D23 EXPO 2019 Superthread - dates announced!

[rteetz]

Thanks. Why is it not called the regular line??? Lol

I mean you could if you want. It’s just always been called standby because that’s what it is. I’ve never heard anyone call it the “regular” line.

 

[Astylla]

Any info on when the other ride will open?

While inine for my 8am reservation by Red Rose just so happens I was standing in front of some of the development/imagineer team and they discussed Rise. Basically they have nailed down what the technical issues are but fixing them is a whole other issue. They said earliest would likely be the end of this year but more likely next year first quarter.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

While inine for my 8am reservation by Red Rose just so happens I was standing in front of some of the development/imagineer team and they discussed Rise. Basically they have nailed down what the technical issues are but fixing them is a whole other issue. They said earliest would likely be the end of this year but more likely next year first quarter.

Thanks, I heard August but I’m guessing they were thinking WDW

 

[smartlabelprint]

Thanks, I heard August but I’m guessing they were thinking WDW

The rumor article from 2 weeks ago says November for WDW. But it could be pushed to spring too. Maybe they’ll open the ride at the same time.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for the awesome review! More excited now for our trip next week!

Of course! You are going to have a blast, and I agree that this thread has been invaluable!

 

[disEAR]

Just got back from our very short but very WONDERFUL trip to a galaxy far far away! Here is our trip report - apologies for the length.

We had both 8am-12pm and 5pm-9pm reservations on Friday June 7th. Our priority was Oga’s. We got to Disneyland at 6:15am and went straight through the gates. CM’s checked our reservations before letting us into the park, so have that readily available. We stopped to take a few photos on Main St. In front of a very empty castle (when else is that going to happen). Then made our way to Launch Bay, where we walked right in and got our wrist bands for our first reservation. From there we made our way to the holding area between Nemo and Matterhorn, there was a coffee stand and Quick Service spot open right next to this area. We were probably among the first 150 people to arrive.

We didn’t move to a second holding area, instead at 7:50 they started walking us toward Big Thunder Trail, there isn’t much organization at this part, and people did cut in and out around us. We probably fell back to maybe 300 or so behind the front. Along the path, cast members ask you to raise your hand to show your wrist band, and right before entering the tunnel they scan it again.
They held us in the tunnel, where a Citizen of Batuu with a orange flag announced to keep right and follow her for Oga’s Cantina. They count down from 10, and suddenly we found ourselves walking into Batuu.

Going to the Cantina, the line you follow narrows and becomes single file, they have citizens of Batuu out to keep people from cutting in this line. We weren’t the first group to get into Oga’s, instead we received a green card that served as our entry pass, we were told to wait and so we waited. During our wait a citizen of Batuu went through the line to communicate the rule of two drinks and a 45 minute time window. She also emphasized no rough housing or fighting is tolerated by Oga. By 830, we were brought inside. They led us to a shared table where we chatted with a few other patrons and ordered the Blue Bantha, Black Spire Brew, Jabba Juice and Carbon Freeze (no alcohol for us). Everything was good, but our favourite was the Black Spire Brew, which is on the Breakfast Menu, and is likely a required taste. 45 minutes in Oga’s was more then enough for us to enjoy our drinks, chat with others, explore and even see a familiar droid malfunction.

We left at 9:15, and went to Smugglers Run with a 20 minute posted wait. Our first time we were engineers. The ride is a lot of fun, but I can see why some don’t like the engineer and gunner positions as you aren’t up front and have to focus on other things happening around you.
The whole land is extremely interactive, and I believe you’ll have more fun if you allow yourself to explore and interact with it, getting to know the citizens and visitors of Batuu. For us, this meant meeting Vi Moradi, a resistance fighter who used us as a human wall to help her avoid being detected by Storm Troopers. Talking about rare artifacts with the merchants inside Dok Ondors. Witnessing Kylo Ren, Storm Troopers and Imperial Officers interrogate people, and helping Chewbacca and Rey repair broken facilities and a X-Wing. This plus, the unique shopping and food made for a wild and unique visit for us. And then there’s the Play App which we only used twice, during our visit but allows even more Interactivity.

