D23 EXPO 2019 Superthread - dates announced!

[disney minnie]

I was a gunner... very little. When the button lights up... hit it.

 

[ParkHopper1]

So here is my take from opening day reservation...

You are correct everyone bolts for SR and the Cantina...so we spent the first hour just exploring and grabbing a bite. We then hopped in line for the Cantina which was an hour wait...any longer and they close the line...so if you can get in line and it it is double backed to the door, it is about an hour to get in from that point.

We hit SR in the third hour and it was a 15 min wait time. By the third hour, everyone had gone though...but since the reservation windows overlap by an hour, there is a new rush of people at the beginning if your fourth hour and wait times shoot bach\k up to 120, so you wanna hit it in hour three for shortest line but NO later for maximum use of time.

We walked in 10 min after rope drop of our reservation time nice and casually with zero cattle call, waiting in line or hassle and did not miss one thing the hordes of folded that lined up well in advance did. Zero need to rush in unless you wanna just get to a 120 min standby line faster!

We were in the 2p-6p group

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I was an engineer. I pressed a few buttons. They light up, so it’s pretty obvious when you’re supposed to hit them. It would definitely be cooler to be a pilot.

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1134680414692315138

 

[Tink1987]

We were the gunner and engineers on our two rides. Always been my worry about it seeming a bit more ‘boring’ being these two positions - whilst I now wouldn’t call it boring it did look awesome to the the pilot. Up front and more things to do.

 

[Tink1987]

The land and overall theming are outstanding. The interactivity and overall experience of Falcon: Smugglers Run was an easy D Ticket attraction. The only thing keeping it away from being an E Ticket is that your experience is greatly enhanced if you have a good group of people working together. My group of friends and family went twice and the second run was much better and seemed to last longer than the first experience. Mostly due to to us knowing what to expect.

The only issue that we ran into is that we were told an hour before our reservation expired that we couldn't get in line for the Cantina (probably a 10 minute way based on what they told me earlier when the line was longer), Lightsaber Experience (didn't know I would need a reservation), or Re-ride Smugglers Run (Showing a 10 minute wait and 5 minutes before the next wave of guests came in). Well that made the end of our experience a horrible one. We already ate and we already shopped. Why turn me away when there is an hour left. A bit easier for me since I have an AP (hurts that paid for the one night at the hotel), but cannot imagine how disappointing it would be if this was my one and only visiting opportunity.

With that experience, here is my recommended strategy.

Arrive 30 minute early of the start time of your reservation. When the rope drops, the majority of the guests will be headed to the Cantina of Smugglers Run.
- Go to the Cantina First. Cantina is constantly busy but the line for Smugglers Run will dwindle as the time goes on.
- After the Cantina, make a reservation for the Lightsaber Experience. I didn't realize I would need one, so do that second
- Now ride Smugglers Run. They may tell you that you can only ride once but if the wait time is walk on they will let you go again. You can also try for the Single Rider Line
- Save the Shopping and Eating for the last hour as that is the only thing I was allowed to do for that last hour of my reservation.

ME

On our second ride on the Falcon the pilots were telling us that their first ride was awful as it was kids being the pilots and they just didn’t do anything. They had to keep shouting over to tell them to move. I think there will be adjustments made with how you enter with your boarding cards as if you aren’t a group of 6 together, the other members of your group wonder off. There were cast members constantly wondering around ours looking for the rest of the blue group etc. It’s a bit awkward when they ask you - we were like yeah we don’t know these people haha.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

We're not interested in the Cantina (party is mostly kids) or Lightsaber Experience (too expensive), so is there still a need to arrive early if so?

We're thinking of arriving about 30 minutes into our reservation. Then we'll do some shopping the first hour or so at the toy shop, droid depot (not the experience but the merchandise), and maybe some other places before doing Smugglers Run. Is the single rider line a good option? Is the queuing for the standby worth going through? I'd like to ride twice. Then we'll grab some blue milk using mobile ordering before exiting an hour early for lunch outside of SWGE.

 

[Tink1987]

We're not interested in the Cantina (party is mostly kids) or Lightsaber Experience (too expensive), so is there still a need to arrive early if so?

We're thinking of arriving about 30 minutes into our reservation. Then we'll do some shopping the first hour or so at the toy shop, droid depot (not the experience but the merchandise), and maybe some other places before doing Smugglers Run. Is the single rider line a good option? Is the queuing for the standby worth going through? I'd like to ride twice. Then we'll grab some blue milk using mobile ordering before exiting an hour early for lunch outside of SWGE.

Is your reservation at 8am? Think it will be as you mention leaving for lunch but wanted to check before answering.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Is your reservation at 8am? Think it will be as you mention leaving for lunch but wanted to check before answering.

Our reservation is at 11am, we're thinking of leaving at 2pm for lunch. We're typically late lunchers so it works out well for us.

 

[disney minnie]

Based on what was said I think the last two reports were from the first group that went in.

I was in the second group...11-3. We were watching the times of the first group on the app while they were in Galaxys Edge. We watch the ride go down to 5 minutes and were excited. We walked in and got in line for the Cantina (1 hour). Once you are in you will most likely be standing as there are not many seats and it’s not a big area. When you get about 10 groups away they will take your name and party size. While my husband, son, daughter stayed in line I walked over and bought some blue milk.

If you want to build your own lightsaber - go there first. When we walked over after the Cantina they had booked all the spots for the day. We saw some people in our hotel elevator and they said they were in line to build a lightsaber for 4 HOURS! They had the same time I did.

