So before I catch you up on our upcoming adventure, we just embarked on a mini-adventure at Disney World. We finally got to ride on Rise of the Resistance, the newest ride of Galaxy’s Edge. This isn’t just a “wait it out” kind of ride. There’s serious planning and a very early morning to be had if you want to be part of the infamous resistance.

It goes a little something like this…

4 am Thursday morning – Time to wake up and head to the park. It’s clearly a no-makeup kind of day. Hoodie and yoga pants, and of course, a cup of coffee, is all I need to ready myself for the day.

4:50 am – Leave the rig and make the drive to Hollywood Studios. Man, it was dark outside. Typically these days, we’re lucky if we roll out of the rack by 11 am, so this kind of dark was all new!

5:10 am – Shit! We totally just cleaned out our wallets and realized we didn’t have our parking pass. I am so not paying the $25 for parking. Dad turned it around and headed back for the house.

5:30 am – Ok, whew! We’re back to where we were. Disney, here we come!

6:00 am – Parked and making the cold, brisk walk to security. We’re magic banded up, no bags, so it should go fast!

6:10 am – Wow! There’s a shit ton of people here. I see now why they say the virtual cue boarding passes complete distribution in minutes. However, I feel pretty confident. We’re standing just shy of the ticketing kiosks so it won’t take too long to get through the gate.

6:29 am – Sweet! They’re letting people through the gates. Basically, you need to be on the other side of the turnstiles by the time the park opens with phone in hand and ready to access the Disney My Experience app and “Join Boarding Group”.

6:40 am – Ok, we’ve made it through, hit the bathroom, and are making our way down Hollywood Blvd.

If you want to hit Galaxy’s Edge first thing, follow this sign. Do not try and shortcut your way to the land. They have many areas blocked off until after the park opens. And see, I told you it was dark!

6:40 am – We’ve made it to the Disney Vacation Club kiosk near the entrance of Toy Story Land. We’ve decided to hit Slinky Dog because we just can’t seem to get a fast pass or hit it at the right time, and we’ve gotta wait somewhere!

6:55 am – We’ve got two phones logged into our My Disney Experience app and are refreshing the “Join Boarding Group” page.

6:59 am – Everything goes silent. Seriously the crowd just kind of zones in on their phones, and the energy is tense. We’re all trying to do the same thing, and chances are many of us will be left without a boarding pass. What a bunch of weirdos we must look like! Ha! But so fun 🙂

7:01 am – Dad’s in! He’s got our passes. Now cheers of satisfaction can be heard all around! The app is easy. Just keep refreshing the Boarding group page, and once you’re live, the app should recognize who in your party has scanned into the park. Select all, accept the boarding pass, and you’re done!

7:04 am – All the “guaranteed” boarding passes have been distributed, and back up groups are still being issued.

7:10 am – That’s it, folks! Distribution has concluded for the day. I still can’t believe it really did happen that fast, and we are supposed to be here on a slow day if those even exist anymore!

8:30 am – Our boarding group has been called, and we now have 1 hour to make it to the entrance. By this time, we had already hit Slinky Dog, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. After a quick coffee cart stop and a Mickey Pretzel, we made it to the entrance, so exciting!

9:00 am – The rides down! Ha! This happens a lot! It’s cool though, we’ve got a fast pass for Star Tours. And now that they’ve called our boarding pass, and the ride was down, we have all day to use our pass, pretty nice perk!

After Star Tours and a quick check-in with guest relations, we headed for Galaxy’s Edge again. The ride was still down, but we wanted to scoop up one of these baby’s…

After purchasing our under $3 souvenir, we opted to stay in the area. It seemed like people were starting to gather by the entrance of Rise of the Resistance, so we wanted to be nearby in hopes that the ride was opening soon. Sure enough by the time we get to Smuggler’s Run, single rider line, of course, because it only takes like 20 minutes to get through, Rise of the Resistance was back open. Whoo hoo!

9:40 am – Not wanting to risk the ride going down again, we hopped out of line for Millenium Falcon Smuggler’s Run and raced to the entrance of Rise of the Resistance.

9:50 am – We’re in line, and things are moving pretty quickly. Within less than 15 minutes, we are in front of a cast member inquiring about party size. We are then ushered into a room with a small group and ready to fight for the Resistance.

BB8 and Rey help get us prepared

And then, to our surprise, we get escorted outside to a transport ship. This starts our journey of “oh wow” moments that continue for the remainder of the experience

Once onboard, you’re asked to hold on tight. The tram reminded me of an airport shuttle but a lot more exciting.

Unfortunately for us, we were busted by the First Order…Time to get boarded

And then taken into the most awe-inspiring room of the entire ride

Now it’s time for an interrogation but don’t worry the good guys are there to help you out of your jam

And from there, it’s just one amazing room after another.

The trackless cars are incredibly smooth and sophisticated. There’s a great little drop, and it wouldn’t be Star Wars without an AT-AT encounter

Just amazing! All in all, I think the whole experience takes about 20 minutes. Disney has truly out done themselves. I can’t possibly capture all of the awesomeness this ride has to offer. But we sure are glad we got to be a part of it! Way to go, Disney, you sure know how to keep our hard-earned paper dollars!

Up next a trip across the pond!!!