I'm all for the ROTR virtual queue, BUT

As it is, there are enough people that are willing to do something difficult to ride, and even then they can't guarantee all those people will be riding. I think that if it gets to a point where boarding groups are taking a reasonable amount of time to board, then they should consider opening that feature up. But, by then, the slow to ride people would be in the park anyway, so....
 
I'm not going until September so I think it's probably unlikely, but I'm really hoping that they keep the VQ system for ROTR. Staying offsite I at least want to have a chance of riding it...

The VQ system puts everyone on a level playing ground. I already know that I'm probably going to have to wait in a 2 hour line for FOP because all of the FP's are taken from resort guests with the 60 day window.

I really like the VQ system. It's more like the old style hard copy FP's which I preferred over the virtual FP's anyway.
 
Do you all think that the VQ system would be more or less fair if they allowed one person to arrive before boarding but check in multiple members of their party? On one hand, this would likely increase consumption of the BG because people who currently can’t/aren’t willing to get up that early would have the opportunity to get a BG through another member of their party’s willingness to sacrifice sleep. On the other hand, this would assist those who say they simply can’t get there due to young children, party members with special needs, etc.

What do you consider a reasonable party size? A set of parents and two children? A family including Parents, grandparents, and children? A family reunion with several families together? A school band outing? A Brazilian tour group? I think this could get out of hand fairly quickly.
 
Do you all think that the VQ system would be more or less fair if they allowed one person to arrive before boarding but check in multiple members of their party? On one hand, this would likely increase consumption of the BG because people who currently can’t/aren’t willing to get up that early would have the opportunity to get a BG through another member of their party’s willingness to sacrifice sleep. On the other hand, this would assist those who say they simply can’t get there due to young children, party members with special needs, etc.
Less fair.
 


What do you consider a reasonable party size? A set of parents and two children? A family including Parents, grandparents, and children? A family reunion with several families together? A school band outing? A Brazilian tour group? I think this could get out of hand fairly quickly.
I didn’t say anything about a reasonable party size 😉 I was just asking if people thought this would be more fair or less fair. It sounds like you think it would be less fair.
 
I didn’t say anything about a reasonable party size 😉 I was just asking if people thought this would be more fair or less fair. It sounds like you think it would be less fair.

I tend to agree with less fair. Although I would like an excuse to just get myself to the park early and let DH get the kids out the door. :rolleyes1
I am in no way a morning person. I hate to get up and I know I’m going to have to turn into Drill Sergeant With A Blaster to get my family there on time. But with how limited the number of riders is compared to the park crowds I think it’s about as fair as it can be.
 
When the BG were selling out ridiculous fast, I wouldn’t have minded a system that allowed some/all of a party not to have to go through the trouble of getting into the park. Something like a Disney resort guest can reserve for their whole room (giving them a slight advantage, possibly) and a non Disney resort guest could reserve for themselves + 3 or something.

With them lasting a reasonable amount of time, so you know you aren’t dragging your family to the park for nothing, I think what they’ve got is the best for now.
 


I’m seeing posts from people who get there before the park opens and end up with boarding groups in the 100s.

I know it’s all luck what group you get in once they open up BGs, but this one ride has the ability to monopolize your entire day.

I know you can leave but my concern is other FP you might have scheduled or the meals you scheduled months ago.

I’m at the point of just hoping they offer an after hours party or paid option to ride. We won’t be back for years after our trip, so this is our one shot and I don’t want it to blow up other things we had to plan for well in advance.

Creating problems and offering paid “solutions”. It’s the DW way!
 
I’m seeing posts from people who get there before the park opens and end up with boarding groups in the 100s.

I know it’s all luck what group you get in once they open up BGs, but this one ride has the ability to monopolize your entire day.

I know you can leave but my concern is other FP you might have scheduled or the meals you scheduled months ago.

I’m at the point of just hoping they offer an after hours party or paid option to ride. We won’t be back for years after our trip, so this is our one shot and I don’t want it to blow up other things we had to plan for well in advance.

Creating problems and offering paid “solutions”. It’s the DW way!
Somehow, these other FP+ and ADRs can be worked around. At least it worked that way for us on two separate days in December, when we were amazingly able to fit in everything we'd planned. If you plan, say, for two days in DHS to make sure you get to do everything you want, then on those two days don't make ADRs at a park other than DHS or Epcot, which is easy to get to from DHS. Really, I think you'll be fine. You don't have to blow up anything else. The only thing that could mess with your plans is if you're going to be there during a big holiday weekend. Then you might have cause to be concerned.

