We pick things up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on a morning with a 7am open, which means that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding group signups open at the same time as the walk over to Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land begin, also at 7am. In Part One, we took a look at what to expect from rope drop crowds, along with how best to join an early Rise of the Resistance boarding group. Part Two followed, with the walk over to Galaxy’s Edge for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run first thing, where the importance of our early arrival was made crystal clear as thousands of people followed behind us into the new Land, and then waited longer to experience the ride.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that there’s nowhere we’d rather be at 7:36am than standing in front of Alien Swirling Saucers.

While lightning is known to close outdoor attractions more often in the summer, colder mornings often cause delays in opening those same attractions in what Lake Buena Vista identifies as “winter.” We’ve already seen that at Slinky Dog Dash, which cast members announced wasn’t going to open with the Park as early as 6:15am.

Continue reading “An Early Morning in Toy Story Land After Smugglers Run with Slinky Dog Dash FastPass+”

12/29/19 Update: The cheat sheet has been updated with new touring plans and other information pertaining to the current Rise of the Resistance boarding group process.

The information below is available in an easily printable PDF here. Consider downloading it to your smart device for easy referencing.

Larger: Here.

PDF: Here.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Most of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened on August 29, 2019, including the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run simulator ride, Oga’s Cantina lounge, Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo quick service, Ronto Roasters meat stall, Milk Stand takeaway bar, Kat Saka’s Kettle popcorn stand, Savi’s Workshop lightsaber customization experience, Droid Depot assembly experience, and a host of small shops. The second ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, opened on December 5^th, 2019.

Continue reading “Hollywood Studios – Touring Plans, Rope Drop, Wait Times, and FastPass+ Priority”

With Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding groups coming online right at official Park open, and Disney now holding guests on Hollywood Boulevard until official opening time, we continue our reassessment of what we can expect to accomplish in the early morning.

We pick things up from Part One, where we reexamined what to expect from the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance boarding group signup process, with thousands of people trying to lock in their positions all at once. For some reason, I think it’s more likely that everyone is looking down at their phones waiting for the “Join Boarding Group” button to illuminate in red, rather than reading my latest tweets here at 6:58am. It’s exactly two minutes until showtime.

Our rope drop is going to go a little differently than usual, since it was announced that Slinky Dog Dash was going to be down at Park open. It isn’t unusual for outdoor attractions, and particularly the roller coasters, to see delayed openings in cooler temperatures. The only reason that I don’t use these exact same pictures all year, and just write slightly different words, is due to how strange it would look to see all of these scarves and hoodies in July. Theoretically, I could Photoshop Hawaiian shirts on all of these people, but it’s actually less time-consuming to go back to Hollywood Studios and take the same pictures again, even if that means having to go Hollywood Studios. If you’re headed to Toy Story Land first thing, then you’ll want to stay to the right of the mass of humanity that congregates at the end of Hollywood Boulevard until Disney finally releases us at official Park open.

Continue reading “Disney’s Hollywood Studios 7am Rope Drop with New Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Procedure”

I, too, thought we were done with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance coverage for at least a couple of days. But just about everything that we thought we knew about how Disney would open the Park, prior to December 18th, is no longer true.

Over the last two weeks, the website published 28,130 words covering touring strategy in a post-Galaxy’s-Edge age. But Disney threw us a major curve ball on December 18th. From December 5th, the day that Rise of the Resistance opened at Hollywood Studios, through December 17th, Disney began letting guests enter the Park around 6:30am, on average. During those dates, as soon as a guest scanned their MagicBand/ticket, and entered the Park, they were eligible to join a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. This gave a major advantage to those who were able to arrive early, as they were guaranteed access to Rise of the Resistance and could join one of the first boarding groups that would be called over to experience the ride earlier in the morning. Now, boarding group distribution for Rise of the Resistance begins at official Park open. Disney still lets guests enter the Studios and fill in Hollywood Boulevard around 6:30am with the 7am open, which means everyone who has had an opportunity to scan their tickets/MagicBands before official Park open is eligible to open up the My Disney Experience app and try to join a boarding group at the exact same time,

Continue reading “Star Wars Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Signups with the New Opening Procedure”

Edit: Disney has confirmed that the changes we saw instituted on December 18th and described below will be the normal operating procedure moving forward. You can pull up that post on the Disney Parks Blog here, which also includes the official word from the company. I’ve edited the post below to reflect Disney’s confirmation.

We have some major changes to how Disney is opening Hollywood Studios in the morning, and how they are distributing Rise of the Resistance boarding groups.

First, on December 18th, 2019, Disney did not begin distributing Rise of the Resistance boarding group passes until official Park open, which was 7am. From now on, this should prove to be normal operating procedure, with boarding groups for Rise of the Resistance becoming available at the scheduled Park open, even if Disney allows guests onto Hollywood Boulevard earlier. Previously, they had opened up boarding groups as soon as they began letting guests enter the Park, which was typically between 6:20am and 6:40am. Below is a screenshot of what I see after I’m inside the Park at 6:35am on December 18th, with the “Join Boarding Group” button grayed out:

Continue reading “Major Changes to Disney’s Hollywood Studios Rope Drop and Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group Distribution”