Rise of the Resistance BOARDING GROUPS Superthread Part 1 *No Ride Spoilers Please* *PLEASE READ POSTS 1-4*

[twodogs]

I will reiterate something from my (way too long!) post from earlier, just in case some didn’t want to read through all that!! We had success one of our days on an iPhone 7 on WiFi. We just brought along these two old phones for the heck of it to try to increase our chances. Neither has cell service anymore, so we just put them on the WiFi. Both got through really quickly, and out of the 6 phones we all did simultaneously, one day the WiFi phone was the winner and got BG 27 (on Saturday). You do need to log into the WiFi ahead of 8am, making sure you get through the “agree to the terms and conditions” screen and locking in on the WiFi.

So if you have old phones, bring them and ride the WiFi. It can’t hurt!!!!
**you may want to give the job of operating 2 phones at the same time under all that pressure to a teenager in your group (as we did) because they clearly have the fastest fingers in the universe!

 

[Theok029]

I posted my first day Jan 18 experience before (BG 5 for a group of 6, just me on my ATT IPhone 11 Pro Max hanging out near the Frontierland entrance at the hub to the right, there’s a tree).

We went with a different group on Jan 19, doing the same and got BG 30 for five people.The ride was up and down all day and we got called around 2? I can’t quite remember, but we were out around 3 pm. One in my group had an ECV, no DAS, and he had to drive it all the way through until boarding the ride vehicles where he had to transfer. The ECV was waiting at the off load area.

For our last day, Jan 20, I tried the same spot but just for two of us, and the join boarding group button did not highlight at 8 so I quickly closed and reloaded the app and somehow got 80 after the cheering started. I didn’t expect to get anything.

The random lottery algorithm is real, folks.

 

[handyl03]

Lots of folk reporting that it works having multiple phones logged into the same account.
What about 2 phones logged into different accounts but with tickets for both persons loaded into each?

We had 4 phones all logged in to my Disney account and my husbands phone showing a clock with the seconds. We all opened the Disney app as soon as we got into the parK and left it open. I think watching the seconds turn to 7:59:59 and hitting the learn more button right at the change to 8:00 helped us (boarding group 21 yesterday) I also made sure that the tickets of people not with us were deleted from my account prior. When the select group screen popped up all 5 of us were already checked green so we just had to hit the button to confirm. If you have to unclick people or you forget and someone in your account is not in the park it will cost you valuable seconds trying to fix it. You could end up in a back up group or with no boarding group if you have to go back to unclick. We didn’t even attempt to get a boarding group again today. It was a long process yesterday with all of the breakdowns. We felt lucky to have gotten to experience the ride once (actually one and a half times since we were taken of due to breakdown) it really is like nothing else. We were on T-mobile iPhone 8 using our network not wi-fi. Great reception on the benches in front of Disneyland railroad surrounded by many other people. Hearing the cheers at 8am as people in the huge crowd secured their BGs was a really cool experience too. Reminded me of that scene in the old Willy Wonka movie when the lady in the peanut factory finds the golden ticket

 

[vharris2828]

I’m hopping on to just give our experience with rider switch because there wasn’t a ton out there about it for us before and we almost hit a wall with it today. We pulled bg 35, got called and went to tell them first thing we needed a rider switch. They scanned us in no problem I went on with my two older kids. But right after we rode the ride broke down, so my husband couldn’t go right away. They told us to just come back once the numbers started going again to get him on and that they would honor the rider swap (it had a time on it, like 11-1230.) for some reason I grabbed a screen shot of it just in case And we left. So we saw numbers going again and I realized as we headed back the rider swap pass was gone and no longer showing in the app!!! Luckily I had taken a screenshot to show them the dated rider swap. I honestly don’t think they would have let my husband on had we not had proof of that. So just FYI. Screen shot things lol with this ride until it’s going smoother. And clarify things multiple times to make sure everyone is on the same page. We had one person almost say no but then a few other cms who we had talked with beforehand who knew what was going on. Also I do not see how they could have a full blown stand by line. As much as the random lottery sucks for some. With how often it is breaking down it would be such a disaster!!

 

[nutshell]

Has anyone used Sprint to successfully nab a BP?

