There’s ONE Reason Disney World’s New Hotel Perk May Be Worth It…

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance continues to be one of the most popular rides in Disney World.

Rise of the Resistance

Right now, boarding groups for the attraction have been temporarily suspended (though they are subject to potentially return). If you want to hop on Rise of the Resistance right now you can either wait in the standby line (which can be lengthy!) or you can buy an Individual Attraction Selection (pay-per-ride selection) for the ride. But, if you’ll be buying a pay-per-ride selection for it, there’s one big thing you might want to do.

Recently, Disney Genie and its related services — Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection (pay-per-ride) — debuted in Disney World. With Genie+, you pay $15 per ticket per day to select return times to skip the standby lines at a ride and instead use that ride’s Lightning Lane (a.k.a. FastPass lane).

Select attractions aren’t available through Genie+ though. For a few popular rides, you’ll have to pay individually to use that specific ride’s Lightning Lane — this is what is called Individual Attraction Selection or pay-per-ride. The price of these pay-per-ride options can vary by day, ride, and park. Guests can only purchase a maximum of 2 of these selections per day.

Lightning Lane

We’ve spent the last several days testing Genie’s services, seeing how many rides we can do, and more. One big thing we’ve been keeping an eye on is Rise of the Resistance. Rise of the Resistance is NOT included in the standard $15 Genie+. Instead, if you want to skip the standby line at Rise of the Resistance, you’ll need to get an Individual Attraction Selection (pay-per-ride selection) for the ride.

So far, the cost of this has been $15 for Rise of the Resistance. How this works is you pay $15 and select a return time to use the Lightning Lane at Rise of the Resistance (it is a 1-hour return window). When your return window is up, you’ll go to the ride and use the Lightning Lane to skip the standby lines, ride the ride, and that’s it!

©Disney

But, there’s one BIG thing you’ll need to think about when it comes to getting a pay-per-ride selection for Rise of the Resistance and that is TIME.

If you’re staying at a Disney World Resort, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels, or Shades of Green you can purchase and book your first pay-per-ride selection starting at 7AM on the morning of your visit. All other guests can purchase and book their first pay-per-ride selections once the park opens. While the delay of just a few hours might not seem like a big deal, it can be.

Rise of the Resistance

On the day of Genie+’s debut, pay-per-ride selections for Rise of the Resistance sold out as of about 9:45AM. A Cast Member indicated that they hoped more reservations would open up later in the day. That did not end up happening from what we saw, but it’s possible it could happen in the future. On the following day, pay-per-ride selections for Rise of the Resistance were sold out AGAIN by 9:50AM. On October 21st, pay-per-ride selections for Rise of the Resistance sold out by about 10:10AM.

©Disney

If you stay at a Disney World hotel (or those other select qualifying hotels), you’ll have the ability to make a Rise of the Resistance pay-per-ride selection starting at 7AM. That means, generally, you’ll have a much larger selection of return times to pick from, and the times will (generally) be earlier in the day.

If you aren’t able to book until the park opens, however, you might only have a few selections left before it quickly fills up. During some days, Disney World has released some additional, earlier spots when the park opens, but we haven’t seen that necessarily take place every day.

Rise of the Resistance

For example, one of our reporters was working to get a Rise of the Resistance pay-per-ride selection this morning right at 9AM. When they checked, the next available time was around 5:40PM. They refreshed the page to see if any earlier times would pop up, and then next available time they found then was 7:10PM. Within just a few seconds, the remaining available times between 5:40PM and 7:10PM had quickly filled up!

And, as we noted above, all times sold out by about 10:10AM, so just over an hour later.

Rise of the Resistance

What does all of this mean? Do you NEED a Disney World hotel reservation to book a pay-per-ride selection for Rise of the Resistance? Right now, not necessarily, but having one can help. If you aren’t able to book at that earlier 7AM time, you’ll be left with whatever is available once the park opens. You may only have a few afternoon return times available to you at that point. If you were planning to park hop in the afternoon or had other plans for that time, that might not work out with your schedule. Booking it earlier gives you the best chance to pick the time you want.

Rise of the Resistance Entrance

Booking it earlier also gives you a better chance at getting a time before they sell out. Right now, the pay-per-rise selections for Rise of the Resistance haven’t been selling out until about 45 minutes – 1 hour after the park opens, but that could change in the future. With the holidays coming up, and more people in the parks, we could see these Rise of the Resistance pay-per-ride times filling up a LOT sooner.

Just keep in mind that even if the pay-per-ride selections fill up, Rise of the Resistance’s standby queue will still be available. You’ll just have to wait in line to get on the ride, rather than paying to skip the wait. Even if you’re not planning to use pay-per-ride, booking a Disney World hotel could also be helpful to riding Rise of the Resistance as you could hop on the ride during Early Theme Park Entry hours.

Rise of the Resistance

UPDATE: A few months later and it’s time for an update! We’ve continued to notice this phenomenon in the mornings, with Rise of the Resistance sometimes even selling out before non-hotel guests get access to book the Individual Lightning Lane. In fact, on the morning of January 27th, it sold out in 3 minutes flat.

So like we noted above, having a resort reservation should give you a bit of an edge when booking this ride, but don’t delay! Make sure to be on the app right at 7AM and book Rise of the Resistance FIRST if it’s a must-do for you and your family. Speed is key.

The lines for the ride get really long later in the day!

We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more updates about this situation and we’ll let you know what we find. Stay tuned for more.

Would you pay to skip the lines at Rise of the Resistance? Tell us in the comments!

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