Well, the day we’ve been waiting for is here and Rise of the Resistance is open in Hollywood Studios!

Though you might have a bit of trouble getting on the ride today if you’re not already in a boarding group!:(  This attraction has been highly anticipated since the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge so demand is pretty high for the new ride. We got to take a spin on it already and we have the inside scoop on what to expect, BUT you might be surprised but there are actually TWO slightly different ride experiences, and we think one might be a little better than the other.

For the ride portion of Rise, guests will board one of two transport vehicles at a time in the loading area. Because the two vehicles go at the same time, the result is each car has a different experience than the other. Think about the left and right tracks on Space Mountain or the slight differences in the three rows at Soarin’. It’s the same idea!

Let’s talk about the differences but first, SPOILER ALERT!! If you don’t want anything ruined for when you ride Rise of the Resistance, maybe hold off reading this post for now! 😉

Now, it’s not the whole ride that varies! In fact, the attraction is the same for everyone until you get to the trackless portion of the ride. For the trackless part, you’re sorted into either the FRONT First Order Transport Vehicle or the BACK First Order Transport Vehicle.

You’ll be assigned a color — blue and red go to the front, orange and white go to the back. More on those colors later!

So here’s where things start to vary depending on if you’re in the front or the back. We noticed three main differences well share with you.

The Probe Droid

Early into the ride, a Probe Droid emerges, looking for the Resistance prisoners (you!). The front car will see the Probe Droid up close, while the back car just passes by it when the droid is lowered. This is a pretty significantly different experience depending on what car you’re in! The front gets you VERY close to the droid and really helps with the whole “shock” experience. There’s a little more distance in the back.

We LOVED being in the front car for this portion. It was fun to be up close and personal with the Droid. If you think small children (hey, or you!) might be scared a bit by this, the back car is definitely a lot less in your face.

AT-AT Room

In the AT-AT room, the front car goes through the AT-ATs and turns left, backing into the elevator with a view of Finn in his Stormtrooper gear against a wall. Then, after rising up, the front car is face to face with two stormtroopers inside the head of the AT-AT (on a screen) with a red digital haze.

On the other hand, the back car moves through the AT-ATs and looks like it might actually escape the room through a large door, but the door closes and the back car is whisked backward. This car also sees a Finn animatronic, but he’s sitting behind some crates, avoiding fire from the blasters. When your transport vehicle rises up, you’re looking at the side of the AT-AT and see an open side panel on the body with Stormtroopers rushing around inside.

The experiences aren’t fairly different. You get a better look at the Finn animatronic form the back, but the front get’s to go face to face with the AT-AT!

Kylo Ren

The final difference happens both times that the riders encounter Kylo Ren. In both Kylo scenes, on the bridge and where the ship gets hit behind him near the end, the front car is to Kylo’s left while the back car is to his right. The way the experience differs here is that Kylo turns different directions when addressing the riders.

In our opinion, the front car is more compelling here because of the words Kylo directs at them versus the back car. He’s creepy, guys.

So which car is better?

We think the front car experience is a little bit better both because of the experience with the Drone Droid and with listening to Kylo Ren. Now, don’t get us wrong this ride is REMARKABLE no matter what car you’re sitting in!

SO how do you ensure you get the car you want?? If you’d like to guarantee one car over the other (whichever you prefer) the key is in the colors! Red or blue go to the front car and orange or white go to the back car. Now ya know!

We had a blast escaping the First Order on Rise of the Resistance, and no matter which car you’re in the ride is an AWESOME experience!

Click here to get all of your Rise of the Resistance questions answered! 

Does one experience sound better to you? Or would you be happy with either? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Rise of the Resistance. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