Yes, you're right, that this ride does have the ability to monopolize your entire day. Only you and your traveling companions/family can decide whether that's worth it.

We wanted to give it a try--we were there the week after it opened--and we enjoyed it so much we went back for a second time.

Anyway, unless you're going tomorrow, there's really no way of predicting how they're going to be handling the ride at that point.
 
don't make ADRs at a park other than DHS or Epcot
We made our ADRs and our park schedule, based on those ADRs in October. Before any process was known. At this point, we won't be able to change things up and get anything good. Our week is the week of Easter, so it's gonna be packed.

I really am just hoping for HS After Hours to be started back up again. I'd sign up immediately as this would solve all issues, for us. The price would be worth it to not have to worry about it.

But you are right. Who knows if this process will be the same in April.
 
Do you all think that the VQ system would be more or less fair if they allowed one person to arrive before boarding but check in multiple members of their party? On one hand, this would likely increase consumption of the BG because people who currently can’t/aren’t willing to get up that early would have the opportunity to get a BG through another member of their party’s willingness to sacrifice sleep. On the other hand, this would assist those who say they simply can’t get there due to young children, party members with special needs, etc.
Keep in mind VQ stands for Virtual Que. So letting people get a BG and then show up at the park later is basically letting them cut in line.
 
We made our ADRs and our park schedule, based on those ADRs in October. Before any process was known. At this point, we won't be able to change things up and get anything good. Our week is the week of Easter, so it's gonna be packed.

I really am just hoping for HS After Hours to be started back up again. I'd sign up immediately as this would solve all issues, for us. The price would be worth it to not have to worry about it.

But you are right. Who knows if this process will be the same in April.
@JakeAZ: Here's my optimistic thought about all this. It'll all work out. You'll be surprised and pleased.

We were there the week after RotR opened and frankly we thought it was gonna be impossible to ride, but we ended up doing it on back-to-back days and the timing worked out perfectly. We had ADRs and FP+s booked and only the first day's reservations were at DHS. On the second day we did RotR those FP+s and the ADR were at DAK, not DHS. Yet it all fell into place.

One big variable that you don't yet know the answer to--besides how the heck it'll all be handled during your visit--is how you're going to feel about RotR after you do it once. You might want to go back again and again and be willing to throw everything else overboard in order to experience it. Or you may think once is enough. That, and everything else, is impossible to predict.

We had to get up at 3:30 the first morning we tried for RotR, because this was when they were still assigning BGs not at the official park opening time but right after they opened the tapstiles. We really had no plans to do this again during the trip, and we went on our scheduled DHS day. But we LOVED RotR and got up early the next morning, hoping to get lucky again, and we did.

Regarding DHS after hours--I think it's going to be a while before they have this and RotR is included, because the ride is still pretty unreliable. It's my impression that WDW would not like to be in the position of selling an AH event that pretty much everyone who bought it would be buying it to experience one attraction, and that attraction wouldn't be operational for all or part of that time.

Also, remember that by April, MMRR will be open--and working? well?--and this will either ameliorate or exacerbate the whole RotR situation.

You could just wait for the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser resort to open next year!
 
@JakeAZ: Here's my optimistic thought about all this. It'll all work out. You'll be surprised and pleased.

We were there the week after RotR opened and frankly we thought it was gonna be impossible to ride, but we ended up doing it on back-to-back days and the timing worked out perfectly. We had ADRs and FP+s booked and only the first day's reservations were at DHS. On the second day we did RotR those FP+s and the ADR were at DAK, not DHS. Yet it all fell into place.

One big variable that you don't yet know the answer to--besides how the heck it'll all be handled during your visit--is how you're going to feel about RotR after you do it once. You might want to go back again and again and be willing to throw everything else overboard in order to experience it. Or you may think once is enough. That, and everything else, is impossible to predict.

We had to get up at 3:30 the first morning we tried for RotR, because this was when they were still assigning BGs not at the official park opening time but right after they opened the tapstiles. We really had no plans to do this again during the trip, and we went on our scheduled DHS day. But we LOVED RotR and got up early the next morning, hoping to get lucky again, and we did.

