SW:GE Opening Day

I know. I hope they don’t all arrive next week instead.

I think most will probably leave it a bit later. That’s based on no evidence at all!

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In line for second ride of MF. It’s fun but not great. Disney did a great job making you feel that you are in a different place.
DDP accepted throughout the land except Oga’s.
Family split 50/50 on milk. It is not as bad as all the reviews. I actually enjoyed the blue milk. Not a must have but don’t avoid it.

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Okay I’m just throwing this out there: new ride video overlay for star tours to incorporate it as a transport that takes you to Batuu. I haven’t looked at exactly how far away it is but could a tunnel get from the ST ride into SWGE?

I think that would be a cool way to enter the land.

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That would be the best thing disney could do! I dont care too much for ST, as it is. Its ok, like it better than MS in EP.

And it could still be an exciting ride. Or they could do like mission space and have some vehicles that just take a gentle flight but still give that immersive feeling of arrival on another planet. That way everyone could participate.

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Yes please!

It’s one of our favourites! It’s so much better than MS.

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We had a reservation for the droid building and it took a looong time. Despite the reservation, we still waited for about 20 min to pay for the droid and then it was another 15-20 to build it and get it activated. Then if you want to buy personality chips, add another 15 min for that. It was much longer than I was initially thinking. But it was so fun!!

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We packed the hilt in our checked luggage and carried on the blade in the case and had no issues with TSA.

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We were able to exit either way after the initial opening morning.

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It didn’t feel like CL1 in Batuu when we got there at around 8:45am, but once we headed into the rest of HS that morning was great. We took a long lunch break outside the bubble, during which DH and I kept joining boarding groups and then cancelling them when it told us we were up (15-30 min after joining) and joining another hoping for a later window. The evening was good too and Batuu wasn’t so packed. I feel like CLs would be more accurate if they could include the wait time for Dok Ondar and the droid and lightsaber building (which have standby queues as well as the reservations). It would be nice if MDE had those wait times.

@DumboRunner, based on my photo timestamps from Friday the droid building took 17 minutes from the time the kids got their trays to when we were lined up to pay for personality chips. Signing in took about 30s, and then we were in a short queue to pay and get the trays for at least 5 minutes. The personality chip part is an optional extra afterwards. The building itself is pretty quick – my kids took some time deciding on their Droid colour schemes.

Our reservation for building the droids was 2:10pm and we got there around 1:30 and asked if there was an option to go in early. They said we could get in as early as 1:55 so we grabbed lunch at Docking Bay 7 first and were back just after 2.

My Immersion ranking is

  1. the Hagrid and Forbidden Journey queues
  2. Diagon Alley
  3. Batuu
  4. The rest of Hogsmeade

My drink ranking (didn’t try any alcohol in either) but they’re all close:

  1. Blue milk
  2. Green milk
  3. Butterbeer
  4. Frozen butterbeer
  5. Pumpkin juice (the rest of my family hated it, I liked it, and they have different rankings for 1-4 too)

Re interactivity, DS11 was more into picking up jobs and scanning cargo in the DataPad in the Play app than he was into casting spells at WWoHP. He liked Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom way more than casting spells at WWoHP too.

@cbalusek that looks potentially doable. My main concern would be that Oga’s might be too soon but I don’t know how long dinner at Mama Mia’s takes. Same as @DisneyDayDreamin we were able to exit either way except for opening morning and entrance was only from near Muppets. The first day I got turned around in Batuu and had to ask a CM if they’d heard of a land of colourful toys to find the exit.

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My kids LOVED the Datapad in SWGE. The spells are cool but they seemed to be designed for older kids, plus you have to have an interactive wand. Anyone with a phone (or their parents’ phone) can use the Play Disney app. You should definitely bring a battery charger.

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My DS7 preferred the spells, but yes, the free (except for phone battery) aspect of the Datapad is good. I had a battery charger so I was happy to let DS11 play in the queue, except when I was trying to make FP changes or take photos. :joy:

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Thank you @Steenaca and @DisneyDayDreamin! My original plan was:

7pm Mamma Mia.
8:15pm Oga’s
9 pm ??? Falcon if lines are short? Shop?
9:40 Run on SDD at end of FP window (8:45 - 9:45)
After SDD??? Fireworks?

But if I can enter and exit TSL, can have a more chill schedule of

7pm Mamma Mia.
8:15pm Oga’s
9 pm SDD
9:20 or whenever - back to GE. Get in falcon line right before 10 pm

I have never been to Mamma Mia’s but will try to explain our rush and be super polite and hope that works. My two friends who are going have never been to WDW and one asked to have a nice sit down dinner the first night and HS does not have a lot of options.

Everything has become more complicated with GE but we are all huge SW fans and I am so thrilled it’s open when we are there!

Just catching up on this thread now… Isn’t this what you are doing with the app/games at SWGE? Interactive, something you need to search for, performing actions etc

Probably not as immersive but it definitely sounds interactive

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For all the Star Wars stuff, you buy it… send it right back to the hotel room. The droid “interacts” as you walk around, but I’ve never been a fan of carrying a big box around. Free stuff on an app is great additions, but I’m thinking about Disney missing out on making easy money.

Of course, I have no concept of how many of the people visiting the parks are doing it for the first time, versus repeat guest. If it’s a once in a lifetime visit, Disney may make out big then with the 200.00 light sabers and 100.00 droids. It will be interesting when I go down in February if I see a sea of backpack droids and light saber hilts or not.

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Ok gotcha, you were referring to the merchandise (I was thinking of the digital elements)

The app thing to use in line I think is pretty genius since everyone has their phone in them… Disney must have some deals going with portable battery charging companies :smiley:

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I got to check out a saber that might nephew purchased at DL last month. I’ve seen $20 sabers and $100 sabers before and this looked like a $150 saber + a nice carrying bag. Very solid, metal, and substantial. If you want a really nice light saber, you get a really nice light saber that you get to customize. Probably not a bad value for people that fall into that category.

The other Disney noteworthy thing that I saw while I was at my sister-in-law’s yesterday: She played a DVD of the HS Jedi training academy from 2005. Much had changed, but the most amazing thing was that her kids had the same Jedi Master 14 years ago as we had last month! He did a lot of acrobatic saber play back then that he has since passed on to his younger masters, but clearly the same guy and he still had all of the enthusiasm for the training today. ( and all of the sweat too).

Other notable differences were that they used to pick the kids out of the crowd instead of having a signup, it used to be only 3 or 4 kids got to fight with Vader & Maul instead of everyone getting their whacks in on Vader & Ren, and the Sith used to emerge from some particularly temporary looking shrubbery instead of coming from the much more solid and impressive temple doorway.

Kids loved it as much then as they do today.

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