Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (Disneyland)

[k_peek_2000]

I thought I had read multiple times that John Williams created a custom score just for this land. Where is it used then?

It's played during Smuggler's Run and will likely be used in ROTR. A variation is also played in the entrance tunnels. There IS music in the land. It's just not blasted over a loud speaker.

It's really no different than what Universal is doing with JW. Having atmospheric audio vs music over a loud speaker. But I don't see anyone here complaining about that.

 

[Nick]

John Campea, who’s one of my favorite geek youtubers, did a review of the land. He did not have media access just so it’s clear. He gives it a fairly glowing review and even says Blue Milk tastes great:

 

[chris.g]

Oh brother I hate John Campea. Don't want him to have any sort of confirmation bias over me with the land now lol.

 

[Nick]

Oh brother I hate John Campea. Don't want him to have any sort of confirmation bias over me with the land now lol.

He can come off a bit arrogant or like he knows more than he probably does sometimes so I can see how some may not like him, but he’s an easy source for pop culture news/rumors for someone like me who works a lot and doesn’t have a ton of time to waste watching YouTube.

 

[smoaT]

@smoaT , thanks for the awesome review! I really appreciate the honest as well as detailed assessment. Hopefully they are considering the feedback and considering some tweaks to the experience.

In that regard, do we know if Disney doing any exit polls or soliciting feedback from visitors?

You are welcome. I am glad people read through all that lol. I am sure they are making polls about the experience but I didn't get to see one. No one was polled during my reservation that I could see and when we exited, we weren't asked anything.

It's played during Smuggler's Run and will likely be used in ROTR. A variation is also played in the entrance tunnels. There IS music in the land. It's just not blasted over a loud speaker.

It's really no different than what Universal is doing with JW. Having atmospheric audio vs music over a loud speaker. But I don't see anyone here complaining about that.

There is a huge difference between that vid and Galaxy's Edge and mind you that I hate the overlay because JP was a historic ride. The water combined with the atmospheric audio fills in any silence. In Galaxy's Edge everything is so quiet. Music is in the tunnels but once you get to the area were ROTR is, there is just silence, and in the market and restaurants you only hear spaceships taking off and landing sometimes.

 

[Evan]

John Campea, who’s one of my favorite geek youtubers, did a review of the land. He did not have media access just so it’s clear. He gives it a fairly glowing review and even says Blue Milk tastes great:

I really think the preview month was really always going to be skewed either glowing or negative. You have Disneyland purists, vloggers, APs, Star Wars fans who hate Disney ownership... all trying to be first in to give their opinion.

Once this opens to the GP in general, I think we’ll see more normal reviews and positivity. Less extremes.

Also picturing Hagrid today... so glad Disneyland did what they did... imagine a line that large snaking through Disneyland? It wouldn’t function. Hopefully June 24th doesn’t result in that kind of line...

 

[k_peek_2000]

Music is in the tunnels but once you get to the area were ROTR is, there is just silence,

Have you been to Galaxy's Edge? Because that's not true at all. The audio is identical to JW with alien creatures and crickets and wildlife sound effects (similar to pandora), there's a ton of radio chatter, the X-Wing and Y-Wing ships make frequent sounds, the moisture vaporators malfunction. There is a whole consistent soundscape in that area.

 

[Evan]

Have you been to GE? Because that's not true at all. The audio is identical to JW with alien creatures and crickets and wildlife sound effects (similar to pandora), there's a ton of radio chatter, the X-Wing and Y-Wing make sounds, the moisture vaporators malfunction. There is a whole soundscape in that area.

I was also going to say that... there’s tons of noise. Isn’t it basically just like Pandora?

 

[k_peek_2000]

I was also going to say that... there’s tons of noise. Isn’t it basically just like Pandora?

It's very similar. You get a lot of Pandora vibes when you enter through Critter Country.

 

[Rideguy70]

I finally got my visit today. I'll keep my thoughts brief.

