News Boba Fett and Fennec Shand coming to Galaxy's Edge starting May 28th

[DrAlice]

It's about time they made these changes.

Here's what bugs me, the land was advertised for years to be this in depth interactive role play event with tons of actors and characters.

If that ended up being the case, having a timeline would make sense:

However they dropped 99% of the interactive elements but still kept the restrictions, even when they have 40 years of Star Wars characters they can't use.

Galaxy's Edge is a good lesson on what happens when you take a themepark land too seriously, but don't even commit to it.

THIS! Most visitors aren't going to lean into an RPG, and I think they realized that. That said, they should've pivoted to adding music and movement to make the land come alive. If "walk around" droids are too much, they could've done vignettes of moving droids in the "flower beds". Also, John Williams needs to be represented somewhere in the land (not just on the rides).

If they must, they can "stick to timelines" by just not having characters from different eras out at the same time. For example, maybe the mornings are reserved for classic Star Wars characters, the afternoons are for the Disney Star Wars movie characters, and the evenings are for TV/animated Star Wars characters. Visitors are not going to be annoyed that they interacted with Han Solo & Darth Vader outside and then went on RISE and saw Rey and Kylo. At least, I wouldn't

I hope the addition of the new characters is signalling a change in a positive direction.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

You would have a point if there weren’t plenty of other lands, both in DCA and in Disneyland, that also have characters roaming around. Characters are added to different lands all the time.

AC doesn’t have everything on your list, and yet you praise it, which is fine, that’s your prerogative. Your comment regarding Web Slingers is relative. How do you know that ride doesn’t make others sick? You may not get sick on it, but that doesn’t mean others don’t either. Similarly, Rise and Smugglers may make you sick, but it doesn’t mean it effect everyone else, too. They are still family rides.

Sorry? AC has everything on the list I gave that GE doesn't:

unlocked timeline - has it
all the characters with constant updates and additions - has it
multiple shows with constant updates and additions - has it
merchandise for all characters in every iteration (doesn't matter if comics, MCU, D+, AC, etc. - it's all there) - has it
epic theme music soundtrack - has it
attraction that everyone can ride (again, people here like to look down at Web Slingers but it's a fun attraction that all ages and those who suffer from motion sickness can ride and participate in - I'll never be able to go on either GE attraction but have enjoyed Web Slingers multiple times) - has it

Rise and Smugglers are not all ages family rides like Web Slingers. Both GE attractions have height restrictions.

Setting aside age and motion sickness issues - every single rider on D-Ticket Web Slingers can participate equally. Can anyone say that about D-Ticket Smugglers? Is Engineer sitting several seats back an equal experience to Pilot?

And I can't think of any other land anywhere in the parks has new characters added monthly on top of the 15-20 regular characters that appear daily? In the past five or so years, Fantasyland added Moana. Miguel and Mirabel showed up in Frontierland but I think I've seen Miguel in Fantasyland at least once or twice.. Again, over several years. There is no other land in the parks anywhere that I can think of that's a constantly updating character dream like AC. So it's nice to see GE finally taking a page from AC's playbook. They should do more.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Characters and “entertainment” are complimentary to attractions and placemaking. If attractions and placemaking are the burger and fries, characters would be the salt on the fries.

And there are many passholders/keyholders who have them ONLY for the entertainment and characters and don't go on any attractions.

Others go to pin trade and do nothing else.

Just because you go to the parks for one thing doesn't mean everyone does it the same way.

 

[mickEblu]

And there are many passholders/keyholders who have them ONLY for the entertainment and characters and don't go on any attractions.

Others go to pin trade and do nothing else.

Just because you go to the parks for one thing doesn't mean everyone does it the same way.

Here’s another way to look at it. If every land was similar to or functioned like AC, Disney would lose their @$$. The parks would not be packed for meet and greets and decent shooter rides in crappy themed lands with no shade. You re in a very small minority of people.

 

[TP2000]

That leaves Fennec Shand left, and newsflash! Nobody really cares!

I'm clearly not the target audience for this, even though I still love Leia and Luke and Han and Chewie.

But I have no earthly idea who, or what, Fennec Shand is. It sounds like an herb you add to a very traditional hummus recipe. Or maybe the name of a trendy ceramic vase one would buy at West Elm.

