Guests hoping to join the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today have hit a roadblock, as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance has stopped operating in the middle of one of the busiest weekends of the fall season.
The My Disney Experience app currently lists the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge headliner as not operating. Data from Queue Times shows the attraction last posted a 60-minute standby wait at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time and has not run since. Disney has not confirmed the cause of the downtime, and there is no word yet on when the ride might return, though holiday crowds will be hoping for a reopening before the day is out.
The timing is far from ideal. Columbus Day weekend was already shaping up to be a heavy one, with Lightning Lane sell-outs signaling strong demand across Walt Disney World. Rise of the Resistance is typically among the first stops for Hollywood Studios guests, many of whom head straight there at rope drop or pay for a Lightning Lane Single Pass or Lightning Lane Premier Pass to guarantee a ride.
Since debuting in December 2019, nearly seven years ago, the attraction has remained one of the most sought-after experiences on property. Set during the sequel trilogy era, it combines multiple theme park technologies into a single, original Star Wars adventure.
With the park’s marquee attraction offline, pressure has shifted elsewhere. According to Queue Times, every top attraction at Hollywood Studios is sitting above an hour. That is not unusual for a Saturday on a holiday weekend, but the closure certainly is not helping.
The newly reimagined Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets and Slinky Dog Dash share the top spot at 85 minutes each, while Toy Story Mania! is posting 65 minutes. None of those three had any Lightning Lane return times remaining, leaving guests who did not book earlier with standby as their only route in.
That points to front-loaded demand, with paid and pre-booked access to the headliners used up long before the afternoon, and everyone else funneled into longer lines. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run bucked the trend with a 60-minute wait. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway also sat at 60 minutes, so low-wait options were scarce.
Rise of the Resistance has long had a reputation for inconsistent reliability, at times running for extended stretches with certain features in B-mode. A recently filed permit has also prompted questions about Disney’s plans for the ride, although nothing has been announced beyond the filing itself.
How do you handle a park day when a major attraction goes down? Share your strategy in the comments.