 

[dina444444]

Up to group 96

 

[handyl03]

Good Morning. I wanted to clear up a few things for you all. We were at DLR on Sunday 1/19 and we were a VIP TOUR group with a celebrity client. Our tour started at 7AM at the Grand Californian Hotel. From the day our client confirmed with Disney Special Activities the date of the tour they made it 100% clear that ROTR was NOT a ride that we could use for special access. They told us we would have to arrive early and use a boarding group process for a chance to ride the ride. We arrived at the Grand Californian at 7am, met our lovely guide who confirmed they ahve no extra access to walk ANYONE into RoTR for at elast the first 3 months. There were 8 of us and our guide and our clients mother is in a wheelchair. She said she would love to help us, but if they even take people to the ride without boarding passes they can be disciplined. We headed over to DLR. She escorted us through the turnstiles and we all added each others tickets into the disneyland app. She explained the process thoroughly for all of us. There were 8 of us in our group plus our tour guide. We waited with our guide near the Jolly Holiday Bakery at at 8am we had to use the process everyone else did. We were extremely nervous and it was so weird to ahve to do this but we did it. We managed to get boarding group 73. Our day was spent traversing the park and enjoying the services provided. We started to stress when the ride kept going down and our guide kept telling us that we should make it but it depends on the rides reliability.

The tid bit that sticks out most that noone on here has mentioned is that the ride needs a minimum of 8 hours of downtime every might to reset and that it generally will need to close between 10 and 11 with boarding groups stopping at around 9 each night. Our group as called at 752pm with a return by 852pm. We were inside the haunted mansion when our group was called and we went over to the ride as soon as we excited. As we went through critter country down by hungry bear our guide stopped to speak to a Guest Servjces Team Member. The line for the ride was all the way down near the entrance to the Galaxys Edge entrance. We used DAS entrance/fast pass entrance for the ride as our clients mother is in a wheelchair. We had all of our tickets scanned and boarding passes verified before they would allow us to enter. We got the the first preshow in about 5 minutes.

The ride is absolutely stunning. I cannot even tell you how many thoughts I have. My jaw was on the floor and I will need to ride about 15 more times to see everything. Our clients mother's wheel chair was taken when we loaded the R5 vehicle and it was waiting for us as we got off the ride where LT Beck is. Our guide told us she had noticed some things that time that she had not seen before so that gives me more excitement for further rides.

So I guess the take aways from all of this are that even though we had VIP tour we had to do the BG process just like everyone else, that the ride needs to go down for 8 hours min for maintenance and reset and that noone gets special access. Oh our guide also said that the boarding group numbers begin at random numbers. There is no super secret back entrance and there is no recovery numbers. Its dependent on the algorithm and the rides expected start time!

I think your VIP guide may have secured you some major “Pixie Dust” to get you through the fast pass entrance when the regular line was backed up all the way to the Galaxy's Edge entrance. Had you not been VIP that wheelchair would have gone through the regular line. A person on an ECV went through when we boarded so it is definitely accessible.

 

[vharris2828]

Has anyone used Sprint to successfully nab a BP?

Yes we used sprint today!

 

[NateD1226]

Update of what is happening right now. The purple line is today:



https://www.thrill-data.com/

 

[Disney_Cindy]

I will reiterate something from my (way too long!) post from earlier, just in case some didn’t want to read through all that!! We had success one of our days on an iPhone 7 on WiFi. We just brought along these two old phones for the heck of it to try to increase our chances. Neither has cell service anymore, so we just put them on the WiFi. Both got through really quickly, and out of the 6 phones we all did simultaneously, one day the WiFi phone was the winner and got BG 27 (on Saturday). You do need to log into the WiFi ahead of 8am, making sure you get through the “agree to the terms and conditions” screen and locking in on the WiFi.

So if you have old phones, bring them and ride the WiFi. It can’t hurt!!!!
**you may want to give the job of operating 2 phones at the same time under all that pressure to a teenager in your group (as we did) because they clearly have the fastest fingers in the universe!

Heading over to DL on the 30th thru the 2nd. I read your original post and pulled out my teen daughter’s old phone, last night I was explaining to her how the BG’s work, and told her that she was going to be in charge of operating the dual phones exactly because of those fast fingers! Hopeful we’ll be successful, we’ll be a party of 5, myself and daughter going with another mom, adult daughter and a birthday boy turning 4 on our first park day. They’re not quite into Disney like I am, it’s their first trip in maybe 20 years, so after having them download the Disneyland app, and using my login, I’ll also be giving them a “BG training” the night before, maybe have a couple of pretend opening countdown practice drills. They all probably think I’m somewhat crazy, but know me enough to know that I love to plan and strategize for Disney trips.
I’ve been following the thread since right before the RotR opening and feel like all the information alone increases our odds of getting a BG. Can’t wait to see if my planned strategy works out, for me this is like a strategic betting, and if we get a BG I’ll feel like I won, if we don’t, I might be a little disappointed, mainly because I hate waking up early and generally never do rope drop, but it definitely won’t ruin our trip, and unlike actual betting there’s no money lost!

 

[Ferrellcon]

Thats it for tonight.105 was the last boarding group for Disneyland. Lets see if weekdays are better.

