Rise of Resistance Adventure

I have been wanting to experience this ride since it opened. So on my most recent trip to the Land of Enchantment, Disney we tried to get into their virtual queue from our hotel room, starting at 7am.

All 3 of us, myself, MeeGee and Josie were up to tap the Disney App into the virtual queue, and exactly around 7 or so, we all, simultaneously failed. The app reported for all of us that the 7am boarding queue was FULL even though we clicked at or around 7am. I found out later that the queue would have filled up 5 seconds after 7. 5 seconds!!! We did not have a chance. Or next chance at joining the queue was at 1pm at the park itself.

Later at Mickey’s Railroad ride, we met a mother daughter (she was in front of us in queue that snaked all around front of building first, 6 feet apart per group). Her mom told us that they would come here all the time, and had no problems getting to the Rise of Resistance queue all the time except for today. Aha! Confirmation that we weren’t the only ones.

Waiting for 1 pm Queue

We decided to do Toy Story Mania for our next ride. I was a bit concerned that it would coincide with us trying to join the next/last attempt for virtual queue. You only had 2 chances to join the queue, once in morning at 7am, and the next at 1pm. By the time we got into the 30min line, it was around 12:30. So as were snaking into the ride’s standby queue and swiftly walking through the line, with a quick stop in front of Mr. Potato Head, my thoughts were about joining the queue. All our thoughts were. There was even bigger concern that the the Disney wifi signal started to die around the time we were almost to the front of the line.

About a minute before 1pm, we all had our fingers rapidly swiping the refresh on the virtual queue page on the app. Each of us looking closely at the clock on our phones. Then 1pm happened. Refresh… and I got the Join button. MeeGee and Josie also. I quickly pressed it. I saw our party listed… all 4 of us, and I selected us all to attend. SUCCESS! I got it, a Backup Queue number of 183. Backup Queue! I was a bit disappointed because it said that this queue will only be called if there was ‘room’ in the line for attendance.

Of course in my mind I had this sinking feeling that we might not make it to the ride I really wanted to ride in this whole trip. But I was already jubilant that after 3 tries, 2 different visits to this park I was able to FINALLY get into this virtual queue. Even if it is a backup position. I went and located a Disney team person to find out more what this backup queue position is.

The Secret of Queues

And drum roll. I located the right Disney person. The right person is one that is in a stall marked “Disney Customer Experience”. Who was free and not helping anyone else, except me. Not the ice-cream vendor, or the Team member at Star Tours ride.

First of all, Backup Queue is Fine. You are going to get into the ride. For us, it was around 7pm that we finally got into the ride. Backup just means that we got into the queue at 1pm timeslot. She said that all boarding groups got in yesterday (Saturday) without any issues. Disney basically release 50% of the groups in the first batch at 7am. Then the rest at 1pm. I think they sized the groups based on their actual capacity for whole day assuming that most of us that sign up will show up. She said that we should be able to get in - I asked if we had to leave the park, and come back. And she assured us - without being completely commital that it would be ok.

She also said the best way to get into the 7am queuing is to get ready about 1min before 7, and refresh exactly once at 7am, and then you should get the join button. I have no idea how a normal person would get in for that queue. Especially during Spring Break. But I did get into the backup queue. It just means that you will get into the ride later in the day, 183 is basically 1 hour before the park closes. 183 is still a beautiful number.

I will report on the ride itself in a different blog article. Without giving away too much SPOILERS! I can say that it is as exciting as the videos you have seen, or the other blogs. And it looks like there are multiple paths based on the color choices you make. You know what I mean when you get into the ride. And the characters (Disney Team) playing the First Order and Resistance make this the most immersive ride at any Disney park anywhere. It is definitely worth getting up at 7am, and spending all that time getting into this virtual queue.