area with good reception. Preferably not too crowded. TP crew has tested and WiFi is actually better than cell service, though it might help to hedge your bets with some in your party on each.
- Make sure you have registered as being in the park by restarting / signing out and back into your app after entering.
- Be ready right at 10am. Practice the process from home so you are familiar with the screens (you can do everything right up until after you select your party).
- Take screenshots if something goes wrong so you can show guest services.
Good luck everyone!
9 Likes
While I’m here, let’s have an update on some of the key operating metrics, care of Thrill Data!
First up is Boarding Group distribution. The blue dot is when BG distribution begins, the green dop is when it closes. As you can see, the blue dot is barely visible most days, because distribution occurs almost immediately (within 1 minute). Up until 7/24, there were 3 distribution times per day, and starting 7/24, there are only 2 (10am and 2pm).
Next up is # of groups processed per day. As you can see, most days since opening the ride has processed between 60 and 80 BGs, with some exceptions. Presumably there is no spillover from the previous day as there used to be in the early days, so the ping pong here is just statistical noise. Unfortunately, the last three days have been pretty bad, averaging closer to 50 BGs. Note that the size and number of groups may not be comparable to pre-COVID for many reasons, including the fact that ride capacity is limited - they aren’t filling up every seat.
Next up is down time. This chart plots every instance where a new BG was not called in over 15 min. Not every day is marked, so it’s hard to tell exactly which day a data point relates to, but in general there are about 3-5 delays per day, with each delay lasting 20-60 minutes. I’d guess the average is about 30 min, which is better than it used to be! (Used to average an hour.) If the ride breaks down while you’re in line, plan for an hour but be pleasantly surprised if it is less.
Last up is a plot of the total delays as a percentage of the park operating hours. Looks like the ride is down about 25% of the day on average, with some days coming in over 40% and others as little as 10% downtime.
5 Likes
We hit HS hard today. Got in the line to park at 9:15. They started letting cars in around 9:30.
Went straight to SDD, was about 10 - 15 minute wait. Jumped off at 9:58. Was able to sit in the shade right next to the exit and try for our BG. Party of 6 with 3 of us using cell phones trying to get BG’s. We were all quick, but within 10 seconds all BG’s were gone. Really bummed us out, but we have gotten on every other time we were at the park, and still had the 2:00 drop.
We went straight to MFSR and it was a straight walk on, maybe 10 minutes. Next we went over TSM again about 10-15 minutes, line looked long, but never stopped walking.
Shot over to Olgas for our 11:00 reservation, it was super cool because it was so empty.
Walked around the Star Wars area for about 30 minutes.
Then we headed to TOT. We had a 1:20 reservation at Brown Derby after that.
Got on our Phones and tried for our reservations. I was super quick maybe 4 or 5 seconds, and we ended up with BG 78 which was a backup group.
But we managed to get on around 6:15.
I was shocked at how quick the BG’s went.
Back when we used to go pre-covid with the one time drop, they would last about 1 -2 minutes.
Now its light speed. At the 2:00 drop i used the world clock and clicked join right 2:00.
5 Likes
Wow that is incredible how fast they went! But glad you made it on!
1 Like
So SDD was running before park open? That’s great!
1 Like
Yes. MMRR was running too but the line was ridiculous. We kept an eye on it and got in line when it dropped to 30 mi minutes. Seemed to be the lowest it got.
Overall a great day, but the stress of the ROTR is a pain. They need to come up with something better.
4 Likes
I think you had a great plan…MMRR in afternoon maybe after initial rush. I did my first “practice” to get a BG this morning. If my timing was right, they were gone in less than 40 seconds. EEk.
Definitely puts stress into the whole trip again…
1 Like
It was less then 10 seconds for sure. Plan on 10 seconds or less.
1 Like
We might be trying to go Monday/Tuesday to HS. We haven’t had chance to do ROTR or any BG’s yet - Can someone please point me to the most current set of ‘best ways’ to have a chance?? Sounds like a frustrating experience from the last few comments…
1 Like
Refer to this post above:
2 Likes
I was reading or watching something this weekend (I think DFB video) and they mentioned that the line for Guest Services at Hollywood Studios has been super long every morning due to people not getting BGs. I wonder how many they are handing out to dissatisfied customers. I would certainly ask for one if I was unable to get one through the system. And in turn, I wonder how many BGs they withhold for GS, and if that number has been increasing as more people are demanding them.
In other words, has GS become the de facto standby line for RotR? I wonder how long the line is. Maybe they should just make RotR standby only.
2 Likes
Interesting. Our first HS day on our recent trip we were only able to grab BGs for two people (out of our group of 4). We went to GS and there were two families in front of us. They added the other two people to our BG quickly–no problem. We went to GS at the front of the park. I know there are other blue umbrella guest experience stations throughout the park. I guess we got lucky that it was quick.
1 Like
Interesting! Maybe they were exaggerating on the video or maybe it varies by day. I think most people probably just give up if they don’t get a BG, but I’d be curious what percentage try to go to GS.
1 Like
That is an interesting question about how many people go to GS if they aren’t successful at getting a BG. I’m sure it makes some people mad. We only went to GS because we couldn’t add the other two guests. If we hadn’t gotten one at all, we would have just tried again at 2 pm.
1 Like
Interesting… Based on human behaviour, I am sure that a large portion of the people at GS are in fact doing what you have said/saw in the video.
How to solve it?
- Increase the reliability of the attraction to allow more people to ride. Until they can do this, this will be a never ending issue.
- Provide all guests a BG for the ride. You would think with the reduced number of people in the park, they should be able to accommodate.
- Keep the attraction open longer to satisfy the above. If the park hours are done, keep the attraction open. Close the rest of the park. Open the attraction earlier to satisfy the number of guests.
5 Likes
At HS today. BG 3…at 11:30 they have NOT called a single BG yet.
3 Likes
Congrats! Keep us posted! Keep enjoying the other rides, you are sure to get called as soon as they open. It’s not unheard of to have a delayed opening.
1 Like