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

[MisterPenguin]

Thur, Sep 5, 11 AM, very hot and sunny

• TTA: Temp closed
• MFSR: 55
• 7DMT: 50
• SDD / RnRC / Pan / Sommerhus / FoP / NRJ / Tink: 40
• Speed / TSM/ Princesses / Sully / SplashM: 25
• Safari / JC / FEA / DINO / Swirling: 20
• TT / SpaceM / Soarin / MV3D / MincLF / M:S / MickeyEp / Ariel / Kali / Belle / BTMR / ToT: 15
• Everything else 10 and under

 

[BoarderPhreak]

LOL... I still haven't been on NRJ.

In related news... SWGE (and greater DL in general) is a ghost town, even after blackouts ended:

 

[RobWDW1971]

.

I think Disney is really doing themselves a disservice by using fast pass and limiting capacity to keep wait time artificially high. They have now conditioned guests to expect long waits no matter when they take a trip, so when something new is set to open people are planning to stay away because even longer waits are just unfathomable and people don't want anything to do with it.

My wife and I took 2 trips a year for the past few years and we purposely eliminated them altogether due to expecting nightmare waits due to GE and Pandora. We decided to save all that misery till the 50th.

Peoples trips are now planned around when they expect a somewhat reasonable crowd level, not when it's actually most convenient for them to travel.

It's an interesting phenomenon as I'm sure Fastpass ranks high on every guest satisfaction survey, but I don't think the average guest thinks about the complexity, stress, and longer lines it causes. When you have to plan when to ride the tea cups something has gone wrong.

Also, in a perverse way planning in advance when to ride rides and seeing the scarcity of FP's for popular rides only drives home the perception the parks are crowded and you won't have a positive experience.

 

[DCLcruiser]

NRJ - I kept waiting for some sort of action and drama. It was such a slow lazy ride with no purpose.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

NRJ - I kept waiting for some sort of action and drama. It was such a slow lazy ride with no purpose.

Just one: soak up some people.

 

[DISR]

I did the passholder preview on Aug 22th, and then departed for a cruise on the 25th, so this is a bit dated. Here are my impressions:

The land is really, really well done. Theming and detail are amazing. Since they picked a desert planet, it is not as dramatic as something like Pandora, where everything is alien. The real bonus is the interactive nature of the land. Being questioned by Stormtroopers and watching them hunt rebels adds a ton to the experience.

Smugglers Run was good. Rode it 4X and never got a pilot position. The interactive nature takes away from actually watching the screen though. The queue is stellar, and it is really cool to be in the Millennium Falcon pre-ride. If lines are reasonable, folks will want to ride this numerous times because of the different experiences. I don't think I would call it an E-ticket, but it is close. It did not completely blow me out of the water like FoP did though.

Blue Milk was actually pretty good. I would have probably blown if off, but I wanted to try and experience as much as I could in the land. I would characterize it as more of a milkshake than a drink. If you want to try blue and green, you will probably want to share with a couple of folks. One was more than enough for me. I got the rum version, but couldn't discern any taste or effect from the alcohol. I'm guessing it was pretty weak.

Olga's canteen was very cool and probably has some of the hardest working cast members at WDW. They are running to keep up with the line of people who cycle in and out for drinks. You are basically paying a decent premium to see a highly themed bar though. I believe my beer inside the bar was $4-5 more than the same beverage outside. Go once for the experience.

I had the ribs at Docking Bay 7. The overall flavor was good, but they were exceedingly salty. Don't know if I got a bad batch or that is how they are being prepared. The cornbread thing included was good. I would not get the raspberry cream puff again.

Lightsaber and droid building places are going to print money for them. Even at the relatively low crowd levels of the passholder preview, they were packed and tons of people walking out had the merchandise.

I left a bit sad knowing I will not experience SWGE like that again for many years. The passholder previews are done very well, with limited crowds that allowed for full enjoyment of the land. It wouldn't have been the same elbow to elbow with thousands of other people.

All in all, this is a home run for WDW and raises the bar significantly for future lands and attractions.

 

[rocketraccoon]

At the land now. Hot but great day, not busy at all. Feels about at busy as a regular day anywhere else. 40 minutes for Falcon, single rider is short.
Thanks Dorian

 

[Janir]

Lightsaber and droid building places are going to print money for them. Even at the relatively low crowd levels of the passholder preview, they were packed and tons of people walking out had the merchandise.

I'm planning a spring trip to go see SWGE and I've never had to budget for my purchases that much before. Heck I have 5 lightsabers at home already, 1 custom, and never paid as much for any one of them. (Counting the dual bladed wedding saber as 2 light sabers not 1) I have to budget for 2 Savi's and a droid for the next trip. Yeah... they are printing money in those shops. Damn you Disney!

 

[MisterPenguin]

I left a bit sad knowing I will not experience SWGE like that again for many years.

