Disney’s Hollywood Studios is one of the most crowded parks in Disney World. Do you know why that is?
One of the biggest reasons for crowds is probably due to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, where guests can immerse themselves in “space” and even ride one of the most popular rides in Disney World right now, aka Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. So what’s the BIG problem?
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a one-of-a-kind attraction that’s a must-do for Star Wars fans and non-fans alike. And right now, there are two main ways to ride Rise of the Resistance, which include waiting in a traditional standby line, or purchasing a Lightning Lane for $15 per person. But — there’s a catch, because you might not get the option you prefer.
Lightning Lane sells out FAST
In order to purchase a Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, you can stay in a Disney World hotel and reserve a Lightning Lane at 7AM, or, if you’re not staying in a Disney World hotel, you can reserve a Lightning Lane as soon as the park opens.
But there’s a BIG problem, because the Lightning Lane for Rise is selling out so fast that even Disney World hotel guests might not necessarily be able to book a Lightning Lane. This also means that if you’re not staying in a Disney World hotel, it’s often unlikely that there will be any Lightning Lane reservations left by the time the park opens.
So if you’re paying extra money to stay at a Disney World hotel and planning to get a Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane, you might be really frustrated if Lightning Lanes sell out too quickly and you end up having to wait hours in line for the ride.
You can expect a LONG Line
Speaking of wait times, you’re looking at most likely spending at least a couple of hours in the standby line for Rise of the Resistance. In fact, we’ve seen wait times for the ride as high as four hours in the past. That’s a pretty big part of your day devoted just to standing in line.
In fact, sometimes the standby line extends all the way out of Galaxy’s Edge! Unless you reserve a Lightning Lane, it’s a safe bet to encounter a multi-hour wait.
Of course, the Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance costs $15 per person, so that can also add up quickly if you have a big group. Still, the question becomes whether you can even get a Lightning Lane reservation in the first place!
It frequently goes down
Rides in Disney World break down temporarily all the time, but if you’re in the standby line when Rise of the Resistance goes down, you might be out of luck AND a good amount of time. Only if you purchase the Lightning Lane will you receive an all-day redemption pass to be used once the ride reopens.
Ultimately, guests hoping to ride Rise of the Resistance face a number of downsides no matter what choice they make. Either spend hours in line, or hope to spend $15 on a Lightning Lane. Depending on your situation, this might feel extra frustrating and filled with “what if” scenarios.
It might be worth asking how much money YOUR time is worth, and practicing in the My Disney Experience app so you can secure that Lightning Lane as quickly as possible!
May the force be with you, and keep reading AllEars for more Disney World news!
Is it WORTH staying at a Disney World hotel for the pay-per-ride perk?
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Have you ridden Rise of the Resistance yet? Tell us what you think!
Molly gave me the tool I needed to get all of my lightning lanes this sold-out week: Fiddle Faddle!
When I got on at 7 and Rise wasn’t showing up, I refreshed for about five minutes and was able to get a time. We also rope dropped it and waited for about an hour. So we got to ride it four times in two days.
Fiddle Faddle worked all day every day. At 7:15 PM, I was able to get a Mickey & Minnie RRR because I kept refreshing. People see no times available and think that means the lighting lane is sold out. Not true! FIDDLE FADDLE!! We got to Hollywood Studios at noon on 3/17, and I was able to snag TOT, RRC, Toy Story Mania, Alien Saucers, M&M RRR, and Star Tours Genie + reservations by booking every two hours and doing fiddle faddle. Love it!!
I’m so happy to hear fiddle faddling worked for you, Laura! I hope your next trip is even more amazing!
It all comes down to bad management. The Imagineers create a great ride only to have it ruined
by bad management. And, to make matters worse, they charge extra if you want to experience it.
It’s funny to remember that people used to look to Disney for their advanced management skills.
They even taught them to other corporations. Oh well…
We had a return time between 1:15 and 2:15 on Saturday Feb.12 .The ride went down at 12
and did not come back on till after 4:30. It was a first time for my seven year old granddaughter so I payed for the ride so we did not have to stay in a long line.When we saw it was back up we got in the line line and was told it was 45 minutes. We waited an hour and a half!!! We payed an extra 45.00 to ride for the three of us and will never again.
That’s a shame. It’s not like that out here at Disneyland. While the line can and does exceed a 120 minute wait, it’s more often only around an hour. And while I’m not sure if the issuance of a reentry pass depends on where you are in the line, we got one when the ride went down a few weeks ago, and we were riding “stand by.” Of course it’s not nearly as crowded as WDW either, so I imagine they are able to be a bit more guest friendly out here.
We must have been really lucky! We were there on Sunday, Jan 23 and stayed offsite. There were actually times available for ROTR when the park opened and I was able to purchase a 6pm time for our group of 8!!
We went to DHS as soon as we got off the plane on Saturday 22 January. At 8:15pm there was a 60 minute queue for ROTR so we thought that was great for a new very popular ride. We only waited 30 minutes.
Question: if part of your group is staying at a Disney resort and the other part is off property can you still make a lightening lane reservation for the whole group at 7am?
Hi Brenna! Unfortunately you can not add the members of the party that are not staying on property at 7am. You can try adding them to your lightning lane once the park opens, but it might change your return time since it would have to account for the extra people.
we were there for a week in January. We were only able to grab a LL one one day out of 8! they were literally all gone by 7:01 and we were staying on property. I think one problem is you don’t have to have a park reservation to get it… so likely a lot of people are switching their park for the day based on if they can get it or not which opens the pool to basically all guests staying in property. Which is somewhere around what 50k people ?!?
Even if you stay on Disney Property, Lighting Lane passes sell out quickly. We were at WDW just last week and passes were sold out within 3 minutes. We braved the line, over 90 minutes, and the ride itself was SPECTACULAR! Literally indescribable.
I don’t think this is so much a problem with DHS as it is emblematic of the increasing have/have not feeling of WDW on the whole. It used to be enough that if you showed up early and stayed late you could ride basically everything in one park in one day, even if you were staying off property and with just a basic ticket. Now it feels like if you want to even have a chance to do that you need to be willing to pay for Lightning Lane and in all likelihood be staying on property to rope drop the early morning hours. If you’re off property you could plan your trip around early morning hours schedule to be able to legit rope drop but not anymore. Then on top of it, staying on property and LL isn’t even necessarily enough- now if you stay at the super exclusive Star Cruiser you’re basically guaranteed a RoR (and Smuggler) as presumably priority over even someone staying at the Grand Floridian who purchased a Lightning Lane. Where does it end?
Disney has become so ridiculous, the plan “your day 3 months in advance” is absurd, have to have use a smartphone 75% of the time at Disney to vacation. Waking up at 6:45 to try to get a ride pass. Disney world was so much fun, before all this garbage. I loved the paper fastpasses, they should go back to that. My understanding is the genie plus has many issues actually working. Disney has over complicated vacations now, it’s just not fun there anymore. Miss the old Disney of Disney world.
I think the biggest part of the problem is the frequent breakdowns. It is too complicated of a ride, with too many parts – if one part doesn’t work…that could lead to a breakdown. The Imagineers tried to a home run, but only got to third base.