I went to SW:GE for opening day and had a wonderful time!!! It went like this...
I had very little concrete info off of which to go as of the prior afternoon, so my Opening Day arrival plans were still fluid when I went to bed. I had a 9am ADR at Oga's, so I knew I could get in with that at 8, but I hoped to be there when it opened, just to have that special experience. I set my alarm for 2am, but was awake at midnight, checking in with friends and the Internet, where I learned that cars were being turned away from the DHS parking lot, and people were being held back on the pathway from BW to DHS. So I tossed and turned and tried to sleep a little and got up a little before 2am. I was at POP and wandered over to the bus stops, just to see what I could see - and there was a line of about 50 people waiting for the DHS bus. A CM said buses wouldn't start until 3:30am. I went back to my room, gathered my stuff for the day, and drove over to DHS. At around 2:30, cars were backed up about 15-deep from the toll booths, but were moving through. LOTS of people handing over money, so I guess a lot of them were offsite/local and non-AP. I parked quickly, and very close to the entrance, and walked over to bag check, where I met up with friends.
Bag check was moving, but stopped and the security CM told us the entry plaza was full, so we'd be holding until that group of people were moved into the park, and then we'd move into the entry plaza. Which was exactly what happened, and then that first group was moved through the park toward GE, we moved through the tapstiles and into the park, and I was next to ST around 4:30am, and walking into GE a little before 5am.
As we slowly inched into Batuu, we saw CMs lined up along the sides of the path and seeing the pride and excitement on their faces was amazing! If there was something special done to open the land, it was too far ahead of me to see, but seeing the folks who worked so hard to bring this place together was, for me, worth the early wake-up. The crowd got as far as where a path branches off to the Marketplace and stopped. The Marketplace path was blocked off by CMs and, after being stopped for about 20 minutes, I asked a CM if we were all waiting for the land to open, or for the ride... and she explained the only thing open was the ride, so we were ALL in line for it - about a 5-hour wait! At that point, the path to the Marketplace opened and I bailed on MFSR. No way was I waiting 5 hours for it!
I spent an hour wandering through the Marketplace and the rest of Batuu, just taking it all in. The scale was incredible - so much bigger and more expansive than I'd imagined. SO many details everywhere I looked. I ran into Vi Moradi and we had a little chat about working undercover and good places to trade intel, and I had multiple conversations with various Batuuans about their home planets, jobs, life on Batuu, etc. I was so impressed with how hard the CMs had all worked to get this interactive element going, and it really makes the place what it is, as far as I'm concerned. I worry that once the novelty wears off, and if WDW doesn't actively support CMs in the role-playing, it'll get lost and that would really be a shame. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
By 6am, I was hungry and met friends at Docking Bay 7 for breakfast. I had a very yummy Bright Suns Youngling Breakfast Platter... with a SPORK! Wonder how long those will last. We wandered around some more afterward, and I went to Oga's for my 9am ADR. Oga's in the morning was kind of... weird. It looked like a bar, but a bar at 9am feels odd. The atmosphere felt kind of stiff and confused - my bartender seemed harried and stressed. I had a Tarine Tea and Lava Roll and left.
At that point, I was exhausted and decided to head back to POP for some sleep. My plan was to head back to GE around 4pm for my 6pm ADR at Oga's and I joined the VQ for an estimated return time of "afternoon", but I was awake at 2pm and saw that GE was open - no VQ in use anymore - so I headed back and walked right in at 3:30pm. That was unexpected! More unexpected was how light the crowds were compared to the morning. MUCH better!
MFSR was my priority and it had a posted wait of 110 minutes, which would get me done just in time for Oga's, so I joined the queue. I would never, ever wait that long for it again, but was happy to do so that one time! Hondo was amazing: so lifelike! I and another single rider were added to a party of 4 to make our crew and we were both Engineers. I had no idea what I was doing, and barely caught what we were doing in general, but didn't care - BECAUSE I WAS IN THE COCKPIT OF THE FALCON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just so cool. ♥
I got off and booked over to Oga's, where I joined friends and saw what the place is supposed to be like. TOTALLY different than my morning visit! Rowdy, rambunctious, a real wretched hive of scum and villainy. Music was pumping, drinks were flowing, and it was a blast making new friends with the random strangers assigned to our table! I tried the Jedi Mind Trick and White Wampa Ale, loved both, and had a wonderful time.
I wandered back to the Falcon and saw that Single Rider was open, so I did that. Single Rider skips the entire queue - no Hondo
- but I waited less than 3 minutes to get in. So I rode (gunner that time), and went in search of Milk without an hour-long line. Success was had, and I tried the Green Milk with tequila - very good!
At that point, it was about an hour before park closing and I was BEAT, so I shuffled back to the POP bus and crashed for the night.
The next day, I met a friend at EP for a few hours, then went back to GE for the evening. Again, no VQ and I walked right in at 2:30pm! There had been a 2-hour wait to get into Dok Ondar's the previous day, so I skipped it, but was able to walk right in the following day. What a fun shop! I was there a while, looking at all of the SW artifacts. Wound up buying a few Sith and Jedi inspiration stones. All I could afford in there lol!
Wandered around Batuu some more, talked to more CMs, rode MFSR a few times via Single Rider, and tried the Blue Milk - that was really good, too. Some local friends stopped in and we asked if Oga was accepting walk-ups... she was! We waited 10-15 minutes and went in. It was even better that night! We sang the drinking song and helped power DJ R3X back up, and had a blast with our bartender. I tried the Outer Rim and Dagobah Slug-Slinger and don't ever need to order either again. They were fine, but not exceptional.
After Oga's, I walked around some more before heading back to POP, and home the next day.
I absolutely loved my visits to GE and can't wait to go back for more! I think Disney got it exactly right. The sound effects are perfect, the CMs are incredible, the architecture and details immediately give the sense that you're in a SW place, but it's also all new and ready to make it part of your own story. I thought that was gimmicky and silly until I was in it. I am now a believer.
