RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[GADisneyDad14]

Actually now says full in the app - right at 2 hours and 10 minutes today.

 

[yulilin3]

Still Boarding Groups available approaching 2 hours and 10 minutes. Longest we've gone so far is approx 2 hours, 17 minutes.

getting close to closing, the bg right now are for the evening according to the HUB

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

To those at the parks: Do we have any reports this morning of people showing up around 7am? What the entrance lines looked like then and what BG you got?

 

[PolyRob]

Still Boarding Groups available approaching 2 hours and 10 minutes. Longest we've gone so far is approx 2 hours, 17 minutes.

While I did not benefit from the double boarding group with an early arrival, I am happy Disney did it to make it fair for all guests. If it were truly a standby queue I would be able to re-enter, but under these circumstances it really makes sense.

 

[yulilin3]

that's it. Closed at 8:40am

 

[yulilin3]

BTTW on the HUB they have a little tracker saying what time of day the bg are being released, when the bg close for the day it says "paused" to me that indicates that if everything goes according to plan, they do have the ability to reopen later in the day.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

That was the theory, that 1-9 was for on site guests but I don't know if we got that confirmed or not ... I am sure there is some reason but today starting with 8 seems really, um, odd

Boarding Groups 1-8 clearly are reserved for Neil Patrick Harris.

 

[Hieraxx]

Can anyone comment as to how long (approximately) it's taking to get "all" folks who queue up prior to gate open, thru the turnstiles ? Trying to convince my fellow Boardwalk sleepers when to get there, and perhaps avoid waiting in the initial crush...

 

[ksromack]

Boarding group 33 just called! That's us

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I’m really hoping not! It’s not that he can’t be there, it’s the standing around for a long time that will be the issue. As I’ve said, I’m happy to do all the work so to speak if he can sit down nearby.

I would say to keep watching / reading people's experiences. Our first posters today arrived around 5am and were let in the park around 6:30am, so waited outside the park approx 1.5 hours. They were able to join the first few Boarding Groups offered.

Another poster arrived around 6:20am and reported "massive crowds" but was tapped into the park around 6:40am and joined Boarding Group 33 - so they only waited through the security / entry lines around 20ish minutes.

Another poster arrived at the park at 6:40am and reported they had no wait through security / entering the park and joined Boarding Group 35. So this poster didn't have to wait in line at all, but obviously has some time to kill in the park until they get to Boarding Group 35.

 

[ksromack]

Just randomly pondering this while I’m in line... does anyone use the park WiFi to join BGs?!

I trust LTE more.

I was on WiFi!

Can anyone comment as to how long (approximately) it's taking to get "all" folks who queue up prior to gate open, thru the turnstiles ? Trying to convince my fellow Boardwalk sleepers when to get there, and perhaps avoid waiting in the initial crush...

We arrived at 06:15 or so, 2 minutes thru bag check and we scanned into the park and onto the street to get our BG at 06:45 so roughly 15 minutes but we were pretty far back in the line to get in

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Can anyone comment as to how long (approximately) it's taking to get "all" folks who queue up prior to gate open, thru the turnstiles ? Trying to convince my fellow Boardwalk sleepers when to get there, and perhaps avoid waiting in the initial crush...

@Breezy2 provided a useful DP on this. They arrived at DHS and tapped into park at 6:43 so it seems that there were not long entrance lines by 6:40. They got BG 35.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Along the same lines of what @Hieraxx asked - it’d be cool to know what BG you got if you entered the park at 7:00 and 7:30. We know 6:30 got you BG 8 but they arrived at the park before 5am lol. Arriving at 6:45 got you BG 35.

It seems like 6:45 is the start of the sweet spot to avoid long entry lines. I wonder what is the end of the sweet spot (ie a super late BG).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I would say to keep watching / reading people's experiences. Our first posters today arrived around 5am and were let in the park around 6:30am, so waited outside the park approx 1.5 hours. They were able to join the first few Boarding Groups offered.

Another poster arrived around 6:20am and reported "massive crowds" but was tapped into the park around 6:40am and joined Boarding Group 33 - so they only waited through the security / entry lines around 20ish minutes.

Another poster arrived at the park at 6:40am and reported they had no wait through security / entering the park and joined Boarding Group 35. So this poster didn't have to wait in line at all, but obviously has some time to kill in the park until they get to Boarding Group 35.

“Time to kill”...aka supreme touring time with potential low waits at headliners!

 

[JuliaMLB37]

Does anyone know if the parking lots are open that early ? When I want to be there at approximately 6:30 am. Will I be able to park ?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Does anyone know if the parking lots are open that early ? When I want to be there at approximately 6:30 am. Will I be able to park ?

Yes, you'll be fine to park.

 

[ravensnhokies]

Sorry for the dumb questions and I am not up on all the acronyms, but everyone in the party needs to get through the entrance gate before joining a Boarding Group, BG? Also, just confiming TAPPING IN is when you enter the DHS gate with your magicband? Havent been to WDW in awhile and DL, which I am used to, is different. Thanks...

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Sorry for the dumb questions and I am not up on all the acronyms, but everyone in the party needs to get through the entrance gate before joining a Boarding Group, BG? Also, just confiming TAPPING IN is when you enter the DHS gate with your magicband? Havent been to WDW in awhile and DL, which I am used to, is different. Thanks...

Yep, you're on the right path for both:

BG = Boardng Group

Tapping In = Scanning your park admission (in your case, your Magic Band) at the front entrance 'tapstyles'

 

[JuliaMLB37]

Yes, you'll be fine to park.

thank you, that’s good to know . Do you think it’s the best alternative to drive by yourself from Art of animation? A lot of people were saying busses are not a good option around that time frame.

 

[Boardwalk III]

What I want for EMH days is for HS to keep the EMH advantage to 1 hour (like it's currently scheduled for) instead of 2 hours. Then let EMH guests get BG's when they tap in like the other days.

• This rewards early risers that invested their time to come early.
• This removes that awful randomness of getting BG's.
• Since BG's run out at about 2 hours, this allows non-onsite guests maybe up to an hour to get BG's.

What I want to avoid is my family getting up super early to get BG 80 because I didn't refresh at that secret moment Disney turned the VQ on. I can't switch HS days now since I got my fastpasses months ago.

This is exactly what happened to us on Sunday. Got our whole party up early, including our guest on a scooter. Walked from BWV, were in the park before 7:30, and missed the “unannounced early magic VG turn on time” by a few minutes and got group 85. Didn’t get called to board until 8:15 pm at which point we were sitting down at our Morimoto dinner reservation.

Frankly feel that since Disney publicly published a “VG turn-on time“ of 7:45, they should’ve stuck with that. And since they had opened EMH at 6 AM (which we were aware of through this thread) and they let non-resort guests in before 730 (1/2 hour before EMH was due to end) we couldn’t take it advantage of other EMH attractions as lines were already super long.

It was really an unpleasant day for us. I am not on Twitter, but if anyone knows the appropriate guest relations email to voice our displeasure I’d appreciate it!