The Avoidable Mistakes of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge 

It’s missing droids walking around, Also you buy a lightsaber and can’t use it on the land? When I buy my Hp expensive wand at least I can use it in the land

In Jeff Goldblum voice: "Now, now, you do plan on eventually having Star Wars in your Star Wars land, right? Uh, hello?"

Ogas cantina should have been waaaaay bigger and have way more animatronics and people in costumes.

I visited Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios for the first time on August last year. The level of detail and immersion is incredible. It truly feels like another planet. I still felt like something was missing though. When it comes to the attractions Rise of the Resistance is amazing. It’s like being in a movie. The Millennium Falcon ride was cool, but nothing extraordinary it’s like a modernized version of Mission Space in Epcot. But if I compare to other lands like Pandora and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I found that these last two give a more emotional feel and make you feel more welcome and give the feel that you’re part of it instead of being a “tourist.” At least that’s how I felt in Galaxy’s Edge.

In Wizarding world you can buy and wear costumes. It's an interactive immersive experience. You can be in the world Harry Potter fans have seen and fell in love with in the movies. Two large themed restaurants (in Orlando). A wand is between $20-$40. Galaxy's Edge you can buy jedi robes but not wear them. You have no interactive experiences really. It's in a land you're not familiar with. Half the land is wasted with nothing to do but walk through it to get on Rise of the Resistance. That makes the other half cramped with no place to sit to enjoy a drink or meal. Lightsaber are $200 and the paint comes off if you handle it too much. I'm jealous of HP fans and wish we had an experience like they do. What idiot thought only 50 year olds would like to see an original trilogy themed land? The original movie came out before I was born. I fell in love with them because me 50 sometimes parents showed them to me and I showed my kids. That's at least 3 generations that would want to live that Star Wars. Never in the history of Hollywood has anyone failed as completely as Kathleen Kennedy and Disney Star Wars.

The land is missing a kinetic element. Right now it's more like a museum of Star Wars than an immersive experience. As far as the attendance boost between universal and dianey theme parks, I think it is because disney parks are at theur peak level of attendance and can't go anywhere from there whereas universal theme parks have the room to be able to grow being at such a low point in attendance vs disney prior to harry potter coming into the picture.

In addition to all those issues, how about zero kinetics in the land? Just a big set of buildings sitting there. Go anywhere in the Magic Kingdom, and you’ll see something moving.

The thing I hate the most is that for the only quick service restaurant in the land, the absolute best idea they had was to shove us into shipping containers. Shipping containers. Out of all the cool things you could do with a star wars restaurant. Shipping containers.

I completely agree. Galaxy’s Edge is set on the wrong planet and during the wrong time period. Disney tried to replace the classic star wars characters with its new wave of Star Wars characters. It’s not working.

It's funny kennedy said tattoonie was the past yet Mandalorian visited there several times and the sequel trilogy never visited Batuu that I know of is. They really need to deanchor the land from the timelock of between ep 8&9. It is a Smugglers planet perfect for say a bounty hunter or two. Aliens wandering the land and make it feel more immersive. We went Thanksgiving 2019 sadly before rise was open but my kids cared less for Kylo or Rey . Building a lightsaber was a moving experience and well worth the money. Hopefully disney realizes the Mandalorian Filoni verse is where the interest is and they can rebrand the land. Mainly rise needs rework to be Gideon and dark troopers.

I went and rode both rides and ate some food there, I even got to interact with the storm troopers. But most of the time it felt kinda static. Like I was just in a movie set open to the public. More moving things would have significantly improved this land. I mean look at Super Nintendo World. Everything is moving there and it makes it more immersive. Honestly there just needed to be more going on

Everything I've said from the get-go. Create Harry Potter at Universal outside of the seven books, a place we never visited in the stories in a timeline where Harry and Ron are already dead and you have anything but a Harry Potter land. And there you have, Galaxy's Edge.

So, in short, here are my suggestions for improving the land: -- Commit to making the land feel more dangerous and adventurous with more atmosphere cast members, or else make it feel more safe and welcoming like a traditional Disneyland land, leaving the adventure for the attractions. Note that Pandora and Universal's Wizarding World are both set in relatively safe and welcoming parts of their respective universes. -- On Smuggler's Run, less yapping from Hondo and/or add chances to disobey him. -- Play more Star Wars music and/or original compositions. I watched a Galaxy's Edge walkthrough with Luke's theme playing in another tab and it helped.

I've said this so many times, the biggest mistake they made was to make a custom location for this land... one reason why people love WWoHP so much is because you're basically put right into the movies. Walking through the brick wall into Diagon Alley in Studios is almost a religious experience. Exploring Galaxy's Edge is fun, but it's nowhere near that same feeling you get when walking into WWoHP. Tatooine would've honestly been perfect, and it's such a shame that they went in another direction...

