News Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Disneyland opening reports/reviews

[BMP]

@Old Mouseketeer I read your review on the main page, just have a quick question: was there a singles line for Smugglers Run? I'm going by myself for two days when the WDW version opens, and if so, that would be awesome.

Yes. There was a single Rider Line. It was the line to the far left...

 

[mickEblu]

Brilliant! Thank you for adding this. You captured things at a different level that I did--it was just so big! I was hoping someone would write a review like this. I hope more people will add their perspectives--there's just so much to capture. Well done!

I didn’t write it but thanks!

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

**Already posted this on the construction page but this thread seems more appropriate**

Got to visit Galaxy's Edge yesterday.

I experienced every single offering except for the Cantina (it was a 3 hour wait)
Below is my in depth review and OPINIONS of the land. Keep in mind that I have seen some Star Wars films but am not a not a Star Wars fanatic.. but a huge theme park/imagineering fan.. So take that for what it's worth.

SPOILERS BELOW

THE LAND: 10/10
-The transitions from frontier/fantasy are seamless, buildings are tall, the trees are beautiful. There's a ton of shaded areas, places to sit down, and just areas to relax and kick back. Lots of exploring to do! Each store location has Star Wars-y doors.. big sets of double doors that aggressively slide open and close (I don't have a better way to describe them but it was a cool sight to see). Little nooks to venture off into and a ton of things to see. Resistance area was nice but not a lot to do without Rise open.. If you walk up to the Rise entrance you can hear/see a large waterfall straight ahead in the queue.. It was beautiful..

THE BATHROOMS: 10/10
-There are two sets of bathrooms in the land, both have identical interiors and have themed insides similar to the wizarding world. Inside the restrooms, they play a recorded loop of "Black Spire Radio" music with a host even greeting listeners and introducing the next song.
-The drinking fountain outside of one of the bathrooms is INCREDIBLE. There is a large clear pipe connected to the fountain with an animatronic sea creature that emerges out of the water. This happens when you press the button on the fountain. There are also new fountains for refilling water bottles I've never seen before in a Disney park.

THE SHOPS: 7/10
-You guys, when I tell you these shops are small... I mean they're SMALL... I'm not knocking them for their size, but for their efficiency in crowds.
-The market stalls were a MESS. Each stall is so shallow, the guest flow/operation just doesn't work. (mind you this was a cast preview with very little people walking around in the land.. good luck on opening day/any day after June 24). It was actual hell trying to buy anything from these stores. There wasn't enough room for people trying to pay out at the registers, let alone have anyone walk in and try to look at the products. People were cutting each other and there was just hoards of people swarming registers to purchase things.
-Only Kat Saka's has an actual queue and is somewhat organized, the toy/pet shop and the other trinket shop were... not fun. (Although beautifully themed)
-Droid Depot/Dok-Ondar's are a bit larger than the others and have neat things to look at.
-Dok-Ondar animatronic literally does not interact with guests whatsoever... He is just in a cage above the check out registers and just does his own thing.. We were in the store for 10-15 min and he didn't even say one word.. Looking at the figure, it didn't even seem like his mouth could fully open.. He just blinks and rotates around in his cage.. He is still cool, but with imagineering hyping everyone up saying we could bargain with him.. I was just left a little disappointed..
-First Order Cargo is just way too small... It is in such a prime location and is no bigger than that little shop inside Fantasy Faire.. Didn't even need to enter to see all the merchandise..
-Resistance supply is cute! It looks just like the concept art!

