We’re looking at you, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance…
Most guests at Walt Disney World and Disneyland show up expecting to have a vacation like no other. Every person’s perfect Disney day looks a little different, but all share in common that we expect the experience to be grand. With a little planning, most visits to the Most Magical Place or Happiest Place on Earth go wonderfully, maybe with a few hiccups.
However, even the most carefully laid plans can sometimes go awry.
Not every Disney day starts off magical. There are dozens of reasons why a visit to Disney parks might suddenly take a downward turn—from unpredictable changes in crowds to special events altering park hours to Fastpass and dining reservations running out… all can slam the breaks on a Disney day. Even plain old Murphy’s law can strike via vehicles breakdowns, unforeseen schedule changes, kids getting sick, you name it.
This is a particularly pertinent topic with the opening of one of Disney’s most ambitious attractions to date: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. We covered the attraction’s opening extensively, and it provides the perfect example for how easily a Disney day can end up busted. For weeks after opening day, fans showed up in record numbers to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, sometimes as early as 3-4 AM to be one of the first guests into the park. Why? Because Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is Disney’s first ride to fully utilize a virtual queue—no stand by line, no single riders (yet), and no Fastpass+. That meant if you want to get onto the ride at all, you have to arrive well before rope drop to be one of the first people into the park to get a pass before the ride hit capacity.
The opening realized the unprecedented mass crowds everyone originally expected from Galaxy’s Edge—people kept showing up en masse earlier and earlier, forcing Disney to open the park before published hours. This meant boarding passes were often gone well before the park’s official opening time. Disney employed Guest Experience Teams throughout the park to mitigate backlash from unhappy guests who planned entire visits around getting on this one ride but just couldn’t get there early enough due to the moving target opening times (on a side note, they did a great job handling this by passing out free Park Hoppers like candy to families who politely sought pixie dust). Fortunately, Disney finally adjusted the system to require that guests couldn’t claim a boarding pass until the park’s official opening, which quelled some of the insanity and made things a little more fair, but the issue still stands—many families are showing up to Disney’s Hollywood Studios late only to find out their Disney day was busted before it started. Most likely, similar scenarios will play out at Disneyland come the ride’s opening there.
We may not be able to get you onto Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance if you arrive to the park late, but we can address the issue as a whole: what should you do if a Disney day gets straight up BUSTED?
1. Take a moment to calm down
In the words of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: DON’T PANIC. Walt Disney World and Disneyland are both places that can have strong effect on the emotions, especially when something we were really hoping to experience becomes unreachable. Even in pretty stable adults, this can cause emotions to soar, and in kids, it can cause full meltdowns.
The most important thing you can do is take a breath and ride out the initial wave of emotions. Don’t lose your calm, react in a panic, lose your temper, or vent your wrath on the nearest cast member…
We’ve written a few times both on how to settle down when emotions run high at the parks and even how to deal with panic attacks. In both situations, part of processing your feelings is to recognize that bad things feel bad, and that’s okay… but your day is not over yet. You may need some time to process what’s happened and adjust to the idea of your Disney parks visit looking a little different, but freaking out will not help. What you need is a new plan, and in order to do that, you have to accept that the day has changed, but it can be salvaged. If members of your party start losing their cheese, if possible, take some time to step off to the side and regroup—or split up temporarily, letting those who are really upset walk it off in some shops while cooler heads come up with a new plan.
2. Find something to distract or divert kids
Some kids are amazing at processing change, disappointments, and shifting plans. That’s a huge blessing if that kid is yours. For most kids, even the sweetest kids, this is definitely not the case.
Kids, especially small children, just aren’t mentally equipped to deal with something like plans for a magical Disney vacation changing. You are not a terrible parent because things went wrong on your Disney day, and don’t let your little angel’s meltdown or blubbering tears break your spirit. You can still salvage this day. Busted Disney days can happen for a lot of reasons, but for most anything short of the kid being sick and forced to stay at the resort (more on that later), there are course corrections that can be made to still have a good time.