The area is bigger than I expected it to be, and there is a lot of great detail. I really like how the Den of Antiquities isn't really signed in any way (in English, anyway), so you just sort of "stumble" upon it. It was fun to just walk around. I wasn't disturbed by the lack of area music... the sound effects were enough for me. Didn't do the light saber experience, and didn't buy a droid, but went in the store, and it looked cool... though it's unclear to me what, exactly, an assembled droid actually does (aside from suck your money, lol). It was fun just to explore.

While I didn't try any other food, I am a big fan of the Ronto Wrap, both breakfast and lunch. Liked the former a bit better, actually.

Got in the Cantina. There's not actually much to "do" there other than get a drink, but I suppose that's enough. I tried the Carbon Freeze (non-alcoholic), which tasted like an "off" apple juice. Not bad, just different. But not so great I feel I'd be ordering it a lot. It was fun, but on retrospect, not necessarily worth all the hassle.

Here's where I really go against the grain... I did Smuggler's Run 3 times. I got pilot the first time and HATED it. It should be noted I hate playing video games in general, and I found the position stressful and distracting from the entire experience. On the 2nd ride, we got chosen as pilots again, and we happily gave up our positions to someone else and did gunner, and was much happier. Mainly because I pretty much just pushed the button without ever really even bothering to look at it, I just didn't really care much about the "game/interactive" aspect. I didn't find the seats to have all that much of a worse view... I mean, a lot of the view is over your head, so it didn't bother me one bit. I seem to be in the minority of NOT liking the Pilot position. (I never did get to be engineer, so can't say about that.)

It's not a ride that I'll be clamoring for a lot, even when the area opens up in general. Though I would expect single rider to go pretty well for that ride, which is what I'd like to do when riding again. I did enjoy the queue, although I have no freaking idea who the heck Hondo is, even now (though his animitronic figure is extremely well done). So I had absolutely no emotional connection to the story at all.

I will give SR major props in the queue and waiting area, and the one big lesson they learned from Universal... intimacy. I've noticed some of the best rides at Universal are done in very, very small groups (namely FJ, Hogwart's Express, MIB, Simpsons--mostly groups of 4-6, 8 for Simpsons). It makes an attraction feel very intimate and personal, and I think it's a large component of their success. That does elevate SR from Star Tours in a big way. But for me personally, I prefer a much more passive experience when riding.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

So my reservation was yesterday, so here's my review, my thoughts aren't that different from whats been said by basically everyone else so read at your own risk.

So to start, the scale and detail of the land is insane. There were so many times I just had to stop and take everything in because of how great it all looked. As many other people have said, you completely feel immersed in the land and you can't tell you're in Disneyland(aside from seeing Big Thunder from the Falcon queue). If you intentionally think about it, you can maybe tell you're still in Disneyland, but the land definitely feels like an experience separate to the park.

I didn't go into Docking Bay 7 but I did try the blue milk and ronto's roasters. I actually enjoyed the blue milk, I wouldn't say its great, and its definitely not worth $8, but I really liked it, nobody I went with got the green milk so I have no opinion on which one is better. Ronto's Roasters is a great little place, I thought the Ronto wrap was delicious but overpriced, I probably would get it again. I also got the Tattoine Sunset drink, which was honestly the best food/drink thing I got, it was legitimately amazing and I wanna go back just to try this again, I went to Ronto's at night but I still felt the drink was refreshing then, I can't imagine how refreshing it will be during a hot day. I've heard the food at Docking isn't great, so I think this location will be a sleeper hit.

I guess I'll talk about Droid Depot next. I did the build your droid experience and it was cool, even though I needed to be assisted through almost the whole building part, it was a lot fun and neat to actually assemble the droid I'm gonna take home. The only problem I had was they ran out of the head piece I wanted so I had to settle for another, so keep in mind if you do this you might not get to build the exact droid you want. I didn't really check out the rest of the store aside from the build your own droid, but I did also get the DJ R3X droid/speaker, and I can't wait to try him out later, and quick tip for anyone who wants to get a dj rex, I assume you can order it and pick it up later, which I advise because it was very heavy, I'm lucky I got it at the end of my reservation.

