It is just about to open and it's finally time to talk about what is it like. I got a reservation for June 5. How about everyone else? When are you going?
I'll see the WDW version in January, but have no foreseeable plans to make it to DLR any time soon. Although the lands will be essentially identical, I'm really curious to see how it fits in with the overall park at DL; while it was designed for DL and copied to WDW, the grand and imposing scale of the project is much more in line with WDW's scale, and I fear it will be drastically out of place in the cute and cozy environments of FL Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
I'm trying to avoid social media and websites so that I can at lease see the land with fresh eyes. This is harder that I thought it would be. ;-) Good Luck at WDW. I can't see how their version will survive without the reservation system. Considering the huge number of people going to be there this fall I shutter to think about the crowds.
I just go back from Batuu and boy are my feet tired. If you want to go into the location cold then I would suggest that you not continue reading this post. I had a four hour reservation to see the planet of Batuu yesterday 6/5/19. It was from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. I chose this time so that we could see the land in both daylight and at night. For those who do not know about Batuu or Galaxy's Edge it is Disneyland's newest land undergoing soft openings this month and will be open for everyone in July. If you go during June, you will need to say in one of the hotels to see this new, huge area because all the reservations are gone. To put it simply I was amazed and impressed. The attention to detail and the immersive design just takes this area to another level. The land is broken up into two areas, the forest area and the city. At the moment the attraction in the forest area is not open until later this year so it feels fairly empty. The city area on the other hand is full of life with so much to look at. The city area, also known as Black Spire Outpost in many way has a similar vibe to New Orleans Square with is little streets to wander around and the feeling that you are no longer in South California. Also each alleyway has its own unique looks and feel. The droid area does not feel like the speeder area and so on. I have to call out to the sound design team for doing an amazing job for the whole land for helping with this unique feeling. There are times where you hear TIE fighters flying over head and you really look up expecting to see them. One of the newer things that they are doing in the area is a interactive adventure using your smart phone and the Disneyland PLAY app. While I didn't take the time to do much with it, I saw a lot of people really having fun with it. Think of it as a "Pokemon Go" game on steroids. The only attraction in the area is the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run which is like stepping into a video game and motion simulator. There are two pilots, two gunners and two engineers and EVERYONE has to work together to get top scores. Do not feel short changed if you are one of the engineers because you do have a job to do. I did it twice and the first time we only hijacked one cargo pod and the second time we got two. While the mission might be the same, it will feel different each time. The line also moved at a good pace and they are able to cycle guest though the attraction and there was enough to look at so you don't get to bored. I didn't have to wait more than 30 minutes for each time we did the attraction. On the downside some of the shops were so small that one double wide stroller would fill the whole shop. All of the eating establishes also had major lines. The cantina had well over an hour wait. If you want food use the mobile ordering!!! It will save you so much time and energy. Other downside is prices, everything is expensive prepare to watch your bank balance go down. As an example the blue and green milk was $8.99 each for a fairly small glass. Not that it wasn't tasty, but I do not think it will be a regular thing for me to buy. If you are a Star Wars fan this is everything you have ever dreamed about.
In answer to your question, it felt like there was very few children in the area during my preview. Now that might have been because of being later in the day and most little kids were crashing at that point. Also there was almost nothing for the stroller crowd to do in the land. So this might not be an issue down the road.
Thanks, that's what I was thinking would happen. Would you say it's a land designed for dads and preteen/teenaged boys?
@ni_teach thank you for you review on the new area. I'm hoping to enlist your services again when RotR opens up in a few months though.
Thanks for the report. I have no idea when I'll be in SoCal next to see it, so it's nice to live vicariously.
Everyone says that, but I have ridden mission space and pushing those buttons do nothing on that attraction. Here, every button has an impact on what is going on. On Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run if you don't shoot down that tie fighter it will shoot back at you and maybe shoot you down.