Your kid will definitely need some grace if you have to make changes to a Disney day. One of the first things you can do is try to find something to help get their mind off the big disappointments and process their emotions—shameless churros, ice cream, and toy bribes are fair game as a start. Whatever resources you have, find something small and reasonable that can help ground your little one so they realize the world isn’t ending. Character meet and greets can also help if it’s a character that your child likes—Disney characters can do real magic with stressed out kids sometimes so long as its someone they really look up to.
I’m not saying to ignore outright bad behavior—if a kid is being mean to siblings or throwing a total rage fit, do what you have to do to correct that. However, in most cases, your little one may not know how to process things, and they may think they won’t get to do anything fun because of the things that didn’t work out. The goal is to get your little one grounded enough that you can do some magic to come up with a new plan for the day. For special needs children, definitely talk to Guest Relations to see what options you have and to get a Disability Access Pass, which works similar to a virtual queue (you don’t get to skip to the front of lines, but you can enjoy the parks freely while waiting for a ride so your little one doesn’t even realize they were waiting). Disney has a number of programs to help in these situations, and it can’t hurt to ask for their help and suggestions. Speaking of which…
3. If needed, talk to Guest Relations or a Guest Experience Team
This one has become less and less of a needed option with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, but in many scenarios, it cannot hurt to talk to either Guest Relations or a Guest Experience Team to see what can be done about your busted day. There are some things that cast members legitimately cannot help with—Fastpass+ and dining reservations being full at the last minute, crowd levels, or boarding passes for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance once the ride has hit capacity (they also generally are not giving out those park hoppers anymore since the boarding system is more fair and includes backup groups now). However, there may be other ways Guest Relations can help.
The key when seeking help from cast members is be nice. Even if Disney messed up, you’ll get further being firm but polite rather than blowing up. Explain your situation, even if its something simple like that you messed up a Fastpass+ reservation or your kid was throwing up all morning. Ask them if there’s anything they can suggest for how you can salvage the day. Especially if you have kids, feel free to ask if there’s any chance of some pixie dust to help make your little one’s day magical again. They can’t fix everything, but I’ve seen cast members pull out all the stops before to make sure your experience overall is positive, and they may even be aware of simple solutions you haven’t thought of.
On a side note, if your kid or a family member got sick, it can’t hurt to Guest Relations know and ask if anything can be done. For guests in the parks, First Aid offers free OTC medication for anyone in need who checks in with their nurses. I’ve also seen Disney sometimes do some nice things for guests stuck in resort rooms sick, though this isn’t a guarantee. Once again, it cannot hurt to nicely ask and see if any pixie dust comes about.
4. Try to score last minute Fastpasses and dining reservations
Before we moved to Florida, the idea of trying to get Fastpasses or dining reservations at the last minute sounded unfathomable to me—even visiting in the off-season, it just seemed like to much of a gamble to even try. What are you supposed to do if you miss the ultra-early window for Fastpass and dining reservations though?
Do what the locals do— benefit from cancellations to score last minute reservations.
The key is to check My Disney Experience regularly the day of your trip to see if any last minute Fastpass or dining reservations pop up. Especially with Fastpass+, people cancel reservations all the time that they made months earlier but end up not using. The trick is to refresh the app back and forth between times to try to catch when someone cancels. You can do this either in the “New Fastpass” window or by using the “Modify” or “Change Times” feature for an existing Fastpass (this isn’t as easy as it used to be due to changes in the app, but it still works for the most part). This trick may not get you into Be Our Guest, but it has gotten us onto Flight of Passage before. Often reservations pop up pretty close to the time you’ll need to arrive, so this trick works best if you are already in the park in question.
