I thought about doing a huge exhaustive review, but millions of words of been spent on this already and with the Florida crowd also getting in, it's pretty late to the game.
**Then I wrote it and it turned into an essay... whoops
I will re-iterate that my expectations rose over the last few years, tanked with all the feedback seen here and then I settled out into a moderately impressed range. Of course there are problems, no it's not the best land by any means in the world right now. My issues were exceedingly fewer and mostly limited to the obvious - it's not fully open yet.
Visuals and Sound
I really enjoy the look and feel of the land. It wasn't as beige and uniform as I expected with lots of visual flair. Perhaps the most encompassing land at DLR next to New Orleans.
I think the sound design was sublime. I do not need nor want a John Williams soundtrack woven into the whole land. There are plenty of atmospheric areas of Disneyland without a musical score. Just like there are more areas in Batuu with background music than expected. Primarily the radio station appreciable at a couple locales (one set of the bathrooms and Droid Depot/Landspeeder area. It all feels more alive and real than a musical track playing in the bushes. There is atmospheric music in Docking Bay, the entrances. Of course the Cantina song selection is great. I'll get back to John Williams.
There is a lot more going on in the land than expected, but it all runs on a subtle long loop. Fortunately/unfortunately it rewards people who linger. Meaning there is a component of luck. Most areas actually seem to have some sort of atmospheric event that eventually occurs, which I really enjoyed. A common complaint is that nothing happens in the main hangar of the Millennium Falcon attraction's queue. But there is actually a semi-substantial boot up sequence with "Rey's Speeder".
Foliage: I think the foliage in the resistance area was great. Someone compared it to the Fantasy Forest in MK’s New Fantasyland. Uhm, what? It reminds me way more of the long walk from Africa to Pandora. It is very well planted, just a bit immature. I'm really excited to see this area continue to grow in and evolve. There are a ton of very interesting plants, even sprinkled throughout the non-forested area. The only area that really suffered for lack of shade is the quad by Kylo's ship.
Interiors
Market Place: I really enjoyed this area. It's the most Potter leaning of the whole land. It is small, but for all the talk of small, it still hasn't posed an issue with diminished crowds. It was easy to navigate, lively. My only fault is that I could have used even more of this styling, things to see and buy. It's no Diagon Alley, it isn't really Hogsmeade.
Docking Bay 7: Again every criticism (perhaps more Florida) is with things being small. Hard disagree. There are a ton of tables. Even when I had a busier Saturday there was plenty of open spots to find. This is a fairly large quick Service by Disneyland standards. I actually never purchased food, but twice had a Ronto Wrap in these locations.
Ronto Roaster: Easily one of the most brilliant elements. The loop here is much more forgiving with activity (and an actual functioning droid). I think this atmospheric area is more the promise of what is missing from a few other key locations throughout the land. I think it is hands down the best designed "food stand" of any theme park I can think of right now.
Sa'vi Workshop: Again another perfectly designed element. Not that I wanted to buy anything or it was quite expensive. So much to browse and look at. Sa'vi as an AA is great.
Droid Depot: Which was the last element in the land I experience, which was kind of nice that I had decided there were essentially no Droids in the land and then actually found a few. Reverse R2/BB8 were great, but it makes me wish there were uncaged ones.
Cantina: I loved the Cantina. I realize its behind a paywall, but I still love it. I had no trouble getting in (sort of forgetting you were supposed to reserve it first thing in the morning). Standing in the waiting line though I know a lot more of the general guests would have gone in if they could. To me that's a bit of the nature of Disneyland in general. There are lots of sit-downs one generally cannot get a walk up for. Let alone something currently still new.
This is how the mind works... but the Cantina was actually double the size of what I expected. I was avoiding pictures of the finished interior products before I went. I know people are going to think that sounds absurd. I really thought it was going to be small. When people described 4-5 booths, I was expecting 4-5 that sat groups of 6. Not expecting 7 booths that sat groups of 10-12. Also not an entire second layer of standing tables and the double sided bar.
I actually don't think the bar felt small, it feels appropriately sized. Any larger and you really cut off the entertainment with Rex. As is, first time through I was positioned at the bar directly across Rex. The second time I was completely at the other end of the room. I ended up just moving myself after getting a drink.
I don't want an industrial warehouse designed theme park. One expects a bar to be a certain size and by all standards it’s a pretty moderate size bar. Now, perhaps the real mistake is that they actually needed to duplicate it with a second completely separate show room for capacity? Perhaps. Probably in Florida. It's still early days and again it wasn't impossible to get a reservation. Disneyland has so many alternative (without alcohol) that I think it will all be fine in the end.
The play list was great. Rex was great. The experience was great. Give me the dinner theatre please. Don't give me a bigger bar!
Design Language
Now here is where I found Galaxies Edge to eschew traditional theme park design. I had a lot of issues figuring out how to navigate the Black Spire area of the land. I don't know if it is a true design fault, or the fact theme parks have trained us to react to environments a certain way for too long. I knew there were more elements... it took me several circles of the land to realize how one accesses Sa'vi's. Sa’vi’s at least semi-sign posted with the antiquities spilling out front. It took several more laps to find the Droid Depot.
