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

[TheMaxRebo]

Question: a lot of people say to turn off your Wi-Fi. Does this mean actually turning off your Wi-Fi from your Settings on your phone? Or is it OK to leave it on but just not connect to the Disney Wi-Fi?

I would just turn it off completely for the time you are trying to get a BG and then turn it back on ... just seems easier and safer that the phone using up computing power trying to find a wi-fi signal

 

[ninafeliz]

How do you practice from home?

You can go through all of the steps up until the final one, at that point it will say everyone is not in the park and it won’t actually let you get the BG. You can only try right at and after they open for the day, though. So for now that’s 8:00 to around 8:15 am EST.

 

[LaurenT]

For me at home it changed to backups pretty much at 8:01. I was able to get through 4 or 5 times and choose my family before it changed to backups.

For me, at home, I started refreshing at 7:59 and by the time I got the red button it was in back ups

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

meanwhile, we have been very anti-phone for my kids ..... but with a trip coming up I am now questioning this position

We are anti phone in RL but let DD11 have an old phone to help with FPs at Disney last year. DD10 lobbied hard to get to do it too (she snagged a couple). I just yesterday got the alert that my battery health is not great. Reminded DH that he has a shiny new phone and I don’t. So new phone for me. Yay! The only reason I want it is for Disney. I’m fine with the existing one for everything else

But the plan is now to get battery replaced and have DD10 and DD11 both earn their Disney keep (cue maniacal laughter).

 

[annie415]

Trying from home too; the button would not go red for me either, until I restarted app.

Next time hit my status and then the join boarding group should be available from there

 

[TheMaxRebo]

We are anti phone in RL but let DD11 have an old phone to help with FPs at Disney last year. DD10 lobbied hard to get to do it too (she snagged a couple). I just yesterday got the alert that my battery health is not great. Reminded DH that he has a shiny new phone and I don’t. So new phone for me. Yay! The only reason I want it is for Disney. I’m fine with the existing one for everything else

But the plan is now to get battery replaced and have DD10 and DD11 both earn their Disney keep (cue maniacal laughter).

hmm, that is a thought - we could bring an old phone and connect to the Disney wifi and have my daughter try as a third person

 

[DeeCee735]

Here is our tale!

We left Dolphin at 6:30 this morning and walked over. It was actually a beautiful walk and not nearly as long as I was imagining. Once the underpass to the road was visible, I could see the HS parking lot and realized it really was just a hop skip and a jumppppppp. Anyway, we got there before 7 and yes, there were lots of folks but once we got into the park, we were probably in the first 120 by the Galaxy's gate.

Here was our strategy: I have iphone 8 and hubby has iphone 7. My app was updated and his was not. It has been taking waaay too long for my app to get those fireworks going. We had an app race and when I saw how much faster his was, I asked if we could switch phones at the crucial appointed moment.

Okay, OKAY, I TOLD him we were switching phones. I was the one who has been doing practice sessions and he's not super techie, or as obsessed as I am.

I made sure both our phones were fully charged and we were OFF of the wifi. I had deleted my app the day before and reloaded it. Hubby would be trying for a group at the same time as I would be, with me using his super duper speedy unupdated app.

At 7:58ish, we both opened the app, then went back to our home page and watched the clock hand ticking....ticking...ticking...
With about five seconds to go, I started counting down and at 7:59:59, I went back to the app, clicked the find out more, then My Status, the clicked Join a Boarding Group. We got boarding group 18. I yelled out even before my spouse, on MY phone had a chance to join a group.

So honestly, I think it comes down to the fastest person, with the fastest app and a keen eye on the time. And good luck.

The ride stopped loading new groups at group 12 and we waited for a good bit. Finally got called in at 11am. Make sure everyone has gone to the bathroom before entering the line because once you're in line...it can still be quite a long wait. One hour for us and we were moving most the time. We were thinking of how this might be tough for sensitive kids. All in all it was super fun and amazing and I feel satisfied all of the pre-planning paid off.

Where is Galaxy's Gate? Is that where we head over to after tapping into the park in order to try and get into a boarding group? TIA

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We are anti-device at Disney, and vacation in general (adults too). We’re all married to our devices for work, for here, for life in general - WDW is the one place where we put it away. Or try to, at least. I don’t even like refreshing for FPs as it just feels like time I’m focused on a device and not in the moment - which is the whole reason we’re there in the first place, but I digress.

And yet, I have also pulled an older iPhone of mine out of retirement and will let DS9 try using WiFi. Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Next time hit my status and then the join boarding group should be available from there

And just so people know, the Join Boarding Group button on the My Status screen doesn’t turn red. It goes from gray to light blue (or at least it does on my 1-2 versions back MDE).

