Trip Report: Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Annual Pass holder Preview Saturday August 17, 2019 part 1

This is my first try at doing a trip report, so here it goes. I am going to go into detail about what I saw, so if you want to maintain the element of surprise for your first visit please do not read any further.

We went to the Annual Passholder preview of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios this past Saturday. When I say we, I am referring to my DW, our DD14 and myself. We live in the north suburban area of Atlanta, 480 miles door to door from our home to WDW, about 7 hours of driving time. I’ll skip to the chase and get to visit.

We got the 1-5PM time slot for Saturday, August 17th. We could not leave Atlanta till after 6 PM on Friday evening due to DD’s after school activities. So, we drove halfway to Valdosta, GA and spent a night in a hotel. After a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, we were on the road around 8 AM and pulling into HS parking lot just before 11:30 AM.

Things went quickly, no lines at the parking gates, no wait for a tram, not much of a crowd with the bag check lines were only 2-4 deep and no line at all at the AP touchpoints. We were quickly inside the park in 15 minutes. We headed straight over Grand Avenue to check in for our 1 PM appointment.

As we approached the entrance to SWGE, I was surprised to see no guests waiting, only a half dozen CM standing there waiting. We provided the printed copy of our confirmation; the CM checked our photo IDs and scanned our AP cards and we were allowed to enter into SWGE. The only issue was a minor one. We also had signed up for building a lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop. The CM who checked us into SWGE also accidentally checked us in for Savi at the same time. There was a second set of CM’s off to the side who were handling the secondary reservations like Savi’s & Oga’s. They quickly worked it out and handed us small cards with a 12:30 PM reservation time to Savi’s workshop.

So just before Noon, more than an hour before our reservation time, we passed through the tunnel and into SWGE. There was no crowd entering and wide-open spaces as we entered. This area is where the Rise of the Resistance ride is going to be so there is not much going on as you enter.

The first thing you see is a small A-Wing fighter and then a blue X-Wing fighter. Chewbacca was there meeting guests and posing for pictures. Several Photo pass photographers were there to take your picture in front of the fighters. Over by the X-wing, there were two small stands selling Resistance merchandise.

We stopped to say hi to Chewie and got our pictures taken in front of my favorite fictional spacecraft, the X-Wing fighter.

As you round the bend, you can either continue down the path to the right or go to the left and enter the marketplace of Black Spire Outpost. They have several shops there selling toys, stuffed creatures, clothing, and other souvenirs. This also where you can get the Kettle Corn. The popcorn stand also sells the thermal detonator Coke bottles. There was a separate cart out on the pathway to the right selling these bottles as well.

A quick mention, also found in this area was a large slightly camouflaged Igloo water cooler and paper cups. I saw ice-cold water freely available at several different places around SWGE.

Just past the shops, you come to Ronto Roasters. Late in the day, we tried a Ronto Wrap and it was quite tasty, it might have been the best thing we ate all day at the park. However, the selection at Ronto is lacking, you can only get the Wrap or Turkey Jerky to eat for lunch or dinner. There are breakfast items in the morning. There are several specialty drinks, we tried Sour Sarlacc, it was too sour for me & DD but DW liked it.

As you leave Ronto and the shops, across the way is Savi’s Workshop and Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities. Savi’s is quite literally a quiet, unassuming place since it is trying to avoid the attention of the First Order. The Resistance controls the front park of SWGE and the First Order controls the back. A couple of Stormtroopers were patrolling the area, questioning guests.

It is easy to first overlook these two shops since it is now that you first get a glimpse of the true star of SWGE, the full-size replica of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. We were immediately drawn over to the docking bay where she sits.

Sorry for being long-winded, I wanted to do it in one take but I’ll get to building a lightsaber and flying the Millennium Falcon in part 2.

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Thank you for sharing this!

This is great. But also confirms that to really experience it, you need to spend a lot of money inside of SGE.

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We’ve already cut our expenses by skipping 3 lightsabers and one droid. Too many other things I’d rather do with the money.

One drink in Oga’s. We’ll each get something different and share so we can try multiple things.

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