Galaxy's Edge: History, Current State, and Future

[D.Silentu]

Conversely, my enjoyment of RSR has decreased a bit. Don't get me wrong; the facade is literally jaw-dropping -- walking into Cars Land from San Fransokyo is the most awe-inspiring thing in DCA, IMO. I really appreciate the crowd-pleasing nature of the attraction; it's 100% the perfect addition to fix DCA 1.0's issues, and guests love it. But the ride's story lacks peril and is kind of one-note. I enjoy it for what it is, but it lacks the sophistication of Rise.

Off topic, but this is a rare opportunity for me to express a criticism of RSR. You enter through Cars Land, an immaculate recreation of Radiator Springs and the first immersive land built after the Wizarding World popularized them. Then you hop on the attraction and you're taken to a ride-scaled version of where you just came from! I've always thought this was an odd choice and wondered why the ride isn't set elsewhere.

 

[mickEblu]

Rise met my sky-high expectations on my very first ride, and my appreciation has only grown over time. I notice new details on every ride, in terms of the music, projections, lighting, storytelling cohesiveness, pacing, etc. I realize this is contrary to the experience of a lot of Disney parks fans, who have criticized the ride for having 1 major AA/effect in each scene and nothing else to look at. This is, to some extent, a valid critique (and true of lots of modern WDI rides); personally, however, I'm just in awe of how well the ride tells its story, and when I ride I really appreciate all the subtleties that make that storytelling possible.

Conversely, my enjoyment of RSR has decreased a bit. Don't get me wrong; the facade is literally jaw-dropping -- walking into Cars Land from San Fransokyo is the most awe-inspiring thing in DCA, IMO. I really appreciate the crowd-pleasing nature of the attraction; it's 100% the perfect addition to fix DCA 1.0's issues, and guests love it. But the ride's story lacks peril and is kind of one-note. I enjoy it for what it is, but it lacks the sophistication of Rise.

Rise is also just totally my type of ride. I've been an Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man admirer since 1999, and Rise is very much a spiritual successor to that attraction. I also just love the "experience" types of rides that take guests on a journey via particularly elaborate preshows, like Haunted Mansion or Gringotts.



I hear you. For me, this is the potential (and lost opportunity) of a 14-acre "Star Wars Land;" it should transport guests to a wide variety of Star Wars environments. Instead we only got 2 (the forest and Batuu), and neither even exists in any SW film. Where is Hoth? Cloud City? Endor? I don't hold this against Rise; I love the idea of sneaking around a Star Destroyer. I hold it against Galaxy's Edge overall.

Yeah I get what you’re saying on the RSR ride experience. If we’re comparing ride experience to ride experience than yeah ROTR wins. It’s just hard for me to throw out the aesthetics of the Cadillac mountain range and not bake it into my opinion. It would probably be harder for me to pick if the thrill portion of RSR was more thrilling but as it stands the thrill segment is a bit of a tease and the dark ride segment I have lower than POTC, Mansion, Indy and ROTR. RSR is a combo of a lot of things that are done very well but I’m not sure it excels at one particular thing outside the aesthetics of the facade. In other words you kind of have the best of RSR when you’re eating your meal at Flo’s looking at the beautiful facade and watching the cars zoom by. In that way, as an attraction and what it does for the park and land it resides in its the better attraction but as for the ride experience yes - ROTR wins.

 

[Architectural Guinea Pig]

There are already 2 brake buttons lol

People just don't hit them in time even though they are lighting up. It's assigned to the left pilot

lol if you get really unlucky with your flight group and the couple handling the pilot seats don’t touch the panel at all, it’s an extremely bumpy experience.

RotR never fails to impress even after watching all the behind the scenes of the video. There’s something so magical when I take a new group of friends to Disneyland and see their jaws drop when go out the way we came in the transport ship to the most beautiful queue scene ever (now defeated by Potter ministry). RsR really did get hyped up because it was the one attraction to bump up DCA’s overall quality. RoTR fought against the high expectations of god tier attractions in the castle park, and could really only equal them.

 

[Misted Compass]

to the most beautiful queue scene ever (now defeated by Potter ministry)

Defeated on scale but I think Rise still leads into it better with using the same doors you came through, especially with fake ones on the other side. Ministry from videos just seems like a hallway with smoke effects at either end.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Off topic, but this is a rare opportunity for me to express a criticism of RSR. You enter through Cars Land, an immaculate recreation of Radiator Springs and the first immersive land built after the Wizarding World popularized them. Then you hop on the attraction and you're taken to a ride-scaled version of where you just came from! I've always thought this was an odd choice and wondered why the ride isn't set elsewhere.

RSR is a great attraction, but the ride-scaled indoor Radiator Springs is definitely its low point. I'm trying to think of what else they could've done. The storyline is pretty simple; kind of seems like a quick drive through the town is unavoidable.

Maybe this scene is where they could've introduced some peril or stakes or something; anything to differentiate this Radiator Springs from the amazing, fully-realized one we walked through on the way to the attraction.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Yeah I get what you’re saying on the RSR ride experience. If we’re comparing ride experience to ride experience than yeah ROTR wins. It’s just hard for me to throw out the aesthetics of the Cadillac mountain range and not bake it into my opinion. It would probably be harder for me to pick if the thrill portion of RSR was more thrilling but as it stands the thrill segment is a bit of a tease and the dark ride segment I have lower than POTC, Mansion, Indy and ROTR. RSR is a combo of a lot of things that are done very well but I’m not sure it excels at one particular thing outside the aesthetics of the facade.

They're tough to compare. In my initial post I wrote that Rise is "lightyears ahead" of Tiana, Webslingers, and even RSR -- but I shouldn't have phrased it like that, I wildly misspoke. IMO Rise is even better than RSR, but not lightyears ahead by any means. I just happen to prefer Rise; I think it's more sophisticated. For a typical visitor to the Disneyland Resort, Rise and RSR are probably the best attractions at their respective parks.

I agree that the racing is a bit of a tease for any legitimate thrill-seeker. That said, we could say the same thing about the "drop" on Rise.

In other words you kind of have the best of RSR when you’re eating your meal at Flo’s looking at the beautiful facade and watching the cars zoom by. In that way, as an attraction and what it does for the park and land it resides in its the better attraction but as for the ride experience yes - ROTR wins.

I agree 100% with this. The ride is very well done and I enjoy and appreciate it, and I'm glad guests love it, but the only component of RSR that (to this day) leaves me in awe is the exterior.

 

[D.Silentu]

RSR is a great attraction, but the ride-scaled indoor Radiator Springs is definitely its low point. I'm trying to think of what else they could've done. The storyline is pretty simple; kind of seems like a quick drive through the town is unavoidable.

For what it's worth, I'm not convinced the pit stop and painting scenes had to be to be in town. It would have been fine if they were set as a part of whatever racing facility we are supposed to be at.