 

[Castlequeen5]

We are anti-device at Disney, and vacation in general (adults too). We’re all married to our devices for work, for here, for life in general - WDW is the one place where we put it away. Or try to, at least. I don’t even like refreshing for FPs as it just feels like time I’m focused on a device and not in the moment - which is the whole reason we’re there in the first place, but I digress.

And yet, I have also pulled an older iPhone of mine out of retirement and will let DS9 try using WiFi. Gotta do what you gotta do.

That’s my plan too! There will be 10 of us on our trip in March. Everyone has a phone except my youngest 3 children. So I’m planning to bring our “home cell phone” and iPads/iPods for them to try. I will make sure everyone is well trained on how to secure a BG. Surely with all of us trying, one of us will get lucky. Maybe I’ll throw in a Mickey bar for the person with the winning device! Ha!

 

[Mollygirl21]

We're BG56 and were just evacuated and given FPs

 

[ninafeliz]

My DS 10 and DS 6 both have their own phones, and you bet I showed them how to look for BGs a week ahead and made sure they were signed into my account and ready to go at 7:50 last Wednesday. I’m the one who ended up getting BG4, but it made me feel so much better knowing 4 of us were trying. They were excited to be able to help also. We don’t let them just stare at their phones the whole trip, but I do carry them in my bag and if we happen to end up in a situation where it seems ok to us (like when the ride went down while we were in a long cave like tunnel lol) we let them play on them some. But I have to admit we aren’t as anti screens as many, and not as much as we should be.

 

[keishashadow]

I’m assuming you have your reasons for arriving that early, but just making sure you’re aware park opening is 8am.

No, I had made a bad assumption it was 7 am again. thank you so much lol. Have yet to check the park hours, such a last minute trip still planning

Someone from home can log in and get a BG just for the people that are in the park, not themselves

While people seem to find ‘practicing’ helpful, I doI find it troublesome that this is possible

I wonder how many people practice from home. I guess mainly limited to people on forums like this. If it is a lot it would be slowing it down for people in the parks and making it more likely they will have issues.

IDK even the most casual disney fan i’ve Spoken to since RoTR has opened is pretty much up to speed on the tricks to enhance their chances. Easy enough with google search

I actually turned mine off in settings. Disney WiFi has consistently been not so great for me over the years. We left the WiFi on on my kids phones. I got the BG, but there’s no way to know if WiFi has anything to do with that. I’m also the one who follows Disney and knows how to do all of this stuff lol!

I can’t get the disney app to work in the parks using ATT, not even on my iphone 11. Works fine on data

For me, at home, I started refreshing at 7:59 and by the time I got the red button it was in back ups

Recently?

We're BG56 and were just evacuated and given FPs

Ugh, good luck you get to ride.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Maybe I’ll throw in a Mickey bar for the person with the winning device! Ha!

Oooh. I like it. A little competition with some sibling rivalry and we should have a good BG number.

 

[ninafeliz]

While people seem to find ‘practicing’ helpful, I doI find it troublesome that this is possible

I’m just curious, and I’m really not trying to be snarky I promise, but so you didn’t/aren’t “practicing” at all then? You’ll just understand the process and do it for the first time the morning you want to ride?

 

[yulilin3]

@keishashadow its been fixed on a minute to switch from regular to back bg. Some people have reported it going into backups before the minute but at the same time others have reported being able to join a bg seconds before 8am

 

[JStu]

Left beach club at 650. Caught boat to DHS. I’m bag check at 720. Done by 725. In line and through tapstyle at 740. Logged on at 759:50 and didn’t get join button for 30-4 seconds. Got BG 90. We shall see. Let’s get lucky!!

 

[keishashadow]

I’m just curious, and I’m really not trying to be snarky I promise, but so you didn’t/aren’t “practicing” at all then? You’ll just understand the process and do it for the first time the morning you want to ride?

No, haven’t practiced unless you count it working just fine for us (thankfully) on 2 previous trips

I did pull up the app when initially reading this thread to find where the button was located

I’m not exactly a whiz with techie things but even I found it easy to figure out

 

[yulilin3]

No, haven’t practiced unless you count it working just fine for us (thankfully) on 2 previous trips

I did pull up the app when initially reading this thread to find where the button was located

I’m not exactly a whiz with techie things but even I found it easy to figure out

A lot of people are stressing out about the process and practicing seems to help, but , you're right, it's not really complicated

 

[DisHmsklMom]

Looks like it's back up. Just added BG 66, we're into the backups.