UPDATE 12/18 BP CHANGES !! Rise of the Resistance Bummer 12/4

[Travisma 1,317]

53 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

LOL. I need to show that phone to my kids. They’ll be amazed. 

About the cost of a new phone.  Even the most expensive smart phones these days are way cheaper than what I paid for my first cell phone in 1986. I was a big shot back then and paid $2800 for a phone that was bolted into my car and did nothing other than make and receive phone calls. 

But boy was I cool. 

TCD

I was working for the City of Tampa back in the early 80's and GTE was just starting to put up cell towers and bring service to the area. 

They gave our department some phones to test in different areas. 

It was "portable" in as far as it wasn't wired into a car, it would fill up a jacket pocket and make you walk crooked from the weight pulling you down on one side!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

3 hours ago, Travisma said:

I was working for the City of Tampa back in the early 80's and GTE was just starting to put up cell towers and bring service to the area. 

They gave our department some phones to test in different areas. 

It was "portable" in as far as it wasn't wired into a car, it would fill up a jacket pocket and make you walk crooked from the weight pulling you down on one side!

That phone definitely will not get you a boarding group. 

That model came out a couple of years after I got my first cell phone. Like I said, mine was bolted in the car, but there was a optional mobile unit about half the size of a car battery that you could sling over your shoulder to make the phone truly mobile. 

I was one if Cellular One’s first customers in 1986. I’ve had the same cell number since then. 

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

6 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

LOL. I need to show that phone to my kids. They’ll be amazed. 

About the cost of a new phone.  Even the most expensive smart phones these days are way cheaper than what I paid for my first cell phone in 1986. I was a big shot back then and paid $2800 for a phone that was bolted into my car and did nothing other than make and receive phone calls. 

But boy was I cool. 

TCD

DH had one of those when we first started dating.  Gotta admit on our first date I thought he was pretty cool - right up until the point where he hit the brakes too fast at a stop sign and I almost shot through the windshield because he wanted the Lincoln he was driving to be all clean and snazzy and had Armor All'ed the leather seats (obviously this was before mandatory seat belts).

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

2 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

DH had one of those when we first started dating.  Gotta admit on our first date I thought he was pretty cool - right up until the point where he hit the brakes too fast at a stop sign and I almost shot through the windshield because he wanted the Lincoln he was driving to be all clean and snazzy and had Armor All'ed the leather seats (obviously this was before mandatory seat belts).

What a legend!  You’re a lucky lady. 

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The Womenz rode Saturday. We were all in the park 30 minutes before opening. We got into the masses and also parked ourselves near one of the Blue umbrellas guest experience staff. We did manage to get 7 of the  8 of us in a backup boarding group. For some reason, person number 8 wasn't on our list. We then turned to the Blue umbrella person and they were able to add our number 8 person. We then proceeded to Smugglers Run and then the rest of our day. Our boarding group was called about 3:30 pm, but we were in Muppets, so when we left Muppets, we headed over, and the ride had shut down. Instead of waiting near the entrance like lemmings, we decided to go to Rontos Roasters for a snack and a seat. Once it started up again, we went back over and had about a 90 minute time in line due to about 8 boarding groups showing up at once. The ride was amazing, but it was stressful. My 2 year old Note 8 never even showed the button to register for a boarding group. In the future, I'm going to park myself near the Blue Umbrella, hand them our Magic Bands, and let them put us in a group. 

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

17 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

LOL. I need to show that phone to my kids. They’ll be amazed. 

About the cost of a new phone.  Even the most expensive smart phones these days are way cheaper than what I paid for my first cell phone in 1986. I was a big shot back then and paid $2800 for a phone that was bolted into my car and did nothing other than make and receive phone calls. 

But boy was I cool. 

TCD

And it cost like a dollar per minute for usage....and the coverage area was terrible. I once paid $900 in the 90's for tiny little Motorola flip phone that didn't even text. It was way before texting came out. Oh to be young again and work only for toys.

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

13 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

That phone definitely will not get you a boarding group. 

That model came out a couple of years after I got my first cell phone. Like I said, mine was bolted in the car, but there was a optional mobile unit about half the size of a car battery that you could sling over your shoulder to make the phone truly mobile. 

I was one if Cellular One’s first customers in 1986. I’ve had the same cell number since then. 

TCD

To be honest I almost miss those 4 watt bag phones. You had to be dedicated to carry one.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

11 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

What a legend!  You’re a lucky lady. 

