The long awaited Star Wars Land officially opened late August of 2019. The addition of this new land named Galaxys Edge has brought 2 new rides to Hollywood Studios; Millennium Falcon- Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. Both of these opened without the option of Fastpass+ and the Rise of Resistance has additional steps that make getting a spot in line even more difficult. Here is my advice for getting a coveted spot on this ride.
First things first you will need admission into the park, nothing extra is needed to enjoy Galaxys Edge other than standard park admission. This can be the standard 1 park per day, park hopper or annual pass. Once you have your ticket you will need to download the My Disney Experience app and either login with your online account or create a new one. You will then need to link your park ticket and all other members of your group. If you have booked Fastpass before all this information should already be in your account. Make sure you have enabled “push notifications” on the app so you will be notified when its your turn to get in line.
Next comes the hard part which is getting a spot in the virtual queue. In order to grab a spot you will have to be inside Hollywood Studios right at park opening, which has been 8am lately. It does not matter where in the park you are at, a lot of people tend to congregate near the Galaxys Edge entrance but this is not a necessity. If you have your own wi-fi it’s best to use that instead of the parks wi-fi to get quickest response times. At a minute until opening, log into the app and look for the boarding pass virtual queue, be ready to refresh the screen right at opening. It will ask who all in the party is riding and if you are one of the lucky ones you will be assigned a boarding group. If you are given a group above 60 you are not guaranteed admission, it all depends on how quickly other groups move through.
If you are set on riding this you will need to be in the park by 8am to get your boarding pass. It does not matter if you got there at 6am or 7:59am as long as you’re physically in the park, be logged into the app and be ready. The boarding groups are gone in less than 5 minutes most mornings. If you are planning to take the resort transportation I would give your self at least an hour to the park. The buses can run slow and fill up quickly so keep this in mind. Once you have secured your boarding pass you don’t have to stay in the park. They average 10 or so boarding groups per hour, it was just under 2 hours when I got the notification that my group could get in line.