I Want to Go There
March 20, 2019 2:04 PM   Subscribe

Disney is adding Star Wars lands to its American parks. This TechCrunch article is an in-depth look at how they're doing it with quite a few pictures that have me really excited. The official word is that Disneyland's version will open on 5/31 and Disneyworld's debuts on 8/29.

(The open date of Phase 2—the Rise of the Resistance in the article is still unannounced.)

Twitter user bioreconstruct has some great aerial views of the work's progress in Florida.
posted by bbrown (87 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Disneyland's version will open on 5/31

You couldn't move that up four lousy weeks (ok, 27 days) to grab the best opening date in geek history?
posted by The Bellman at 2:24 PM on March 20, 2019 [19 favorites]


There will apparently be an extremely small themed hotel in which guests will be forced to roleplay as Star Wars characters. I really want to see how this turns out in practice.
posted by vogon_poet at 2:26 PM on March 20, 2019 [9 favorites]


I'm not much of a theme park guy, but this actually sounds pretty cool.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:29 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


There will apparently be an extremely small themed hotel in which guests will be forced to roleplay as Star Wars characters. I really want to see how this turns out in practice.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say . . . It's a trap?
posted by The Bellman at 2:30 PM on March 20, 2019 [32 favorites]


I know a few people who've been on the prototype Millennium Falcon ride and the consensus is that it's extremely rad.
posted by potrzebie at 2:35 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


I love Disney. However...

Given the past history of lines at new attractions at Disney World (Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, Avatar Flight of Passage, Toy Story Land) and the extra enthusiasm of Star Wars fans, I am happy that I will be nowhere near Disney World and specifically Hollywood Studios at the end of August.

I do look forward to seeing how long the lines are via their app. Longest I ever saw was 240 minutes for FoP, but I suspect that will be blown away.
posted by neilbert at 2:37 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I think this sounds really cool and interesting, but I also kind of wonder -- won't all this immersiveness they're so carefully crafting be kinda destroyed by the hordes of tourists wandering through it all wearing Nikes and Mickey ear hats?
posted by jacquilynne at 2:39 PM on March 20, 2019 [5 favorites]


If you're wondering why Disneyland's version of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge opens on May 31, it's the first day that the cheapest annual pass is blacked out for the 3 months of summer.

Not that I'd even want to go near that big of a crowd.
posted by sleeping bear at 2:40 PM on March 20, 2019 [6 favorites]


Hopefully this will be less creepy than their current theme park stormtrooper parades. This great Lindsay Ellis piece sums up why I'm pretty conflicted about this.
posted by phooky at 2:42 PM on March 20, 2019 [16 favorites]


What, nobody has a bad feeling about this?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:47 PM on March 20, 2019 [34 favorites]


Imagine the heinous fanboys that are going to be in attendance; maladjusted trolls who freak out because the tiniest detail in some small corner of the park isn't just like the films as they livestream their multiple visits.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 2:54 PM on March 20, 2019 [8 favorites]


There will apparently be an extremely small themed hotel in which guests will be forced to roleplay as Star Wars characters. I really want to see how this turns out in practice.

The first season of Westworld.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:56 PM on March 20, 2019 [20 favorites]


Not pictured: the insane crowds that will make this (my idea of) a living hell.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:00 PM on March 20, 2019 [6 favorites]


Imagine the heinous fanboys that are going to be in attendance; maladjusted trolls who freak out because the tiniest detail in some small corner of the park isn't just like the films as they livestream their multiple visits.

That's part of why they went with a planet that's not in the movies, I think.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:06 PM on March 20, 2019 [10 favorites]


I believe Disney people who worked on this have made explicit comparisons to Westworld (minus sex and murder obviously).
posted by vogon_poet at 3:07 PM on March 20, 2019


Wonderful tidbit from the article:

“I want to walk into this land and be in the same level as everyone else, from the really hardcore Star Wars fan to someone who knows nothing about Star Wars,” Managing Story Editor at WDI Margaret Kerrison recalls saying in the first pitch meeting she attended for Star Wars land. “I want to have that urgency to explore, to discover, to run around every corner, and to meet every single droid and alien in this land. I want to not feel like I’m at a disadvantage because I don’t know all the nitty‑gritty details as a hardcore Star Wars fan would know.”
posted by bbrown at 3:08 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I had the misfortune to be at Disneyland when Cars Land opened. All of the lines said 240 minutes but that was inaccurate since they kept breaking down. No one left the line because they were afraid it would only get worse. We actually spent four hours in the Radiator Springs Racers line that didn't move for over two hours because it wasn't working.

