Star Wars Land announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

[RobWDW1971]

They are charging for the park ,not the land

My point, of course, is that the land is not in a “preview” state, DIsney has declared SWGE “Now Open”, guests who want to see it must pay full price to enter the park, at Disneyland when you made a reservation you had to buy a full price ticket, etc.

If Batuu and MFSR are open to the paying public, the public will judge them and they have with a resounding, tepid “meh”.

The response to the land was so poor on the west coast and word of mouth/FOMO so limited, they abandoned the concepts of a reservation system and a daily boarding group system at DHS to control demand they realized wasn’t coming (at a half-day park with only a half dozen rides where people are begging for something to do).

Here’s to hoping ROTR gives some life to these disappointments on both coasts.

 

[Andrew C]

They aren't even opening "Walt Disney World - 100 Years of Magic" until 2071 yet they're charging me full price now??

I almost admire his dedication. Almost.

 

[mikejs78]

My point, of course, is that the land is not in a “preview” state, DIsney has declared SWGE “Now Open”, guests who want to see it must pay full price to enter the park, at Disneyland when you made a reservation you had to buy a full price ticket, etc.

If Batuu and MFSR are open to the paying public, the public will judge them and they have with a resounding, tepid “meh”.

The response to the land was so poor on the west coast and word of mouth/FOMO so limited, they abandoned the concepts of a reservation system and a daily boarding group system at DHS to control demand they realized wasn’t coming (at a half-day park with only a half dozen rides where people are begging for something to do).

Here’s to hoping ROTR gives some life to this disappointing mess on both coasts.

Just because you keep repeating the same drivel over and over again it doesn't make it any more accurate.

 

[Jobacca]

I think this is probably gonna be my last post. Everyone here is so angry and toxic and hostile,especially in regards to Star Wars being a part of the parks. Disney is supposed to exist as an escape from reality and something fun and exciting to look forward to,and all I ever see on these boards is post after post of rage by people who are disappointed that whatever expectation they had in their head was not met. I'm gonna make the choice to enjoy the Disney experience,and while I appreciate the info that a lot of you post,the negativity is not in any way anything that contributes to my Disney experience. Hope you all have a magical day!

 

[sedati]

I think this is probably gonna be my last post. Everyone here is so angry and toxic and hostile,especially in regards to Star Wars being a part of the parks. Disney is supposed to exist as an escape from reality and something fun and exciting to look forward to,and all I ever see on these boards is post after post of rage by people who are disappointed that whatever expectation they had in their head was not met. I'm gonna make the choice to enjoy the Disney experience,and while I appreciate the info that a lot of you post,the negativity is not in any way anything that contributes to my Disney experience. Hope you all have a magical day!

It is amazing how just a handful of people with too much time on their hands can become a virtual mob. Sorry you’re the one who feels the need to bow out...
...ramp!

 

[Rich Brownn]

I think this is probably gonna be my last post. Everyone here is so angry and toxic and hostile,especially in regards to Star Wars being a part of the parks. Disney is supposed to exist as an escape from reality and something fun and exciting to look forward to,and all I ever see on these boards is post after post of rage by people who are disappointed that whatever expectation they had in their head was not met. I'm gonna make the choice to enjoy the Disney experience,and while I appreciate the info that a lot of you post,the negativity is not in any way anything that contributes to my Disney experience. Hope you all have a magical day!

Thats what the ignore button is for. Its made my day with this thread

 

[RSoxNo1]

They are charging full price for the land and we are judging what they built - that is both fair and expected. There are three major elements to SWGE - Batuu, MFSR, and ROTR.

Two of the elements are open and will be the same when ROTR opens so it is fair to judge them and the public has, quite harshly.

If ROTR is a huge success (and I hope if will be) it won’t change the other two elements, it will just be a distraction from them and fill the land with more guests. But Batuu and MFSR will still unfortunately be creative disappointments that have failed to excite the public.

If the land opened in it's entirety, the criticisms of the land would be largely offset by Rise of the Resistance (assuming it's great). Smugglers Run isn't as good as we had hoped, but it's bearing the brunt of the criticism because there's nothing to offset it that doesn't cost $100 or more. Reduced ambiance doesn't help either, but the biggest thing is Rise not being open for the last 3 months.

 

[RSoxNo1]

My point, of course, is that the land is not in a “preview” state, DIsney has declared SWGE “Now Open”.

Right, and this was a mistake...

