Just completed a post-hurricane trip at WDW.
Galaxy’s Edge; gosh I just can’t put my finger on it. So I have to separate it into two different categories: New Land Experience vs Star Wars experience. As a new immersive land experience they’ve done really, really good job. We stopped in three times this past trip. I had a very similar reaction to this new land just as I did with Pandorah ……But the thing is …… it could easily be a galaxy land from ANY space-theme show: It did feel like another world … with a few Star Wars props and space ships dropped into it. The life-size Millennium Falcon is completely impressive and awe-inspiring. Swap it out with the SS Enterprise, and it could just as easily be a Star Trek: Galaxy Edge land. Or, swap out for the Milano and you have a new galaxy land for Guardians of Galaxy. I was completely impressed by the new land, At the same time, just let down a little bit that it wasn’t anything familiar to Star Wars, other than some large and small static, stationary, fenced-off, movie props. It wasn’t a “land” that I grew up knowing and caring about. Some really cool Star Wars props and the roaming Storm Troopers are very cool. Oga’s cantina was a big flop for us.
Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run. Ugh. I wanted to love this ride. Here’s why I didn’t. For example I love FOP and Soarin’. The experience of flying and watching the new spectacular scenery is awesome to me. For MFSR, there are 101 distractions on the control panel, demanding your attention from watching where your are flying and encountering. Yes it is interactive, but that interaction of flashing lights to push one button, then another is actually distracting from watching where the ride is taking you. Didn’t love it. High hopes for RotR.
Mickey’s Not So Scary – there have been multiple posts about how crowded this is getting. I do agree, sort of. For a post-hurricane, low crowd level, our Tuesday Sept 10 MNSSHP did feel crowded and over-sold to be a “special limited event.” However that only applies to the Party Events: meet and greets, treat lines, both parades, and the fireworks. The walk-ways were still crowded for the party (and they were not during the day). The lines for attractions, however were very low. 10 minutes for all three mountains, and 30 minutes for 7D. If you can’t get an After-hours party, for low ride lines, and cool fireworks, this is still do-able. If you like the party events, you’ll be waiting in lines, and lines.
Quick note on the Not so Spooky Spectacular (new fireworks show). Very good. I loved the projections and the fireworks. The “hosts” of this show is Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy. So the audio track did seem a bit like “Disney Jr.” But the fireworks are really spectacular.