Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Opening Day *August 29* Planning Thread

[goofygal531]

Um, ok, this sounds scary. I sort of know about this, but have never had to deal with it. Wow. This is called "all bets are off." Talk about disrupting my plans.

In phase 4, do they post signs at the hotels to tell you not to bother going to the parks? Or do they stop running the buses?

As soon as they meet the first closing phase, the resorts will be advising guests.

One year we stayed at the Beach Club on Thanksgiving Day, MK had hit a closing phase by 10:30 am. There were signs posted in the lobby to please consider visiting Epcot or AK as they can handle the crowds better.

MK closings usually only last a few hours. DHS will be completely different as the park is so small.

 

[cebfennell]

Made reservations 2 weeks ago for August 29-Sept 2. Planning on avoiding DHS all together for the trip. I am really hoping MK won't be insane on August 30. That was our planned day for MK and touring plans crowd calendar had it at a 2. Any thoughts on how packed it will make the other parks? How big of an impact did Pandora and TSL have on the other parks?

 

[BabybetterDisney]

As soon as they meet the first closing phase, the resorts will be advising guests.

One year we stayed at the Beach Club on Thanksgiving Day, MK had hit a closing phase by 10:30 am. There were signs posted in the lobby to please consider visiting Epcot or AK as they can handle the crowds better.

MK closings usually only last a few hours. DHS will be completely different as the park is so small.

Thanks, good to know!

 

[BabybetterDisney]

Made reservations 2 weeks ago for August 29-Sept 2. Planning on avoiding DHS all together for the trip. I am really hoping MK won't be insane on August 30. That was our planned day for MK and touring plans crowd calendar had it at a 2. Any thoughts on how packed it will make the other parks? How big of an impact did Pandora and TSL have on the other parks?

Those didn't make any impact. But they don't count either. I'm freaking out!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Made reservations 2 weeks ago for August 29-Sept 2. Planning on avoiding DHS all together for the trip. I am really hoping MK won't be insane on August 30. That was our planned day for MK and touring plans crowd calendar had it at a 2. Any thoughts on how packed it will make the other parks? How big of an impact did Pandora and TSL have on the other parks?

I’m thinking you’ll be ok because it’s a party night so non SW travelers should avoid because there’s no HEA.

 

[Kc0912]

Thanks! I'm undecided to keep it or not bit may not hurt to have it as a bit of insurance.

I'm assuming that they will open the park before 8am on opening day, so this won't be PPO. Anyone recall park opening time for either Avatar or Toy Story?

Toy Story Land opened about 6-6:30am also. They don’t officially tell you that it’s opening early though. I think it’s just when the CM’s are ready and they can see the crowd starting, someone just goes “might as well start now” .....

 

[yulilin3]

@yulilin3 I hope you don't mind me picking your knowledgeable brain. Any guess if they will have the SWAGS dessert party going during the initial opening?

no real knowledge on this other than a guess that they will continue with SWaGS and the dessert party. They will want people to leave Batuu and the show will entice people out of the land.

 

[DisneyDayDreamin71]

here are the phase closures explained. So guests with ADR can get in all the way to Phase 3
Phase A Closing
No admission of guests with one day tickets, and no admission of guests even with FastPass+ reservations unless they have one of the following:

• WDW Resort Guests, including The Four Seasons Resort, Swan, Dolphin or Shades of Green, Hotel Plaza Boulevard hotels arriving by bus (Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort Hotel, The Buena Vista Palace, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel, B Resort, Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort, Hilton), Golden Oak residents and guests.
• WDW Premier Passport, Annual & Premium Passholders
• Guests with Park Hopper tickets re-entering or crossing over from another WDW Theme Park
• Guests with Memory Maker
• Guests with dining reservations
• Magic Kingdom Guests with reservations for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Harmony Barber Shop or The Pirates League.

