Hello all, is it me or it all the planning to get on ROTR taking a little of the fun out of it . Don’t get me wrong I love planning the week I spend in WDW but all the stuff with Star Wars is a little much . We are going end of April and my son in law and grandson are BIG star wars guys, I just wish Disney can do a better job then having to get there at 6am or else you will not be able to go on ride, just my two cents, thanks
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In a sense, I agree with you…but the truth is, there IS something we can do to not take the fun out of it.
Wait for it…
Don’t do ROTR.
Gasp. I know. Shocking. But if ROTR wasn’t open right now, and you were going to HS tomorrow, you’d have a good time, no? So, if the joy is being sucked out of the experience because of ROTR, then…well…just pretend it doesn’t exist. Have fun doing everything else you would have done otherwise.
Yes, I want to do ROTR in May. And I plan for us to. But the fact is, I have to keep it in perspective. Disney was a great place before.
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I don’t mind it, because I like the planning, I stay right up to date on changes, and I’m planning to arrive at rope drop anyway. On the other hand I have friends going over March Break who are big Star Wars fans but who are booking at the 30 day mark (and so probably won’t get MF:SR) and whose kids don’t think 5am is a reasonable wakeup time, so they’ll probably get shut out of all the stuff, which is too bad.
I don’t think this is the case if you actually do continue to read and plan for it… basically, you have to be in the park before 7 if you want a true Boarding Group (which isn’t even really guaranteed if the ride has a massive breakdown - the difference is that if you don’t ride RotR with a true BG then you’re compensated with an anytime FP and a free park ticket). If you’re fine with risking a Backup Boarding Group, arriving right at 7 is fine - the latest data would say you could even get a BBG as late as 9 if the crowds are relatively low.
That may all change before you go, so I’d keep up to date on the forum, but aside from which group you’ll get and the desire to get a true BG vs. a BBG, it’s not a very stressful thing. I think the reason so many folks are making such a big deal out of it is because they find the process fun - it’s like trying to win a lottery. But it shouldn’t/doesn’t take a whole ton of extra effort. Also, the ride is amazing. And well worth getting up an hour earlier than usual if you’re a big Star Wars fan.
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I get it. However, I’m a RD person anyway. I’d rather know at the start of my day IF I’ll get to ride it than have a plan where I have to wait in a 3+ hour queue.
Right now, with the BGs, the philosophy at DHS has to be - “Don’t plan for it”. Make your TP for everything else and be flexible.
Besides, I see too many “perfect” plans from people here. They go from ride to ride with no room for error / distractions / unexpected bathroom time. RotR is another example of how you shouldn’t plan everything down to the minute with no “Free Time” in your TP.
Finally, this type of situation happens almost every time WDW opens a hot new attraction - even w/out BGs. There’s no historical data to help plan if a new ride is going to have a 60 minute wait or 3+ hours until it’s been going for a few months.
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I was under the impression that getting there before 7 still didn’t guarantee a ride because BG’s go within the first few minutes. But what I am reading is barring breakdowns - everyone there before 7 will get an actual BG and opportunity to ride? Am I getting too excited? Do all of the BG’s actually get called?
Along the lines of what the OP stated - it seems like cruel and unusual punishment to get out of bed that early, at the park by 7 only to be told at 7:02 - too bad, so sad. You were here, but still not cool enough to ride this ride. 
I totally concur, unless you are doing one of the challenges… Disney has so many distractions, so many roses to smell along the way…
We tend to be planners, packing our schedules to get our money’s worth at Disney. We did have lots on our schedule but were finishing them faster than planned. One day in MK last month, we got to enjoy one of custodians drawing Disney characters on the walkway with the tip of a broom and water from his dust pan. It was fascinating and allowed us to interact with a custodian who positively glowed with our admiration and words of encouragement.
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Honestly, I think HS as a whole has sucked the fun out of planning for me. I have already started making my TPs for the other 3 parks. And by TPs, I mean my FP and rope drop plans. HS I’m not going to touch until a week or 2 before my FP day in March. There are just too many changes that have and are going to happen. It is not just RotR. However, there is no way my family is going to let me skip HS. They are huge Star Wars fans and my kids finally want to ride RnRc.
