Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — Attraction in Anaheim

ROOMBA WITH A VIEW – Jan. 23-26, 2020. As someone who saw the original movies when they premiered, and was frankly underwhelmed by the 90s prequels, and indifferent about the latest, derivative, pandering origin stories, I still found myself caught up in all the excitement of the new Galaxy’s Edge land and all it promised to offer. Sadly, what I discovered was a fantastically-executed environment that looks great through a photo lens, but is ultimately soulless. The Rise of the Resistance ride is no different. We were lucky to get an early boarding group on our first try (the moment just before, and the eerie collective crowd cheer after nabbing a boarding number, is the strangest, most exhilarating public spectacle I have ever experienced). We duly arrived at the ride entrance, had our passes scanned and wound our way along the surprisingly underwhelming walk-up through the carved out “rebel base”. Once you reach the rebel base interior, you get shuffled into the debriefing room where BB8 (the harpo-marx of robots) bleeps and whistles until a very cool, but wooden, holograph of Rey thanks you for your support, instructing us to get on a shuttle to another planet where we can be most “useful” to the resistance. We are escorted outside to the shuttle docking area, board the shuttle and take off into space - still standing. Fairly effective for giving the sense of moving/flying, but still had me thinking “the good stuff hasn’t started yet”. Once "in space" the shuttle comes under attack, and with a clichéd “I have a bad feeling about this” from the animatronic shuttle commander, we are tractor-beamed aboard a Star Destroyer. This is where you think things are going to be really amazing, because the set pieces are so well done. Visuals throughout the “ride experience” are dazzling but somehow feel sterile at the same time. Unfortunately, you’re just ushered into another waiting area where you are mildly harassed by the “guards” before being put into a “holding cell”. Oh dear, what will we ever do? Thankfully a doorway is cut open, and everyone is hustled onto what I can only describe as an over-sized roomba. We're then “knocked around the furniture” and jostled from set piece to set piece while streaking past animated “picture windows” of space, only to find yourself just flying back down to where you started. It SEEMS impressive, and there are some impressive visuals, but there’s no compelling story line, no reason to be there, nothing recognizable from the movies (apart from the petulant Kylo Ren). Call me nostalgic but where’s Luke, Han, Leia, Obi-wan, Darth Vader, the Death Star, or even a garbage compacter creature?? I didn’t want to be disappointed, and immediately felt guilty not sharing the exuberance of all the other guests. I was lucky to get on it again 2 more times, but my conclusion was the same. The whole "land" and all its beautifully rendered glory is actually a narrow view of the Star Wars universe, with no sense if its history. It bothered me to the point that I spent the rest of the day rationalizing my feelings: "the build-up was too much"; "my expectations were too high" etc. Ultimately I came to the realization that Galaxy’s Edge and RotR is “not my Star Wars” - it's been made for people who think it all started in 2015. Disneyland has some incredible experiential environments to wade through, Cars Land is a perfect example, Pirates of the Caribbean is the gold standard. But if you want to have a truly immersive, fun experience on a time-tested ride with surprise, excitement, thrills and even a little peril, may I suggest hopping on over to “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”. It's a classic, and there’s...

The most ambitious and fun attraction Disney has added to their collection. The key is the experience you go through to reach your final escape. There are amazing role-playing characters and a great story to follow through. The different themes and effects were amazing. There are so many little things you got to catch while progressing. As for vertigo/nausea, I had no issues but would advice at the scene where you are going into an escape pod with a screened room, to just close your eyes or focus on the black guide Droid until the complete landing. The attraction takes about 15 minutes to complete with an additional 5 minutes if prior parties were a little slow to progress. Wait times range from 5-110 minutes once your boarding number is called. To get on the ride you need to be at the park opening at least 15 minutes before official opening hours with the Disney experience application on your phone in order to grab one of the boarding passes. For example, all boarding passes on my day were completely filled in 30 seconds after 8am. Everyone around me who used the wifi had no success and only the cellular networks pulled through. They state there is no difference but was able to witness the seperate parties next to me enter the same time and get errors.There are some improvements that can be made to make the ride more immersive. The only issue they are going to face is a limited total run capacity the ride can provide for the guests at the park for the duration of it's attraction life. One part the M Falcon got right was the lack of repeat reproducibility of similar experiences. With resistance, and maybe this was their goal, is once you have done the ride it feels like the experience is half done. A great example is to make a different situation with the holding cells in the future and to add a minigame where all the parties work together to escape. Like assembling a communication relay from a panel inside and asking for the resistance to come rescue you at your exact location. And beating the time could yield different results that don't mean opening the...

Yes there is a trick to getting the boarding pass, yes it's difficult. ok before I share with you how i got the pass i just want to explain this is not so much a ride as it is an experience. the entire event inside is long and meant to fully immerse you into the "Star Wars World" that being said people that love star wars will have a great time, those who don't will should still enjoy it because its fun and if you don't you really shouldn't be at Disneyland in the first place.

Ok so here is the trick. Everyone in your group needs a smartphone for you to have the best chance. First you need to be in the park with your entire party, thats everyone that want's to go on the ride. Next everyone needs to have the Disneyland app and have an account with everyones tickets linked to one another. After this is all established and I encourage to do these last steps before arriving at the park, (work out all the bugs) when you are in the park and waiting to click the "join boarding pass with the rest of the park" DON'T OPEN YOUR APP!!!! Keep it closed. This is the trick. If you have opened the app and you are waiting for the app to refresh at the parks open hours you will never get the pass. But if you are just launching the app or just clicking the "find out more" tab in the Rise of the Resistance you will have a better shot. For instance some dude next to me was counting down the time to park open. Just 5 seconds before the hour strike I opened and launched the app. I got boarding pass 58.... he got nothing. That was my first try. Now going back to the entire family having the app. If your entire group has shared their tickets with one another they all can do the same thing. Therefore increasing your odds by each person doing this. Good Luck, and may the force...