RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[Linda67]

I can’t stop looking at the little droid dude, rolling back and forth, checking my boarding status in the app
Come on group 20!!!

 

[DavidNYC]

I see opening the VQ early as no different than opening the park early. It's something they do frequently.

Completely disagree. We’re not in normal operations. A generic opening time with regular early openings is one thing. When you come out the day before with a very explicit statement, I would expect that to be followed. If they said nothing, I’d be fine - that part of the opening of a new attraction and one would expect fluctuations and uncertainty. I’ve never seen a statement this explicit with times with such a big consequence for those who actually follow it.

 

[emily nicole]

Are the buses running that early prior to the posted opening time? or are people needing to drive or Lyft/Uber/taxi to DHS?

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Completely disagree. We’re not in normal operations. A generic opening time with regular early openings is one thing. When you come out the day before with a very explicit statement, I would expect that to be followed. If they said nothing, I’d be fine - that part of the opening of a new attraction and one would expect fluctuations and uncertainty. I’ve never seen a statement this explicit with times with such a big consequence for those who actually follow it.

And honestly I could waive it off if it was just the hotel signage saying 8, but to make actual announcements that it would open at 7:45 or whatever the actual time was, was not cool.

 

[SaintsManiac]

People are Tweeting them asking why the BG opened earlier than they specifically stated. They keep responding by asking for the guest to send a private message.

Would be nice if they would just answer it publicly.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I’ve been a fan of the overall way Disney has handled this opening, but I do take exception with this morning.

People have compared ROTR BG to concert tickets and knowing to get there early, but what I think this morning reminded me of was the annoying procedure Ticketmaster moved to in the later years before ticket sales went online where they would assign wristbands and then pick a random number to start at, breaking the whole early bird gets the worm thing.

That’s what frustrates me about this morning. People who did everything right may have ended up missing out in favour of people who just got luckier.

 

[2vets]

The 'worst' part about this whole setup is going to be explaining it to DW / the fam and getting their buy in. I've (Edit) dragged them to plenty of rope drops, EMMs, etc... but so far this is a whole different level.
Coming up with my 'pitch' for this is going to be a struggle.

HA, no kidding. DH and I are coming down for 4 days end of Jan/beginning of Feb, and because we had such a short amount of time, I used the "throw money at it" planning strategy - picked the lowest crowd (haha) January weekend I could, booked YC with CL FP+s for every day, and specifically planned Sunday as our HS day, thinking we could get into DHS during EMH, rope drop/ride RoTR, FP+/FP a bunch of other stuff, and then get the hell out by 1 pm. We're committed to Sunday now because of the FP+'s we have, so we'll just have to deal. DH does NOT like big crowds and is pretty much doing this trip just for me. He cannot believe I'm glued to this thread every morning like a total freak show (in the best company of course, love you guys, mean it).

Our exchange this morning was this:

Me: So, unless things change, we should get up at 4:30, mainline some coffee, leave YC by about 5/5:30 and power walk to DHS.
Him: What time do they open the boarding groups?
Me: (shrug), 7:15ish, if today is any indication.
Him: Oh. So we can get there at 7?
Me: No.
Him:

I'm going to have to be very nice to him for the next 7 weeks and let him do anything else he wants while we're there. It's the only way.

 

[TongaToast21]

Going tomorrow, is it safe to say 6 am arrival will get a BG?

 

[DGsAtBLT]

People are Tweeting them asking why the BG opened earlier than they specifically stated. They keep responding by asking for the guest to send a private message.

Would be nice if they would just answer it publicly.

Send us a private message so we can compensate you so you stop tweeting us lol.

 

[CPanther95]

Completely disagree. We’re not in normal operations. A generic opening time with regular early openings is one thing. When you come out the day before with a very explicit statement, I would expect that to be followed. If they said nothing, I’d be fine - that part of the opening of a new attraction and one would expect fluctuations and uncertainty. I’ve never seen a statement this explicit with times with such a big consequence for those who actually follow it.

I guess it just depends on how literal you want to take the info released vs how much you want to play it safe. I saw the 8am announcement primarily as a statement by Disney that EMH guests would not be getting to book BG before the regular guests. Something to prevent all people on site heading over in that early window to fill up all BGs then leave. Just like the varying opening times, and varying VQ start times the past few days, my assumption would be that EMH start time, regular guest opening time and VQ start time could also vary today. But I always defer to "better safe than sorry" when planning.

 

[2vets]

I'm staying on site at BWI so I won't have a car but we will definitely plan to go to HS 1st and early. I had planned to be there that afternoon to evening but switching things up to plan to be there early and be prepared to leave and come back if necessary. Only issue I have right now if a Flying fish reservation at 7p that I might just move to a later time since the park closes at 8:30.

Can you swap your FF reservation to Open Table as well? We did that specifically so we'd have some flexibility.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Send us a private message so we can compensate you so you stop tweeting us lol.

That’s what they are doing.

