Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge has now been open for over a month in Disneyland, and has been
open to the general public, no reservations required for several weeks.
And people are starting to noticing something, those feared massive crowds storming the land
are nowhere to be seen.
You can walk right up and grab yourself a blue milk, although some suggest that wouldn’t
be advisable.
The one ride that is open in the land, Millenium Falcon Smuggler’s Run, was built to hinge
off the popularity of Solo A Star Wars Story, yikes, and while it does appear to be a fun,
solid adventure ride, that pushes the interactivity community based ride concept to a whole new
level, the fact that it is being mostly compared to Star Tours, a ride Imagineering invented
30 years ago, really hasn’t boded well for what was billed to be a groundbreaking experience,
not to mention the fact that there is currently only one mission you can go on despite the
many Disney has teased.
The highlights of the land, the Cantina, building a 200 dollar lightsaber, and a 100 dollar
droid, have costly barriers to entry that really make you question what that park ticket
you paid for gets you in this land.
Add in the fact that many passholders are currently blocked out for the season in Disneyland,
which is at its core a passholder-dominated park, and what you’ve got yourself is a
scary lack of crowds in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
But, despite all of this, I think there’s a good chance this will all turn around, that’s
right, because what many critics are omitting from their comments on soft Galaxy’s Edge
attendance so far is the fact that currently this is an incomplete land.
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance coming to Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and
Walt Disney World may be perhaps the biggest game changer attraction in a century.
In a century where we’ve had things like the Forbidden Journey in the Wizarding World,
Flight of Passage in Avatar Land at the Animal Kingdom, that’s a big claim, but from everything
we know so far this attraction sounds almost unbelievable.
In the preshow you’ll be on a rebel ship, I’ve always wanted to see Disney to do a
simulated ship pre-show, that’s going to be so cool, you’re then going to be in a
life size hangar on a First Order Star Destroyer with 60 plus stormtrooper animatronics, somewhere
around here you’re going to be getting in a trackless vehicle where you’re part of
the story, more stormtrooper animatronics fire at you, you’re in an interrogation
room with Kylo Ren, the whole attraction is multi-storied where not only do you have those
giant life size AT-AT walkers and the hangar room being several stories tall, but you’ll
be traveling to a second level on the Star Destroyer via themed elevators.
Safe to say, it is going to be out of this world literally.
Disney opened Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland without this one-day-to-be iconic attraction,
and Galaxy’s Edge in Walt Disney World will be opening without the attraction as well
when the land opens August 29th, leaving us all to wonder, when are we getting this attraction?
And then this week finally Disney dropped dates for when the attraction will be opening
on both coasts, and to say it surprised some people would be a massive understatement because
in Walt Disney World, the Rise of the Resistance attraction will be opening on December 5th,
2019.
Which is actually a pretty good date, personally I was hoping for November but we knew if the
land had opened with the attraction, with the Rise of the Resistance, it would all open
Late Fall, and believe it or not December 5th is indeed considered late Fall on the
Mickey calendar.
But, Disneyland’s Rise of the Resistance attraction, which had a several month head
start on construction over Walt Disney World’s, isn’t opening till January 17th, 2020.
That’s right, despite Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge opening in May and Walt Disney World’s
not opening till August, despite all of that, somehow, the e-ticket attraction in both of
these lands, will be opening earlier in Walt Disney World than in Disneyland.
Which has led to everyone asking, how could this be, Disneyland’s Rise of the Resistance
was built out well ahead of Walt Disney World’s?
And the answer right now, is just a theory, but a very believable theory which is, in
building the Rise of the Resistance attraction in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, at some
point, likely at the start of this year, I believe, a problem was discovered that would
need to be fixed.
Many speculate it has something to do with the trackless vehicle you’ll be on, which
is much more unprecedented as a technology as compared to all the other elements in this
attraction.
Only problem is, by the time this issue was discovered, whatever the problem was would
require infrastructure to be fixed, taken out and redesigned in Disneyland.
They’d have to hit the UNDO button in Disneyland, and take things out that were already installed,
whereas Walt Disney World’s just had a change in what they had to do next.
All of this resulting in Disneyland’s Rise of the Resistance construction time overall
being longer than Walt Disney World’s, and understandably so given Disneyland’s had
to be the guinea pig, the new development, whereas Walt Disney World’s was just the
carbon copy, and a result, Walt Disney World’s Rise of the Resistance attraction is opening
a month earlier than Disneyland’s.
And if you’re theorizing what this quote “problem tech” could be, there are a few
rumors out there, one of which is that whatever trackless tech had been planned on being used
was not working properly, and as a result they had to switch over to a more industry
standard form of ride vehicle tech: wire guidance like is used on the Tower of Terror.
Although I think that’s completely false, I do not believe this rumor and the reason
I think it’s wrong is because we know Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway opening Spring
2020 in Walt Disney World, the one we got the be the guinea pigs on like Disneyland
was for Rise of the Resistance, with the Runaway Railway to be cloned over in Disneyland opening
2022 over there, that ride is going to require this trackless tech.
Wire guidance likely wouldn’t work because each of the Runaway Railway cars behave differently
and then come back together into a single train formation.
At different points they’re going to be in different rooms and criss-crossing and
all sorts stuff as far as their paths on the attraction go.
Which leads us to another rumor of what the issue might be, remember how I said at the
start the ride is multi level?
That elevator back down to the bottom floor is likely going to be a drop sequence on the
attraction, and if this ride is trackless and receiving signals via wifi, there may
be a connection loss during that sequence in the elevator, in which case that would
require more infrastructure in order to fix.
For all we know, and probably likely, the problem is neither of these theories and rumors
that people have been talking about.
People on the project are very tight-lipped, so it’s very hard to get anything sort of
close to official or credible as far as what the issue is.
Let me know what you guys think about the Rise of the Resistance opening dates and everything
going on here.
CEO Bob Iger said at the annual shareholder meeting this is one of the most ambitious
attractions they’ve ever done and the way he said it, in my opinion, kind of hinted
at there being some technological hold ups with the attraction that were needing to be
fixed.
Either way, this is the Disney we want.
The Disney that will delay the opening of an attraction because of how ambitious and
groundbreaking it has the potential to be, that puts the tech and guest experience, over
what quarter they might start to see guest revenue returns on it.
And that I have to say is something I’m very proud to see.
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Thank you so much for watching.
From the Mickey Views Magic Studio, I’m Brayden Holness, have a magical day!