bgrego
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
One Day at Hollywood Studios...then the parks closed. What should we do now! We had booked our First DVC vacation at Saratoga Springs for the week of March 14-20. Carona Virus Struck and we still decided to travel. We are a family of 4 with two kids. We used three years of points to stay at Saratoga Springs for spring break. We had never stayed at Saratoga before. We are big fans of the Dolphin Hotel...the price and location cant be beat. We would rather walk than take any Disney transportation. Walking 10 miles a day sounds like great exercise to us. We go into Orlando on March 14 and used our Marriott points to stay in a free room at the Dolphin hotel. We planned on going to Hollywood studios early the next morning. We chose this free night because we could get up and walk to the park. The free room had two double beds, and they felt very small. We normally get a king bed and a pull out couch for the kids to sleep on. The double bed was so small...Me and my wife didn't sleep but a few hours. We would never stay in a double bed again.
Studios day One! Our only Park Day. We were at the park entrance at 6:50am and in line for Mickeys Ruaway rail way by 7:30. While in line we secured a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance boarding group # 49. I had trouble using the app on disney WIFI...luckily my wife got in using TMobile LTE. This is a very nerve wrecking experience. They should just automatically give out boarding groups as you enter the park. We were on and off the new Mickey ride by 8:30am.
Thoughts on Runaway Rail Way vs. Rise of Resistance. Runaway Railway is the best dark ride Disney has made in years. This is a better ride than Rise of the Resistance. Rise of the Resistance uses too many holding rooms to move the story forward. I get tired of pre-shows after a few times, and this will be the same effect (I utterly hate the Avatar Pre-show at this point). I don't understand why Disney cant see how effective Pirates of the Caribbean was at setting the stage while you were on the actual ride. They should have told this story using only the trackless ride vehicles...they modeled this ride after Story time will bell....and its not exactly a great attraction. The long winding queue is just a boring and bad as smugglers run. It is not charming like pirates or splash mountain. Its just concrete & lots of light up buttons that cant be pushed, what a missed opportunity for this whole land. The hologram of Rey looks like an actor who stands perfectly still and reads lines off a cue card with no emotion. BB-8 Rolls along completely incorrectly, the round body moving sideways in the wrong direction. Boarding the shuttle craft was OK, The cast member was actually good, he was very military and saying hurry up troops! but why not make this an actual flight simulator like at the end of the ride? Instead we get a hard to see space battle with a very good anamatronic. If you have seen video and didn't like the animatronic in the shuttle, I assure you he looks perfect in person. I didn't find this shuttle exciting. The exit into the Hangar could have been amazing. But its not. The stormtroopers are blocked by a railing making them seem like a museum exhibit instead of a threat. They should have walked everyone between the storm troopers, and this would have been a perfect room to have an anamatronic like the Hondo in smugglers run to interact with guests. But instead everyone just walks thru this amazing set with zero interaction. The hangar is where the line queue should be. you should wait in line here while storm troopers are all around you. They should have had a ship where Officers, Kylo, Etc. walk in and out of the shuttle ramp. Lots of Music, star wars sounds, something interesting on the screen. Instead we get into a small hallway queue which zaps the suspension of disbelief the ride had been trying to achieve. You now wait. We then get put into a Cell. The effect using shadows and screens is impressive. The dialog is bad. and the escape into a vehicle is dumb. The pacing is thrown off. They should have taken a few guests out for questioning. Make them part of the ride where they scream in the next room to fake an interrogation. everyone else left in the room to hear them scream like Han solo did in Empire. The ride part is OK. The probe droid effect is bad. the escape from the at-at should have had you use your tow cable to wrap their legs before you go up the elevators. And they used anamatrionics in the most boring way possible. We get to see the back of Kylo and Hux in a terrible scene. The Kylo Chase is fine. I don't understand how the blasters blast from inside the ship thru the windows... and the end is anticlimactic as Kylo floats his arms around before an unconvincing scene blows out the ceiling. The escape is amazing. The drop is perfect. Exiting outside is well done. The ride is similar to the star wars land as a whole...Its just missing something.
Mickeys Runaway rail way is well not missing anything. Its fun, overwhelmingly visual. has better character interactions thru out the ride.
After riding runaway rail way...we rushed over to sign up for Jedi Trials for my 9 and 4 year old boys. This is everything that Galaxy edge should have been. Shows about interacting with characters. My kids loved the Jedi Trials. My kids like Star Tours better than Rise or the falcon.
