Getting a boarding group to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Disney’s Hollywood Studios may be one of the toughest things to do throughout your entire Disney trip!
Recently, we saw Disney install plexiglass barriers on the ride’s vehicles which could potentially increase capacity, but now Disney have made a MAJOR announcement that will totally change how you can sign up in the morning for a boarding pass!
Currently, in order to get a boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance you must have a valid park ticket, a valid Park Pass reservation for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and you must have already entered the park and be standing inside when the clock hits 10AM to try to grab a boarding group. You then have another chance at 2PM to see if you can try to board this super popular attraction.
Starting November 3rd, however, a new system will be put in place. You’ll still need a valid ticket to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and a valid Disney Park Pass reservation for the day you want to visit, BUT you’ll be able to access the virtual queue system and try to get a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance starting at 7AM on the day of your park reservation from OUTSIDE of Disney’s Hollywood Studios! That means, you can be in your hotel room, getting breakfast, or wherever else nearby and you can try to grab a boarding group at that time!
Update: We reached out to Disney about whether there is any distance requirement in terms of how close you must be physically to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in order to sign up for the boarding group and one Cast Member told us that there “isn’t a set distance.” We’ll keep updating this post if we learn any new information about that.
The 2PM boarding group sign-up process will not be changing however. You MUST be inside Hollywood Studios to sign up for a potential boarding group at 2PM.
Disney has noted that they’re “hoping this new approach will make a day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios more enjoyable and relaxing, as guests no longer need to be inside the park each morning to request a boarding group for the first virtual queue opportunity. As a reminder, you need to be inside the park to request the 2 p.m. boarding groups.”
Disney has also noted, “To try to maximize the number of boarding groups we’re able to accommodate while adhering to current health and safety guidelines, we recently added a clear barrier between the two rows of seats on each First Order Fleet Transport vehicle inside the attraction. This enables us to invite more guests to board Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance each day.”
We will most DEFINITELY be testing out this new system to see what it’s like and we will let you know what we find out! Check back with us for more updates.
Click here to check out the new plexiglass dividers that have been added to the Rise of the Resistance vehicles!
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what exactly is “nearby”? live an hour away from the parks and I don’t see going “near” the park at 7 am just to wait 3 hours till park opening?
Do you know how close we have to be to Disney Hollywood Studios in order to book the ride Rise of the Resistance?
I got an email today about it! This is awesome!
Is it just me? The issue I see this causing is HS park reservation demand.
From my understanding, you can make a park reservation and cancel at any time and go to another.
So won’t people make reservations for HS, try at 7am for ROR, possibly not get a boarding group, then cancel their park reservation and go somewhere else? (Not caring about 2pm time slot)
🤷🏼♀️ Just a thought.
Finally!!! I am so happy about this. I’ve tried 5 times since opening and so far, no luck for rise. Maybe this will finally give me the option!
I’m certain this is being done because of the MASSIVE backups on the Skyliner system at Caribbean Beach. We recently stayed at the Beach Club, and we had to take the Skyliner to DHS because the Friendship boats weren’t running, plus I have a mobility impairment that makes walking that distance too difficult. We’d get in line for the Skyliner each morning before it started running, and not once were we able to get inside DHS before 10:00am. We’d complain to Guest Services, who told us we’d have another chance to get a boarding group at 2:00pm, but there were never any more boarding groups available. We’d complain again, but we were told they couldn’t do anything about it. At least this new way means we’ll have a chance the next time we go.
Andrea, Disney didn’t specify a distance, so it sounds like the access is based on having the Disney Park Pass rather than on being scanned in or even near the Park.
Niknux15, Disney didn’t give any information on what nearby means, but we will update when we know more!
Great idea Katy!
This is great news and obviously favors onsite guests which in my view is fair because those people are the ones spending the most money on their Disney vacation. I say this even though we almost never stay on site, however I’m not above getting up early to get somewhere on Disney property where I can park and hit the magic button at 7:00AM. Early bird catches the worm!
Distance should be irrelevant. As long as someone has a park reservation that is all that should be required. This change may eliminate a lot of guests who select Hollywood Studios because of Rise only not to get a boarding group and then feel stuck at a park that they may not have selected otherwise. This way they know they aren’t getting on Rise at 7am and could select a different park if reservations remain available.
In what way is it “more relaxing” to have to get up at 6:30 am in order to get a chance to get a boarding group for Rise? This is supposed to be a vacation not the Hunger Games
Do we use MyDisney Experience to get into the queue for Rise of the Resistance?
Why don’t they do Boarding Passes for the Avatar ride?
If Disney is going to do this then just bring back Fast passes. This is the only thing that makes sense.
Kathy, yes!
We were at Disney World in January and last week. Unable to ride either trip. After COVID is over I think we will try Universal. I’m tired of Disney disappointing our kids.