Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (Disneyland)

[rastuso]

Praise the Lord for not posting TPR vids, although he is a friend of Attractions.

 

[belloq87]

And MiceChat has a not-so-great review of Smuggler's Run.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Review

It appears as though my concerns about this attraction were not unfounded.

I wonder what an experience with everybody on "Autopilot" would be like.

 

[Orlandofan12]

Millennium Falcon POV


Queue preview:

 

[Mad Dog]

Lots of great videos from Attractions









And MiceChat has a not-so-great review of Smuggler's Run.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Review

Between the Truman 882 post and the Mice Chat review, Smugglers Run, unfortunately, sounds just about what I thought it would be. Probably will be greatly loved by teenager and 20 something 'gamers'. But as an older person that wants the ride to entertain me, I don't think this will be my cup of tea. I don't really want to be part of a team of 6 strangers, trying to work a flight together. Sounds more like work than fun. I'd probably be like that gentlemen in the Engineer seat, in the Attractions Falcon ride video, who definitely does not seem to be enjoying the experience. Hope ROR ends up being an entirely different creature.....At least the land seems immersive and spacious.

 

[Viator]

From the videos of the Falcon in action..and it's actually better than I expected. Especially considering them using industry-level Nvidia on a large scale per cockpit.

Personally, I love all the details from photos and videos of the land. Definitely would sink time towards just walking around Batuu, noticing all of the intricate details and care that was put towards it.

 

[belloq87]

The reactions - positive and negative - to Smuggler's Run are throwing into stark relief just how much the pilot roles are really the only prime spots on the ride. Everybody else is relegated to pushing flashing buttons. I had hoped that maybe they had found a way to allow the gunners to actually do the targeting (via, perhaps, small displays off to the side), but apparently it's just "push the glowing button when Hondo yells at you to."

 

[Mad Dog]

The reactions - positive and negative - to Smuggler's Run are throwing into stark relief just how much the pilot roles are really the only prime spots on the ride. Everybody else is relegated to pushing flashing buttons. I had hoped that maybe they had found a way to allow the gunners to actually do the targeting (via, perhaps, small displays off to the side), but apparently it's just "push the glowing button when Hondo yells at you to."

From my background, I always pay more attention to body language than what people say. If you watch the body language of the 5 Falcon riders in the Attractions video, they basically confirm what you are saying........It'll be interesting to see the reactions of the older Disney crowd that really loves Flight of Passage, how they will take to this ride at DHS. Methinks they won't be overly enthusiastic.

 

[belloq87]

I'm quite confident that if I don't get the pilot position, I'm just going to flick the "Autopilot" switch and just attempt to enjoy the ride as Star Tours 2.o in a very cool ride vehicle.

 

[Viator]

I'm quite confident that if I don't get the pilot position, I'm just going to flick the "Autopilot" switch and just attempt to enjoy the ride as Star Tours 2.o in a very cool ride vehicle.

If anything, it'll be that if I'm not in the front row in general. Regardless of Pilot, or not.

__

Honestly, I do think this looks a lot better than I am expecting. But as an outsider looking in, I am much more fascinated about Batuu, Droid Factory, and the interactive elements (which I am shocked of when it especially comes to Droid Factory). And while Rise of The Resistance should be great, I am glad that I'm holding off going to DL or WDW for the time being.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm quite confident that if I don't get the pilot position, I'm just going to flick the "Autopilot" switch and just attempt to enjoy the ride as Star Tours 2.o in a very cool ride vehicle.

Yep. Same here. Without using any controls it could be a decent Star Tours 2.0 experience. I do like that ride......Due to the interactivity, I'm guessing that this will be a ride the younger crowd loves...and the middle aged to older crowd is meh about.

 

[wizwit]

“From there, guests are grouped into six-person crews and are given colored boarding cards. The reason for this is so you can wander about the crew area of the Falcon, where the famous chess set is located, while you wait for your boarding color to be called. Unfortunately, it can be very hard to hear the cast member call your color. There is no overhead announcement, no change in the color of the lights in the chamber, just a cast member on the far side the room letting you know it’s your chance to ride. Of the five times I rode, there were issues three times. But this is fixable by adding announcements and perhaps a visual cue of some sort. I appreciate the ability to just roam around this room without a formal queue. Potential brilliance if they can get the kinks worked out.”

So it’s sort of like Fallon but without Hashtag & the Ragtime Gals to entertain you & no colored lights to let you know when it’s your turn.

