by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland to use a similar virtual queue boarding pass at Walt Disney World’s version.
One of the most anticipated attractions in Disneyland history, Rise of the Resistance places guests in a First Order battle. The attraction is a first of its kind for any company worldwide and is truly breathtaking.
Since demand is expected to be incredibly high for this attraction, Disneyland has opted for the option of a virtual queue system that assigns boarding passes to eager guests. What this means is, once you enter the park, you’ll need to use the Disneyland mobile app to register for a boarding pass placement. You’ll be issued a number and when it’s your turn to ride, you’ll have two hours to get to the attraction.
Disneyland has chosen this method rather than a traditional line for a few reasons. The first is, guests don’t have to worry about spending most of their day in a line for one ride. New attractions like this can have wait times over 5 hours. Needless to say, no trip to a theme park is fun when you’ve spent half of the day in line for a single ride.
Another reason Disneyland likely implemented this system is because the attraction isn’t fully operational. When the ride goes down, Disney has to stop taking guests until the attraction can run smoothly. At Walt Disney World, we’ve noticed that this has taken about an hour to reboot once the ride crashes – which is about twice or more times a day.
The third reason for the virtual queue system is money. Like FastPass and MaxPass, not waiting in line means that guests can buy food and merchandise around the park. Really, it’s a bonus for everyone that there is a system like this in place.
Past Boarding Pass Issues
However, the virtual boarding pass also has its issues at Walt Disney World. Today, if you’re not at the parks before opening, you may not get a boarding pass due to demand. To make things worse, even if you get a boarding pass, you still might not ride. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, park guests who had boarding groups over number 120 often didn’t get to experience the attraction.
Walt Disney World’s opening also had hiccups because the ride opened well before schedule on the first day. Guests waiting from the very early hours of the morning were able to get boarding passes but those who showed up at opening did not. Disney World handed out free tickets and FastPasses as an apology, but that’s not a procedure that Disneyland typically implements.
Disney Cast Members have been testing the attraction already by riding and using the virtual boarding pass system before Rise opens to the public. According to Disneyland, their version is about the same as Disney World’s in terms of progress. That’s great news as of right now more guests than ever before have been able to ride. Hopefully, we’ll soon see the attraction running smoothly. Once this happens, we’ll see much shorter wait times and no need for the boarding pass system. In the mean time, we recommend getting to Disneyland at least an hour before opening to guarantee your spot.
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