I also did Savi's Workshop(I know I spent a lot of money but I saved up for it so don't judge me). I thought the actual show portion was really cool. I liked the little story they gave us, and while there are not as many customizable options as the droids have, I felt like building the saber was more meaningful and cool than building the droid. As for the saber itself, it looks and feels high quality and I'm very happy with my build. Everyone has to decide for themselves if $200 is worth it, for me, I never felt like oh my god, I spent 200 dollars on this, I really enjoyed the experience and was satisfied with what I made so personally it was worth it even though it might not be for others.

The only issue I had had nothing to do with the experience, but rather getting in. After I paid for the saber they give you a return time, mine was at 6:50. So i come back at that time expecting to go in around that time, no. I get over there a little before my return time and there is already a group of people in the holding area, I find out that that is another group and I have to wait until they go in before I can go in there and wait. That group didn't go in til almost 7, and I didn't go in to do the actual experience until 7:20, a whole half an hour after the return time stated, and its an 15-20 min show so this took up a lot of time. Something like that is annoying but this really irked me because I only had 4 hours in the land and I felt like 3o mins of my time had been wasted. Also because of this it made me really nervous about making my Cantina reservation which I did, but just barely.

So this post is getting long and I feel like taking a break so I'll come back later and talk about the Cantina, Smuggler's Run and my overall thoughts.

 

[Clive]

Appreciate the reactions - not a lot of people who did the droid or saber experiences, so helpful to get those perspectives.

I also got the DJ R3X droid and would agree to try to arrange some sort of package pickup if at all possible... it was very heavy and cumbersome (it's a big old box), which made keeping it secure on some rides challenging. That said... the little guy is an absolute delight, with a dozen or so Reubens sound bytes and a fairly solid bluetooth speaker for the build. Where he really shines though is his movement - it's far more dynamic and zippy than I expected. He makes for a great party trick.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

So continuing with the review I next did Oga's Cantina. Since we wanted to get in line for falcon before the 8pm crowd swarmed it, we only spent about 20 mins in here. Once inside, its hard not to be amazed by how great it looks, its not the cantina from the movies but it definitely feels like it would be a cantina somewhere in the star wars universe. Everyone has mentioned this but the only problem with the inside is that its too small. I tried to stay away from as many videos as possible so I didn't realize how bad it was till I was inside, Disney is eventually gonna have to do something about this, I don't know what but something. I got a Carbon Freeze, which at first, kinda didn't taste like much, the popping pearls kept staying at the bottom and I couldn't get any till I was about halfway through the drink, but once I got to them it made the drink infinitely better, kinda delicious actually. Some other people in my group got the Hyperdrive and they let me taste it, and it was pretty good, I'd definitely get on a repeat visit. I also was able to get the Endor mug, but to note, while you can buy the mug without the drink, you still need to be 21 or over to purchase it.

Now on to the falcon. I didn't have much expections for this, the reviews haven't been great and I was always more interested in RotR anyways. There was a 25 min wait posted, but I think I waited maybe 10 mins maybe 15 at most. The queue is fantastic, there's so many things to look at and be impressed by and that's before you walk on the ship, and once you do, it completely feels as if you walked on to the actual Falcon. As for the ride itself, not so great, in fact its kinda mediocre. I got the role of pilot, and while I'm glad I got it, I kinda wish I had a different role for my first ride, I was way too busy trying not to crash to enjoy myself or even pay attention to what was actually happening so on future rides I want to see if the other roles make the experience better. I don't hate the ride or anything but its clearly not a showstopper and its unfortunate that this is the only ride to speak for the land at the moment.

