Living on the Edge
The day has finally arrived when Star Wars fans can live out their fantasies of visiting a remote planet from the Star Wars universe. It was only a mere 4 years ago when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disneyland and Walt Disney World would be the first to get their own dedicated lands to a galaxy far, far away.
In anticipation for larger crowds, Disneyland has been implementing changes throughout the entire resort. Flower beds, benches, and other structures have been removed or remodeled to widen pathways. Even Main Street U.S.A. got many of the street curbs flattened out. All of this was to create a more accessible path and remove anything that could slow down the flow of guests. In my opinion this was something long over due and I think everyone benefits from these updates to the parks.
Another thing that Disneyland did to help deal with the anticipated increase of guest attendance was launch a free reservation service to enter the new land for the first few weeks. All you needed to do was create a free Disney account, you had to be 18 years of age or older to be the primary reservation holder. This prevented families from making multiple reservations by using their children's accounts. Then on May 10, 2019 at 10:00AM you were able to log onto the Disneyland website and book your free reservation to Galaxy's Edge. You could choose any day from May 31 - June 23 and they were for 4-hour blocks of time beginning at 8:00AM daily with the last one at 8:00PM daily.
Yesterday, Fri May 31, 2019 was the grand opening for Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland CA. Marzz and I were fortunate enough to have snagged a free reservation for opening day in the 8:00AM group. We were amongst the first guests every to visit the new land and step foot on the planet Batuu and visit the Black Spire Outpost.
It was everything we hoped it would be. The land is beautifully designed and truly makes you feel as if you've not only left Disneyland but left the planet Earth. When standing in the land, you're surrounded by tall mountains that appear to be far off in the distance with towering natural spires. This blocks out any and all reminders of the real world and helps ensure the fantasy continues uninterrupted.
The buildings and structures reminded me of a town long forgotten. Perhaps a place that was once a bustling city but time has left it behind. It was the little details that brought it into the Star Wars universe. The buildings signage is written in the language of Aurebesh which is a universal language used in the Star Wars universe. This makes it fun and gives you the feeling of traveling to a foreign country that you cannot read the language. There are door panels everywhere which fans instantly recognize from the films. Lastly, the cast members did a fantastic job on continuing the theming and really sealing the deal in making it feel like a distant planet. Disney and Lucas Film have created certain phrases and greetings which are native to Batuu and the cast members are actively using them. I believe as more time passes and guests begin to learn the phrases and use them, this land will feel more and more like a real place with its own language and customs.
Lastly, this would not truly feel like part of the Star Wars universe without the presence of Jedi and Sith. While we visited Galaxy's Edge, we had the pleasure of interacting with Chewbacca, who was not only physically animated and had the stature you would expect. But he also spoke! It was incredible. His mouth moved and that familiar Wookie roar and sounds came pouring out. In addition to Chewie, we saw Kylo Ren walking around with a pair of First Order Stormtroopers in tow. All three of them spoke and interacted with guests. It was fun to watch him sneak up on unsuspecting guests and interrogate them on whether or not they had seen any members of the Rebel Alliance. There was also Vi Moradi from the brand new Galaxy's Edge Black Spire comic book series. Vi is one of General Leia Organa's top spies. Because she is relatively new and many guests didn't know who she was, she was able to walk freely throughout the land going mostly unstopped. But people definitely noticed her in her orange jacket with laser blaster on her hip. It was fun to watch her walk around, seemingly doing her spy thing with many guests watching as they tried to figure out who she was and what she was doing?
Our experience was amazing! We enjoyed the feeling of being transported to another planet and into the fantasy world of Star Wars. The continuous theming through sight and sound made this possible. We plan on returning as soon as we can and we can see ourselves just sitting here, all day, enjoying the atmosphere and watching the First Order walk around and listening to starships fly overhead. We'll do more posts on the specific areas of the land, including the attraction(s). For now, we just wanted to share that it was a great day, and even if only for a few hours, we felt truly a part of the Star Wars universe and it was almost like a "coming home" moment for us as Star Wars fans.
If you can't wait for our next blog (which we understand because we've been pretty inconsistent with it- sorry). You can watch our YouTube video documenting our experience for this opening day. As always, thank you for stopping by and if you do check out our video, please subscribe! We'll be adding more videos regularly (or fairly regularly) and having subscribers helps us reach our goal of 100, which will allow us to have a custom YouTube link (example: youtube.com/nateandmarzz) instead of a bunch of random numbers and letters. Thank you and May the Force be with You!
