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Credit: ITMGuests are taking to social media to vent their frustrations about their opening-day experience on the new attraction at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Rise of the Resistance.
We have seen guests share they waited for 11-hours with young kids in tow only to be escorted off the ride before they got to experience it because the attraction had broken down again.
Recently, during our Media Preview of the attraction, we learned it can take 60-90-minutes for the attraction to “reset” when it breaks down. That is a lot of downtime! Especially considering the masses that have been flocking to Disney’s Hollywood Studios this week to experience the long-awaited E-ticket attraction at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Disney has been raving about all the advanced technology they incorporated into this attraction. And we can absolutely speak to the masterpiece this attraction is! However, it was easy to foresee the potential for hiccups on such a complex ride. Even from a naive guest perspective.
New attractions are expected to have some kinks to work through when they first open to the public. We witnessed this with Universal Orlando with Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, another fantastic technology-heavy theme park attraction. This attraction opened six months ago, and it still breaks down at times, leaving Guests waiting in line for extended periods.
As anticipated, opening day arrived and Guests lined up as early as 2 am, or even earlier, to be able to be among the first to experience the Rise of the Resistance attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. However, not enough information was provided as to how the crowds were going to be handled by Disney, leaving some frustrated and confused.
Full Ride Video: Rise of the Resistance
Twitter user @schmoofy shared: “This entire boarding group process would have been a lot smoother had we known about it more than 90 minutes ago #RiseOfTheResistance”.
This entire boarding group process would have been a lot smoother had we known about it more than 90 minutes ago #RiseOfTheResistance
— Bretlactic Starcruiser (@Schmoofy) December 5, 2019
Disney hasn’t made any official announcement about when you can join a boarding group, but the general consensus on social media from guests is that you can join the virtual queue around 6 am. This is important to note because only a limited number of boarding groups are dispersed before this sign has emerged.
Twitter user @Tom_Bricker posted this picture at 8:30 am on Dec 5th, Opening Day. The Park was scheduled to open at 9 am this day.
— Tom Bricker (@Tom_Bricker) December 5, 2019
As far as how often boarding groups are being released, if this math is correct, while the ride is operating normally, a new group is allowed to get in line on the virtual boarding group queue every 6-minutes. This brings it to 10-groups an hour.
According to social media posts from Guests who were at Galaxy’s Edge yesterday, the process got stuck on boarding group 108. That’s when the attraction appears to have gone down.
Shortly after, later boarding groups started receiving a message on their phones from the My Disney Experience app. The message stated: “ Unfortunately, we can’t accommodate your boarding group. You will receive a FastPass+ valid tomorrow for any attraction including Rise of the Resistance plus a complimentary 1-day Park Hopper Ticket. Check your account for more information.”
Guest experience at Disney has always been a priority. We think this was a generous gesture for Guests who spent all that time and effort at a failed attempt at experiencing this amazing attraction opening day. We hope they all had the opportunity to return and enjoy it! It really is out of this world!
Do you think Disney did enough for these Guests who were unable to enjoy the Rise of the Resistance attraction on opening day even though many were lined up before Park opening? Or do you think this was still poorly managed and wish Disney had planned better? Let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear your thoughts!