Thoughts on Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

My wife and I are Disney nuts. We are annual pass holders and vacation club members and make Disney World in Orlando Florida a yearly destination. When they announced Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, I couldn’t wait to get down there and check it out. I finally got down there and I have some thoughts.

Rides

At the time of writing this, there is only one ride, Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run, but by the time you read this the second ride will most likely be open. The Rise of the Resistance is opening up on December 5th and I will definitely report back with some details in the new year.

The wait times for Smugglers Run were crazy long almost every time we checked. It was always around two hours. We caught a lucky break and went right before the park closed and only waited for about twenty minutes. As you wait for the ride, you are walking through a Star Wars dream. It feels really cool to just look over your shoulder and see the Falcon just sitting there.

When it comes to the ride, each mission holds six “passengers”. I’m using quotations because no one is really a passenger; everyone has a job onboard. There are three jobs, with two people for each: two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. This was something we were not aware of when we went to ride. I didn’t want a job, I just wanted to ride, but luckily for me, I got a job I would be confident in. I got an Engineer, which if you know me, you know that’s my actual job, so I went from nervous to confident.

When you start heading to the cockpit, it looks like it’s straight from the movies. It’s amazing how they captured the spirit of the movies. It feels like you are really heading to the cockpit.

When you finally make it to the cockpit, you’re in for a treat. If you dreamed of what it’s like to be in there, this is what your dream would look like. The pilots sit up front, with the gunners behind them and then the engineers in the third row.

The ride itself? Well, I’m indifferent. It’s really cool and fun but its an interactive ride. Everyone has a job to do. Us as the engineers were responsible for repairing the ship. What that actually meant was we had to pay attention to the wall of buttons and switches to our side and hit anything that is flashing. At first, it felt like I was really doing something, but then what I realized was I couldn’t pay full attention to the ride because I became too concerned with making sure I was hitting all the buttons. It really took away from what was going on during our flight.

As a whole, the experience was great, just a little disjointed. I wish the interactivity was not a part and we could just enjoy flying in the Falcon on a mission.

For me, the better Star Wars ride is in Hollywood Studious — not in Galaxy’s Edge — and that’s Star Tours. Star Tours puts you on a galactic tour that, of course, doesn’t go right. Your pilot is missing and C-3PO and R2-D2 become your pilots, which comes with some funny dialog by C-3PO. Turns out one of you on the ride is a rebel spy, and your picture gets put on the screen, as either Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, or some kind of attack droid pays you a visit. Then the chase begins as they try to deliver you to the rebel base. This ride has the best movement I have ever experienced on a 3D ride. It’s actually one of my favorite rides in all of Disney World.

A Sea of People

Disney World is always packed. We try to go at times that are not typically busy. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge was almost always packed. It was uncomfortable how many people were in there at once. Personally I do not do well in crowds and at peak hours you couldn’t even move.

Oga’s Cantina

I wrote a post on FoodieRooneys.com reviewing Oga’s Cantina which you can check out by clicking here, but in a nutshell, this is a weird place. They nail the atmosphere but the menu is extremely limited. There’s only one food item which is extremely weird. It consists of different fried items like carrots and green beans with a garlic herb dipping sauce. The drinks all sound interesting but the couple we had were just alright. At this time, you are only allowed forty-five minutes to stay in there. That’s even with having reservations. There is also a two drink minimum. Right now the design of the cantina is just to pump as many people in and out as possible.

Atmosphere

When you walk into Galaxy’s Edge, you truly are transformed into a galaxy far far away. You don’t even feel like you are in Disney anymore, until you realize you can’t move because of the crowds. When you walk in there are so many things to catch your eye.

There are ships scattered around to make for some excellent photo ops.

Aside from the ships, you will also find droids all over the park. Even at the vendors to buy drinks, you will find a droid.

While walking, you may see Storm Troopers walking and stopping different park goers and interrogating them. There are even certain areas where Storm Troopers could be on a balcony above you, talking among themselves or with you.

Another thing that happens is some random shows where The First Order is on a stage yelling at the crowd that they know we are rebel spies. After they yell for a while, Kylo Ren comes off and joins in on the show. After the stage show, they come into the crowd and interrogate. We watched this show a couple of times and my favorite moment was this interaction. The First Order officer went over to a man with a large beard and asked the man if he thinks he is stupid, did he think he really doesn’t know what a Wookie looks like who shaves half their face. He then told the man to speak Wookie to him, which this random park goer responded with one of the best Wookie impersonations I have ever heard, making the interaction even better.

Stores

There are a few interesting stores you can visit, but in my opinion, they didn’t seem worth it to me. You can build a droid and its actually a reasonable price compared to the next thing we will get into. The droids you can build come with a remote control for you to control them and cost $99 dollars. At first, I wanted to do this. Make my own droid I could control? Sounds amazing. When I finally got through the crowd to get in there, the droids you can make were just a variation of either BB-8 or R2-D2. I was disappointed. I would have loved to make a completely random and custom droid, not just a red R2 unit.

The other popular store was where you can build a custom lightsaber. This just did not seem worth it to me. The lowest price you can get out of there for was $199.99. That’s insane on a glorified toy. The lightsabers looked good in the dark but in the daylight, the base looked great but the blade looked like a fluorescent light bulb. Looking at it also terrified me, thinking about how the hell I would take that on a plane and get it home without breaking it. The price and the plane ride back made me pass on this. I overheard some people talking about their lightsaber and one guy said he paid $460 for his when he was all done. I can’t even imagine.

Final Thoughts

As of now, Galaxy’s Edge is a place that every Star Wars fan should visit, but I don’t think you need to rush over right away. Right now its too crowded and there is not enough to do. If you do go, try to go later at night or very early. Avoid those peak times. Also, make use of the Disney photographers there to get some cool edit shots like this.

I will definitely be going back, especially to ride the new ride. I think this will eventually become my favorite area in Disney on the atmosphere alone but that won’t happen until the hype dies down and the crowds dissipate a little. Until next time!

For more on Star Wars be sure to check out our impressions of Jedi Fallen Order and our review of The Mandalorian at the halfway point. You can follow on Twitter @Big_Broons and @TheSpinchoon.