There's no way I'm going to this until at least next year, if not later.
posted by bbrown at 3:11 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


That's no moon.
posted by gwint at 3:12 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


I wish I were wealthy enough to have been able to secure a) a ticket and b) a room so I could go to this the first week of being open
posted by Hermione Granger at 3:13 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm going to Epcot first to get drunk so I can get arrested by the Disney police and see the Star Wars detention level.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:14 PM on March 20, 2019 [31 favorites]


I do look forward to seeing how long the lines are via their app. Longest I ever saw was 240 minutes for FoP, but I suspect that will be blown away.

I'm texting with my sister (a Disney parks enthusiast) about this, and she tells me people she knows waited in line for that ride and the park had to install porta-potties and hand out free water, the line was so long.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:15 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


I wouldn't mind one throwback ride with jerky, repetitive animatronics, narration from Paul Frees and Thurl Ravenscroft, and a few criminally catchy songs from the Sherman Brothers.
posted by Iridic at 3:19 PM on March 20, 2019 [11 favorites]


Hopefully this will be less creepy than their current theme park stormtrooper parades. This great Lindsay Ellis piece sums up why I'm pretty conflicted about this.

I also hope it gets them to quit the stormtrooper parades through the fucking disney junior section of Hollywood studios.. We went in January and it was like constant toddler trauma in there.

This is a good look at their Avatar park and might hint at how they handle the immersion.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:23 PM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


What’s the longest people are willing to stand in line to ride an attraction?

The answer, apparently, is "more than six hours." That must be one hell of a ride, considering that nobody actually cares about Avatar.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:25 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


I auditioned to be a Stormtrooper but was told I was too short.
posted by Diskeater at 3:29 PM on March 20, 2019 [31 favorites]


I spent this past weekend at Legoland* and I don't really love theme parks, but I am still looking forward to this.

I found Legoland pretty blah, until I got to the Star Wars section. I started snapping lots of photos and getting the feels. Watching my 4 year old daughter walk up to Lego Yoda, Lego Chewbacca & Lego R2D2 was pretty neat--especially when she made droid sounds at the latter.

My brother recently went to Vegas. He and his friends did the Star Wars VR experience twice, because they had so much fun the first time. I would pay for that.

So, I don't want to be at Star Wars land on opening day. I will probably do research before going, and try to manage my own expectations. As long as the people I love are there, and there is blue milk / cold beer (there will be), I should have a good time.



*Everything was NOT awesome, but it was still cool to be part of a team
posted by djwikiben at 3:33 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


Given the past history of lines at new attractions at Disney World (Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, Avatar Flight of Passage, Toy Story Land) and the extra enthusiasm of Star Wars fans, I am happy that I will be nowhere near Disney World and specifically Hollywood Studios at the end of August.

That's smart. The possibility of successfully navigating a Star Wars fan field is approximately three thousand seven hundred and twenty to one.
posted by solotoro at 3:36 PM on March 20, 2019 [11 favorites]


I'm old so I'm really curious to see how they handle the plants and landscaping.
posted by notyou at 3:39 PM on March 20, 2019 [7 favorites]


We are super stoked about this but we won’t be going til 2020. We’d like to let the crowds calm down.
posted by Biblio at 3:46 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


But if I had to stand in line at a theme park, the Disney ones are the ones I would choose.
posted by meowzilla at 3:57 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


All of the lines said 240 minutes but that was inaccurate since they kept breaking down. No one left the line because they were afraid it would only get worse.

They altered the deal, and you could only pray they didn't alter it further?
posted by nubs at 3:58 PM on March 20, 2019 [12 favorites]


It seems wrong that Starwars, which is to practical effects what the Beatles are to guitars, hasn't had a proper walk-around park before. I guess is a testament to the fandom, that conventions and tributes have filled the obvious economic void till the Mouse money made it inevitable.
posted by es_de_bah at 4:41 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


Most common FAQ questions:
1. Did Han shoot first?
2. I'm looking for some droids, are these those droids?
3. How long is the line to make the kessel run on the Millenium Falcon - and is it longer than 12 parses?
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:42 PM on March 20, 2019 [5 favorites]


Also... MGM studios (Disney) has been part of the park since ROTJ. You got to ride captain EO (Michael Jackson) and do some sort of C3P0 ride as well... Star Tours? I'd put the year on lime 86 or 87... Which means 22 years of mouse revisionist history if you think this is really Disney's first foray into this market...

