News Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opening day reports - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
And you know this how?

I suspect that they'll begin using it again in October, then again in November/December.

But we know what your agenda is.
My agenda? Really?

It is almost identical to Universal installing these on Fast & Furious: Supercharged.

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bclane

Well-Known Member
I’ve heard that argument and understand where it comes from, but is Tatooine really all that different from what they gave us? The majority of the trees in the land just come from the berm and are there to hide sightlines of the park.
The majority are on the berm that’s true but I was happy to find splashes of green all over the place. Tatooine would not have allowed for this at all. As much as I love the idea of visiting Tatooine, I don’t think it would work as well for an entire land. YMMV
 

Bleed0range

Well-Known Member
Under exactly what conditions would Disney consider the land a failure? It would take years I imagine to really know that. How crazy should it really be? In the past how crazy has the opening of new lands or attractions been compared to this? If all we are comparing it to is HP, well, that isn’t fair. HP came out of nowhere and came out in the prime of the original film franchise. It’s sort of a one time anomaly.

HP coming out 20-30 years later for a reboot of the franchise would obviously not have the same affect.

Alternatively, Batuu in 1989 would have probably been way bigger than 2019. How crazy popular was Star Tours as an attraction in 89/90 versus the popularity of this land?

I don’t feel like it’s doing as bad as people make it out to be.
 

SparkyMG

Member
Long time lurker here. I'm a Disney stockholder and a businessman, so I look at what Disney does through that lens.

Regardless of how "successful" you may think SW:GE is (or is not) based on anecdotal evidence (wait times, etc.), the fact is that Disney is making a ton of money from their new land.

It's been estimated that Savi's at DL will gross $20 Million this year. Here:
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/07/...d-lightsaber-shop-raking-in-lets-do-the-math/

Estimated annual income for Oga's Cantina at DL - $35-70 Million:
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/07/...sneyland-bar-raking-in-lets-look-at-the-math/

Add to those amounts the income from Droid Depot, Blue Milk, Ronto Wraps, Porgs, etc etc, and this new land could easily generate over $100 Million a year for Disney. (Double that amount since there are two SW:GE's.)

How many other lands at Disney parks earn that much income from food and merchandise?
 
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Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
If you call something a FAIL after three days before a major hurricane, yes, I say you have an agenda - that you want it to fail.

We will see. If we get to December and it isn't used I'll agree with you. Somehow I doubt that will be the case.
I don't want it to fail. But the land at Disneyland under performed all Summer. Now the land at DHS is seemingly also under performing.

I am curious as to why. I am more inclined to believe that it is a pricing thing combined with people being scared off by predictions overwhelming crowds as opposed to a problem with the lands. I don't think most folks even know it's based on the new trilogy. Or that the "main" ride isn't open.
 

Higginbotham587

Active Member
I don't want it to fail. But the land at Disneyland under performed all Summer. Now the land at DHS is seemingly also under performing.

I am curious as to why. I am more inclined to believe that it is a pricing thing combined with people being scared off by predictions overwhelming crowds as opposed to a problem with the lands. I don't think most folks even know it's based on the new trilogy. Or that the "main" ride isn't open.

I think it might be a combination of fear of crowds brought on by Disney itself as well as frankly late August not being the most fun time to be in Florida unless you love 95 degree heat. The story in DL I am even less of an expert on than I am Florida. I can tell you that every non Disney nut I have spoken to who has actually been to SWGE has loved it, including two that went on Saturday and had the time of their lives. I would expect that to show up in guest surveys — we have seen little information about that. What would make the experience truly miserable is if it was so jammed you couldn’t move, couldn’t ride MFSR without waiting four hours, couldn’t even buy blue milk or the amazingly weird popcorn, etc.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
I don't want it to fail. But the land at Disneyland under performed all Summer. Now the land at DHS is seemingly also under performing.

I am curious as to why. I am more inclined to believe that it is a pricing thing combined with people being scared off by predictions overwhelming crowds as opposed to a problem with the lands. I don't think most folks even know it's based on the new trilogy. Or that the "main" ride isn't open.
I will agree that any struggles at this point are likely due to the peculiar roll-out. It took awhile for positive word of mouth to convince folks away from Florida to visit Pandora, which is certainly a hit with guests. Those making conclusions after it’s been open 5 days are trying to support preconceived expectations with anecdotal evidence. Martin is certainly correct that Disney is watching this closely, but no one is getting fired just yet.

Granted I’d be happy to spin data any way that would get Chapek fired. Imagining him as CEO should give us all nightmares.
 

planodisney

Well-Known Member
MFSR has been above FoP wait times all day today.
These were the wait times at 7:10pm. Not even taking into account the non Fastpass issue.
Also note that 4 of the top 7 longest waits in WDW are in DHS. Then consider that MFSR is the Navi River Journey of GE and not EVEN the headliner and tell me how this isn’t a huge positive for Disney and WDW resort but especially for DHS. Now add the headline attraction to SWGE in December and it’s going to be a grand slam for WDW.
405037
 
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dizda

Well-Known Member
I think the biggest issue with both land openings is a misunderstanding of the vacation planning cycle. At current prices even announcing firm opening dates 6 months (were they even that long for WDW?) ahead is too late. Vacation planning cycles are 1-2 years out for most guests. It doesn’t make sense to change plans to try and be First on the ride. Heck Disney has trained us to plan out vacations long in advance.

Like Pandora and NFL, the truth will come in time.
That is a very good point. Most of the people at WDW on opening day of GE already had planned on being at WDW by the time that the opening was announced. Also, given that the GE opening was set for Labor Day weekend, many people may have already had different vacation trips planned. If the opening date had been set a year in advance, what we have seen so far would be more telling.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
Another perhaps stupid question, but why did anyone think there would be this massive rush of people to WDW for the opening in the first place? Did that happen with NFL? Pandora? TSL?

