So I’m going to skip over the weird, long, stressful And anxiety filled day I went through to get on ROTR and get to the good stuff. The ride. Well actually, I guess if there was ever a ride we should call attraction this would be it.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead
The queue starts off very nicely and gives me some of the things I felt that I was missing from the rest of the land. It’s here that we get our first taste of water not in a Dasani bottle. Cool little waterfall and Some different looking more tropical vegetation. Water features are great because water is real. It moves and creates a sense of place.
Wasn’t a huge fan of the caves. Pretty much what I expected but I guess it serves its purpose as being the long “grind it out” part of the queue until you get to the pre shows. I thought they were doing some pretty cool things audibly by cutting out the random background noise and bringing it back in. I can’t tell if that was the imagineers trying to get to us psychologically or if it was because the ride was about to breakdown. None of the props or scenery in the caves really did anything for me. It’s kind of like after the first cave you ve seen them all. And this Is coming from a big Disneyland cave fan (POTC, BTMRR, TSI, Indy). After breaking down in one of the smallest rooms of them all for over an hour we finally start moving again and was surprised to have go through another 4-5 cave rooms. Don’t really remember anything notable until the room with the blasters right before the first pre show. With that said I was also half delirious from being up since 5am (it was past 10:30pm at this point).
So finally get to the first pre show. BB8 was probably my second favorite AA in the whole attraction. Right after the Admiral Ackbar look alike. The Rey hologram was cool and not offensive even though her acting wasn’t the best. Not as bad as I’ve heard some make it to be though.
Really love how they take us outside only to go back inside the Resistance ship. Really nice touch that adds some nice depth to the experience. Ackbars Doppelgänger was easily my favorite AA. Actually that whole part was one of the top 2-3 highlights of the attraction for me. Possibly THE highlight. Maybe because I hadn’t seen any footage on it. It was super well done with great staging with Catfish dude piloting and Ackbar parallel to turning back and forth to the pilot. My biggest surprise from this ride.... how great the screens work for the most part, particularly the characters. I never thought I’d say this but the screens work better than the AAs on this ride.
From my biggest highlight to the biggest disappointment. We ve been seeing the hangar bay image for a couple years now and when I saw it in person I was a little underwhelmed. Those static stormtroopers really take you out of it. I know I saw a few moving their heads but this scene would be better served with 47 fewer static stormtroopers and 3 really good ones. The 2 stormtrooper AA’s work much better in the next room, pre holding cell. On another note, the First Order CMs are doing a fantastic job at playing their roles. I hope they keep it up.
The holding cell- I liked this room and thought thought Hux and Kylo look pretty great on screen. That grill in front of the screen helps a lot with this.
I thought the Resistance breaking us out of the holding cell was a bit clunky and a weak link between the better pre shows and boarding our ride vehicles. The Resistance CMs were not nearly as great as the First Order CMs. Probably because they re not as fun to play as well as doing the important job of loading us into the ride vehicles which requires safety protocols.
Just some overarching thoughts of the experience up until boarding- I found the pre shows pretty well done for the most part. I do think that they might become a little cumbersome after a few rides though. With that said they re much better than more caves.
THE RIDE: I wanted so badly to love this ride but I don’t. While I was in line I pictured just coming back on here to write a quick post ride review by just saying “WOW” but instead I got off and felt... indifferent and didn’t write anything because it was going to take a lot more words.
Full disclosure: By the time I got on the ride it was 10:55pm and I was delirious from being up since 5am and running around after my 4 year old son all day. I will say this- the imagineers nailed making you feel like you’re really on a Star Destroyer. I guess what I realized after riding is that I never really wanted to be on one. The scope/ scale and details are amazing but it’s cold and sterile. It’s just not my thing. I love things nostalgic, trees n nature, old time Americana, fantasy etc. It’s why I love Disneyland so much. This doesn’t feel like that obviously. Not a knock on the imagineers. Just not my thing. I’m convinced now that I would have loved the Speedbike Ewok coaster so much more. Everything about it would have been much more Disneyland and appealed to what I like. Trees- check. Fantasy/ Critter AA’s (Ewoks) -check. “Old fashioned” thrills/ Repeatable - check.
