RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[EmJ]

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, it stinks, but it's kind of the nature of theme parks. Those who are willing to get up the earliest (even if "the earliest" is still, technically, the middle of the night) fare best. If DL is still super crazy in March and demands an earlier line-up time than I am willing to inflict on my kiddo (because we will ALL suffer for that decision later, lol), I will offer to stay behind with The Boy while DH lines up and rides. Is there any chance of you heading to HS between 4:30 and 5:00 solo and then returning to the hotel in the mid- to later-morning?

 

[Liljo22]

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

Universal also delayed opening Hagrid's 2-3 hours and closed it 2-3 hours early for the first few months while Disney is opening it up 2-3 hours early every day.

 

[aballerina]

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.

Can you not go by yourself and meet up with mom later? Especially if it's going to be another 3 years until your next trip.
I"m constantly reading on these boards how people can't get their group/family to agree to wake up early for rope drop. I guess I don't get why some groups feel they have to do everything together all the time. If everyone has a cel phone it's easy to arrange to meet up later. Obviously I'm talking about teen/adult groups, not saying you should leave your small children in the room alone while you ride ROTR

 

[mouseketeerwannabe]

Our morning was fabulous! Requested a Lyft driver at 6:05 am. Dropped off at entrance at 6:27. We had bags, so got through screening, tapped in, and got a BG 29 by 6:37. Rode Slinky twice, TSM twice, and Tower of Terror. Boarding group called at 8:08. Got in line at 8:40 and walked off at 9:40. Much easier than anticipated and was blown away by the ride experience. Definitely worth the 5:15 alarm!!!!

 

[mechteach1]

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

I was looking at availability for things in GE next Sunday (the 15th), and there appear to be reservations available for Savi's at 7:50 am. Since EMH starts at 8 am (but they always let people in a bit earlier), I wonder what this means exactly....

 

[CPanther95]

Universal also delayed opening Hagrid's 2-3 hours and closed it 2-3 hours early for the first few months while Disney is opening it up 2-3 hours early every day.

BGs and a 2nd track make for a much smoother opening.

 

[Museick]

I have been watching this thread since opening! We Took a lyft at 5:45am from Beach Club to arrive by 6am and the doors opened at 6:30am! Tapped in and got boarding group 22 which was called at 7:30am! We rode and were off the ride by around 8am!

Very cool ride!!

I forgot to mention after we got in at 6:30am this morning and getting BG 22, that we immediately walked to Smugglers and with a very minimal wait, we rode this. Right after riding Smugglers, We walked into Oga’s and had some jabba juice at the bar and our BG was called at 7:30! You do not have to wait 2 hours to ride after BG is called, you just HAVE 2 hours in case you need it. I think VQ worked perfectly.

 

[SirBill]

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!

One factor is that I don't think parking is open much before 5:00am or so (watched three different vloggers who went opening day of ROTR and were all stuck in traffic while I had been in line a half hour already since I walked from the Swan). I was there last Thursday/Friday/Saturday and noticed every day a much larger jump in the number of people waiting after 5am. I could see a huge stream of cars entering Thursday around 5am when they finally opened the toll gates. Showing up by 4:45am each day would put you with a fairly small group of people to start where the bag check wait lines are still low to empty (may change as we get closer to Christmas but that 5am line seems hard for many to cross).

Also note that when you are rushing to go to the ticket kiosks with everyone else at the front of the line at bag security, all of the entry kiosks will be usable - the very first day the ride was open (Thursday) I made the mistake of not getting in line at an empty ticket kiosk because I didn't see an attendant on many of the ones to the right. So I was something like 5th to enter when I could have easily been the first through a kiosk that day (didn't end up mattering Thursday happily, but it will for you). Going to the bag check lines on the far right is helpful in this regard as they all flood in from the left side and are slower to get to the rightmost kiosks.

Also if you have no bag you can still use a bag check line, just make sure you are first in line for a bag check table if you use that approach. You walk through the metal detector the same way, holding your phone in your hands and your hands above your head.

 

[sayhello]

BG's are moving again. Up to 62 - 74 at 2:46pm.

Sayhello

 

[ch1234]

One factor is that I don't think parking is open much before 5:00am or so (watched three different vloggers who went opening day of ROTR and were all stuck in traffic while I had been in line a half hour already since I walked from the Swan).

I'll be staying at the Riviera when we're there in a couple weeks. I was thinking of getting an Uber to the Boardwalk or Swan/Dolphin and walking from there rather than dealing with the parking lot, especially since we won't have a car. Sounds like that might be the best plan without a car?

 

[rad91]

What I want for EMH days is for HS to keep the EMH advantage to 1 hour (like it's currently scheduled for) instead of 2 hours. Then let EMH guests get BG's when they tap in like the other days.

• This rewards early risers that invested their time to come early.
• This removes that awful randomness of getting BG's.
• Since BG's run out at about 2 hours, this allows non-onsite guests maybe up to an hour to get BG's.

What I want to avoid is my family getting up super early to get BG 80 because I didn't refresh at that secret moment Disney turned the VQ on. I can't switch HS days now since I got my fastpasses months ago.

 

[WIll C]

I'll be staying at the Riviera when we're there in a couple weeks. I was thinking of getting an Uber to the Boardwalk or Swan/Dolphin and walking from there rather than dealing with the parking lot, especially since we won't have a car. Sounds like that might be the best plan without a car?

Any word on when the Skyliner starts? We're going to be coming from OKW in 2 weeks and will just Uber I think. My wife can't take the walk from BW.