Regarding DHS after hours--I think it's going to be a while before they have this and RotR is included, because the ride is still pretty unreliable. It's my impression that WDW would not like to be in the position of selling an AH event that pretty much everyone who bought it would be buying it to experience one attraction, and that attraction wouldn't be operational for all or part of that time.

Also, remember that by April, MMRR will be open--and working? well?--and this will either ameliorate or exacerbate the whole RotR situation.

You could just wait for the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser resort to open next year!
I appreciate all the first hand info, thanks.

I'm glad it worked out perfectly for you, but I've also seen first hand stories about people who are there before parking opening and end up in 100+ groups. This has caused them to be called while at dinner at another park. They then have to plow through dinner and abandon any FP they have to hightail it over to HS to beat the 2 hour window.

If my ADR window hadn't opened in October, I would have been able to carve out a HS day. But we have hard to get ADRs in other parks on the days we have available to do RD at HS. My plan was to arrive before opening and be out of the park by mid day, so that my little kids can rest up after being dragged out of bed at 5am. While this can happen, you really have no idea until you actually get into your BG.

Over a year of planning and "what if" scenarios seems to come down to one ride.

This is my number one gripe about DW. It's just too rigid once you start locking in reservations / FPs.

In a vacuum, by itself, the ROTR process is very fair, but DW isn't in a vacuum.
 
I appreciate all the first hand info, thanks.

I'm glad it worked out perfectly for you, but I've also seen first hand stories about people who are there before parking opening and end up in 100+ groups. This has caused them to be called while at dinner at another park. They then have to plow through dinner and abandon any FP they have to hightail it over to HS to beat the 2 hour window.

If my ADR window hadn't opened in October, I would have been able to carve out a HS day. But we have hard to get ADRs in other parks on the days we have available to do RD at HS. My plan was to arrive before opening and be out of the park by mid day, so that my little kids can rest up after being dragged out of bed at 5am. While this can happen, you really have no idea until you actually get into your BG.

Over a year of planning and "what if" scenarios seems to come down to one ride.

This is my number one gripe about DW. It's just too rigid once you start locking in reservations / FPs.

In a vacuum, by itself, the ROTR process is very fair, but DW isn't in a vacuum.
I agree with your number one gripe about WDW. I much preferred it there when you could just wander about and get to ride pretty much everything you wanted to, stroll into whatever TS restaurant struck your fancy and get a table, etc. I also think the current FP+ system has created giant standby lines at rides that used to have minimal standby lines (SE comes to mind here).

You could, you know, eliminate this entire problem from your upcoming trip by deciding to not ride RotR, assuming the same system is still in place, and wait to ride it on a future trip when a system you'd prefer would be in place. Problem solved.

Yeah, there are people complaining about how it didn't work out for them. But there are also people saying how it did work out. I'm hardly the only person who's gotten to ride RotR and not had it ruin everything else that was planned. Not everyone has had a terrible, miserable experience with the VQ. Really, you could have a FP+ for anything at all and that ride could be down and not come back up until you're out of the park. It's not going to kill your entire trip.

If you're going to WDW specifically to ride RotR and that's your biggest priority, then you're going to have to roll with whatever is going on then, even if you don't like it.

Also, don't think that your ADRs are set in stone. You could probably rearrange a couple of them without tremendous difficulty. Touring Plans has a reservation finder--you do not have to join their site to use this feature--and I've gotten reservations through that for extremely hard-to-get ADRs. Although I'm half expecting you to now say that you've read terrible experiences people have had with not being able to get reservation X, Y, or Z or that your reservations cannot be moved because of whatever reasons you might have. Which is fine. It's about your priorities. If the ADRs (or some of them) are tremendously important to you, then don't go to DHS that day and try for a RotR BG.

Look, @JakeAZ--Things could work out or they could not work out. Why not assume they are going to work out? A lot of things in your life must work out pretty well if you're able to afford a vacation to WDW! I admit that RotR is a unique experience. I'm very glad I got to ride it at all, much less twice. But would it have destroyed my WDW trip if I didn't? No. We had a great time doing everything else. And will again on our next trip.
 
I agree with your number one gripe about WDW. I much preferred it there when you could just wander about and get to ride pretty much everything you wanted to, stroll into whatever TS restaurant struck your fancy and get a table, etc. I also think the current FP+ system has created giant standby lines at rides that used to have minimal standby lines (SE comes to mind here).

