News Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening day reports - Disney's Hollywood Studios

wdisney9000

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
MrHappy said:
Book a trip to ride one attraction. Or book the same trip to ride two attractions? Pretty simple.
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While it's true there are some people who are waiting, I just don't think there's that many people waiting to make any significant increase in attendance come December.

And even then, it's a one and done trip for most of those people. As good as RoTR might be, I don't see those same people booking multiple trips after riding it. If they were that hardcore of a WDW fan they wouldn't have had any issue visiting prior to it opening. Or if they were a hardcore Star Wars fan, same thing.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
I did my first visit to the land last week. I will start by saying I have been a huge Star Wars fan since I saw A New Hope in the theaters in 1977 at the age of 9. I even built a screen accurate R2-D2 recently. Here are my thoughts...


Smugglers Run… First, I will say the Falcon sitting out front was one of the highlights of the land for me. As a Star Wars fan, it was a little surreal to see it in person. I am glad they provided a nice spot to get pictures with the Falcon in the background. The queue was also well done, with a lot of details to look at. I also like the banter over the PA. I liked the use of Hondo as the host of the ride, despite the fact that he will be unfamiliar to people who haven't seen Clone Wars or Rebels. He adds a nice dose of humor to the ride. We rode the ride twice, once as engineers and the second time as pilots. I found the ride to be a lot of fun, no matter how good or bad the crew was. My big complaint with the engineer position is that your attention is constantly switching between the screen and the controls to your side. I assume they built it this way to better replicate the design of the Falcon cockpit, but I think it might have been better if those controls were placed in front of you. The pilot position was a much superior ride experience. You get a better view of the screen, your attention isn’t as divided and you have a more tangible impact on the ride experience. As a Star Wars fan, being able to pull the hyperspace level put me in geek heaven!


Oga’s Cantina…. Even though this was not a recreation of the Mos-Eisley cantina from a New Hope, I still get a little bit a chill walking into, it felt like I was walking into a cantina in the Star Wars world. I like the intimate nature of it and didn’t mind having to share a standup table with other guests. Like other parts of the land there was a lot of detail to look at, and DJ RX was fun. Service was good considering how busy it was. I got he Blue Bantha. I liked the blue milk, but it’s definitely not something I would have to get on every trip, whereas I have to get Butter Bear every time I visit the Harry Potter lands. The cookie that came with it was good, although a little dry. My wide got the Black Spire Brew and enjoyed it.

Shops…. Again, the detail in the shops was impressive, but despite being a Star Wars fan I was not compelled to buy anything. We actually missed Doc-Ondar’s the first time in the land, we had to search for it the second time we were there.

The Land In General… Despite my positive review above, I found the land to be overall lacking. The market place area is nicely detailed, but I found other parts of the land to be a little lifeless. The land did look great a night, especially standing in the are around the Falcon. The whimsy that Disney is so good at, and is well represented in Smugglers Run and Oga’s is missing from the rest of the land. It was cool have Kylo Ren and the Storm Troopers walking around, but them menacing guests gets old pretty quickly, although the encounter in the picture below was amusing. Despite being a big Star Wars fan I just wasn’t compelled to hang around in the land for that long.

I am not sure what could be done to make it better. I am a much bigger fan of Star Wars then Harry Potter, but I did not enjoy the overall atmosphere of GE as much as the Harry Potter lands.

413118
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
I did my first visit to the land last week. I will start by saying I have been a huge Star Wars fan since I saw A New Hope in the theaters in 1977 at the age of 9. I even built a screen accurate R2-D2 recently. Here are my thoughts...


Smugglers Run… First, I will say the Falcon sitting out front was one of the highlights of the land for me. As a Star Wars fan, it was a little surreal to see it in person. I am glad they provided a nice spot to get pictures with the Falcon in the background. The queue was also well done, with a lot of details to look at. I also like the banter over the PA. I liked the use of Hondo as the host of the ride, despite the fact that he will be unfamiliar to people who haven't seen Clone Wars or Rebels. He adds a nice dose of humor to the ride. We rode the ride twice, once as engineers and the second time as pilots. I found the ride to be a lot of fun, no matter how good or bad the crew was. My big complaint with the engineer position is that your attention is constantly switching between the screen and the controls to your side. I assume they built it this way to better replicate the design of the Falcon cockpit, but I think it might have been better if those controls were placed in front of you. The pilot position was a much superior ride experience. You get a better view of the screen, your attention isn’t as divided and you have a more tangible impact on the ride experience. As a Star Wars fan, being able to pull the hyperspace level put me in geek heaven!


