Bright suns from Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Can we still say that even though the sun isn’t technically up yet? We decided to get here early to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance. Let’s go!
Even at 6AM, the crowds wanting to get into a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance were lined up past the ticket windows.
The park opened early. The official opening time was scheduled to be 7 AM. The only areas open before 7 were Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land. We entered the park at 6:40 AM and were placed into Boarding Group 24. All Boarding Groups were distributed by 7:20 AM.
Once we entered the park, we headed straight to Galaxy’s Edge. After passing by Rise of the Resistance from the land’s main Grand Avenue entrance, the rest of Galaxy’s Edge was pretty quiet. If you ever wanted a photo of the Millennium Falcon without 500 people in the background, now would be a great time to do it.
We went through Toy Story Land around 7:15 this morning and it was pretty empty. Slinky Dog had a 45 minute wait, while Alien Swirling Saucers and Toy Story Mania both only had 5 minute waits.
While walking through Toy Story Land, we noticed a crane at the Roundup Rodeo BBQ construction site. Roundup Rodeo BBQ will be Toy Story Land’s table-service dining location and is set to open in 2020.
The crane was also visible from Animation Courtyard.
We had some time to spare before our boarding group was called, so we made our way to the front of the park to check out some shops. The D-tech on Demand station in Darkroom was not available to use.
Best Day Ever T-Shirt magnetic notepads are now on sale. It’s two for $8.00 each, rather than regular $9.99 each for just one.
Rise of the Resistance merchandise can now be found throughout the park, but the largest collection is at Keystone Clothiers.
In Keystone Clothiers, we also spotted a new Mandalorian hoodie. The hoodie is designed in the likeness of their armor. It comes in youth and adult sizes. The youth sizes are $46.99 and the adult sizes are $64.99.
It even has a cape!
The hood zips all the way over the wearer’s face to replicate Mando’s helmet.
Don’t worry… the part that covers your eyes is made of mesh, so you can still see. We don’t know how well though.
Two new Pandora charms were released today. We found them in Legends of Hollywood.
The new Mickey-shaped 2020 charm reads the year. On the backside of the charm is Cinderella’s castle.
The other new charm is an EPCOT one. The charm is Spaceship Earth with a pink silhouette of World Showcase. Both of the charms are $75.00 each.
We also found a collection of retro tops at Legends of Hollywood.
We’re OBSESSED with “Remember the Magic” long-sleeve top.
To see more details and prices for the collection, click here.
OUR BOARDING GROUP WAS CALLED! We entered the queue for Rise of the Resistance around 7:45AM. Two thumbs up! We absolutely loved it. You can watch a full POV video of the ride here. When we exited the attraction, we noticed that the A-frame signs had been put up around the park, informing guests that all boarding groups were full for the day.
The Frozen 2 preview has left Walt Disney Presents and One Man’s Dream has returned.
The display case outside the theater’s entrance has been switched out from Frozen animation models to ones from other Disney films.
Also in Walt Disney Presents, the merchandise kiosk by the Mike and Sulley Meet-and-Greet has been removed. In its place is a display case with costumes from Descendants 2.
On our way out of the park, we noticed some promotional filming happening beside the film director statue.
Well that about does it for us… we’re ready to go home and take a nap after that early morning wake-up. Thank for following our day and keep checking WDWNT for all of your Disney Parks news.
Just want to be sure: you arrived at 6 am? Trying to gauge what time we should arrive on Saturday. If you got there at 6 am with a 7 am park open and got boarding group 24, that’s not so bad.
Did you arrive to the park at 6 am or earlier?
What’s frustrating is that – in my experience at Port Orleans, at least – The Disney resort buses don’t start running early enough to get you to Hollywood Studios before all boarding reservations are taken for the day. You’d have to get an Uber or Lyft, drive yourself, or stay at a hotel within walking distance.
Initially, yes, you may be right, especially at the beginning of last week, but I think Disney gradually started extending the operating hours of its transportation systems by the end of last week. I was there Friday – the same day you posted this, it seems – and I was able to get a bus to Hollywood Studios around 5:15am. You can’t always go by the My Disney Experience app either, because the bus wait times will just show as “currently unavailable” for several minutes until an arrival time suddenly pops up, possibly because buses are fewer and farther between at that early hour. For now, anyway.
Once your boarding group has been called and you enter the RotR “actual” queue, is there more wait time?
My totally non-scientific analysis of the pre-ride queue for RotR was 20 minutes from getting your magic band scanned (to confirm you were in the allowed boarding group) to the point where you break into small groups for boarding the ride vehicles. This was Sunday afternoon of opening weekend, boarding group 25. The physical queue is a series of zig-zag lines in small theme-rooms connected by hallways or passages. Each queue room had a different prop display, video or animatronic for entertainment, so the ~20 minute walk through was definitely entertaining.
Yes, there is. Once you get notified, you have two hours to get back there and get scanned in, and then you wait in a queue line that, based on accounts I’ve heard from others, averages between 45 minutes to an hour when the ride is functioning consistently. That last point is key, because the ride stopped working for part of the time I was waiting in line, which caused my wait time to be closer to 90 minutes. To Disney’s credit, however, they’ve been good about keeping morale up, as my waiting experience included a visit from Vi Moradi, who made her way through the line to greet and chat with people, and also some free snacks, as Cast Members came through to pass out provisions in the form of popcorn, Lay’s potato chips and bottled water.
I wish they would keep One Man’s Dream forever