THE FOOD: 9/10
-Blue/Green milk stand is COOL!! Lots of glass spheres filled with liquid while you wait in organized switchbacks.. The main glass sphere filled with blue milk in the front bubbles and is animated. The drinks themselves are small, expensive, and tasteless. $7.99 for a small cup before tax.. I bought 1 blue, 1 green and my total was $17+... Cool to get your pic with one but this won't be a reoccurring drink purchase for me, unlike Butterbeer at Universal.
-Docking Bay 7: Didn't eat here but the restaurant is very large! It was super neat inside and there was a indoor and outdoor seating.. Loved it.
-Ronto Roasters made me so happy.. It is so friggin cool... The idea and execution is PERFECTION. You can smell it from far away and the engine is animated and shakes while spewing smoke and red flaring lights.. There is a droid churning a crank which is rotating the meat. The food is BOMB.. expensive but really good. The Ronto Wrap is absolutely delish and super different from anything Disney has offered in the past. Its $13+ and its roughly the size of a chalupa from Taco Bell.. The drinks are delish but need help with presentation.. Its literally just juice in a cup with ice.. No garnish, no popping boba, no cool colors.. seems a little basic for a galactic land.
-Kat Saka's Kettle is so good.. and I really wasn't excited for this offering.. The popcorn machine looks really cool and the stall is themed nicely. The popcorn is really different and I loved it. I would best describe the taste as a spicy/salty trix cereal flavored popcorn.

SAVI'S WORKSHOP: 5/10
It's a no from me... Joined a friend who built a lightsaber and got to experience the show with him.. There is no way in hell I would pay $200+ for this experience.. There were nice lighting effects and the show presentation was cute.. but no physical show elements.. Ollivanders is completely free and has more physical effect offerings. Sure its cool if you're a die hard fan.. but when I sat and calculated how much money this venue makes ($2,800+ every 30 min, $89,600+ in one 8am-Midnight operating day), I couldn't ignore the fact that this was just an empty room with color changing LEDs and fake candles... Yoda makes an appearance.. and he's not a really cool hologram effect.. Just a cheap voice over.. They just could have done way more with this area for the money they make on the hour.

FALCON: 9/10
We all know so much about this ride so I'll only explain the new things I noticed.
-Queue is so cool and very large
-Multi leveled queue with windows looking out at the falcon were genius.
-Boarding the falcon was not believable at all for me. Execution was poor.. a toddler could figure out that we didn't board the actual falcon.. Where they went wrong? The Hondo preshow. The preshow fails to properly show the falcon leave its position outside, park inside the building, and allign with the gangway hallway we enter next.. Hondo doesn't even explain the falcon being moved.. Instead, Hondo explains the story of the attraction while you see the falcon randomly show up behind him on what is clear to be a screen, not a window. What I would've done? Shown surveillance footage of the attractions facade with guests walking around.. clearly see the falcon move from that position, then appear on the screen behind him and park and align itself with the gangway.. Star Tours does a great job with this in its pre boarding queue video.
-Falcon ride has Day/Night mode in the attraction!! THANK GOD! This happens in the beginning when you leave Black Spire Outpost and see the land.
-The Hondo that appears on the screen is an actor with prosthetics! He looks so cool!! Looks just like the animatronic!
-Gunner has Autopilot/Manual options you can choose. The difference? Manual has a series of 3 buttons that must be pressed simultaneously to shoot while auto just has one.
-Everyone has to activate their consoles as soon as they sit down. This is how the ride knows what positions are filled.
-I was gunner and pilot and had a blast. Such a good ride.

CHARACTERS: 10/10
-You are immediately greeted by tons of troopers coming in from the Fantasy/Frontier entrances and they have a lot more to say in Batuu! Kylo also walks with them and orders guests to interact with him.. The troopers are also found on top of structures/buildings which I thought was super neat.
-Rey and Chewie walk around the resistance forest happy to shake hands and meet with guests. I was shopping at Resistance Supply and Rey actually approached me. She asked for my name and thanked me for visiting Batuu. She has a specific spiel rehearsed that has her storytelling and thanking guests for coming. It was truly magical.

SOUNDS: 10/10
-The surround sound is crazy.. you can feel the vibration of ships taking off and landing.. and they're LOUD. The sound travels throughout the land and was super immersive.
-Only certain areas have musical scores playing.. Mostly when you first enter.
-The forest has nice forest-y sounds with birds and trees and such.


