Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has quickly gone from the most ambitious ride at Walt Disney World to the most unreliable, as between issues with guests securing Boarding Groups and technical malfunctions plaguing the attraction’s many effects, Rise has gained some notoriety for how often it goes down or fails to function as it should.
After a string of app issues led to long lines of guests at Guest Relations to obtain Boarding Groups, those lucky enough to board got to see a different series of modifications today to accommodate for yet another set of issues.
Our reporters from WDWNT.jp were on hand today to witness a new loading procedure where only one Prisoner Transport was loaded upon them being “rescued” from the interrogation cell by the Resistance. Normally, there would be two Prisoner Transports, or ride vehicles, at the ready here.
It’s also worth noting that one of the elevator lifts was not functioning today (the one where you raise up right in line of the AT-AT guns.) We’ve documented a number of mounting technical issues within the attraction as of late, including cut-off audio, “invisible” Stormtroopers (i.e. screens off), and a Kylo Ren that’s perennially in B-Mode:
In B-Mode, guests do not get to see the Kylo Ren audio-animatronic, but instead view a screen depicting a TIE Fighter attack scene taking place through the windows. Kylo then makes an appearance on the screen aboard his own TIE variant, threatening riders of their imminent demise… before ultimately getting thwarted in a similar fashion.
We’ll continue chronicling the state of the attraction as these issues persist, until it receives the proper maintenance or refurbishment required to get it back into full swing. Rise of the Resistance will celebrate its one-year anniversary this December, however the attraction spent months of “unplanned downtime” due to the COVID-19 theme park shutdown.
Have you experienced numerous show scene issues or problems overall with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? Has it impacted your enjoyment of the attraction, or made you think twice about booking another Disney’s Hollywood Studios reservation for the sake of riding it? Let us know in the comments!
It’s beyond frustrating that Rise is still this dysfunctional. It wasn’t that surprising when it was new, but the recent issues have been unacceptable.
We did the single escape pod variant a few weeks ago, and I was just glad that boarding groups even happened that day (didn’t start until 2pm, our group 20 didn’t happen until about 4pm)
Hi Jessica. Yes,,RotR broke down during our visit back in January. We had just finished the Kylo Ren “A” experience when we were stopped. But, we actually enjoyed that part too. The “First Order’ cast members were terrific when they came and got us, and it really felt like we got a VIP backstage tour of the ride. Walking back through the scenes we had just experienced and having the special effects explained as we made our way to the stairwell felt in-keeping with the “Holywood Studios” theme. Upon exit the cast members were all so gracious and apologetic as they gave us our immediate access to ride it again later that day. RotR twice in one day! We felt like we had hit the lottery!
With issues like these, do you know how Disney is working on fixing them? Is there a way to estimate when the patches will be completed. It’s weird that after having an amazing Labor Day weekend the ride goes down so fast.. any predictions (I promise I won’t hold you to them)? We are going to HS on Wednesday, September 30, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a great day!