 

[belloq87]

I've been very selective so far about which videos to watch, because I don't want to have seen everything before I visit (in Orlando), but I will say that the Dok-Ondar animatronic in his eponymous Den of Antiquities looks terrific. In the tradition of the Gringotts Money Exchange goblin, I can easily envision spending several minutes just watching him.

 

[tyro]

For anyone interested, the dedication ceremony is going on right now.

 

[Mad Dog]

Niles just posted a review on Theme Park Insider, plus he has a long video of the entire queue for Smugglers Run....Niles review starts out. "It's exhilarating. And to be honest, kind of frustrating too.".

 

[Nick]

I stand by my original 2 points.

It may suffer from too much muchness.

It should’ve opened with Resistance.

I think the extra “muchness” is something that can likely be toned down at some point, though.

 

[Tobias]

So with what's been shown so far...

The scale of the land is pretty dang impressive, it's a interesting contrast to the more close quarters of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Looks like there's a lot of neat little touches and details all over the place, too.

Now I don't think this land will bring the emotional punch that both Hogsmeade and D.A. gave me, both of those got me upon entering with both the familiar music -and- the realization of "I'm actually here!". With Batuu being a new place, not gonna' get that feeling. That and it seems like John William's score is more regulated to the entrance and not the land itself. But that said, seeing the Millennium Falcon in person could very well deliver.

Ronto's Roasters looks quite nice in both the theming and the food itself, and while the Cantina looks nice...it also looks absurdly small for the major land it's in.

For the Droid Depot, that looks like a winner! Lotta' kinetic energy in there, and the process of picking out the parts, building the droid and activating it honestly looks fun. Even with the $150 price tag, it looks worth it.

Now the Lightsaber experience...eeeehhhhhh. Now looking at a couple tweets, it sounds like the videos of the experience aren't selling it well. However reading some detailed descriptions of the whole thing, I think I can say this experience probably ain't for me, especially for the $200 price tag. I'd rather pony up the $150 for the droid experience which looks more fun (and you can actually use the droid in the land), or heck, go to Ollivanders where you can see a nice little show for free...which also has more actual effects in that then in the lightsaber experience.

As for Smugglers Run, the news of the Gunnar being a "Push the button when it lights up to do the thing!" is not good. I was expecting there'd be targeting and whatnot, so that's disappointing. An if the engineer is the same, Oof. Then unfortunately it sounds like the pilot is the only worthwhile experience of the bunch.

 

[devinp267]

Seeing those spires upon entry is my favorite part of these walkthroughs they look sooo far away and huge. At the same time though some areas of the rockwork look very familiar, rock work is starting to be redundant in themed lands for me. Its beautiful though.

 

[Trumen882]

Just read the Micechat review and scarily agree with a lot of what they said....O:

I went on Smuggler's Run after the Cantina with a small buzz that cost a pretty large amount for 2 drinks. Anyway, the moment I was picked for pilot I was thrilled. I had the best seat and couldn't wait for it to begin. The group of 4 of us from the Cantina sat down and took up both pilots and gunner seats. We all loved the cool waiting area with the chess board and were pumped. However, things were disappointing pretty quickly.

Between the bad graphics and jerky movements, navigating the ship felt more like a chore than a thrilling experience. The whole thing was so dark to see, and it felt like I was playing a poorly designed video game. I piloted very well based on the score I received, but honestly didn't really enjoy myself during the actual ride length between squinting to make out what was going on and trying to hit the right buttons.

I did it another time and again was chosen as the pilot. An older man next to me absolutely loved being the left pilot and was very into it. He was so so over eager that he started telling me commands such as don't forgot to jump to light speed after I took a moment to look around. Kind of takes away from enjoying the moment haha. Anyway, this is a solid ride, but not that enjoyable for me at least. Even being the pilot, I felt like I couldn't see the rest of the cabin and was just staring at the screen. It's a frustrating ride because everything besides the actual ride content is really well done. The queue, pre-show, and waiting room + even the falcon ride vehicles themselves are so cool, but the ride itself is very frustrating.

I'm trying to be positive, but Star Tours the ride portion itself IMO is a more enjoyable experience especially with the locations on random so we get Naboo ect. On Star Tours you have better motion, graphics, and an AA to enjoy, where I was just looking at a dimly lit screen for the ride portion of SR. Don't want to be too negative, but this ride felt like a solid supporting attraction and not something to carry a land, which unfortunately it will have to do until ROTR(which I hope will be epic) opens.

 

[Disneyhead]

I CAN'T WAIT! I have been waiting to visit Batuu since 1977.

 

[chris.g]

Oof