The Rise, The Resistance, and The Boarding Pass
January 24th I am always at Disney celebrating the birthday of a friend. Early morning trips that last until one of us taps out which is usually around 8pm or so. This year would be different. This year, an attraction hailed as the greatest thing ever built just opened and the process to get on said ride was nothing short of turning water into wine. Rise of the Resistance opened up January 17th and it was pure chaos at the parks and guess what?? I was excited to do the the impossible- obtain a boarding pass. My friend and I watched other people’s social media accounts to get the basic steps down which was 1) be scanned into the park before park opening and 2) stay out of the center hub. With this basic knowledge I simply asked my Gemini friend, "do you want to try?" That question means do you want to wake up on your day off and leave the house at 6am to insure we are parked, through security and scanned in prior to 7:58am at the latest. This was non-negotiable. Boarding Passes were like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket; many will try but only a few will be selected. She agreed and we set our alarms. As huge Star War fans, we were ready for whatever the First Order was going to throw our way!
We headed out about 5:45am and approached the parking structure a little before 6:15am which was not yet open, which was fine, that was a good sign to us. Once the structure opened everything went smoothly from parking to security to tram ride. We liked up at the gates (which were already crazy long) about 7am and waited. I felt good and confident about getting a boarding pass for this ride, the only question is, which group? We decided that if we got a group higher than 50, we would play it by ear. There were so many stories of it breaking down, long waits in between groups, etc., that we made that deal since we had other reservations throughout the day.
We were scanned in the park at about 7:45am and there was already such a buzz on Main St. People were jockeying for cell service, a few people even had laptops out, sitting on benches and making sure their group was all scanned in and ready for action. I however was already shopping in stores along Main St (my favorite thing to do at Disneyland) and watching the clock. I already knew what needed to be done, all I had to do was wait for the time to come. At approximately 7:59am while still in the Emporium (away from other people on their phones outside) I closed the app, reopened the app, clicked get boarding pass and clicked our names. Just that quick I was in the cue, boarding group 49! 30 seconds later screams and cheers erupted on Main St of those who were able to secure one, cries and curses for those that missed out this time. I simply told my friend, " we got group 49, wanna go get breakfast?". No muss, no fuss, just execution. We spent the day chasing characters for pictures and eating and around 1230pm the alert from the app came. YOUR BOARDING GROUP HAS BEEN CALLED. I looked over at my friend and said, "It is time.".
We headed down to ROTR with extra spring in our steps especially since our ride time would not interfere with other reservations we had that day. As we approached, we got the news- the ride was down. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Was this a possibility? Yes, but was it in our plans? NO!! We stood there stuck for a second the decided to go grab food at Hungry Bear in the shade and wait it out. After about an hour we decided to wait near the ride and shortly after we got there, we were able to be scanned in and get in line.
Let me just say, Rise of the Resistance is everything and more I could have dreamed of. That attraction has set the bar only a way Disney can, and I'm often still shook by its magic. Recap of the ride will be posted soon!