Good Morning Park Journey readers, we hope you had an enjoyable weekend and that those of you that happen to be off today are enjoying another day off. We had an amazing weekend, not only did we spend Saturday at Disneyland, we were among the chosen few to get on Rise of the Resistance via the boarding group process. And if that wasn't enough, the 49ers won on Sunday!! But I digress, we wanted to share some tips to help you make the most of your Rise of the Resistance experience, and hopefully improve your odds of experiencing this amazing attraction. Before we move on, this article contains NO spoilers. So feel free to read on. Written by Gregg Condon Tip One: You do NOT need to camp out Seriously, there is zero need to do this. We got to Toy Story lot at 5:30am for an 8:00am opening, and that was even too early. You only have to be in the park by 8:00am. That said ... Tip Two: Arrive at the turnstiles 1-hour prior to park opening This is just to make sure you don't get nervous about getting in. We want to make sure this process is as stress free as possible. You never know when there may be a system issue, you pick a bad line, you have a ticket issue, etc. Tip Three: Find an area before 8am with not a lot of people When we got into the park (about an hour and 15 minutes before the park opened) everybody headed straight to Starbucks. Forget that. We went to Jolly Holiday, found a short line and sat and relaxed. The hub was filled with people, but 5 minutes before park opened they released all of these people into the park. So we decided to just stay where we were and it worked out. Tip Four: Build your boarding group party before the park opens We can't stress this enough. Download the Disneyland App. Make sure all of your groups tickets are linked on the app. On everybody's app. The more people you have trying to get a boarding group the better your chances are. Tip Five: DO NOT wait for the "Join Boarding Group" button to turn orange We think this was the biggest mistake people made. Instead of waiting for the page to refresh, click "My Status" as shown below. Another page will open and allow you to join a group from there. Many people actually tried to re-start the app because the Join Boarding Group button didn't refresh. And by then, it's too late. Once one person in your group gets a spot, you all have a spot and the app will lock everybody else out. Tip Six: You have 2 a two hour window to ride once your group is called There's no need to hang out in front of the ride, or worry that you're going to miss it. You have a 2-hour ride window, so go enjoy the parks. If you have a group from 1-30 chances are your group will be called within the first 4 hours of park opening (as long as the ride does not break down). So I'd stay inside Disneyland. Groups past that, feel free to do whatever. Tip Seven: Reserve about 60-90 minutes for the entire ride experience Just because you have a boarding group doesn't mean you are going to get to ride in 5 minutes. We had group 27 on Saturday and we got in to ride about 11:15 (after the ride shut down for about an hour at around 10:15, when our group was originally called). We were done about 12:10. The queue wait time was probably 30-40 minutes and the entire experience from beginning to end is about 20-25 minutes. But we have heard of the queue being close to an hour prior to boarding. Tip Eight: Have SO much fun Seriously ya'll, this is an experience like no other. Our group of 5 were completely blown away, from beginning to end. There are jaw-dropping moments everywhere. So what did I think of the ride? You can see my non-spoiler review below. We hope these tips help you to make the most out of your experience. We've now experienced one day and seen 3 days of the process, so we are pretty sure these tips will be beneficial. If you've experienced Rise of the Resistance and have any additional tips, feel free to share them below!! We'll have a general park update posted later today including Lunar New Year fun. Related Videos
Related Updates:
This morning, Renée braved the crowds and the weather at Disney's Hollywood Studios to experience the all new Rise of the Resistance that just opened in Galaxy's Edge. How did she fare? And more importantly, what are the changes you need to be made aware of if you want to experience Rise of the Resistance any time soon? Written by Renée Girard It’s currently 5:25am and I’m here with just a few others at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. CMs are saying that park will open at 7am and that we may be entering the park before then but cannot join the virtual queue for RotR till 7am. Has that always been the case? From what I’ve seen, people have joined the virtual queue before 7? 30 minutes later at 5:55am and the line behind me is huge. Cast Compliment to all the cast members at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that are up and working before the sun is up and managing the insane crowds. May The Force be with you this holiday season. 6:35am, it’s raining. Gates are open! 6:48am and I’m in the park but can’t join a boarding group yet. And Starbucks has quite the line! 6:53am. Nothing to do but wait and keep check for boarding groups to open, go shopping, or get Starbucks. People are not happy that they got here early and can’t get a boarding pass yet. We’ll see how the app handles everyone trying to get one at 7am. Success While I wait for my boarding group... let’s ride! No boarding groups have been called for RotR yet, so wait times for other rides are starting to climb. “How about some boarding passes?”. Even with boarding groups opening at 7am, they are still gone before 8am. Not a bad score for so early in the morning! Breakfast at Oga’s and then it’s time to join the resistance. My group got called about 8:30am while I was at Oga’s. I’m going in! No spoilers, I promise! The queue has a Flight of Passage feel to me so far. Pretty sure the key word here is immersive. Heading in to get our assignment from BB8 and Rey. Just got off Rise of the Resistance. Absolutely incredible! There wasn’t any down time at all while I was in there. Lives up to all of the hype. I’m exhausted and going to nap now but once again, Rise of the Resistance is amazing. If the virtual queue bookings are going to continue to open at 7, I’d still get there early - they were already gone before 8. I was off the ride just before 10. Totally worth it. Related Videos:
Related Updates:
We're back with more of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, but this time on a coast far, far away (well, 2,501 miles) from the other Galaxy's Edge. Excited to see how Galaxy's Edge is received in Florida, so far reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Let's head in and see what Renée was up to on her birthday!! Written by Renée Girard Bright suns! Rising moons! Afternoon thunderstorms! The east coast Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is up and running for WDW cast member this month and we got to experience it I hate to admit it, but where you’re seated on Smuggler’s Run does make a difference. On our first ride, we were the engineers, and weren’t impressed at all with the ride itself (the queue and entire building is phenomenal). But going on two more times as pilots was such a blast! The Droid Depot was totally worth doing. I loved putting it together and then making it come to life. Very cool! Really enjoyed our meal at Docking Bay 7. We got the vegetarian option, plus the chocolate cake. The cake was fine, but the garden spread was delicious! There are still so many details I haven’t even seen yet, but I do think I spotted a Hidden Mickey on board the Millennium Falcon. Oga’s Cantina is such a fun and well themed bar. So glad Rex made a comeback as a DJ! The drinks are quite pricey but we split all of the different beers. White Wampa Ale was the best! I liked having no formal character meet and greets for a change. Towards the end of the evening, we were just walking around and Rey invited me to participate in a droid race! Since the time slot we had for the preview was later in the day, we got to see the land transition into night. Don’t know when I’ll be back yet, and I’m sure it’ll be much busier next time, but I really enjoyed my first visit to the Hollywood Studios SW:GE. Related Videos
Related Updates:
|
Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
|