Our absolute best experience was on our second Smugglers Run. The groups behind us were all large numbers and so we ended up as Pilots without any Gunners or Engineers. Which meant my wife and I got to pilot the millennium falcon just the two of us. I can’t imagine this is something that will ever happen again, and even the Worker who escorted us out of the ship after was surprised when the door opened and it was just the two of us. We definitely demolished the Falcon. Both Hondo and Chewie made sure to tell us how unhappy they were, and Hondo’s workers wouldn’t let us forget it.

We finished our 8-12 reservation with a Ronto Wrap and Blue and Green milk, sitting down and just taking in all the environment has to offer.

We spent our 5-9 reservation exploring and taking photos. We just wanted to enjoy our time and ride the Millenium Falcon once more (Gunners this time). We left early at 8:30pm for a Fantasmic dining reservation at Hungry Bear, but we could have spent all day and night there and I don’t think we would have uncovered everything Galaxy’s Edge has to offer.

The level of detail and effort to make this a unique story for each person who visits is truly incredible. You are really living your own adventure inside the Star Wars universe. And I can’t wait to go back.

Rule of thumb, get there early, prioritize what you want to do first. Don’t worry about doing everything but explore as much as you can. And of course, have fun!

 

[Caropooh]

It’s the Fantasyland exit. They’re tucked about as out of the way as they can be, but they are still rather out of place! There are also some security guards in the land who are in their normal outfits, also a bit jarring.

She is well pleased with Izzy. The dog is not so sure.

I thought the security guards looked very out of place also. I'm not sure exactly what kind of costume they could have worn, but it didn't look right to me.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just finished my fourth and final reservation. 5-9 on Saturday night.

• Definitely felt much much more crowded than last weekend. I don’t know if that was because of more people or what, but it wasn’t as enjoyable in terms of crowds.
• We were in the middle of the pack and ended up waiting for 1.5 hrs for the build a droid. I don’t even have many tips for that one because half the line was people from the previous group, so I’d say even the first people in line from our timeslot still had a 45 minute wait.
• Savi’s was full within 15 minutes. We didn’t even attempt Oga’s, and the line to sign up was all the way back the Big Thunder Trail.
• DAS booth is now in the land-it’s on the SW side of the big thunder trail tunnel (near Droid Depot).
• They removed the coke stand by the Cantina. This means the one by droid depot has a longer line, but at least it moves fast.
• The word has gotten out about black crystals and people will stake out the Kyber crystal case waiting for a new shipment to come in and then check all the new ones for black ones. Makes it annoying for people trying to look at things there.
• For the Jedi holocron there are several options of crystal cuts for each color. Those correspond to different voices. So if you want all the voices you also need to find all the cuts of crystals. (A funny glitch I have is my Yellow crystal turned out blue in the holocron and lightsaber; CM even had never seen that. I could have returned it for a regular yellow, but I didn’t want to!)
• Metal sporks are gone, at least by dinner. Very unfortunate.
• Things are definitely selling out of merch. No Lothcats or Droid backpacks. Also no R2-D2 bowls. Those were the main things I paid attention to.
• The ride line was definitely longer than last weekend. Single rider was still a good bet.
• They are only being vigilant about the wristbands at the ride. I even was waiting for my friends to get out of the ride and saw they weren’t checking Single Rider wristbands. YMMV though because after the fireworks they were being more vigilant because the big group was hanging out there. But we could have easily gotten in 2 Single Rider turns after our timeslot. I also was there for 2 hrs past my time (mostly eating and then playing on the app, but I could have shopped or most anything else)
• For fireworks they make everyone go down to the bottom level. No one is allowed to stand at the top because that is queue space for Docking Bay 7.
• If you get a chance just go and sit around the Resistance area. Much more peaceful and so many crazy sounds! I legit thought there were animals in the bushes!

It still is an absolutely amazing land! I can’t wait to spend even more time there starting in 3 weeks or so!

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Just got back from our 5pm to 9pm reservation today (Saturday 6/8). I have to say, after reading everyone else’s experiences, I was a little disappointed at the crowd levels.

We checked in shortly after three and made our way to Critter Country so as to not get caught on the wrong side of the park due to the parade at 3:30. Cast by the restaurant said that they’ve recently made changes due to an emergency situation and no longer did any type of line before your reservation time, and that no one would be able to line up before 5pm. This was, of course, not the case.

We returned around 4pm and joined the crowd of people just standing around. The CMs tried to keep people out of the walkway but no one wanted to move. Sometime close to 4:15 there was a mad rush and they started scanning people into the holding area.

