Well, that all looks pretty darn impressive. I consider myself barely a Star Wars fan and even I'm geeking out over the details and glimpses that have been released in the last 12 hours. This land looks like it will set new benchmarks for theme park design.
As we learn more about the area, it will be fascinating to see how Disney handles crowds. Just looking at the amount of time needed to experience this land:
- Ride Rise of the Resistance - 1:30 total experience time (factoring what seems to be a lengthy ride time)
- Ride Smuggler's Run - 1:00 (2:30 total)
- Order and eat lunch at a CS spot - 1:00 (3:30 total)
- Order and enjoy drinks at the Cantina - 00:30 (4:00 total)
- Browse various merchandise shops - 1:00 (5:00 total)
- Enjoy any streetmosphere entertainment - 00:30 (5:30 total)
- Additional time for snacks, photos, enjoying the area's atmosphere, walking to/from rides, bathroom breaks, etc. - 00:30 (6:00 total)
I easily hit six hours if someone wanted to try to see everything the land has to offer, and that was using stupidly conservative times. The waits for the two rides will inevitably be closer to a bajillion hours each rather than the 45-60 mins I used. That one hour of shopping time doesn't include the inevitable lines at check-out, not to mention expected waits if you want to build a droid or lightsaber. And any food/dining is liable to have 15-30 min waits just to get to the point of order.
I'm sure a lot of folks will get exhausted/frustrated at the waits or have minimal interest in all the Star Wars details and will just go on the two rides and then leave. But for a lot of others, this is a dream coming true and they'll be there as long as possible. They'll want to ride each attraction multiple times, get every drink at the Cantina, and just sit on a bench and take it all in.
How will Disney handle it? Timed reservations just to enter the land? Limiting how many times you can ride each attraction? Strict ordering limits on drinks and food? Or do you go macro and keep the land open continuously for 2 days? 3 days? A week?
Right there with you. Maybe Disney will surprise us and, on opening day in Anaheim, announce that the Phase 2 expansion with TS restaurant and third attraction will open 2022 or something.
We do have a bit of an analog for this with Pandora at Animal Kingdom. Guest enjoyment of that area is pretty high and I bet 95% of them couldn't care less about the movie. It shows a large scale, quality, immersive experience can be successful even when based on a meh IP (not that SW is that!).
Some SW super fans may gripe, but they'll still be there giddy as a kid. Because Batuu isn't tied to a specific trilogy, it's pretty easy to swap in whatever SW time period you want. It's basically a blank SW canvas, and you can just as easily imagine Luke, Han, and Leia shuffling through the marketplace as you can Rey, Poe, and Finn. Ditto the Falcon ride - some people will envision themselves as Han Solo as they sit in the pilot's chair while others might think of Rey.
Personally, I'll imagine I'm Lando in RofJ, and Han will get that shield down, we just gotta give him more time!
Talk about a quantum leap from Mr. Lincoln. Here's hoping that they can keep them up and running on the maintenance side.
