News Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Historical Construction/Impressions

[Old Mouseketeer]

Gosh, training in February? Could we see soft-opens / special paid-entry events around Spring Break?

Depends on how fast they finish exterior construction. They still have scaffolding on about half the facades and spires, no paving, no Resistance Shuttle, etc. I have no idea about interior finishes, other than the two attractions.

 

[Disney Analyst]

If this is going for the immersion rumoured, I assume they are going to have extensive training. Likely a Star Wars classroom for a while to get people up to speed on the world. Then in land training, scenarios etc.

 

[D.Silentu]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, the reason that alcoholic drinks will have to stay inside the cantina is due to liquor licensing?

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, the reason that alcoholic drinks will have to stay inside the cantina is due to liquor licensing?

No. The entire resort is fully licensed. But for the time being Disney is limiting consumption to inside the Cantina. They already know the impact of alcohol consumption at DCA and on a more limited basis at Magic Kingdom and DL Paris. Restricting it to the Cantina is analogous to the initial offering of beer and wine at dinner at Be Our Guest.

 

[BrianLo]

This is pretty much what Shanghai looked like a month or two before it soft opened. Obviously that project they lost their bananas and hit pedal to the metal. But I am not surprised that CM's will be inside in the next 2-3 months and first guests the next 4-5.

I think there is going to be a long soft-opening period (like 6-8 weeks), with some of the later bits monetized. The earlier bits will be invite only.

 

[TP2000]

People are still worried about alcohol at DL? The limited service at MK hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of. It's not like the problem of World Showcase that highlights and encourages a pub crawl.

The only people worried about it are bloggers like Mr. Koenig, who needed a hook for his story and an extra paragraph or two of text since he didn't have any real information to offer up from the front-line ride operators he interviewed.

 

[SWGalaxysEdge]

Gosh, training in February? Could we see soft-opens / special paid-entry events around Spring Break?

to be honest, aside the construction worries, they could give soft opening rides today if they wanted to. I would assume the big wigs have ridden these things many times already

 

[fctiger]

People are still worried about alcohol at DL? The limited service at MK hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of. It's not like the problem of World Showcase that highlights and encourages a pub crawl.

Its dumb. DCA has been serving alcohol in the entire park for 17 years now, things have been fine. If they haven't they would've limited it over the years but all Disney is doing is expanding it, especially when you see how much is being added at DTD and the hotels. I can't wait to have my first drink in the Cantana probably in 2020 or 2021 when I'm able to get a reservation.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

to be honest, aside the construction worries, they could give soft opening rides today if they wanted to. I would assume the big wigs have ridden these things many times already

Actually, no. It's more than just "construction worries". SW:GE is a hardhat construction zone. That is a legal status and also a physical status. Construction workers are working six days a week and there is no pavement, only dirt. Furthermore, they can't do "soft opening" because the rides aren't finished. Rise of the Resistance (Alcatraz) lacks its pre-show queue and external shell for the Resistance Shuttle that serves as the entrance to the attraction. And as noted from insiders, the rides are "mostly" finished but need finishing touches.

In addition, there are regulatory milestones to allowing 1) attractions CMs, 2) all CMs, and 3) non-CMs to enter the area and ride the attractions.

In short, we're months away from "soft opening".

 

[britain]

Actually, no. It's more than just "construction worries". SW:GE is a hardhat construction zone. That is a legal status and also a physical status. Construction workers are working six days a week and there is no pavement, only dirt. Furthermore, they can't do "soft opening" because the rides aren't finished. Rise of the Resistance (Alcatraz) lacks its pre-show queue and external shell for the Resistance Shuttle that serves as the entrance to the attraction. And as noted from insiders, the rides are "mostly" finished but need finishing touches.

In addition, there are regulatory milestones to allowing 1) attractions CMs, 2) all CMs, and 3) non-CMs to enter the area and ride the attractions.

In short, we're months away from "soft opening".

Good points. Still, I thought they were aiming for Memorial Day, and word was they were falling behind into June. This report seems to strongly counter that. Months away could still mean April.

 

[lifeisgoodboy]

Don't forget that they serve alcohol in disneyland at Club 33 since 1967.

 

[SuddenStorm]

Don't forget that they serve alcohol in disneyland at Club 33 since 1967.

Club 33 has never been open to normal Disneyland guests.

For decades, it was also far less publicized than it is now, and far fewer people knew about it.

 

[SuddenStorm]

People are still worried about alcohol at DL? The limited service at MK hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of. It's not like the problem of World Showcase that highlights and encourages a pub crawl.

Worried probably isn't the best word. But it is the removal of a policy put in place from Walt, and is something that differentiated Disneyland from just about every other park, both within Disney and outside.

Is it the end of the world? No.

But it's yet another thing that's changing at Disneyland, and I do worry that the collective sum of the changes that have been made and are being made will leave the park with a different feel than it's had for decades.

 

[lifeisgoodboy]

Club 33 has never been open to normal Disneyland guests.

For decades, it was also far less publicized than it is now, and far fewer people knew about it.

I already knew about this I was just saying that nobody was talking about alcohol in Disneyland.

 

[Phroobar]

I hope this guy is in the cantina.

 

[SuddenStorm]

One offered up, “From what I have learned, Galaxy’s Edge will be treated like a pseudo-separate park, thus justifying the alcohol sales. Galaxy’s Edge is in Disneyland, but it is not part of Disneyland. Got that?”

My personal prediction is that the charade of pretending Star Wars Land is separate from Disneyland will last very briefly—only as long as employees, guests and online curmudgeons make a stink about it. The park wants to normalize booze sales as quickly as possible, so it can sell wine and beer at the Blue Bayou and beyond.

