Starbuc71 162 Posted October 13, 2019 Report Share Posted October 13, 2019 As I stated in another topic, this weekend was our swan song for our annual passes. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I had to check out Galaxy’s Edge before our passes expired. I did not get my hopes to high from what everybody said about the land itself and smugglers run not being the best thing since sliced bread. I’ll have to say, a lot of time and imagination went into the area, but I did not feel like I was immersed in a Star Wars world. It felt more like walking through a wider animal kingdom then stumbling upon some Star Wars stuff all shoved together in the back corner. The shopping area is way to small with a lot of dead space in the land where it all should have been built. The food choices are horrible and the $8.00 for a tiny glass of frozen blue (or green) milk is a great way to throw your money away. The “to scale” ships and speeders are awesome, especially to a person like myself that waited my whole life to see the falcon in person, but you can’t touch them. It was also said there would be a ton of characters walking around to bring you into the Star Wars world and interact with you Wrong.. only saw 2 storm troopers who were talking to each other. Must be a union thing. Smugglers run is cool, except the story for me. Unless you watched Rebels, you would have no clue who Hondo is and there is so much going on in the movie on the cockpit screen, you end up just pushing buttons with no clue on what your doing or what the heck is going on. Forget about taking in the sights of the cockpit because the Next thing you know, the cast member is yelling to move and get out in some kind of friendly way. I guess I’ll say, I was not disappointed, but I can say you can tell Disney built it and not George Lucas. It could have been so much more. I would have at least expected more to the entrance to the land at both entrances. Again it feels like 50% Animal Kingdom and 50% Something kind of out of Star Wars. Rise of the resistance is supposed to be ground breaking, but I’m not disappointed we won’t be going. I do have to say, we rode slinky dog for the first time, and that was the highlight of the day. Never thought I’d say that. keith_h and mouseketab.....Carol 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LONE-STAR 370 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 13 hours ago, Starbuc71 said: As I stated in another topic, this weekend was our swan song for our annual passes. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I had to check out Galaxy’s Edge before our passes expired. I did not get my hopes to high from what everybody said about the land itself and smugglers run not being the best thing since sliced bread. I’ll have to say, a lot of time and imagination went into the area, but I did not feel like I was immersed in a Star Wars world. It felt more like walking through a wider animal kingdom then stumbling upon some Star Wars stuff all shoved together in the back corner. The shopping area is way to small with a lot of dead space in the land where it all should have been built. The food choices are horrible and the $8.00 for a tiny glass of frozen blue (or green) milk is a great way to throw your money away. The “to scale” ships and speeders are awesome, especially to a person like myself that waited my whole life to see the falcon in person, but you can’t touch them. It was also said there would be a ton of characters walking around to bring you into the Star Wars world and interact with you Wrong.. only saw 2 storm troopers who were talking to each other. Must be a union thing. Smugglers run is cool, except the story for me. Unless you watched Rebels, you would have no clue who Hondo is and there is so much going on in the movie on the cockpit screen, you end up just pushing buttons with no clue on what your doing or what the heck is going on. Forget about taking in the sights of the cockpit because the Next thing you know, the cast member is yelling to move and get out in some kind of friendly way. I guess I’ll say, I was not disappointed, but I can say you can tell Disney built it and not George Lucas. It could have been so much more. I would have at least expected more to the entrance to the land at both entrances. Again it feels like 50% Animal Kingdom and 50% Something kind of out of Star Wars. Rise of the resistance is supposed to be ground breaking, but I’m not disappointed we won’t be going. I do have to say, we rode slinky dog for the first time, and that was the highlight of the day. Never thought I’d say that. I haven't been to GE yet but I think you hit the nail on the head on all points of it. From every video I have seen it just looks like a dirty desert town. Not exciting, Star Wars was cool because of outer space and tech. We will go check it out but I also am not expecting much. We were looking forward to riding the skyliner but you couldn't pay my kid to get on it now since it got stuck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starbuc71 162 Posted October 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 9 hours ago, LONE-STAR said: I haven't been to GE yet but I think you hit the nail on the head on all points of it. From every video I have seen it just looks like a dirty desert town. Not exciting, Star Wars was cool because of outer space and tech. We will go check it out but I also am not expecting much. We were looking forward to riding the skyliner but you couldn't pay my kid to get on it now since it got stuck. It actually does not look like a dirty town but more like maybe Asia at animal kingdom. I agree on this skyliner. I would have been the guy waving taking a wiz out the window if I was stuck that long on it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
h2odivers...Ray 952 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 Are they still controlling access to GE? I’ve been looking at wait times and the wait time for SR is shorter than just about every other popular ride at HS. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katman1356...Jason 1,140 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 18 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said: Are they still controlling access to GE? I’ve been looking at wait times and the wait time for SR is shorter than just about every other popular ride at HS. The virtual queue was only used opening day so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
