Meanwhile, in Orlando...
The more the aerial photos come in of the sister project out at DHS, the more I think there are going to be some pretty noticeable differences between these two lands that were once thought to be clones.
Here's a recent photo of the left-side entrance to the land, from the MuppetVision courtyard area and a new mini-land called "Grand Avenue" that will have what is left of the old Streets of America facades and a new wine/beer bar called Baseline Tap House.
That big cement wall at the end of the street is the land's entry portal, the same entrance at Disneyland that takes you from Critter Country under the berm and new railroad trestle and up a pathway into Galaxy's Edge. The tunnel at DHS has a short dogleg curve, before landing into the land with the Stormtrooper ride immediately on your left. The tall cement wall just past the entry portal is the actual Stormtrooper ride facility, with no real buffer area between.
The whole thing at DHS just looks so smooshed together (
smooshed is a technical term in the architectural engineering profession, I believe). At DHS you will literally walk right into the land and
BAM! it begins.
But at Disneyland, you pass the canoe dock, walk alongside the River for a bit, turn left under the railroad trestle and pass through a tunnel under the berm. Then you come out and walk along a S-curve path that eventually gets you to a big open area that leads to the Stormtrooper queue across the way, as noted in the orange arrow on the left side of this image.
There's a whole bunch more space in the Disneyland version on the left side of the land. The Stormtrooper queue and ride buildings sit right up against MuppetVision at DHS, but are quite a ways away from Winnie The Pooh's similar ride building at Disneyland.
With every image and photo update that comes in from each coast, I just get the feeling that Disneyland's version is going to have more room and more build-up. And I have similar assumptions that grow stronger with each aerial photo that the space on the opposite side of the land, the "village" area in front of the Millenium Falcon ride, is going to be noticeably bigger with a longer entry portal than the DHS version.
And finally,
why the heck don't we have any good aerial drone footage of the Disneyland version? Where's the college kid who spent his beer money on an HD drone camera to fly over Star Wars from a launch pad at the Shell station on Ball Road?!? Where's the retired dentist in a Cessna flying out of Fullerton airport while his wife snaps pics on her iPhone 7 out the window for us?!? How come the Disneyland fan community is so bad at getting up in the air over Disneyland, while the WDW fan community gets monthly aerial updates???