Rise of the Resistance — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

Back in May when we visited Disney World, we were lucky enough to snag a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. We went into the trip assuming we likely would not get to ride it, but we still booked a park reservation for one of our days for Hollywood Studios. We attempted to get it for 7 am. Read below about our experience. If you want to remain spoiler free, but you want to read about the boarding groups, you can read my post. I will keep the boarding group information at the top. Now as soon as you get beyond the boarding group screenshots, I cannot guarantee it will be spoiler free!

Boarding Groups

So we heard all about how hard a boarding group was to come by. You had a chance at 7 am and one again at 1 pm if you were unsuccessful during the morning. This means you HAVE to make sure you have a park pass reservation at Hollywood Studios, or you have no shot at getting one since you cannot park hop until 2. We knew our chances were slim on getting one. Brad was fully prepared to go to Hollywood Studios and not get the opportunity to ride Rise. We also had other plans throughout the day that we were not sure how they would be impacted even if we did get a boarding group. I am assuming it is obvious now, but we did get lucky enough to get a boarding group. I did a lot of reading about some of the best strategies before going. Below is our experience with getting a group.

Before our trip, we made sure everyone was linked up through their My Disney Experience (MDE) accounts. Everyone mostly was, due to all of our Disney trips pre-COVID, but we did have to link Brad and my dad since this was the first trip my dad had been on with Brad and Melody.
Days and even the night before, we familiarized ourselves with the app and the boarding group location within the app. I use the app nonstop while at Disney, but everyone else does not.
The morning of we were sure to set alarms. Our intention was to be at the Skyliner around 7:15-7:30 am so that we were at Hollywood Studios prior to opening since we had a 9 am breakfast reservation. Because of that, we needed to practically be dressed and ready after attempting to get our boarding group. With that, we set alarms for 6 am. We got up around 6:30 because we were all exhausted, but this still gave us time to get ready on our phones.
Around 6:55 am, we manually closed the app. Does this help? Who knows? But it is what everyone says to do.
At 6:58 am, I got into MDE and into the boarding group screen. One way to get here - Click on the three lines on the bottom right hand side. Click on “Virtual Queues”. Click on “Join Virtual Queue”. Then keep “pulling down” to refresh the screen. Start doing this no later than at 6:59 am.

As soon as the “join” button pops up, hit it. Do NOT hesitate. Keep hitting join from that point forward. Do NOT check and make sure everyone in your party is marked. That can be fixed after the fact. Just literally keep hitting join. Any hesitation and you won’t get a group.
After the last “join”, I got an error. I panicked. It turned out, Brad had already snagged a group for all of us. So in turn, none of the rest of us could so we got an error. But when we refreshed the page, our group showed up.
You will be asked to enable notifications. Brad didn’t because I already had them enabled on my phone. As long as one person does and you stay together, it shouldn’t be an issue. I also kept checking the app constantly throughout the morning.

Some things to note.
- Everyone in our party was on Disney wifi. It didn’t even cross my mind to remove myself from wifi until after the fact. I have heard mixed reviews on if this helps or not. Use your own judgement.
- No one was watching the clock for anyone else. As for Brad and I, we were in our own parts of our room watching our own clocks on our phone. At exactly 6:59 am, I started refreshing the page. The moment “Join” popped up, I hit it. Some people use the atomic clock and watch it while everyone else attempts to get the boarding group.
- I am certain we were all logged into our own MDE’s accounts. But I have heard you can have multiple people log in to the same account and it won’t mess it up.
- We did not “intentionally separate” but we were not all in the same room. My parents were in their room which was about 3 buildings away from ours. Then we were in our room.
Like I said above, I checked the app constantly that morning to get an estimated time of return. We had lunch reservations at 11:15 at The Brown Derby. Well all of the projections were showing our boarding group would be called around that time. Brad decided to go check while the rest of us road Alien Saucers. He spoke with the people in the blue tent (DVC reps) first. They recommend we go ahead and go to lunch. We would then be allowed to ride Rise afterwards even if our time was expired. But Brad still wasn’t certain, so he went to The Brown Derby and asked. The people there told us to do the ride first. With as much breaking down that it does, they did not want us to miss the opportunity to ride it over making our lunch time. They told him they would note it, and they would fit us in when we finished.
Below you can see the screenshots I took throughout the morning. Our projections were fairly accurate. I did not give it time to notify me our boarding group was called. We went over to Galaxy’s Edge around 11:30 or so. We got some blue milk and found shade. Around 10 minutes later, our boarding group was called.

Getting in Line [Spoilers Ahead]

As soon as I noticed our group was called, we headed over to the ride. It took us a bit to find stroller parking. I am still not even sure we found the true stroller parking. There were no signs like you find elsewhere. So we found strollers and left ours. Luckily it was there when we finished up.

We went up to the line where they scanned our bands to verify we had passes. They also measured Melody. After that, we were free to move forward and get in line. Here are some pictures of the outdoor queue areas. In normal Disney fashion, even the garbage cans are themed.

Next up are the indoor queue areas where you are truly still in line. You will notice that there were still signs that said “please stand here” to keep with social distancing. You will also find lots of crates and even wires and pipes hanging from the ceiling.

The line moved fairly quickly for us. We rarely stood still. But there were points that if you were standing still you could find benches built into the walls.

And even the fire extinguisher and elegantly disguised.

Some of the crates have supplies stacked on top of them in preparation for the mission.

This room has what looks like a map in a control room found in all of the movies.

More storage for equipment and a fun exit.

Another tunnel followed up by even more equipment and suits.

Pre-Show One (as I am labeling it)

Next up is the first pre-show. Maybe this is one big pre-show, but I am breaking it up for you. During this pre-show, you will find a BB-8 animatronic and a holographic Rey. You find out a bit about your mission here

Pre-Show 2

In the next pre-show, you are headed outside and escorted into a shuttle that will take you to your mission. We went into this completely blind. We had no spoilers. We really were unsure what this was and how it would go down. They shoved us all in, then closed the doors. We were told nothing really. But we knew from the handle bars we better hold on. At this point we are sent into space. The windows are realistic as are the movements made by the shuttle. Things go wrong, as they often do, and the shuttle gets intercepted by The First Order. Then the shuttle doors open…

Pre-Show 3

Once the shuttle doors opened, you are faced with 50 Stormtroopers as you enter the Star Destroyer hanger. They rush you off the shuttle and push you along. We did stop for the infamous picture as we go into another line. To be honest, I knew this was eventually happening. I had seen this pictures as they are hard to avoid all over the internet. But I had no clue when this would happen.

Pre-Show 4

Next you get back into a line for a short time as you enter inside of the hallway.

Once you get to the end of the hallway, you are met with First Order troops that will start to separate you into groups to be interrogated. I am not certain how this was pre-COVID, but with COVID you are given spots to stand and kind of keep in those lines for this part. The castmembers here are playing the roles of First Order troops who are truly designed to be mean and interrogate you. And most played the part quite well. One lady was terrifying (you’ll notice her eye my phone in a picture below).

As you stay with your colored dot, you are lead into a cell. You will see Stormtroopers, and eventually Kylo Ran and General Hux arrive. Once your interrogation is over, you will see an escape tries to happen as part of a wall is blasted away.

The Ride

At this point you are escorted to your ride vehicle. It is a trackless vehicle and the whole ride from this point flies by. I am certain we missed so much during our first time riding this ride. I don’t even know if I can describe all the things that happened, so I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. The one thing I wished I had known going into this ride is that there is a drop. It isn’t a huge drop, but it feels huge with all of the simulation going on. And Melody was TERRIFIED!