h2odivers...Ray 952 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 Just now, Katman1356...Jason said: The virtual queue was only used opening day so far. Why do you suppose the lines are shorter than the rest of the popular rides? could it be that there is no FPs available for SR? ive always thought that FPs make for much longer wait times in the stand by lines. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starbuc71 162 Posted October 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 58 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said: Why do you suppose the lines are shorter than the rest of the popular rides? could it be that there is no FPs available for SR? ive always thought that FPs make for much longer wait times in the stand by lines. No fast pass que at SR. It should have one by now since we never saw the wait time more than 65 minutes all weekend. I think the land and SR were so over hyped and unless you were a total Star Wars nerd, it was a bit of a let down. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katman1356...Jason 1,140 Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 1 hour ago, h2odivers...Ray said: Why do you suppose the lines are shorter than the rest of the popular rides? could it be that there is no FPs available for SR? ive always thought that FPs make for much longer wait times in the stand by lines. No idea. I havent been tracking the wait times for Smugglers Run. I do know they built quite a bit of capacity into it. Fastpasses do increase wait times for stand by. Just the nature of the beast. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted October 15, 2019 Report Share Posted October 15, 2019 Right now Smugglers Run is 40 minutes and Slinky Dog Dash is 75 minutes Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DinDavie 37 Posted October 15, 2019 Report Share Posted October 15, 2019 OK, so I have been on smugglers run and I thought it was fun. I expected to find myself on another planet and I was not disappointed. It was not a plush environment however. When I went on Smugglers Run the advertised wait time was 45 minutes. The line was mostly under shade or in an A/C space ship maintenance area with lots of tech detail and talking robots. The time it took me to get in a Pilots seat was actually 25 minutes. You experience may be different. I like Animal Kingdom in general and expect to be back often. When you look around you do see areas that can be used for future attractions or shows. My favorite experience in Batuu was going to the bar. I did not know that a friend was working there and it was like I was Norm, walking into Cheers. Drinks are interesting, particularly the one that numbs your tongue. That being said, my favorite ride is still Flights of Passage. If you pressed me about trying to find my least favorite experience it would be walking from the farthest parking spot in the farthest parking lot just outside of BF Egypt and then finding the tram does not take you close to the security area. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shoreline99 137 Posted October 21, 2019 Report Share Posted October 21, 2019 Having visited it twice last week, I have a few thoughts also. I'll preface it by saying we did NOT do the smuggler's run ride so this is more about the cantina and some general observations. First time (Wednesday) it wasn't super crowded, and we had reservations at Oga's. It's really tough to get your bearings unless you've been there a few times, and even then it's confusing. CM's were handing out maps at the entrance by Baseline Taphouse. You check in and then wait in line for your name to be called. We stood at the bar and had a great time. The staff and bartenders were great and really seem to enjoy the interaction with customers. Our friends had been to GE in California and said it was completely different - the staff there seemed to just be going through the motions, moving people through the place and were less than friendly. The drinks were great (they say it's a two drink/45 minute limit but we had three rounds and were there at least an hour +, no pressure from staff) and the themeing was awesome. It's a really fun vibe. I definitely recommend downloading the Disney Parks Play app and taking time to check out the land using the app. Lots of stuff to scan and hack, as well as jobs you can do to earn credits. I would spend quite a bit of time just going around and using that as a way to learn the layout of the place. Really cool. Second time (Friday) we found the land to be totally overcrowded and overwhelming. It was super packed and there were incredible lines everywhere - for SR, all the shops and other areas. We had another reservation at Oga's and were seated in one of the alcoves with other guests. Different experience. It was cool to be seated with others and discuss the land and its themeing, but it wasn't as much fun as standing at the bar. Again, they say it's a two drink/45 minute limit but we hung out for a bit longer and never felt rushed. I will say that it's a bar - the staff was great with kids, but it's still a bar. There's no food there like at Trader Sam's (an overpriced bar mix and a REALLY lame cheese plate - save your $$) but there are nonalcoholic drinks. It would probably behoove them to institute adult only hours like at TS once more stuff opens up. We saw lots of bored little kids. The drinks were excellent, but everything is premixed in bulk and dispensed from taps. Like TS, you can order drinks with or without purchasing the accompanying mugs EXCEPT for the beer flight. Not sure why that is, but we saw people buying the $80 overpriced flights several times... There were lots of interactive street characters on both days, including Kylo Ren, Chewbacca, imperial officers and lots of stormtroopers. That was very cool. Also, there is a ton of shade in the land. Themeing was A++. I think the difference between this land and Pandora is that more people are familiar with SW and probably have certain expectations about what characters and references they want to see in the land versus Pandora. Pandora works because you can just enjoy it for what it is. GE/SW has so much backstory that it's hard to hit everything, and this is just a place and moment in time in the SW universe. Overall we enjoyed it, but it's definitely claustrophobic when it gets crowded. Anyway, just my $0.02. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starbuc71 162 Posted October 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 You’re absolutely right about a Star Wars fan expecting more. As I stated, they should have used the un-used spaces to make the shops and “bars” larger and feel like the park was full of things to do. They will never add to it for a long time. Maybe a new ice cream cart here or there. I still enjoyed it , but as a die hard Star Wars fan I thought it could be better Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Travisma 1,317 Posted October 22, 2019 Report Share Posted October 22, 2019 22 minutes ago, Starbuc71 said: You’re absolutely right about a Star Wars fan expecting more. As I stated, they should have used the un-used spaces to make the shops and “bars” larger and feel like the park was full of things to do. They will never add to it for a long time. Maybe a new ice cream cart here or there. I still enjoyed it , but as a die hard Star Wars fan I thought it could be better Have you seen the controversy about the food names in the snack bar? They changed the Batuu names to regular food names (even though they were always there under the Batuu names) only at HS. Disneyland didn't change. Well after a few days of Disney getting kicked to the curb for that decision, they changed the menu board back to the original Batuu named foods. Star Wars fans have spoken, and surprisingly Disney listened Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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