Today is the day, folks!
Stormtroopers!
Rise of the Resistance is FINALLY open to the public! We got to check this awesome ride out yesterday for ourselves, but we’re back and keeping an eye on crowds and how the ride is holding up on opening day. But if you were hoping to get to the park and jump in line to ride, today is not your day.
A long, long time ago in a theme park far away…ok, not THAT long ago, but remember back in August when Galaxy’s Edge opened in Disney World and in June when it opened to the general public in Disneyland how Disney utilized a virtual queueing system to try and keep down crowds going in and out of the land? 
It only lasted for the better part of a day in Hollywood Studios before the virtual boarding groups weren’t needed anymore, but it’s BACK for access to Rise of the Resistance. But there’s one teeny tiny problem…all the existing boarding groups are ALREADY GONE! Disney has said they aren’t adding anymore boarding groups “right now” so that’s not totally ruling out that more could be added later today, so keep checking if you’re hoping to grab one!
No More Boarding Groups!
Yup, the park has barely been open for the day and already if you were hoping to experience this new ride, you gonna have to wait a bit! While we’re not sure yet if they’ll extend the virtual queueing into tomorrow or beyond, clearly there’s a strong guest demand to see this new ride. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about upcoming days.
This is Not the Queue You’re Looking For
Now IF Virtual Boarding is opened up again later, here’s the rundown so you can get in, get yo’ boarding group, and go on with your life! When you get into Hollywood Studios, open the My Disney Experience app and navigate to the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge section. You should see a “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — Access by Boarding Groups.”
Rise of the Resistance
If you click that it should take you to a screen showing what the boarding group situation currently is. You can see what groups are being allowed to enter the actual ride queue and, if boarding groups are available, you can join one and reserve your spot in line. If “Join Boarding Group” is grayed out, you may be out of luck — that means all boarding groups will have been issued for the day.
Rise of the Resistance
If you snag a boarding group, make sure push notifications are turned on your phone so you’ll know when it’s time to get in line! When it IS your boarding group, you have 2 hours to get in the REAL Rise of the Resistance line, so no need to rush! Also, if you have friends or family with you, make sure you’re all linked through My Disney Experience together and one person can sign your group up for boarding passes, but note that everyone in your party must be inside the park to be able to get a pass.
Rise of the Resistance
We were thinking this new ride was going to be popular but WOW. It’s already proving to be more of a draw than the original opening of the whole LAND in Hollywood Studios! Check back for new info as we learn it!
Check out our first look at Rise of the Resistance here!
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Were you planning to ride Rise of the Resistance today? Let us know in the comments!
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Thanks for the update! I noticed the same thing this morning. By 8am, boarding groups would be getting on the ride by this evening! I’m ecstatic at this turnout and enthusiasm, and hope to ride it next week. I’ll get to HS early, sign up for a boarding group and plan for a long (but fun) day at the park! Again, thanks for all your updates. I’ve stayed away from most of the spoilers, but a little heads-up is always appreciated. You’re my go-to source for all things Disney!
Hello,
I’ll be in Galaxy’s Edge on 12/19, two weeks from today. I’ve never dealt with “boarding parties”, or anything like that. How does it work? Is it only for that particular day, or do they sometimes let you join one, several days in advance? I’m guessing it’s something that you need to check, first thing in the morning, when the park opens, on the day that you’re going to be there. Is that corrrect?
Thanks!
So long as we can ride it in mid-April.
All members of our party had to be there to be in virtual queue. I know because my friend was 30 minutes later than me and I was scared we wouldn’t get a spot at 630 am.
If Rob is correct, you need to figure it out Disney Food Blog! Seriously. This could really mess people up.
Any predictions for how they’ll handle the Disneyland ride opening? We’d like to be prepared!
We have a reservation at Oga’s Cantina next week. Will this affect our ability to get to our reservation?
Katy, no. The land itself didn’t reach capacity. Only Rise of the Resistance was affected.
Season, nothing has been announced, but it seems likely/possible they’d implement the same boarding pass system at Disneyland Park, too, should Rise be popular there as well. If they do announce ahead of time, we’ll update.
Thanks, Rob and Sue! We’ve amended the post to reflect what Rob said: all members of the party need to be in the park in order to get in the queue. The Disney Parks Blog only mentions the tickets needing to be linked, so that’s where the confusion was. We’ll keep monitoring in case experiences vary, but to be safe, we wanted to clarify in the post.
Bob, that’s correct. You’ll need to be in the Park, get into your My Disney Experience app, find the Galaxy’s Edge section, and click to Join Boarding Group (assuming it’s available to click). You’ll go through it and get confirmation, then you can enjoy your day. When it’s your turn, you’ll get a notification from the app (so be sure you’ve allowed the app to notify you of things) and have two hours to get to the ride to enter the actual queue.
We decided to wait til the second day to try for a chance and it was a success. I figured they would open the park early as HS was scheduled to open at 9am. I planned for 7am but honestly figured it might open sooner (and it did) but also estimated by thursday’s times of when boarding groups were closed that we would still have a chance to snag one. I have a limit of how long I will wait for a ride or how early I’m willing to get up! We had a successful week of using Lyft until that morning when all drivers were farther away than normal….of course! We were at Wyndham Bonnet Creek so no Disney transportation. We contemplated driving ourselves but just waited for a driver and got there around 730am. We were able to snag boarding group 48 which was estimated for afternoon access. We also heard they severely capped the number of boarding groups that day probably to be cautious…here are some things we learned that will probably help others….for now…plan to arrive at the park before it opens…like I mentioned above…due to our lack of lyft driver availability…we were there 1.5hrs before the park opened. I think the groups were capped in the earlier half of the 8am hour as an fyi. We then walked right on Aerosmith and tower of terror as well as star war tours. We learned that we could still access galaxy edge land area and that the boarding group was only for rise of the resistance. We verified we didn’t have to stay in the park so left before 11am and went back to the resort to take a nap. I got notified at 215 pm that our boarding group could now board and had 2 hrs until 415pm to check in. I was scared to learn how long we would have to actually wait in line once checking in as I couldn’t find any comments about that yet and forgot to ask one of the guest experience personnel. I did notice there weren’t really any limes outside of the ride earlier so I was hopeful! I have to say I was beyond impressed on how they handled the queue!….I checked in around 348pm and took about 26 minutes to get to the first part of the experience…the line moved steadily with only very brief pauses….so get there before park opens with ALL of your guests…and access the boarding group section on the app as soon as you badge into the park. We had already done HS earlier in week so we did our fav rides with no wait and left to take a nap!
Hi AJ,
Thank you so much for the information! Do you happen to know if they are utilizing the DAS system as well on the Rise of the Resistance?
Dawn- that was awesome information! But you never mentioned if you liked the ride or not, or if there was anything we needed to be aware about this ride Like the drop at the end? How was that?. Would appreciate your comments on the ride itself. Thanks!
Any idea when they will stop the virtual boarding process? I wasn’t planning to go to park first thing and one person in my party is using an EVC which would be a pain to go to HS, leave HS, come back to HS.
TG, no word on when they’ll stop. We will keep you updated!
Hi,
I had asked a question about the DAS, could someone please fill me in on that? Are they using that like they did on millennial Falcon? I’d greatly appreciate feedback because we are currently on our vacation!
Melanie, what we’ve been told is that you need to get in a boarding group first (using the My Disney Experience app), then go to the ride to talk to a cast member about DAS.