 

[RobWDW1971]

If the land opened in it's entirety, the criticisms of the land would be largely offset by Rise of the Resistance (assuming it's great). Smugglers Run isn't as good as we had hoped, but it's bearing the brunt of the criticism because there's nothing to offset it that doesn't cost $100 or more. Reduced ambiance doesn't help either, but the biggest thing is Rise not being open for the last 3 months.

Totally agree - no question if ROTR was open it would have made the creative misses of Batuu and MFSR less apparent and it's opening will also have that effect on future guests. It goes to show the hubris of Disney to open the lands as they did and the confidence they mistakenly had in the first two elements.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Totally agree - no question if ROTR was open it would have made the creative misses of Batuu and MFSR less apparent and it's opening will also have that effect to future guests. It goes to show the hubris of Disney to open the lands as they did and the confidence they mistakenly had in the first two elements.

I think there's a level of delusion at Disney right now where they believe anything tied to an IP will be successful, regardless of quality. The elevator pitch for Smugglers Run is, "you get to pilot the Millennium Falcon". Then, the goal was to figure out how to do it. Historically, Disney has succeeded in producing things we didn't know we wanted. I think there are components of that in the land, but finding that delicate balance is tough. I think in this land, Rise of the Resistance was the epic attraction we didn't know we wanted. Smugglers Run is the Hogwarts Express of this land. Hogwarts Express has a very simple "simulator" component yet it scratches the itch of people that ride it. Sure, it has its own flaws, but in general people don't complain about. The question then becomes, what is it that people want to do on the Millennium Falcon? Should it be an active or passive experience? What should the experience be?

For me, I think it absolutely should be an active experience, but there needs to be gradients. The flight path is governed and the "rendered in real time" sales pitch ultimately disappoints on ride 2. There needs to be the ability for the pilots to modify the sensitivity and allow for me freedom on the mission. More missions would help, and why the Kessel Run wasn't the first mission, I have no idea.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I think this is probably gonna be my last post. Everyone here is so angry and toxic and hostile,especially in regards to Star Wars being a part of the parks. Disney is supposed to exist as an escape from reality and something fun and exciting to look forward to,and all I ever see on these boards is post after post of rage by people who are disappointed that whatever expectation they had in their head was not met. I'm gonna make the choice to enjoy the Disney experience,and while I appreciate the info that a lot of you post,the negativity is not in any way anything that contributes to my Disney experience. Hope you all have a magical day!

I’ve been posting on these forums for a loooong time and the amount of hate and vitriol posted here about SWGE is unprecedented. A great thing about these forums is that unlike some Disney fansites, negativity and criticisms are not silenced. But at the same time this leads to a hivemind of negativity and turning people so jaded that they can’t find anything to enjoy about the WDW anymore.

 

[RobWDW1971]

I think there's a level of delusion at Disney right now where they believe anything tied to an IP will be successful, regardless of quality. The elevator pitch for Smugglers Run is, "you get to pilot the Millennium Falcon". Then, the goal was to figure out how to do it. Historically, Disney has succeeded in producing things we didn't know we wanted. I think there are components of that in the land, but finding that delicate balance is tough. I think in this land, Rise of the Resistance was the epic attraction we didn't know we wanted. Smugglers Run is the Hogwarts Express of this land. Hogwarts Express has a very simple "simulator" component yet it scratches the itch of people that ride it. Sure, it has its own flaws, but in general people don't complain about. The question then becomes, what is it that people want to do on the Millennium Falcon? Should it be an active or passive experience? What should the experience be?

For me, I think it absolutely should be an active experience, but there needs to be gradients. The flight path is governed and the "rendered in real time" sales pitch ultimately disappoints on ride 2. There needs to be the ability for the pilots to modify the sensitivity and allow for me freedom on the mission. More missions would help, and why the Kessel Run wasn't the first mission, I have no idea.

But what is more sad and frustrating about Batuu and MFSR is that it's not a question of investment or quality, it's just poor storytelling and terrible creative choices, which is all on WDI. They spent an enormous amount of money on MFSR and an incredibly complex ride system that suffers from an "adventure" that is really just a boring errand you run in the dark to get some cans from some dude who is yelling at you.

To your point, if the adventure was the Kessel Run or going head to head with Tie Fighters (actually in space and not flying at ground level around a train) and going to battle with a Star Destroyer to save the Rebellion (er, Resistance), it would have been much better received. Having the pre-show being Han and Chewie would also have been incredible, but again, not an issue of cost/quality, a poor creative choice to lock the attraction into a limiting time period so your dream of flying the Falcon now includes, um, Hondo? Just countless incomprehensible creative decisions by WDI and they can't rely on their go to excuse of limited budgets.