We were let into the land a minute or so after 5pm, with those heading for Oga’s on the right following a CM. I somehow managed to be in the front of the row of people but got literally pushed out of the way but it turned out fine.

Made it to Savi’s and were given a card to come back at 5:50. They were turning people away for our reservation time by 5:10.

The land itself was so crowded it was difficult to walk around, and the shops felt impossible. We stood in line for popcorn for half an hour before Savi’s. Waits for the ride were 65 minutes until over an hour and a half into our reservation. It was shorter during the middle of our time, never below 25 minutes. We also waited about 35 minutes to get into the antiquities store; a CM said it was the longest line he’d ever seen.

We did manage to stay for the 9:30pm fireworks, which was pretty cool — but definitely weird with no music.

All in all, we got popcorn, built lightsabers, rode Smugglers Run once, ate dinner (there was no line there), walked quickly through the shops, and shopped at the antiquities place, and it took us our full four hours (and 15 extra minutes for the actual shopping).

The only character we saw throughout our whole time was Chewie as we entered, but we weren’t really looking for them either.

Still had a great time and cannot day enough good things about the land itself. Maybe I had my crowd levels expectations too high, or maybe this was a more crowded day/reservation period.

We have another reservation in the morning (8am) and we’re trying to do the Cantina. I’ll report back again!

 

[Lesley Wake]

(Duplicate post too)

 

[Lesley Wake]

(Sorry-duplicate)

 

[Lesley Wake]

Just got back from our 5pm to 9pm reservation today (Saturday 6/8). I have to say, after reading everyone else’s experiences, I was a little disappointed at the crowd levels.

We checked in shortly after three and made our way to Critter Country so as to not get caught on the wrong side of the park due to the parade at 3:30. Cast by the restaurant said that they’ve recently made changes due to an emergency situation and no longer did any type of line before your reservation time, and that no one would be able to line up before 5pm. This was, of course, not the case.

We returned around 4pm and joined the crowd of people just standing around. The CMs tried to keep people out of the walkway but no one wanted to move. Sometime close to 4:15 there was a mad rush and they started scanning people into the holding area.

We were let into the land a minute or so after 5pm, with those heading for Oga’s on the right following a CM. I somehow managed to be in the front of the row of people but got literally pushed out of the way but it turned out fine.

Made it to Savi’s and were given a card to come back at 5:50. They were turning people away for our reservation time by 5:10.

The land itself was so crowded it was difficult to walk around, and the shops felt impossible. We stood in line for popcorn for half an hour before Savi’s. Waits for the ride were 65 minutes until over an hour and a half into our reservation. It was shorter during the middle of our time, never below 25 minutes. We also waited about 35 minutes to get into the antiquities store; a CM said it was the longest line he’d ever seen.

We did manage to stay for the 9:30pm fireworks, which was pretty cool — but definitely weird with no music.

All in all, we got popcorn, built lightsabers, rode Smugglers Run once, ate dinner (there was no line there), walked quickly through the shops, and shopped at the antiquities place, and it took us our full four hours (and 15 extra minutes for the actual shopping).

The only character we saw throughout our whole time was Chewie as we entered, but we weren’t really looking for them either.

Still had a great time and cannot day enough good things about the land itself. Maybe I had my crowd levels expectations too high, or maybe this was a more crowded day/reservation period.

We have another reservation in the morning (8am) and we’re trying to do the Cantina. I’ll report back again!

It sounds like we crossed paths a bunch tonight! The crowds definitely felt much worse than they should have! Maybe this was one of the times they decided to experiment with higher crowd numbers to get a better idea for the capacity once the virtual queue is started? I hope your 8am will be better!

And I heard through the grapevine that some people tried to sneak into the land without reservations. And by sneak, I mean run past CMs thru one of the entrances.

 

[OKC Disney Fan]

Not sure if I've missed it in here somewhere, but has anyone been successful in getting into the Cantina AND doing a lightsaber in the same 4hr visit? Did it involve splitting up your group?

 

[mrsxsparrow]

It sounds like we crossed paths a bunch tonight! The crowds definitely felt much worse than they should have! Maybe this was one of the times they decided to experiment with higher crowd numbers to get a better idea for the capacity once the virtual queue is started? I hope your 8am will be better!

