RotR Planning & Daily Boarding Group Discussion - *CLOSED*

[estherhead]

So even if you get up at stupid o clock and get a boarding group, you still might not get to ride? Is that correct? It’s going to be a nightmare trying to get there with our 5,3 and 1 year old super early anyway (and we are relying on Disney buses) and we would be gutted not to get to ride. Does your BG roll over to the next day if it doesn’t get you on that day? Really dreading HS now! Thanks for any help

If this were my family and I was coming to Disney more than one day, I would go one morning by myself and then have my husband go the next. I wouldn’t wake kids that age at 4 am to do something they won’t love. I’d make sure to get there at 5;15 and be on one of those first BG and then be home before the kids even missed me.

 

[mrebuck]

Does anyone know how the BGs work with evening EMHs? Will you still have to arrive super early in the morning if you intend to ride during evening EMHs?

 

[hiroMYhero]

Does anyone know how the BGs work with evening EMHs? Will you still have to arrive super early in the morning if you intend to ride during evening EMHs?

RotR is not open to guests during evening EMH.

All BGs loaded RotR prior to EMH last night.

 

[mechteach1]

Blog Mickey confirms lot was open prior to 4:30a.

Awesome! Thanks!

 

[mrebuck]

RotR is not open to guests during evening EMH.

All BGs loaded RotR prior to EMH last night.

Thanks.

 

[EmJ]

That's easy to say but far harder to do. You also assume that there will be other trips in other years. That's not necessarily the case for many families. We're coming in January after going in January 2016 and January 2012. It already was difficult to convince my wife to come and I'm not sure when, if ever, our next trip will be.

With that said, we plan to be at the gate by 7:00 but I understand if some families simply can't get into the park by 7:30. Telling them to just do the ride next trip isn't really a great answer. That's why I think Disney should use these backup boarding groups in the late afternoon or early morning instead of just extending the boarding group opening for another few minutes in the morning.

I get it. My DH was last at DL in 1993. I was last at WDW in 1996. The “next time” is sometimes a long time away. There is no possible way for Disney to ensure that everyone who wants to ride gets to do so on the schedule that’s convenient for them, so my larger point was that families should really consider what will give them the most enjoyable vacation *overall*. If ROTR doesn’t make the list, that’s okay. We’re skipping Fantasmic, WOC, night time SWGE, and night time Carsland because my son can’t stay up that late. Would they be awesome to see? Yes, but not at the expense of enjoying the balance of our vacation because everyone’s tired and grumpy. Anyway, that’s my two cents, certainly others may have different opinions.

 

[tacosquad]

Just now posting my update from Saturday. Took Lyft from CBR to HS, arrived at 6:15. Gates opened at 6:18, stayed about 3 turnstiles from the far right, got in at 6:23, yelled at my phone app until 6:28, got BG 35. Phone crashed for the rest of the trip at 6:30.
Went to SDD and hung out under cover until the storm passed, then our BG got called late morning. Very short wait in line, easy on and off.
I feel for the people who had issues with the ride going down, long lines, etc. But I'm very grateful for the good experience we had!

 

[tacosquad]

Did the skyliner have actual guests on it though? I’ve seen the lines running overnight when it’s not open for guests.

Skyliner is running well before they let people on. We tried to get on around 5:30 on Saturday morning and they said it would be another hour or more before they let guests ride.

 

[Aprilshack]

RotR is not open to guests during evening EMH.

All BGs loaded RotR prior to EMH last night.

So the ride closes at 8pm?

 

[NYHeel]

Opening the backup bg later in the day will just create more angry people. Imagine arriving at 7:20am and being shut out of the bg, you decide to wait it out until the backup bg opens randomly later in the day only to be shut out again by someone that arrived at noon and just happened to check their phone at the right time

Well it shouldn't be random. It should be at a certain announced time and they should stick to that. For example, if they announced that boarding groups may reopen at 5:30 if there's sufficient availability, then those that missed the earlier boarding groups can get on their phones at 5:30 and try to get the backup ones. Also, by 5:30, Disney has a much better feel for how many more boarding groups will be available.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

If this were my family and I was coming to Disney more than one day, I would go one morning by myself and then have my husband go the next. I wouldn’t wake kids that age at 4 am to do something they won’t love. I’d make sure to get there at 5;15 and be on one of those first BG and then be home before the kids even missed me.

That’s our tentative plan for March should this continue. I will go early enough with anybody who wants to ride (including my 8 year old if he’s willing to get up), minus my husband or a grandparent staying back with my 4 year olds. I’ll do it again another day if the people staying back still want to get up to ride.

None of them want to do it without me there to “guide”. Blessing and a curse being the hardcore Disney planner in the family

 

[hiroMYhero]

So the ride closes at 8pm?

No one rode after the last BG and any appeasement FP guests.

They don’t have to state RotR is closed just that it was for BGs-only.