After the Cantina we went to try and find some food since the ride had a 60 minute wait. The restaurant line was at least an hour long and the mobile order time period was after we left. I then found Rontos Roasters and did a mobile order since the line was so long. The earliest available time was 1:30-2:00 so we got in line for the ride that now said 50 minutes. (It got as low as 45 and then went to 90 minutes)

After the ride (truly was a solid hour), we put in for our food to be ready. At 1:58 (before the next group at 2:00) we got in line for the antiquities. Since the next group was about to walk in the didn’t want any lines formed. So they tried to turn us away. We had an hour left but couldn’t form a line anywhere... They ended up letting the group in.

Since we were not building a droid or lightsaber we left a little after 2:00 since it was crowded and we had done everything else

 

[Mousequake]

- After the Cantina, make a reservation for the Lightsaber Experience. I didn't realize I would need one, so do that second

Can you elaborate a bit on the reservations for lightsabers? Do you just go up and they tell you a time to come back?

 

[Tink1987]

Our reservation is at 11am, we're thinking of leaving at 2pm for lunch. We're typically late lunchers so it works out well for us.

I would personally say get in at 11am then and then you can decide to definitely leave an hour early still if you wish. I worry if you go in 30 minutes late you may then realise how much you want to do and not leave early. Especially if you want to do shopping first. As the reservations overlapped we could do empty spaceport shopping at like 8:15 but when we went back to get one more shirt at 11:15 when the second reservation period had been let in, it was getting a bit manic. And the Falcon went straight up to like 80 minutes then. When it had been a walk on only a short while before. The milk queue (not something I thought I would ever type ) was getting long too then and the PhotoPass queues in front of the Falcon particularly must have been over 30 mins then.

 

[Jperiod]

Where are the prices for Savi's? Anyone have a photo of this case? how do you carry it around after? can the blade detach?
edited to add: are they really limiting the experience to 2 people?! What in the world do parents do? We only want one saber, but we both want to watch! Anyone want to watch my kids?

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

We have 8 am in the morning tomorrow (6/1) and kids want to do lightsabers. I’m hearing people say that it took 4 hrs because they went to the cantina or SR first. So I think we’re going straight to make a lightsaber reservation, then explore, then the ride at 10-10:15 hopefully. We do have a 5-9 pm reservation from our GCH stay, also, so we’ll try to do more later. But are you suggesting that I may not have to drag my kids out of bed at 5:30am, and could maybe arrive around 7 or something? That extra bit of sleep could make a huge difference in our day.

 

[disney minnie]

I commented earlier that we went to the Cantina and then went to check on the other stuff and if we had wanted to do a lightsaber we would not have been able to build one as all the reservations were gone for the day.

We then met a group on the elevator at the GC they said they went straight to the lightsaber and waited in line for 4 hours to be able to build.

 

[pharmama]

Where are the prices for Savi's? Anyone have a photo of this case? how do you carry it around after? can the blade detach?

$199 plus tax for the lightsaber and kyber crystal. You can buy other crystals and accessories in Dok-Ondar's. The blade does detach. The case is a black soft sided bag that has a long strap. I saw people carrying them around across their backs or over their shoulders last weekend.
You can see the case on the table with the lightsaber at the beginning of this video

 

[disney minnie]

Our time was 11-3. We walked in the park a little after 9:00am stopped in main street to buy some pins and then walked over to the Lanch Bay. We had our wrist bands by 9:30,

 

[DLRExpert]

Can you elaborate a bit on the reservations for lightsabers? Do you just go up and they tell you a time to come back?

The Cast Member asked if I had a reservation. I didn't know that I would need one. Again only an hour left so I couldn't even attempt to get a reservation.

There looked to be a set of booths taking down reservations and also a group of people lining up by the entry door.
When I originally saw the area, I thought it was just a rest area.

Sorry that I cannot help.

ME

 

[Quam]

The land and overall theming are outstanding. The interactivity and overall experience of Falcon: Smugglers Run was an easy D Ticket attraction. The only thing keeping it away from being an E Ticket is that your experience is greatly enhanced if you have a good group of people working together. My group of friends and family went twice and the second run was much better and seemed to last longer than the first experience. Mostly due to to us knowing what to expect.

The only issue that we ran into is that we were told an hour before our reservation expired that we couldn't get in line for the Cantina (probably a 10 minute wait based on what they told me earlier when the line was longer), Lightsaber Experience (didn't know I would need a reservation), or Re-ride Smugglers Run (Showing a 10 minute wait and 5 minutes before the next wave of guests came in). Well that made the end of our experience a horrible one. We already ate and we already shopped. Why turn me away when there is an hour left. A bit easier for me since I have an AP (hurts that paid for the one night at the hotel), but cannot imagine how disappointing it would be if this was my one and only visiting opportunity.

With that experience, here is my recommended strategy.

Arrive 30 minute early of the start time of your reservation. When the rope drops, the majority of the guests will be headed to the Cantina of Smugglers Run.
- Go to the Cantina First. Cantina is constantly busy but the line for Smugglers Run will dwindle as the time goes on.
- After the Cantina, make a reservation for the Lightsaber Experience. I didn't realize I would need one, so do that second
- Now ride Smugglers Run. They may tell you that you can only ride once but if the wait time is walk on they will let you go again. You can also try for the Single Rider Line
- Save the Shopping and Eating for the last hour as that is the only thing I was allowed to do for that last hour of my reservation.

ME

Thank you for sharing!

We are in the 8-12 group. Do you think or know if we can make a lightsaber reservation and then get in line for SR? Would the timing work out?

 

[Jperiod]

$199 plus tax for the lightsaber and kyber crystal. You can buy other crystals and accessories in Dok-Ondar's. The blade does detach. The case is a black soft sided bag that has a long strap. I saw people carrying them around across their backs or over their shoulders last weekend.
You can see the case on the table with the lightsaber at the beginning of this video

Thanks!! Is there an option to just build and buy the hilt?