This hasn’t always been the case. The BGs really do “sell out” in 2 minutes and then the Back-Up BGs are issued. You can still arrive 1+ hour early and still be put in a Back-Up group. Granted it’s been happening less & less, but has happened multiple times. Two different people who arrive 1+ hour early can get radically different BG. (One person can be #12 and the other #101)
If you have a regular BG, the park makes every effort to get everyone on - even if it has broken down that day for hours and they have to extend park hours. If they can’t get through all those, which happens when the ride breaks down for 4+ hours, they issue actual FastPasses for it on the next day.
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I’m with you @ryan1 
I was lucky enough to get a MFSR fastpass for our HS day when they came out. And we do plan to be there at rope drop to try and get a boarding group. But if something goes wrong and we don’t get one we will still have a fantastic time.
I have a rough plan in place for the day with some flexibility for when/if we get the BG call. So long as I get my carrot cake cookie all will be good! 
I think it would help to look at it this way.
If you can get to the park entrance by 6:30am and be in the park, you have a good chance of getting a BG and being able to ride. You may not know for sure, and you don’t know when your BG will be called; and yes, there’s a chance you don’t get to ride. But you will find out if you can ride at the start of the day, and then rejig plans accordingly.
If they didn’t have this system, you could be having to wait in a six hour queue and then find the ride goes down and you can’t ride. And then you would have wasted half the day and done nothing. And have to drop half your plan anyway.
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The voice of reason!
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Yes, it is taking the fun out of it … until you realize you can have an amazing time at HS without RotR. I have been to HS many times in the past without RotR existing and I still had a blast! So, we are planning that we will not be riding RotR during our next trip … and if something happens and we are able to ride, it will be an unexpected surprise.
Also, I wouldn’t give up so easily on MF:SR. FPs may become available (people change plans, cancel trips, change FP. etc) so it’s possible they may get FPs if they keep checking. And there are often shorter lines just before park closing so that is another opportunity to ride.
The dilemma I’m having now with planning, is that due to the time of day I was able to get an Oga’s reservation and MFSR FP, it means I would be in SWGE mid afternoon into early evening. To make the plan most efficient, I’d want to time my RotR to fit into that time of day as well. I’d rather hit everything in SWGE in one shot for the best immersion. Do I dare intentionally wait a couple minutes to get a BG until the estimated time that would result in an afternoon return window instead of immediately at park opening time on the dot? The time I’d want to ride would be near the typical borderline between regular BG’s and BBG’s. I don’t want to push it to the point where I have a BBG. Maybe trying to get too cute is too risky. Like others have mentioned, so many moving parts in HS to come up with the perfect plan.
I actually did this two weeks ago - we had a babysitter lined up for our kids (4 and 1) for the afternoon so DH and I wanted a mid-afternoon, early evening call time. I kept reviewing the data Steve is sharing on the RotR thread and guestimated that I needed a BG around 90. We were expecting very low CLs (1), but I knew we couldn’t wait too long - we got to the parking lot (staying offsite) at 7:13 and were through the tap stiles at 7:26, hit “my status” and got BBG 114 (backup groups started at 109 that day), which was called at around 3:45. We got in line by 3:50 and were in the first room about 25 minutes later.
On the highest crowd days, all BGs and BBGs have been gone within 15 minutes, but if you’re planning to be there early anyway, you can always go in, go through the process and then back out before confirming if it’s too low a number for you.
Of course all of the above is predicated upon the ride not breaking down.
Separately, I’ve heard anecdotally that the CMs will let you board late if you had a separate reservation, were stuck in a line somewhere, etc. So you could always roll those dice, too…
I honestly wouldn’t risk it. While the immersion experience would be ideal, I think it’s putting too much pressure and risk on. Is the small gain in immersion enjoyment enough to offset the disappointment if you end up in the BBG and they don’t call you? And with the breakdowns, it’s all a moving target anyway.