Overall, I had a great time at Galaxys Edge and can't wait for RotR to open. I will say though, I kinda overwhelmed myself for my first visit. I didn't really explore the land that much. I barely walked through the marketplace and didn't even go in the Den of Antiques. I probably should've skipped one of the things I did and relaxed and just took in the land more. But hey, it just leaves me more to do on my second visit, which should be in September, hopefully RotR will be open by then, I really feel the land will have that wow factor some people feel is missing once it does.

 

[Dustin]

My reservation was yesterday. I got to visit this land... let me break it down.

First and foremost... I didn’t build a saber and I didn’t build a droid but I did look in the droid building shop and it looks very cool and detailed. I can see how it would be lots of fun.

Second, I visit USH about 10 times a year, Disneyland about twice, and I visit IOA, USF, and all of the Disney World Parks every other summer. I’ve held this tradition for the last 15 years so I have experienced all parks and attractions on both coasts for quite some time.

This land, the second you walk in, feels different. Without a doubt, Disneyland feels long behind you in the distance and your mind immediately tricks you into forgetting where you are. I would say, even more so than diagon in Orlando. Disney did a great job with a very long walkway that adjusts and transitions through design and also area music the closer you get to the land.

This land is big and it feels massive from the front but As you walk around a few times, it quickly becomes clear that the actual land isn’t as big as your brain wants to make you believe it is. It is by far, in my opinion, one of the biggest dedicated themed areas I have ever been in but something wants to make you believe that it is even bigger.

After I rode Smugglers Run and since I had no desire to pay $200 on the saber or $100 for the droid, I immediately felt like there was not much more for me to see or even purchase. (I did buy blue milk and for any that wants to argue there is plenty to buy in the village area at a decent price.... I don’t exactly go to parks with the goal of buying merchandise. I prefer shows, rides, food and experiences.)

After about an hour and a half within the land, I felt that I had seen it all, yet everything inside me just wanted to sit and stay. It draws you in and keeps you there. My friend who was with me was kind of over it as he isn’t a theme park enthusiast like myself so this makes me question how the GP, with not much money to spend, will perceive the land currently without ROTR.

BUT, Let’s move on to smugglers run... This, in short, was MY RIDE. I have long since been a fan of simulators. My first was BTTF, followed by Spidey, and then, of course, Forbidden Journey knocking all of them out. Those are just some of my favorites, but I have been on them all. This ride, was everything I love, in one. It had a great story, INCREDIBLE THEMING—all the way from the entrance into the cockpit AND I was in control of my experience. I have long been a fan of mission space because I love rides that make me feel important and like I have a role. I like rides that take us on an adventure but even more so, I like rides that make us feel like we are really an astronaut with a Job to do (mission space) or even better, we are the actual pilots of the Falcon.

I rode this ride 3 times because I couldn’t get enough of it. It may have helped that I came in with low expectations based on reviews but my goodness, if this is the second best ride within this land, Disney did very well. If ROTR ends up being the best ride in the country and then disney does anything halfway decent with marvel soon, Disney, in my opinion, positioned themselves as the only theme park that needs to be visited in LA for at least the next decade.

I am a Universal fan first. I will admit that. This visit to DL, changed everything for me. I have a friend in from Texas this week and I decided to show him the parks. We did 6 hours at universal and we did 12 hours at Disneyland. At universal, in our 6 hours, we were able to ride 2 rides, the tram, and have lunch. We left because everything else in the park had a wait with a minimum of 50 minutes. Disneyland, however, has the best FASTPASS system in the country. For $15, we were able to secure passes from our phone for nearly every ride in the park, all of our photos from cast members were sent to my phone and we got on every ride in the park during our visit. We waited in line once at the end of the day for Indiana Jones. We waited 35 minutes. Our longest wait before that was about 10 minutes for smugglers run. Disney is killing it with line management right now and I hope every park in the country adopts this new fast pass from phone system. It’s intuitive and you can Submit for the next ride while you are walking into and you are in line for the current ride you have a pass for. It’s great.