What, did we finally find out that R2D2 spends his entire time quoting the story of the tar baby from Song of the South for the entire episode of A New Hope?
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:47 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


an extremely small themed hotel in which guests will be forced to roleplay as Star Wars characters.

What? You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I'm a Toydarian, mind tricks don't work on me. Only money. No money, no cosplay, no deal!

Wait a minute (/me noticing the prosthetic nose and wings) ...dang it!
posted by otherchaz at 4:56 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm sitting on the bench under the sign "incredibly stoked, will not attempt until after 2020". I was a Star Wars obsessed child and I've been trying and trying and trying for years to get my own son interested in it, knowing this was in the works and hoping he'd be just the right age and level of fandom for maximum impact, but so far no dice. He prefers Star Trek TOS. (Watching the original trilogy with him recently I did realize that there's a lot of scary shit for a little kid in there, and he hasn't yet figured out plot armor. Maybe he'll come around.)

But I personally both love Star Wars and theme parks (in a very metatextual, adult, sophisticated way, I assure you) so I'm all over this.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:59 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


You’ll drink blue (and green) milk and cocktails at the seedy cantina (yes, with alcohol).

IF I CAN'T HARVEST IT PERSONALLY FROM JUDGMENTAL OCEAN COWS AND DRINK IT WITH RELISH WHILE MAKING UNBROKEN EYE CONTACT WITH MY PEERS, I WILL GO HOME
posted by duffell at 5:12 PM on March 20, 2019 [19 favorites]


Eight year old me is excited as fuck. Forty seven year old me allows that this might turn out to be an exception to her relatively recent proclamation that she could honestly go the rest of her life without ever hearing a single thing about Star Wars ever again.

We’re considering getting together with fifty year old me to go once the lines have become vaguely sane.
posted by egypturnash at 5:15 PM on March 20, 2019 [6 favorites]


The possibility of successfully navigating a Star Wars fan field is approximately three thousand seven hundred and twenty to one.

Never tell me the odds!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:28 PM on March 20, 2019 [9 favorites]


But if I had to stand in line at a theme park, the Disney ones are the ones I would choose.

The previews I saw describedquite lavish, immersive line areas, even moreso than other Disney rides, which are already pretty damned good on that score. So at least there will be cool things to look at while you stand behind Reylo-cosplaying couple.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:10 PM on March 20, 2019


matthew panzarino talked about his experience touring the park and meeting the engineers behind it with (noted star wars and disneyworld nerd) john gruber on the last hour-ish of this week's episode of the talk show.
posted by JimBennett at 6:12 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


The previews I saw describedquite lavish, immersive line areas, even moreso than other Disney rides

Impressive. Most impressive.
posted by nubs at 6:55 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


The first season of Westworld
You would probably be supremely amused and/or disturbed to know one of Disney's internal codenames for this project.
posted by erst at 7:39 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


Man, the SW ride I went on as a kid at one of these places was such a magical experience, but I just couldn't go now. Of all the things in the Star Wars universe to be obsessed with, America had to go with the fascist space army. Seeing Stormtrooper merch and Imperial insigniae on every T-shirt and truck has ruined the entire thing for me. I wish I didn't care.
posted by the liquid oxygen at 7:45 PM on March 20, 2019 [6 favorites]


Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.
posted by jadepearl at 8:13 PM on March 20, 2019 [7 favorites]


On the one hand, this seems really cool.

On the other, the Cyclone costs ten bucks and the wait is almost never more than five minutes.
posted by thecaddy at 8:31 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Yada yada den of iniquity Coney Island you get it
posted by thecaddy at 8:32 PM on March 20, 2019


I find this totally depressing because this is built around the 19 year old Star Wars fan who an afford a thousand dollar lightsaber and destination travel and literally none of this sounds fun for kids.
posted by The Whelk at 8:48 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I don't get how you do this and have fun without booking everything months ahead of time and micro-managing your every step.