 

[Aprilshack]

No one rode after the last BG and any appeasement FP guests.

They don’t have to state RotR is closed just that it was for BGs-only.

ok, so if you have a BG & you can go on after 8pm if that’s when you are called? I was under the impression that the ride won’t be open for anyone during magic hours, morning or evening?

 

[Heather07438]

There is always the risk that something doesn't work out and a ride is missed at WDW; never a guarantee. Yesterday we missed our 1 opportunity to do Everest because it went down just as our FP opened and we needed to hop back to HS for our BG. It happens.

That being said, guests still need to try giving themselves the best shot to do attractions that are high priority to them. Arriving to HS by 6:30a to make sure you can join a BG under 90 cuts most of your risk. I'd say you'd have 98% chance to ride RoR that day, even if there are major crowds and even if there are a few down times. Best bet is to have a back-up day planned to try again, which should further cut your risk by 99.99%. There is no plan that is a 100% guarantee, but you can come very close.

On 2 different days in HS at 6:45a, we were assigned BG 37 & 63 and called around 10:20a & 1pm respectively.

My app is saying groups 61-71 right now (2:00)

That's about where it was at yesterday. 61 called around 1pm, 71 around 2pm.

 

[yulilin3]

Well it shouldn't be random. It should be at a certain announced time and they should stick to that. For example, if they announced that boarding groups may reopen at 5:30 if there's sufficient availability, then those that missed the earlier boarding groups can get on their phones at 5:30 and try to get the backup ones. Also, by 5:30, Disney has a much better feel for how many more boarding groups will be available.

Still running the risk of the app crashing as everyone tries to join at the same time. I think giving the priority to people who rope drop is the fairest way to do it. Just my opinion

 

[hiroMYhero]

ok, so if you have a BG & you can go on after 8pm if that’s when you are called? I was under the impression that the ride won’t be open for anyone during magic hours, morning or evening?

It was confirmed that RotR was loading BGs even after the park closed to regular guests on a regular-closing night.

All you have to know is if your BG is called, you should return and ride RotR.

 

[dina444444]

Even with what looks like 2 period of downtime they are already up to group 84.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Well it shouldn't be random. It should be at a certain announced time and they should stick to that. For example, if they announced that boarding groups may reopen at 5:30 if there's sufficient availability, then those that missed the earlier boarding groups can get on their phones at 5:30 and try to get the backup ones. Also, by 5:30, Disney has a much better feel for how many more boarding groups will be available.

First come first serve is generally the way of the world with things like this. Save for being able to use your connections, see NPH lol. I don’t see any reason not to reward the people who can and are willing to come as early as possible first.

I think they way they’re running it is also the least problematic in terms of the app and guest complaints. It will never be perfect as there just aren’t enough slots to go around to everyone who wants to ride yet.

And a reminder that it is reasonable IMO to assume that arriving in the early evening and expecting the chance to ride what may be the most hyped up Disney attraction in recent memory probably wouldn’t have happened no matter the system.

 

[Opie100]

Today, you have approx. 12K people hitting MDE to get their BG over an approx. 75 minute period in the morning. That's about 160 per minute (actually less because one family member is usually booking for multiple people). Imagine, in the afternoon of a holiday period, you had 50K+ hitting MDE at exactly the same time, to get the remaining BGs in a specific-time release secondary BG assignment. I'm betting that would result in a horrendous end user experience, not to mention drive lots of extra hopper traffic into the park just to see if they can get a golden afternoon BG.

 

[Anchored]

Wanting to chip in some more advice
We went again on Sunday for another ride.
We arrived at 4:51am, parked in the 3rd row. As we were walking up there was a HUGE single file line that stretched all the way almost to the parking lot. I couldn't understand it. A coworker of mine was in the line, but I told him I wasn't getting in it, I was going to walk around and figure something else out.
I walked to the RIGHT of this line, towards the skyliner
They hadn't opened lines on the right side of security yet. No one was standing at those lines. As I stood there musing to myself if they would open (about 5am) BAM, security guards walk up and about 50 people start converging on these lines. I jumped in one, and was about 6-8 people back.
Turns out, the NO BAGS line got long, and everyone walking up from the parking lot was just getting in that line No Questions Asked. Yikes.
At this point, I never really saw what happened to that line, but I can guess.

When security opened at 5:20, I came through the metal detector and FAST WALKED as far to the right as I could for the tapstyles. I was 4th in line at the the tapstyle 3rd to the right. I met a super awesome family (Hi Rod if you are reading - best of luck to your son!) We all scanned through as quick as possible and got Boarding Group 6. I rode ToT, RnRC, Smugglers Run and RoTR by 7:45 and was on my way out of the park to Rope Drop Animal Kingdom.

My coworker who was in the long winding line - who had arrived before me - got BG 68

Moral of my story - stay as far to the right as you possibly can at all times. And move fast. Don't join the loooooong NO BAGS line. All lines will take you without a bag

Good luck!