Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

[mj2vacation]

Now that the second ride, Rise of the Resistance is open, the new land is absolutely incredible.

Rise takes theme park experiences to a new level. It’s roughly 20 minutes and has several different segments.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Wish they were opening soon at Disneyland. We are scheduled to be there over New Years but not open yet.

 

[bizaro86]

I wish they were opening sooner in CA as well. We booked for the end of January specifically to try to find the slowest time of the year. Then they announced that's when they're opening the big new ride. Probably be twice as crowded as otherwise.

 

[pedro47]

Now I can understand why the admissions cost increased in Florida.

 

[KewZee]

Except don’t you need to be at rope drop to get a queue slot?

 

[Firepath]

I heard 5:30-6:00am to get into a boarding group at all for that day, and it might be much, much later that day or night.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I heard 5:30-6:00am to get into a boarding group at all for that day, and it might be much, much later that day or night.

Yes, people have been arriving at 5:00 or earlier and the gates have been opening around 6:30, although 8:00 was the official opening time, with the "boarding groups" filling up around two hours from the gates opening, until yesterday, when they filled in just over an hour. Today the official opening time was 7:00, gates opened around 6:30, and the boarding groups filled in 45 minutes. So the folks who arrived after about 7:15 or so didn't get chance to ride today.

 

[mj2vacation]

The groups do fill up early. The park opens at 7am for the rest of December.

Rise opens at 9.

once they work out some of the kinks, capacity should increase.

 

[heathpack]

I wish they were opening sooner in CA as well. We booked for the end of January specifically to try to find the slowest time of the year. Then they announced that's when they're opening the big new ride. Probably be twice as crowded as otherwise.

We booked then for the same reason- just a single Fri night at VGC Jan 24.

But now since Rise will be open (hopefully), we’re going to head down Thurs night so we can be there early both Fri and Sat mornings.

Really looking forward to it, despite the crowds!

 

[CPNY]

I wish they were opening sooner in CA as well. We booked for the end of January specifically to try to find the slowest time of the year. Then they announced that's when they're opening the big new ride. Probably be twice as crowded as otherwise.

Went on it today! Here now in Orlando. We got up at 5AM and headed to the park at 6AM. we got in line around 6:15. They opened the park early at 7AM to accommodate the crowds. It’s a virtual line which means you need to be on your app as everyone in your party going on the ride needs to scan their bands and be In the park. Once you’re in you can go on the app and get a boarding group. The boarding group allows you to get in line for the ride. Without a group no dice! All groups were gone for the day by 7:45AM. There were a few thousand people ahead of us when we went through security and were placed in group 46. Once your grouping is allowed to get in line you have approx two hours to head to the ride. Once in line we waited around 25 minutes.

I won’t go into the details of the ride as you should go in with no expectations. I for one, as a universal fan and big Harry Potter guy can say wow. Disney nailed this. In typical Disney fashion the CM’s don’t break character. Dollars are referred to as credits. Receipts are called cargo slips, you’re a traveler and may the force be with you. It’s surreal. The new ride was worth the 5AM wake up call!

 

[CPNY]

We booked then for the same reason- just a single Fri night at VGC Jan 24.

But now since Rise will be open (hopefully), we’re going to head down Thurs night so we can be there early both Fri and Sat mornings.

Really looking forward to it, despite the crowds!

Read my post above. Went on today. Got to the park by 6AM. It opened around 7. All boarding groups gone already by 7:45AM

 

[CPNY]

Yes, people have been arriving at 5:00 or earlier and the gates have been opening around 6:30, although 8:00 was the official opening time, with the "boarding groups" filling up around two hours from the gates opening, until yesterday, when they filled in just over an hour. Today the official opening time was 7:00, gates opened around 6:30, and the boarding groups filled in 45 minutes. So the folks who arrived after about 7:15 or so didn't get chance to ride today.

Oh wow! Was it 7:15 they were gone? I heard 7:45! I was there this morning and arrived by 6AM. Placed in group 46. The nice thing was riding smugglers run, star tours and Aerosmith all before my call time. So excited I was able to ride. They killed it with this ride.

 

[CPNY]

Except don’t you need to be at rope drop to get a queue slot?

No. Just magic band or ticket scanned and in the park. All guests riding the ride need to scan in so wait until your whole party is scanned And in the park. I suggest the app opened ready to go to get a group as soon as you enter. They push you further into the park because people were scanning and stopping to get in their app. We were scanned within 15 min of the gates opening and were group 46. The guy behind us by 3 min was in group 65. By 7:15 all groups gone. Gates opened around 6:45-7 this morning.

 

[KewZee]

We will be going end of year, this helps. Thank you!

 

[heathpack]

Oh wow! Was it 7:15 they were gone? I heard 7:45! I was there this morning and arrived by 6AM. Placed in group 46. The nice thing was riding smugglers run, star tours and Aerosmith all before my call time. So excited I was able to ride. They killed it with this ride.

Shut up. I have now also booked a single Friday night in late Feb at the Fairfield Inn.

Now we have weekend trips for Jan, Feb, Apr, and Aug. Aug is 2 nights so we will get three Park days, all the other trips are 1 night/2 days. (It’s about a 90 min drive for us).

We bought the Flexpass in September of this year, and have already been 6x. Including daytrips, I’m imagining we’ll get 15-16 Park days out of the pass. It’s been fun so far, but now I’m really glad we have it because we can roll with the punches a little dealing with crowds and inevitable chaos/closures...

