How To: Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group

Simply Perfect Vacations is giving you our best park tip: how to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance. This step by step goes into great detail to give you the best chance at riding this new attraction!

Rise of the Resistance is the newest attraction at Walt Disney World Resort. It is in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in Disney's Hollywood Studios. It is an amazing attraction. It incorporates state of the art technology and an experience unlike any other attraction that makes it a must do (even if you’re not a fan of Star Wars). The only way to ride this attraction is to get a Boarding Group. A Boarding Group is a virtual queue for the attraction so you don’t have to physically wait in line, you can enjoy the rest of the park while you wait. Sounds too good to be true, right? There is a catch. There is an extremely limited amount of Boarding Passes available each day. This limited amount of boarding passes go very quickly. This is where Simply Perfect Vacations is stepping in to help you out. We are giving you our detailed guide, with step by step instructions, so you can get in a Boarding Group on your next visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Boarding Groups have two openings. The first opens at 7:00AM EST, the second one opens at 1:00PM EST. You need to try for the 7:00AM opening first; the 1:00PM opening is only if there is extra availability in the queue at the end of the day.
​
The day before you visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios, make sure that you have the latest version of the My Disney Experience app. If you’re trying to working with an older version of the app, it may be glitchy and ruin your already narrow chances of getting into a group. Check the night before you go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to see if there was an update, if there is one, go ahead and update it. Also, make sure you have notifications turned on for the My Disney Experience app.

---

You will either need to recruit someone else in your party to join you or convince someone else in your party to lend them their cell phone. You will need to watch a world clock to find out when it is 7:00AM exactly. I recommend the site time.is - I found out the my phone ran a few minutes slow so without the world clock I would have missed the opening completely. Your recruit’s job is very important. They have to watch the world clock for you to tell you when it is 7AM. You don’t want to waste precious time toggling between screens.

The virtual queue for boarding groups opens exactly at 7:00AM. The day you plan to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you will need to be ready to go before 7:00AM. The good news is, you do not have to be in the park for this opening, you can do it from your Disney Resort room! It is crucial you are ready to go before 7AM as boarding groups fill up with in seconds.

Set an alarm on your phone for 6:50AM so you're ready to go when 7:00 arrives. Set one even earlier if you need some time to wake up, time to wake up your recruit, get coffee to function, etc. At this time turn OFF your phone's WiFi. The free WiFi at Disney gets overloaded with the large amount of people trying to use it at once. You'll have much greater success using your carrier's data instead. Make sure your phone has a good signal for your carrier’s data to work the best. You may need to head outside to an open area if you need to (and don’t be surprised if you see other people in the parking lot in their pajamas).

Open the My Disney Experience App and find where the "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Request Access with Virtual Queue" prompt is located. You will also see the "Join" button. I highly recommend finding out where this is before 7AM.

Have your recruit start watching the clock around 6:55AM and to let you know when the minutes tick down. When the time hits 6:59AM, have your recruit notify you of the seconds. When they tell you it is precisely 7:00AM, hit the "Join" button! Then select your party - only guests with valid theme park admission and a valid park pass reservation to Hollywood Studios that day will be able to join. Don’t select anyone in your group that is under 2 as they don’t have theme park tickets! Don’t select anyone extra. You will either get a message that you’ve been able to secure a group or that the boarding groups are full.

For more chances of success have everyone in your party with a mobile device to try and secure a boarding group (even your recruit can toggle over after the 7:00AM announcement, but they should be the only one to try this gamble). The system will only let one person actually secure the reservation, everyone else trying in your party will get a message that a boarding group has already been secured or that boarding groups are no longer available. If you're successful you'll get a message with your group number and estimated wait time.

The app will notify you when your boarding group has been called. I still recommend checking this section of the Disney App to make sure things are progressing and boarding groups are being called. There are also signs throughout the park that notify guests of which boarding group is being called to ride.
Once your boarding group is called to board, you'll have 1 hour to get to the attraction to check-in. If you don't check-in within this hour window of being called, you miss your chance to ride.
​
If you weren't successful at getting a boarding group at 7:00AM, try again at 1:00PM. For the 1:00PM opening you MUST be in the park; have theme park tickets; have a park reservation to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This part means that you can’t park hop over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios from another park and try to get a boarding group.

Our clients who followed these steps exactly have reported back that they got into a Boarding Group at 7:00AM AND they they were in a low numbered boarding group! Hopefully these steps help you secure a much coveted spot into a Boarding Group for Rise of the Resistance as well! If you have any questions, please reach out to Simply Perfect Vacations!

To book your vacation to Disney and beyond, contact your Simply Perfect Vacations agent today. Or you can request a free, no obligation quote here.

To stay up to date on Disney vacation news like this delivered straight to your email inbox, sign up for our newsletter and you'll get our mini-guide to the four Walt Disney World theme parks for FREE - helping you kick-start the planning for your 2021 Walt Disney World vacation!

---