After planning a group trip ever since SWGE was announced with the main focus of going just for this land- we finally went and just returned! I go to
Disneyland all the time but we traveled for this trip with first timers that are hardcore Star Wars fans.
Here’s my thoughts on everything if anyone cares to read them.
Oga’s Cantina: I felt this lived up to the hype. It was an amazing experience. DJ Rex is one of my absolute favorite parts of the land. I was surprised at how strong the drinks were but for the price, I guess that’s good! I also really enjoyed the frozen blue milk. My nine year old loved it and was having a good time jamming out. He’s also a bit laidback for his age because we travel so often so he enjoyed it- wasn’t bored at all. They didn’t ask for ID for anyone in our group which surprised me. But I suppose now that I’m 32 it’s time to accept the fact I can’t pass for young anymore! I just figured that at Disney they’d be extra cautious so it surprised me. Our bars here in Colorado card you no matter how old you look!
Falcon: The first time we rode I was the pilot and I got to do the jump to light speed. This was like a spiritual experience for me as a huge Star Wars fan since I was a kid and I cried. That being said, it was definitely my favorite role even though I was terrible at it. Engineer was surprisingly fun, it was nice to be in the back and get the whole view. Gunner was my least favorite, I felt like it was just pushing the same button again and again. We had a group of six so we rode three times to make sure we all got to do each position. I think having the whole thing to ourselves definitely made it more fun- we felt free to scream, yell, whoop, and cry with abandon. I wish they would allow more time to explore the inside before the ride starts. We barely had time to snap pictures before they moved us into the cockpit.
Food: We all loved everything we tried at Oga’s. We ate at Docking Bay and it was just ‘meh’ for our group. I’m a vegetarian and the weird tofu meatball/hummus option was gross with weird flavors I’m just too picky to enjoy. I was able to order my picky son (runs in the family ha!) sides of mac and cheese with no issue which I appreciated. The others in our group tried everything else and compared it to cafeteria food. They didn’t get a chance to try the Ronto wraps or green milk. Everyone liked the blue milk and popcorn.
Savi’s Workshop and Droid Depot: We planned this out to do droids first for the two kids in our group followed immediately with lightsabers for the adults. This worked well to curb any ‘but I want one too!’ complaints as they had the droid to hold at Savi’s. Droid building was great- my son loved to build and he did it all with no help. We’d definitely do this again because now I want one! Had no issues with the online reservation or checking in for it. Glad I follow these boards so close so I wasn’t surprised to see they were out of personality chips and the backpacks and was prepared.
Savi’s Workshop was amazing. Our group was pretty quick to build ours because we’ve all been planning these lightsabers for months so we felt we had more than enough time. The experience itself was moving and immersive. The only thing that went wrong is when it was time to light up the sabers, they didn’t turn my blade in all the way so it wasn’t lit for ~that~ moment. It happens and they showed me how to fix it as soon as they saw but still was a bummer. Either way, I felt it was worth it. We went and took a gazallion pictures with them (we planned it to build at night so they’d glow better) and the PhotoPass photographer was great. He spent a ton of time with us and we got great pictures. Aside from him, our other experiences with the PhotoPass people in SWGE was not good at all. The photographers themselves (four others we used over the few days) were curt and rude- which really shocked me because we always do tons of PhotoPass photos and have always had nice folks. My son and I wanted a magic shot with a porg so bad (especially with them being sold out of the porg puppets
) so we went to every single one trying to find them on the last day. They told me the ‘magic’ is by the resistance so we walked over there and the guy was also rushed and curt just quickly nodding at my magic shot question and posing us. After I asked if we got one with a porg and he said ‘there’s a magic shot in there’ so I gave up. We got the x-wings in the background but not the porg. Oh well! And each time there was hardly a line behind us so I didn’t get the attitudes. Perhaps they’re strapped for photographers and they’re working them too hard over there? It was odd. We stayed friendly regardless because you never know what’s happening behind the scenes.
As a group of hardcore Star Wars fans, we loved the land. We spent hours looking at all the details and taking it all in. I was definitely one of those people that cried when I saw the falcon. I don’t get the negativity about the focus on the new movies... if you take the time to drink in the Easter eggs you’ll see that the focus is really on the saga and a testament to the films Lucas gave us.
But on the flip side, I can also get how the mild fan wouldn’t spend long in this land with only one ride open right now. And with the droids and lightsaber, for most people those are pretty one and done moments. As for my lightsaber, I found a cool wall mount on
Amazon and she’s going up on my wall.
We had no issues flying with it which was great. I can’t wait to go back!!
). What I need is apple juice in a Porg cup, haha. Methinks that The Boy and I might just make a quick run through Ogas and let DH linger to enjoy his drink.
Please and thank you!
I am doing MM tomorrow with my PH ticket then converting to DAP late morning.