Honestly, I’d love to see them move Star Tours to Galaxy’s Edge. Maybe give it a new queue or something but as it is, it feels weird to have a Star Wars land and a separate Star Wars ride elsewhere in the same park.

At this 18:25 mark is basically the biggest concern many Disney fans have with Chapek as CEO: he’s a amazing retail leader (arguably better than Paul Pressler), but his more natural instinct is monetary experiences over quality show/stories

I went to galaxy's edge in October 2019 at Hollywood Studios. The millennium falcon ride was cool, it felt wrong not having the pilot han solo even referenced. The land had almost nothing to do, and I had a much better time on the the Tower of Terror, and Star Tours. The day after I went to Pandora, and I enjoyed it much more than Galaxies Edge. It felt like you where exploring an alien planet and was much more immersive.

So basically Disney just *_assumed_* the movies and land would be a success cause what? "they're Disney"? I'm glad they got a healthy dose of reality...

Awesome video, sums up many of my thoughts. For me, they tried to replicate Wizarding World, but made most aspects worse. Guest have no affinity to Batuu, but at Wizarding World you can step inside Gringotts, the Three Broomsticks, Leaky Cauldron etc. Wizarding World has Butterbeer... Galaxy's Edge has Blue Milk 🤢 I also hate the 'fremium' model they used. Anyone can enjoy Ollivanders at Wizarding World, but you have to sell a kidney to experience Savi's Workshop. Also, I feel Galaxy's Edge is just more of the same Disney rockwork, foliage, weathered buildings etc - Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade were just something different (and Nintendoland something different again). Finally, people always mock Universal for their late announcements, but I prefer that to Disney promising the sun and delivering the moon. All the things that were announced that could truly given this land character never really happened. Having said all that, Rise of the Resistance is frigging incredible.

I spent an entire week trying to get in to Rise back in October and never came close. You're right. It can be the best ride ever, but if you can't get on it, who cares?

The issue with Galaxy's Edge is pretty simple: in their quest for immersion, they forgot what makes theme parks fun

As someone who had an AP at Disneyland when the land opened, I got firsthand experience of how guests reacted. Galaxy's Edge was consistently the emptiest land of the park, even on extremely busy days. I never waited more than half an hour for Smugglers Run, and sometimes it was even a walk-on. There were even times when Disney California Adventure was packed while Disneyland was empty. On a personal level, my friends and I never found any of the land's experiences, including the rides, to be worth more than one or two rides. After my first three times on Smuggler's Run I really had no desire to go again, and the shops and dining were equally easy to gloss over. The only reason I regularly returned to the land was my love of droids, and even those short walks through the area lasted only a few minutes. I, my friends, and the majority of park guests, became quickly bored with the experience, and instead spent our times on older and better rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

I went to the Disneyland version with my family when there was only one ride available, and we we all incredibly underwhelmed. Once we realized there was exactly one thing we could do in the area without having to shell out extra cash, we rode millennium falcon a few times, and then left to do things in the rest of the park.

Galaxy's Edge is a marvellous example of Disney's Imagineers skill and craftsmanship... but it has one monumental flaw... it just isn't recognisably Star Wars! Walk into Diagon Alley and you're their in the movie...in GE, you're in an unknown sci-fi village. They also gambled to early on the sequel trilogy! If they had stuck to the original plans, it would have been a smash hit... Imagine sering Vader in Rise instead of Kylo... Han and Chewie on the Falcon... or even Lando or Nien Numb... or the cantina featuring Figrin D'an and his band. Also with the success of the Mandalorian, Tattooine would have been a perfect backdrop for character appearances by Mando etc... hell, even Rey would fit into Tattooine.

I liked the land, but I’m not crazy about it. Honestly, I prefer Pandora.

But wait, what about Disney's Hollywood Studios?! You haven't mentioned that park, sneaky RU-vid man! ( typing in violence ) ...oh wait, you addressed that. Damn.

They'll build Naboo or Coruscant in California Adventure and you'll take a “space ship” ride to the other area with a park hopper pass. Disney is very original.

I believe simple fixes like changing the stories around in smugglers run, starting phase 2 of new experiences, adding characters from the mandalorian

I think the new Disney trilogy has an effect on why the land didn't do great cause so many hate episode 8 and 9 that they may have been put off that they went new trilogy and not something like tattoine or hoth which people would much rather have

So WWoHP was co-created by JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter. It has her stamp on it which is why it's full of charm, character and magic. This is the same reason why Disneyland in CA has a charm and magic about it that other Disney parks lack, because Walt disney Himself helped create the park, it is his baby and has his touch. But this is why SWGE lacks charm, character or magic. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars had 0 imput on the land. It's nobody's baby, and It lacks the touch and stamp of the creator. It just feels like something a soulless greedy corporation bought and is trying desperately to cash in on, which is exactly what it is.

