Hollywood Studios in July: Rise of the Resistance Queue Tips

Ask any UK parent who's stood in the Hollywood Studios queue at 8:58am, phone in hand, thumb hovering over the app, and they'll tell you the same thing: Rise of the Resistance in July is a proper adrenaline sport, and the ride hasn't even started yet. It's brilliant, it's the best thing in Walt Disney World by a mile, and in peak summer it is also the single easiest thing to get wrong on your whole trip. Here's how to actually get on it without melting in the queue or crying into a Mickey pretzel.

If you're new to how Disney's virtual queues work generally, our guide to beating queues at Disney World and Universal covers the basics. This one's just about Rise, because it deserves its own conversation.

Why July Makes This Ride Extra Tricky

Rise of the Resistance doesn't use a normal standby queue for most of the day. Instead, Disney releases "boarding groups" through the My Disney Experience app, usually once at park opening and sometimes again around 1pm, and everyone with a valid park ticket for Hollywood Studios that day is fighting for the same pool of spots. In July, with UK school holidays overlapping with US summer break, that pool gets picked clean in minutes. Sometimes under sixty seconds.

The heat makes it worse in a sneaky way too. Florida afternoon thunderstorms are practically scheduled programming from June through September, and Rise has a fair bit of outdoor queue and a ride system that's sensitive to lightning. A storm rolling through at 2pm can pause boarding group calls for an hour or more, which bunches everyone up even tighter once it clears. If you're travelling in summer and haven't read up on what the weather actually does to your plans, it's worth a look at our guide to planning an Orlando holiday from the UK, because "it rained a bit" undersells it.

Getting a Boarding Group in July 2026

Here's the bit that actually matters. You need to be in the My Disney Experience app, logged in, with everyone in your party linked, before the park officially opens. Not "on your way in the car." Not "queuing at the tapstiles." Open the app, refresh it, have your finger ready.

A few things that make a real difference:

• If you're staying on-site, Early Theme Park Entry gets you inside the gates 30 minutes before official opening, which usually lines up nicely with the first boarding group release. Off-site families need to be inside the park (or very close to a strong wifi signal) by the same moment, because the release happens on the clock, not when the gates physically open for you.
• Mobile data in Hollywood Studios at rope drop is patchy at best, with thousands of people all hammering the same app at once. Wherever you can, connect to the park's free wifi rather than relying on 4G.
• Have one adult per phone doing this, and everyone hits "join" the instant boarding groups go live. It genuinely comes down to seconds.
• Don't refresh the app screen itself over and over hoping something changes. Just have it open and ready, and tap the second the button becomes live.

If you get a boarding group, brilliant, you'll get a return window later in the day via a notification. If you don't, don't panic and don't let it wreck the morning. There's a second option now too: Individual Lightning Lane, which lets you pay a bit extra (on top of your ticket) to book a set return time for Rise directly, no boarding group scramble required. It's not cheap, and availability still runs out early in peak summer, but if the app tells you groups are gone for the day, checking Individual Lightning Lane straight away is worth the thirty seconds it takes.

If You Miss Out Completely

It happens, even to families who do everything right. If boarding groups are gone and Individual Lightning Lane is sold out, here's what we'd actually do rather than sulk about it:

First, don't leave Hollywood Studios. There's a genuine chance of a second boarding group release around 1pm, and cast members near the ride entrance (in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge) will know if that's likely on any given day. Second, use the morning for Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run instead, since these tend to have shorter waits earlier in the day before the heat and the crowds properly build. Third, accept that with two parks (or more) on your trip, you might simply try again on a different visit day if your ticket allows park hopping or a return visit. It's frustrating, we know, but one missed ride shouldn't define the whole holiday.

This is exactly the sort of thing that's worth building into your day-by-day thinking before you fly, rather than figuring out on the fly with a hot, tired toddler on your hip. Our Disney World itinerary planning guide walks through how to slot the big virtual-queue rides into your park days sensibly, and if you want to see how it looks in practice, have a browse of a sample Orlando itinerary built with exactly this kind of ride in mind.

Once You're Actually in the Queue

Good news: even with a boarding group, there's still a wait once you're called, usually somewhere between 20 and 60 minutes depending on the day. The queue itself is largely indoors and wonderfully detailed (it's basically a mini-attraction before the attraction), so it's one of the more bearable summer queues weather-wise. Bring water anyway. Bring it for every queue, honestly, July in Orlando does not forgive families who skip hydration.

Ride breakdowns are common on Rise, it's a genuinely complex system, and if it goes down while you're queuing you'll usually be offered a rebooking option through the app rather than losing your place entirely. Keep the app open, keep an eye on notifications, and try not to take it personally when the droids misbehave.

If you're planning your whole Hollywood Studios day around this one ride (which, fair enough, it's worth it), our full Walt Disney World planning guide covers how it fits alongside the rest of the park, and the other three Disney parks too. And if you haven't started building your actual trip yet, you can create your own Orlando trip plan and slot all of this in properly rather than juggling screenshots and notes on your phone at 2am UK time.

It's a brilliant ride, genuinely one of the best things Disney's ever built. Just go in with your app ready, your expectations realistic, and a bottle of water in your bag, and July won't beat you.