TCD

Oh he's a legend alright!  Of course after being so cutting edge back in the day, he held onto his first flip phone waaaaaaaay too long. 🤣

But you're right, I am pretty lucky.

[keith_h 420]

23 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Okay, you’re prudent and practical. Disney doesn’t want that. They want guests who are frivolous and undisciplined with their spending. Not someone who turns down an $9 beer because they have a cooler full back at the campsite. 

I rarely turn down the $9 beers or any of the other over priced alcoholic drinks. In fact we go out of our way to visit the various WDW establishments that specialize in such libations and appetizers. 

[Travisma 1,317]

This is a lengthy but interesting article.  To me it was well worth the read.

The Quest for the Best Amusement Park Is Ever-Changing and Never-Ending

At Universal Orlando, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is redefining what a roller coaster is. But just down the road, Disney has unveiled Rise of the Resistance, a Star Wars–themed experience that immerses parkgoers so deeply that the line between ride and reality is blurred. And the revolution of augmented reality has only just begun.

 

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/2/20/21142856/disney-star-wars-rise-resistance-amusement-park-future-universal-hagrid

[Travisma 1,317]

1 minute ago, keith_h said:

I rarely turn down the $9 beers or any of the other over priced alcoholic drinks. In fact we go out of our way to visit the various WDW establishments that specialize in such libations and appetizers. 

Just stay away from the pre-made frozen drinks!  

They are really watered down.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

8 hours ago, Travisma said:

Just stay away from the pre-made frozen drinks!  

They are really watered down.

Sorry, can't turn down the Grand Marnier Slushie at Epcot

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

On 2/20/2020 at 7:20 AM, mouseketab.....Carol said:

The Womenz rode Saturday. We were all in the park 30 minutes before opening. We got into the masses and also parked ourselves near one of the Blue umbrellas guest experience staff. We did manage to get 7 of the  8 of us in a backup boarding group. For some reason, person number 8 wasn't on our list. We then turned to the Blue umbrella person and they were able to add our number 8 person. We then proceeded to Smugglers Run and then the rest of our day. Our boarding group was called about 3:30 pm, but we were in Muppets, so when we left Muppets, we headed over, and the ride had shut down. Instead of waiting near the entrance like lemmings, we decided to go to Rontos Roasters for a snack and a seat. Once it started up again, we went back over and had about a 90 minute time in line due to about 8 boarding groups showing up at once. The ride was amazing, but it was stressful. My 2 year old Note 8 never even showed the button to register for a boarding group. In the future, I'm going to park myself near the Blue Umbrella, hand them our Magic Bands, and let them put us in a group. 

Retired cast are blocked out of HS through April and I won't be surprised if the blocking goes all summer.  I want to give a big THANK YOU to the WWz who got together and bought me a ticket to HS so I could join them last Saturday.  I had a really good time and was thankful for the ones with experience and fast phones so we were able to ride.  I look forward to the days when WDW gets the ride working consistently and has something newer to draw people away from HS.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

44 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Retired cast are blocked out of HS through April and I won't be surprised if the blocking goes all summer.  I want to give a big THANK YOU to the WWz who got together and bought me a ticket to HS so I could join them last Saturday.  I had a really good time and was thankful for the ones with experience and fast phones so we were able to ride.  I look forward to the days when WDW gets the ride working consistently and has something newer to draw people away from HS.

I am glad that y’all got to ride, but your experience confirms the point I’ve been trying to make in this thread- the roll out of this attraction is a fail and Disney should be ashamed of itself.

How is it fun to have to be at a park an hour before it opens and hope that you’re one of the lucky few to be assigned a boarding group before they’re all gone in less than 3 minutes?  And even with a boarding group, the ride is broken down when you’re called, causing a 90 minute wait in the queue when it finally reopens?  And this is the best they can do with 50,000+ castmembers and retirees blocked out of the park?

Absolutely ridiculous.

TCD 

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

I agree TCD, our phone gurus kept checking their phones and it was to see IF the ride had stopped.  All was good, all day the ride kept working, then our # came up and we made our way over to the ride.  OOPS it had just stopped rats.    We also were one of the first groups to cheer after the 8am opening of the reservations.  We were #51 or 53, in that area anyway,   So even if you have a really fast phone and operator of said phone, you don't automatically get a low number.  Lottery system indeed.