Im So surprised they don’t have like a Luke statue he is supposed to be a legend. It would honor the original starwars

I find it slightly odd that Pandora is considered one of Disneys greatest successes in recent years, and Galaxy's edge not so much. However, its soulless and bland, but I am confident it will find its feet eventually. They should definitely work on making the land more interactive. Droids on top of buildings, in trees, in ventilation grates, etc...

At Disneyland, I went before the second ride opened. What me and my buddy noticed was the interaction with people in the land in relation to the gams on the app you can play. Get enough points and someone came up to us with a secret mission. After we completed it, we were escorted to the yet-to-be-opened Fast Track line for Falcon.

So many cool things behind a fence...... droids..... Static...... Tucked up against a wall..... Behind a fence...... a speeder.... you guessed it, behind a fence. An x wing..... just sitting there.... We thought we’d spend days just in that land. Didn’t even spend all of 1 day. It was a great vacation tho. The park wasn’t very busy

Wonder if they ever thought about going with the prequels on it. That would’ve been dope.

Totally Agree! They should’ve pushed back the opening until ROTR was fixed. They should give priority passes to those who purchased a full-fare admission ticket to ride ROTR 🎟 and then open it to any extra slots to Annual Pass Holders. I am (was) an annual pass holder at Disneyland. Hyping it up and blacking out dates for the opening set the image of how crazy opening would be. All my friends said that they’ll wait until things die down. that screwed Disney over. The park was a ghost town.

I'm about to turn 22 and there was 2 places I wanted to go as a kid. Hogwarts and Tatooine. I have been to one and I all most got to go to the other

As a massive Star Wars fan I absolutely loved the idea of experiencing a world we hadn't seen before. I felt it added to having your own Star Wars story rather than just experiencing the canon like at The Wizarding World (which I also adore btw). I really feel it's only downfall was the phased opening and the fact that it was set during the sequel trilogy. Set the story of Batuu during the OG trilogy and I feel like it would have been perfect.

Star wars land is a Billion Dollar "not familiar" star wars land. It looks like it could be a generic star port at the county fair. Should've done planet of Tatooine! Could you imagine going to the Cantina and ordering a real blue milk? While the white head dudes are playing music on stage (animatronics). And Chewy and Han sitting in the back with greedo? lastly, they got the Millennium Falcon. But I want to see it blast off from "docking bay 94!!" Would that be too much to ask for?!

In 2016 Knotts Berry Farm open Ghost Town Alive, an immersive experience in the west with performers and adventures. I played the town's bounty hunter. Think Westworld for families. Disney heard this and had planned the exact same thing for Galaxy's Edge. At the last second they pulled the budget. I honestly think a cast of droids, Aliens and smugglers to visit with and interact as a hero in star wars would have been amazing. Hopefully the star wars hotel can do this properly and maybe they will bring it back.

I went to Galaxy's Edge back on January 4, 2020. Overall, it was a horrible experience. It was so crowded and you had no choice but to move with the crowd or else you would be squashed. It was impossible to get into the shops and the Smuggler's Run ride had a wait for over 100 minutes. I went into the single rider line to cut the wait down to 10 minutes, but I ended up as an engineer. That role is the worst on the ride. To top everything off, I learned the hard way that I couldn't ride Rise of the Resistance because I did not have a boarding pass.

Disney truly thought it was invincible and too big to fail

I enjoyed micky and Minnie’s runaway railroad more than this whole land

I think where Harry Potter as a premiere franchise land worked so well and where Star Wars as a premiere franchise land didn't work is that the Wizarding World is a lot easier to be immersed into, contrary to the very specific world building of star wars. Harry Potter has the iconic settings like Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Diagon alley that are universal to the main film franchise which are only a few years apart, with mostly human characters. Star wars has DOZENS of unique planets and locations across over 70 YEARS of galactic history with only one even somewhat central location, Coruscant, with hundreds if not thousands of alien/droid characters. Star Tours worked as a stand-alone ride because you visited multiple planets, being confined to Batuu with a journey to Corellia with Hando and a mission to a star destroyer with the Resistance doesn't let much creative freedom expand from there. On top of that Galaxy's edge was based on the trilogy that completely messed up. The only way to fix it is to rewrite the continuity, set it in the vast amount of time between the 2nd and 3rd trilogies where the Mandalorian and the news shows will take place.

