We made a spur of the moment trip to Hollywood Studios on Saturday to check out Galaxy's Edge.
It's very well done, but it doesn't have the "WOW!" factor that Pandora or even Toy Story Land has, perhaps by design. It's supposed to be a nondescript outpost and it is that. It's very big, bigger than I expected. It even looks like they could fit another attraction in somewhere. The centerpiece is the life-sized Millennium Falcon which does look as amazing as advertised, but it doesn't make the whole land as awe-inspiring as you'd think it would. The rest of the land is shops, sit down dining, and food/beverage stands that are well-themed and kind of tucked away in that if you want to avoid them you can. It looks straight out of a movie, just not any specific movie.
There were no walk around characters aside from Chewy and two stormtroopers we saw standing on top of a garage. My wife went back in by herself and they harassed her or something. The cast members were dressed kind of like humans do in Tatooine and were kind of in character.
I can't speak for the build a droid or bulid a lightsaber experiences. I did see a lot of people with their own droid though. There is a creatures store with over a dozen creature figures most with moveable parts or something like that that kids would like. My kids were well-entertained during a brief rainstorm and thankfully didn't want to buy anything like they did the $50 banshees in Pandora two years ago.
The crowd weren't bad at all. It could have been due to Dorian, but I doubt that many out of staters cancelled their trips and I know a lot of locals went. I met up with an out of state friend who camped out for the opening and she said the crowds were pretty mellow by 3:00 that afternoon. The lines for Millennial Falcon: Smuggler's Run was between 1-2 hours from what I saw, not nearly the 3-4 hours wait for the Avatar Flight of Passage that persisted for the first 2 years of the attraction. In fact, the whole experience was mellow compared to the opening of Pandora. It opened Memorial Day weekend and we went on that Tuesday and it was nuts. Everything was packed. The line for FOP was out of the land. The line for the main store ridiculous. There were no lines for anything except SR and the build a droid. The big counter service restaurant had no line around 5:00. By the way, it's premium counter service. The entrees were between $15-20 and included a good cold shrimp and noodle dish and some beef, pork, and chicken dishes that looked good.
Smuggler's Run was a disappointment, at least the ride itself. The experience of walking through the Millennium Falcon was very cool. The whole mission set up with Hondo (a Star Wars Rebels character) and Chewy was cool. You're given boarding passes and 2 people each are assigned pilot, gunner, and engineer. This is basically the whole thing. If you're pilot, apparently it's an amazing ride. One pilot controls left and right. The other controls up and down and hyperspace. In our experience, a little girl and her dad were the pilots. We crashed a lot. If you're a gunner or engineer, it's basically Star Tours with button pushing. The gunner can't aim, just fire. The engineer just pushes whatever buttons light up. You do get a score at the end but everyone gets the same score. If your pilot is a 4 year old, you're just not going to get a good score.
I got the impression they had high aspirations for the ride but just couldn't do everything they wanted to do and still be a high capacity ride. The general impression I get from friends who rode it and the Disney Facebook group I'm in are basically the same. If you can be the pilot, be the pilot. Otherwise, it's not worth the wait. FOP is a far superior experience. SR is the #2 ride, equivalent to Na'vi River Journey or Alien Swirling Sauces and Rise of the Resistance is the top tier attraction.
Here's some info about the Star Wars hotel. It's a 3 day, 2 night experience rumored to run about $1400 per person.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/01/pictures-disneys-new-star-wars-galactic-starcruiser-hotel.html
Here's my initial impression of Pandora for comparison:
#defeated
Pandora at Animal Kingdom may have single-handedly resurrected the Avatar franchise. We went to Animal Kingdom today as part of our annual Memorial Day week trip. Wow. First of all, Disney did an excellent job with it. Everything is beautifully detailed. The plant life, real and "alien," look great. The bioluminescent effect is simple (neon paint and blacklight) but well done. The floating mountains standout.
Both rides are excellent.
Flight of Passage is the next level of Soarin' and Star Tours. We talked to a family from Milwaukee at Hollywood Studios who had ridden it opening day. They had a Fastpass+ but agreed it was worth the four hour wait. I didn't think it could live up to that hype and it did.
Na'vi River Journey is a Disney boat ride. It is next level in terms of use of projections and again the detail. Far better than the new Frozen boat ride at Epcot in my opinion.
The crowds were huge, but died down during the day. There was a persistent line for the one store, however. It was strange, but I understood when I went in. They're selling little remote controlled baby banshees at the "Banshee Rookery" for $49.99 a pop. Seemed like every kid had one. You can also create your own avatar by getting your face scanned to create a Na'vi doll printed in your likeness. Lots of new gear. The food is good too.
I don't think I've heard a single person mention this film in the last 6 years, but you wouldn't know it from the crowds and merch today. You'd think this movie had a huge following.
My oldest was 6 months old when it came out. They were so into it that they peppered me with questions about the film the whole day. I broke down and showed them the trailer on YouTube. Now I have to say this didn't encourage me to want to go back and see the film. I saw it once and that was fine. But I'll be coming back to Pandora every time I come to Animal Kingdom. It's the best new addition in the parks in the last several years. Much better than New Fantasyland. Better than the Frozen Ride and the new Soarin' at Epcot.
If Disney can do that great of a job based on one movie that a lot of people saw once or twice and didn't care about anymore, they're going to kill it with Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios. I don't even want to imagine what those crowds will be like. A security guard said there were people camped out at 1:30 am before opening day on Saturday. There will be people camped out for weeks for Star Wars Land.
Speaking of the Studios, they added a projection show that celebrates live action Disney films that takes place before the Star Wars fireworks at the end of the night. Both were really well done and are a good reason to stay until the park closes. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom are better nighttime destinations than they were a year ago. Well done.