Anyway back on topic. The ride felt like a big budget version of GOTG in the sense that it all happened so fast it was hard to take it all in. Maybe because I was so tired? I felt like I was randomly being pulled around backwards but without ever really feeling any physical thrills which was a tease. Kind of a disconnect between the content and what our ride vehicle is doing. It’s kind of odd to be seeing some pretty crazy things visually but not feeling them physically.
I found the Kylo Ren AAs to be disappointing. They weren’t fluid, were a little too “robotic” and didn’t seem to be in sync with what was happening. Overall, every encounter we have with Ren on the ride felt awkward to me. Maybe they just were having some timing issues? That last scene with Kylo seemed to be off too. It just felt like the timing was off or something and made it awkward. Maybe it’s just too hard to convince us that an AA is being blown out of a star destroyer? Oh ya - I didn’t get the lightsaber effect in that one small room at all. I was waiting for it and nothing happened. I also found that scene where we’re behind Kylo and Hux to be awkward. Like all of a sudden we re flies on the wall and he doesn’t know we really behind him?
I feel like I might be coming off too negative right now because I really thought the sets were incredible but there was a disconnect with the actual ride experience. Overall, it just didn’t come together for me. I was hoping the drop would be a little more intense but I would just compare it to the smallest of GOTG: MB drops. The simulator part was cool though. Again- I applaud the imagineers for making me feel like I was on a Star Destroyer and for this ambitious attraction in general but I’m just not sure it works. I do want to ride again when I’m well rested. Aside from the timing issues, it felt like there was just too much stop and go like the flow was off. Full disclosure: I feel similarly about RSR. Back to the timing issues- maybe they overdid it a bit with AAs or characters having to engage us directly? That’s a tough thing to pull off convincingly especially in close range. The timing has to be perfect.
A couple other things. The Finn AA was frightening. Like House of Wax scary. The screens again I thought really worked well - even with characters (not just atmosphere). It was surprising how good those storm troopers looked overhead. Much better then those static AAs in the hangar.
I LOVE the unload area. That is exactly my cup of tea. Beautiful place making and my kind of aesthetic. So cool how the ride ends outside. The ride with Ackbar and the unload area are probably my two favorite things about the attraction... at the moment. Looking forward to riding again... someday when I don’t have to wake up at 5am. I imagine I may feel a little different and be able to take a lot more in on my second ride. Especially when I’m not dead tired.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead
The queue starts off very nicely and gives me some of the things I felt that I was missing from the rest of the land. It’s here that we get our first taste of water not in a Dasani bottle. Cool little waterfall and Some different looking more tropical vegetation. Water features are great because water is real. It moves and creates a sense of place.
Wasn’t a huge fan of the caves. Pretty much what I expected but I guess it serves its purpose as being the long “grind it out” part of the queue until you get to the pre shows. I thought they were doing some pretty cool things audibly by cutting out the random background noise and bringing it back in. I can’t tell if that was the imagineers trying to get to us psychologically or if it was because the ride was about to breakdown. None of the props or scenery in the caves really did anything for me. It’s kind of like after the first cave you ve seen them all. And this Is coming from a big Disneyland cave fan (POTC, BTMRR, TSI, Indy). After breaking down in one of the smallest rooms of them all for over an hour we finally start moving again and was surprised to have go through another 4-5 cave rooms. Don’t really remember anything notable until the room with the blasters right before the first pre show. With that said I was also half delirious from being up since 5am (it was past 10:30pm at this point).
So finally get to the first pre show. BB8 was probably my second favorite AA in the whole attraction. Right after the Admiral Ackbar look alike. The Rey hologram was cool and not offensive even though her acting wasn’t the best. Not as bad as I’ve heard some make it to be though.
Really love how they take us outside only to go back inside the Resistance ship. Really nice touch that adds some nice depth to the experience. Ackbars Doppelgänger was easily my favorite AA. Actually that whole part was one of the top 2-3 highlights of the attraction for me. Possibly THE highlight. Maybe because I hadn’t seen any footage on it. It was super well done with great staging with Catfish dude piloting and Ackbar parallel to turning back and forth to the pilot. My biggest surprise from this ride.... how great the screens work for the most part, particularly the characters. I never thought I’d say this but the screens work better than the AAs on this ride.