Olgas cantina was next. The Waitress here was amazing. She was very fun to interact with. they had a sing along bar song, and the beers here were good. However there is no show or alien interaction in the cantina, and it feels more like farscape than starwars.
Smugglers run will be better when they change the video game to something else. The jump to light speed is the best thing in Galaxy edge. Seeing my kid pull that lever sending us into light speed is amazing. This ride should have been the death star run from Jedi.
Studios day One! Our only Park Day. We were at the park entrance at 6:50am and in line for Mickeys Ruaway rail way by 7:30. While in line we secured a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance boarding group # 49. I had trouble using the app on disney WIFI...luckily my wife got in using TMobile LTE. This is a very nerve wrecking experience. They should just automatically give out boarding groups as you enter the park. We were on and off the new Mickey ride by 8:30am.
Thoughts on Runaway Rail Way vs. Rise of Resistance. Runaway Railway is the best dark ride Disney has made in years. This is a better ride than Rise of the Resistance. Rise of the Resistance uses too many holding rooms to move the story forward. I get tired of pre-shows after a few times, and this will be the same effect (I utterly hate the Avatar Pre-show at this point). I don't understand why Disney cant see how effective Pirates of the Caribbean was at setting the stage while you were on the actual ride. They should have told this story using only the trackless ride vehicles...they modeled this ride after Story time will bell....and its not exactly a great attraction. The long winding queue is just a boring and bad as smugglers run. It is not charming like pirates or splash mountain. Its just concrete & lots of light up buttons that cant be pushed, what a missed opportunity for this whole land. The hologram of Rey looks like an actor who stands perfectly still and reads lines off a cue card with no emotion. BB-8 Rolls along completely incorrectly, the round body moving sideways in the wrong direction. Boarding the shuttle craft was OK, The cast member was actually good, he was very military and saying hurry up troops! but why not make this an actual flight simulator like at the end of the ride? Instead we get a hard to see space battle with a very good anamatronic. If you have seen video and didn't like the animatronic in the shuttle, I assure you he looks perfect in person. I didn't find this shuttle exciting. The exit into the Hangar could have been amazing. But its not. The stormtroopers are blocked by a railing making them seem like a museum exhibit instead of a threat. They should have walked everyone between the storm troopers, and this would have been a perfect room to have an anamatronic like the Hondo in smugglers run to interact with guests. But instead everyone just walks thru this amazing set with zero interaction. The hangar is where the line queue should be. you should wait in line here while storm troopers are all around you. They should have had a ship where Officers, Kylo, Etc. walk in and out of the shuttle ramp. Lots of Music, star wars sounds, something interesting on the screen. Instead we get into a small hallway queue which zaps the suspension of disbelief the ride had been trying to achieve. You now wait. We then get put into a Cell. The effect using shadows and screens is impressive. The dialog is bad. and the escape into a vehicle is dumb. The pacing is thrown off. They should have taken a few guests out for questioning. Make them part of the ride where they scream in the next room to fake an interrogation. everyone else left in the room to hear them scream like Han solo did in Empire. The ride part is OK. The probe droid effect is bad. the escape from the at-at should have had you use your tow cable to wrap their legs before you go up the elevators. And they used anamatrionics in the most boring way possible. We get to see the back of Kylo and Hux in a terrible scene. The Kylo Chase is fine. I don't understand how the blasters blast from inside the ship thru the windows... and the end is anticlimactic as Kylo floats his arms around before an unconvincing scene blows out the ceiling. The escape is amazing. The drop is perfect. Exiting outside is well done. The ride is similar to the star wars land as a whole...Its just missing something.
Mickeys Runaway rail way is well not missing anything. Its fun, overwhelmingly visual. has better character interactions thru out the ride.
After riding runaway rail way...we rushed over to sign up for Jedi Trials for my 9 and 4 year old boys. This is everything that Galaxy edge should have been. Shows about interacting with characters. My kids loved the Jedi Trials. My kids like Star Tours better than Rise or the falcon.
Olgas cantina was next. The Waitress here was amazing. She was very fun to interact with. they had a sing along bar song, and the beers here were good. However there is no show or alien interaction in the cantina, and it feels more like farscape than starwars.
Smugglers run will be better when they change the video game to something else. The jump to light speed is the best thing in Galaxy edge. Seeing my kid pull that lever sending us into light speed is amazing. This ride should have been the death star run from Jedi.
