So what changes will we see at DHS GE based on DL GE?

[cjkeating]

I remember reading that streetmosphere, droids and so forth were going to be delayed because of the anticipated extreme crowds, and would be added when the initial crush began to die down. Now everyone is assuming it's permanent and talking about "cuts".

Has the promised entertainment actually been cut? Or is it possible that they were caught wrong-footed, and it's not ready yet because it wasn't expected to be practical yet?

I think 'once the crowds have died down' was just marketing speak to explain why it wasn't there at opening with the assumption it all gets forgotten over time. Unless Chapek gives the money back the entertainment and droids aren't arriving.

 

[TP2000]

There are some really neat aerial photos circulating via USA Today and other media that were taken of Disneyland's Star Wars Land on July 4th. The photos were taken to show how empty the land is, even on busy holidays like mid-afternoon on July 4th. But they also give an opportunity to see some of the things and concepts we've been talking about in this thread, and how they may differ in DHS.

Here's the broad aerial overview of Star Wars Land, taken the afternoon of July 4th. Lotso room to roam!

Now here's a closer up of the northeast corner. We can see the Falcon and its entrance sitting just at the top of screen, and to the right is the ugly back of house extended queue they've been using when the Falcon line gets over 45 or 50 minutes.

This is the spot that was supposed to be used for the supper club fancy restaurant but was cut from the budget by Bob Chapek a couple of years ago. It was paved as a parking lot, but then turned into extended queue. Will they use this space for extended queue at DHS???

Here's the heart of Black Spire Outpost and its village shops and snack bars and fast food places. You also see the second and third entrances into the land that branch off from the Big Thunder Trail and go under the Disneyland Railroad berm through tunnels. At DHS the third entrance on the far right doesn't exist, and the middle entrance doesn't have a tunnel but instead does a dogleg curve from Toy Story Land.

At Disneyland when they were doing reservations in June and the one and only day they used the Virtual Queue system, they used the far right entrance as the designated land entrance, while the middle and Critter Country access points were used as exits.

But at DHS it appears this situation will be flipped; the Grand Avenue tunnel will be used as an entrance and the Toy Story Land entry will be used as an exit. Right? Any insiders feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

But then that brings us to the abandoned western half of Star Wars Land, where the Resistance ride sits forlornly. This is where the most differences are with the DHS version, as the Grand Avenue entrance buts up here and the layout is quite different on each coast. The exterior queue layout for the Resistance ride is quite different on each coast also. But you can see how the exit from the unload building dumps you right out at the gift shop kiosks, which is repeated at DHS.

Especially this fall when Resistance is still closed, it might be very smart for DHS to use this entrance as the main land access. As you can see the sparse crowds thin out even further on this side of the land, and it would be a good way to access it all at DHS.

Not sure what happens once Resistance finally opens, but at least to start it will give DHS some breathing room with loading the land with crowds.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

You’re assuming that WDW will need to control access to the land when Galaxies Edge opens.

I was there July 4, the park was packed. Galaxies Edge was not. Splash mountain had a longer line than Millenium Falcon.

 

[TP2000]

You’re assuming that WDW will need to control access to the land when Galaxies Edge opens.

I was there July 4, the park was packed. Galaxies Edge was not. Splash mountain had a longer line than Millenium Falcon.

Yeah, I am assuming some things.

I just have to assume that WDW management will be doing almost everything the exact opposite of what they did in Disneyland. Plus, at WDW they have a theme park in DHS that is basically the exact opposite of Disneyland when it comes to ride capacity and overall entertainment offerings (Disneyland has 40 other rides, 11 that are E Tickets, whereas DHS has only 6 other rides, 3 that are E Tickets).

All that just has to create the opposite experience at DHS. It just has to.

Right now at 3:00pm in Anaheim, it is another gorgeous SoCal summer day, clear skies and 78 degrees and a light sea breeze to celebrate Disneyland's 64th birthday. You couldn't ask for better summer theme park weather. And Disneyland has all their rides at 45 minutes or less. Except for Splash Mountain at 65 minutes. Millennium Falcon only has a 45 minute wait currently, Matterhorn Bobsleds and Indy and Big Thunder and Hyperspace Mountain are all 30 minutes, most other E Tickets are 15 minutes. Jungle Cruise and Small World are 5 minutes, the 30 other D and C Tickets in Disneyland are 5 to 15 minutes. The place is really empty for summer!

WDW management must be clued in to the panic in Anaheim and will be doing everything opposite for DHS and its grand opening six weeks from now. I just don't see how they can't. And I bet their Burbank bosses are demanding it!

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

How are they gonna convince people they need to go to a land that has already opened to mixed reviews? I’m not sure what WDW management can do to create demand for a product that people don’t ultimately want?

I mean IF they can have the droids and aliens and stunt show and live music, etc. and they advertise “hey come see the land the way it was meant to be!” Maybe a few more will
Come?

 

[TP2000]

I mean IF they can have the droids and aliens and stunt show and live music, etc. and they advertise “hey come see the land the way it was meant to be!” Maybe a few more will come?

That's the Million Dollar Question for WDW.

Disneyland insiders on another board have detailed how Bob Chapek cut all of that entertainment and interactive stuff out of the budget in the last two years. And then for the May, 2019 grand opening Disney's PR team gave Chapek and the other executives talking points about how all the interactive stuff they touted publicly in 2015-2017 is missing because of "crowds" and how snack bar hostesses saying cutesy phrases like "Bright Suns!" will fill in for professional entertainers and AGVA performers and stunt shows and droids.

But this was the "crowd" they had on the afternoon of July 4th, and the daily crowds they've had since they opened. Plenty of room for stunt shows and interactive aliens and droids zipping around here! And when I went to a mostly empty Star Wars Land in late June, the girls working the Ronto's Roasters snack bar were just talking to each other about Katie's party last weekend.

