RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[CPanther95]

Personally I would go much earlier until proven it isn’t necessary. I would not risk a 730-8 arrival with a completely unproven 8 AM EMH. Last Sunday may be a total outlier and they may let the entire crowd in before EMH even begins around the same time they have been every morning, possibly with offsite guests held near the front of the park. Nothing is proven enough to not stick with the arrive very early advice IMO. The risk of a late BG is not getting called at all.

^^^^
THIS

They've had a similar approach every day (but Sunday) that you can fairly reliably make plans around - but that's because it's working well.

There's probably a good chance that they don't view what happened on Sunday as ideal so there's probably a good chance they won't use the same approach.

Ignoring the inconvenience, an earlier arrival has never made your chances less likely. Until there are a few Sundays of no change, I wouldn't count on abandoning an earlier arrival.

 

[Disneylover99]

I’ve been reading along the last 129 pages and at this point planning for riding ROTR seems pretty simple: Arrive at the gate 2-3 hours before the posted opening time, constantly refresh the boarding group app, and pay no attention to anything Disney says about either. The reality is if you want to ensure a ride, you have to figure out how get your entire party there before dawn. That’s the whole plan.

We’re going to DL in March and I’m eager to see how much of this translates to the west coast. I can get my 5-year-old to the gates at 7:00 am, no problem. 6:15ish is a maybe. Earlier than that, and it’s not happening and we will have to ride on a different trip

You got it!

And just to simplify even further, aim to be at the parks before 6am no matter what time the park is supposed to officially open.

 

[Heather07438]

The best way to plan is to consider WDW posted hours as a guarantee the park will function at that time, but if the cast is ready they can open sooner.

If something is in very high demand making it likely guests will line up & major crowds gathered before that posted time, expect WDW will open the gates early if they are ahead of schedule and everything's ready.

 

[TrolleyTrouble2713]

Yesterday’s started at 6am. But even if the park isn’t supposed to open til 8am, it could still very well open at 6am. If I wanted to ride, I definitely wouldn’t be rolling out of bed at 7am and expecting a boarding position.

Personally I would go much earlier until proven it isn’t necessary. I would not risk a 730-8 arrival with a completely unproven 8 AM EMH. Last Sunday may be a total outlier and they may let the entire crowd in before EMH even begins around the same time they have been every morning, possibly with offsite guests held near the front of the park. Nothing is proven enough to not stick with the arrive very early advice IMO. The risk of a late BG is not getting called at all.

I cannot sell my mom on getting out of bed at 6am, even if we just rode to the park and back. We have a history of killing ourselves at Disney running around. I think if it came to a vote she would say skip it, "we'll have fun either way." And she's right, we've never been down for Christmas before. But being 30 feet from the ride and not being able to ride for another 3 years is going to be a tough pill to swallow.

I can see Disney expanding the Sunday EMH for the rest of the month

Expanding the EMH only made things worse for everyone, it didn't accomplish anything positive. I hope they keep it the same, or change something drastic.

 

[princesspeaony]

So, with the better operation today (and one can only assume that it will improve as the days go by) any thoughts to what will happen if they get through the BGs they’ve distributed?
Add more through the app?
Shut the ride down?
Open a standby line?
Pixie dust FPs?
Just thinking that if they’ve hit 70 at lunchtime, it becomes a possibility, right?

 

[sayhello]

Hell yes. I’m on a totally packed bus from OKW that I’ve waited 35 minutes to get on to.

So did you end up making it and getting a BG?

Sayhello

 

[CPanther95]

The upside of being an EMH Guinea pig next Sunday is that IF (big if) they change how they handle it, there's a chance they over correct - or there's an unforseen loophole - and you'll be able to exploit it before they settle on the final EMH plan.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

I’ve been reading along the last 129 pages and at this point planning for riding ROTR seems pretty simple: Arrive at the gate 2-3 hours before the posted opening time, constantly refresh the boarding group app, and pay no attention to anything Disney says about either. The reality is if you want to ensure a ride, you have to figure out how get your entire party there before dawn. That’s the whole plan.

This should be the top of every page, it would save time lol

 

[rteetz]

So, with the better operation today (and one can only assume that it will improve as the days go by) any thoughts to what will happen if they get through the BGs they’ve distributed?
Add more through the app?
Shut the ride down?
Open a standby line?
Pixie dust FPs?
Just thinking that if they’ve hit 70 at lunchtime, it becomes a possibility, right?

Well we’ve been stuck at 70 for about an hour now.

 

[yulilin3]

I cannot sell my mom on getting out of bed at 6am, even if we just rode to the park and back. We have a history of killing ourselves at Disney running around. I think if it came to a vote she would say skip it, "we'll have fun either way." And she's right, we've never been down for Christmas before. But being 30 feet from the ride and not being able to ride for another 3 years is going to be a tough pill to swallow.



Expanding the EMH only made things worse for everyone, it didn't accomplish anything positive. I hope they keep it the same, or change something drastic.

I mean we had reports of people riding everything before 8am so that's positive.

 

[princesspeaony]

Expanding the EMH only made things worse for everyone, it didn't accomplish anything positive. I hope they keep it the same, or change something drastic.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think that’s true.
While everyone didn’t get their ideal outcome, plenty others got to knock out a number of Tier 1s they may not have otherwise, enjoyed the shorter lines for many things (rides and GE) and didn’t miss out on other parks’ offerings with the time it opened up for them.
I think many people found the extra EMH time positive.