Back to Galaxy’s edge though, this land wowed me in every way. I was a firm believer that diagon wouldn’t get topped by anybody anytime soon but if ROTR ends up being the best ride in the country, Disney toppled diagon. My post is kind of comparative of USH because I live here and USH/Universal is my favorite theme park company and I’m upset by the current status of the park. USH needs, at least, 5 more rides (4 more with Jurassic back) to have any shot at all to even be mentioned in the same breath as Disneyland. Galaxy’s edge is THAT special.

 

[Alicia]

I finally got my visit today. I'll keep my thoughts brief.

The area is bigger than I expected it to be, and there is a lot of great detail. I really like how the Den of Antiquities isn't really signed in any way (in English, anyway), so you just sort of "stumble" upon it. It was fun to just walk around. I wasn't disturbed by the lack of area music... the sound effects were enough for me. Didn't do the light saber experience, and didn't buy a droid, but went in the store, and it looked cool... though it's unclear to me what, exactly, an assembled droid actually does (aside from suck your money, lol). It was fun just to explore.

While I didn't try any other food, I am a big fan of the Ronto Wrap, both breakfast and lunch. Liked the former a bit better, actually.

Got in the Cantina. There's not actually much to "do" there other than get a drink, but I suppose that's enough. I tried the Carbon Freeze (non-alcoholic), which tasted like an "off" apple juice. Not bad, just different. But not so great I feel I'd be ordering it a lot. It was fun, but on retrospect, not necessarily worth all the hassle.

Here's where I really go against the grain... I did Smuggler's Run 3 times. I got pilot the first time and HATED it. It should be noted I hate playing video games in general, and I found the position stressful and distracting from the entire experience. On the 2nd ride, we got chosen as pilots again, and we happily gave up our positions to someone else and did gunner, and was much happier. Mainly because I pretty much just pushed the button without ever really even bothering to look at it, I just didn't really care much about the "game/interactive" aspect. I didn't find the seats to have all that much of a worse view... I mean, a lot of the view is over your head, so it didn't bother me one bit. I seem to be in the minority of NOT liking the Pilot position. (I never did get to be engineer, so can't say about that.).

So my reservation was yesterday, so here's my review, my thoughts aren't that different from whats been said by basically everyone else so read at your own risk.

So to start, the scale and detail of the land is insane. There were so many times I just had to stop and take everything in because of how great it all looked. As many other people have said, you completely feel immersed in the land and you can't tell you're in Disneyland(aside from seeing Big Thunder from the Falcon queue). If you intentionally think about it, you can maybe tell you're still in Disneyland, but the land definitely feels like an experience separate to the park.

I didn't go into Docking Bay 7 but I did try the blue milk and ronto's roasters. I actually enjoyed the blue milk, I wouldn't say its great, and its definitely not worth $8, but I really liked it, nobody I went with got the green milk so I have no opinion on which one is better. Ronto's Roasters is a great little place, I thought the Ronto wrap was delicious but overpriced, I probably would get it again. I also got the Tattoine Sunset drink, which was honestly the best food/drink thing I got, it was legitimately amazing and I wanna go back just to try this again, I went to Ronto's at night but I still felt the drink was refreshing then, I can't imagine how refreshing it will be during a hot day. I've heard the food at Docking isn't great, so I think this location will be a sleeper hit.

I guess I'll talk about Droid Depot next. I did the build your droid experience and it was cool, even though I needed to be assisted through almost the whole building part, it was a lot fun and neat to actually assemble the droid I'm gonna take home. The only problem I had was they ran out of the head piece I wanted so I had to settle for another, so keep in mind if you do this you might not get to build the exact droid you want. I didn't really check out the rest of the store aside from the build your own droid, but I did also get the DJ R3X droid/speaker, and I can't wait to try him out later, and quick tip for anyone who wants to get a dj rex, I assume you can order it .