Oga’s Cantina…. Even though this was not a recreation of the Mos-Eisley cantina from a New Hope, I still get a little bit a chill walking into, it felt like I was walking into a cantina in the Star Wars world. I like the intimate nature of it and didn’t mind having to share a standup table with other guests. Like other parts of the land there was a lot of detail to look at, and DJ RX was fun. Service was good considering how busy it was. I got he Blue Bantha. I liked the blue milk, but it’s definitely not something I would have to get on every trip, whereas I have to get Butter Bear every time I visit the Harry Potter lands. The cookie that came with it was good, although a little dry. My wide got the Black Spire Brew and enjoyed it.

Shops…. Again, the detail in the shops was impressive, but despite being a Star Wars fan I was not compelled to buy anything. We actually missed Doc-Ondar’s the first time in the land, we had to search for it the second time we were there.

The Land In General… Despite my positive review above, I found the land to be overall lacking. The market place area is nicely detailed, but I found other parts of the land to be a little lifeless. The land did look great a night, especially standing in the are around the Falcon. The whimsy that Disney is so good at, and is well represented in Smugglers Run and Oga’s is missing from the rest of the land. It was cool have Kylo Ren and the Storm Troopers walking around, but them menacing guests gets old pretty quickly, although the encounter in the picture below was amusing. Despite being a big Star Wars fan I just wasn’t compelled to hang around in the land for that long.

I am not sure what could be done to make it better. I am a much bigger fan of Star Wars then Harry Potter, but I did not enjoy the overall atmosphere of GE as much as the Harry Potter lands.

View attachment 413118
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This is what I like to see! You can critique the land without the knee-jerk hisses and boos, "it's garbage!", like so many on here are doing.
 
S

Steph15251

Well-Known Member
ChrisFL said:
I will say that nothing is wrong with this land that can't be fixed with some relatively minor changes. The "bones" are fine, they just need to make some changes to the rest....oh and add MUSIC!!
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For me no music is not that big a deal for me,now I feel the land needs more to do.At least the land has background noises
 
bubbles1812

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
KikoKea said:
How have the EEMHs at HS been? Very crowded? How are the lines, generally? We're hoping to ride RNR at least a couple of times, along with ToT and ST. If SDD is 30 min or so, we'll ride it. We'll also wander over to SWL- I'd like to see if my impression of it changes, now that it is open.
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I was there this weekend and did EMH at DHS on both Saturday and Sunday. Was there at 520 am (they let you in, I think, must be starting at 5-515 to go stand before the theater) both days. Sunday was more crowded than Saturday. Each day, I’d say there were perhaps around 500-600 people for the 6 am rope drop. And then it’d steadily fill up through the EMH hours as less early riser resort guests came in.

Saturday, I rode Millennium Falcon twice in a row and then went to Slinky and it was only a 20 minute wait. That was probably around 7 am. Everything else was 5 minutes across the park. I went on Toy Story Mania twice and then left for MK.

Sunday, I suspect that it was busier because a bunch of new guests coming for the week had arrived. I rode the Falcon once and then went to Slinky because it was already a 30 minute wait at 630-640. I went back to Falcon after that and did it Single Rider to cut waiting time. Then I went to the rides in the rest of the park and ToT, RnR, Toy Story were all in the 15 minute ballpark and wait times rose faster than the previous day. I was there through 1130 am and did all rides with no problems, a few twice.

It obviously really picks up once non resort guests are allowed in.

All in all, I found the pain of getting up at 4 am for the 6 am opening to be well worth it ride wise. I’d do it again easily.

(On a side note, I generally liked SWGE. I’m on the side that was surprised at how large it was. I did not build a light saber. I did not build a droid. I thought it was still fun to explore and enjoyed the ambient noises. It made the immersiveness more real to me. I had a decent breakfast at Docking Bay 7.

MF: SR, I found to be a lot of fun, even with being engineer 3/4 times I rode. I didn’t want to be pilot - I’m no good at that stuff and so didn’t want the pressure - and the groups I was with were fun with some more skilled than others. My teams made Hot Shot twice, Marauder once, and then oh the last group, so bad but so funny... we were Scoundrels, haha. The lack of talent didn’t wreck my fun at all. I enjoyed the ride a lot.

The Cantina was absolutely hopping when I went in for my 930 am reservation on Sunday. The bartender for my section really brought the enthusiasm and it was fun to talk to other park guests. I rarely drink alcohol (I react to it/get hives from it) and so enjoyed the non alcoholic drinks. Overpriced? Sure. But still tasty.

I’m looking forward to experiencing it again in December and seeing ROTR in all its glory, as well as doing Falcon again. The land felt very mildly incomplete but overall, I was quite pleased.)
 