If I were going to Disneyland for the day, meeting/greeting Fennec Shand would be at the bottom of my list. Even lower than seeing Ky'le from Tustin working at a Star Wars Land snack bar, or getting a jaunty tip 'o the hat from the third Dapper Dan on his way backstage to a break.

 

[el_super]

Here's what bugs me, the land was advertised for years to be this in depth interactive role play event with tons of actors and characters.

If that ended up being the case, having a timeline would make sense:

Having the time line was a way to give the land a place and purpose, and maybe to give it a little more thematic gravitas, in a way to make it comparable to the other lands of Disneyland.

But you're right in a way, that it doesn't make sense, because people generally don't care about theme in a theme park. Galaxy's Edge breaking it's timeline isn't any different than the changes in timeline in New Orleans Square or Main Street. Maybe the best thing they could do right now is add a Starbucks to Batuu.

 

[el_super]

Awesome, but I'm waiting for the meet n greet of The Mandalorian and Grogu. I bet people will go crazy for Grogu since he's a fan favorite.

I'm pretty sure there was a reason Boba Fett and Fennec Shand were added in May. They've had plenty of time to develop the Mandalorian and Grogu, but they're still not in the parks. Even with the time lock, there were a lot more characters they could have added to Galaxy's Edge and choose not to.

 

[el_super]

Here’s another way to look at it. If every land was similar to or functioned like AC, Disney would lose their @$$. The parks would not be packed for meet and greets and decent shooter rides in crappy themed lands with no shade. You re in a very small minority of people.

I don't know about that. Look at it relatively as a cost versus reward. AC is holding it's own, with much less spent. It's still getting social media buzz, and making the rounds on Instagram as new characters are introduced. They're getting about the same amount of attention between the two properties, but one of them did not cost a billion dollars.

 

[mickEblu]

I don't know about that. Look at it relatively as a cost versus reward. AC is holding it's own, with much less spent. It's still getting social media buzz, and making the rounds on Instagram as new characters are introduced. They're getting about the same amount of attention between the two properties, but one of them did not cost a billion dollars.

Right BECAUSE they have two parks full of attractions in well themed, atmospheric lands. If overnight every land resembled AC in its approach, crowds would drastically begin to go down as the majority of people would go searching for the stuff they really go to the parks for and for a much lower cost. Think Fantasyland going back to its circus roots. Getting rid of all the rides except a Frozen shooter ride and just having the land full of characters all the time. I don’t think people would find that to be worth $200 a day for a park hopper.

It’s not a good business model and nobody would use that approach when building a new theme park. They can get away with it at DLR because of the plethora of attractions it contains. Marvel Land is what it is. A land shoehorned into a tiny plot of land to get Marvel in the parks as quickly as possible. I will give them that they leveraged the best part of the IP (characters, not settings) which also happens to be budget friendly.

 

[el_super]

It’s not a good business model and nobody would use that approach when building a new theme park. They can get away with it at DLR because of the plethora of attractions it contains. Marvel Land is what it is. A land shoehorned into a tiny plot of land to get Marvel in the parks as quickly as possible. I will give them that they leveraged the best part of the IP (characters, not settings) which also happens to be budget friendly.

So you think a time-locked Galaxy's Edge is a billion dollars worth of better product than Avenger's Campus?

I think you are putting too much emphasis on attractions in this regard and ignoring cultural shifts toward more personalized experiences. The thing that draws people to Avengers Campus is the interactive elements: character meetings, entertainment offerings, food and merchandise. They can have just as strong of a draw to audiences, especially those tuned to the social media generation, as attractions do to older generations.

I personally like shaded quiet spaces, and think that Galaxy's Edge has Avenger's Campus beat in that regard, but I wouldn't try to suggest that theme parks be nothing but quiet spaces. Some people are literally just going to see their favorite IP.

 

[mickEblu]

So you think a time-locked Galaxy's Edge is a billion dollars worth of better product than Avenger's Campus?

I think you are putting too much emphasis on attractions in this regard and ignoring cultural shifts toward more personalized experiences. The thing that draws people to Avengers Campus is the interactive elements: character meetings, entertainment offerings, food and merchandise. They can have just as strong of a draw to audiences, especially those tuned to the social media generation, as attractions do to older generations.

