Hello everyone my name is Brayden and welcome to a special episode of Mickey Views News
where we’re going to be bringing to you today the day by day unofficial opening schedule
for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Walt Disney World, of course we know the land officially
opens August 29th, but there are a bunch of events that are taking place in the land well
before then, in fact, there’s already stuff already happening in the land right now so
let’s get into it.
Now believe it or not, Galaxy’s Edge is going to have a month of previews before the
land opens on August 29th, and you’re probably saying, a MONTH?
A month of previews?
Why isn’t Disney just opening the land earlier if they have so much time for previews?
Well, there are a few theories, there’s likely still going to be a lot of construction
and final touches being done during all those previews, but many cast members have been
asking that same question as the Park Operations event calendar for Hollywood Studios from
now, leading up all the way till the opening of the land has been floating around, and
here is how Galaxy’s Edge will go from its current construction site state, to being
a living breathing out of this world adventure in just one month!
Right now, this very second, cast members are already training in the land.
Smuggler’s Run is running, being tested by cast members.
And all this is already happening because starting next week, August 1st, cast member
previews begin in the land.
With cast members from around the resort going in to preview the land between August 1st
through August 16th.
Then, Disney just confirmed this, starting on August 17th, Galaxy’s Edge will be having
previews for select Walt Disney World annual passholders, and those will be happening from
August 17th till August 21st, and the emails for that signup should be going out to passholders
soon.
So that’s 16 days of cast members previewing the land, and 5 days for passholders who are
lucky enough to grab a spot, and then we’ll be in the one week lead-up to the official
opening of the land.
Which means it’s press time, so from the 22nd through the 26th there will be media
previews in the land, where various teams of media personalities, radio stations, blogs
and such, they actually get to go in and preview the land.
And then, on August 27th we have the famous empty day you always have in the lead up to
the opening of a land where there’s a possibility for a soft opening of the land.
Which would be awesome, to the general public where you can just go in and preview everything
before it opens.
And then on the 28th we have the dedication ceremony for the land, followed by the official
opening on August 29th the next day, where I’ll be there covering everything happening
for you in a vlog that day, so excited for that.
Now this is such a deja vu moment for me right now because I was sitting right here last
summer when we went through the opening schedule for Toy Story Land that was virtually identical
in terms of the lead up a few days before the opening.
The media events end, there’s a weird empty day, then the day for the dedication, and
then the opening the day after that.
Now, at the time we thought that empty day perhaps park ops would decide to do a soft
open, and they did not.
They did do a soft opening though for Toy Story Land, but instead of being on completely
empty open day, they did it on the land dedication day once the dedication was over, because
the dedication doesn’t take nearly the entire day.
It doesn’t take that long.
Now, if they do a dedication as elaborate as Disneyland’s with Galaxy’s Edge where
it was at night with pyro and celebrities, then I think we’re more likely to see a
soft open on that empty day the day before the dedication in this case, because they’ll
have to set up all that special infrastructure all morning.
And then of course if the dedication’s at night that really leaves no time during the
day to have a soft opening on that dedication day, whereas you do have the empty day on
the 27th.
So all that is to say, if this land does have a public soft opening, it’s likely going
to be on the 27th.
Or, since this land has so many previews in the months leading up to the opening, perhaps
Park Operations will deem a soft opening not necessary, although I heavily suspect they
will deem it necessary, because they really have to have a good idea of how this land
behaves in normal operation, with normal Walt Disney World guests, before the 29th when
the tsunami comes.
Because despite whatever you’ve been hearing about soft crowds in Disneyland, that is not
going to be the case here when this opens in Walt Disney World, because this land opening
doesn’t have the same passholder blockout issues.
Unlike Disneyland, Walt Disney World is a ticket package resort, not a passholder resort,
the majority of Disneyland’s target demographic is locals who are passholders, whereas Walt
Disney World’s on the other hand, their main demographic is families on their once
every few year vacations, with passholders mixed in.
And with all those resort hotels and families wanting to get in compounded with all the
locals and passholders wanting to get in, August 29th is going to be one wild day in
Walt Disney World, and I’m so excited to cover it for you guys.
I’ll also be in Disney on the two potential soft opening days, of course the empty day
as well as the dedication day, August 27th and 28th, just in case the land does soft
open, maybe we can build that lightsaber before the massive crowds, either way should be a
lot of fun.
Speaking of the opening, the tunnel entrance from the Grand Avenue next to Muppet Vision
3D is now open, the Millenium Falcon concept art graphic covering the entrance is now gone,
as Disney preps Battu for its first visitors starting August 1st with those cast member
previews.
Let me know what you guys think about all of this opening schedule stuff with Galaxy’s
Edge in Walt Disney World.
One last thing of note, the Hollywood Studios FastPass tier changes.
The situation is now you’ll only be able to get 1 ride FastPass, with Galaxy’s Edge
now open, and then the other category is for shows, and a lot of people are upset about
this, and the fact is I really don’t think they should be because based on the projected
crowds this is the only way the park will operate properly with Galaxy’s Edge, think
of it like this.
Hollywood Studios is going to have I’m just guessing let’s say for example somewhere
around sixty thousand guests trying to get into the park on that one day, and from what
we know the hourly ride and show capacity for the park is somewhere around twenty two
thousand, so that means in any one hour, if the park is getting nearing capacity or has
sixty thousand guests, only one third of the guests will actually experience a show or
attraction in any one hour, but, if there are less FastPasses, aka less people skipping
the wait and being thrown back out into the park, it means more people in the regular
standby line for shows and rides, which means less people crowding up the pathways around
the park, more time spent with people in attractions and shows, meaning Disney can let more people
into the park while also maintaining a good guest experience.
The reason FastPass exists is to actually keep people out of the lines so they’re
buying merchandise, buying food, things like that.
But merchandise and food are kind of second tier right now when Disney is just trying
to keep the park operating normally with such big crowds coming into Galaxy’s Edge, hence
the FastPass tier changes we’ve seen come to Hollywood Studios.
This stuff is all just crowds-related, it’s just a crowds-related measure, and if the
Galaxy’s Edge crowds end up being lower than expected, or if things quiet down by
mid-September which I think is likely given how historically low crowds usually are in
Disney in September, I think it could lead to getting the more traditional FastPass ride
tiers back at the park in the future, it just seems like a precautionary thing right now
in case the park really is getting near capacity on the daily after the opening of Galaxy’s
Edge which is definitely a possibility.
We’ve talked a lot lately about the price hikes we’re seeing, what we saw with the
Annual Pass rates and how much they increased, and this is something where, if Disney increases
prices to be consistent with demand and prevents too big of crowds actually coming into the
parks as a result, the guests who do still go will be able to get better FastPasses,
there will be better tiers, less crowds, but that all comes at a cost, literally, so definitely
some interesting things to consider there.
How does Disney balance pricing, with crowds, to keep a family vacation possible for as
many as possible while also not making it too easy, where the parks would instantly
fill up with tons and tons of people.
I really do think Park Operations has already learned a lot about the crowds in Galaxy’s
Edge from seeing how Galaxy’s Edge is performing out in Disneyland, and how it worked, and
how to do things better with the queuing systems there’s probably going to be virtual queuing
and all sorts of things to make it a little easier and a little more enjoyable for guests.
So hopefully things will go really smooth with this opening, but I guess we’ll just
have to wait and see how it goes, let me know your predictions on how this opening is going
to go.
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on the way.
Thank you so much for watching, from the Mickey Views Magic Studio, this is Brayden, have
a Magical Day!