Ok. Time for the full post now that we’re done for the day!!
I scheduled a Mears shuttle for 645 from all star sports, as i didn’t want to rely on the bus for our one attempt at ROTR. I was honestly happy about that, as we passed the REALLY long bus line. Caught the shuttle and were there right before 7. I had a bag, but my family didn’t. It honestly didn’t take me that much longer. Stuck all the way to the right and were in by about 720ish?
From there, we went straight to sign up for Jedi training. We got our top choice, and I’m glad we went when we did, as the line when we left was really long.
Next, we went to get a Mickey pretzel and sat by Echo Lake. We originally wanted to rope drop, but my 5yo was on the fence about it after Monday, so I didn’t think it was worth the stress. My 8yo and I camped out and waited. Checked the app at 7:55 to make sure tickets registered and we were signed in. Then sat on home screen until 7:59 to reopen. What I found in all of my practicing was to NOT click find out more until after 8:00. I saw plenty doing this around me, and not one got a better boarding group. Also, don’t listen to the announcements. The number of people at 730 freaking out in their phones was kind of crazy.
At 7:59:52, I started a quiet 10 second countdown with my daughter, who was well versed in how to get a boarding group. I just beat her. Button was red right away. Only had one person to deselect, and still got group 16. I couldn’t help myself and started jumping up and down (quietly), but stopped quickly when I saw no one around us getting excited. Those around us got in the 50s and 60s, so still not horrible.
our group was called at 907 when we were in our 905 TOT FP line. Finished that ride, then went to the 1020 Jedi training show before heading to ROTR. Definitely got the “a“ experience. And 30 seconds from the end, an announcement came on to stay seated and that we would be evacuated. The CM were pretty nice about it and joked that we got the“full” experience but would still be issued a recovery FP.
By that time, we had missed our 1025 TSM FO, but the GET team was great and reactivated it for us. After that, headed to MFSR, which was nothing in comparison to ROTR. Had a nice lunch at Mama Melrose’s complete with a birthday cupcake. During that time, was able to get another FP for TOT (still one of my faves).
headed back to ROTR, as it was back up. Realized on it that we were in “b” mode, although it wasn’t much different and I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t the first time. We got to go through the FP line, which was much quicker than the first time!
Had some time after so went right to Frozen and walked right in. Then went to TOT in the rain. By the time we got off the ride, rain had stopped.
Given the crowds, I couldn’t have asked for a better day. So lucky to do ROTR basically twice in full mode.
my biggest tip I got from the board and through practice was to wait until after 8:00 to hit find out more. I really think that made the difference in getting through smoothly. I didn’t trust opening the app, though, right at time, as I had a couple of practice sessions where it didn’t open for me quickly. So we opened a minute ahead and just waited.
Hope that helps and spreads some of the good fortune!