Star Wars Land announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

dlr74

Well-Known Member
This may be obvious...and I probably just missed it but can anyone confirm that WDI handed over Galaxy’s Edge to park ops? Jim Hill is reporting this...so I want to verify with an insider. This is the DL ver (obviously)
Yes, it was even posted on The Hub (cast member webpage). The Falcon has already passed safety inspections and could open today if they wanted it to (won’t happen, but technically could). Disneyland Cast Members, including myself, have already ridden the Falcon
 

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
This may be obvious...and I probably just missed it but can anyone confirm that WDI handed over Galaxy’s Edge to park ops? Jim Hill is reporting this...so I want to verify with an insider. This is the DL ver (obviously)

I assume yes, it opens in a few weeks, no construction equipment on stage, CM previews of Millenium Falcon happening, can see people on the ground exploring the land in Biores new aerials.
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
Yes, it was even posted on The Hub (cast member webpage). The Falcon has already passed safety inspections and could open today if they wanted it to (won’t happen, but technically could). Disneyland Cast Members, including myself, have already ridden the Falcon

That reminds me I wanted to ask you something based on the impressions on the Disneyland forum. Have you heard/experienced about multiple different missions on the Falcon or are their one or two? Another thing did you experience the “beat up” hallway.
 

dlr74

Well-Known Member
That reminds me I wanted to ask you something based on the impressions on the Disneyland forum. Have you heard/experienced about multiple different missions on the Falcon or are their one or two? Another thing did you experience the “beat up” hallway.
Only one mission, based on what friends who work at the Falcon have told me. But the “game” can progress further and further if you are quick, work together, and do well, which is how it can be re-rideable.
And yes, the hallway was beat up in a sense. Lights flickering, static noises, etc (because I’m a terrible pilot 😜)
 

Mike S

Well-Known Member
Yes, it was even posted on The Hub (cast member webpage). The Falcon has already passed safety inspections and could open today if they wanted it to (won’t happen, but technically could). Disneyland Cast Members, including myself, have already ridden the Falcon
Is it good?
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
Only one mission, based on what friends who work at the Falcon have told me. But the “game” can progress further and further if you are quick, work together, and do well, which is how it can be re-rideable.
And yes, the hallway was beat up in a sense. Lights flickering, static noises, etc (because I’m a terrible pilot 😜)

Another question popped into my head (sorry for all the questions so many moving parts): Did you see any indication of how the experience of piloting the falcon may impact your time in the land? Also did you do anything else in the land?
 

dlr74

Well-Known Member
Another question popped into my head (sorry for all the questions so many moving parts): Did you see any indication of how the experience of piloting the falcon may impact your time in the land? Also did you do anything else in the land?
No. The ride experience opportunity was solely for the CM’s being trained at the Attraction to get experience working with real Guests. We were not able to explore any other parts of the land yet. But they are opening the entire land (except ROTR) for Cast previews from May 20-27, so more info may come then.
 

kthomas105

Well-Known Member
Same with the Tie Echelon.
I may be wrong but I think the Tie is less of a photo-op and more of a set piece where cast will interact with the guest, similar to the jedi training stage, same for the speeder garage. The X-wing is set up more in a traditional photo-op/meet and greet format. Again if someone is more "in the know" I'm happy to be wrong.
 

BlindChow

Well-Known Member
It's okay. I love John Williams, but I have to be honest that his most recent work has not really been up to golden era John Williams.

This suite is not really something I am going to whistle while cleaning out my garage, and it's not very memorable.
As a standalone piece it doesn't really stir up much imagery. I think i needs the visuals to mean something.

It doesn't have the recall of Yoda's Theme, or Luke and Leia's Theme, or The Imperial March, or the Emperor's Theme, or the Cantina song, or Duel of the Fates, or Battle of the Heroes.

That's too bad.

I so agree. John Williams' most recent work has been more...let's say, "atonal" than his work from his glory days. It's like in his maturity (in years and in musicality), he's totally moved on from what made his earlier, more thematic Star Wars music great.