I only ever went to Disney World once, but I was horrified to find out that you had to/were supposed to book everywhere you were eating at literally months in advance (though we didn't do it until we got to the hotel). Disney World may be just that overloaded, though. Whereas I grew up going to Disneyland and later California Adventure and there's only a few restaurants you have to book in advance there.

Anyway, I look forward to checking this out in 2022 or so since these days I only get to Disneyland every 4 years or so and I just went last year. I did see their pre-show Star Wars preview stuff and Disney cast members being all "yeah, it's being built over there," at least.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:48 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


er 49 year old Star Wars fans.
posted by The Whelk at 8:55 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


Jenny Nicholson is going to think she died and went to Heaven.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:16 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


erst -- lunch at GC3 tomorrow? I'll be the one wearing neon green shoes.
posted by turbowombat at 10:54 PM on March 20, 2019


We do do a lot of work with sight lines, making sure that when you’re out in the land, where guests are moving through, that the experience is what we intend it to be. That we’re not looking at some ugly AC unit,

But, wouldn't an incongruously placed ugly AC unit be very on-brand in the SW universe?
posted by Harald74 at 1:01 AM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]


I'm at Disney World right now. Lots of schools are on Spring Break, but the lines have been manageable. We went to Hollywood Studios yesterday, and the longest line we waited in was about 90 minutes for the Toy Story roller-coaster thing. (I could see into Galaxy's Edge from that ride! It looks amazing!) The wait to meet Kylo Ren was only 25 minutes. (Same for BB-8, though it was 1 hour to meet Chewbacca.) There's no way I'm going to come back out here in August, though. It's going to be over 100 degrees.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 1:49 AM on March 21, 2019


They're calling their rum punch Yub Nub.

I am so getting loaded on Yub Nubs and then shouting at Kyle Ron.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:09 AM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]


Lines seem so 20th century, and those people standing there are not spending money. Why not a phone app, where you are reserved in a 15 minute block of time, get notifications, and only need to show up a little before your group is called?

The idea of waiting even an hour, man, I cannot get my head around that. So you pay whatever exorbitant fee a day pass costs, and then spend most of that day waiting in a line? And maybe get 2 or 3 rides? WTF?
posted by Meatbomb at 3:00 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


...but the lines have been manageable. ...90 minutes for the Toy Story roller-coaster ...wait to meet Kylo Ren was only 25 minutes. (Same for BB-8, though it was 1 hour to meet Chewbacca.)

Here at the end of my life, there are a number of things I regret not doing. Standing in line for hours to go on an amusement-park ride or meet someone dressed up like a movie character is not one of those things.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:23 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


odinsdream: I don't get how you do this and have fun without booking everything months ahead of time and micro-managing your every step.

This is exactly what I did when I took my spouse for her first proper WDW trip a few years back. And I credit that micromanaging with the success of the trip, and the fact that she wants to go back.

My process was akin to preparing a military campaign. Lots of research, long list of supplies divided strategically between us by estimating our upper-body stamina…and the crux of it all was my itinerary, which took the form of a multi-page spreadsheet. It featured alarm clock times, FastPass durations, branching contingency plans, anticipated rest periods…basically everything short of "when to poop."

Now, my spouse likes to prepare kind of a lot even for a local weekend trip, but that spreadsheet freaked us both out a little bit at first. (Although I have to say, it was actually fun to put together!) What surprised us was how much the obsessive planning actually freed us up to be more flexible: to veg out for five or ten minutes whenever the mood struck, to hop on a random lineless ride that we didn't plan for if we were ahead of schedule, and perhaps most importantly, to make MENTAL space for the near future each day—to, in other words, avoid getting caught in that "WE CAN'T LEAVE THIS LINE, BECAUSE WHO KNOWS?!" mentality.

We would never have been able to hit every major ride, and every minor ride that we wanted to, during four days at WDW (except for one that was shut down and one that we skipped due to back pain from the Dinosaur ride) if it hadn't been for that itinerary.

(We're going this Christmas, most likely. It gives Galaxy's Ass End several months to calm down, and I gather that December is one of the few tolerable months in Florida climate-wise. And though I know it will be busy, we'll be under less pressure to hit All The Rides this time, so I'm confident.)