I’ve always kinda been under the impression that what happened with Pandora was that a ride opened that had incredible reviews, so when combined with the temporary decimation of DHS, all 2 and 3 day itineraries basically started to include AK (and then of course every visitor to AK wanted to go to Pandora and ride FOP), and then of course people who had already planned longer trips went to AK repeatedly to rude this cool new ride.

I know the Pandora opening was bananas. But I would be shocked to learn that Pandora meaningfully increased (non-AP) attendance across the entire property in and of itself during it’s opening few months.

I just find it hard to believe that Bob and Tina in Iowa are like, “hey, Disney opened a new ride, let’s go sooner than we usually do to this place we can barely afford to be at in the first place”.

Am I wrong? If not, why did we think SWGE would do that when nothing else ever had?
 

ColdSarsaparilla

Well-Known Member
Disney was expecting to have to use the Boarding Group system for MONTHS. The fact that they stopped using it 9 hours into day one is kind of the definition of "FAIL".

The mental gymnastics going on in this thread border on delusional.

This is exactly right. And you don’t need to be an insider to know this. It’s common sense. They put these systems in place because they expected to have to use them, not in hopes that they wouldn’t.
 

Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
But they did give us familiar things. The land has X-wings, Rebels, Stormtroopers, Tie Fighters, Lightsabers, the Millenium Falcon, a Cantina (with a character from the original Star Wars ride), blue milk, several main characters from the movies, a ride where you fly the Falcon, and a ride on the way where you escape a Star Destroyer.

There are criticisms to be leveled at the land, but I just can’t see how anyone could in good faith have ‘lack of familiarity’ as one of them. If anything, the ‘clean slate’ planet (which is what I think the actual complaint is) allowed them to stuff more familiar things into it.

They gave us absolutely nothing familiar if you consider the OS (Original Series, Ep I-VI) to be real Star Wars and don't like the abysmal Sequel Trilogy by Disney. It's like building WWoHP with a different School and village than Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and without Harry Potter. The X-Wing is a "Resistance" X-Wing and the "Rebels" are "Resistance" as well and the "Resistance" is not the legendary Rebel Alliance but the greatest bunch of losers in the history of the Galaxy. The Stormtroopers are not Imperial Stormtroopers but "First Order" Stormtroopers and the First Order is a kind of Imperial Boy Scouts grown up and now playing Empire. The Millennium Falcon is the Sequel Falcon, you neither meet Han or even Lando in this ride but some stupid VERY minor character I never heard about and are pested aboard by PORGS BTW and the ride is based on the box Office bomb Solo, not on any Saga Episode, no Death Star, no Asteroid field, no Bespin, not even Yakku and the wrecked Star Destroyers but some completely uninteresting coaxium transport. The Cantina is NOT the Mos Eisley Cantina because it is not Tatooine but some crappy Disney planet I never heard about and I don't care to visit because it is not Star Wars. It is some unknown Cantina that has some elements from the Mos Eisley Cantina and is definitely not familiar, it is not even Yakku or some other Sequel Planet! The Blue Milk is neither the blue color we know from the movies (They didn't even get that right) nor milk at all but some vegan soy boy stuff. The "main characters" are from Sequels only! Rey, Kylo Ren and so on. If you can't stand the Sequels (and thats about 80% of the Fandom by now) there is nothing in SW:GE that is familiar or likable for you. DL SW:GE was already a flop and so far it doesn't look very good for SW:GE in WDW as well. I am very happy about this I have to confess as SW:GE is the worst imagineering ever.
 
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Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
BTW I expect that we will see the largest reimaging and retheming in SW:GE in the history of WDW before the anniversary of 2021 because it will fail on a galactic scale and Disney will have to pour a lot of additional money into it, similar to the DCA changes which actually managed to make this park finally a success.
 

SirWillow

Well-Known Member
Tbh, it would be quite easy to make Batuu Tatooine. Just make it an outpost in a canyon (like Beggar’s canyon) that we didn’t know about yet. A few paint swaps and it would work. Mos Espa wasn’t that different from Mos Eisely.

In fact, it has a shop w a pod racer engine roasting meat and a cantina. The thing is, it would not be able to have trees or waterfalls. So that would make it less beautiful. I mean, Luke wanted off that planet pretty bad and Vader hated that sand!

I honestly think they did a pretty good job with Batuu. I think it could use a few more waterfalls or water fountains or something to make it less like Tatooine and more like it’s own planet with a more tolerable climate. They also could have easily stuck it in an animated series or film by now just to say it WAS in them.

But I don’t need to visit Mos Eisely to feel like I’m in the Star Wars universe. Batuu looks pretty close to what you would expect minus the missing aliens walking around.

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm agreed on why Tatooine wouldn't work. It would have been ugly, and not in a good way.

And it's not totally isolated. It was mentioned in Solo, and there are rumors that it will likely pop up in the upcoming movie or some of the tv series on Disney+ as well as already being in several of the books that have come out (e.g. Thrawn). And there are a number of familiar things that they've brought into it that people will recognize.

Over budget by $400- $600 million? Each?

How much did these things end costing then?

I don't know what everything cost. The question was how could something be over budget while still having budget cuts. That's the question I answered. Rumors I've heard was each land was over $1billion, but no clue what the exact numbers were.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
BTW I expect that we will see the largest reimaging and retheming in SW:GE in the history of WDW before the anniversary of 2021 because it will fail on a galactic scale and Disney will have to pour a lot of additional money into it, similar to the DCA changes which actually managed to make this park finally a success.
LOL.

No. They will make relatively minor updates by 2021.
 

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