You could, you know, eliminate this entire problem from your upcoming trip by deciding to not ride RotR, assuming the same system is still in place, and wait to ride it on a future trip when a system you'd prefer would be in place. Problem solved.

Yeah, there are people complaining about how it didn't work out for them. But there are also people saying how it did work out. I'm hardly the only person who's gotten to ride RotR and not had it ruin everything else that was planned. Not everyone has had a terrible, miserable experience with the VQ. Really, you could have a FP+ for anything at all and that ride could be down and not come back up until you're out of the park. It's not going to kill your entire trip.

If you're going to WDW specifically to ride RotR and that's your biggest priority, then you're going to have to roll with whatever is going on then, even if you don't like it.

Also, don't think that your ADRs are set in stone. You could probably rearrange a couple of them without tremendous difficulty. Touring Plans has a reservation finder--you do not have to join their site to use this feature--and I've gotten reservations through that for extremely hard-to-get ADRs. Although I'm half expecting you to now say that you've read terrible experiences people have had with not being able to get reservation X, Y, or Z or that your reservations cannot be moved because of whatever reasons you might have. Which is fine. It's about your priorities. If the ADRs (or some of them) are tremendously important to you, then don't go to DHS that day and try for a RotR BG.

Look, @JakeAZ--Things could work out or they could not work out. Why not assume they are going to work out? A lot of things in your life must work out pretty well if you're able to afford a vacation to WDW! I admit that RotR is a unique experience. I'm very glad I got to ride it at all, much less twice. But would it have destroyed my WDW trip if I didn't? No. We had a great time doing everything else. And will again on our next trip.
In the end, we'll just see what happens when we go. If we get a 100+ BG and have things scheduled later that day, we'll have to decide what is more important.

I have tried to rework some of the ADRs, but its the week before Easter, we have 12 (not all want to do ROTR) and one of the meals is at BOG. The others are character meals with show seating included. It's not looking good, unless we wait to eat (with small kids) around 9pm.

A return trip will not be for many years. I am not a fan of DWs planning. Too much is unknown at the time you have to start plugging everything in.

For me, all of this hassle just isn't worth it, based on what it costs to visit. I know I'm not alone in thinking this way, but of course there are many who don't mind.
 
Last edited:
In the end, we'll just see what happens when we go. If we get a 100+ BG and have things scheduled later that day, we'll have to decide what is more important.

I have tried to rework some of the ADRs, but its the week before Easter, we have 12 (not all want to do RORT) and one of the meals is at BOG. The others are character meals with show seating included. It's not looking good, unless we wait to eat (with small kids) around 9pm.

A return trip will not be for many years. I am not a fan of DWs planning. Too much is unknown at the time you have to start plugging everything in.

For me, all of this hassle just isn't worth it, based on what it costs to visit. I know I'm not alone in thinking this way, but of course there are many who don't mind.
@JakeAZ: If I were planning for 12 people I'd be having a nervous breakdown--or canceling the trip. Seriously. Two is my absolute limit: me + one other person. So I feel for you. That's a heckuva lot of planning to do.

Twelve people. If DIS would allow strong language, this would be the place where I'd put it. No wonder you're in the mood you're in.
 
What would happen if they had FP+ and VQ? Less boarding groups would be a result to account for the fast pass users. But this would give another option. This way it would be like a VQ standby line. I feel people are missing the option to plan 60 days out and if you get lucky enough to snag one its one less thing to worry about. Or.. what if morning is VQ and Fast passes are for only 4pm+ ?
 
What would happen if they had FP+ and VQ? Less boarding groups would be a result to account for the fast pass users. But this would give another option. This way it would be like a VQ standby line. I feel people are missing the option to plan 60 days out and if you get lucky enough to snag one its one less thing to worry about. Or.. what if morning is VQ and Fast passes are for only 4pm+ ?

On a day like today that would create problems. The ride actually still hasn’t opened :(.

A FP would theoretically turn into an anytime for when it came back up, boarding groups can be called only when they have the ability to accommodate. BG only is more control for downtime.
 
On a day like today that would create problems. The ride actually still hasn’t opened :(.

A FP would theoretically turn into an anytime for when it came back up, boarding groups can be called only when they have the ability to accommodate. BG only is more control for downtime.
its almost 1pm and the ride is down? holy moly
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top