RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[wareagle57]

Update. Paper FPs went in. I just got back in normal line

It’s running again? They told me I’d get a push notification to re-board.

 

[Iowamomof4]

I appreciate all the reports! Sounds like day #2 is a bit more of a struggle than day 1.

 

[birostick]

It’s running again? They told me I’d get a push notification to re-board.

Currently running again... in the normal line.

 

[krayzie]

I mean, if you think about it, if they didn't have a VQ system, the line would be probably be several hours long anyway, probably similar to what Hagrids was.

The only positive of that is the people waiting in line wouldn't be in line for other rides so faster wait times for everything else!

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

It’s crazy! How in the world is the average guest supposed to plan or know what to do?! Just announce the 6 or 7 am opening if that’s what you’re going to do. We plan to do the Studios Wednesday. So I guess we need to plan for a 6 am opening. I feel really bad for park goers who don’t realize this is happening. Imagine getting there for a 9:00 opening to find you are closed out for the day already & others have been riding for 3 hours.

If they didn't know it was going on then they have nothing to be disappointed about, though. Just go do whatever you were originally planning on doing at DHS & enjoy your day. People who showed up super early (like myself yesterday) were pretty darn beat by park opening. At 8am I was just sitting on the ground in SWGE drinking coffee. A lot of people got their boarding groups & left to take a nap. I love rides but there's only so many times you can ride everything before you need a break. Even at park open everything except Smuggler's Run had a low wait time. SR jumped up from 20 to 70 minutes when ROTR went down a little after 8am, but the line did go back down to a normal rope drop wait time after it started working again (which, FWIW, seems to be 60 minutes or so because it's longer in the morning). If they do know it's day 2 of Disney's most advanced ride opening, then they will probably have at least an inkling that there may be a massive demand for it & from there you make a decision of to go for it or not bother & try again another day/trip.

 

[TrolleyTrouble2713]

I am sorry but does anyone else feel like you get totally screwed if you thought the park opened at 9 and for there at 8:30 to be told that the BG are all gone for the day? They need to fix that because how are people to know they will open the park 3 hours early.

I’ll give Disney a pass for a few days as they deal with ride opening excitement and such as they figure out how to best operate the ride and deal with crowds, but personally I find opening the entire park at 6am with a posted 9am park opening rather disingenuous on Disney’s part.

Many guests who have done a smidge of research/planning assume/plan for being let in the park early as Disney routinely does, but probably not 3 hours early. Many more guests who don’t follow details closely (which is likely a large majority of park visitors on any given day) would have absolutely no clue.

I doubt the 6am openings will continue for a long period and you’ll see that migrate more towards normal DHS opening procedures (whatever that turns out to be in the post-RotR era), but still.

Based on what Tom Bricker has written, it sounds like the 6am open is a pressure release valve. They get the people who were camped out already through, without them contributing to the larger crowd at rope drop.

 

[xApril]

So how late did they end up staying open last night? Too many pages to scroll back through. It just sounds like the combo of possibly staying open late and then opening early again may be too much for the ride system

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I thought Blog Mickey did a good job here summarizing things at the moment:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1202987543563776000

 

[focusondisney]

If they didn't know it was going on then they have nothing to be disappointed about, though. Just go do whatever you were originally planning on doing at DHS & enjoy your day.

No, I was referring to the average guest who KNOWS ROTR was opening. THAT has been advertised & on the website for months. The average guest who researched on the website/ MDE & planned to get there early for role drop, get in line to wait for their turn to ride. So if that was their “original plan” for the day, those are the people who are going to be disappointed. They can’t just go about their plan for the day, they have NO option to follow their plan because Disney isn’t being honest about the opening time. That just isn’t right or fair to the average guest. They may just as well have allowed pre opening fastpasses or reservations.

 

[StarGirl11]

We'll be in DHS on the 15th, which I guess means I'll be glued to this thread for nine days . . .

We’ll be there on the 17th so I’m right there with you and stalking the thread to figure out how and when we need to arrive at DHS.

 

[birostick]

I just got off of rotr for the 2nd time. Still wonderful and worth the wait

 

[focusondisney]

Even at park open everything except Smuggler's Run had a low wait time.

Everything should have a low wait time. It’s park OPENING! I’m not going to be grateful that any other ride has a low wait time at opening if I came to ride ROTR & all the possible spots were filled before the park even opened.

 

[vwdisney]

I think that Disney is smart using the virtual queue. So much less standing in line for everyone. You can ride other things during the time that would be totally wasted if you had been stuck standing in line. The ability to stop call boarding groups when the ride is down is also to the advantage of guests. Less people already in line to disappoint. Also, they are able to control numbers better when the ride starts up again and there is that backlog of people to clear. I am impressed with how they are handling it. Breakdowns on any new ride are to be expected and they seem to be getting it back up fairly quickly each time.

Early opening helps everyone by cycling as many people through as possible before official opening. I do think that limiting people to one boarding group until two hours after the posted opening time would be more fair. After that if there is still room in the boarding groups, getting back in the queue for a second ride could then be allowed. That way more people at least get one ride, but you could also get in there again for a second ride if capacity allows.

We are coming to WDW in January and I am really hoping that the boarding groups are still in place. Seems to me it is the best way to handle things and keep people as happy as possible. No system is perfect, but this one is pretty good!

 

[StarGirl11]

I think my main issue with the VQ and the last couple of days is that it means that since you can’t do a normal standby if the boarding groups book up and you can’t rope drop for one reason or another that means you have no chance of riding as of right now. I regularly am out east for runDisney. By the time I finish, get back to the hotel and shower and then get to the park, with all but the 5k the parks are open usually by an hour or two. That’s not a problem if normal standby is available. But if it’s only the VQ and it books up early that means I have no chance to ride.

I know I’ll get a chance eventually since 1) a December trip is not a run Disney trip and 2) I go out west frequently. But how it affects people who can’t rope drop kind of annoys me.

 

[Farro]

I don't understand how people are able to get a second boarding pass before others even get their first? Are these people who were in the first group and grabbed another one after their ride, before the official park opening and before the boarding passes were gone for the day?

Please explain!

 

[dina444444]

I don't understand how people are able to get a second boarding pass before others even get their first? Are these people who were in the first group and grabbed another one after their ride, before the official park opening and before the boarding passes were gone for the day?

Please explain!

Yes

 

[SuJo]

We are planning on getting there pretty early tomorrow morning, so for those of you that have done the 6am arrival how was the weather? Am I going to want long pants and long sleeves?

It was chilly, work short sleeves but had a hoody jacket. Wore pants but brought shorts. Grabbed a locker as we came in after getting BG. It’s hot now so need the layers.

 

[Disneylover99]

I don't understand how people are able to get a second boarding pass before others even get their first? Are these people who were in the first group and grabbed another one after their ride, before the official park opening and before the boarding passes were gone for the day?

Please explain!

You just explained it.

 

[birostick]

Exactly t

I don't understand how people are able to get a second boarding pass before others even get their first? Are these people who were in the first group and grabbed another one after their ride, before the official park opening and before the boarding passes were gone for the day?

Please explain!

Exactly that. Got here early. Used my initial boarding pass and got another immediatly

 

[Farro]

Yes

Thanks!
I feel like that needs to be addressed, but I guess I don't know how they'd do it.

May be unpopular, but I think people need to be limited to one per day, and then if passes still available, then it becomes available again.

Of course it's easier to say than implement.