There’s no longer a Social Media team and all tweets are from GR CMs. They can provide Guest Recovery/Appeasements but not by tweeting them out.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Just to veer off topic for a second.
Disney opening parks early is nothing new, they have done it for years now at AK to have access to Pandora, and at DHS for access to TSLand. If you are reading this post then you're ahead of the game, you are informed and can plan accordingly.
We have said to be at the park at least 2 hours before for a very long time, the VQ is a great way to allow guests to experience the attraction while freeing up valuable time to do other things, sure you have to be flexible, but that's with everything at DIsney. They never guarantee ANYTHING, everything is subject to change and they say so in their website.
Now for those that will and have chimed in about the poor people that didn't know, it is on the guest, not on Disney. Would you spend thousands of dollars to come and not research? Especially with a huge name like Star Wars attached to it?
Can Disney communicate better? Absolutely. Have they ever done so? not really, I always tell people that come to be in the parks at least an hour before opening because you never know. Disney makes decisions based on security, demand and guest experience, in that order, they will open at different times depending the amount of people outside the gates.
Lots of people have also said that they should've called this a soft opening because the attraction is not at 100%, I agree that there should be some mention to this at the entrance of the park and attraction, but then for how long? how long should they keep the soft opening? they have been testing this attraction for almost a year and obviously have not been able to figure out a way to fix whatever needs ficing. So keep it closed although it will work about 75% of the time? That's a decision on Disney management obviously, but I as well as many here have experienced it, and it would be a shame to keep this closed when the experience is so rewarding
To sum up, still being early and informed is your best strategy, and again, if you are reading this, you know this by now. Have fun, I have spoken and MTFBWY

For what it’s worth... I think a DISboards moderator saying “I have spoken” is a really bad look.

You’re welcome to voice your opinion but should others not also be able to voice theirs too? And if it is a dissenting opinion is that not ok? Some people want to be critical of Disney in how this was handled but we don’t all have to agree.

I feel that it is OK for people to expect better out of Disney as it pertains to communication. I also feel like some of what has happened here (especially the use of VQ) is somewhat unprecedented and without comparison. Anna/Elsa and FoP aren’t even a good comparison.

You wrote up a very well-worded comment here but the words “I have spoken” with the moderator moniker tied to it somewhat indicates that this is now the official position of this thread and that ain’t cool.

I have not spoken but I have stated my opinion

EDIT: yes I “get” the joke...still feels a little ill-timed.

 

[Liljo22]

For what it’s worth... I think a DISboards moderator saying “I have spoken” is a really bad look.

You’re welcome to voice your opinion but should others not also be able to voice theirs too? And if it is a dissenting opinion is that not ok? Some people want to be critical of Disney in how this was handled but we don’t all have to agree.

I feel that it is OK for people to expect better out of Disney as it pertains to communication. I also feel like some of what has happened here (especially the use of VQ) is somewhat unprecedented and without comparison. Anna/Elsa and FoP aren’t even a good comparison.

You wrote up a very well-worded comment here but the words “I have spoken” with the moderator moniker tied to it somewhat indicates that this is now the official position of this thread and that ain’t cool.

I have not spoken but I have stated my opinion

I'm guessing you haven't watch the Mandalorian.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm guessing you haven't watch the Mandalorian.

I have - and it’s still a bad look.

Some folks won’t get the joke. It was I’ll-timed IMO (am I allowed to hold that opinion )

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Going tomorrow, is it safe to say 6 am arrival will get a BG?

Based upon the past 4 days, Probably*

*The first three days they let people in around that time and boarding groups were available immediately and if you were among the first in the park you got a BG. With EMH today though they held the BG’s until a random time around 7:20 AM, and then everyone tried to get them at once, and if you weren’t fast and refreshing constantly you might have missed them because they lied about what time they would be open. Assuming tomorrow is like the first 3 days getting there at 6 am is probably enough. If tomorrow is more like today getting there at 6 am might not be enough and you might have to also just be constantly refreshing your phone and it’s still possible you could get unlucky depending on what happens.

 

[FantasmicMike]

For what it’s worth... I think a DISboards moderator saying “I have spoken” is a really bad look.

Not disagreeing with anything that you may have said here - but to those unaware, the "I have spoken" seems a direct reference to a character's line from The Mandalorian. At least that's how I read it - my guess is as an attempt at levity, humor, not defiance.

 

[ericar]

How do you refresh your phone app when waiting for boarding groups to open? I am not there now but when I open the app and go to the boarding group page I don't see how to refresh.

 

[Linda67]

Just been called
Buzzing right now!

 

[Liljo22]

Based upon the past 4 days, Probably*

*The first three days they let people in around that time and boarding groups were available immediately and if you were among the first in the park you got a BG. With EMH today though they held the BG’s until a random time around 7:20 AM, and then everyone tried to get them at once, and if you weren’t fast and refreshing constantly you might have missed them because they lied about what time they would be open. Assuming tomorrow is like the first 3 days getting there at 6 am is probably enough. If tomorrow is more like today getting there at 6 am might not be enough and you might have to also just be constantly refreshing your phone and it’s still possible you could get unlucky depending on what happens.

Its been mentioned on here that CMs are scheduled for an 8 am opening starting Monday while they have been scheduled for 6 am for the last 4 days. Unless there was a change to the schedule, the opening is going to be closer to the 8am listed time.