When I suddenly realized un-posted closed doors lead somewhere I felt like an idiot. I guarantee you some of our reviewers here have not actually found there way into one or both of these locations. Not to mention the theme park going audience at large (some of whom we know don't even know how to get to the land at all).
That said these two shops were relatively filled with guests, so they aren't suffering yet.
The problem then turned to me trying to get into doors that actually did not open. A lady laughed and thanked me for trying by one, because she was about to do the same.
Millennium Falcon
I really enjoyed this ride. I think I did it 4 times... and I still really enjoyed it despite never getting the pilot position.
Fears that I found invalid:
- The motion was adequate.
- The camaraderie between strangers was great.
- The other positions are clearly fun (for me at least).
- The experience was satisfyingly full and lasted an appropriate length of time
- There was an actual element or perception of control and meaningful variation in the ride.
- You have fun regardless of how well you perform and aren't made to feel poorly about it.
- I thought we did well my first ride (we actually didn't). I was shocked at how different my following ride was when I think we had actually done the best.
- The ride is very aware and smart. We rode once with only 5 and Hondo's awareness of the lack of Engineer was very well received after the CM's built it up for us too.
- It's certainly overall better than Star Tours.
Single rider on slow days is hilariously easy. Particularly easy if you have the common sense to turn around and head down towards the other simulators. It can be a walk on meanwhile people are spilling out the other stairway.
The Hondo show element was great (I wish single rider at least saw this, I hope Fast Pass will). The other big queue room lacks a Droid on the ground level to provide some energy and perhaps physical comedy. I didn't have a problem with the upper level, as I alluded to actually seeing the full Boot up sequence of the speeder.
I think reading about how mediocre and boring this attraction was reset my expectations. It's a very solid supporting headliner. I look forward to them hopefully rolling out more missions in the future.
One teeny, tiny element... I might agree with a certain poster here that the on boarding to the Falcon was not as convincing as it could have been. Not helped by my first ride experience being through Single Rider. A ramp might have helped...
Droids, Entertainment and an Unfinished Land
The land is not without problems. The majority of the problems for me are things I don't expect to be there in January. Very noticeably an entire land was staged for entertainment and most of it was not added in. While most of the interior environments feel fairly alive and lived in, the exteriors lack it.
I don't need the original promised Ren-Fair, but I do expect it to live up to the same baseline that you'd find anywhere else at the resort. The Storm troopers are great, 2 is laughable. They need to be at least tripled and a pair need to usually be staged in each of the major village sections. I saw the pair of them in so many different fun locations throughout. Even staged on the top of the buildings patrolling and reacting to guest activity. Everyone loved it, but eliminate a few of the gaggles and gaggles of CM's and start with a few simple storm troopers.
The land was never going to be over-run with droids and aliens. It was a WDI pipe dream. But R2D2 and BB8 need to be out with handlers at most times. Beside that there are several guest inaccessible areas that should be occupied with a roving droid. I mentioned the bottom floor of the Millennium Falcon area. The landspeeder repair shop needs a droid (or a show). The outdoor Millennium Falcon area should have a droid underneath it as well, especially since it is fenced off. The same thing for the X-wing, over in the resistance area.
Not to bury the lead, albeit I definitely am doing that. I've heard a large chunk of the entertainment budget for GE is actually back, presumably for the new fiscal year. So this is all a bit moot and not something I am holding against the land. It's just not fully open.
The problem of course is there is so much spill over into Tomorrowland that needs to be closed and moved over. I actually don't worry about the land though, because all the infrastructure for shows and entertainment has been actually built. Entertainment is a rainy day Disney blog post. Give us an outdoor Cantina band. A stunt show. Roll out a petting zoo with one of those big Bantha's they clearly designed. Jedi training. Get a few more 'foam heads'. It's all very fixable even if they pull mostly non-original entertainment from Tomorrowland.
The resistance area is very cool and very much unopened. The John Williams score, more characters, a semi-practical major headliner. The big ride we've been all excited for all along. It's like declaring Mysterious Island a dud if they didn't open Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Overall
I think this is a great, impressive, modern WDI effort. I was very happy with it, the biggest actual criticism has to do with too much of the land existing behind a paywall currently (I attribute that mostly to the unopened ride and free entertainment cuts). There is very little of what is eventually planned that I would change. I didn't miss a 100+ million dollar overdressed, under capacity A/B-ticket. I did miss entertainment ("Enchanted Cantina Room" would have been a better use of the money than a people mover).
Of course we all hoped this would be the uncontested number 1 land in the world. It of course isn't. I think at the end of the day when it all opens it will solidly be a #5-10 contender. That's actually way more of a compliment than people think. I have no problem with that, there are a heck of a lot of great lands across Disney's, Universal's, Efteling's etc. portfolio.
Looking forward to going back, but I'll see the full thing in Florida next Spring.
TL;DR Brian totally agreed with every opinion you already have formed and you think he's just the best.