 

[princesspeaony]

Well we’ve been stuck at 70 for about an hour now.

LOL - Murphy’s law, of course!!

 

[Liljo22]

Well we’ve been stuck at 70 for about an hour now.

Is it down or are they catching up on the line. The spread was 46-70 at the time so the line may have gotten out of hand.

 

[Beer Me]

I can’t wait to ride this.

Some of the complaints and criticisms remind me of hagrids opening at universal. We were there this past summer and with the huge crowds and the ride going down all the time and universal’s ever shifting policies about park and ride opening times we made peace with the idea that we may not get to ride at all.

However, we were highly motivated and were willing to give up a substantial chunk of our 3 park days to ride.

Fortunately we were there when the ride was having a good run and opening in the morning. We arrived 2 hours before the scheduled opening and raced with a giant mob and it worked out.

Another interesting comparison (which may have been covered I didn’t read this whole thread) but we stayed onsite with early entry privileges but that only applied to universal studios and not islands of adventure which has the hagrid ride. So dedicating our morning to hagrid meant giving up the early entry benefit.

So conclusions based on what I learned from that experience for my next Disney trip-

a) demand is higher than capacity. Operation hours are unpredictable. I may not get to ride at all

b) Buyer beware. On site benefits, pre-planning and the usual tips and tricks may not apply - at least until things settle down a little bit

c) If I’m willing to give up time doing other things (including sleep) - possible many hours- and if I use all the information found on the Dis and elsewhere there’s a good chance of getting to ride

 

[rteetz]

Is it down or are they catching up on the line. The spread was 46-70 at the time so the line may have gotten out of hand.

I would assume it’s down. They are at 57-70 currently according to the app.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I can’t wait to ride this.

Some of the complaints and criticisms remind me of hagrids opening at universal. We were there this past summer and with the huge crowds and the ride going down all the time and universal’s ever shifting policies about park and ride opening times we made peace with the idea that we may not get to ride at all.

However, we were highly motivated and were willing to give up a substantial chunk of our 3 park days to ride.

Fortunately we were there when the ride was having a good run and opening in the morning. We arrived 2 hours before the scheduled opening and raced with a giant mob and it worked out.

Another interesting comparison (which may have been covered I didn’t read this whole thread) but we stayed onsite with early entry privileges but that only applied to universal studios and not islands of adventure which has the hagrid ride. So dedicating our morning to hagrid meant giving up the early entry benefit.

So conclusions based on what I learned from that experience for my next Disney trip-

a) demand is higher than capacity. Operation hours are unpredictable. I may not get to ride at all

b) Buyer beware. On site benefits, pre-planning and the usual tips and tricks may not apply - at least until things settle down a little bit

c) If I’m willing to give up time doing other things (including sleep) - possible many hours- and if I use all the information found on the Dis and elsewhere there’s a good chance of getting to ride

yeah, the one difference I see to Hagrid's is the boarding groups so even when it went down, unless you were in one of those boarding groups you were still able to be off enjoying other attractions. With Hagrids' you were just stuck on line for how every many hours it took

 

[ch1234]

Does anyone know approximately what time the first guests have been showing up at the gates each morning? We're trying to figure out what time we would need to arrive to be at the front of the lines to enter the park, as we want to ride as early as possible in the day (due to other afternoon/late morning plans). 5:00am? 4:30am? I'm assuming this time will stay early over the next several weeks!

 

[CPanther95]

I can’t wait to ride this.

Some of the complaints and criticisms remind me of hagrids opening at universal. We were there this past summer and with the huge crowds and the ride going down all the time and universal’s ever shifting policies about park and ride opening times we made peace with the idea that we may not get to ride at all.

However, we were highly motivated and were willing to give up a substantial chunk of our 3 park days to ride.

Fortunately we were there when the ride was having a good run and opening in the morning. We arrived 2 hours before the scheduled opening and raced with a giant mob and it worked out.

Another interesting comparison (which may have been covered I didn’t read this whole thread) but we stayed onsite with early entry privileges but that only applied to universal studios and not islands of adventure which has the hagrid ride. So dedicating our morning to hagrid meant giving up the early entry benefit.

So conclusions based on what I learned from that experience for my next Disney trip-

a) demand is higher than capacity. Operation hours are unpredictable. I may not get to ride at all

b) Buyer beware. On site benefits, pre-planning and the usual tips and tricks may not apply - at least until things settle down a little bit

c) If I’m willing to give up time doing other things (including sleep) - possible many hours- and if I use all the information found on the Dis and elsewhere there’s a good chance of getting to ride

"c" is the most important. Getting every bit of info you can here before you make your plan. Last month I got on Hagrid's 5 times over 3 days with 3 hours cumulative wait time. Thanks to DIS.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Does anyone know approximately what time the first guests have been showing up at the gates each morning? We're trying to figure out what time we would need to arrive to be at the front of the lines to enter the park, as we want to ride as early as possible in the day (due to other afternoon/late morning plans). 5:00am? 4:30am? I'm assuming this time will stay early over the next several weeks!

Not every early-arriver is on the DIS and reporting but 4:30a or earlier will get you at the front for security checkpoints and entrance touchpoints.

 

[ch1234]

Not every early-arriver is on the DIS and reporting but 4:30a or earlier will get you at the front for security checkpoints and entrance touchpoints.

Thank you!