 

[yulilin3]

I'll be staying at the Riviera when we're there in a couple weeks. I was thinking of getting an Uber to the Boardwalk or Swan/Dolphin and walking from there rather than dealing with the parking lot, especially since we won't have a car. Sounds like that might be the best plan without a car?

I would just ask to be dropped of at the park, why walk an extra 10 minutes when they can drop you off right there?

Any word on when the Skyliner starts? We're going to be coming from OKW in 2 weeks and will just Uber I think. My wife can't take the walk from BW.

As of now scheduled to start operating at 7:30

 

[Museick]

I'll be staying at the Riviera when we're there in a couple weeks. I was thinking of getting an Uber to the Boardwalk or Swan/Dolphin and walking from there rather than dealing with the parking lot, especially since we won't have a car. Sounds like that might be the best plan without a car?

Lyft from Beach Club to Hollywood Studios was $11.50 and there were not a lot of cars when we were there at 6am. Our driver had just dropped someone at Hollywood Studios from the Four Seasons before he picked us up!

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Can you not go by yourself and meet up with mom later? Especially if it's going to be another 3 years until your next trip.
I"m constantly reading on these boards how people can't get their group/family to agree to wake up early for rope drop. I guess I don't get why some groups feel they have to do everything together all the time. If everyone has a cel phone it's easy to arrange to meet up later. Obviously I'm talking about teen/adult groups, not saying you should leave your small children in the room alone while you ride ROTR

This is exactly what my family did, though we don't usually split up. RotR was a special exception. I knew better than to drag my 15mo out of bed at 3am, so my dad stayed behind in the room with her while my husband, mother and I drove to HS. They rode the bus over and met us around 9am. Luckily my dad had no interest in getting up at 3 either.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

What I want for EMH days is for HS to keep the EMH advantage to 1 hour (like it's currently scheduled for) instead of 2 hours. Then let EMH guests get BG's when they tap in like the other days.

• This rewards early risers that invested their time to come early.
• This removes that awful randomness of getting BG's.
• Since BG's run out at about 2 hours, this allows non-onsite guests maybe up to an hour to get BG's.

What I want to avoid is my family getting up super early to get BG 80 because I didn't refresh at that secret moment Disney turned the VQ on. I can't switch HS days now since I got my fastpasses months ago.

Im wondering if BG filling has more to do with the time of day and less to do with when they open. So if they open them at 6 AM it’ll stretch to 8-9ish but if they open it after 7 it’ll also sell out at 8-9ish.

What I mean is the later in the day they open (like yesterday) the quicker they sell out. I think it took under an hour yesterday. My guess is starting it later just means you have more people there to grab faster since the time is less prohibitive.

 

[StarGirl11]

Been following along all weekend. We’re here and our HS day is tomorrow. Looks like we won’t be riding ROTR. We bought the mid day tickets since we were keeping this trip non commando with my 78 year old mom with us and my autistic 17 year old nephew. My nephew can’t handle big crowds so even if we had regular tix no way could line up for rope drop. We were thinking with the park open until 9 that 9 hours would be plenty of time to wait Standby for those of us who were willing to wait a few hours, or get a DAS return time if they were offering them.

I understand the way WDW has handled this and think the VQ is a great idea but still disappointed that we have no chance to try it.

As for yesterday’s EMH, having ROTR not running when there were so many people in the park was a waste. And officially announcing 8am opening of VQ then opening it at 7:15 was really ****ty of them.

They could have said VQ would be available for a limited number of guests during EMH (as they enter) and then used VQ for just the number of EMH guests they could reasonably expect to accommodate in the 2 hours then shut it down. reopen for the day with the note that VQ would be available first come first served when the park opens to all guests and note that parks sometimes open early to accommodate crowds.

Oof I feel ya. It feels like most seem to love this system but it definitely impacts DAS holders. I get we’re a small portion of the park goers. But (and sorry if this next bit sounds entitled) we still paid money to be there. I know some of us would love to not have the problems that make having a DAS necessary. I just wish there was something to give us a fighting chance to ride that didn’t involve massive crowds and being up at the crack of dawn. But since we don’t have standby there is no way to get a return time and thus no chance to ride unless we get involved with the massive crowds.

 

[osufeth24]

Finally made it back home (made a pit stop at disney springs as well lol)

I LOVE the VQ system. Yes, there are ways Disney can handle the communication better and maybe try to figure out way for it to not fill up so quickly at official park opening, but I'd take this over just a regular queue everytime.

Once I got into the park and got my BG, I went to TSL and did Slinky and TSM with no wait. I could have then walked over to ToT and RnRC, but my number got called then.

The best part about the VQ was the real queue line. I don't know if it was because I was so early and timed it right, but I didn't stop once in a line. The only wait I had was the boarding for the first pre show, and that was like 15 seconds. The rest was constant movement. I felt it really added to the ride experience and what they are going for.

After that I used my 8am FP to ToT, then went to Epcot where I got a 9am FP to Soarin. It was a good day

 

[rteetz]

Moving again now at 83. We shall see what happens if they reach the end with plenty of time to spare. I saw 97 as the highest reported so I would assume something around 100 is the actual end.

 

[RoboFlyer]

The main thing I'm seeing the most confusion on from my point of view is where to get dropped off around 6AM. I've seen people say Boardwalk then walk over and other people say Hollywood Studios directly.

If I'm planning on being there between 5:30 - 6AM on Wednesday morning, which is the better option?