But really all that expensive interactive entertainment was cut while it was still in pre-production by Chapek, and it's obvious none of it exists or else they would rush it into the mostly empty land to help generate buzz. But they can't, because none of it exists.

So in the 90 days that WDW has had to see what's happening at Disneyland, what can they add to the land at WDW? What does WDW management do to fix this problem and simultaneously impress Daddy Chapek and try to get him to like them better than Disneyland?

 

[matt9112]

Star Tours was also not a war ravaged troop transport... Which would have greatly affected the overall feel and scope of the attraction. The reason it is still popular 30 years later is because it is fun...it was zany...there are laughs...You are taking a vacation transport to somewhere in the glaxy! fun!
None of the Galaxy's Edge feels like laughs to me... And in a real world where war has been looming the last decade, I don't know that a battle ravaged planet is that much fun... I am open to experiencing it, but if this was their answer to Harry Potter, it certainly lacks joy and magic...things we expect from our Disney parks.

can they build a war simulator? like the only good scene from solo....i want that in ride format.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Disney World has an amazing equity talent pool to pull from that have created amazing characters in Citizens of Hollywood, Adventurers Club, Frozen, etc. hire Philip, Lisa, and others from comedy warehouse etc. to create custom characters for the garage, droid area, resistance area etc. and so much of the problems are fixed. And then add some live musicians and boom... people will want to spend time in the land!

 

[Flynnwriter]

How are they going to be different? Maybe the CM’s will try harder and know Star Wars. They will also sell shot glasses for the clientele.

 

[TrojanUSC]

You’re assuming that WDW will need to control access to the land when Galaxies Edge opens.

I was there July 4, the park was packed. Galaxies Edge was not. Splash mountain had a longer line than Millenium Falcon.

Yes, the crowds have fell short of all expectations. However, the wait times are not apples to apples. As MF:SR doesn't have Fastpass, a 45 minute wait involves substantially more people than an hour wait at Space Mountain, where the ratio is 80% Fastpass/20% standby.

 

[monothingie]

Disney World has an amazing equity talent pool to pull from that have created amazing characters in Citizens of Hollywood, Adventurers Club, Frozen, etc. hire Philip Nolan, Lisa Glaze, etc. to create custom characters for the garage, droid area, resistance area etc. and so much of the problems are fixed. And then add some live musicians and boom... people will want to spend time in the land!

They’ll be the first on the chopping block.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They’ll be the first on the chopping block.

From Star Wars land? Already done apparently. Ha.

From there current jobs? Citizens have already been cut down to like 3 per day. The frozen cast is safe for a bit probably.

 

[Ravenclaw78]

The Cantina Theme actually does play in Galaxy’s Edge Cantina.

JK’s demands resulted in an incredibly genuine and transcendent theme park experience. It’s as close to perfect a balance between fun, canon and immersion.

I wish GE has the same demands.

Well, the Imperial March or Leia's Theme, then.

Most of JKR's demands made sense thematically and probably kept Universal's worst instincts at bay. On the whole, I really love the end result. On the other hand, some were patently ridiculous. Would it really kill the immersion for someone to be able to order a foamless Butterbeer? (Yeah, I might have taken that one a bit personally...)

 

[Mickeyboof]

Well, the Imperial March or Leia's Theme, then.

Most of JKR's demands made sense thematically and probably kept Universal's worst instincts at bay. On the whole, I really love the end result. On the other hand, some were patently ridiculous. Would it really kill the immersion for someone to be able to order a foamless Butterbeer? (Yeah, I might have taken that one a bit personally...)

Adding alcohol to drinks is forgiveable, but I absolutely agree that the foam shouldn’t be required.

But I actually think your observation proves something- just like WWOHP, GE does not *need* the iconic characters to walk around. What it needs is music, kinetic energy, a slash of color, and life! Any life!

Two storm troopers are laughable when only a year ago we had a dozen in Tomorrowland. Also, enough with the storm troopers anyways.

Members of the resistance whose only objective is to sneak around is terribly exhausting.

Harry Potter doesn’t walk around, but he doesn’t need to. The land doesn’t need it, they overcompensated elsewhere, and it was an incredible achievement!

 

[Mickeyboof]

Yes but you still see the characters you expect to see in the attractions themselves.

I am hopeful that ROTR is character saturated, enough that the two rides doesn’t feel barren.

I personally liked meeting a new, or at least new to me, character in Hondo. I enjoyed seeing a few unfamiliar things in GE. But there isn’t enough familiar to compensate.

 

[eddie104]

I know one thing this discussion is getting more ridiculous by the day and becoming very old because it literally everyone repeating the same arguments and narratives.

 

[Mickeyboof]

I know one thing this discussion is getting more ridiculous by the day and becoming very old because it literally everyone repeating the same arguments and narratives.

That’s usually how online message boards go, man.

 

[RobWDW1971]

The Cantina Theme actually does play in Galaxy’s Edge Cantina.
.

No it doesn't.

"Rex’s 3-hour set list includes a B-side from Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, the cantina band that played the infectious Benny Goodman-esque “Cantina Band #1” song in the original “Star Wars” film.
“Everyone loves that classic cantina sound that we’ve heard for 40 years,” Trowbridge said during a Galaxy’s Edge panel at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration. “We wanted to bring that to this cantina as well, but not that same song that we heard. We assume that Figrin D’an, they’ve probably got other hits. So we’ve got some other music that is in that same style."

 

[RobWDW1971]

I know one thing this discussion is getting more ridiculous by the day and becoming very old because it literally everyone repeating the same arguments and narratives.

It's called "consensus".

 

[RAXIP]

No it doesn't.

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