Boarding groups - Any thoughts/rumors on when this might end?

[mercuryvenus]

I wonder how DHS will be with people wanting to BOTH Rope Drop Mickey's Runaway Railway AND be there early enough to get in a boarding group for Rise .. i feel it will be even more crowded there now with 2 brand new rides (and several others (MFSR and SDD) that are still pretty new too.

It will just be crowded at DHS in the mornings for the forseeable future, even if they stopped the boarding group thing.

I have two DHS days planned for my upcoming trip even though I really don't want to spend two days there, just to be maximize my possibility of getting a Mickey FP+ and having two chances to get in a boarding group.

You should be fine. As long as you are ready to hit "join a boarding group" as soon as opening time rolls around--and you don't experience any IT issues--you'll be fine.

We were there during the week before President's Day weekend--when the ride was still experiencing a lot of performance issues--and got in boarding groups two days in a row (my group split up between two days). This was when they were only getting through maybe 60 groups a day. Now it seems like they're getting through more like 120-130 groups a day.

 

[tlmadden73]

You should be fine. As long as you are ready to hit "join a boarding group" as soon as opening time rolls around--and you don't experience any IT issues--you'll be fine.

We were there during the week before President's Day weekend--when the ride was still experiencing a lot of performance issues--and got in boarding groups two days in a row (my group split up between two days). This was when they were only getting through maybe 60 groups a day. Now it seems like they're getting through more like 120-130 groups a day.

At this point .. it is more the struggle to get the family up and moving and onto transportation (will the Skyliner run early enough? Will we just be better off driving? ) before that. I know we can do it (we've done rope drop many times before).. just needing to be there at the exact certain time just adds a bit more pressure.

 

[RescueRanger]

Len Testa reported on the lastest Disney Dish w/ Jim Hill (recorded Feb 19,2020), that a 'fix' is coming to RotR that should help with whatever was ailing the ride over the President's day weekend. The performance for the last 5 days has been much better so I think the 'fix' may be done and is helping.

Looking at the last several days, I would have to agree. They seem to be getting through all of the BGs without significant down time. I for one loved the BGs. We were able to ride both of our HS days and was nice not having to wait hours in a line. I personally hope they start using BGs for more headliners. Even when they go to FPs, I hope the standby remains BGs only.

 

[hertamaniac]

They knew before the day of there would be reliability issues. They knew that weeks before if not months. They waited as long as they possibly could before officially going with BGs.

I know we keep comparing this to Hagrid’s at Universal but they had a similar situation but went the opposite route. They had the infrastructure and I believe announced they would use a virtual queue for that attraction but then never did.

In terms of MMRR that also was delayed but is not as complex of an attraction as RotR. The issues with Rise are not exclusive to the trackless vehicles.

Certainly they knew there would be reliability issues. They designed the BG long before opening day and kept it under wraps probably to avoid unnecessary lashings. I get that.

I am trying to understand that if they needed the human data runs to complete the reliability picture, why the CM's weren't used earlier on the process. My mention of MMRR is only about using CMs as part of the testing phase not ride complexity. There is no doubt that RotR is much more linear in design and complexity.

So I have that RotR didn't meet the original opening date. The project got delayed ~4 months. The opening needed a boarding fix as the reliability didn't meet the functional requirements.

All in all, I agree that BGs are the best solution given the above timeline(s). But I feel that if the project would have been properly implemented and executed, we wouldn't be talking about BGs in the first place.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I read most of this thread and skimmed the bickering and over analytical posts.

My take is they should keep the BGs. I know people would rather those going to RotR to wait in line and stop clogging up the other attractions, but that isn't fair either.

My guess is the BGs will last until the 1 year anniversary of GE.

The one year anniversary of GE is a good guess, IMO. At the very least if I had to guess I would place my bets on no sooner than the end of August, since they moved all those EMH when they were slowly moving them a month or so at a time before.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Certainly they knew there would be reliability issues. They designed the BG long before opening day and kept it under wraps probably to avoid unnecessary lashings. I get that.

I am trying to understand that if they needed the human data runs to complete the reliability picture, why the CM's weren't used earlier on the process. My mention of MMRR is only about using CMs as part of the testing phase not ride complexity. There is no doubt that RotR is much more linear in design and complexity.

So I have that RotR didn't meet the original opening date. The project got delayed ~4 months. The opening needed a boarding fix as the reliability didn't meet the functional requirements.

All in all, I agree that BGs are the best solution given the above timeline(s). But I feel that if the project would have been properly implemented and executed, we wouldn't be talking about BGs in the first place.

If we weren’t talking about BG we’d likely be talking about stand by lines that regularly exceed FoP’s worst day, and FP that require a week or so onsite to get. And that’s if the attraction wasn’t seeing a lot of downtime.

If the attraction opened without a lot of downtime, a lot of the common BG complaints would be alleviated. They aren’t the problem. I would have liked less downtime (who wouldn’t) but they aren’t just the best solution for RotR solely because of the downtime, IMO of course.

 

[rteetz]

So I have that RotR didn't meet the original opening date. The project got delayed ~4 months. The opening needed a boarding fix as the reliability didn't meet the functional requirements.

