READ POST 1 & 2 FIRST-Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Planning and Information-*No Spoilers*

[SouthFayetteFan]

The pace today is . Currently averaging over 14/hour.

FYI The record for a 13 hour operating day is 160 groups called, which would be group 166 today.

FYI: When you calculate a mid-day average you should add 1.5-2 hours to the op hrs figure for time to clear the line (as if the park closed now). So you could assume they are at 12.1 BGs per hour right now. They do stand a chance at today being a record if they load up the line enough and there is no downtime.

 

[ultimatefans]

What time did the buses start running at Riviera? We will be checking in Sunday and I’m trying to finalize our transportation plan for ROtR. Thanks!

[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately the bus times in the app wasn’t working so I’m not sure if we got the first bus at 6:17 or if there was an earlier one. We were at the stop just before 6. We were prepared to Uber/Lyft but the bus came just about the time we were contemplating calling one. Have a great trip!

 

[sachilles]

Still can't help but think boarding group size is the huge unknown in this. It seems an amazing number of groups handled today even for a incident free day.

 

[tsme]

We’ll be at HS On the 29th. My DH is big SW fan since the original 3. I’m trying so hard not to stress out, but I’ve got to honest, I’m failing miserably. I don’t care if I ride ROTR, but he really wants to & I’d hate to see him disappointed. I’ve been reading this thread since the beginning & thanks to all of y’all I have plan. Now just hoping it works.

 

[The Pho]

Still can't help but think boarding group size is the huge unknown in this. It seems an amazing number of groups handled today even for a incident free day.

Judging by the reported capacity, the general estimate of 75-100 sounds about right.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Still can't help but think boarding group size is the huge unknown in this. It seems an amazing number of groups handled today even for a incident free day.

They have an hour left to call back BGs, and today doesn't necessarily look drastically different than the results on 1/7, 1/11, 1/12, 1/13, 1/15, & 1/19.

I personally wouldn't look at today as "amazing" but rather, the new expectation. If you remove the 3 obvious outlier days, we probably should expect ~150 BGs to be called back on a 13 hour day. They've called back 140 right now with the potential to get to somewhere between 155-165 so it will be another solid performance.

 

[MargeGriff]

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually shift to a BG-standby hybrid. Continue BGs, issue fewer of them, and start integrating standby also. If people want to wait, they can, if you RD and get a BG, when/if called, go thru FP line. Then, eventually, BGs go away when FP+ is ready to be introduced, whenever that time is and assuming the FP+ system remains the same (of course, I do fully expect FP+ to change before then anyway).

In what way are you thinking FP+ will change? Just curious.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

A noticeable difference today... they have NOT loaded up the line yet. I'm just a guy behind a keyboard but each day around 4 hours prior to closing it seems like they suddenly increase the rate of calling BGs. You can see this when the "spread" starts to exceed 30 and then ultimately even > 40. Right now we see if at 27 (i.e. 13.5 BGs per hour)!

Perhaps somebody people's criticisms have been heard and they're trying to keep people from waiting in a 90+ minute line at the end of the night. Wouldn't that be a welcome change? The big question...will they still ramp up things prior to 6:00? Will they keep calling BGs until 7:00? Let's see what happens tonight!

 

[midnight star]

In what way are you thinking FP+ will change? Just curious.

I'm assuming they mean HS might re-tier the rides since there are many E ticket attractions now. And maybe move to paid fastpass system that's currently in a trial/pilot period.

 

[Faldred]

Nobody can be certain whether HS hours will be changed for Feb. But personally...
if we were going that month I'd expect 9am openings to be pulled back, at the minimum. Extra HS hours are the best way to accommodate the increasing number of guests who book specifically with hopes of RoR. Many families I know have only now decided to visit since all the positive feedback.

WDW's likely being conservative to confirm expanded hours in advance because they still feel the sting from over-extending hours with SWGE's 3 park 3 month EEMHs. Too soon to make any mistake like that again

I'll be at DHS on Wed Feb 19. While it won't kill my plans with a 9am opening (I might actually get some sleep on the night of my two-day blitz trip if it stays at 9am), I'm assuming it will be earlier. I'm guessing 8am but wouldn't be surprised with 7am.