Meatbomb: So you pay whatever exorbitant fee a day pass costs, and then spend most of that day waiting in a line? And maybe get 2 or 3 rides? WTF?

I mean, when you hear about wait times, they're usually the worst-case scenarios, from the newest rides at peak times. That's not to say an old and relatively minor ride can't have an hour wait, but when it does, that's either bad luck or insufficient research. (Example: the Disney newb would never guess that Peter Pan's Flight, a downright ancient ride with little to obviously differentiate it from other low-tier dark rides, is always busy. Always.) This is where those big guidebooks are really worth the price (and the weight in your backpack).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:25 AM on March 21, 2019 [10 favorites]


I have conflicted feelings towards Galaxy's Edge as a lifelong Star Wars fan and Disney brat. My mother retired from Imagineering tail end of 2017 and kept the whole thing secret from me. So yeah, feelings of betrayal, but at least now I know the truth. We plan to visit in 2020 with her lifetime Golden Pass.
posted by Molesome at 3:46 AM on March 21, 2019


But, wouldn't an incongruously placed ugly AC unit be very on-brand in the SW universe?

H-Vee A-Cee?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:17 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


Pet droid name: Chillie
posted by glonous keming at 4:22 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


Lines seem so 20th century, and those people standing there are not spending money. Why not a phone app, where you are reserved in a 15 minute block of time, get notifications, and only need to show up a little before your group is called?

They pretty much have this already with the fast pass+ system--you reserve a time from your phone for up to three rides, shows, or meet-and-greets a day. However, even those run out far ahead of time for the most popular stuff.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:27 AM on March 21, 2019


Oh, and fast pass is free with all tickets. I don't really understand why anyone would not use it. We went during the slowest week of the year and the lines for certain rides (the avatar thing, frex) were still really impossible.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:29 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


Lines seem so 20th century, and those people standing there are not spending money.

I have a (not at all educated) theory that logistically, Disney could run all the rides and attractions LastPass system but then all those people who were not standing in line would need something else to do and all of the attractions shops and restaurants in Disney parks are not enough to handle the people who attend everyday. So, the parks would be massively crowded with people who had no place to go and nothing to do and you would be able to see more attractions more quickly so you would need fewer days which would mean fewer admission charges, fewer meals at restaurants etc.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:22 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh, so the park itself is going to have a giant number of things that involve interacting with a phone app in order to access them or even know that you can do that thing?

How... enchanting.
posted by hippybear at 6:28 AM on March 21, 2019


Like, even the Harry Potter park lets you do things by waving a wand and not staring at a screen.
posted by hippybear at 6:28 AM on March 21, 2019


December might be one of the few tolerable months, but if you're too close to Christmas time, be prepared for the parks to shut down due to being at capacity.
posted by skittlekicks at 6:54 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


basically everything short of "when to poop."

We made the mandatory Disney trip a couple years ago and did all the prep you talked about and then basically half of day one was a wash because kid #1 “wasn’t feeling well.” It took us hours of working with him and then eventually a long walk back to the hotel to determine he needed to poop. Then he felt fine and I had to work hard to convince him to go back to the park instead of hanging out at the pool.

I guess we are just not amusement park people.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:02 AM on March 21, 2019


I'm going to DL in late August (already sweating), scheduled before we knew Galaxy's Edge would be open. I don't think the Rise of the Resistance ride will be ready then, so it'll really just be a matter of FastPassing or waiting in line for Smuggler's Run, which I'm willing to do. Honestly, I'm mostly looking forward to just being in the land and gawking at things. I read somewhere that they designed things to be a little taller/positioned higher than normal so they would be easier to see over the heads of the crowds in front of you, which is clever. Much as I hate to admit it, Disney does this stuff, really, really well.
posted by schoolgirl report at 7:33 AM on March 21, 2019


This is exactly what I did when I took my spouse for her first proper WDW trip a few years back. And I credit that micromanaging with the success of the trip, and the fact that she wants to go back.

My process was akin to preparing a military campaign. Lots of research, long list of supplies divided strategically between us by estimating our upper-body stamina…and the crux of it all was my itinerary, which took the form of a multi-page spreadsheet. It featured alarm clock times, FastPass durations, branching contingency plans, anticipated rest periods…basically everything short of "when to poop."


