South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
New ride opens with a hiccup or two
Disney debuts Rise of the Resistance to the general public
Disney’s Hollywood Studios visitors pass signs saying all slots were taken for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on its opening day on Thursday.
Crowds who arrived early Thursday gave rave reviews to Disney’s latest Star Wars ride, although opening day wasn’t without some glitches as Rise of the Resistance occasionally broke down.
Late Thursday, Disney gave free park hopper tickets to some visitors who couldn’t get onto the ride by the time the park closed, according to social media reports.
Kelly Young’s smile was still stuck on her face, her eyes wide, as she left the ride at about 9 a.m.
Young, 27, knows her theme parks as a pass holder at Disney, Universal and SeaWorld.
But Rise, part of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, now claims the distinction of the best ride in Orlando, she said.
“It was insane. There was nothing like it,” said Young, who works at the University of Central Florida campus library.
Disney has billed Rise as the most sophisticated ride its ever built — a hype that drew some theme park fans to wait in line starting at around 4 a.m. on a brisk, chilly day when temperatures started below 50 degrees. Thousands were let into the land
around 6:15 a.m., almost two hours before Hollywood Studios officially opened.
To control the crowds, Disney is using an online queue system similar to how it operated the Star Wars land’s opening in August in Orlando. People could sign up to get a “boarding pass” using the My Disney Experience mobile app after they entered the park.
Before 10 a.m., the reservations for the rest of Thursday were full, according to a sign placed outside the attraction. However, even some people who did get boarding passes were turned away Thursday night. Those were the ones who said they received the complimentary tickets and FastPasses to ride Rise another day.
Some Disney employees came to work as early as 2 a.m. to handle the expected surge of guests.
Opening day is the first big test since pass holders and Disney employees weren’t allowed to preview the ride, although some members of the news media began riding Tuesday and Wednesday.
With a new ride, especially one as high-tech as this, problems are unavoidable, some experts said.
It could take Disney a few days, even a few months, to work out the bugs, said Dennis Speigel, president of the International Theme Park Services.
And the buzz and good reviews matter more than the reliability, which is fixable, said Rick Munarriz, a senior analyst for The Motley Fool. A bad ride might not be.
Universal opened its Hagrid roller coaster in June, which similarly won over fans but also has dealt with challenges, limiting its hours of operation.
“They’re just so sophisticated. It’s different than it was 25 years ago,” Speigel said.
Scott Trowbridge, the creative force behind Galaxy’s Edge, acknowledged Disney will undoubtedly make tweaks on the ride that’s taken Disney years to develop and build. The twin version of Rise of the Resistance will open at Disneyland Jan. 17.
“We’re never done thinking about ways to improve things,” said Trowbridge, the portfolio creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, adding the company has “the best operating team and the best sustainment team out there.”
On Rise, visitors travel from room to room, dodging fire from stormtroopers, darting by full-size 50 stormtroopers line up in part of the ride queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the newest addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Wednesday.
AT-AT Walkers and witnessing a battle in the stars.
“There are over 100 computer systems inside the building, all talking to each other, all working together, to make it all happen,” Trowbridge said.
50 computers run it
The ride system alone has more than 5 million lines of code and requires 50 computers to operate it, Trowbridge said.
Running without a track, the ride vehicle at one point turns into an escape pod as passengers drop for about three seconds.
Visitors will also see the latest version of animatronics that act “more like performers than machines,” Trowbridge said.
The ride is housed in a more than 160,000-square foot show building, which isn’t visible in the rest of the land. “It is one of the biggest show buildings we have ever built,” Trowbridge said.
From the exit, the Disney executive watched the public’s reaction and heard the applause midday Thursday.
Folks waiting in the virtual queue were allowed to wander throughout the park and ride other rides. Visitors in Jedi robes or BB-8-inspired mouse-ear hats found other sources of entertainment.
By midafternoon, posted wait
times at other Hollywood Studios attractions included 60 minutes for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, 95 minutes for the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster and 55 minutes for Tower of Terror.
Many gathered on the plaza outside the Rise exit. Dennis and Johnna Iler, Disney World annual passholders from Charleston, S.C., waited their turn on a rocky ledge. They had arrived at the park at 7:20 a.m. and were assigned a loading group that had yet to be called at 3:30 pm. They had paid attention to advice to arrive early.
“We didn’t know how early, though, until we got into the park and later on heard that people got here at 4 am. So we were already late,” Johnna Iler said.
“It is what it is. I feel like that’s what you do. You wait in theme parks,” she said.
Inside the ride
The plot of the ride centers around a group of Resistance fighters being captured by a Star Destroyer and having to escape.
While people waited for their turn to be taken into detention rooms, the chatter in the queue disappeared and visitors squirmed, seemingly nervous, as human First Order officers — no animatronics — barked orders.
“No one will watch your transmission,” scowled one officer to a
AT-ATs appear in full scale in one ride room during Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the newest addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Wednesday.
man recording. “You’ll never escape this ship.”
Some people audibly gasped at the big reveal of the walkers made famous in “Empire Strikes Back” even though Disney released images of the moment months ago.
“The scale was intimidating,” said Joe Young, 28, Kelly’s husband who is an IT director.
He said he felt like he was “a little kid,” stuck in a Star Wars movie.
Joining the other Disney fans was little Maci Prowell, the kind of fan who cosplays like a droid or a Jawa.
Even at age 5, she helped her father win a Star Wars trivia contest, beating out the other adults. She played with lightsabers over dolls.
She missed a day of kindergarten for only the second time this year to be among the first to ride Rise.
“We eat, sleep, breathe Star Wars,” said her father, Layton Prowell, 31, of Tampa.