Just think about something like "The Asteroid Field" from The Empire Strikes Back. He would never write something like that today, a great musical motif that's both hummable yet perfectly fits an incredible action scene. It's iconic, even though it was just a tiny fraction of music written for the original trilogy. It makes me sad to think that composer is long gone.

Frankly, they should've gotten Alexandre Desplat or Michael Giacchino to write this one...
 

ThemedScream

Active Member
No. The ride experience opportunity was solely for the CM’s being trained at the Attraction to get experience working with real Guests. We were not able to explore any other parts of the land yet. But they are opening the entire land (except ROTR) for Cast previews from May 20-27, so more info may come then.

My partner is in retail and just sent me a text asking if he should go ahead and ride now, as he's being offered, or wait for when we can ride together. Maybe they've opened it up for other CMs now?

Edit: I just re-read this lol I get what you are saying, I originally thought you meant it was just attractions CMs riding so they could get some experience.
 

drod1985

Well-Known Member
I may be wrong but I think the Tie is less of a photo-op and more of a set piece where cast will interact with the guest, similar to the jedi training stage

Right - those are different barriers, so this was my interpretation as well. It could be some sort of show.

We know cast members can enter/exit the Echelon via a walkway behind it, so it seems likely that there’s more than meets the eye regarding the Echelon and it’s stage.
 

raymusiccity

Well-Known Member
Fence around the Falcon would be a bummer. All the concept art and promo so far gave the impression that we'd be able to walk all around it. Maybe it's only there while final theming elements are being worked on?
Seems like a large scale version of them fencing off the Casey Jr. Engine in Fantasy Land Circus area. 😕
 

The_Mesh_Hatter

Well-Known Member
Tested the ride today and got one ride in each position.
Some thoughts:

—Piloting the Millenium Falcon is a must if you’re building a Star Wars Land. It should be a given. It’s like the Hogwarts Express at Uni. It’s not so much about the ride, but about the entire experience of stepping aboard the most famous vehicle from each respective franchise. The excitement is in stepping inside something the characters are actually seen riding and truly becoming a member of the world.

—The technology is seemless. You feel like you’re aboard the only captain’s room (I don’t know the correct term) on the ship, as you should be. You never really notice any merging or converging. And the ride vehicle is seemless with the rest of the ship, so it seems like you’re taking the whole ship with you. Importantly, there’s no noticible physical gap between the rest of the ship and the vehicle, so there’s no indication you “detach.” Doors thruout the queue slide open as they do in the movies. The gangway to board the Falcon has “bounce” to it like a Jetway to an airport.

—Advice to having fun: embrace the interactivity and social element. Part of the experience is trying to coordinate with your copilot if you’re flying... trying to strategize together as a team. Even piloting is not too difficult, however. It basically functions like a simple phone app; like “Temple Run”, there’s a certain path you follow and you’re just dodging obstacles. The big factor that determines the experience is the damage your ship endures, so the engineer plays a pretty important role. Funny enough, if you do bad and bang up your ship, your damaged hyper drive caused you to stop short of Batuu on the return trip and get stuck in an asteroid belt, attacked by tie fighters. In fact, the ride experience lasts longer if you do WORSE. otherwise you stall in the ship bay at the end while they count up points.

—Narrative wise, the plot is a rehash of the train scene from Solo. The main experience is a high speed chase to gun down a train to steal coaxium. This train hijacking helped sell me on the idea of Galaxy’s Edge as a sort of extension of the Wild West of Frontierland.

—Those worried about boarding the ship, when it’s parked out front, needn’t worry. Occam’s Razor applies here. In the pre show with Hondo, you see the ship land behind him on a screen (the whole room rumbles!), AND, a little flight control map shows the ship moving.

—Those worried about gum trashing the Falcon needn’t worry either. The second story looks out thru glass windows.
 
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Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
More and more friends ride the Falcon and report back on their experiences in the land. Below are just a few new things I learned.