My reservation was yesterday. I got to visit this land... let me break it down.

First and foremost... I didn’t build a saber and I didn’t build a droid but I did look in the droid building shop and it looks very cool and detailed. I can see how it would be lots of fun.

Second, I visit USH about 10 times a year, Disneyland about twice, and I visit IOA, USF, and all of the Disney World Parks every other summer. I’ve held this tradition for the last 15 years so I have experienced all parks and attractions on both coasts for quite some time.

This land, the second you walk in, feels different. Without a doubt, Disneyland feels long behind you in the distance and your mind immediately tricks you into forgetting where you are. I would say, even more so than diagon in Orlando. Disney did a great job with a very long walkway that adjusts and transitions through design and also area music the closer you get to the land.

This land is big and it feels massive from the front but As you walk around a few times, it quickly becomes clear that the actual land isn’t as big as your brain wants to make you believe it is. It is by far, in my opinion, one of the biggest dedicated themed areas I have ever been in but something wants to make you believe that it is even bigger.

After I rode Smugglers Run and since I had no desire to pay $200 on the saber or $100 for the droid, I immediately felt like there was not much more for me to see or even purchase. (I did buy blue milk and for any that wants to argue there is plenty to buy in the village area at a decent price.... I don’t exactly go to parks with the goal of buying merchandise. I prefer shows, rides, food and experiences.)

After about an hour and a half within the land, I felt that I had seen it all, yet everything inside me just wanted to sit and stay. It draws you in and keeps you there. My friend who was with me was kind of over it as he isn’t a theme park enthusiast like myself so this makes me question how the GP, with not much money to spend, will perceive the land currently without ROTR.

BUT, Let’s move on to smugglers run... This, in short, was MY RIDE. I have long since been a fan of simulators. My first was BTTF, followed by Spidey, and then, of course, Forbidden Journey knocking all of them out. Those are just some of my favorites, but I have been on them all. This ride, was everything I love, in one. It had a great story, INCREDIBLE THEMING—all the way from the entrance into the cockpit AND I was in control of my experience. I have long been a fan of mission space because I love rides that make me feel important and like I have a role. I like rides that take us on an adventure but even more so, I like rides that make us feel like we are really an astronaut with a Job to do (mission space) or even better, we are the actual pilots of the Falcon.

I rode this ride 3 times because I couldn’t get enough of it. It may have helped that I came in with low expectations based on reviews but my goodness, if this is the second best ride within this land, Disney did very well. If ROTR ends up being the best ride in the country and then disney does anything halfway decent with marvel soon, Disney, in my opinion, positioned themselves as the only theme park that needs to be visited in LA for at least the next decade.

I love all these reviews. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. I enjoyed reading them and it’ll help me plan my visits when they open the land in Orlando. (And, thinking now I’m gonna have to try Ronto Roasters!)

 

[tacalert]

FYI, I have done SW:GE twice. You don't have to leave after 4 hours.

 

[Dustin]

FYI, I have done SW:GE twice. You don't have to leave after 4 hours.

I didn’t push the limits on this but wonderful to know! Thank you

 

[smoaT]

Have you been to Galaxy's Edge? Because that's not true at all. The audio is identical to JW with alien creatures and crickets and wildlife sound effects (similar to pandora), there's a ton of radio chatter, the X-Wing and Y-Wing ships make frequent sounds, the moisture vaporators malfunction. There is a whole consistent soundscape in that area.

Yes, I went on the 8th. There is music at the tunnels and when you enter, but once you start going into the land the sounds just, stop? also, close to the Millenium Falcon you only hear spaceships taking off or landing not very often.

 

[Mad Dog]

MiceChat is reporting that "Disney has suddenly unblocked Castmember admission to Disneyland".

 

[SailwiththeTide]

MiceChat is reporting that "Disney has suddenly unblocked Castmember admission to Disneyland".

Maybe for the next week but according to the block out calendar the entire summer is blocked out still.