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

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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!
Oh, yes. I think they know that the reservation thing is the only thing that's going to keep any sense of organization at DL. I don't think it's a bad idea at all for WDW to do the same but since they haven't mentioned it, I'm guessing it isn't going to happen. So like many have said....all eyes on Disneyland on May 31!
 
Does WDW ever do general public previews or soft openings of new rides prior to the published opening date? We will be at WDW 8/19 - 8/27, 8/26 being our planned day for HS.
they did a soft opening for TSL the day before anyone that was there could have gotten in so it could happen but unlikely
 
We will be at WDW from 8/23-9/1 so by luck we’ll be there for the opening. I’m keeping my expectations LOW. I want to be able to walk through, check out the environment and shops etc. We may try to do an extra magic hour thing and hit HS at opening to try to get on the Falcon. I’m also interested in the crowds- to see it’ll be as bad as people are speculating.
 
In regards to the park closing due to capacity...

We are staying onsite and have no interest in SWGE. Our stay is in mid-October (so not opening weekend) but I know it will still be crowded. We want to eat dinner at 50's PTC and then see Fantasmic, but we don't want to have to arrive at the park at 10am just to make sure that we get in before a Phase 4 closure. What will happen if we are "shut out" of our dinner reservation due to a phase 4 closure? I'm not paying a no-show fee because we can't get in to the park. I certainly don't have a solution, but I know there are a lot of people that want to go to HS but don't want to go near SWGE.
 


We will be at WDW from 8/23-9/1 so by luck we’ll be there for the opening. I’m keeping my expectations LOW. I want to be able to walk through, check out the environment and shops etc. We may try to do an extra magic hour thing and hit HS at opening to try to get on the Falcon. I’m also interested in the crowds- to see it’ll be as bad as people are speculating.

If you want ANY chance of getting into SWGE during opening weekened you will want to be there at least a few hours before the park even opens. There's a Youtuber name Michael Kay who has attended a few of WDW's more recent openings (Pandora, Toy Story Land). His videos show that people will be lining up at 3 or 4 in the morning long before the parks open. Toy Story Land did open at 6am on it's opening day. I could see them doing the same thing if the lines outside the park get really bad.
 
Hubby is probably a bigger fan of SW and I (and that is saying a lot).....and I think I have him convinced we need to rest up on Wednesday so we are ready to go super early for the grand opening. He isn't a huge fan of big crowds, though. We're staying at Pop for the first 5 nights of the trip so I really hope the Skyliner is open but I'm not convinced it'll be open early enough for us to get to the park at a decent hour. I'm wondering if Disney will have rules for lining up early. Wouldn't a "return to the park" ticket be smarter to eliminate huge lines? Or something like DL is doing by offering reservations to those staying at WDW resorts? I wish we knew how they planned to handle the crowds! I'm a planner so this "winging" it mentality is killing me!
 
We would be happy just getting into the land to look around. We will be there on Aug 29th and 30th. Everyone is talking about the crowds at rope drop. What about crowds at night? Will it be easier to get into DHS and SWGE in the evening?
 


We would be happy just getting into the land to look around. We will be there on Aug 29th and 30th. Everyone is talking about the crowds at rope drop. What about crowds at night? Will it be easier to get into DHS and SWGE in the evening?

This is my plan if for no other reason than not to be waiting in the sun. I’m thinking on 9/1 or 9/2.
 
We would be happy just getting into the land to look around. We will be there on Aug 29th and 30th. Everyone is talking about the crowds at rope drop. What about crowds at night? Will it be easier to get into DHS and SWGE in the evening?

That all depends on what the crowds are like. If the crowds wanting to get into SWGE are big enough, they can shut off entry to the land, and only let people in as other people leave. I'm not banking on any time of day being better than another for a while.
 
In regards to the park closing due to capacity...

We are staying onsite and have no interest in SWGE. Our stay is in mid-October (so not opening weekend) but I know it will still be crowded. We want to eat dinner at 50's PTC and then see Fantasmic, but we don't want to have to arrive at the park at 10am just to make sure that we get in before a Phase 4 closure. What will happen if we are "shut out" of our dinner reservation due to a phase 4 closure? I'm not paying a no-show fee because we can't get in to the park. I certainly don't have a solution, but I know there are a lot of people that want to go to HS but don't want to go near SWGE.

Personally believe this is a bit of a stretch of a hypothetical. It simply won’t happen in mid October. We MAY see Phase 4 openings for the opening weekend. Unless the second ride just happens to open on that mid-October date you are referring to, you won’t have an issue.
Look, it’s going to be busy for a little while. These rides are going to have the longest wait across the 4 parks, sure. But it’s not going to be this bad that you won’t get into HS 2 months later with a dining reservation. Not even New Years in MK has seen Phase 4 closures for a long long time.
 