5. Come up with a new game plan
If you planned your whole visit around getting onto an attraction like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, a backup boarding group may be the best you can do to get onto that ride. However, that doesn’t mean the rest of your day has to be busted. The same thing goes for if you can’t get Fastpasses for hot ticket attractions—you’ll probably need a new plan.
If you’re used to doing Disney vacations a specific way, you’ll have to think outside of the box. Prioritize which attractions you absolutely want to visit and make some decisions on how long you’re willing to stand in line for them. Some attractions have better queues than others: Millennium Falcon- Smuggler’s Run, for example, has a pretty fun game you can play on the Play Disney app to pass the time. Utilize information from sites like TouringPlans.com (and of course, Theme Park Tourist!) to come up with a reasonable game plan to hit key experiences for the rest of the day. You can also substitute some similar experiences to make up for busted dining plans—for example, if you can’t get into Be Our Guest, Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen is a different but still very fun alternative for table service dining. At Galaxy’s Edge, you may not be able to get into Oga’s Cantina, but you can still experience blue milk at the Milk Stand and eat a pretty great meal at Docking Bay 7.
If you have the option to park hop, it may be worth choosing a different park to experience for the day. Magic Kingdom tends to be the most crowded park—lately, Disney’s Hollywood Studios falls into that category too, but it does a little better job dispersing crowds. If you have the option to park hop, take a look at wait times on My Disney Experience to see if one of the other parks has shorter waits. If you have the option, change course and go enjoy that park instead. Even if you need to stay in the same park, try not to follow the same trends everyone else is doing—ride rides during parades and fireworks, for example, to catch slightly lowered queues.
6. Choose an alternative special experience
If the family really had their heart set on a particular experience, you may not be able to replicate that—however, you can still find other ways to make the day special, especially if you have some wiggle room in your budget.
For example, if you struck out trying to get onto Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, your best bet for a similar experience will involve leaving the parks and heading to Disney Springs. Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire is a hyper VR experience that allows guests to take on a stunningly real mission in the Star Wars universe using VR technology paired with a giant maze. This maze allows guests to physically interact with digital objects in a way that baffles the senses. Until the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, it was hands down our favorite experience at Walt Disney World—for me, I even rated it higher than Flight of Passage. The Void has also recently released a Wreck It Ralph hyper VR experience as well. If your time at the parks turns out to be a total bust, these experiences at Disney Springs can be well worth the money.
Other fun options you can try include special meals and dinner shows, playing mini golf at Fantasia Gardens, enjoying the resort pools, getting a massage or hitting the spa, and even trying out some of Disney’s more last-minute offerings for tours. As mentioned earlier, character encounters are another great option for parents to consider—World Showcase is a particularly great destination if your child wants to meet one major character after another.
7. If possible, find a way to try, try again
This may not be possible for everyone, but depending on the layout of your trip, it may be worth scrapping the day’s original plans to try again on another day.
Once again, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance serves as a great example. If you are staying on or near Disney property, you may have the ability to try a different day to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios early. Lately, the sweet spot is to arrive at the parks about 45 minutes to an hour before rope drop (go with the latter if it’s a really busy week). If you can shift your busted Disney plans to another day, do so. Take the pressure off the day that got busted by giving everyone in the family some hope that you can try again, then find other ways to enjoy your day.
If you can’t move your plans to another day, you may not have to give up on your original plans entirely—unexpected things happen at Disney parks. Last minute Fastpasses can open up. We’ve walked up to restaurants before and been told they couldn’t accommodate walk-ups only for a cast member to chase us down one minute later saying that a table opened. Even with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, people who get into backup boarding groups are making it onto the attraction more often now.
Above all, if your Disney day gets busted, remember that attitude is everything. You might be able to set the tone for your family to still enjoy the day just by doing your best to keep calm and have a good attitude. If you need to step away for a moment to gather your wits and calm raging emotions, that’s okay. Believe in yourself that you can actually do this, and more often than not, everything will still turn out okay.
Have you ever experienced a busted Disney day? Were you able to salvage it?