I have to agree with "Sneaky RU-vid Man". I finally visited the land at both parks. While the Rise and Smugglers rides are mind-boggling achievements, the land itself feels empty and more like a shopping mall. While it was awesome to build my own saber (I BUILT ONE AT EACH PARK CAUSE IM A NERD), and drink at Organas, the land felt devoid of the charm that made star wars so popular. Instead of a Galaxy far far away, it well...feels way down to earth. The area where Rise sits is devoid of the stunning theming that the other part of the land has. It's like they just dropped a ride in the middle of a city park. Creating a new world, Batuu, was I think, the biggest mistake. For me, it doesn't hold a special place as Tatooine or Coruscant does. We, star wars fans, have visited those places many times, and we have come to love them. While the idea seems cool, it just feels like they tried to merge Tatooine and other known star wars worlds. It feels unoriginal. While I loved the rides, I GOT TO FLY THE MILLENNIUM FALCON!, it's doesn't have the awe about it that the Wizarding World has. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the Harry Potter movies, I have watched them all, but the lands Universal has created feel like you are in that Harry Potter world, you're immersed in the experience of the boy who lived. I just didn't feel that at Galaxies edge, I just felt like I was at a theme park. I hope if there is a phase 2 that many of the issues are fixed, but at this point, I have moved on and am now foaming at the mouth for Super Nintendo World!

the land is not based on the original SW. that's the problem.

Having been to both HP and GE lands. I have to say that I've returned to HP lands three times for each expansion at Universal. Each time, I felt like I was returning back "home" to something. And at the end of each trip, I felt sad that I was leaving the HP lands. While I only visited GE once, Smuggle Run just felt like another Star Tours with less recognizable IP. RoR was good but extremely stressful for getting a pass in December 2019. It made the experience less enjoyable. And unfortunately, the land won't prompt me return back anytime soon.

It's like universal getting the harry potter license and building their own wizarding school 😂

Here's a thought: Make a Death Star using the exact same engineering as the shell of Spaceship Earth. Have the interior ride system of Tower of Terror and have it be a RESCUE ON THE DEATHSTAR ride. You're a group of Rebels trying to rescue Mon Mothma, who's held captive on the deathstar. You travel up and down getting into scuffles with Storm Troopers, Imperial officers, etc. You free Mon Mothma, and all of a sudden, the ride vehicle begins to quake(with the force) you are shot upwards and end up in the Emperor's throne room, firmly in his force grip. Your ride vehicle travels across the floor of his thrown room as he's monologuing about the pesky rebels daring to come aboard his space station. He then moves the vehicle over the pit and proceeds to throw the ride vehicle down the shaft(maybe even shooting a bit of force lightning at the riders just before they fall. The riders think they're falling to their deaths when they are "caught" at the bottom by the one and only Luke Skywalker, straining with all of his might through the force. This would be an exciting ride using already existing tech and engineering to thrill Star Wars fans. It wouldn't necessarily fit in any canon timeline, but would give fans exactly what they dreamed about when they were children!

Disney needs to "bite the bullet" IMO and put it back in the original trilogy era setting. It really wouldn't be difficult to do at all, just modify a few of the existing pieces. I honestly wonder if that has been set up as a backup plan anyway. Books could be written about the flaws with this land. ROTR was absolutely mind-blowing, but such limited capacity and break downs makes it very troublesome. Most of Batuu is sorta like you know sorta blue milk, sorta a cantina, sorta tattooine, sorta millennium falcon pilot, etc. etc.

Thanks for an honest review free of either fringe agenda or company-approved PR spin! Keep up the good work.

In a parallel universe, we would have Atlantis (from Atlantis: The Lost Kingdom) and "The Grid" (Tron Land), instead of Pandora and Galaxy's Edge

Just like DCA 1.0, Disney got really cheap at the end and cut anything unique from the new land and will have to invest even more now to get people to flood in. If the land had droids, Bounty hunters, the Falcon ride had more than one mission and ships flying above the land at night at certain time then I think the land would be much much more loved and a must see.

I love your channel so much! So informative and very interesting to hear the detailed breakdown from different perspectives (consumer, the business etc)

I think setting it on tatooine but still during the sequel trilogy could’ve been a good compromise.

As cool as galaxys edge was when I went this past november it was very forgettable and I only remember how much of a pain it was to get on rise of the resistance. Without that ride the land is a 6/10 for me

Doesn't help that disney made the worst star wars movie in history. The damage cannot be undone.

All I hear is Kathleen Kennedy once again failed to grasp what makes Star Wars appealing.

Sequel trilogy time period was biggest mistake

They did not seem to understand that a big part of the attraction for episode 7 was seeing all the classic characters again.

Hey, a new land with higher capacity but the same amount of guests? Sounds like a win to me.

“Violently typing away”! Classic! I love your vids!

Amazing report! Back in 2006 I travel to disneyworld for two weeks like a Dream come true, but reserved two days into Universal Studios because it has some free days.. and as a Disney fan my favourite atraction was, universal’s spiderman ride… (tower of terror just second) for some reason I found disney more nostalgic and universal more innovative. Both are great but once again.. Harry Potter ride in LA 2017 was incredible like any other disney ride. Maybe is because im older but Universal at the moment has all my attention for the following years, most than disney.

