I'm all for the ROTR virtual queue, BUT

[ilovetotravel1977]

My folks are going for one day in early February, likely hopping between HS and EP. They are staying at Universal's Cabana Bay, so won't be at the gates super early. Do you need to use MDE to get a boarding group? They are not very tech-savvy.
Those two issues alone make me think they won't have a chance in he!! riding ROTR.

 

[WineTraveler]

My folks are going for one day in early February, likely hopping between HS and EP. They are staying at Universal's Cabana Bay, so won't be at the gates super early. Do you need to use MDE to get a boarding group? They are not very tech-savvy.
Those two issues alone make me think they won't have a chance in he!! riding ROTR.

They won't need MDE but will need to go to the blue shirted Guest Experience people right when they walk in the park to get put in a boarding group. However, they still will probably have to get to the park early to get a boarding group, maybe not 5 AM but probably still before rope drop.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Totally agree with your post! We usually stay offsite but decided to splurge this trip and stay onsite so we'd have the advantage of EMH. Even if GE was never intended to be part of EMH, we'd at least be able to gain access prior to non-resort guests. I agree that VQ is better than stand-by all day. But now to remove the morning EMH on Sunday totally throws us for a loop. Where is the benefit of being a resort guest? I have to be there at 5 am in order to get in the VQ and my "perk" is stay late? No going back to the hotel for a nap during the day because our SDD and Oga's reservations are scattered through the day. Reservations made months ago. We arrive tonight and I'm already exhausted just trying to come up with decent game plans (which of course will likely change 3 more times with the all the unannounced changes they keep making).

I've seen several posters now stressing over SDD FP. As of now, if you're there when the park opens, SDD is practically a walk on. You could ride it 4 or 5 times in a row with minimal wait if you wanted to.

We rode every single ride at DHS in two hours.

 

[JakeAZ]

Honestly, to me these sound like criticisms of Disney’s FP+ and commit-to-what-you-want-to-ride-and-when-you-want-to-ride-it-two-months-before-you-even-step-on-the-property “perk”. It forces guests to lock down plans without basic information necessary for planning—like park hours. None of that is the fault of the VQ, but rather, an essentially mandatory planning system that precludes any kind of flexibility to respond to conditions on the ground.

This exactly. The VQ system is nice. It just doesn't play nice with anything else DW has set up (FP, ADRs)

 

[JakeAZ]

I've seen several posters now stressing over SDD FP. As of now, if you're there when the park opens, SDD is practically a walk on. You could ride it 4 or 5 times in a row with minimal wait if you wanted to.

We rode every single ride at DHS in two hours.

This sounds great, but probably not possible during the Christmas break / Spring break times. That's when I'm going and I made my peace with it being crazy crowded. But now factoring this new VQ system, it just adds stress.

Again, I don't think they made a mistake by using the VQ system, it just doesn't work with anything else.

 

[YawningDodo]

Honestly, to me these sound like criticisms of Disney’s FP+ and commit-to-what-you-want-to-ride-and-when-you-want-to-ride-it-two-months-before-you-even-step-on-the-property “perk”. It forces guests to lock down plans without basic information necessary for planning—like park hours. None of that is the fault of the VQ, but rather, an essentially mandatory planning system that precludes any kind of flexibility to respond to conditions on the ground.

Yeah, agreed. The part about this that's stressing me out isn't needing to get there at 5:00 or 6:00--it's that I have other plans spread throughout the day because I was expecting to arrive at 8:00 and play around in DHS from open to close, and now I'm second guessing the schedule I'd built for myself because I'm worried I'll run out of steam. And, too, I have "commitments" on other days since I've got dining and FP+ booked, and a couple of those are ones that would be hard to get again if I dropped them, so it's harder to shuffle days around and take a second run at it if the first day is a no-go for whatever reason, or if I want a second ride on the thing.

The big thing that's nagging at me right now is that I've got a 12:30 Oga's and 5:30 Savi's since, like I said, I was planning to commando it. Makes it hard to leave to take a nap at the resort midday or call it quits early. I suppose if I poop out I can always leave right after I make my lightsaber instead of trying to stake out a spot for fireworks? Idek. Right now I'm not changing anything since this isn't until January 25 and the opening and boarding procedures might change drastically before then anyway.

 

[Thecouch]

I hope they change it next year. I've always been a rope drop person but next year doing a run weekend with 15yo son and our plan was to sleep in on non run days and head to park later then normal and stay to close. This won't work with boarding groups even if crowd dies down a bit. They will all be gone.

 

[sethschroeder]

You have to have your kids up around 4:30/5am to get to the park before opening so you can get into a BG.

Would you rather get there at 4:30am and sit in a line for 6 hours?

 

[Thecouch]

Would you rather get there at 4:30am and sit in a line for 6 hours?

I would rather know I has selected fast pass time. If don't have that I can get up at 430am and be one first in stand bye line or if I don't want to do that I can stand in stand bye line for 6hrs

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I don't think the VQ makes it anymore stressful than without. Throughout these forums and on the web, PRIOR to knowing how WDW was going to handle it, it was common advice to be in line by 5am. People were going to be queuing up well before park open. To me it's better than having swaths of people stuck in one line all day.