I personally like shaded quiet spaces, and think that Galaxy's Edge has Avenger's Campus beat in that regard, but I wouldn't try to suggest that theme parks be nothing but quiet spaces. Some people are literally just going to see their favorite IP.

Some are sure. But not the majority. Anyway just agree to disagree

 

[Disney Analyst]

INSTALL THIS NOW

 

[mickEblu]

INSTALL THIS NOW

There is so much room for improvement with Galaxies Edge and it’s not even costly.

Aside from the obvious creatures, droids and characters.

Put in a waterfall in the middle of the path from ROTR to the village against the ROA wall.

Put a little greenery on the rockwork behind Falcon

Get some new missions on Smugglers Run

And get some John Williams music in there but not blasting the main theme over and over like AC. Little instrumentals and variations depending where you are like a score.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Rise is incredible, and Smuggler's Run is a very good secondary attraction. The two headliners in Avengers Campus can't hold up to these.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Here’s another way to look at it. If every land was similar to or functioned like AC, Disney would lose their @$$. The parks would not be packed for meet and greets and decent shooter rides in crappy themed lands with no shade. You re in a very small minority of people.

I certainly agree that character/entertainment fandom alone doesn't sustain the parks.

But "meet and greets and decent shooter rides" still add to the parks overall just as much as Mr. Lincoln's animatronic or seeing a live horse on Main Street or Flag Retreat or a CM wearing a lanyard to pin trade do. Not everything has to be an E-Ticket to be valuable experiences for people. I (and many others I know and see regularly at the parks) go for what some might skip entirely. Which is great for us as there is never a 70-minute line to hear the Dapper Dans sing (and we are as a result not clogging up the ride lines since we skip those entirely ourselves). Though I've certainly waited that long for special character meets and hours in advance for shows I love.

And I equally agree the landscaping/shade situation desperately needs help at AC - and throughout DCA overall.

ETA: but back onto the original subject of adding the characters into GE - in a park that from its very beginnings mixed pigs with pirates and pixies and princesses who marched throughout the park in their parades... refusing to allow the characters that people want to see into an area because they might not be in the correct timeline with each other is IMO ridiculous.

If they refused to allow characters in other areas to interact, there wouldn't be adorable moments like this one I stumbled on last week:



I have tons of videos like that one. The Evil Queen berating Gaston. Captain America talking to America Chavez. Things that wouldn't happen in a movie but CAN magically happen at a Disney park. It's what they've always done. And it works.

 

[TP2000]

INSTALL THIS NOW

Just more proof, as if we needed it, that technology in the 2020's can certainly do incredible things that could be used in Disney's Billion dollar Star Wars Land to impress and entertain customers paying $150 to get in.

But instead... Bob Chapek tried to tell us that every snack bar employee pouring Cokes for $15 an hour had a "backstory" that would be the same as seeing a living Bantha or a Stormtrooper stunt show.

Honestly, how much longer can Bob Chapek hang on? And how much longer can the Bob Chapek apologists pretend that the current operation of Star Wars Land is any good?

 

[Sharon&Susan]

I doubt they could do it now without seriously re-configuring everything, but a walkthrough would be a really nice addition to the marketplace side. Especially if it was on the second floor of these buildings and made use of that bridge that wasmeant to be used for stunt shows.

 

[Mickey's Pal]

Time to dump the stupid time line that never should have been there. Let Book of Boba version of Mr. Fett walk around with Kylo, let Darth Vader and Luke walk around next to Rey. Put some music in the land and change Rise to a OT LAYOVER and the people will come in droves.

 

[Phroobar]

It's only a matter of time...

View attachment 641989

They would make a great spinner or coaster.

 

[Purduevian]

Time to dump the stupid time line that never should have been there. Let Book of Boba version of Mr. Fett walk around with Kylo, let Darth Vader and Luke walk around next to Rey. Put some music in the land and change Rise to a OT LAYOVER and the people will come in droves.

I agree dump the timeline, but there is no reason to waste money on an OT overlay of Rise. The ride is great as is. Instead use that money to build a full table service Mos Eisley Cantina behind Oga's.