Phase B Closing
No admission of guests with one day tickets, and no re-entering or crossing over from another park unless they have one of the following:

• WDW Resort Guests, including The Four Seasons Resort, Swan, Dolphin or Shades of Green, Hotel Plaza Boulevard hotels arriving by bus (Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort Hotel, The Buena Vista Palace, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel, B Resort, Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort, Hilton), Golden Oak residents and guests.
• WDW Premier Passport, Annual & Premium Passholders
• Guests with Memory Maker
• Guests with dining reservations
• Magic Kingdom Guests with reservations for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Harmony Barber Shop or The Pirates League.
• FastPass+ reservations and is a WDW Resort hotel guest.

Phase 1 Park Closing
Guests with 'Magic Your Way' base tickets, or a '1-Day 1-Park Ticket', Guests without an admission ticket, and Cast Members using Main Gate & Silver Passes will be turned around at the parking lot booths.
Phase 2 Park Closing
Admission is limited to:

• Disney Resort Guests (including the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, and guests arriving by bus from the Hotel Plaza Boulevard hotels)
• Annual, Premier and Premium Annual Passholders
• Guests with Hopper tickets coming from another park
• Guests re-entering the park
• Guests with dining reservations
• Magic Kingdom Guests with reservations for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or The Pirates League
• Guests using Walt Disney World Resort Transportation will be admitted.
• Guests with pre-purchased 1 day Magic Kingdom tickets

Phase 3 Park Closing
Admission is limited to:

• Disney Resort Guests (including the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, and guests arriving by bus from the Hotel Plaza Boulevard hotels)
• Annual, Premier and Premium Annual Passholders
• Guests with dining reservations
• Magic Kingdom Guests with reservations for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or The Pirates League

Phase 4 Park Closing
Closed to all guests.

I booked a VIP tour for August 29th - do you know how/if VIP tours are impacted by phased closings? I am an AP as well so it looks like I am covered unless it is phase 4, right?

 

[yulilin3]

I booked a VIP tour for August 29th - do you know how/if VIP tours are impacted by phased closings? I am an AP as well so it looks like I am covered unless it is phase 4, right?

correct

 

[Runnsally]

All in for the 29th. Do we think there will be special opening day merch?

 

[yulilin3]

All in for the 29th. Do we think there will be special opening day merch?

yes but probably not inside the land

 

[SweetJulia23]

Pandora opened at 6:30am. No reservation will be a ppo for a long time

I have an 8 AM for later in the week. Since the park will already be open, will I have to wait in the regular line at the gate even if it stretches back to the boardwalk? It would be nice if they kept the special entry they usually have for PPO.

 

[yulilin3]

I have an 8 AM for later in the week. Since the park will already be open, will I have to wait in the regular line at the gate even if it stretches back to the boardwalk? It would be nice if they kept the special entry they usually have for PPO.

they should have a line dedicated for early morning reservations but we will not know these type of details until opening day

 

[Runnsally]

Am I the only who thinks the initial opening days will actually be exciting crowded and not paralyzingly crowded? I think the time of year, DL opening first, and the “soft” opening will play into this big time.

 

[yulilin3]

Am I the only who thinks the initial opening days will actually be exciting crowded and not paralyzingly crowded? I think the time of year, DL opening first, and the “soft” opening will play into this big time.

I think it will be excitingly crowded for SW fans and paralyzingly crowded for non SW fans.
I attended SW Celebration 2 years ago when it was here in Orlando and it was so crowded, 3 and 4 hour lines just to get into panels, the expo floor, but we were all so excited we didn't care

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Am I the only who thinks the initial opening days will actually be exciting crowded and not paralyzingly crowded? I think the time of year, DL opening first, and the “soft” opening will play into this big time.

I’m beyond excited! But I’m worried about the heat more than anything. I’m really hoping they follow the Pandora model and have PM EMH for the area. I much rather wait in lines at 6pm and beyond than noon.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I concur and to add.....all eyes will be on Disneyland and how their opening goes. I have NO idea how they are going to pull that one off.....but I'm sure there will be lessons learned from their grand opening.

What does that mean? Yours is about the third post I believe I've seen that has said SWGE in Disneyland is going to pure madness. Something about Disneyland not having separate "gates" so there's no place for guests to go when SWGE becomes maxed out. I need to research what Disneyland looks like because I'm having a hard time visualizing this. I get it and understand it, but I just can't see why it would be a problem. Can't they just do what DisneyWorld does, go to capacity for the whole park and let the phases cycle through?

