Here's an operational update from Disneyland on the first day of open access to Star Wars Land. I offer this as a compare/contrast because it appears the Disneyland strategy of three weeks of reservations followed by a "virtual queue" to enter the land has created a surprisingly low turnout.
I can easily imagine that WDW management is learning from this and likely will amp up the marketing and ability to get into the land when it opens August 29th.
Early this morning as the sun rose over SoCal, only two or three dozen people had arrived early waiting to get into Disneyland at its 7:00am gate opening.
Closer to 7:00am the crowd had grown a bit, but was still tiny.
By this afternoon, Millennium Falcon had the longest line in the park by far (it is NOT offering Fastpass, only a regular line). But the wait times throughout Disneyland and DCA were very low for this time of year, with obviously light crowds. It was sunny and 78 degrees in Anaheim at 3:00pm when these E Ticket wait times were captured via the Disneyland App, so weather was perfect for a day at Disneyland. (I've cut and pasted the following from a thread about low wait times over in the Disneyland forum)
Pirates, Small World, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion - 5 Minutes
Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Tours - 10 Minutes
Submarines, Incredicoaster - 15 Minutes
Indiana Jones Adventure - 20 Minutes
Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Soarin' Over California, Grizzly River Run - 25 Minutes
Hyperspace Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds - 30 Minutes
Radiator Springs Racers - 75 Minutes
Millennium Falcon: Target Run - 80 Minutes
The rest of the C and D Tickets in both parks have more 5 and 10 minute wait times. Everything in Fantasyland is 5 or 10 minutes; Pinocchio, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Roger Rabbit, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Storybook Land, except Peter Pan's Flight at 30 minutes. Winnie the Pooh and Monsters Inc. dark rides are 5 minutes. The Canoes are 5 minutes. The six spinners in DCA plus Little Mermaid are all 5 minutes. Autopia and the Disneyland Railroad is 5 minutes. Buzz Lightyear is 10 minutes. Luigi's Roadsters and the Pixar death wheel is 15 minutes. Midway Mania is 30 minutes.
At 5:05pm they turned off the "Virtual Queue" and allowed anyone into the land, free-flow. The wait time for Millennium Falcon with the land wide open is now 60 minutes.
So, needless to say, after an extremely manageable three plus weeks of reservation-only access, Star Wars Land at Disneyland is now officially open for anyone who wants to go in. The result is a surprisingly low crowd turnout and very low wait times at both parks.
Who would have thunk it?!?
We are talking over in the Disneyland forum how TDA must be in panic mode over this, but I do have to wonder how they will operate the opening of Star Wars Land at DHS based on the surprising low turnout at Disneyland?