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J

Jobacca

Active Member
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
MrHappy said:
Book a trip to ride one attraction. Or book the same trip to ride two attractions? Pretty simple.
Click to expand...
How far in advance does the average traveler book a trip?
Tom Morrow said:
This is what I like to see! You can critique the land without the knee-jerk hisses and boos, "it's garbage!", like so many on here are doing.
Click to expand...
Then you haven’t paid close enough attention...because a lot of people have give similar views...including the guy in my mirror.

But it’s not an endorsement of the land, still, and it leaves it more on the underwhelming side than a key new addition
 
Magenta Panther

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
You know, I don't care WHAT the franchise is - characters make all the difference. And in Disney's (Iger's) Star Wars, all of the best characters are dead. All that is left are sidekicks and lame tedious woke SJW characters and a whiny wannabe Vader. If I visited Galaxy's Edge, all I'd be thinking about is all that's been lost. I can't look at the Falcon and not remember that Han is now dead. That Luke is now dead. That Leia is now effectively dead. What's the fun in that?
 
bubbles1812

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
Magenta Panther said:
You know, I don't care WHAT the franchise is - characters make all the difference. And in Disney's (Iger's) Star Wars, all of the best characters are dead. All that is left are sidekicks and lame tedious woke SJW characters and a whiny wannabe Vader. If I visited Galaxy's Edge, all I'd be thinking about is all that's been lost. I can't look at the Falcon and not remember that Han is now dead. That Luke is now dead. That Leia is now effectively dead. What's the fun in that?
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I looked at the Millenium Falcon and thought cool! the Millenium Falcon... I then sent pics to my family and they said cool! the Millenium Falcon. And then I got excited to see an X wing and the droids here and there.

I honestly wasn’t thinking much about the characters other than being excited when two storm troopers wandered by and pointed their fingers at me. I did not ruminate on Luke, Leia, and Han. No one else seemed to be either.

Nor was I bothered it was Batuu and not a known location. Everyone just called it GE or Star Wars Land. It didn’t matter. To me, it felt like a grungy Star Wars outpost straight out of that universe, just like it was supposed to.

If you go in and can only fixate on what’s been lost, it’s a wonder to me you go to WDW at all anymore. No one has to love all new things but change is always inevitable.
 
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erasure fan1

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
Sirwalterraleigh said:
Then you haven’t paid close enough attention...because a lot of people have give similar views...including the guy in my mirror.

But it’s not an endorsement of the land, still, and it leaves it more on the underwhelming side than a key new addition
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Unfortunately that seems to be the go to responce if you bring up a flaw in the land. The majority of the criticism isn't, "it's the most terrible land, it's an amazing failure" The vast majority of issues are 100% spot on. Just like if you criticize last jedi, you're a woman hating man child.
Magenta Panther said:
You know, I don't care WHAT the franchise is - characters make all the difference. And in Disney's (Iger's) Star Wars, all of the best characters are dead. All that is left are sidekicks and lame tedious woke SJW characters and a whiny wannabe Vader. If I visited Galaxy's Edge, all I'd be thinking about is all that's been lost. I can't look at the Falcon and not remember that Han is now dead. That Luke is now dead. That Leia is now effectively dead. What's the fun in that?
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Well just remember, you are the minority now and OT fans are dying out and are not worth marketing to. Or so I've been told.:rolleyes:
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
erasure fan1 said:
Unfortunately that seems to be the go to responce if you bring up a flaw in the land. The majority of the criticism isn't, "it's the most terrible land, it's an amazing failure" The vast majority of issues are 100% spot on. Just like if you criticize last jedi, you're a woman hating man child.
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There are several posters in this thread and subforum that are going to great lengths to ensure we know that they think Galaxy's Edge is trash, a total failure, a complete missfire, etc.
 
RobWDW1971

RobWDW1971

Well-Known Member
erasure fan1 said:
Unfortunately that seems to be the go to responce if you bring up a flaw in the land. The majority of the criticism isn't, "it's the most terrible land, it's an amazing failure" The vast majority of issues are 100% spot on. Just like if you criticize last jedi, you're a woman hating man child.

Well just remember, you are the minority now and OT fans are dying out and are not worth marketing to. Or so I've been told.:rolleyes:
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Because it makes sense to spend a billion dollars to base a land on Hondo, Savi, Oga, and Dok Andar. Good luck with that, Disney.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Magenta Panther said:
You know, I don't care WHAT the franchise is - characters make all the difference. And in Disney's (Iger's) Star Wars, all of the best characters are dead. All that is left are sidekicks and lame tedious woke SJW characters and a whiny wannabe Vader. If I visited Galaxy's Edge, all I'd be thinking about is all that's been lost. I can't look at the Falcon and not remember that Han is now dead. That Luke is now dead. That Leia is now effectively dead. What's the fun in that?
Click to expand...

So, you're making the point that you'd like to have the OT characters. Noted. Good day.
 

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