 

[jfk4]

Thank you SO much! WDYM about party set up ahead of time? We have APs (not local) and they’re already on our phone. Is that what you mean? We will get a maxpass first too. We only have 2 morning to try this and it seems stressful

Truthfully it is a little stressful. On the other hand, it is kind of fun hearing the shouts of glee as people get boarding groups.

With regards to the parties, you need to make sure that you have everyone in your party linked to a single account ahead of time. I think you should also ensure that everyone in the party has passed through the gates. I'm not sure what happens if someone in your party hasn't entered the park, but even a slight delay could hurt.

Good luck, and have a great time!

 

[IsleofDisney]

Lots of folk reporting that it works having multiple phones logged into the same account.
What about 2 phones logged into different accounts but with tickets for both persons loaded into each?

We were successful in getting a BG with 3 phones logged into 3 separate accounts and all tickets linked, if that's what you were inquiring about.

 

[Aurora0427]

I stayed at the GCH over the weekend. I didn’t try doing both DCA EMH and ROTR. Frankly trying to do both is tough. You need to be inside Disneyland at opening if you’re going to have any chance. If you’re willing to risk it you could conceivably do one or two attractions at DCA before heading over, but it isn’t clear whether Disney is going to consistently open the park early, and you could easily get caught waiting to get in the gate if you blow the timing.

I had good success by getting to the gates half an hour early. I don’t think getting there any earlier really helps.

I managed to get good Boarding passes by doing the following:

If Disneyland has EMH get to the gates half an hour early. Ride whatever you want but make sure you are off any ride by 7:55. Find a quiet location that has good cellular and WiFi connectivity (you want to have both maxed out). I found that the area near The Matterhorn’s FastPass dispensers is good. If you’re near the front of the park the steps of the train station are good too. Try and stay out of crowds. Make sure your phone is connected to Disneyland’s guest network.

Make sure that Disneyland app knows you are in the park by booking a FastPass (assuming you have MaxPass).

Some claim that you should restart your phone. It probably doesn’t hurt but do it far enough ahead that it is completely up before the park opens.

Two minutes before opening start the Disneyland app but don’t do anything else. You want to use the clock on your phone to determine opening time. It should be synchronized to network time. Don’t depend on your watch unless you know it is exactly synchronized with your phone. Have the app scrolled to the “Find out more” but don’t press it.

At the exact second your phones clock rolls from :59 to :00 press the “Find out more” button, then press the “Join boarding group” button. Proceed as quickly as you can through group selection (you’ll need to have your party set up ahead of time).
I can’t make any guarantees but I got groups 9 and 15 following this procedure. I think the important parts are having good connectivity and jumping in immediately at opening, but I could also just be lucky.

Thank you! We are going to try and get a BG Sunday morning.... no EMH. Any advice on a spot with good reception since we may not be able to get to the Matterhorn FP area??? Steps by the train station? Also, are you recommending connecting to Disney WiFi?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Totally agree - the hyperbole and ignoring of history (i.e., looking at Disneyland's past with rose colored glasses) are not helpful to anyone and generate more heat than light.

For the most part I am finding this thread fairly civil - but wish we could get that up to 100% civil.

While the frustrations and emotional swings in this thread are understandable, especially with those who were unable to get BGs, you are right that any venting or blind optimism are not really helpful to those trying to follow this thread for real information and answers. However, I have been pretty pleased with all the DISers participating so far, with how this thread is managing to keep balanced and to self correct, and with how everyone is trying to share real information to help each other. Keep up the good work, DISers!
And when we can get to the point when we can get 100% of our threads to be 100% civil? My work will be done and I can retire to Disneyland (and maybe get my hands on a BG)!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

For those who have gotten to ride over the past few days: Have the call back times settled to a consistent 2 hours or are they still varying between 1-3 hours like they did on Day 1?

 

[emchen]

For those who have gotten to ride over the past few days: Have the call back times settled to a consistent 2 hours or are they still varying between 1-3 hours like they did on Day 1?

Any general consensus on when the best time to access the callback window is? When it opens, somewhere in the middle, towards the end...And why?

 

[Ferrellcon]

For those who have gotten to ride over the past few days: Have the call back times settled to a consistent 2 hours or are they still varying between 1-3 hours like they did on Day 1?

I didn't get to ride but cast members on Sunday said that we had 2 hours to return if our group was called

 

[theluckyrabbit]

@Ferrellcon: Thank you!

Anyone else have a different time to report? I hope the return times have settled into a consistent pattern. That would be one less stress on guests.

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

@Ferrellcon: Thank you!

Anyone else have a different time to report? I hope the return times have settled into a consistent pattern. That would be one less stress on guests.

We were given 2 hrs on both Sat (BG20) and Sun (BG31).