On Friday, January 17th, Disneyland opened a new ride in Star Wars land called Rise of the Resistance. The ride already opened at Disney World back in December.
Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge area opened at the end of May 2019. The new land made history as the largest single-land expansion ever at Disneyland. before Rise of the Resistance, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was the only ride in Star Wars land.
The trackless ride takes guests on an immersive adventure through the Star Wars galaxy. Visitors board a shuttle, then are kidnapped by the bad guys, and escape with the help of the good guys. Guests become recruits of the Resistance and take part in a battle with the First Order. They launch into space aboard a transport shuttle only to be captured by a Star Destroyer and pursued by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.
Fans starting lining up outside the park at midnight to get the best chance to experience the new ride. The only way to get on the ride is to sign up for a boarding group on the Disneyland app. Boarding groups numbers ranged from 1 to 160, but guests assigned a number higher than 81 were put on standby or backup status.
On the 17th all of the boarding groups were taken within three minutes of the park opening so only those were assigned boarding groups within those three minutes got to go on the ride on opening day. People were extremely frustrated that the only way to get on the ride was from being assigned a group through the app. Even if you get to the park early there is no guarantee that you will get to go on Rise of the Resistance.
This new ride has not only drawn in a massive amount of people, but it has also broken down several times already. It is not unusual for Disneyland rides to suffer breakdowns but because the ride is so new is caused guests to be even more frustrated.