#annualpassholderadventures

[anneliesinautopia]

Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Advice (from someone who actually rode it)

I recently rode Rise of the Resistance, the new ride at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, in Disneyland. This new ride has been highly anticipated, and to accommodate the crowds, Disney and created a “boarding group” system, unlike anything they’ve used before. I wanted to share what I have learned by trying to get a boarding pass myself over the course of two days, and what I gathered from friends experiences, in hopes that this may help someone either understand the system better, or hopefully get a boarding pass/ group of their own, and experience the best ride I’ve ever experienced. (This post is about the system in Disneyland, and from what I can tell it might be similar to the WDW version, but I cannot confirm)

WHAT YOU NEED

a smart phone

the Disneyland app

a Disney account to sign into the app

a valid park ticket

all of the tickets of the people in your party to be scanned into the Disneyland app (and this would apply to every person present.) i.e if you have four people in your party, all four tickets should be on everyones phones, in their app

you NEED to be in the park before the park opens for business that day to the public. i.e: if the park opens at 9am, be in the gates before 9am

ADVICE

make sure your phone is charged of course. not only do you need it to get a boarding pass, but you also scan your boarding pass when getting in line for the ride, so you need it accessible.

plan ahead for when you need to leave to be able to get into the park. the entirety of the in between space between DCA and Disneyland (aka the esplanade) was filled with lines to get into the park both days that I went. 

do NOT use the park wifi. It’s bad to begin with, but now everyone is going to be on the network, or at least trying to be.

when preparing for the time for the boarding groups to “drop” aka park open, make sure you have completely closed out of the Disneyland app, and opened it “fresh” about 2 minutes before park open, and just remain on the opening screen. do not go further into the app in order to prevent having to refresh the app, or close it out again.

make sure everyone in your party is attempting to get a boarding pass right when it “drops”. the more people in your party, all working towards getting a boarding group, the better off you may be. more hands on deck, more phones, different networks, just a better chance.

once the clock strikes the time of park open, that will be your time to hit the “Find Out More” on the Disneyland app section for Rise, then you’ll hit “Join Boarding Group”, from there it will already have every ticket on your app checked to be added into your group, and continue to follow the prompts to hopefully get you to the screen that says you have received a boarding group.

THINGS WE “KNOW”

Disney has said that they can accommodate 8-12 boarding groups per hour, as long as the ride is in proper operation aka it doesn’t break down.

I have yet to be able to find out how many people are in a boarding group, or how many parties for that matter, however, I had two different friends who got boarding passes with their friends, and both groups were about 6-8 people. to clarify these friends were there different days, and got different boarding groups.

the time you arrive to the park DOES NOT affect your boarding group placement. As long as you are in the gates before the park is officially open for business, you have the same chance as everyone else for a boarding group.

you have to scan into Disneyland, not Disney California Adventure, to be able to get a boarding group

the boarding groups have been “selling out” or “running out” within the first minute to two minutes of the park opening. The only time I have heard it taking more than a minute was on Wednesday 1/22/20, where it took 55 minutes to distribute all boarding groups. According to cast members I have spoken to, Wednesday’s are the “slow” and “dead” day at Disneyland, so maybe that had something to do with it.

You are not guaranteed to ride the ride. If something goes down with the ride, and they cannot accommodate you, even if you are considered to be in one of the “planned” groups for the day, things can still change. 

The number seems to change as to what is considered a planned group, and when the cap of the planned group is, versus the unplanned. typically it has been groups 70 or higher.

The ride DOES NOT continue to run until park close. If they get to the end of their boarding groups before park close, they will not add more people. At some point, they decide what the final group will be, and the only way you know what that number is, is to go to the entrance of the ride, and see if there is a cast member will be standing outside with a sign that says that final group, about 2+ hours before the park closes.

THINGS TO REMEMBER/KEEP IN MIND

just as you probably wanted to be surprised for this ride, consider not posting spoilers or ride throughs of the ride, or at least warning your followers and friends before doing do. keep the magic alive and fresh for everyone.

there are warnings on the walls closer to the ride entrance that warn you of fast drops, and fast movement. if you cant handle a carousel, this might not be the ride for you.

please be understanding that just as this ride is new to you, its new to the cast members (who keep in mind, did not build it) so if there are issues, be kind.

YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED TO RIDE THIS RIDE. if you are in the “back up” range, so for the day I actually rode it, the backup groups were anything 72 and above, so that is a big maybe if you get in that range. Even with a boarding pass, things can change. Be understanding.

YOU MIGHT NOT GET A BOARDING GROUP/PASS. There are hundreds, and maybe thousands of people who are trying to do the same as you. Just be warned.

For my experiences, see the bottom of this post! ☺️

I think that is everything I can think of. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a note/comment on this post, DM me on Instagram @anneliesinautopia , or tweet me on twitter @anneliesveldman . I hope this is helpful, and may the force be with you!

All of the things in this post are from my experience as an annual pass holder/ guest and from my friends experiences as AP’s or guests only. All opinions and comments are my own.

The first time I went to get boarding passes, the park opened at 8 am, I got into the park at about 7:30, and had an issue with my app because I already had it loaded on the ROTR page at 8, so it didn’t refresh, so by the time I finally got it to work, I ended up getting boarding group 121, which was in the range of the “back up” boarding groups. That day the backups started at group 80, meaning anything past 79 was not a guarantee for the day, even though you had a group. The idea is that if they get through their groups fast enough, or sooner than expected, they will start letting in the backup groups. However something I learned that night, like I mentioned above, was that they choose a while before the park closes what the last group will be, as well as the fact that they don’t run until park close. So no Rise for me that night. The next day the park opened at 9, I was in there at about 8:30 ish, and this time I had four friends with me. Learning from my previous issues with the app, thanks to screen recording my first experience and watching it back, I made sure to have the app completely closed out, all my friends had theirs closed out to, but loaded it to at least to the first screen, the one just when the app first opens. That turned out to be beneficial because when the clock struck 9, my friend was able to get us a boarding group, and my phone got to the page about two or three seconds after he did, but it already registered that we had a boarding group! That day we were lucky enough to get boarding group 15 and road the ride around 10 or so and W O W. That’s all I will say 😉

#riseoftheresistance #star wars #boardinggroup #rotr #galaxysedge #starwarsland #starwarsride #disneyland #disneylandresort #dlr #annualpassholderadventures #annualpassholder #disneytips #disneyadvice #disneyblog #disneyig #disneyinsta #boardingpass