RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[Elks70]

We will be staying at the Riviera Resort. Is the gondola's time from Riviera to DHS of +/- 11 minutes the quickest way to get to the park in the early morning hours (5-6 am) ?

You have to transfer you go from Rivera to Caribbean beach hub then from there to HS.. but you have to get off at carribean beach

 

[courtney1188]

Ride is back up. In line now.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

Just got the notification on my phone, group 31 is boarding

 

[TheMaxRebo]

We will be staying at the Riviera Resort. Is the gondola's time from Riviera to DHS of +/- 11 minutes the quickest way to get to the park in the early morning hours (5-6 am) ?

They extended hours a bit for the Skyliner but it still only opens at 6:45am so I wouldn't count on it for getting there super early

 

[disfamz]

We will be staying at the Riviera Resort. Is the gondola's time from Riviera to DHS of +/- 11 minutes the quickest way to get to the park in the early morning hours (5-6 am) ?

Uber/Lyft might be faster?

 

[hiroMYhero]

We will be staying at the Riviera Resort. Is the gondola's time from Riviera to DHS of +/- 11 minutes the quickest way to get to the park in the early morning hours (5-6 am) ?

No because the Skyliner begins transporting guests 15 minutes prior to regular park open...6:45a.

 

[wareagle57]

10 mins from parking to tapping in is pretty fast. Sounds like you navigated that crowd pretty well.

I was surprised how quickly the line moved. Less than 5 minutes. We went to the far right as it feeds into extra lines. We are also very fast walkers and got a parking spot close to the end of the row. I almost always beat the tram unless it leaves just before I pass it. It was 40 minutes round trip for us. A little higher than I anticipated but not bad given the crowd.

 

[TrolleyTrouble2713]

I was surprised how quickly the line moved. Less than 5 minutes. We went to the far right as it feeds into extra lines. We are also very fast walkers and got a parking spot close to the end of the row. I almost always beat the tram unless it leaves just before I pass it. It was 40 minutes round trip for us. A little higher than I anticipated but not bad given the crowd.

I think the initial log jam broke just before you got there. We were leaving just after 7 and there was a steady stream coming in.

 

[osufeth24]

I was surprised how quickly the line moved. Less than 5 minutes. We went to the far right as it feeds into extra lines. We are also very fast walkers and got a parking spot close to the end of the row. I almost always beat the tram unless it leaves just before I pass it. It was 40 minutes round trip for us. A little higher than I anticipated but not bad given the crowd.

How do you learn this power

I always get the beginning of a row at HS lol

 

[only hope]

Many people reading this thread are trying to avoid spoilers, so please be careful with what you're reporting. I didn't want spoilers and was able to avoid them. This thread was great, just giving information about park opening strategies, boarding groups and times, etc.

If you’re talking about someone mentioning the stormtroopers, I hardly think you can call that a spoiler when a photo of that portion of the ride has been widely used for publicity and is very hard to avoid. I think it’s helpful to know what point they evacuated from.

I avoided spoilers and photos before I went as best as I could. I had seen that there are stormtroopers, but had no idea where they were or why they were there and would have been frustrated had I read that info in this thread before I got to experience it. The only things I knew before riding was that Disney promoted it as a battle between the First Order and Resistance and it is a trackless dark ride with some sort of amazing queue. Those two facts are quite unavoidable.

 

[ScarletFire]

Do you have to tap into the park before you may select a boarding group?

 

[only hope]

How do you learn this power

I always get the beginning of a row at HS lol

Not much you can do about it, but if they are parking two rows at the same time look to see which is closer to the correct end and use that lane.

 

[100acreHiker]

We are going the week between Christmas and New Years and I see that park hours now changed from 8 am to 6am. I am not thrilled about this, but we will make it work. Staying at WL. I was planning to get to the park at 6am for the 8 am opening with my two kids. What time do we need to get to the park for the 6am opening? Our HS park days will be 12/27 and 12/30 (Friday and Monday)?

 

[Ensusieasm]

Do you have to tap into the park before you may select a boarding group?

Yes, everyone in your party that wants to ride has to tap in before you can try for a boarding group.

 

[267]

I just returned from WDW, people are lining up at 5am for the ride. We had a boarding pass on Tuesday group 107 but couldn’t get on. WDW gave us a FastPass for the following day and a free hopper ticket for each in our party good until 2030. ROTR was definitely worth the wait.

 

[cuewittyname]

My group got to the gates at 5:15, right as they opened security, after taking the first boat from Dolphin. Our bag person made it through just as quickly as our no bag people.

We were just before the ticket booths. Gates open at 6:20, through the tapstiles by 6:25ish, boarding group 13.

We made a run for slinky but it was down so we split for Rockin and Tower. Our boarding group was ready by 6:50 but we hit the Falcon first. We were walking into Rise around 8, but then got stopped 40 minutes later while in the experience but not sitting down. Evacuated and given fast passes (which was way better to me than sitting in line like we did a few days ago, I was hangry today) at 9 am. We ate and then walked over to see how it was going. As we were walking up they were letting fast passes back on, so we got in line (9:45). Basically walked right on the ride from there! Another early morning worth it, and our last day

 

[estherhead]

Our morning

4:48 Ordered my Lyft from CBR
5:01 Lyft arrived (Lyft driver said had we taken the Skyliner we would have gotten there first by a minute or two.)
5:12 Arrived
5:18 Through bag check and were about 25 behind in line 6th from the right (go right but not last two lines on the right. Lines 3-6 from the right were fastest.)
6:20 Open
6:22 Scanned
6:30 Waited for the rest of my party who were slightly delayed at the tapstyles (in final 2 to the right) and they finally all showed up on MDE. CM’s said there is a 2-5 min delay to show up on app. About 1-2 minutes seemed more like it to me.
Got BG 27
Took pictures, Rode Falcon, ate breakfast, enjoyed the stores and experience
8:16 BG called and in line
8:50 Ride broke when we were about 25 people from front. Chewie came, bananas, water. Also they allowed us to walk to the front and use the restroom and then go back to our spot.
9:44 moving forward again
9:46 BB-8 room
9:49 shuttle
10:08 off the ride

 

[Elks70]

We are going the week between Christmas and New Years and I see that park hours now changed from 8 am to 6am. I am not thrilled about this, but we will make it work. Staying at WL. I was planning to get to the park at 6am for the 8 am opening with my two kids. What time do we need to get to the park for the 6am opening? Our HS park days will be 12/27 and 12/30 (Friday and Monday)?

430 is a good time to aim for.. if earlier the better

 

[Kathleen Glasgow]

Anyone have any guess how the Sunday of Marathon weekend will be (Jan 12)? It's the only day I can devote to getting a BG. I will sleep there overnight, if need be. (lol I know they won't let me).

 

[evilqueenmindy]

okay, so we got in line at 10:02, were in the hangar at 10:40, and off the ride altogether right at 11am.

It’s incredible. Totally worth the trip.