Am I correct in assuming the phase one of this land will have only one attraction open or am I mistaken? If so I think it won't be as bad as people are hyping it up to be...although I'm sure it will be a LONG wait to ride this ride.

I wonder if Disney will amend their rules if we can wear jedi robes I would love for some great photos, and to dress my little man up like Yoda :O
 
My trip is in August/September. I've decided to plan for both scenarios: it won't be that busy, it will be extra busy. If not busy, I will go with our original plan of super fun. If extra busy, I will go to the parks only a few hours each day for the fastpasses, then come back to the hotel and chill. Waste of park tickets, but I'm not fighting crowds with a stroller. And maybe go again at night if the crowds die down some then. Either way, I'll make it work and have a good time. Have never been to Disney during extra crowded time because they are more expensive. Now I might get crowded and free dining at the same time!
 
I am still confused how the project management team could let the RotR schedule slip. I understand it is attempting to use new, and likely never before done technology, but the schedule should have that built in before giving a rough timeline for opening to the public.

Now, I have to question a double money grab to those guests that want to return to SWGE to ride RotR.
 
I am still confused how the project management team could let the RotR schedule slip. I understand it is attempting to use new, and likely never before done technology, but the schedule should have that built in before giving a rough timeline for opening to the public.

Now, I have to question a double money grab to those guests that want to return to SWGE to ride RotR.

Perhaps this was intentional to minimize the crowd load. Some people may wait until everything is open to make the trip.
 
Perhaps this was intentional to minimize the crowd load. Some people may wait until everything is open to make the trip.
I agree with you, also the attraction might be ready by opening day but being a highly technical ride they might want to conduct a lot of testing before offering it to the public.
 
I am still confused how the project management team could let the RotR schedule slip. I understand it is attempting to use new, and likely never before done technology, but the schedule should have that built in before giving a rough timeline for opening to the public.

Now, I have to question a double money grab to those guests that want to return to SWGE to ride RotR.
It's still not clear whether this is an issue of Rise being delayed or everything else being technically ahead of schedule. As it stands, the parks are opening earlier than scheduled (much earlier in the case of WDW), the big question is how much Rise is "delayed". If it's beyond the original planned opening window, then yeah they ran into issues. I'm optimistic on Rise opening 4-6 weeks after initial opening, mostly because there's really no chatter about things being stalled over there, but we'll see.

As for whether this is a money grab to get people in earlier and end up with people doing two visits so they can hit both rides... uhhhhh.... yeah.
 
Perhaps this was intentional to minimize the crowd load.

I want to believe it wasn't by design. I think there will be several groups of guests. The "must be there regardless of RoTR is open" and then those that will wait and even a 3rd that will do both (this is the money grab scenario).

The schedule should be holistic covering concept, design through final delivery with sufficient testing. If it is a technical oversight in scheduling, it doesn't exactly place confidence in future release dates.
 
It's still not clear whether this is an issue of Rise being delayed or everything else being technically ahead of schedule. As it stands, the parks are opening earlier than scheduled (much earlier in the case of WDW), the big question is how much Rise is "delayed". If it's beyond the original planned opening window, then yeah they ran into issues. I'm optimistic on Rise opening 4-6 weeks after initial opening, mostly because there's really no chatter about things being stalled over there, but we'll see.

As for whether this is a money grab to get people in earlier and end up with people doing two visits so they can hit both rides... uhhhhh.... yeah.

You could be right, but the verbiage of later this year builds in enough ambiguity to keep the public in suspense.

What I would have tabled in the concept/design phase is a mode B option should the technical team(s) encounter delays; they built it into Navi River Journey with the animinatronic. Use the mode B to hit your release date, while continually working/testing the primary mode A. Maybe they already have this incorporated into the attraction?
 
You could be right, but the verbiage of later this year builds in enough ambiguity to keep the public in suspense.

What I would have tabled in the concept/design phase is a mode B option should the technical team(s) encounter delays; they built it into Navi River Journey with the animinatronic. Use the mode B to hit your release date, while continually working/testing the primary mode A. Maybe they already have this incorporated into the attraction?
Hm, never knew that they did that with Navi, that's interesting. They could definitely do that with Rise if they had issues. I'm just really hopeful here. Original opening windows were summer and late fall for the two parks, and Iger only recently dropped the June window for DL. My theory is that everything is on time according to that original schedule, they always had an estimate that the rest of the area might be done before Rise, and the big decision was whether to follow through on the staggered opening. I'm VERY optimistic as far as this goes and now that I've said that they'll probably delay Rise until 2020 and I'll have egg on my face.
 
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