Rise of the Resistance Tips

My family had the opportunity to return to Walt Disney World this past week. After our last trip which was around New Years 2020, I was determined to do my research and snag that elusive prize of a boarding group to Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios. During our 2019/2020 trip, we were required to be in the park when it opened to join the virtual queue. It was the heaviest crowd I had seen at any Disney park, the ride had only been open for about a month, so as you could imagine I was not successful. I should say I did actually get a boarding group that trip, but it was too high and we were not called back. This time, I was able to get early boarding groups twice and am going to share my tips for success.

Luckily, Disney changed the virtual queue process at some point during the year which allows guests to join a boarding group from anywhere at 7AM. They also have a “second chance” join time at 1PM but you have to be checked into the park for that day. If you are not familiar with the Park Pass Reservation system, due to COVID capacity restrictions, WDW has you reserve each day at a certain park. In order to ride ROTR, you have to have a Park Pass for Hollywood Studios for that day. You cannot park hop to Hollywood Studios at the 2PM timeframe and hope to get a boarding group. The day’s reservation must be for Hollywood. 

I was not taking chances this trip and reserved two separate days at Hollywood Studios. I would recommend doing this even if you don’t intend on spending two days there. With the popularity of Rise, Hollywood books up fast with Disney still limiting capacity. We have no clue what the next few months will hold for Disney Parks although Disney has said it is “slowly” increasing capacity as the CDC has eased restrictions centering around vaccination rates. Other parks are easier to change to so for example, if you get ROTR on your first day, you could change your second day to Animal Kingdom or Epcot which usually stay available longer. 

I also did research and watched several videos on tips. Many of them have the same basic principles but they all had some differences that I was able to combine into my own tips list. These made the most sense to me so that’s why I didn’t just copy their full strategies. For example, several tips suggested having multiple members linked to your account try to get the boarding groups to increase chances. I did not want to slow my data with others pulling from the same tower. I also did not want to wake my family up any earlier and get a chance to see Disney villains up close. So here are my tips, again this was the first time I used these and was successful on both of my Hollywood Studios days. I will also note that I have an iPhone 12 Pro and have AT&T as my cellular carrier. 

1. Test internet speed - most of the time using cellular data over Wifi is best and was for me. I used an internet speed test app and my cellular download was roughly 15mbps vs Disney WiFi at 5-6mbps. 
2. Make sure the My Disney Experience App is the newest version - check for updates the day prior to ensure the app functions to its full potential. 
3. Find a location away from people for best signal - I went just outside the entrance of the hotel. They now allow you to be anywhere outside of the park for the 7:00AM queue. Be ready to go by 6:58AM.
4. Set alarm early enough for step 3 
5. Use a second device for a clock that will show seconds - The boarding groups will literally fill in seconds so every second counts. If you wait five seconds to join you will not have luck. I used my son’s iPhone clock app and put his in airplane mode to stop signal interference. 
6. Turn off phone’s Bluetooth and any location services on apps - this will improve speed of the device. 
7. Force close all background apps - again to improve speed and for iPhones involves holding your finger down at the bottom of your Home Screen then dragging up. This will display apps running in the background. To close them, swipe each upward. 
8. Open the MDE app at around 2 minutes prior to joining the queue - 6:58AM 
9. Click on the lower right “kabob” (3 lines) icon at the bottom of the main screen. 
10. Click on the “Virtual Queues” box. 
11. Refresh the app a couple times prior to time - iPhones use a hard pull down (grab the top of the screen with your finger and drag downward about halfway on the screen). I did it at 60,30, and 15 seconds prior to 7:00AM. 
12. Toggle by clicking the “Join Virtual Queue” button early a couple times - a back and forth to keep the app refreshed. This also kept my fingers fresh lol. Think like a runner jogging in place before a race. I have to keep my joints limber these days. Nerves also made me a little shaky so keeping myself busy and alert helped. 
13. Speed! There are 3 clicks so know where they are. First Screen: “Join Virtual Queue” towards the top of the screen. Second Screen: “Join” about midway down. Third/Final Screen: “Continue” which will be all the way at the bottom. Click the first “Join Virtual Queue” as soon as you see 7:00AM. Don’t wait for it to turn blue but don’t click too early as you will have to hit the back button and lose precious seconds. 
14. Make sure everyone is linked to your party in MDE even if they don’t want to ride. They are automatically selected as long as everyone has a Hollywood Studios Park reservation for that day. Don’t waste time trying to select at that screen just hit “Continue”. HINT you can hit the continue button even before it turns blue so hit it as soon as you see it. I hit it when it looks like the screen still hasn’t loaded. The button appears “ghosted” out but it still lets you push it!
15. Practice! I can’t stress this enough. Do these steps as many days as you can prior to the park day. You will get comfortable with the clicks and the process. It’s like taking a practice test that doesn’t count for a grade. You will be allowed to get to the last screen’s “Continue” click and basically it will tell you “no park reservation for this day”. If you see this message congrats, had you had a park reservation you would have received a boarding group in the first half of that day. If you get a red pop up at the bottom it means you weren’t quick enough so keep trying each day. 

Once you get your boarding group, it will give you your estimated return time. It is important to note they give you a one hour window to return so plan accordingly. The only catch to getting an early boarding group, i.e. groups 1-12, is they called us back before the park officially opened. During COVID, the capacity wasn't the only thing reduced. The park hours have been shortened for a while and Hollywood Studios was set to open at 9:00AM. Our boarding group's hour window started at the 8:30-8:40AM timeframe which gave us until 9:30-9:40AM to return. COVID made bus transportation a little more challenging than in the past with roughly 30 guests allowed to board. You really need to give yourself plenty of time to catch the bus and get into the parks. We made both our boarding groups without issue, but we did have to hustle getting ready each morning.