What could the new Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass System mean for the future of Disney Parks? It could be the first step in queues changing forever!

What is the Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass System?

In order to ride Rise of the Resistance at either park–Disneyland in California or Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida–you do not wait in the traditional line. Instead, you must have a boarding pass. How do you get a boarding pass? Well, basically you will need to request it upon your arrival at the park through the Disneyland or Disney World app; whichever park you are currently visiting.

How could that change how we queue forever?

In the past, Disney Parks have done smaller trial runs of certain things before implementing them throughout the entire park. For example, in the year 2016, Disneyland implemented just a few electronic Fastpass kiosks at certain attractions like Toy Story Mania. Only a few years later, all Fastpass distribution and return kiosks are completely electronic. Instead of handing your paper Fastpass ticket to a cast member in the queue, guests with Fastpasses or Maxpasses simply scan their tickets and walk right through. With increasing technology abilities, as well as increasing crowds and demands, it is safe to assume that Disney Parks–and all theme parks, for that matter–will change entirely within the next few years.

What Do The Boarding Groups Have To Do With It?

Let’s talk about the Disneyland Maxpass system or even the MagicBand and Fastpass + system at Walt Disney World. With each of these services, you are choosing an attraction to experience and then the system gives you a time when you can return with practically no “line.” These services are completely electronic, usually controlled and managed solely by the use of a smartphone.

Not only that, but these electronics already help plan almost your entire trip. When you have a Fastpass or Maxpass return time, you usually map out your day around that return time. You might wait to do other, shorter-line, attractions near that ride until closer to your return time. You may schedule your plans to eat or watch a show at off-times so you do not miss your chance to ride your favourite ride; which you have a Fastpass or Maxpass for.

With the new Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass System, guests are essentially doing the same thing they would if they had a Fastpass or Maxpass return time for the new attraction, but without the Fastpass/Maxpass.

What the future might look like…

Here is our hypothesis…well we actually think these Boarding Groups, as a whole, are a hypothesis that Disney is currently testing. Of course, we are only speculating this, but what if Disney Parks started doing this for all of their attractions?

Think about it. If they created a similar system where you logged onto their website or the app before your trip and gave a list of what you wanted to experience in the parks that day. Maybe they would assign you a “boarding group,” just like with RotR. Then everyone is in a different area of the park at a different time. They could have Boarding Group A getting ready to ride Space Mountain, while Group B is at Big Thunder, etc. Then they would make sure that no groups were too big and everybody had a time limit of hopping onto that ride or getting a snack, exploring, taking pictures, etc. in that area before they were supposed to move on to the next spot.

This way they could probably eliminate the need for lines and conventional queuing systems altogether. Hypothetically, they could control all of the crowds; as long as they just evenly distribute people throughout the parks. Guests will still get to do everything they want to do, just in the order that Disney tells them to do it. And of course, if Disney succeeds in doing this, all other theme parks will soon follow.

What does it mean?

Again, we are only speculating here. But if this is true, it would literally change the entire theme park experience forever. Would theme parks eventually lose their appeal? Or on the flip side, without the crowds, would this make the experience even more enjoyable? Would you be upset about losing a bit of your freedom to “wing it” or would you be excited to never wait in a long line ever again? We guess that would be why Disney is testing it first; if that is even what they are doing. It seems like only time will tell what the future will bring to Disney Parks!