3 Tips for Getting a Boarding Group at Disney
Boarding groups have been a huge complaint about new Disney Parks attractions ever since Rise of the Resistance opened in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. While boarding groups aren’t going away anytime soon, we do have a handful of tips and tricks to help you secure your spot on the latest, greatest ride for the day of your visit!
Nova Corps Star Blaster ship that sits outside of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT at Walt Disney World Photo Credit: Jonathan Holt
Link Your Passes
Although the stresses of boarding groups are real, one of the best ways to reduce that stress for groups is by making sure that everyone’s passes are linked in the Disney World or Disneyland app. Since boarding groups go so quickly, the chances of everyone getting a similar boarding group individually is next to zero. However, if you link every account/ticket together, one person can book a boarding group for everyone at the same time. This ensures that if one of you gets a boarding group, then everyone gets a boarding group. To link tickets together, go into the Disney Parks app, tap on the menu icon on the bottom right side of the screen, tap on “tickets and passes”, hit the plus icon on the top right of the screen, and then click “link tickets and passes”. Follow the onscreen instructions from there and your family and friends tickets will be linked together!
Be Prepared Early
Now that you have your tickets prepped and ready to go, you have to actually acquire the boarding group! Groups open up at 7am sharp! Unfortunately, since there’s only limited availability, they sell out almost instantly. If you open up the group section literally two seconds after it turns 7:00am, you’ll be two seconds too late. Because of that, you’ll need to be prepared! My next tip is to be ready by 6:58am at the latest. In the morning, open up your Disney app and scroll down the home page to the boarding groups section. Go ahead and open it up and make sure that you have your party selected for the attraction you’re trying to get. After having all of your party members selected, you should see a screen that says boarding groups are not open yet, and to check back in at 7am. At the bottom of the screen there should be a reload button. If you see that screen, you’re in the correct spot! Stay there!
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run at Walt Disney World Photo Credits: Jonathan Holt
Don’t Spam Refresh
Because there’s so much competition to get a boarding group in the morning, most park-goers will give you the advice to get on the app early and just start refreshing as much as possible. DO NOT DO THAT! Since the app pings your mobile devices location, it takes a second or two for the app to reload, and a second or two is long enough to make sure that you don’t get a boarding group. So instead, my next tip is to not hit reload until the very second you see the clock switch to 7:00am. The very moment you see it switch, hit reload. The last thing you want is for your phone to freeze up or take too long to reload because you’ve put too much strain on your service from refreshing constantly. Instead, once you’re on the reload screen, be patient. Keep your eyes locked on your phone’s clock. The faster your reaction time to the clock changing is, the better. Every time I use this method I’m able to get a boarding group. However, every time I constantly refresh, I either miss out completely, or my boarding group is so far out that it boards at the end of the night or my number never gets called.
If you follow these tips, your chances for successfully getting a boarding group for you and your friends / family will be much much better! Boarding groups are a very unfortunate part of the Disney Parks experience right now, but the more you ask questions and prepare yourself, the less stressful the experience will be. Here’s hoping these tips work for you! If they did work, or you have any others to add, please leave a comment down below to help out the community! But just to be safe, let’s recap our three best tips!
How to Get a Boarding Group at Disney
Link everyone’s pass to each other’s account
Have the app open by 6:58 AM
Do NOT refresh constantly - refresh one time the very second it turns 7:00 AM
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT at Walt Disney World
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