[Travisma 1,317]

13 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I am glad that y’all got to ride, but your experience confirms the point I’ve been trying to make in this thread- the roll out of this attraction is a fail and Disney should be ashamed of itself.

How is it fun to have to be at a park an hour before it opens and hope that you’re one of the lucky few to be assigned a boarding group before they’re all gone in less than 3 minutes?  And even with a boarding group, the ride is broken down when you’re called, causing a 90 minute wait in the queue when it finally reopens?  And this is the best they can do with 50,000+ castmembers and retirees blocked out of the park?

Absolutely ridiculous.

TCD 

Are they having the same issues at DisneyLand with breakdowns?

I had read an article (if it was on the web it must be true) that during construction at HS in the rainy season, the roofing had issues with drainage, and supposedly a lot of the electronics/controls for the ride got flooded.  Never saw anything else about it, but the article went into depth about how roof drains were improperly installed causing the major flood.

Possibly some of the issues with HS version?

[Travisma 1,317]

5 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

I agree TCD, our phone gurus kept checking their phones and it was to see IF the ride had stopped.  All was good, all day the ride kept working, then our # came up and we made our way over to the ride.  OOPS it had just stopped rats.    We also were one of the first groups to cheer after the 8am opening of the reservations.  We were #51 or 53, in that area anyway,   So even if you have a really fast phone and operator of said phone, you don't automatically get a low number.  Lottery system indeed.

My nephews got a low # I think in the teens and the group next to them a couple seconds later got like an 80

[ThemeParkCommando 81]

24 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I am glad that y’all got to ride, but your experience confirms the point I’ve been trying to make in this thread- the roll out of this attraction is a fail and Disney should be ashamed of itself.

How is it fun to have to be at a park an hour before it opens and hope that you’re one of the lucky few to be assigned a boarding group before they’re all gone in less than 3 minutes?  And even with a boarding group, the ride is broken down when you’re called, causing a 90 minute wait in the queue when it finally reopens?  And this is the best they can do with 50,000+ castmembers and retirees blocked out of the park?

Absolutely ridiculous.

TCD 

I'm not sure it's ridiculous.  We were all joking about lines all the way up to New York for this new land when it opened.  If the system was not set up this way, we would be seeing 8 hour lines or more for the ride.  90 minutes is reasonable, considering. Galaxies Edge is by far the biggest, most popular expansion of a Disney park, ever.  There are so many Star Wars fans out there that want to experience this that Disney is going to be making bank on it for years. Most of us were smart enough to plan our vacations for AFTER the entire area was opened, and we are seeing the influx of those fans now.  I made my plans for a year after the planned opening, hoping the newness would wear off a bit.  Now, I'm wondering if I should have waited another year.  

No other expansion to a park is coming with a completely themed resort and special Role Playing packages, you know?

It sucks for the CMs who are blocked out, I agree.  However, since those same employees were given special days to ride the ride before it opened, I don't see the restrictions as unreasonable. 

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

9 minutes ago, ThemeParkCommando said:

I'm not sure it's ridiculous.  We were all joking about lines all the way up to New York for this new land when it opened.  If the system was not set up this way, we would be seeing 8 hour lines or more for the ride.  90 minutes is reasonable, considering. Galaxies Edge is by far the biggest, most popular expansion of a Disney park, ever.  There are so many Star Wars fans out there that want to experience this that Disney is going to be making bank on it for years. Most of us were smart enough to plan our vacations for AFTER the entire area was opened, and we are seeing the influx of those fans now.  I made my plans for a year after the planned opening, hoping the newness would wear off a bit.  Now, I'm wondering if I should have waited another year.  

No other expansion to a park is coming with a completely themed resort and special Role Playing packages, you know?

It sucks for the CMs who are blocked out, I agree.  However, since those same employees were given special days to ride the ride before it opened, I don't see the restrictions as unreasonable. 

Retired cast never got a 'pass' to ride this before or after it opened.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

59 minutes ago, ThemeParkCommando said:

It sucks for the CMs who are blocked out, I agree.  However, since those same employees were given special days to ride the ride before it opened, I don't see the restrictions as unreasonable. 

Incorrect.  There were no CM previews or AP previews at WDW. They just crossed their fingers and opened the attraction, and it’s been a sh*t show since opening day. 

48 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Retired cast never got a 'pass' to ride this before or after it opened.

Active cast didn’t either. 

