Reporting back my experience at HS on Tuesday, January 14th. Keep in mind I woke up at 3am to drive over so I tried to remember best I could!
5:45am--parked the car. Yay for front row!!! And I will add it was a steady stream of cars (not crazy) but people arriving by their own vehicles.
5:55am--thru security check. Shortest waits I have EVER had at any park anytime. They had workers out there ready!
5:56am--got in line to enter park. We were just inside the booths where they sell tickets outside the gates so that little holding area. They had people lining up already organized in lines so there was no mad scramble or line jumping when it did open. They started making some announcements around 6:10am explaining the process & what would happen but unfortunately in that area there was no speakers & it was loud. I couldn't see, but people behind us in line that could said by about 6:15 the area after security was already full & people were lined up waiting behind security check to get in.
6:28am--they started letting people in the front gates. There was no fingerprint scan. Just holding your MB or card up to the reader. It did go pretty fast doing that.
**upon entering the park everyone is directed down the main corridor straight towards the stage area. You can turn off to go to ToT & such OR continue straight where they have 2 big signs on the stage screens directing you left to Star Wars OR right to Toy Story. Lots CM's are positioned along the way so there is no detouring from this path.
6:35am--we were now in the "holding area" for Star Wars which put us just past the entrance to the old American Idol & here we waited til the official park opening. Again we were pretty near the front (maybe 30' back). I could see people still coming down the main road & getting into the Star Wars line. That main area in the front of the stage looked really full right before opening, but I don't know how much was Toy Story or where those people went to wait?
6:57am--I turned off my wifi (don't know if that helped or not?) & pulled up the Disney app so it was ready (my phone is older too)
6:59am--the whole area is glowing from screens & people are ready staring at their hands (my BF couldn't stop laughing at this lol)
7am--
MAGIC TIME
**my phone didn't change over automatically so I pushed back & then selected it. Got the wrong guests at 1st (ARGH) so fixed that & then it went thru. Except there was no message saying success or here's your BG number so I thought I got kicked out, panicked & tried to join a BG again only to then be told wait you're already assigned one & then was able to look it up.
WE GOT BG 46.
7:01am--the group is now moving forward to Star Wars land. Which it was just starting to get a little light & it was foggy so walking out of the tunnel we all went OHHHHH & AHHHHH cause even Disney can't make the whole sky foggy & lighting like that on command. It was SO cool!
**as we got past RotR entrance they again have lines of CMs out directing traffic towards MFSR & telling us to start moving to the right side as the line will narrow to 2 people across. The line didn't turn at Ronto Roasters, but instead we went down past Droid Depot. At this point we kept shuffling along & on to the ride.
7:45am--we were done riding MFSR. SWEET!!
**they did not open RotR until close to 8:30am that day. I don't know why or if that is normal not to open it when the park does? I had FP's & we did other things while waiting. I never felt rushed or that we HAD to be anywhere during our visit. It was easy to check
MDE or the boards around the park for updates.
12:15pm--they called our BG 46 & I got a notification from the MDE app
12:28pm--we entered the ride area, got our MB scanned & in we went. It's an experience that's all I can say!!
Overall we had a GREAT day! Also rode Star Tours twice, ToT, TSMM, RnRC, watched a SW show on Center Stage, ate lunch (at 10am lol), met Darth, explored GE stores...the whole deal. BF only had a 1 day ticket so I tried to do everything we wanted to (SUCCESS!). Got some fun photos with photopass too! Hopefully my experience helps others get an idea for planning & have a great time when you go!