Star Wars: Galaxys Edge Trip Report

[Gazza]

I got back from the states just over a week ago, but I spent my final day in LA at Disneyland before catching my late evening flight.

 

Due to circumstances beyond my control I had about 8 hours at Disneyland, which was enough time to try Smugglers Run and have a good look around the new Star Wars: Galaxy Edge, plus have a go on all my other favorites (Yes to Indy, no to Autopia). Still, its an expensive day out, Admission is $150 USD, plus buying a few of the special food items and a souvenir mug meant it turned out to be a day out worth over $300 AUD. Totes worth it though.

You can see pics here:

https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Anaheim/Disneyland/ride/4314-Star_Wars_Galaxys_Edge

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-2449-Millennium_Falcon_Smugglers_Run

 

As for Galaxys Edge, its’s awesomely themed, with plenty of detail, with a mix of architectural styles. Perhaps though there was an over-reliance of random electrical boxes and cables everywhere, and throwing varnish / scuffed paint around everywhere willy nilly to make it look aged. On the plus side, they’ll never need to paint anything. The Morroccan inspired architecture is a real treat.

I think the main shortcoming though is that there's not a whole lot for youger kids to do compared to the rest of DL, it seems heavily geared to Star Wars fans with money to burn in the shops.

 

The entry to the area is quite sublte, there’s no big entry sign, you just pass through a tunnel, the music changes, and there you are.

 

In particular the rockwork was impressive, I liked how the really tall stuff was done just a tiny bit lighter to give the impression it was further away with the atmosphere in front of it.

 

I thought some of it felt a bit static though. A lot of parked space ships with nothing in terms of sound or light or vibration, and I was hoping they’d have more droids everywhere whirring and buzzing. Looked all very beautiful, just lacking a certain energy.

 

As for the area, one end was a sort of marketplace/ town area, with interconnected plazas and several buildings, and this is where you find Smugglers Run.

 

 

The other end was a bit more natural feeling, with essentially a main path lined by futuristic lamp posts and arid bushland (Plus a couple of token space ships which were fenced off and some container type gift stands) , in some ways it felt like being in the picnic area of an Australian national park. On one side, behind a layer of scrub is rocky façade and the queue lines for Rise of the Resistance.

I sort of couldn’t get excited for this bit. Obviously Rise of the resistance will anchor this end, (But even then it’s largely a hidden attraction) but what it basically means is that once you get past Splash Mountain, its more or less just a path with nothing  much to see for a good 300m or so until you get to the marketplace bit of Galaxys edge…It feels really strange compared to the energy of the rest of Disneyland (Like the lively bit in Adventureland for example). Kind of feels like they need another restaurant, or things living in the bush, or some sort of minor attraction to anchor this end and give it some life.

 

But down the marketplace end, it’s great, I stuck my head in every shop, which are oozing with details and animatronics. They’ve made the decision to go super realistic, so there are no signs for any shops, and there are only subtle hints (Or not so subtle, in the case of the First Order shop) outside each one as to what they contain, for example the light sabre place has some religious looking statues. The lack of signage means a bit of trial and error to find what you want.

The droid place was cool and reminded me a bit of star tours queue, with robot parts running around on conveyor belts overhead.

The marketplace section is the most interesting, with ramshackle shade made from cooling coil panels and bits of wire, and various handicrafts. A lot of the merch seemed geared towards full on cosplayers, with full jedi outfits and flight suits and the like.

Again, for realism they’ve shied away from too many T shirts and products with “Star Wars” on it. Where printed T shirts do exist, it’s much more subtle in their  design.

Merch on the whole seemed less expensive than I expected. A storm trooper themed mug was only $17 USD.

As for the food, it’s my favourite in the park, and the menu items feel more at home in a laneway café than a theme park. If you want something more sophisticated than chicken tenders or burgers, come here.

Over the course of the day I tried a few things.

Kaduu Ribs, pork ribs with a nice sauce, very little gristle, and this lovely vinegary cabbage slaw.

Fried Endorian Tip Yip, a slab of fried chicken on bubble and squeak, and this salsa verde type gravy.

Moof Juice – Sort of tasted like that Lavaburst fruit punch you get a maccas in the US, but with a bit of pineapple and a tiny edge of smoke flavor. Not full bodied enough for me. Pink orange colour like grapefruit juice.