I think another one of Galaxy's Edge's huge issues is the lack of interactivity. I get that you can use your phone to scan things, but that's not nearly on the same level as the wand magic within the Wizarding World. Even then, Super Nintendo World seems to have taken that a step further with the interactivity having users play minigames to win coins and causing kinetic figures and animatronics to move. Disney really over promised and under delivered on Galaxy's Edge. It's a symptom of the Iger/Chapek era attitude of "It's IP, that'll be good enough, we don't have to do anything beyond the minimum".

They should really scrap making galaxy’s edge canon... split up the land into three sections that take place during the prequels sequels and original movies.... that way everything can be represented and Mando and grogu can even wander between the original and sequel areas... you should be able to walk through galexy’s edge and get to meet all the characters... not just limit it to one point in time.

The amount of people who decided to not go to the park after galaxies edge opened, made going to the park as a local awesome, during the sumer of 2019 it was so much more empty in the park than usual. Ride times were so much shorter, you could ride all of the big rides in the park in one day without having to take advantage of spreadsheets to "maximize fun". I will never forget that time. Especially since my dad is a cast member and gets free tickets.

The problem during roaming droid testing I saw in videos wasn't "popularity"... it was people who kept physically touching the droid too much and preventing it from actually getting around. It was meant for roaming, not for meet and greet photo ops.

I went with my brother and my mom back before Rise opened. My brother is a massive Star Wars nerd, I prefer Star Trek, and my mom doesn't really care one way or another. What I found was, as someone who enjoys Star Wars, my brother got very into it and wanted to spend the entire day wandering through the land, but in the case of me and my mom, because neither of us are all that enthused about Star Wars, it all fell a bit flat. Smugglers Run was somewhat enjoyable, although I couldn't look at the screen in front of us because the child who had gotten the pilot role was far too young and refused to listen to his dad's directions and instead opted to jerk the joystick from one side to the other over and over again and spent the entire ride looking at the wall next to me waiting for a button to light up so I would have something to do in between trying to control my breathing so I wouldn't hurl. I feel like Rise would fall into the same issue of "enjoyable to do once but not much more if you're not a Star Wars fan" which seems to be the issue with the entire land. Cars Land in California Adventure doesn't seem to have the same issue because knowing a lot about the movies doesn't effect anything about the land. I've never seen a single Cars movie but I still find myself being drawn to the land every time I visit the park because I enjoy every single ride and even the general atmosphere. Galaxy's Edge makes the big mistake of relying on an interest in the IP to make the land enjoyable and anyone who isn't is left out of the loop which was never an issue with any other land in the park. You don't have to enjoy the classic animated films to enjoy Fantasyland or be into westerns to enjoy Frontierland. Lord knows I hate westerns but I still make Frontierland one of my first stops because Thunder Mountain is always a fun ride and one of my favorites. That's why I think Galaxy's Edge doesn't work. The immersion into the land requires being into Star Wars which all the Harry Potter things over in the Universal parks doesn't. For the record, aside from Forbidden Journey which caused an arachnid-induced panic attack and subsequent PTSD, I found Diagon Alley to be one of the best things to ever happen to Universal out here in California despite only ever having read the first book and seen the first two movies. I can't say the same for Galaxy's Edge, although I do enjoy all the changes made to the Rivers of America as a result of it being built.

I gotta say, this video is so well done. Informative, but doesnt fuck you around. good shit

Great content guys - couldn’t agree more and super hopeful for the future of this

the star wars park looks just depressing

Kathleen, were talking about parks that are almost 60 years old, which rely on American 40's nostalgia. Main Street takes place in the 1910's!!

Such a good video concept I love ur stuff bro

I agree with everything you said in this video. I have been lucky enough to visit Galaxy's edge at Disneyland and I didn't know what it was about the land that made it feel off until you pointed it out in this video. The fact that it's an entirely new land that nobody has seen in any move or franchise it was makes (for me at least) feel disconnected. Because the land is "made up" from the star wars universe it doesn't make me feel like the land is a real place in the star wars universe. Another thing you pointed out which I have always thought from the beginning was that Disney scared everyone away with Project stardust. It even scared me away from wanting to go to the parks the summer it opened and was okay to wait for the crowds to die down before visiting. Disney should have just let everyone in without a reservation and especially with rise of the resistance, they should just drop the boarding pass all together and just let everyone wait in line. Yes it sucks to have to wait, but it's also what people are expecting to have to do when they visit a brand new attraction that Disney unveils.

