We just got back late last night from a Friday 6/21- Wednesday 6/26 trip. Crowds were definitely picking up on Wednesday, which I'm guessing were related to early July 4th vacationers. The CMs we spoke to in DCA were frankly relieved as they said it'd been pretty boring. We spent Tuesday in DL - originally we'd planned to completely avoid that park because of SWGE crowds, but after seeing how dead it was Monday, changed our minds - and after finishing up some funnel cake at Hungry Bear around 8:30, we actually went *through Galaxy's Edge* to get around the Fantasmic crowds so we could watch the fireworks on Main St!
We had the last reservation period (8-midnight on the 23rd) and the land was pretty empty then. Falcon was an absolute walk-on! Very big contrast to our 8-noon reservation on the 22nd, which was jam-packed! I loved the theming of the land, but it wasn't until we actually walked onto the Falcon that I felt like I was "in" Star Wars. There's definitely not the same feeling of recognition in the rest of the land, not like, say, walking into Hogsmeade. The cantina was also fun, but neither my husband or I are big drinkers and the kids got bored pretty quickly. There's really not much for small kids - all my 6yo wanted to do was keep riding the Falcon, he thought the rest of it was pretty meh. Rey and Chewbacca have a "teach the kids how to spy on the First Order" thing, but after they did that once, they had no interest in interacting with the characters again. We loved the Falcon ride, but were pretty awful at it. Since we were 2 adults and 2 kids under 7, they required us to either ride next to or behind the kids, so we couldn't both pilot at the same time (though how increasingly angry Hondo got while the 3yo was piloting was hilarious) and though we swapped with other adults a couple times so they could be the pilots, none of them were particularly good either. If you have issues with inclines, the ramps in the standby queue can be rough, though I suspect that was because we were practically rushing through the queue since it was completely empty.
As for merch, the creature stall was fantastic - - kids got a rathtar and a Lothcat (I think we got one off the first shipment according to the creature CM? the CMs in the rest of the park were fascinated by it) during our first reservation window and proceeded to insist on toting them around for the rest of the vacation, so now all our family photos have a tentacle monster in them... - and I wanted to buy everything from the Toydarian toy stall. Dok Ondor's was a great place to explore when it was quiet but a claustrophobic mess when crowded.
We ate dinner there (mobile ordering worked great!). I thought the ronto wraps were delicious (but overpriced) and the kids liked the chicken kids' meal. For those with picky eaters, it's basically a giant breaded chicken nugget on top of mac and cheese. Rather than the packaged baby carrots, they give them some green beans (like the Carthay Circle ones) and a small cooked whole carrot. Probably our most fun in the land - besides the Falcon - was sitting at a table by the Ronto Roasters and people watching. Chewbacca was photobombing people taking selfies, stormtroopers were questioning people, it was pretty fun and honestly relaxing.
I did get a survey that specifically asked how much of a fan I was of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars, respectively, and if I'd be returning to DL once Rise of the Resistance opened. Also lots of questions about wait times in Galaxy's Edge and how crowded I felt the parks were. My husband commented that the DL execs must be frantic with how absolutely uncrowded the parks were while we were there, but I saw a ton of people lugging bags full of SWGE merchandise, so I'm wondering if it's working the way they intended. We definitely ended up buying more stuff (because we could actually SEE the merchandise) during the quieter reservation period than that crazy busy morning one.
All in all, while we didn't *love* it, we liked it, and we're looking forward to seeing it again when we go back in October, though I'm guessing the crowds will be worse.
