I visited on Saturday. Some background. I am a huge Star Wars fan, I grew up with the movies and I am 30 years old. I am a theme park aficionado and I also love Disneyland and Universal Studios. Getting that out of the way I think I am pretty impartial when reviewing stuff. Even if I am a fan, I applaud hits and I am critical of misses. I am not in the camp of "Oh, I am a huge fan so I should love everything they try to shove down my throat" nor in the camp "let's hate everything because it's not exactly as in the book" or any toxic fanbase attitude. That being said. I was underwhelmed by Galaxy´s Edge and so was my party, which are as much regular guests as you can find.
First, theming is really good. The land is really immersive. I dig the idea of it being a planet not seen in the movies, since it opens a lot of possibilities on what to do with the land. They got the hint from Universal Creative of creating something that makes you think you are in a foreign land. It looks lived-in. Kudos to the art direction, BUT, the land feels empty. I am not talking about people (that an addition of aliens roaming around would be nice) but it's just that it's the biggest expansion to Disneyland, it has a lot of acres to it, but the whole thing feels like it wastes too much space just to have two rides and a lot of retail and dining. It feels like a glorified shopping mall. Once you ride Smuggler's Run, there is not much to do but to eat and buy a poop ton of stuff, oh and stand in line for everything. Stand in line to get into a shop, to get into a cantina, to do pretty much anything. It's not only a line, but a 1-hour-of-your-precious-time kind of line. I really felt sometimes Disney manipulating me with nostalgia to buy stuff at premium prices. Like the sole purpose of this land is making money. Even though the art direction is amazing, there is something off with the land. I have talked to people and to my party about what is it that it's lacking and no one can really put their finger on it, but I'd say it's atmosphere. There really is no music in the land, just some sounds but there is a kind of uncomfortable quietness to it all. I think some street performers like some struggling Batuunese (is that the demonym for people from Batuu?) bands of mismatched musicians would really breath life to the land, like a real market from a foreign land. Or some roaming musicians that stop, perform and put a hat to earn credits. Or maybe some music blasting from the speakers that has ethnic tones to it, like maybe is coming out of the stores.
Food. Well, there a lot of mix reviews with good reason. The food in general is good. The dishes we tried were really good and the desserts as well. We tried the Fried Endorian Tip Yip and the shrimp noodle salad. They were both really good, but the Tip Yip might leave you a bit hungry. The Batuu Bon was amazing and I had a specialty non alcoholic drink, the Sour Sarlacc, which was also tasty, BUT the butterber-killer blue and green milks are just a huge miss for me. From my party only one enjoyed a milk and it was the blue one. The rest couldn't finish up their drinks and I definitely don't look forward to buying it again. Both taste like molten candy and I think that the combination of ingredients and flavors just make it taste funny. When we went on our reservation, the milk stand was empty, and this was supposed to have endless lines. I think they thought they could beat Butterbeer, but I think a reformulation is coming soon.
Smuggler's Run. This was a huge letdown to all my party. The queue is impressive and immersive. You really get excited when you enter for the first time to the Falcon. I rode my first time as a gunner and I must say it was a letdown. I don't know who came up with the idea that there was not going to be an issue if you didn't get to pilot the falcon, even more so when considering that gunners and engineers really get the short straw. If you are in those two positions, it sucks because you won't be able to pay attention to the action happening because you have to be looking at your buttons or else you will fail the mission, but it's really not that engaging since you have to press like 4 buttons at random. My party came out and was a bit confused on why they decided to build this ride, preventing people from enjoying the experience because everyone will want to pilot the Falcon and few will get to do it. We rode it a second time and I got to be a pilot and the experience was better and more enjoyable BUT I see this ride as one I won't mind skipping, since you will enjoy it only as a pilot and it's not even that impressive. It's like Star Tours but a bit worse since the imagery is not even attempting to be photoreal. It feels more intimate and the glass-free 3D effect is really cool but I just don't understand why they decided to build that ride and worse of it all to anchor the whole land for at least 4 months. So many other things would have worked better, like a hybrid of Forbidden Journey and Peter Pan, the cabin hanging from the ceiling and a type of tumble dryer system that could flip the cabin 360º and take it through some practical sets and some projections to make it more thrilling.
All in all, it's not a misfire from Disney. The level of detail and money they poured into the land shows. Maybe the problems I see are easily fixable in the future and that is what soft openings are for, but my gut tells me that maybe the land had a design problem. Too early to tell. The land feels incomplete, because it is, the flagship attraction is not opening until maybe October or November if we are lucky. Time will tell if once that ROTR opens, the land will feel complete or better.