For logistics nerds, nothing is more exciting than planning a Disney trip.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:49 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


I mean, when you hear about wait times, they're usually the worst-case scenarios, from the newest rides at peak times. That's not to say an old and relatively minor ride can't have an hour wait, but when it does, that's either bad luck or insufficient research. (Example: the Disney newb would never guess that Peter Pan's Flight, a downright ancient ride with little to obviously differentiate it from other low-tier dark rides, is always busy. Always.) This is where those big guidebooks are really worth the price (and the weight in your backpack).

Disney threads on Mefi are always loaded with snark about things that aren't really that much of a problem with even a little pre-planning. The Unofficial Guide is IMO the best resource for this sort of thing because they will tell you straight if something isn't worth a wait or if the food isn't good.

A Disney vacation isn't a do-nothing week at the beach. WDW in Florida is huge, with four theme parks. You can't possibly see it all in a week, so some planning is in order. There used to be some "down" times of year, but many of those have disappeared. (October used to be fantastic, but many schools in the southern US have implemented week-long breaks, which families use for a fall vacation)

Some points:

Fastpasses can be reserved in advance, and really should be used for your must-see attractions. If you use all of them before the day is up, you can reserve more using the app.

Dining reservations are only necessary for sit-down table service restaurants, and those will vary with how full they are. Princess/character dining will be the most heavily booked. On our last trip, we walked up to the Jungle Cruise Skipper Canteen at lunch time and only waited about 15-20 minutes for a table.

The one thing I think is MOST important, even aside from all of the reservations and planning, is just getting there when the gates open. You will be ahead of all of the people who sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast and arrive at the park around 11am. I know the response to this will be "but it's vacation!" which is why we plan swim/relax days in between our park days.

Disney is huge, popular, and busy. It is what it is.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:51 AM on March 21, 2019 [4 favorites]


I am so excited about this and my parents live in Orlando so I'll almost certainly be near enough to go, but I can't stomach the idea of the crowds and the lines. We were there the weekend that the Pandora area opened and the news reported two hour lines just to visit the gift shop before the ride began. We finally went this past winter - in late January on a not-that-busy day (according to the Disney planner) and it was about two and a quarter hours in line to ride the FOP ride. I thought I could handle that wait at Disney since their lines tend to move and they usually fill the lines with things to look at, but apparently 90 minutes is my breaking point. So I probably won't go as soon as I'd like. But wow - it looks amazing.

Then again, I read the whole FA and there wasn't a single porg. Grr.
posted by Mchelly at 8:06 AM on March 21, 2019


I once went to Disneyland and California Adventure with two guys, one of whom had worked for Disney both as a costumed character and backstage, and the other was Disney obsessed, and they knew ALL the tricks. In the matter of 5 hours I had ridden 9 rides across both parks, including the big new racing ride in Cars Land. It was a whirlwind (it also involved very strategic use of FastPass, the paper kind, which involved a lot of walking but whatever) and pretty thrilling.

My big takeaway is, go to Disney places with an employee.
posted by hippybear at 8:14 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


(The secret to using FastPass well is to go get one, and then figure out what semi-nearby ride to go to stand in line in that will eat up waiting for your FP to come due, and then after that ride, go hit the FP ride.)
posted by hippybear at 8:16 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


As a late aside, Matthew Panzarino, the author of the TechCrunch article, was on The Talk Show podcast last week with John Gruber (Daring Fireball), and they spent the last 45 minutes of a three hour marathon (‘Loan It to Nien Nunb’) discussing Galaxy's Edge. Skip to the last chapter if you don't want to indulge in WWDC / Apple / 737 Max / other miscellaneous tech-adjacent chatter - that last chapter was a really fun listen.

And then - this wil leventually be an Ask, but as someone who's never been to a theme park, Disney or otherwise, how does one begin to plan an expedition with two young kids? If I'm thinking about say, October, I should be planning now? Where do I start?
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:19 AM on March 21, 2019


and then spend most of that day waiting in a line? And maybe get 2 or 3 rides? WTF?

I find your lack of faith disturbing.
posted by banshee at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2019


as someone who's never been to a theme park, Disney or otherwise, how does one begin to plan an expedition with two young kids?

