If you’ve been thinking of attempting to ride the newest ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you definitely need to have a game plan. Rise of Resistance opened on December 5th in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios.
When the ride first opened, Disney did not expect the crowds to come in droves... or maybe they did, but regardless, they had very few Extra Magic Hours or early park openings planned to go along with the opening of this stunning new ride. However, within days of the ride opening, Disney extended Hollywood Studios’ park opening from 9:00am to 8:00am. Then again a few days later to 7:00am. Besides that, they were opening the gates as early as 6:00am.
Our Experience
On December 14th, they opened the park at 6:15am for a 7am park opening. Boarding Passes for Rise of Resistance were completely booked up by 7:00am, as some people reported. At 6:30am, our party was booked with group 31. At 7:00am, a friend of ours was booked with group 93.
At 9:30am, group 31 was called for. Our app sent us a notification, in which we had two hours to checkin for the ride. At 11:15am, we checked in after using our other scheduled Fast Passes for the day. The ride unfortunately was down at that time, so we grabbed a bite to eat at PizzeRizzo (we love the pizza there!).
At 12:10pm, we checked back and the ride was open and ready to go. They let us right in, even though the ride had been down earlier. We just had to scan our MagicBands! Cast Members will tell you the wait could end up being anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. Our party was in and out in about an hour and the actual experience itself is about 20 minutes. The other group that we knew for group 93 was called at about 5:30pm. The final group called for the night was 110.
The ride itself is phenomenal, but I’ll save those details for another day and time.
The most important thing about getting to ride this ride, is get to the park EARLY!! My guess is people had to have been lined up as early as 5:00 or 5:30am for a 7:00am opening.
More Tips:
Anyone who wants to ride must be physically scanned in to the park so everyone has to get up and go that morning.
I highly recommend taking and Uber or Lyft to the park. You can even schedule these a few days in advance to make sure you’ve got a ride.
Go all the way to the right of the entrance, that seemed to open up quickly once they opened the park.
Have the app open and ready to book, before scanning into the park.
Be first to scan into the park, then be ready to “Join Boarding Group” as soon as that Mickey head turns green when the last person in your party scans in.
Once you join a boarding group, there is so much more to do. We went straight to Rockin Roller Coaster twice with no wait before heading over to Toy Story Land and knocking all of that out early.
Many people joined a boarding group, then turned around and went back out of the park to another park (must have Park Hoppers!) or went back to the resort to rest until their group was called.
If your ride is evacuated, Cast Members could give you snacks and a Multiple Experience Fast Pass to be used at a later time for the ride. Some people even got one day park hoppers to use at a later date so they didn’t have to waste the rest of their day.
However, you plan the rest of your day, the morning needs to be an early one. Get to the park at least an hour or more early to be guaranteed a boarding group for this ride. You won’t regret it!!
Jennifer Chappell is a Vacation Specialist with Coasters & Castles Travel. She loves planning trips for her family and her clients! Reach her at jchappell@coastersandcastlestravel.com.
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