This week will see a big change at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as it has been announced that guests with a valid ticket or annual pass and a Disney Park Pass reservation for the park will be able to access the virtual “boarding group” queue system for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance beginning at 7:00 AM on the day of their park reservation, regardless of where they are. Boarding groups can be accessed from Disney resort hotel, or wherever else nearby a guest might be at that time.
And though this early morning boarding group will now be available to all guests regardless of where they are, the “second chance” virtual queue that opens at 2:00 PM daily for anyone who wasn’t already able to join a boarding group earlier in the day will still be location-locked, and guests must be inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios to access this additional virtual queue opportunity.
While this is great news from a logistical point of view, it could create more disappointment for guests, as many are reserving a Parks Pass for Disney’s Hollywood Studios with the single purpose of getting on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which is one reason why Parks Pass reservations for this park have been so hard to come by. However, Disney is working overtime trying to get capacity up as high as possible for this attraction as we head into the traditionally busier holiday season.
1. Two parties can now ride a single prison transport vehicle
One of the biggest issues facing this ride in the early days of Walt Disney World’s reopening was the fact that only one party could be loaded into the “prison transport” ride vehicles at a time, which cut capacity in half immediately. However, in recent weeks Disney has installed Plexiglass dividers in between the first and second rows, and Cast Members are now loading two parties at a time (of four or less of course) into ride vehicles, which should ensure that a lot more guests get to experience this attraction during an operating day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
In order to facilitate these additional parties on the ride, the attraction’s interrogation rooms are now equipped with 4 ground markers to accommodate up to 4 parties, appropriately distanced during this part of the pre-show.
2. Extending the extended queue
Anyone who has walked the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance queue knows that it is VERY long, as it was reportedly designed to hold three hours worth of stand-by guests. However, with six-feet distancing in place, queue space is not what it once was, and boarding groups had to be called very strategically to ensure there was enough queue space for guests to remain appropriately distanced while waiting for this attraction.
However, Disney has taken the unusual step of extending this queue far beyond its normal space, and out of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge into backstage areas and even into the extended Muppets 3D queue in the nearby Grand Avenue area of the park and a backstage area that contains a single facade from the former Streets of America area of the park. Though it might feel a little strange to go through previously off-limits areas of the park, it looks like Disney is trying to space guests out as much as possible while accommodating as many boarding groups as they can.
Unfortunately, because of the popularity of this attraction, boarding group reservations have continued to reach capacity within 10 seconds during each “drop” and the total number of boarding groups loaded has not significantly changed. However, with these new changes taking effect, hopefully we will see higher guest throughput at this attraction and less disappointment from visitors who either were unable to secure a boarding group or didn’t see their boarding group called.
Of course one easy way that Disney could get more guests through this attraction is to extend hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which has been closing most evenings at 7:00 PM, which is far earlier than the park would normally close at this time of year. However, with no extensions in sight until late next month, it looks like at least for now, the park will need to make the most of the hours they have to get as many guests on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance as possible.