This is my only issue with what you said. Disney announced the land would open late fall 2019 and then surprised everyone with an August opening. I think rather than calling it a delay the rest of the land opened earlier than anticipated. Disney focused on getting everything else ready and then leaving RotR for later. Rise opened in December when many thought the land itself would open.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

This is my only issue with what you said. Disney announced the land would open late fall 2019 and then surprised everyone with an August opening. I think rather than calling it a delay the rest of the land opened earlier than anticipated. Disney focused on getting everything else ready and then leaving RotR for later. Rise opened in December when many thought the land itself would open.

Thats a good point.

I think most Disney fans were absolutely shocked with our August opening. People (I am guilty of this lol) were panicking at what this meant for WDW as a whole since a lot of us planned our trips hoping to avoid SWGE opening.

It was early for sure. And I suppose early December is technically fall 2019, isn’t it?

 

[SaintsManiac]

Thats a good point.

I think most Disney fans were absolutely shocked with our August opening. People (I am guilty of this lol) were panicking at what this meant for WDW as a whole since a lot of us planned our trips hoping to avoid SWGE opening.

It was early for sure. And I suppose early December is technically fall 2019, isn’t it?

Yep

 

[rteetz]

Thats a good point.

I think most Disney fans were absolutely shocked with our August opening. People (I am guilty of this lol) were panicking at what this meant for WDW as a whole since a lot of us planned our trips hoping to avoid SWGE opening.

It was early for sure. And I suppose early December is technically fall 2019, isn’t it?

Yep it is.

 

[hertamaniac]

This is my only issue with what you said. Disney announced the land would open late fall 2019 and then surprised everyone with an August opening. I think rather than calling it a delay the rest of the land opened earlier than anticipated. Disney focused on getting everything else ready and then leaving RotR for later. Rise opened in December when many thought the land itself would open.

That's a fair counter point. Now here's my issue with what you said regarding Disney focused on everything else. Knowing that RotR was a much more complex project and would take longer to complete I have to wonder why wouldn't that have been the #1 priority from the onset to join the MFSR completion date.

It's a mute point as we are at the present, but it gives me a snapshot of why the BGs are necessary right now.

 

[hertamaniac]

And the ride just got evacuated again about 10 minutes ago. Well, I think I'm going to try and get a BG next week.

ETA: It sounds like they got it back up, so a short downtime this AM.

 

[GoingSince1990]

The opening of MMRR on March 4, which will divert a huge number of people away from SWGE, should make it much more manageable for ROTR to revert to a normal line method.

 

[mercuryvenus]

The opening of MMRR on March 4, which will divert a huge number of people away from SWGE, should make it much more manageable for ROTR to revert to a normal line method.

Yep, and the opening of the new Epcot attractions--and TRON--should further divert crowds, spreading them out slightly more evenly.

 

[jkh36619]

Can we create a new forum called "Arguments over theme park rides" and move this topic there? At bare mininum this is more theme park discussion than rumor or news.

Just my .02

 

[rteetz]

Can we create a new forum called "Arguments over theme park rides" and move this topic there? At bare mininum this is more theme park discussion than rumor or news.

Just my .02

Right now there is no good place for it because there is no rumor when it will end and the discussion of whether boarding groups are the right thing or not it endless.

 

[Dutch Inn '76]

We usually get there for rope drop anyway, so its no problem for us.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

So the BG system was announced the day of opening at HS is what I understand. They built the attraction out of the gate to be SB and FP ready, but needed to switch to BG due to reliability issues that were not identified earlier in the project to meet the original timeline. Is this part correct?

From what I understand, even the MMRR is using CMs to have previews (a.k.a. shakedown testing), RotR did not. Is it the volume of CMs required for that testing that would be prohibitive? Something else?

I don’t think that it’s necessarily true that using a VQ was a last minute decision. They had to have time to code and test that too. Itworking well enough that I don’t think they skimped on that testing.

Uni has VQs at VB and other parks are experimenting with them. The rivals are doing it. The thing about RotR being in aTier for FPs is that nothing comes close to it in popularity. It’s the FOP situation but worse. I don’t think they wanted to create a situation where you had to have a 10 day trip to get FPs and have a 5 hour stby line (where in the people aren’t buying anything).

Of course they built it to have FP because they aren’t going to build any ride without that infrastructure. But my guess is that they always meant to open it with BGs (reliable or not) until itsettles down to an FOP level of popularity.

 

[tlmadden73]

The opening of MMRR on March 4, which will divert a huge number of people away from SWGE, should make it much more manageable for ROTR to revert to a normal line method.

I wouldn't say MMRR will divert people away. Since ROTR is a virtual queue, it's not like people will have to choose between riding one or the other. They can do both ... and probably easily if you arrive early enough.

If anything, it will encourage MORE people to show up pre-rope drop. Since you will have people who want to rope drop the new ride (as well as potentially getting in a boarding group).

You get in the park, you get lined up to run to MMRR, you join a boarding group on your phone will waiting in queue for MMRR .. nice 2 for 1 that you can't really get anywhere else besides DL with MaxPass.

 

[mshanson3121]

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/hollywood-studios-hours-extended-8am-crowds/