There was a time when the additions to Disneyland were intended to improve Disneyland. They weren't built with the intention of treating it as if it's not a part of Disneyland. This land that's in Disneyland but will be treated like it's not doesn't work to strengthen the overall product.

Disneyland works as well as it does because everything works together to improve the overall product. Even Toontown has a backstory to help justify it's existence outside the berm.

Galaxy's Edge is like an expensive tumor. It isn't being designed to build off of the framework put in place by Walt- New Orleans Square and Critter Country serve as natural extensions of the American Frontier, but I struggle to see how an outpost on Batuu will expand those concepts or improve the overall mythology of the park.

But even if we justify it's existence in the park- all of these rumors about how it's going to be an operational nightmare have me worried.

14 acre land with two low capacity attractions? That's ridiculous inside a park that's plagued with crowd issues. WDI should have made adding as much capacity as possible their number one priority with this expansion.

Cast Members that are going to play ignorant when a guest asks where an attraction is? Sounds more irritating than anything.

This should all be very interesting to see what the end product is like, how the customer experience is, and how the land ages over the next decade.

 

[mickEblu]

There was a time when the additions to Disneyland were intended to improve Disneyland. They weren't built with the intention of treating it as if it's not a part of Disneyland. This land that's in Disneyland but will be treated like it's not doesn't work to strengthen the overall product.

Disneyland works as well as it does because everything works together to improve the overall product. Even Toontown has a backstory to help justify it's existence outside the berm.

Galaxy's Edge is like an expensive tumor. It isn't being designed to build off of the framework put in place by Walt- New Orleans Square and Critter Country serve as natural extensions of the American Frontier, but I struggle to see how an outpost on Batuu will expand those concepts or improve the overall mythology of the park.

But even if we justify it's existence in the park- all of these rumors about how it's going to be an operational nightmare have me worried.

14 acre land with two low capacity attractions? That's ridiculous inside a park that's plagued with crowd issues. WDI should have made adding as much capacity as possible their number one priority with this expansion.

Cast Members that are going to play ignorant when a guest asks where an attraction is? Sounds more irritating than anything.

This should all be very interesting to see what the end product is like, how the customer experience is, and how the land ages over the next decade.

Yup. SWL is just a business decision based on the constraints (land available/ cost) in Anaheim. Passion projects are few and far between. With that said, I think once Disneyland was chosen as the destination (unfortunately) that they have handled it in the best way possible. SWL would never really fit in Disneyland as an ultra commercial single IP Land based on war/ destruction. So in that regard, I’m glad it’s a tumor and that it’s “hidden” on the other side of the berm. My biggest issues with it are actually what it did to the rest of the park and not the fact that it’s there. Things like having deathstar balloons for sale in Town Square and planter/tree/ ambiance reduction throughout the park. ( This would probably happen anyway, just not so soon). Then of course the elimination of the possibility of a land that would have fit in better with the park. But then we also have to be realistic and Ask if a park expansion on this scale would ever be greenlit if not for Star Wars? Due to capacity issues at DLR my guess is yes, but it wouldn’t of happened so soon. Which would be ok with me.

 

[mlayton144]

Someone please educate me , why wasn’t this put into DCA the place with an incoherent mish mosh of themes anyway ? Not enough land ? I would think they could bulldoze any part of that park other than the grizzly peak area and cars land , who would care ???

 

[SuddenStorm]

Someone please educate me , why wasn’t this put into DCA the place with an incoherent mish mosh of themes anyway ? Not enough land ? I would think they could bulldoze any part of that park other than the grizzly peak area and cars land , who would care ???

The world may never know. I'd bet they could have found the space.

Dca is far less crowded than Disneyland, giving it a form of Galaxy's edge seems like common theft.

My guess? Imagineering jumped at the opportunity to leave their mark on Walt Disney's Disneyland- the most iconic theme park on the planet. Designing for DCA is far less exciting and invigorating than the opportunity to build inside Disneyland.

 

[TP2000]

14 acre land with two low capacity attractions? That's ridiculous inside a park that's plagued with crowd issues. WDI should have made adding as much capacity as possible their number one priority with this expansion.

Cast Members that are going to play ignorant when a guest asks where an attraction is? Sounds more irritating than anything.

Yes!

They expanded the park by 14 acres and poured a Billion dollars into the biggest and most pop-culturally significant addition to Disneyland in 60 years, and they gave it two E Tickets with a combined capacity of barely Pirates of the Caribbean???

That proves to me the Imagineers leading this Star Wars Land project are clueless about how Disneyland works, and are clueless about how to run a theme park themselves. And these are the people that, you know, design theme parks??? This would be like General Motors hiring automotive designers who take the bus to work each day. Or Starbucks hiring Product Planners who don't like coffee.

And then the cherry on top of this Clueless Sundae is that the same Imagineers are going to insist the CM's staffing this place are going to play cutesy word games with customers when they ask where the Standby line starts for the Millenium Falcon ride, or when they ask where the Fastpass machines are for the Resistance Ride, or when they tell a CM they've got a 3 o'clock reservation at Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique and need directions to Fantasyland.

I have no doubt that Star Wars Land will be stunningly beautiful. The rides (once you get on them) will be fun and exhilarating. The shopping and dining will be unique and immersive (Chapek made me say that!).

But operationally this sounds like a complete nightmare, playing out daily for years to come. And when 75,000 paying customers per day try to pack themselves into this place, but it can only take 30,000 customers per day, it's going to get ugly. Who the heck in WDI thought it was a good idea to build two low-capacity E Tickets for the biggest expansion in Disneyland history?!? That guy should have been fired five years ago before he could even start on this concept.