At this point, though, I very much doubt there will be morning EMH until the boarding group process is no longer needed. It'd be awful for a day guest to arrive at official park opening only to find all the BGs are taken by EMH guests.

 

[georgina]

I'll be at DHS on Wed Feb 19. While it won't kill my plans with a 9am opening (I might actually get some sleep on the night of my two-day blitz trip if it stays at 9am), I'm assuming it will be earlier. I'm guessing 8am but wouldn't be surprised with 7am.

At this point, though, I very much doubt there will be morning EMH until the boarding group process is no longer needed. It'd be awful for a day guest to arrive at official park opening only to find all the BGs are taken by EMH guests.

I'll be there that day too. I recently cancelled my on-site stay when it looked like no AM EMH would be happening. (Still waiting for Disney to cancel my previously made FP.) Wouldn't mind an 8 AM opening, I did the 6 AM EMH in October.

 

[Faldred]

I'll be there that day too. I recently cancelled my on-site stay when it looked like no AM EMH would be happening.

I originally picked those dates because of the EMH options, but I'll be taking advantage of the evening EMH at Epcot (Tue) and MK (Wed) still, which explains my previous comment about potentially getting no sleep.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

We are at 164 now at 6pm... will they keep going?? Or is that it...

EDIT: 10 minutes later, and still no mvmt. If 164 is indeed it, this will become our new #2 in BGs per day.

 

[CNorwood3]

I'm assuming they mean HS might re-tier the rides since there are many E ticket attractions now. And maybe move to paid fastpass system that's currently in a trial/pilot period.

Seeing as we're used to paying for Universal Express passes over admission, I'm actually ok with paying for FP. Pay once use it as please

 

[Heather07438]

I'll be at DHS on Wed Feb 19. While it won't kill my plans with a 9am opening (I might actually get some sleep on the night of my two-day blitz trip if it stays at 9am), I'm assuming it will be earlier. I'm guessing 8am but wouldn't be surprised with 7am.

At this point, though, I very much doubt there will be morning EMH until the boarding group process is no longer needed. It'd be awful for a day guest to arrive at official park opening only to find all the BGs are taken by EMH guests.

I'll be there that day too. I recently cancelled my on-site stay when it looked like no AM EMH would be happening. (Still waiting for Disney to cancel my previously made FP.) Wouldn't mind an 8 AM opening, I did the 6 AM EMH in October.

You'll be fine! You can live without sleep for 2 days, lol
amEMH's return in April according to WDW site. Not sure what they'll decide closer to then. It seems like they don't intend on opening BGs during amEMHs to avoid the backlash from off-site guests. And amEMH might cause too much confusion with on-site guests so HS could avoid the issue altogether by switching to pmEMH.
The Sunday we went to HS (Dec 15) the hours or EMHs were changed the week before, again the day before and then also during that same day iirc.

 

[dina444444]

We are at 164 now at 6pm... will they keep going?? Or is that it...

EDIT: 10 minutes later, and still no mvmt. If 164 is indeed it, this will become our new #2 in BGs per day.

Day number 1 is still NYE correct? They got through about 200 groups that day if I remember right.

 

[AngiTN]

Day number 1 is still NYE correct? They got through about 200 groups that day if I remember right.

Of course it was open longer hours that day too so it may not get beat

 

[CastAStone]

Day number 1 is still NYE correct? They got through about 200 groups that day if I remember right.

Best when adjusting for park hours is 1/12 with 12.3 BGs per hour. Today will be 12.2. Hence, @SouthFayetteFan calling it #2.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Day number 1 is still NYE correct? They got through about 200 groups that day if I remember right.

As @CastAStone said - I’ve sort of tried to make BGs per park hours our metric. It lets us adjust for the variations in open and closing time and determine if ride performance is improving.

1/12 is king in my book right now.

 

[jsilvers]

For what it’s worth:

Got to the Studios at 8:30am, not seriously expecting to ride. Assigned boarding group 159.

Got a notification at 5:45pm and got in line at 6pm.

Entered [edit] room at 6:45pm and off the ride at 7:15pm.