 

[bizaro86]

We booked then for the same reason- just a single Fri night at VGC Jan 24.

But now since Rise will be open (hopefully), we’re going to head down Thurs night so we can be there early both Fri and Sat mornings.

Really looking forward to it, despite the crowds!

My kids probably aren't old enough for rise (they'd find it scary I think). But people waiting for their boarding group will end up in line with us at buzz lightyear and big thunder mountain. Unfortunate, but the trip was locked in before the announcement.

 

[heathpack]

My kids probably aren't old enough for rise (they'd find it scary I think). But people waiting for their boarding group will end up in line with us at buzz lightyear and big thunder mountain. Unfortunate, but the trip was locked in before the announcement.

Maybe MaxPass will help?

 

[TheHolleys87]

Rise opens at 9.

The first Boarding Group for Rise was called at 6:44 this morning. Some people recommend getting there early enough to get an early boarding group because it's been going down for an extended period every morning and then opening up again later. When it's down for an extended period, some people are evacuated from the line and given fast passes for later while others are allowed to stay in the queue and are given snacks (fruit, cookies, water, etc.) and visited by Chewbacca, Rey and other characters.

 

[bizaro86]

Maybe MaxPass will help?

Yes, I'll be doing maxpass for sure. I was planning to anyway. We always buy enough photos that getting it for 1 person pays out. And I figure DL is expensive enough that the incremental money per day for a few more rides is worth it.

We might also make this a California Adventure heavy trip. I bet a lot of the people going for rise will be locals on 1 day non-hopper tickets. So hopefully the madness doesn't extend across the promenade.

 

[heathpack]

Yes, I'll be doing maxpass for sure. I was planning to anyway. We always buy enough photos that getting it for 1 person pays out. And I figure DL is expensive enough that the incremental money per day for a few more rides is worth it.

We might also make this a California Adventure heavy trip. I bet a lot of the people going for rise will be locals on 1 day non-hopper tickets. So hopefully the madness doesn't extend across the promenade.

If the kids are old enough to enjoy a tour, The Grand Circle Tour (steam train tour) is supposed to open again after Jan 1. Tours can be booked 30 days out. Having a reserved spot away from the madness helps us cope. There’s a 15% DVC discount, I think.

We also use Fantasmic dining packages as a means of coping with crowds. The 8pm seating at Riverbelle is on the patio and you can actually watch from your seat on the terrace. You might know all this already, apologies if you do.

We’re not much for World of Color usually, but we saw the holiday version at Moonlight Magic and there was a cool new element that kind of made that show pop for us. If they carry that over to the regular show, a WOC dining package might be worth a thought. (It’s possible this element is not new, we hadn’t seen WOC in awhile).

 

[vacas]

We were able to go on this by getting on the queue shortly after 6am. I am not the biggest Star Wars fan but I was impressed by the actors/cast members in certain areas. Other than that to me the ride was meh. Avatar land is far superior imo.

 

[ljmiii]

For those who don't know, Disney switched from a 'first come first served' virtual queue to a lottery virtual queue that starts at the official HS opening time. Which has the extraordinary advantage of disincentivizing getting to HS as early as possible - people were lining up outside HS at 3:15 to get early boarding groups.

During the week between Christmas and New Years Eve the virtual queue lottery ended as early as 7:06AM. We went 1/4/2020, got in line at 5:40 and they opened the gates at around 6:15. We waited in the Rockin' Rollercoaster 'rope drop' line, and hit the 'join boarding group' button at 7:00:00. We got group 105 which was called at 4:00PM.

Rise of the Resistance was amazing - 25 minutes of increasingly themed line as you enter the rebel base followed by the 20 minute long RotR ride/experience. Much, much better than I was expecting.

 

[CPNY]

For those who don't know, Disney switched from a 'first come first served' virtual queue to a lottery virtual queue that starts at the official HS opening time. Which has the extraordinary advantage of disincentivizing getting to HS as early as possible - people were lining up outside HS at 3:15 to get early boarding groups.

During the week between Christmas and New Years Eve the virtual queue lottery ended as early as 7:06AM. We went 1/4/2020, got in line at 5:40 and they opened the gates at around 6:15. We waited in the Rockin' Rollercoaster 'rope drop' line, and hit the 'join boarding group' button at 7:00:00. We got group 105 which was called at 4:00PM.

Rise of the Resistance was amazing - 25 minutes of increasingly themed line as you enter the rebel base followed by the 20 minute long RotR ride/experience. Much, much better than I was expecting.

So you have to be in the park at 7am to get a boarding group? When I went, as soon as you scanned in you got on the app and a boarding group popped up.

 

[mj2vacation]

So you have to be in the park at 7am to get a boarding group? When I went, as soon as you scanned in you got on the app and a boarding group popped up.

Yes. Depending on the day, they fill in minutes or an hour.
The app then advises where you are in the queue. We got a group 102 spot a week ago, knew it would be called in the afternoon, and did other things after hitting a few rides.

 

[CPNY]

Yes. Depending on the day, they fill in minutes or an hour.
The app then advises where you are in the queue. We got a group 102 spot a week ago, knew it would be called in the afternoon, and did other things after hitting a few rides.

Ok I’m a bit confused because I know how I did it in December. After change of plans, I’m going next week on Friday. Tell me exactly what I need to do lol