Fly out to DL now...

 

[drod1985]

My buddy Rob and I shot and edited a vlog covering the opening day of GE at DHS + a multi-cam of the full Savi's experience. Hopefully this gives anybody who wasn't there a glimpse into the opening day vibes!

 

[YodaMan]

Smugglers was posting as low as 30 today with Slinky at 35

 

[No Name]

If the folks in charge choose to have scenes in future movies set in Batuu, they should film portions of said scenes in the actual lands.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Yet, franchise fatigue.

There's also the rights/merchandising angle:



And yet another perspective on SWGE itself:

 

[wdisney9000]

We continue to see multiple news agencies and many online bloggers/vloggers pumping out stories of the shortcomings of Galaxy's Edge on both coasts. It's almost reached a point that no matter how much certain people cling to their beliefs of SWGE being a smash hit, that it doesn't matter. The damage is being done. Bad press on numerous platforms is not good, no matter how good the land may or may not be.

IMO, it feels like Disney tried to fit a square peg into a round hole and they assumed people would just accept it because , "It'S DiSnEy"! And for the love of Vader, please don't think that I'm saying SWGE is a failure. It's a shame that anybody whose not completely wetting their pants over this land has to add that disclaimer so their words are not twisted around .

 

[mikejs78]

Smugglers was posting as low as 30 today with Slinky at 35

And FoP was as low as 20 minutes.

 

[TP2000]

We continue to see multiple news agencies and many online bloggers/vloggers pumping out stories of the shortcomings of Galaxy's Edge on both coasts. It's almost reached a point that no matter how much certain people cling to their beliefs of SWGE being a smash hit, that it doesn't matter. The damage is being done. Bad press on numerous platforms is not good, no matter how good the land may or may not be.

Even old-school legacy media like The Federalist is now in on that act.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/04/star-wars-land-proof-disney-lost-way/

Meanwhile, Disneyland is open until Midnight tonight and currently at 8:00pm Pacific time the wait time for Disneyland's Millennium Falcon is only posted at 25 minutes. That's the same wait time it was posted at in late June when I first went, and the line actually was only a 10 minute wait.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

 

[Movielover]

There's also the rights/merchandising angle:



And yet another perspective on SWGE itself:

 

[MrPromey]

After close inspection, I'm pretty sure that lazy horse is just napping.

 

[wildphantom]

Really tired of using these awful online theories that Disney have 'ruined Star Wars' etc, as a means to justify why mixed sized crowds are going to the land.
Truth be told, the land IS massive. The Smuggler's Run ride is good, not great. IF RotR is as amazing as we all think it will be - that will have Avatar sized lines and all will be right again.
If the land was the size of Hogsmeade you wouldn't be able to get in and everyone would be losing their minds.

People's expectations (maybe even disney's) were unrealistic as to how crazy busy it was going to be. But that line for RotR if it delivers is going to be loooooonnnnggg.

Regardless, as another user pointed out the other day, Disney are making bucketloads of money on spend inside the land itself.

But can we please stop drawing comparisons with how the land is doing and the online vitriol certain theorists have about the direction the saga has gone in. I (like many here) suffered through three largely embarrassing prequels from 1999-2005. The franchise managed to remain the king, even despite those, despite Jar Jar, Hayden Christensen, acting and dialogue so bad it beggared belief.

Episode 9 will arrive in December to rave reviews and do minimum $1.5 billion
The Mandalorian will catapult Disney to crazy subscriber take up with Disney+ in November
The Jedi Fallen Order game coming to consoles in the fall will be one of the biggest games of the year

Star Wars is just fine.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Really tired of using these awful online theories that Disney have 'ruined Star Wars' etc, as a means to justify why mixed sized crowds are going to the land.
Truth be told, the land IS massive. The Smuggler's Run ride is good, not great. IF RotR is as amazing as we all think it will be - that will have Avatar sized lines and all will be right again.
If the land was the size of Hogsmeade you wouldn't be able to get in and everyone would be losing their minds.

People's expectations (maybe even disney's) were unrealistic as to how crazy busy it was going to be. But that line for RotR if it delivers is going to be loooooonnnnggg.

Regardless, as another user pointed out the other day, Disney are making bucketloads of money on spend inside the land itself.

But can we please stop drawing comparisons with how the land is doing and the online vitriol certain theorists have about the direction the saga has gone in. I (like many here) suffered through three largely embarrassing prequels from 1999-2005. The franchise managed to remain the king, even despite those, despite Jar Jar, Hayden Christensen, acting and dialogue so bad it beggared belief.

Episode 9 will arrive in December to rave reviews and do minimum $1.5 billion
The Mandalorian will catapult Disney to crazy subscriber take up with Disney+ in November
The Jedi Fallen Order game coming to consoles in the fall will be one of the biggest games of the year

Star Wars is just fine.

You are trying to sell the future of Star Wars like