**Once again these are not my reportings and just the opinions of fellow cast who have gotten a chance to preview**

FALCON GROUPING: Like stated before, everyone is handed a card. But now I learned the cockpit positions are upside down and cannot be seen by the CM. CMs quickly/anonymously hand out 6 at a time and you flip over your card to reveal what position you got. YOU CAN TRADE.. its just all up to your family.. you dispute and fight amongst each other. The cast is not held responsible.

GUNNER POSITION: 3 friends have all now said that the gunner position wasn't their favorite.
-One said that the buttons are placed at such a weird angle that it was difficult to watch the show and simultaneously push the correct flashing buttons
-Another said that the position was just boring and wasn't nearly as fun as the pilot position
-The last CM actually said she preferred the engineer position more than gunner bc there were more things to do. (This CM is tall and also stated that she didn't have a hard time seeing from the back)

SAVI'S WORKSHOP: So while one of my CM friends was exploring, another approached his group and asked if they wanted to build a lightsaber. They said yes and got pulled into Savi's to test the experience. The workshop was rehearsing show material and needed "guests" to participate in order to test and adjust. He said he did the entire experience and was blown away. He even got emotional throughout the experience. He said the experience really tugs at your heart and makes Star Wars fans feel like they're a part of something special. They hand built their custom lightsabers with eager grins to only have them taken after the experience. Nothing is free at Disney, folks. At the end, he said he would go back and pay $$$$ bc it was really that great.


CONCLUSION: I've received a lot of mixed reviews about falcon.. But through them all, I've concluded that your ride experience really just depends on how your group contributes... If you have great pilots and gunners, the engineer position could be boring with nothing to fix.. You could have an amazing time as an engineer if you're tall, can see the screen, and have crappy pilots that make you fix a lot of things.

I'll be back with more info if I receive any. We are getting close y'all!

More details credit to @bsah365 on the DL forums
 

solidyne

Well-Known Member
Tested the ride today and got one ride in each position.
Some thoughts:

—Piloting the Millenium Falcon is a must if you’re building a Star Wars Land. It should be a given. It’s like the Hogwarts Express at Uni. It’s not so much about the ride, but about the entire experience of stepping aboard the most famous vehicle from each respective franchise. The excitement is in stepping inside something the characters are actually seen riding and truly becoming a member of the world.

—The technology is seemless. You feel like you’re aboard the only captain’s room (I don’t know the correct term) on the ship, as you should be. You never really notice any merging or converging. And the ride vehicle is seemless with the rest of the ship, so it seems like you’re taking the whole ship with you. Importantly, there’s no noticible physical gap between the rest of the ship and the vehicle, so there’s no indication you “detach.” Doors thruout the queue slide open as they do in the movies. The gangway to board the Falcon has “bounce” to it like a Jetway to an airport.

—Advice to having fun: embrace the interactivity and social element. Part of the experience is trying to coordinate with your copilot if you’re flying... trying to strategize together as a team. Even piloting is not too difficult, however. It basically functions like a simple phone app; like “Temple Run”, there’s a certain path you follow and you’re just dodging obstacles. The big factor that determines the experience is the damage your ship endures, so the engineer plays a pretty important role. Funny enough, if you do bad and bang up your ship, your damaged hyper drive caused you to stop short of Batuu on the return trip and get stuck in an asteroid belt, attacked by tie fighters. In fact, the ride experience lasts longer if you do WORSE. otherwise you stall in the ship bay at the end while they count up points.

—Narrative wise, the plot is a rehash of the train scene from Solo. The main experience is a high speed chase to gun down a train to steal coaxium. This train hijacking helped sell me on the idea of Galaxy’s Edge as a sort of extension of the Wild West of Frontierland.

—Those worried about boarding the ship, when it’s parked out front, needn’t worry. Occam’s Razor applies here. In the pre show with Hondo, you see the ship land behind him on a screen (the whole room rumbles!), AND, a little flight control map shows the ship moving.

—Those worried about gum trashing the Falcon needn’t worry either. The second story looks out thru glass windows.
If we need advice on how to have fun, the ride is a total failure.

Edit: Thanks for the report! Not dissing you...
 

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