From my biggest highlight to the biggest disappointment. We ve been seeing the hangar bay image for a couple years now and when I saw it in person I was a little underwhelmed. Those static stormtroopers really take you out of it. I know I saw a few moving their heads but this scene would be better served with 47 fewer static stormtroopers and 3 really good ones. The 2 stormtrooper AA’s work much better in the next room, pre holding cell. On another note, the First Order CMs are doing a fantastic job at playing their roles. I hope they keep it up.
The holding cell- I liked this room and thought thought Hux and Kylo look pretty great on screen. That grill in front of the screen helps a lot with this.
I thought the Resistance breaking us out of the holding cell was a bit clunky and a weak link between the better pre shows and boarding our ride vehicles. The Resistance CMs were not nearly as great as the First Order CMs. Probably because they re not as fun to play as well as doing the important job of loading us into the ride vehicles which requires safety protocols.
Just some overarching thoughts of the experience up until boarding- I found the pre shows pretty well done for the most part. I do think that they might become a little cumbersome after a few rides though. With that said they re much better than more caves.
THE RIDE: I wanted so badly to love this ride but I don’t. While I was in line I pictured just coming back on here to write a quick post ride review by just saying “WOW” but instead I got off and felt... indifferent and didn’t write anything because it was going to take a lot more words.
Full disclosure: By the time I got on the ride it was 10:55pm and I was delirious from being up since 5am and running around after my 4 year old son all day. I will say this- the imagineers nailed making you feel like you’re really on a Star Destroyer. I guess what I realized after riding is that I never really wanted to be on one. The scope/ scale and details are amazing but it’s cold and sterile. It’s just not my thing. I love things nostalgic, trees n nature, old time Americana, fantasy etc. It’s why I love Disneyland so much. This doesn’t feel like that obviously. Not a knock on the imagineers. Just not my thing. I’m convinced now that I would have loved the Speedbike Ewok coaster so much more. Everything about it would have been much more Disneyland and appealed to what I like. Trees- check. Fantasy/ Critter AA’s (Ewoks) -check. “Old fashioned” thrills/ Repeatable - check.
Anyway back on topic. The ride felt like a big budget version of GOTG in the sense that it all happened so fast it was hard to take it all in. Maybe because I was so tired? I felt like I was randomly being pulled around backwards but without ever really feeling any physical thrills which was a tease. Kind of a disconnect between the content and what our ride vehicle is doing. It’s kind of odd to be seeing some pretty crazy things visually but not feeling them physically.
I found the Kylo Ren AAs to be disappointing. They weren’t fluid, were a little too “robotic” and didn’t seem to be in sync with what was happening. Overall, every encounter we have with Ren on the ride felt awkward to me. Maybe they just were having some timing issues? That last scene with Kylo seemed to be off too. It just felt like the timing was off or something and made it awkward. Maybe it’s just too hard to convince us that an AA is being blown out of a star destroyer? Oh ya - I didn’t get the lightsaber effect in that one small room at all. I was waiting for it and nothing happened. I also found that scene where we’re behind Kylo and Hux to be awkward. Like all of a sudden we re flies on the wall and he doesn’t know we really behind him?
I feel like I might be coming off too negative right now because I really thought the sets were incredible but there was a disconnect with the actual ride experience. Overall, it just didn’t come together for me. I was hoping the drop would be a little more intense but I would just compare it to the smallest of GOTG: MB drops. The simulator part was cool though. Again- I applaud the imagineers for making me feel like I was on a Star Destroyer and for this ambitious attraction in general but I’m just not sure it works. I do want to ride again when I’m well rested. Aside from the timing issues, it felt like there was just too much stop and go like the flow was off. Full disclosure: I feel similarly about RSR. Back to the timing issues- maybe they overdid it a bit with AAs or characters having to engage us directly? That’s a tough thing to pull off convincingly especially in close range. The timing has to be perfect.
A couple other things. The Finn AA was frightening. Like House of Wax scary. The screens again I thought really worked well - even with characters (not just atmosphere). It was surprising how good those storm troopers looked overhead. Much better then those static AAs in the hangar.
I LOVE the unload area. That is exactly my cup of tea. Beautiful place making and my kind of aesthetic. So cool how the ride ends outside. The ride with Ackbar and the unload area are probably my two favorite things about the attraction... at the moment. Looking forward to riding again... someday when I don’t have to wake up at 5am. I imagine I may feel a little different and be able to take a lot more in on my second ride. Especially when I’m not dead tired.
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