Is California Adventure IN the Disneyland park area and that's the problem? Is that where SWGE is going to be....in the California Adventure park?

 

[Runnsally]

I’m beyond excited! But I’m worried about the heat more than anything. I’m really hoping they follow the Pandora model and have PM EMH for the area. I much rather wait in lines at 6pm and beyond than noon.

How were they able to enforce PM EMH for Pandora (keep it limited to onsite guests)? Since most of SWGE will be non-ride experiences, not sure how a PM EMH would work logistically.

 

[ksromack]

What does that mean? Yours is about the third post I believe I've seen that has said SWGE in Disneyland is going to pure madness. Something about Disneyland not having separate "gates" so there's no place for guests to go when SWGE becomes maxed out. I need to research what Disneyland looks like because I'm having a hard time visualizing this. I get it and understand it, but I just can't see why it would be a problem. Can't they just do what DisneyWorld does, go to capacity for the whole park and let the phases cycle through?

Is California Adventure IN the Disneyland park area and that's the problem? Is that where SWGE is going to be....in the California Adventure park?

DL has indicated that guests will have the guaranteed ability to get into SWGE IF they stay at one of the 3 Disney-owned resorts. That will help those people but what about all the locals that want to be there for the grand opening? These are people who will drive to DL for this. The last bunch of numbers I've seen indicate the size of the Anaheim parks are around 570ish acres while WDW sits on over 27,000 acres (I didn't fact check this, just quoted from the internet). Granted that includes water parks and I think resorts but I guess you can see where I'm going with this. Both coasts see close to the same amount of visitors a year with WDW getting the edge. I believe Disneyland also has a much higher ratio of Annual Passholders than the Orlando park has....so where are all of those people going to go? As I mentioned, WDW will probably learn a lot watching how Anaheim handles the crowds. Oh, and SWGE is in Disneyland, not across the way at Disney's California Adventure.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

DL has indicated that guests will have the guaranteed ability to get into SWGE IF they stay at one of the 3 Disney-owned resorts. That will help those people but what about all the locals that want to be there for the grand opening? These are people who will drive to DL for this. The last bunch of numbers I've seen indicate the size of the Anaheim parks are around 570ish acres while WDW sits on over 27,000 acres (I didn't fact check this, just quoted from the internet). Granted that includes water parks and I think resorts but I guess you can see where I'm going with this. Both coasts see close to the same amount of visitors a year with WDW getting the edge. I believe Disneyland also has a much higher ratio of Annual Passholders than the Orlando park has....so where are all of those people going to go? As I mentioned, WDW will probably learn a lot watching how Anaheim handles the crowds. Oh, and SWGE is in Disneyland, not across the way at Disney's California Adventure.

Okay! This is great information to know! So again, what I'm understanding is, because SWGE is going to be in the Disneyland park...and I finally did find that on a map that I found online, there's no place for guests to go I suppose except Califormia Adventure? To where WDW has 4 "gates" and one of those gets overwhelmed with guests, there are 3 other "gates" to choose from. I suppose that won't work as well at Disneyland considering they only have 2 "gates"? It shouldn't surprise me that WDW has over 27,000 acres of land as opposed to Disneyland's 570. Whoa! I have read a few places that Disneyland is much more congested and when it's crowded...it is TRULY crowded. And unfortunately not near as manageable as it is here with us.

But don't you think Disneyland is doing the reservation thing because of everything we've said in our posts? I mean, how can they handle the number of guests who will want to see SWGE? These people who are going to drive from all over and stand in line at god knows when, it's going to be a hot mess! I think the reservation they are setting into place keeps it fair. To some extent, I think we should do that here too..but maybe we don't need to because Disneyworld can do crowds a bit better than Disneyland. I truly believe they will "close" SWGE before they close HS itself. They would have to, that park can't do phases as efficiently as the MK can.

This is all going to be interesting! I can't wait to see how it goes at Disneyland when that time comes!