This land is truly magical. I'm very excited for everyone to experience it. I'm not a huge Star Wars fanatic and was genuinely impressed.. I can only imagine how much the die hards will love it.

Let me know if anybody has any questions. I'm happy to help!

Brilliant! Thank you for adding this. You captured things at a different level that I did--it was just so big! I was hoping someone would write a review like this. I hope more people will add their perspectives--there's just so much to cover. Well done!

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

Why are people surprised that SR is a video game? Have we not known for a couple years that that’s precisely what it is?

Ehhh. Sorry Hans wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeapordy where the score can really change? We knew the ride would be interactive. We did not know it was going to look like a game you could play on Ninentdo 64. As a matter of fact I think the Podrace game on N64 has better and more realistic graphics than Smuggler's Run

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

OK, so far we have

and

Yes, I am cherry picking quotes here, but I am not criticizing these two posters. As anyone else would, I really appreciate their first- and second-hand reports. However, weren't people supposed to be blown away by this attraction?

It’s a simulator...I wouldn’t ever expect to be “blown away” by one. Nor should anyone.

Flight of passage is probably the gold standard...that thing really works and they did a fantastic job. But to expect that to be “normal” would be naive - in my opinion.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

It’s a simulator...I wouldn’t ever expect to be “blown away” by one. Nor should anyone.

Flight of passage is probably the gold standard...that thing really works and they did a fantastic job. But to expect that to be “normal” would be naive - in my opinion.

At least ride of passage looks like movie qaulity cgi. It looks like a scene from the avatar movie. Smuggler's Run looks like "MILLENIUM FALCON: THE GAME"

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Even if a person disagrees with an opinion on Star Wars, what you say will always be fundamentally true and well reasoned.

You’ve got cross mojination with Star Wars now - a fan base long known for being self-conscious/defensive now combined with Disney...who has a cult/blinders type following who refuses to publicly identify mistakes.

As far as “Star Wars land” (I won’t use that silly non-descript name) goes...I’m very much looking forward to balanced opinions on it. The standard Disney mob crowds won’t prove “success” to me. They never do because people make it too much a personal thing/mental crutch they need to exist and would embrace almost anything with the crowd levels at this point (like an embarrassing toy story land and 2 hour waits for mine train at WDW)...but I’m curious how functional this will be?

If it’s queue lines to get into gift shops and 3 hour waits for rides - it’s not a wise project. We shall see.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

I do hope you’re wrong...

But would it be surprising? No. Cameron is known to spend whatever it takes and is still a passionate stickler, who while being a pain, is never accused of shortcuts.

LFL had George “give up” - because frankly his story and director capabilities were exposed as lacking (moreso directing) - and now Disney has inept leadership in place that’s making it one of the most incoherently run movie divisions in Hollywood. A great land wouldn't shock me...a “meh” wouldn’t either. Hope for the best.

I do think they made a tremendous operational mistake in Florida...not building to the appropriate size/scale.

There is POV leaked footage of Smuggler's Run and it looks like a video game you would find at a Dave & Buster's

 

[ThemedScream]

We knew the ride would be interactive. We did not know it was going to look like a game you could play on Ninentdo 64.

Not to get into the debate one way or the other, but it really did honestly remind me of playing Starfox on N64. During the asteroid belt sequence I genuinely expected to hear Peppy Pig exclaim, "use the boost to get through!" In fact, I think you even use boosters during that point...

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

After experiencing pandora and FoP (my favorite ride ever to date) I have all the faith in the world this will be jaw-dropping.

Why would you have “faith” it will be “jaw dropping”??

I hope it would be...I don’t expect it to be. I get the firm impression that Disney doesn’t understand Star Wars at all.

It’s not about nameless planets...it never was.

I do hope it’s a great land. They need it - especially in Florida

 

[Surferboy567]

Why would you have “faith” it will be “jaw dropping”??

I hope it would be...I don’t expect it to be. I get the firm impression that Disney doesn’t understand Star Wars at all.

It’s not about nameless planets...it never was.