But, somehow at Disneyland, they were able to have CM previews, and no CM blockouts since opening day. Also, they don’t run out of boarding passes for an hour after park opening, where boarding passes are gone in 3 minutes at DHS. 

Like is said- absolutely ridiculous.

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

But, somehow at Disneyland, they were able to have CM previews, and no CM blockouts since opening day. Also, they don’t run out of boarding passes for an hour after park opening, where boarding passes are gone in 3 minutes at DHS. 

Like is said- absolutely ridiculous.

TCD

But the crowd level at WDW is almost 3 times that of DL and that would affect how fast Boarding Passes run out. Same for CM opportunities since the paying customer would get preference.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 hour ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

But the crowd level at WDW is almost 3 times that of DL and that would affect how fast Boarding Passes run out. Same for CM opportunities since the paying customer would get preference.

I can’t believe that the crowd level at DHS is anywhere close to the crowd level at Disneyland, let alone three times more. Since Disney closely guards its attendance figures, I don’t know how you or anyone can make that statement. 

Why is it so hard to accept the fact that the Rise of the Resistance attraction is a disaster at the moment?

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I can’t believe that the crowd level at DHS is anywhere close to the crowd level at Disneyland, let alone three times more. Since Disney closely guards its attendance figures, I don’t know how you or anyone can make that statement. 

Why is it so hard to accept the fact that the Rise of the Resistance attraction is a disaster at the moment?

TCD

It's been published in numerous places that WDW sees approximately 60 million people a year and DL sees approximately 20 million a year. Granted there are 4 parks vs 2 but that is still 15 million per park vs 10 million per park and since SW ROR is the hype  everybody is trying to get on an early Boarding Group.  If they get a high number then they can head to the other parks until they get close to their boarding time.   Also DL doesn't have same percentage  of "On Property" hotel rooms with direct transporation that feed the parks. Figuring out why it fills up almost instantly is not Rocket Science.

Maybe it is a disaster at the moment, but I really don't care since I have no plan on every riding it, just like we have never done anything at PANDORA.   Apparently a lot of other people don't think it's a disaster either or they wouldn't be lining up at 6:30/7:00 am, they'd stay away.   

Lou went to UNIVERSAL Wednesday with one of their head engineers, he got them priority passes to get on HAGRID'S and guess what, it went down and never came back up the whole time they were there.  So it's just not WDW.  As is said "S--t Happens"..

Edited February 21, 2020 by Grumpy and Grandma
corrected typo

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

4 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

It's been published in numerous places that WDW sees approximately 60 million people a year and DL sees approximately 20 million a year. Granted there are 4 parks vs 2 but that is still 15 million per park vs 10 million per park and since SW ROR is the hype  everybody is trying to get on an early Boarding Group.  If they get a high number then they can head to the other parks until they get close to their boarding time.   Also DL doesn't have same percentage  of "On Property" hotel rooms with direct transporation that feed the parks. Figuring out why it fills up almost instantly is not Rocket Science.

Maybe it is a disaster at the moment, but I really don't care since I have no plan on every riding it, just like we have never done anything at PANDORA.   Apparently a lot of other people don't think it's a disaster either or they wouldn't be lining up at 6:30/7:00 am, they'd stay away.   

Lou went to UNIVERSAL Wednesday with one of their head engineers, he got them priority passes to get on HAGRID'S and guess what, it went down and never came back up the whole time they were there.  So it's just not WDW.  As is said "S--t Happens"..

That math doesn’t work at all. Disneyland Park gets way more guests than DCA, and the Magic Kingdom way more than the other three at WDW. As I said, no way does DHS have three times as many guests as Disneyland. No way.

Plus, Disneyland’s version is performing only a little better than WDW’s. At least the guest at Disneyland have 40+ attractions to chose from at that park compared to a fraction of that at DHS.  

And, comparing a Disney ride to something equally flawed at Universal doesn’t fly either. 

They hyped Star Wars Land for four years and are providing guests with a very poor experience. 

“Sh*t happens” doesn’t fly either when the Sh*t is happening more than it doesn’t. 

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

7 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

As I said, no way does DHS have three times as many guests as Disneyland. No way.

Never said DHS, I said WDW.......

Your words not mine.... Also, they don’t run out of boarding passes for an hour after park opening, where boarding passes are gone in 3 minutes at DHS.  So there has to be more people in the Park when it opens and on the app vs DL.