Non-spoiler tips on how to experience the Rise of the Resistance attraction at Disneyland and Disney World.

Location: Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, FL
More Information: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

If you haven’t ridden Rise of the Resistance yet I would encourage you to get out to Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Disney World to experience it. I would also encourage avoiding any spoilers by not reading or watching anything related to the ride (other than this article of course!). One more thing to avoid is the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge segment of the final episode of The Imagineering Story on Disney+.

Unfortunately getting on the ride can be complicated due to several factors I won’t go into here (mainly capacity, reliability, and demand). Rest assured with enough preparation you have a decent chance at riding!

Note 1: This guide will mainly focus on Disneyland but the process is more or less the same at both parks. Everything here is YMMV!

Note 2: You don’t have to be this prepared but I’m including everything I know in case it helps you out. If you skim this and think it’s insane (hint: it is) you should wait until the demand dies down and there is a more sane way of riding Rise of the Resistance (ie no more boarding groups).

Note 3: Literally tens of thousands of people have secured a boarding group without going to this level of detail. The goal here isn’t to stress anyone out but rather to inform!

Quick Overview

The official instructions from Disney for riding Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland is here and at Disney World is here.

Currently the only way to ride Rise of the Resistance at either park is to enter a virtual queue by securing a boarding group via the Disneyland App or the Disney World App.

Your whole party needs to enter the front gate before you can request a boarding group. You can secure a boarding group right when the park opens to the public for the day. If you have a boarding group you can monitor the app to see what current boarding groups are being called back to ride. If you get called you have 1-2 hours (the app will specify) to get to the ride and enter the queue.

Any time before your visit (preferably days in advance)

1. Install the Disneyland App or the Disney World App on your mobile phone.
2. Create or log into the app using your existing or newly created Disney Account.
3. Purchase (or link existing) park tickets for every person in your party in the app.
4. Log into your account on each phone for every person in your party. Alternatively if everyone already has their own login you can scan everyone’s ticket on each phone.
5. Remove any tickets already linked for anyone who won’t be with you the day you try to ride. This will avoid an extra step in the process of de-selecting those who aren’t in the park when trying to secure a boarding group.
6. Forget the wifi network if you have ever connected to the Park’s wifi in the past. Most people have had better luck with their cell phone provider’s internet.
7. Familiarize yourself with the UI to access the screens to join a boarding group. This is available even when you aren’t in the park. You won’t be able to actually join but you’ll get a feel for what’s necessary.
8. Extra credit: actually try the moment the park opens for that day to see when the “Join Boarding Group” button goes from a disabled gray color to an enabled red color.
9. Extra credit: if you have a watch make sure it’s synchronized to the second with your mobile phone’s time and/or the time you notice the “Join Boarding Group” button is enabled red in the previous step.
10. Extra credit: adjust the “Screen Timeout” (Android) or “Auto-Lock” (iOS) setting to a long time (over a minute) as you wouldn’t want to fumble with unlocking your phone when you’re waiting to press the “Join Boarding Group” button.

Day of your visit

Note: depending on how busy the park is the boarding groups ‘guaranteed’ (* not really guaranteed) to ride may be gone in less than a minute. That’s been the case at Disneyland every day since it opened on January 17, 2020. Backup boarding groups will be available after the main boarding groups are taken and groups close to the final regular (non backup) group have a decent chance of being called. I’ve heard if you have a regular boarding group and don’t get called you can ask to get a boarding group for the next day.

1. Get up bright and early. Do whatever it takes to be inside the park well before it opens to the public. The parking lots at Disneyland open up 90 minutes before the park opens to the public (usually 8 or 9am). Note you will be in several lines before you actually get into the park including the line to park, the line for security, the line for the tram, and the line to get into the park itself.

Some things you can do to make sure you get into the park in time:

• Bypass the parking line by taking a rideshare and get dropped off
• Try to arrive at the parking lot line before it officially opens (10 minutes early has worked for me) so you’ll be one of the first to park
• Don’t bring any bags if you can avoid it and look for any security lines for people without bags. If you can find one you might be able to save some time.
• At Disneyland if you park in the Mickey and Friends or Pixar Pals parking structures you can walk to the parks through Downtown Disney and avoid the additional line to get on a tram. There are two security gates when going this route (one for Downtown Disney and another nearby for Resort Hotel Guests).

2. Extra credit (if you have MaxPass at Disneyland): try to get a FastPass to make sure all of the people in your party are considered in the park already. If there’s a problem try to find a Cast Member to get this fixed.
3. After you get in and up until a few minutes before the park officially opens try to get away from as many people as you can. This might be a bit extreme and/or completely unnecessary but the thought is the more crowded an area is the more congested the cell network will be.
4. Get to a spot where you have a decent internet connection. Some people use an online speed test to figure out where they have the best connection. I’ve just relied on the number of ‘bars’ of service.
5. A few minutes before the park opens close out all of the open apps on your phone. This might help make sure no other app is doing something in the background you’re not expecting.
6. A minute or two before the park opens open the Disneyland/Disney World App and tap around to make sure you’re still logged in on all devices. Close the app as some think it helps to go into the screen with the “Join Boarding Group” button for the first time (from a cold start) after the park opens.
7. A minute before the park opens re-open the Disneyland/Disney World App.
8. Wait on the main screen and have someone do a countdown to the second the park opens. The second the park opens tap onto the “Find Out More” button to get to the screen with the “Join Boarding Group”.
9. If the “Join Boarding Group” button is red tap it and be prepared to tap through at least one or two more screens if you’re successful.
10. If the “Join Boarding Group” button is not red you have one of two options: 1) tap the “My Status” button and then the “Join a Boarding Group” button there and/or pull down from this screen to force it to refresh and repeat. 2) Go back to the main screen and tap “Find Out More” again and repeat.

If you procured a (non-backup) boarding group

Congrats you’ve done it! Things to note:

• You should get a notification when your group is ready to enter the queue
• You can monitor the current boarding groups being boarded in the app and on some digital signs in the park throughout your day.
• It may take some time after the park opens for the first boarding group to be called. At Disneyland this has taken up to a few hours on some days.
• Be prepared to still wait in a modest line (up to an hour or so at Disneyland) when your boarding group is called.
• Don’t be surprised if the ride breaks down while you’re in line.
• If you’ve actually started the experience and it breaks down you will be evacuated and your park tickets will be scanned to come back through the FastPass line bypassing the standby line. Make sure you don’t inadvertently use your “Multiple Experience FastPass” that may show up in your app as this is your pass back into the attraction.

If you got a backup boarding group

Depending on how close your boarding group is to the final non-backup boarding group your chances may be pretty good on riding!

You can see what the last regular boarding group is on the status page ie “Boarding groups 82 and above will only be called if all of the initial planned boarding groups have been called back and there is capacity for more riders.”

Usually if the park knows they won’t be getting to your boarding group they will send you a notification before the park closes.

If you didn’t get a boarding group

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Unfortunately you’ll have to come back another day to try again. Still try to enjoy your day with everything else the parks have to offer.