I rode the ride on opening day of Disneyland, Jan 17th with a boarding group of 22 with two friends.
The ride is amazing. Four different ride vehicles in a total show of roughly 20 minutes. It is ambitious and I feel delivers on the cutting edge of attraction based entertainment. But there’s a lot of moving parts and working through reliability issues.
No one is waiting “hours in line” for this ride. Even on opening day, the “boarding group” system insures you’re waiting at most one hour in queue. It does mean that there isn’t a 100% certain you’ll ride if you visit. There’s no up-charge, it does not effect the FastPass system in any way.
My advice to folks: Don’t depend on riding the ride when visiting either WDW or DL. If you’re willing to be at the park before/at opening, you can push the button on your phone and have a chance. You will still have a great day visiting the park without the ride. You’ll still have a great day if you get a boarding group but don’t ride.
