Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

The Attraction Overview

Rise of the Resistance is the largest and most complex attraction Disney has built, and it does not behave like a single ride. It is a sequence: a briefing, a launch into space, a capture by a Star Destroyer, and an escape. Disney combined several ride systems to tell it, including trackless vehicles that carry an onboard droid and move independently of one another, plus a simulator sequence that sells the fall back down to Batuu.

The moment people remember is the hangar bay — the doors open onto a wall of First Order stormtroopers, and the scale of the room does the work no screen could. The whole experience runs around fifteen minutes end to end, which is unusually long for a modern Disney attraction.

The Story

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios on 29 August 2019, but Rise of the Resistance was not ready with it. The ride opened separately on 5 December 2019, more than three months after the land around it.

Its first year was defined by the boarding-group system rather than the ride itself. Demand and downtime meant Disney never ran it as a conventional stand-by queue at opening, and the way you get on has changed repeatedly since.

Before the Clock Strikes

• Check whether it is running before you cross the park. This attraction has a long history of downtime, and it is the one ride at Hollywood Studios most likely to be temporarily paused.
• It is a long ride with several distinct sections. If someone in your party is uneasy about drops, the fall sequence near the end is short but genuine.
• The 40 inch requirement rules out a lot of younger children — check the whole party against it before you plan the day around this ride.
• There is no single best time. Access has moved between boarding groups, virtual queues and standby since 2019, so confirm the current system in the app on the morning rather than relying on an article.

Watch the ride

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — the escape, on-ride (Short) — from our YouTube channel.