Here’s what should be added/fixed into the land. 1. With the Mandalorian and more upcoming Disney+ content for Star Wars. It is the perfect time to integrate it into the land. Maybe the missions on Smugglers Run could have appearances of Mando and Grogu trying to help you on the mission! And maybe they could add the same Star tours concept where they have multiple different missions to help with re rideablility. They could have Mando walk around. I think Disney could leave the concept of keeping it within a certain time frame. Even Wizarding World isn’t very consistent. 2. Add the dinner show dining area. It would relieve pressure off of Oga’s Cantina and would be an extra thing for guests to do. 3. A stunt show. They literally have h th e space for it and we saw them do it during media previews. It would create more energy within the land. 4. Add the credit system they talked about. 5. Add droids. I think for testing they could always have a cast member escorting it and after a few months they could ease restrictions.

Sounds about right to my experiences. Once you’ve done the ride, or I guess rides now, it just becomes a Star Wars themed shopping mall unless you really enjoyed the ride. Shows were unscheduled as far as I could tell, so unless I wanted to bask in the Star Wars at the expense of valuable theme park time, I didn’t see a point in being there. As an experience the Star Wars landing bay in tomorrow land was actually better as a Star Wars attraction than Disneyland oddly enough. Mostly because you could easily find the characters, and it at the time was in proximity to three Star Wars themed attractions. Star tours, hyper space mountain, and some Star Wars experience theater thing. Granted they were all of varying quality but you felt less stagnant exploring the Star Wars stuff in tomorrow land. For sake of keeping things cannon and immersive disney really sacrificed the iconography and theme park experience. I like what’s in galaxies edge but it needed more even if it was smaller rides with less technologically going on to serve as distractions to maybe ease lines for the bigger rides. Or some kind of outdoor ride to marvel at as it goes by like what radiator springs racers does for that park. Imagining the scrapped bantha riding attraction or some kind of land speeder attraction really gets me going. Or better yet, why isn’t there a character meet and greet. Like a Jedi or sith temple where they can have characters from beyond the time period appear. Also I feel like the land could have midway style Star Wars themed games, where the cast members are encouraged to act sleazy and out for money. I mean not too many of them but having one or two would really liven up the outdoors more and provide more for guests to do. Just my thoughts on the land though. I do think the fully immersive land idea is flawed to start though so perhaps my original ideas go against that concept a little too much or perhaps it would all be just out of the time and financial budget the land was on.

Disneyland and Disneyworld should have each been a different planet. Maybe Hoth and tatooine

We visited Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland early July of 2019, shortly after opening. Because of the passholder block and the rumors of over capacity crowds, there were very few people actually there. And it made the experience amazing. Cast members were out in force expecting large crowds and were ready to interact. It made the immersion so much better. Lines were short, we got into everything we wanted quickly, built a droid with no wait, and got on the Falcon in 30 minutes. I have a feeling that at a capacity crowd with over an hour waits for rides and queueing for shops it would have been much less fun. Even with the droid we built interacting with elements or the app to make waiting more interactive. That summer trip was a unique Disney experience I doubt I will ever see again.

I 1000000% agree what you said. I went for my birthday and it sucked. It was basically all shops that nobody could get into, no characters, no interactment, no way to get on Rise of the Resistance, it rained which made the floor super slippery and there's no cover for rain there at all. As a MEGA Star Wars fan I was crushed and dissapointed. I didn't recognize almost anything there. It should have been somewhere recognizable.

As always, your videos are great. They're full of info, background and data. And your views and arguments always solid and data based. Keep up the great work. I just wanted to reflect one thought about the numbers of attendance you give. In my opinion, and in the case of DHS, I think that the fact that the land opening was splited and it wasn't full opened till Dec. 5th 2019 might have affected the numbers, I don't think is fair to compare it with the Wizarding World's. Plus it was totally open only for 4 months till the pandemic arrived. I think that if the land had opened entirely from the beginning and Covid-19 hadn't existed, the attendance for a period of 12 months would have been much bigger.

Nobody wanted to visit a fake Rey Palpatine park. They want to see Chewy, Luke, Han, Leah.

Thanks for this insightful video! I think you articulated something I'd been feeling for a while, that whilst the Galaxy's Edge attractions are spectacular, the land itself lacks direction and could've used a bit more character. They should work on a live stage/stunt show, something along the lines of Universal's brilliant Waterworld (still a strong spectacular some 20 years later!) with stormtroopers, blaster rifles, light sabers and such.