IMO, the only thing making it stressful is people opting to make RotR "must do". And I say this as someone who was there at debut week. But since it was closer to the end of my vacation, I chose to sleep in (relative to everyone else). Sucks this meant I had to miss out but glad for the decision because it would have been stressful and exhausting with my other plans. In planning this 3rd trip I felt the stress of the "must-do" phenomenon. So instead had priorities but did not overemphasize their importance.

If you feel you have to get on RotR, then to me you're accepting that level of stress that in the end isn't even necessary. Yeah the stress in planning around it sucks, but that is your choice.

I would rather know I has selected fast pass time. If don't have that I can get up at 430am and be one first in stand bye line or if I don't want to do that I can stand in stand bye line for 6hrs

People standing in line for 6hours are people not freely exploring the park and potentially buying food or merch. I sacrificed my potential ride time too due to my other plans. I would recommend planning what you'll do if the VQ remains during your time

 

[sethschroeder]

I would rather know I has selected fast pass time. If don't have that I can get up at 430am and be one first in stand bye line or if I don't want to do that I can stand in stand bye line for 6hrs

And if there is no FP+ until 60+7 or +9 or +10?

I mean I saw some comments about FOP still being 60+4 and that is 2-3 years old now?

Honestly I would start my Epcot day at HS, walk in the gate, grab a boarding pass, and then go on with my day and come back. If I don't get it that day then my regular HS day I do it.

If you don't have hoppers than you need to monitor how quickly the boarding groups fill up.

 

[yulilin3]

I think most people don't understand the beauty of the VQ until they experience it.
On paper it sounds stressful. Get up early (which you would have to do so anyways as this being a brand new ride), get to the park, line up outside the tapstiles for an hour......but then once you are in, that's where the beauty of the VQ kicks in for those doing it.
No running to the ride to get in a standby line
Head to your rope drop attraction and walk right in with no line
Head to 2,3,4 more attractions with no line
Get called to ride RotR, ride and come out 20 min later having experienced one of the most technologically advanced, well planned out, story driven attractions at WDW.
And even if the ride malfunctions, you get stuck for an hour, you still would've enjoyed everything else
The whole part of planning fp and ADR around it is actually quiet easy. If you are there at rope drop you will most likely be riding in the morning, plan your fp for the afternoon and evening.
Heck you can even go back to the room or another park.

Now if this ride offered fp it would be:
wake up early to get ready (depending on timezones this can vary)
The system crashes because everyone wants to grab that one fp
You can't really move ahead of your other plans cause the system is down....losing the possible fp for other hard to get attractions
If you get your fp for RotR, great! then still having the possibility of the ride malfunctioning while you are here and losing the fp advantage
If you don't get it, then, guess what?
Wake up early
Join the queue outside of the tapstiles
Park opens and book it to the ride to get in the standby line, which will be no less than 2 hours through out the day

 

[Thecouch]

I think the problem with it at moment you only have one option and this is to get up really early. A lot people on holidays don't want to get up earlier then they do normally for work

 

[yulilin3]

I think the problem with it at moment you only have one option and this is to get up really early. A lot people on holidays don't want to get up earlier then they do normally for work

Agree with this
The decision has to be based on how much you really want to go on the attraction
And think about the time you're actually saving with the vq system

 

[Alynw]

I think the problem with it at moment you only have one option and this is to get up really early. A lot people on holidays don't want to get up earlier then they do normally for work

Agree, but even if they done things differently, u would still only have the one option and that's getting up early. If they didnt have VQ u would have people camping out at gated at 3am and then a 8hr waiting time by 7am. It doesn't matter how they do it, if u want to ride it u will have to get up early, no way around it. All u can do is go early, get ur boarding group and once u get notified if it messes up some of ur other plans, just go see a CM and they will assure u get to do everything u had scheduled. Still so much better than waiting in a line for hours upon hours.

 

[Julia Ann]

Following...We arrive Easter weekend from the UK so hoping morning jetlag for the early mornings will help for this VQ. Keeping a close eye on changes and park hours!

 

[sponica]

I just wish I knew how long the VQ would last, I have a dining window opening next month, thankfully our trip is 8 days long so I have a lot of time to play around with and we have park hoppers, so it's no big deal if we get boxed out of a boarding group.

In theory I'm all for it, I'm just dreading getting my almost 4 year old out the door that early if VQ is still operational in July.

 

[Weedy]

FYI: Not sure how tall your 4 year old is but there are height restrictions

 

[Pamela M]

My experience: This past Friday entered the park at 7:47 with a 7am announced opening - actually opened at 6:20am - We got in boarding group 104
Actual wait time was 1/2 hour - Took us about an hour from the time we enter the ride line to when we exited the ride.

 

[JakeAZ]

My experience: This past Friday entered the park at 7:47 with a 7am announced opening - actually opened at 6:20am - We got in boarding group 104
Actual wait time was 1/2 hour - Took us about an hour from the time we enter the ride line to when we exited the ride.

Thanks for the info. What time was your boarding group called?