I do hope it’s a great land. They need it - especially in Florida

Not trying to be nasty or anything but...yes Disney has made some bad mistakes when it comes to Star Wars. I think your blowing it out or propotion.

I’m not going to even bring up the movie that shall not be named becuase I’m not going to get into a 30 page thread on the movie as a whole and it’s problems (which their are many). Besides that though yes, while it’s not perfect I think Disney at the very least kinda understands Star Wars.

The movies like rogue one, solo, and force awakens at least for me have been entertaining and in some of the examples listed great. Again, that’s just my opinion.

Another thing, Batuu isn’t a nameless planet they have really built an interesting lore around it so I really don’t see the problem with it it’s far surpassed something like (Canto Bight) again, don’t really want to talk about that movie but you get my point. Disney also, while they have made some missteps in the theme park space I have largely enjoyed most of the experiences they have put out and in recent years I feel they have been top of their game so to speak. I’m not saying I agree with all their theming choices however the rides produced seemed to be great or entertaining at the very least.

Pandora for me was amazing sure maybe river journey was a little disappointing but it offered a cool boat ride. FoP is my favorite theme park ride of all time. That makes up for any missteps made in river journey. That land for me was simply like I said “jaw-dropping”. If Galaxy's Edge does something similar and if the previews or even unique merch has taught us anything I’m sure they are going all in and should please a lot of people. As a hardcore fan I know I’m extremely satisfied. Of course I haven’t been yet but by all accounts from the extensive research of following this project since the beginning it seems to be doing it right.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

Not trying to be nasty or anything but...yes Disney has made some bad mistakes when it comes to Star Wars. I think your blowing it out or propotion.

I’m not going to even bring up the movie that shall not be named becuase I’m not going to get into a 30 page thread on the movie as a whole and it’s problems (which their are many). And the political messages it makes. Besides that though yes, while it’s not perfect I think Disney at the very least kinda understands Star Wars.

The movies like rogue one, solo, and force awakens at least for me have been entertaining and in some of the examples listed great. Again, that’s just my opinion.

Another thing, Batuu isn’t a nameless planet they have really built an interesting lore around it so I really don’t see the problem with it it’s far surpassed something like (Canto Bight) again, don’t really want to talk about that movie but you get my point. Disney also, while they have made some missteps in the theme park space I have largely enjoyed most of the experiences they have put out and in recent years I feel they have been top of their game so to speak. I’m not saying I agree with all their theming choices however the rides produced seemed to be great or entertaining at the very least.

Pandora for me was amazing sure maybe river journey was a little disappointing but it offered a cool boat ride. FoP is my favorite theme park ride of all time. That makes up for any missteps made in river journey. That land for me was simply like I said “jaw-dropping”. If Galaxy's Edge does something similar and if the previews or even unique merch has taught us anything I’m sure they are going all in and should please a lot of people. As a hardcore fan I know I’m extremely satisfied. Of course I haven’t been yet but by all accounts from the extensive research of following this project since the beginning it seems to be doing it right.

You bring up an interesting point that made me realize that how I judge theme park experiences is like how I judge films. I have long said that I will forgive a lot in a flawed film if it entertains me and especially if it makes me laugh. So I love the cheesiness of Tremors and overlook the flaws of From The Hip, Evolution, and Big Trouble. Disney can do a decent C or D Ticket and make me happy. Frozen Ever After has many flaws, yet I enjoyed it and would have gone again, but I could only get one FastPass. Little Mermaid is worth riding repeatedly just for Under The Sea and the Ursula AA (and Mr. Limpit!). I'm a DL Buzz junkie (won't ride it at MK ever again).

I'm still digesting everything I saw at SW:GE. There was so much to take in. I'm benefiting from reading others' reviews and mulling over details that they caught that I didn't talk about. And I'm remembering details on my own, like the cargo containers in front of the building opposite the Falcon that are used for seating and all the different light fixtures. I'm seeing more flaws in my mind, yet my overall impression is still awe and wonder. Part of me wants to say it doesn't have the same jaw-dropping "wow" factor as Pandora, but then I realize it is its own kind of "wow". It will be interesting to see how it becomes brought to life over the summer. Only then will we really see where the actual problems are and gauge how much people love it.

