lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
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On Saturday, thanks to the amazing generosity of our pal and DISer Pryncess Chrysty, we got to attend a preview of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and take for you approximately 1 billion photos. Also, formulate opinions…
If you have already booked a trip to see Galaxy’s Edge, STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW! (OK, maybe just scroll through the photos to make Patrick feel better about all the time he invested). In fact, stop reading anybody’s opinion and just go experience it for yourself.
But if you’re on the fence or waiting a year or 10 for the crowds die down, here’s what Patrick and I thought of the place....

Galaxy’s Edge model in Star Wars Launch Bay
1. A Regular Visit Will Probably Be Way Better Than The 4-Hour Preview
Don’t let those photos from the cast member previews and the first few reservation-only days fool you: Galaxy’s Edge was NOT an empty paradise for people lucky enough to snag a reservation.
We had a reservation for 5pm–9pm on Saturday, June 16, and this is the line to get in at 4:30pm.

For reference, this is how far we were from Batuu at that point:

The one good thing about standing in this crowd was getting to talk to a pro who’d already been 3 times and learn that, even if we dashed straight to hot-ticket Oga’s Cantina to make a reservation to return during our window, there was a good chance we’d waste nearly half of our 4 hours in the line, only to have it cut off before we could make a reservation (as happened to him).
I’m sure the Cantina will be just as busy when Galaxy’s Edge opens to the public, but at least you’ll have an entire day’s worth of reservations open to you if you’re willing to get there early and wait in line. (Though apparently Touring Plans thinks they’ll still sell out within an hour!)
The 4-hour windows also overlap, which means that your first and last hours are crazy-crowded, so you really only get 2 hours in the land with a sane crowd level. So there’s extra pressure to see and do everything rather than just soak up the experience.

2. They Still Don’t Have Crowd Control Figured Out
I’d read all these glowing reviews of Disney’s crowd control during the reservation period, but our experience was decidedly different. Each new group is only permitted to enter Galaxy’s Edge along a prescribed path that skirts the edge of the land, then turns left to pass Oga’s and head toward the Millennium Falcon. But our 5pm group got stopped for 10 whole minutes right around where the blue milk stand is, and nobody—cast members or guests—knew why we weren’t moving. Meanwhile, guests from the previous reservation period were weaving in and out of our crowd as CMs extended their arms to keep us herded into the bottleneck. It was extremely frustrating to a group who just wanted to see the dang Falcon already!
Someone finally figured out that the stationary line for Oga’s was mixed in with the rest of us who just wanted to explore and separated out the line. At last, we saw the dang Falcon already!




At that point the wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was 35 minutes, and the line stretched outside the building but didn’t fill the entire exterior queue, so we jumped in it. The exterior portion lets you view a great deal of the Falcon, and then there are windows along the upper level of the indoor queue that give you different vantage points on the ship, which is really nice.






This is supposed to look like a face, right? It’s not just me?

So my favorite Tweet from the Grand Opening of Galaxy’s Edge was by @MattSchiavone75

…AND the dish really is wrong! Any kid who had a Millennium Falcon toy growing up knows that!


Some Stormtroopers came out a door next to the exterior queue and started awkward interactions with a few people in line. It seemed like they hadn’t got a handle on which pre-recorded lines to access and when. Sometimes they would even repeat the same question after you answered it! But this seems like it has the potential to be a really fun element of a visit to Galaxy’s Edge once they get the hang of it.





There is a lot of junk to look at in the lower portion of the queue! They also have audio of some mechanics working on the ships that sounds like it was recorded by two bros who just walked across the hall from a voiceover session for a Geico ad. This seems like a missed opportunity for that classic Star Wars gag of an English speaker conversing with a creature or a droid in such a way that we know what they’re talking about even though we only understand half the conversation.












PUSH, is that you…?
If you have already booked a trip to see Galaxy’s Edge, STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW! (OK, maybe just scroll through the photos to make Patrick feel better about all the time he invested). In fact, stop reading anybody’s opinion and just go experience it for yourself.
But if you’re on the fence or waiting a year or 10 for the crowds die down, here’s what Patrick and I thought of the place....

Galaxy’s Edge model in Star Wars Launch Bay
1. A Regular Visit Will Probably Be Way Better Than The 4-Hour Preview
Don’t let those photos from the cast member previews and the first few reservation-only days fool you: Galaxy’s Edge was NOT an empty paradise for people lucky enough to snag a reservation.
We had a reservation for 5pm–9pm on Saturday, June 16, and this is the line to get in at 4:30pm.

For reference, this is how far we were from Batuu at that point:

The one good thing about standing in this crowd was getting to talk to a pro who’d already been 3 times and learn that, even if we dashed straight to hot-ticket Oga’s Cantina to make a reservation to return during our window, there was a good chance we’d waste nearly half of our 4 hours in the line, only to have it cut off before we could make a reservation (as happened to him).
I’m sure the Cantina will be just as busy when Galaxy’s Edge opens to the public, but at least you’ll have an entire day’s worth of reservations open to you if you’re willing to get there early and wait in line. (Though apparently Touring Plans thinks they’ll still sell out within an hour!)
The 4-hour windows also overlap, which means that your first and last hours are crazy-crowded, so you really only get 2 hours in the land with a sane crowd level. So there’s extra pressure to see and do everything rather than just soak up the experience.

2. They Still Don’t Have Crowd Control Figured Out
I’d read all these glowing reviews of Disney’s crowd control during the reservation period, but our experience was decidedly different. Each new group is only permitted to enter Galaxy’s Edge along a prescribed path that skirts the edge of the land, then turns left to pass Oga’s and head toward the Millennium Falcon. But our 5pm group got stopped for 10 whole minutes right around where the blue milk stand is, and nobody—cast members or guests—knew why we weren’t moving. Meanwhile, guests from the previous reservation period were weaving in and out of our crowd as CMs extended their arms to keep us herded into the bottleneck. It was extremely frustrating to a group who just wanted to see the dang Falcon already!
Someone finally figured out that the stationary line for Oga’s was mixed in with the rest of us who just wanted to explore and separated out the line. At last, we saw the dang Falcon already!




At that point the wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was 35 minutes, and the line stretched outside the building but didn’t fill the entire exterior queue, so we jumped in it. The exterior portion lets you view a great deal of the Falcon, and then there are windows along the upper level of the indoor queue that give you different vantage points on the ship, which is really nice.






This is supposed to look like a face, right? It’s not just me?

So my favorite Tweet from the Grand Opening of Galaxy’s Edge was by @MattSchiavone75

…AND the dish really is wrong! Any kid who had a Millennium Falcon toy growing up knows that!


Some Stormtroopers came out a door next to the exterior queue and started awkward interactions with a few people in line. It seemed like they hadn’t got a handle on which pre-recorded lines to access and when. Sometimes they would even repeat the same question after you answered it! But this seems like it has the potential to be a really fun element of a visit to Galaxy’s Edge once they get the hang of it.





There is a lot of junk to look at in the lower portion of the queue! They also have audio of some mechanics working on the ships that sounds like it was recorded by two bros who just walked across the hall from a voiceover session for a Geico ad. This seems like a missed opportunity for that classic Star Wars gag of an English speaker conversing with a creature or a droid in such a way that we know what they’re talking about even though we only understand half the conversation.












PUSH, is that you…?