 

[Kram Sacul]

 

[danlb_2000]

Incorrect. There is merchandise in the land that does say "STAR WARS" in it. Pictures and videos exist.

I haven't been able to find any of these pictures of videos. Anytime I have seen Star Wars on GE merch, it was on the back of package. Maybe there are a few things, but in general they have done a good job making everything to appear to be "in world" merchandise.

 

[danlb_2000]

I just find it mind boggling that people are going there and aren't blown away. We visited DL in October and will be at DW in three weeks, and we absolutely loved Galaxy's Edge. I didn't think much of SR but the area itself, the shops, the sound effects, the actors they do have, it was just an amazing experience. I was so ready to be completely let down but it really blew us away.

I feel like people that hyped themselves up might have set their expectations too high, but surely the vast majority of the public have no idea it's even a thing and are much more easily pleased than some theme park enthusiast who is aware of everything that is technically possible.

I have been a huge Star Wars fan since 1977, and I will honestly say that the land did not blow me away. What is there is very well executed, and it does a great job immersing you in the environment, but I just don't find this little segment of the Star Wars universe a fun place to be immersed in. I think Smugglers Run did a good job injecting some fun into the environment, especially with Hondo as the host of the attraction.

 

[No Name]

One could build a fully immersive carnival, but guests won’t like it any more than they like a carnival. A problem Disney’s faced before. In this case, they spent far more money to build a fully immersive fictional planet, but it’s not exactly captivating guests in the way they imagined. The level of immersion is certainly not the issue. The level of detail in the land is certainly not the issue. Rather, the content of the immersion and detail is the issue. Lost in these buzzwords, they forgot the foundation of why people want to visit themed environments in the first place.

The land is getting decent reviews. MFSR is getting good reviews relative to the average attraction. I do believe the consensus is slightly higher than Star Tours but below ToT, RnRC, TSMM, and SDD. For they money they’ve spent, I can see why they expected higher.

 

[RobWDW1971]

One could build a fully immersive carnival, but guests won’t like it any more than they like a carnival. A problem Disney’s faced before. In this case, they spent far more money to build a fully immersive fictional planet, but it’s not exactly captivating guests in the way they imagined. The level of immersion is certainly not the issue. The level of detail in the land is certainly not the issue. Rather, the content of the immersion and detail is the issue. Lost in these buzzwords, they forgot the foundation of why people want to visit themed environments in the first place.

The land is getting decent reviews. MFSR is getting good reviews relative to the average attraction. I do believe the consensus is slightly higher than Star Tours but below ToT, RnRC, TSMM, and SDD. For they money they’ve spent, I can see why they expected higher.

I would imagine higher than Star Tours 30+ years after opening, but not even close to the excitement or buzz of Star Tours in its era, that is what is so sad considering the resources and technology they had. Below Toy Story Midway Mania and Slinky is beyond humiliating.

 

[No Name]

I would imagine higher than Star Tours 30+ years after opening, but not even close to the excitement or buzz of Star Tours in its era, that is what is so sad considering the resources and technology they had. Below Toy Story Midway Mania and Slinky is beyond humiliating.

TSMM is and always has been extremely popular. I don’t think it’s humiliating that a new attraction doesn’t pass TSMM. I’m pretty sure TSMM is still higher than ToT for example. Yes Smuggler’s Run could be better received but that’s still a high bar.

 

[RobWDW1971]

TSMM is and always has been extremely popular. I don’t think it’s humiliating that a new attraction doesn’t pass TSMM. The Tower of Terror doesn’t pass it either, though it’s close.

I would imagine when Iger greenlit Star Wars Land and the huge budget for the Millenium Falcon attraction, he had higher aspirations than being rated below TSMM with guests. But yet, here we are...

 

[RobWDW1971]

One could build a fully immersive carnival, but guests won’t like it any more than they like a carnival. A problem Disney’s faced before. In this case, they spent far more money to build a fully immersive fictional planet, but it’s not exactly captivating guests in the way they imagined. The level of immersion is certainly not the issue. .

The level of immersion is actually a fundamental issue - I don’t think the average guest feels they are “immersed” without the citizens of Batuu that make it a real place. Without the needed roaming aliens, droids, bounty hunters, Jedi, etc. it’s not a “living and breathing” Star Wars land so it can’t be truly immersive, but it can be a very detailed set with an impressive static Falcon in the middle.

That’s actually the problem - it’s not immersive, it’s not fun, it’s not exciting, it’s just “detailed”.