The MousePlanet Forum was a very valuable resource for me. I refer it to you because I've never gone with kids, and my first steps may therefore differ from yours.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 9:31 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


So we did the big semi-annual trip to DW a few weeks ago, and these are my thoughts:

Having a logistics person plan the trip does make it so much easier. You can only get one FP+ for the "big rides" and for only one park in a day, so figure out what the big ride is (Safari ride OR FOP in Animal Kingdom), and get that as soon as the FP reservation window opens (60 days out?). We tried to get in early with getting reservations to Tusker house ahead of rope drop, but they still opened AK half an hour early, and almost immediately the FOP ride was at least 90 minutes, and got longer throughout the day. FOP was cool, kind of like a cross of a tron bike & Soarin', and they added some pauses so you could recover from the vertigo. I'd go again in the future, as long as I didn't have to wait for hours. Each ride holds 40? people, so the line moved in chunks. Anyway, having the FP set up ahead of time makes it easier to figure out where you're going each day, and what time to get there. We'd usually have 2 sit down meals and then a walking snack. I also had fruit and basic snacks, because I wasn't going to pay $2 for an apple, but we still bought some candy and ice creams. The hei hei cone at Aloha Isle refreshments was adorable!

We are lucky, because the inlaws are Vacation Club owners, so they deal with the hotel reservations, securing the magic bands, and making all the other reservations. We give our preferences for rides and eating, and they make the reservations. The family now has a long list of "must-do" sit down reserved restaurants, so we've hit the big ones- O'hana during the MK fireworks, Be our Guest for dinner, the Princess Lunch in Norway. Since little purr is a little bigger, we were doing more character breakfasts, which was a mistake, because I think it was mascot-head overload. Maybe just the one character breakfast for the entire trip.

I thought the parks seemed pretty busy, but everyone else thought it was a lull before all the college and school spring break trips. For planning the trip, if you're planning to stay onsite, the MyDisney app and webpages is pretty good to navigate, and a very good way to keep track of all the different reservations. The extra hours at MK was nice because the crowds were so much smaller.

The biggest surprise for us was the things that Little Purr decided that they didn't want to do when we got there. They've watched a lot of the ride videos and said they wanted to do certain rides (Splash Mountain, Frozen) based on the videos. But when we were actually getting ready to use the Fast Pass, they decided they didn't want to, and by that point, it was basically wasted since we couldn't schedule any other rides we wanted to do. We actually had a 3-person meltdown at the Frozen ride because we were convinced that they'd love it (and had ridden it before!) and would want to ride it later in the day, but Little Purr completely refused. They never changed their mind, so I guess we learned something about trusting what they say the want (shrug). They also didn't want anything to do with Disney Jr, so the dance party FP was a total waste.

For people with little kids, there's a "hand-off" option, where you all go to the FP person, tell them you want to do handoff, and they'll give the second person a FP (via the magic band), so that once the first person goes through the line (FP or regular line), the second one can go through much faster. Also, if you kid just really wants to play, the Bone Yard in AK is very good, there is a secret playground in Epcot near the Mission: Space/Pepsi Cooling kiosk, and in the MK, you can enter the Dumbo air conditioned play waiting area, and just have them give you a new buzzer if your kid would rather play inside than go on the ride.

We go about every 2 years, so I'm figuring the interest in Galaxy's Edge will have worn down a little. The cosplaying hotel seems kind of weird from a hospitality/logistics perspective, but I guess guests will only get to stay there one night, so that will probably keep the novelty high for the guests. They are also building an extensive gondola system to get to Hollywood studios in anticipation of all the traffic. Big Purr has been monitoring the new construction via various youtube channels, but I find the big planning pictures much more interesting on a logistics/meta level.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 9:57 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


as someone who's never been to a theme park, Disney or otherwise, how does one begin to plan an expedition with two young kids? If I'm thinking about say, October, I should be planning now? Where do I start?

Yes, start planning NOW. I should have linked to it in my above post, but I always recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Get this book and start reading it immediately. It is very helpful and will make things much easier for you to absorb as a newcomer.

Figure out your hotel reservations NOW (particularly if you plan to stay at a Disney hotel). Make yourself aware of when the windows open up for things like character dining (if you're into that) and jump on those reservations ASAP. Other restaurants aren't quite as urgent, but the ones with princesses/characters book up first. A friend of mine tried to wait a week, thinking it wasn't a big deal and nearly missed out on princess dining that was a must-do for his daughter.

