This actually makes sense since they’re closing the queue at 6pm. If they’re going to get through everyone who has been called to that point, people need to show up relatively on time.
Hopefully they’ll change the enforcement after the soft open is over.
Ohhhhh, I can see that! But there is also the scenario of:
I’m on a plane at 7 am, grab my BG and don’t make it on time. They force everyone to grab it at 7 am
could this be applied for the case I offered?
I think Disney is either going to have to be consistently strict across parks and make people mad or become more lenient with arrivals. I’m not explaining this well. I think they should allow late arrivals, but I do see the point of too many waiting for sunset too
Honestly, this is a big point. The system works when people shpw up for their window. 30 mins one way or another isn’t going to break the system but if plenty start shpwing up hours late, it effects things. I wish they would open the return window to 2 hours but keep their strict enforcement.
It is worth at least visiting GS and explaining your situation, but it might fall on deaf ears during soft open. Be emotionally prepared.
From disboards, another late guest turned away:
I got spot 27 in the 7 am booking, which was estimated at 11:40 am. We still had to drive there, but I thought that time would work, since i thought I had until 12:40 to get there. Well, the boarding group got called early, at 9:45. We got there at 12:30 and went straight to Tron. The first person that scanned us into the Tron area was fine, they scanned and let us through. We get up to the entrance and the scanner turned blue. They said we were late. I told them we had to drive there and the guy was quite rude and said well you had an hours notice. The lady then said we are being very strict with boarding groups. This is ridiculous when you have no say in what time your boarding group is going to be. Then to make matters worse i couldn’t even try for the 1:00 groups as it was showing that I already booked a group that day.
Someone on another forum has tracked average minutes per BG for Cosmic, and so far is doing the same for Tron. Even if the estimated wait is off it gives a good average if someone wants to do the math.
What # did they come up with?
If I do the math on thrilldata it works out to ~14 BG/hour after the initial call.
That’s the slope of the lines below for the long smoothish sections. Ignore the wait time axis label, it’s really BG Called.
That’s never a good thing… LOL
The problem with all of this is the artificially created stress that Disney is creating for the guest by even giving an approximate return time. Early groups are almost always called hours before what they post. Factoring in potential downtime, they may think they have an idea when a group will be called back, but they don’t. Especially in the beginning. I happen to not give a rats ass, but DH and MIL would be a giant stress ball if we had an ADR and VQ that may overlap. When we were there a couple of weeks ago, we had CP breakfast at 9:30 and our DVC preview started at 10:00. They could not enjoy breakfast. We went through the same thing with the VQ for Rise and Ogas.
Enforcing the time for Tron versus GotG may be due to the perceived preference of nighttime riding being better. If enough people wait from their earlier in the day time slot until it is evening, the lines will become massive. This is also probably why they are cutting it off at 6 pm for now.
This. If they are going to give an approximated return time, you should not be considered late until it’s 1hr past that approximated time if the group is called early, or 1hr after the group is actually called if it’s not
But that’s very sophisticated if/then programming and I’m sure Disney IT is not up to that task.
Honestly I would be really upset if, upon getting a BG it estimated a return of 1140 and I got there around that time to find they wouldn’t let me ride. I planned my arrival around their estimate - don’t punish me for that.
Ultimately what that will result in is a pre-Covid DHS tapstiles situation where everyone arrives en masse before rope drop so as to avoid being turned away for a Tron group that gets called early. It will jam up the park and ruin the entire experience.
I know there is a lot of speculation on most Disney fan sites about everyone waiting to ride at night.
But I’m curious about what the percentage of guests riding GOTG each day even know they can be late. I always hear at least 1-2 groups of people in the park say “we need to get to GOTG, we only have “X” minutes left to ride. Not to mention the mass of people standing near the entrance waiting to be called.
I honestly don’t think the number of people late to their BG is that big of a number 
This is a brilliant idea, frankly. But it puts the onus on Disney to come up with a more accurate estimate.
On the other hand, the estimates are probably off partly because people aren’t showing up in their window, and so they open up to the next groups earlier than anticipated. If people start really all showing up for their own window, the time estimates will start to be more accurate.
(I also think, however, they account for a potential delayed opening in those earlier groups…and if they don’t end up being delayed, they are well ahead of schedule…which is when your suggestion really make the most sense!)
I think you could very well be right about this.
As with so many things of this nature, the perception we may have about that being common knowledge is very likely skewed by the sample set. Here, DisBoards, Lines Chat, etc are people just like us who Know All the Things - and who are very different from the average visitor.
I did call out that I don’t think Disney IT is up to that challenge though, which is a whole other conversation
Disney offers a way to pick your time. It is called ILLS. Virtual Queues can’t/don’t work that way…and I don’t think they should. While it has advantages, it also comes with negatives.
Regardless…I think they COULD adopt the VQ system to something better, accommodating times better.
So, if you think of a VQ being just like a line you COULD stand in…you would typically get into the VQ when you are ready to.
What they really should do is break up the day into blocks. Right now, they have two blocks…but probably 4 blocks would be better. But the trick would be that they only allow booking a VQ for the first block until it is time to open the next block. So, if the first block was 8 to 11, then 11 to 2, then 2 to 5, then 5 to close, then those who were in the first block could get a time up through noon. At 11 am, however, they open up for the time slots that could take them through the next block, etc. In this way, they could better enforce the being in the park, as well as ensure people aren’t booking times outside of their expected window.
But then we run back into the problem that plagues any decent VQ system: Unexpected breakdowns and delays! But even this I think could be handled…because I don’t think Disney would necessary advertise an END time for each block (even if they had one in mind)…but rather, when the next block opens up for BGs. But if there had been delays in the morning, and they are behind, then the number of BGs they open in the next block might be a lot less, and perhaps start later. By the third block, they might be back on target.
But this. Always this. 
I think this would be a good solution. Also one I could live with if they continue to enforce the rule.
Is it possible Disney is using this soft opening to get an idea of how many guests don’t make it to their called time?
Isn’t figuring out the hiccups before promising X, Y, or Z to people the point of a soft opening?
Tron hours got extended for today. It’s open until 7:30 pm instead of 6:00 pm. That shows on Disney’s site for Tron.