Seems like a fairly easy fix.. don’t constraint into the timeline. Have mando and baby yoda walking around in the morning. Vader and Luke in the evening. And kylo and Rey at night

The biggest things missing are classic characters, droids and costumed "citizens" walking around, and an actual atmosphere. Everything feels like a museum and shopping mall. It needs a landspeeder attraction or something. There's just not enough there to keep guests attention unless you really, really, really like buying expensive Star Wars merch. Star Tours should have been part of the land as well. I imagine with Fast Passes to both rides I would likely spend an hour at most in that section, which is a shame, because I've wanted a Star Wars theme park or land at Disney for about 30 years now. The Millennium Falcon could have been part of a cool walk through attraction liked "Escape from the Death Star" or something. This land and characters no one knows is hard to get emotional or excited about.

They made a big mistake with setting the land within the sequel trilogy, lets be honest, who really likes rey, plo whats his name, and finn (I dont fully hate finn but they just ruined his character in rise of skywalker, they didn’t even try to complete his character ark, they just tossed him to the side). Those characters aren’t memorable or lovable (except for finn). When I want to go into a star wars land I want to be able to meet luke skywalker, darth vader, obi-wan, ashoka tano, darth maul, ezra bridger, R2-D2, C3PO, and leia organa. I dont want to meet random blue haired lady. This is what they should have done. They could have separated the land into different trilogy’s, one slice of the land could cover the original trilogy (along with rebels), the other can cover the prequal trilogy (along with the clone wars because ashoka is life), and the other can cover the sequel trilogy. That would have been a win win win win for every star wars fan (including the normies). It feels like disney used this land for marketing and marketing only, it doesn’t have that disney feel, it’s beautiful but it’s lifeless, its one giant shopping mall with two attractions lazily slapped on it. Its wasted potential and nothing more.

10:00 What Disney during Operation Stardust with the AP block out dates is a mistake they did not learn from with Euro Disneyland and Club Disney: Never. Ever. tell the public to stay away because of Overcrowding. That just leads to Not Enough guests showing up on Opening Day. I watched this Defunctland gag many times, and it's still gets a chuckle from me every time.

Idk I feel like Harry Potter would feel sooo out of place at Disney

I attended a major convention in June 2019, just one week after Galaxy's Edge opened. Disney is a major sponsor of this convention and the opening night we had access to half park, including Galaxy's Edge. It was good, but I didn't feel anything special about it. I still don't understand why Star Tours wasn't relocated either. It makes more sense to have it in Galaxy's Edge and another reason to go there, and then free up space for redesign of Tomorrow Land.

Great channel!

I think your critiques are spot-on, Luke/Dominic. Here's a post I wrote after visiting Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland a couple times: Disney+'s Imagineering series mentioned Galaxy's Edge “blurring the lines between what's an attraction and what isn't.” My question is: Is Galaxy's Edge supposed to feel more dangerous/adventurous than the other lands, more like an attraction does? And does it succeed? There's a kind of loose “plot structure” to our experiences at Disneyland. We start on Main Street, the safest and most reassuring hometown imaginable. Then we journey to other lands that are edge of adventure, but still feel relatively peaceful. It's once we get onto the attractions that we head out into “danger.” (The example I usually think of is Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, where we head from the bright, colorful downtown into the back allies of Toontown.) At the end of our adventure, we're returned safely to the land where we started, and eventually, return “home” to Main Street at the end of the day. (Unless of course you take the Monorail into the park, which throws off my whole concept :D) Shops and restaurants also both fall into the “safe/reassuring” category elsewhere in the park. Frontierland's Golden Horseshoe is the nicest, cleanest Western saloon. Is Oga's Cantina meant to feel like the Cantina from the original movie - “a wretched hive of scum and villainy” where wanted criminals threaten your life just for standing there and roguish smugglers may or may not shoot first? Or is it more like the Golden Horseshoe? (Or more like Bea Arthur's Cantina from the “Holiday Special?”) Oga's feels like a place where stuff has gone down in the past, but not necessarily one where stuff is going down right now.

I hadn't visited the parks since both the pandora area and galaxys edge were bulit, so when I finally visited again I experienced them both in the same week. I'm a huge star wars fan, have been ever since I was a kid, and I don't really even remember watching Avatar, it really had no effect on me, and when I watched it again I pretty much think it's a bad film. Yet when I went to the two lands I ended up enjoying the Pandora area much more. Flight of Passage is the best ride I've ever been on, and the whole area was just so beautiful and immersive. My only complaint is that I didn't get to see it at night and that it's not bigger. Galaxy's edge was cool, because I like star wars there were things I enjoyed seeing, I tried the blue milk, got a star wars themed coke, had a meal at docking bay 7, and then I felt like I was done. I still prefer star tours to either of the GE rides and I didn't really feel the need to go back where as with Pandora I couldn't wait to go back, and look forward to going back in the future. Galaxy's edge just didn't really leave an impression on me or make me feel anything in particular. Just felt like a rock filled area with some stuff I recognize from star wars in it.

Wonderful!

