An Early 2020 Guide to getting a Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group at Disneyland

I posted this write-up on February 15, 2020, for someone who was wondering how to maximize their Disneyland experience and chances of getting on Rise of the Resistance. Who knew what was on the horizon?!

Okay, here goes.

  • Make sure everyone in your group has a digital ticket or an annual pass. Add them to the Disneyland app Tickets and Passes page. Delete anyone from your Tickets and Passes group who's not going to be there with you inside the park that morning. (BTW, folks recommend having everyone in your party do the smartphone steps, and everyone try to get a boarding group. I went with a Blackberry user (?!) and we only had my phone and were fine.)

  • Get there early. Earlier than that. I went on a Friday when the park opened at 0800 and was parking by 0630.

  • Skip the lines for security for the tram. Take the walkway to Downtown Disney on level 2, southeast corner of the Pixar Pals parking structure. Latitude: 33° 48’ 46.728” N, Longitude: 117° 55’ 31.362” W. The line to get through security will be about 3 minutes. Also: Cardio.

  • Get in line for the main park. I was there about 0710 and was maybe 30 people back. Within a few minutes, the line behind me had reached the gates for DCA.

  • While you're waiting in line, kill every app on your phone, including the Disneyland app. Reopen the Disneyland app and time how long it takes to be ready. (My iPhone X was about 7 seconds.) Kill the app again. If you're connected to Disneyland's WiFi, forget that network, at least for now.

  • The line will probably start to move about 30 (maybe as many as 60) minutes before the official park opening time. We got in about 0740.

  • Get away from people. We ended up maneuvering to near Adventureland. At rope drop (0755), we power walked over to Tarzan's Tree House and got up above the fray.

  • At six seconds to park opening (0759:54), I opened the Disneyland app, so by the time it finished loading it was 0800:01. On the home screen, tap the "Find Out More" button in the Rise of the Resistance section. Hopefully, your Join Boarding Group button on the next screen is red. If so, smash it. If not, tap "My Status" and, if necessary, force a refresh (drag from the top).

  • The next screen will have everyone you've linked under Tickets and Passes selected for your boarding group. Continue. You should get a confirmation page with a lone R5 unit saying "You're in line!" with your boarding group number.

Check the app periodically after that. (You're supposed to get a push notification, but I didn't for some reason.) When your group comes up, you have an hour (officially; cast members were telling us we had 2 hours, and that was accurate) to appear at the entrance to the ride. We were group 15, and by 0912 we were eligible to board. But we were in line for Oga's and I didn't want to lose my deposit, so ... ;)

Tip: Ride anything you don't want to be tarnished, before you do Rise. We did Space Mountain (it's no longer Hyperspace Mountain), Smuggler's Run, Matterhorn, before we got on Rise. It definitely raises the bar. (On the plus side, the line for Smuggler's Run moves really quickly these days! :) Also, be prepared to feel like this, after Rise.

Another tip: Make reservations, now, for lunch and for Oga's. Times fill up quickly and if you want a sit-down lunch and/or dinner, it's the only way (e.g., Carnation Cafe doesn't take walk-ins when they're fully booked, and they're always fully booked).

Another tip: If you do do non-table service dining (mmm, beignets from the Mint Julep Bar...), use the app to order food to pick up, so much faster than standing in line waiting to place / pay for an order.

Another tip: Spend the $15 for the Max Pass. Being able to get FastPass returns from anywhere in the park, even in line for another ride, is golden.

Another tip: If you get stuck as an engineer or gunner on Smuggler's Run, you can ask to be a pilot and, at least in my experience, they'll accommodate you. It's a blast piloting the Falcon, definitely worth doing!

Another tip: FuelRod. They're $30 (about 4x what they should cost, but for the convenience factor), charge slowly (0.5A), don't have much capacity (2500 mAh IIRC), but, when one's dead you can swap it for a fully charged one (free) at several places in the park, and it beats carrying around a 10,000 mAh brick.

I'm sure there's some things I'm forgetting, but the above should maximize your chances of getting on RotR and having a great day at the park.

Happy birthday! Enjoy Disneyland.

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