Since everyone dunking on Galaxys edge, I’ll summarise some thoughts from my visit a couple of weeks ago.
First things first, if Rise of the Resistance had been open, then for many all would have been forgiven etc and everyone would have been in such awe of that attraction that any other shortcomings would have been ignored.
Overall, the theming is beautiful and the area feels quite big and extensive…definitely no sense of “Was that it?”
Sometimes I felt there was an over reliance on running power cables over everything and splashing varnish on surfaces to make them look old.
So much effort has gone towards concealing anything from the outside world, everything right down to the card terminals and the toilet hand dryers are themed.
This is a double edged sword, there's no big signage etc so sometimes it takes trial and error to work out what each shop contains.
The area itself, nor the rides actually have any big signage, in some ways I like how they've tried to be super realistic to not make it feel like a theme park, on the other hand, there's less of a sense of arrival when you arrive at the area entrance or a ride entrance...you pass a threshold, the music changes, and there you are.
The food is really good (If all you eat are burgers and chicken tenders, it might not be for you, if you like food from laneway cafes and those kinds of places, you’ll enjoy it, and I did like the blue and green milk too)
The merch would satisfy any star wars fan, and the shops have amazing theming too.
The costumed characters are superb, especially Chewbacca.
But, the flaws:
-Smugglers run has some impressive millennium falcon theming and a spectacular animatronic, but the simulator itself is neither fish nor fowl. It lacks the heart and comedy of Star Tours but it lacks the intense physical experience of flight of passage.
It’s a good simulator, with some button bashing (Like mission space), and a good experience if you get to pilot (2 rides and I didn’t sadly). The sequence itself was maybe a bit lifeless, no characters etc so you are just chasing around other ships in an industrial environment, so felt more like F zero or some sort of flight sim game, without a human touch (or alien lol). Also, seemed like a huge oversight in the queue themed like a workshop to not have some basic droids doing welding etc. The queue was static aside from some radio chatter from unseen characters.
-Area feels unbalanced, one end where the actual town is bustling, but one end is literally a meandering path through some arid forest with some fancy lamp posts and a couple of space ships parked. To me it felt like being in a good modern picnic area of a national park.
Eventually Rise of the Resistance will anchor that end, but coupled with the walk from critter country, its quite a distance of not a whole lot, and doesn’t feel very alien or star wars.
-Too much static theming (Which is very beautiful at least). A lot of space ships, but all of them are off, with no idling engines, and every single one is cordoned off and treated like a museum piece. They should have made a couple of them sturdy enough that guests could go up and touch, look up close etc.
Similarly, it seems like they could have just spammed the area with lots of droids to really add some humour and energy to the area. A droid seems like a dead simple bit of animatronic to do, just a spinning head and some beeps and it would have really made the area more immersive
-Nothing for kids. This is a huge oversight for Disneyland IMO. They could do something like a “resistance training camp” play area, or some sort of kids droid flat ride down the quiet end , because right now its one (soon to be two) big rides, plus a lot of shops geared towards Star Wars fans with cash to burn.
-Ogas cantina has limited capacity, they really should do a walk up stand right now with some of the drinks available for take away.
-Ticket prices are too high. I paid $150 USD for one day, plus $25 parking , plus say another $60 on food etc, and I do think you do get a lot of entertainment for your money, but it's just not affordable for a lot of visitors now.
The makeup of visitors has noticeably changed from my last visit to DL about 6 years ago. It now seems about 4 adults for every 1 or 2 kids, and the crowd is heavily millennials, and not as many nuclear families as was in the past.
I liked it, and I want to go back when Rise of the Resistance is open, but Disney aint perfect so don’t put this on a pedestal.