 

[Surferboy567]

You bring up an interesting point that made me realize that how I judge theme park experiences is like how I judge films. I have long said that I will forgive a lot in a flawed film if it entertains me and especially if it makes me laugh. So I love the cheesiness of Tremors and overlook the flaws of From The Hip, Evolution, and Big Trouble. Disney can do a decent C or D Ticket and make me happy. Frozen Ever After has many flaws, yet I enjoyed it and would have gone again, but I could only get one FastPass. Little Mermaid is worth riding repeatedly just for Under The Sea and the Ursula AA (and Mr. Limpit!). I'm a DL Buzz junkie (won't ride it at MK ever again).

I'm still digesting everything I saw at SW:GE. There was so much to take in. I'm benefiting from reading others' reviews and mulling over details that they caught that I didn't talk about. And I'm remembering details on my own, like the cargo containers in front of the building opposite the Falcon that are used for seating and all the different light fixtures. I'm seeing more flaws in my mind, yet my overall impression is still awe and wonder. Part of me wants to say it doesn't have the same jaw-dropping "wow" factor as Pandora, but then I realize it is its own kind of "wow". It will be interesting to see how it becomes brought to life over the summer. Only then will we really see where the actual problems are and gauge how much people love it.

I seriously think by at least by all appearances. This was the best possible way to do Star Wars justice in a theme park environment without this approach it would be a “let's go visit a hoth land” or some kinda tacky thing to that effect. I seriously think I’ll be able to live my Star Wars adventure that I’ve wanted to do for so long. So by all accounts, from what I seen, doubt I’ll be even remotely disappointed. Savi’s alone gets me excited...Rise is such an exciting prospect as well, so many amazing concepts blended together to create what I think (from the limited stuff I’ve seen) a perfect Star Wars themed environment.

 

[VJ]

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run feels like a video game because it is one. Your actions on the attraction directly impact the action on the screen, thus, video game. That's the difference between SR and something like Flight of Passage: FOP is all pre-rendered stuff. SR is pretty much being rendered on the fly, and reacts directly to your input. That's why SR looks like a video game compared to FOP.

 

[Surferboy567]

Still haven’t seen anyone mention the holocrons in Doc Ondar’s would be interested to see. Also the different “cuts” of the crystals interest me. The whole droid building process as well.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I think I'm going to end up spending a lot of money so I can get a droid. My pass expires the day I visit too. May renew depending on how much I enjoy it.

I’m as much interested in the merch reviews as any....

The lightsaber thing seems to be an out and out ripoff based on early buzz...anyone have something on the droids?

 

[Surferboy567]

Posts that go off topic, especially those that do so in an egregious manner by people who can't let it go and then do the same thing in other threads should be reported. Report it.

Thanks for restoring order!

Couldn’t of said it better

Ok...when is the OTHER ride actually gonna open?

Is the “cantina” gonna be more trouble than it’s worth?

Are they doing an insane 6am opening in Disneyland as they are in Lemmingville, Fl??

(Those are all legit questions under the fine veneer of sarcasm )

1.) Rise of the Resistance should be opening in august for DL, December for HWS (as per insiders) not confirmed

2.) No standby line

 

[fctiger]

Well I'll do my part. Instead of another dozen posts about people saying we need more relevant posts here is an actual review from someone who went a few days ago:



Pretty detailed and a few tips along the way. I swear all these video reviews really excite me even without pictures of the place.

 

[Nirya]

Got a question for anyone who's done Savi's Workshop. My big thing has always been the saber part of the lightsaber, so what are they using for that? I assume it's retractable, but is it like the cheap plastic tubes of yore or something substantial?

 

[TROR]

So you have to pay before experiencing the lightsaber show, but do you have to pay for the droids beforehand, as well?