The problem with this land is that most of us don’t want to write our own stories, we want to step into the stories we’ve already experienced. When I walk down the main street of Carsland, I feel like I’m actually in Radiator Springs, like I’ve stepped through the movie screen into that world, which is so exciting. The premise of Galaxy’s Edge is like if Fantasyland didn’t feature beloved princesses and characters from the movies we know, but was instead a more generalized enchanted land where you could live out your story AS the princess, which is problematic for the average park goer. That’s why the Star Cruiser idea is probably better than this land. That does allow the smaller subsection of people who want to live the fantasy to be able to do so, but most of us just want to go on a fun ride and experience some cool stuff. I also think that Disney underestimated the fact that there are many of us Disney fans who don’t care about Star Wars, so they need to do something to make us want to go there to experience a new land because honestly, the only thing I’m interested in seeing is the advanced ride tech, but that’s all. Pandora benefitted from people not being attached to Avatar like they are to Star Wars. That being said, I think, since I haven’t been able to see either land in person, the beautiful and immersive land of Avatar is enough to keep people coming back, even if they don’t care about Avatar, whereas Galaxy’s Edge, while immersive, doesn’t have anything overly special, like floating mountains and bioluminescence, to make it really unique...and there’s a literal copy of this land on both coasts, which was also a misstep in my opinion. Disney likely saw that HP replicated their land on both coasts and saw success, so they could do that too. The thing is, HP only has so many places to recreate to feel like the films and beyond what they’ve already built for Hosmeade/Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, you could probably build the Ministry of Magic, maybe Grimauld Place...and that’s about it. Everything else would be smaller additions, like the Shrieking Shack to Hogsmeade, or or how they essentially added the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid’s Motorbike, but I can’t think of anything else that could warrant another large expansion to that part of the parks. Star Wars on the other hand is ever expanding, so they would have been better off building the familiar, or at least something honoring the original, on the West coast, kind of a best hits from the original trilogy, but the East coast could have allowed them to take it to another level. I don’t know anything about Star Wars, but imagine in Hollywood Studios if they had used lands from the original trilogy, such as Tatooine, to create an experience like World Showcase where you could go to different lands from the films, but they’re all connected. You would get a slice of life from that planet, including alien representatives walking around their home, and then as the Star Wars universe expands, you add areas and characters from the new films and shows. It would encapsulate the nostalgia of the old films, while simultaneously ushering in the new.

Fun Fact: The original theme for Galaxy's Edge was supposed to be based off the Original Trilogy. Due to The Force Awakens being a huge success and was the highest grossing Star Wars movie at the time, CEO Bob Iger decided to change the overall theme to the Sequel Trilogy at the last minute.

I 100% agree with what you said about the crowds. I consciously decided not to renew my Annual Pass in 2019 specifically because of the thought of how crowded the park would become when Galaxy's Edge opened.

The first fully immersive themed land was Carsland? I think not. What about Toontown?

They should have just built a Star Wars themed hotel. I think people would way rather stay in a hotel room that looks like the Millennium Falcon and get a wake up call from Darth Vader, than walk around some dirty looking alien market.

I went to the land in 2021 when Disney started re-opening, and I thought it was good. I only really remember being on Smugglers’ Run and then seeing the falcon and…that’s it. We kinda wandered around but it really felt like an outdoor shopping mall. If anything, it looked like they wanted it to be like a bazaar-type area with people yelling out what wares they had, but no. There were pins, plushies, backpacks…y’know, standard theme park items. I never got to go into Oga’s either (I’m 21 so I could have, but iirc they ran on reservations and they weren’t taking any more people), so I can’t speak to that. I went to Disneyland again with my boyfriend just this past January, and I totally forgot to go there with him. So if that says something about the land…well, I just didn’t think it was so interesting to warrant a second visit.

I’d say the big issue is easily fixable, if they were to change the theming from Resistance - First Order to Rebels - Empire then fans would get to experience in person the movies they grew up loving. All that would really have to be done would be repainting the ships, changing the Rise of the Resistance ride, taking out the First Order troopers and Kylo and putting in Vader, Storm troopers and saying you’re in an Empire base. However the issue would be they seem to be doubling down in the time with the hotel.

I think the biggest difference here is that Disney wasn’t using the original creator aka George Lucas for advices and even planning for Galaxy Edge. Sure the new land looks good and Rise of the Residence is next level of the dark ride general but it’s missing that one thing that makes people invest with the franchise. Disney is excellent with theming like with Cars land, Avatar Land, Toy Story Land, some parts of Epcot, and a lot of more. They’re able to achieve that by having the original creators to be involved with the land, because they understand what the fans and visitors wanted. Harry Potter lands was in charge by the original creator and did an excellent job. Even if some of the actors look like they’re in there 30s or 40s, the land feel timeless. While Galaxy Edge sorta feel like it set at a certain time frame instead of being all the timelines