And I heard through the grapevine that some people tried to sneak into the land without reservations. And by sneak, I mean run past CMs thru one of the entrances.

It’s a bummer it was so crowded... but I’m glad I wasn’t just me that felt it!

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Not sure if I've missed it in here somewhere, but has anyone been successful in getting into the Cantina AND doing a lightsaber in the same 4hr visit? Did it involve splitting up your group?

I don’t know and haven’t read about anybody doing both. Some people have split up so one person does the lightsaber and one does the Cantina, but it’s not a single person does both.

Theoretically if you split up and got JUST the right combo of return times, you maybe could do both. But that would be quite lucky.

 

[pharmama]

For our visit we have both 11-3 (free reservation) and 8pm-midnight (on-site hotel guests) slots so trying to figure what we try to do when.

Are the characters out in the evening as much as during the day? I know they aren’t M&G’s which is fine. We just want to see them and maybe have some fun interactions if it happens. But in other park areas characters become scarce in the evening and at night so was wondering if that was the case in SWGE as well. Even wondering about the storm troopers and if they’re still out and about at night.

 

[dina444444]

Just finished my fourth and final reservation. 5-9 on Saturday night.

• Definitely felt much much more crowded than last weekend. I don’t know if that was because of more people or what, but it wasn’t as enjoyable in terms of crowds.
• We were in the middle of the pack and ended up waiting for 1.5 hrs for the build a droid. I don’t even have many tips for that one because half the line was people from the previous group, so I’d say even the first people in line from our timeslot still had a 45 minute wait.
• Savi’s was full within 15 minutes. We didn’t even attempt Oga’s, and the line to sign up was all the way back the Big Thunder Trail.
• DAS booth is now in the land-it’s on the SW side of the big thunder trail tunnel (near Droid Depot).
• They removed the coke stand by the Cantina. This means the one by droid depot has a longer line, but at least it moves fast.
• The word has gotten out about black crystals and people will stake out the Kyber crystal case waiting for a new shipment to come in and then check all the new ones for black ones. Makes it annoying for people trying to look at things there.
• For the Jedi holocron there are several options of crystal cuts for each color. Those correspond to different voices. So if you want all the voices you also need to find all the cuts of crystals. (A funny glitch I have is my Yellow crystal turned out blue in the holocron and lightsaber; CM even had never seen that. I could have returned it for a regular yellow, but I didn’t want to!)
• Metal sporks are gone, at least by dinner. Very unfortunate.
• Things are definitely selling out of merch. No Lothcats or Droid backpacks. Also no R2-D2 bowls. Those were the main things I paid attention to.
• The ride line was definitely longer than last weekend. Single rider was still a good bet.
• They are only being vigilant about the wristbands at the ride. I even was waiting for my friends to get out of the ride and saw they weren’t checking Single Rider wristbands. YMMV though because after the fireworks they were being more vigilant because the big group was hanging out there. But we could have easily gotten in 2 Single Rider turns after our timeslot. I also was there for 2 hrs past my time (mostly eating and then playing on the app, but I could have shopped or most anything else)
• For fireworks they make everyone go down to the bottom level. No one is allowed to stand at the top because that is queue space for Docking Bay 7.
• If you get a chance just go and sit around the Resistance area. Much more peaceful and so many crazy sounds! I legit thought there were animals in the bushes!

It still is an absolutely amazing land! I can’t wait to spend even more time there starting in 3 weeks or so!

Coke stand by the cantina is now in its new permanent home at the rise entrance. Saw it walking out that way last night and chatted with the cms.

 

[njchris]

We did manage to stay for the 9:30pm fireworks, which was pretty cool — but definitely weird with no music.

Maybe this is why it seemed more crowded. You aren't the first person I've seen posted saying they stayed longer than their allotted time. I'm not trying to cause an argument, but I think this is rude and taking advantage.

 

[dina444444]

Maybe this is why it seemed more crowded. You aren't the first person I've seen posted saying they stayed longer than their allotted time. I'm not trying to cause an argument, but I think this is rude and taking advantage.

It was definitely just more crowded in general it felt like. After having experienced two other overlap sessions I think there were more people in the time slots yesterday compared to last week.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Weird. Yesterday the 8 am slot didn't seem crowded at all. It was very empty feeling. Really glad we managed to get that time slot with the different reports for the later slots.