Meiloorun Juice – A bit more citrus and sharper, and more refreshing, but again, not that full bodied.

Ronto Wrap - This was like the thinking mans hot dog / best Bunnings snag ever. Was a spicy sausage, plus thin slices of peppered pork, plus slaw, in a pita. I shall try to recreate this at home.

 

Blue Milk – The milks aren’t really milks, but rather a frozen icy frappe type consistency made of plant based milk. It tastes a bit tutti frutti and reminds me of those frozen Weis Bars, but had a bit of a citrus finish.

Green Milk – This one tasted like the scent of those automatic air fresheners in the toilets at shopping centers, a lot more citrus, and bit floral and fragrant too.

It’s not cheap though! $8 a glass! I’d happily have more, full bodied but not heavy going.

I also spent $5.50 usd on a 400ml fancy bottle of diet coke.

I didn’t get into the Cantina, it was booked out, so no Carbon Freeze for me. F.

The one and only ride is Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. For my first go I did the full queue, where you first wrap around the outside of the millennium falcon, past rows of cargo crates etc that form the queue. You eventually head inside and ramp up through a workshop area, with a giant engine on display (Again, I thought it looked great but felt a bit static for a giant workshop. A couple of robot droids doing work in here would have really livened it up. You then loop around on a top floor, lookout out over the roof of the Falcon and the area as a whole, a great vista.

 

 

Heading into the preshow room, a ultra realistic Hondo animatronic tells you about your mission. You’re borrowing the Millennium Falcon to pinch a shipment of a rare element from another planet.

With that you board down a jetway tunnel, with a slightly bouncing floor, and enter the millennium falcon itself. Before you enter, a CM hands out your card for your role. I got gunner. They have different colour coded cards for each boarding group, and a few boarding groups are milling around in the main room of the falcon, so this gives fans a few minutes to look around and enjoy the interior, sit at the chess table and so on.

 

In what feels like only moments you are called up to board, and led down a hallway into the cockpit. Unfortunately we had some 7 year old kid in the pilots seat, so we crashed into everything and anything.

The way the controls work is someone controls steering, someone controls up and down, the two gunners just gun by spamming the shoot button (you have an option to set up auto aim, and I did this setting by accident ugh), and the engineers at the back just button bash to fix problems with the ship, and also fire a harpoon to nab the shipment of the rare element. For everyone not piloting, it feels a lot like mission space in that you just blindly hit whatever button is flashing. You cant fail the mission, but you do get a score based on how well you do your task. At the end of the day it is just a simulator, just a very well themed one.

Second time round, I got engineer, and this has a surprising amount of influence on the health of your ship. If you react fast with your button presses, you can repair a lot of damage and get a good score for the group as a whole.

The ride film itself lacked a certain level of soul and humor you get on rides like the new Star Tours, there aren’t any characters diving for cover as you fly around, it mostly takes place on an industrial alien planet, with a lot of the action focusing on following a flying freight train and avoiding tie fighters, to steal the shipment. It feels a bit like playing something like F Zero.

At one point there is a tense moment when the ship plunges down a shaft before pulling up at the last second, but otherwise feels fairly on the rails. Maybe to improve it, it needs a bit more drama on the way or an impromptu encounter with a well known villain where you really have to fight (not just pick off tie fighters)

Overall its quite good, and well polished, and an impressive technical achievement in terms of having something animated on the fly, but for most people, I’ll be solid quality simulator attraction.

Cant wait to see how Rise of the Resistance turns out.

[themagician]

Awesome review @Gazza and nice to read some more negative thoughts on it as a whole and how it could be improved (because mostly so far I’ve only read positive). I definitely look forward to checking it out for myself one day 

[New display name]

As always.  A great review @Gazza.

[Whombex]

Awesome series of photos and write-up. The minor details (such as lighter rock shades to imply distance) you noticed are so well done. I suspect they'll be adding more the the Rise of the Resistance end when it opens, they're at the moment not wanting to draw that many people to the area perhaps, but still keep the flow from both lands either side of it.

The detailing in the queue line! Takes me back to Star Tours, but this is so much more detailed. The fact that you can look over the Falcon from above when in the ride area is awesome. All the videos/photos I've seen hadn't shown that.