They also have a With Kids version of the book that might prove helpful as well. These books are excellent resources and contain information about everything from rides, restaurants, hotels, bus travel times, etc. and so on. They are extremely thorough.

When you buy their book, you also get a discount to their Touring Plans website, which has more resources available, like a day planner that optimizes for your do-list based on day and crowd predictions, and syncs with their app.

CheesesofBrazil mentioned the Mouse Planet forums, and there are also forums at DisBoards.

My personal advice is: Know and accept NOW that you will not be able to do everything. Make a list of the things you and your kids really want to see, and prioritize it accordingly. Plan your trip around that. Once you are in the parks, if you get ahead on your schedule, slow down and take a break and look around. Disney does the details very well and you can find fun photo opportunities and easter eggs everywhere.

Feel free to MeMail me if you have more specific questions.
posted by Fleebnork at 10:33 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm now starting to see how there might be a market of Disney vacationers both willing and able to partake in 24-hour-a-day Star Wars roleplay.
posted by vogon_poet at 10:44 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


My big takeaway is, go to Disney places with an employee.

This. Because my cast-member nephew insisted we go at park opening ("rope drop"), entering the flight of passage queue to getting off the ride was under 45 minutes the second week Pandoraland was open.

Of course, there was the time he wanted to ride Splash Mountain like 6 times in a row, so there's a downside too.
posted by mikelieman at 11:26 AM on March 21, 2019


The one thing I think is MOST important... is just getting there when the gates open.

Yep, I'm going to second this heavily. If you're staying at a WDW resort you have access to "magic hours", which means each day, one of the theme parks opens an hour early, or stays open up to two hours extra after regular park hours.

I'm not a morning person, but DO THIS. Taking advantage of the extra hour was an absolute life saver for my family. We were at the gates of DW at 6:59 am and we hit all the biggest rides by 11am, then we had lunch around 11:30 and left the park around noon to go chill out at the hotel pool. Seeing the steady stream of wall-to-wall people entering the park (at 90+ degrees) as we were exiting? Priceless.
posted by jeremias at 11:30 AM on March 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


I've done a fair bit of snarking in this thread (Disney/amusement parks in general are not my scene), but I have to admit that when I went to DW a few years ago with a big chunk of my family (in late October, I don't know how that rates in terms of busy/not busy by DW standards) I was impressed by how little time we wound up spending in lines, thanks to a combination of the fast pass system and my sister's expertise (she had an app that listed current wait times for everything). I think the longest we had to wait for anything was about 45 minutes and most of the time it was significantly less than that. Walking through things like Space Mountain was...kind of freaky at times because we'd be strolling through what seemed like miles of empty hallways and turnstiles that must be filled with people during the peak season(s).
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:27 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


I have a DL on LSD story that involves Space Mountain. That was an interesting day.
posted by hippybear at 3:01 PM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


I have a DL on LSD story that involves Space Mountain. That was an interesting day.

A very dear friend of mine cherishes the story of the time he lost it on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
posted by mikelieman at 4:43 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


The line today for the Avatar flying ride was never shorter than a 120 minute wait. Most of the day it was actually 230 minutes. The Millennium Falcon ride is going to be insane.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 6:10 PM on March 21, 2019


The descriptions of the “transportative” design remind me in a good way of Universal’s “Wizarding World of Harry Potter Parks,” which I absolutely love. Especially in Universal Orlando, where Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are in in two separate parks, and you can ride the Hogwarts Express between them without going through all the non-Potter-themed park areas. Once you enter the Wizarding World, everything – from the architecture to the staff uniforms to the restaurants and food – is integrated into the fictional universe.

Yes, the illusion is slightly spoiled by the fact that the park is filled with tourists carrying smartphones and wearing baseball caps. But Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are supposed to be busy commercial streets filled with students on holiday, so in a way it works. (It sounds like Galaxy’s Edge might be going for a similar vibe with Black Spire Outpost.) And often there will be big groups of visitors in cosplay, and then the crowd adds to the immersion instead of breaking it.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:41 PM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


« Older The British Medical Journal’s recent decision to...   |   Risk: Systemic Financial Collapse. Tags:... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments