Live Trip Report: Star Wars Land Opening Day
After years of waiting, today is the day that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens to the general public. We’re live at Disneyland Resort in California to bring you a live trip report with photos, running commentary, and our experiences on what’s sure to be a busy opening day. (Last updated May 31, 2019 at 7 pm Pacific.)
Disneyland opened its Mickey & Friends parking structure last night, and a slow trickle of diehard Star Wars and Disneyland fans trickled in, ready to celebrate the public debut of this blockbuster expansion. While the park officially opens at 8 a.m. today, Disneyland started admitting guests into the park before 5 a.m. There were no public soft openings or even registration preview events, so between the land itself and the exclusive merchandise that’ll be sold at a variety of stores around Disneyland Resort, fans are eager for the park to open.
As a reminder, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is registration-only between now and June 23, 2019…and the only way to score one of those elusive entries now is booking a stay at one of the three official Disneyland hotels. If you’ve done that, there’s no need to arrive early and line up. If you have not scored a reservation, lining up early will do no good–there isn’t a standby line to enter the park. Nevertheless, Disneyland fans are up early, and there’s a palpable energy in the air as people await the opening of the 14-acre Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…
We were in Disneyland last night solely for the sake of wandering around and savoring the atmosphere of Walt Disney’s Original Magic Kingdom before it changes forever today. This isn’t to say that you’ll now be able to hear droids roaming around Frontierland or Chewbacca chillin’ in Critter Country–as we indicate in our Full Review of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the new land is given sufficient breathing room from the rest of the park.
The transition from Critter Country or Frontierland is ample and convincing, and Batuu itself is pretty well cordoned off from Disneyland’s other lands. What we are expected is not thematic intrusion into the rest of Disneyland, it’s overflow crowds, and general chaos. This is going to be Disneyland’s most popular addition ever, and it has the potential to overwhelm the rest of the park for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, on a day like today, we’re expecting chaos and crowds. That’s just fine, and we love opening days at Disney Parks. They bring out the most passionate fans, and always have a great energy to them. It’s like being on a packed theater opening night for a Marvel movie–there’s a collective enthusiasm that emanates from everyone, and enhances the experience.
Today at Disneyland should be pretty comparable, both with the “packed house” component and the “palpable guest energy.” After a couple weeks of Cast Member previews and media festivities the last few days, it’s finally here: the real world premiere of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge!
We got a bit of a “late” start (or early, depending upon whether you go by official or unofficial times) but are here inside Disneyland now….anxiously awaiting our timed entry reservation into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. We will share everything from the actual guest experience of that here.
As of right now, the lines for the parking toll booths, bag check (at least on the Downtown Disney side), and the Disneyland turnstiles are all non-existent. Main Street is fairly empty, and the biggest lines are over in Tomorrowland at Star Wars Launch Bay, which is both the check-in center for Galaxy’s Edge timed entry and for the main merchandise location outside of the land. At this point, the merchandise line here is already pretty long, but it’s only going to get worse throughout the day, so we’d recommend heading there first if you’re en route to Disneyland today.
We’ll be posting photos from around Disneyland, showing the crowds, merchandise, and everything else. Or should I say, trying to post these things. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from busy days at Disneyland, it’s that the WiFi can slow to a crawl, and on some really congested days (the last 24 hour part was a prime example) the park gets so busy that it’s hard to get a usable signal, period.
7 pm Update: The post-work crowd has started to arrive, and Disneyland feels busier, but still far from busy. Most noticeably, Fantasyland wait times are low, and there seem to be fewer strollers than normal. This suggests to us that the family/tourist demographic is the primary group avoiding Disneyland today, justifiably fearful of oppressive crowds that never materialized. We are off to Batuu soon, but here’s a golden hour photo update from Disneyland:
1:30 pm Update: Disneyland is starting to get busier as the first wave of guests exit Star Wars Land, but is still only moderately crowded (and below average for this time of year). Lines for the merchandise have died down considerably, with no exterior queue at Launch Bay. In other good news, the marine layer has burned off, and it’s turned into quite the beautiful day! Some photos:
11 am Update: Crowds are still light outside of Galaxy’s Edge. Wait times are rising, but most of Fantasyland is atypically low (Peter Pan’s Flight is only 20 minutes!). We had breakfast at Red Rose Taverne and are continuing to wander the park. Between low crowds and mild weather, it’s a perfect day to be here!
9:15 am Update: Disneyland is still, shockingly, pretty quiet. More guests have trickled in, but it’s still not even moderately busy. We’re starting to wonder if all the media coverage and fears of crowds are keeping people away…
8:15 am Update: Totally smooth sailing getting through bag check and turnstiles. Here’s a look at some of the interesting sights thus far:
That last one is the merchandise line at Star Wars Launch Bay. It’s easily the longest line in the park right now–literally a longer wait here than at Smugglers Run or Oga’s Cantina!
More updates to follow…
As a bit of a contingency, here are some random other new photos from our last couple of preview days in Star Wars Land:
We hope you’ll join us and check back throughout the day as we share our experiences live from Disneyland and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It should be an exciting, fun, and perhaps frustrating day in Space Morocco. Whatever the case may be, we’re ready for the ride (both figuratively and literally) and hope to learn a lot along the way that we can share with those of you who are planning future trips to Batuu. So stay tuned for more coverage from the edge of the galaxy!
If you’re planning on visiting the new land, you’ll also want to read our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Guide. This covers a range of topics from basics about the land and its location, to strategically choosing a hotel for your stay, recommended strategy for the land, and how early to arrive to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to beat the crowds. It’s a good primer for this huge addition.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
Are you visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland during the timed-entry reservation period, or are you waiting until the ‘boarding pass’ system begins? Planning on following along throughout the day to watch our experience in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Anything specific you want to see or know about Disneyland or Star Wars Land that we can weave into our coverage today? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
So!………….Is it accurate to say that opening day was a bit of a fizzle for the whole Park in general…….That’s my Read!
I watched the Touring Plans video from inside Galaxy’s Edge for the second wave of guests they let in. The area outside of Galaxy’s edge looked empty as you described, but inside the land looked like a mob scene. Not quite as endearing as the photos from the media previews.
Interesting. I wondered why the sudden shift from same day photos to older ones.
The older photos were posted first as a contingency in case the park was so busy that I couldn’t post anything. I’ll have new night photos later, but can’t edit and share (good) ones while mobile due to the limitations of my iPhone camera.
As for the land being a mob scene, it was not. The initial entry was a herd of people, but everyone dispersed pretty quickly.
After that, there were long lines for Oga’s and the low capacity shops, but that will always be the case–those were built too small. Smugglers Run was a 30 minute wait our first two hours, and ~15 or less our last two hours. Single rider was a walk-on.
I’ll have a full article about opening weekend reactions, but Disneyland handled this incredibly well. If WDW follows suit (no guarantees there!) it’ll be an enjoyable experience.
this is amazing. thank you
Super Jealous!! I can’t imagine the crowds
…or lack thereof.
There aren’t any! According to Tom, below normal for this time of year. Reminds ne of when Los Angeles hosted the Olympics and everyone left town, LA became a ghost town.
Thanks for the live update and the great photos/content as usual!
So excited that the day is finally here (and I’m not even a Star Wars fan). It’s everything I expected. Except for the lack of crowds. Clearly, we didn’t see that coming. Although, by now it may be filled to capacity.
All of my diehard Star War friends have said they’re waiting at least a year before heading to GE. I think they don’t want the crowd situation to ruin their experience.
Enjoy yourself Tom. Your excitement over SWGE opening day is coming through your blogs loud and clear. We on the east coast are anxious to hear how the rest of the day goes.
Thanks for all the information. I’m on the other side of the country, but even if I was in the area I probably would have been scared away too. It will be interesting to see what the crowd levels look like the first day AFTER the timed reservations. Like others I’m surprised Disneyland is only doing them for three weeks
Thanks for the updates and pictures. If you can be in Galaxy’s Edge at dusk that would be the time to watch all the lights come on. It’s supposed to be beautiful and there is a gradual change throughout the night over the rock work, plus all the entertainment lights and staging that were there for the dedication should be gone by now. Today should be the day you see the land as the Imagineers intended. Looking forward to more updates and pictures.
I suspect you might be right about the people being scared off. I am in the camp of “I won’t be going anywhere near the place for at least a year or two”, but apparently day one of SWL might not have been such a bad idea. Who knew?! Enjoy your day. I’m happy to be seeing it from the comfort of my home. Cheers!
“More guests have trickled in, but it’s still not even moderately busy. We’re starting to wonder if all the media coverage and fears of crowds are keeping people away…”
please, disney gods, let this hold true for the florida opening as well. please do timed reservations there too…
I imagine they will do the reservations in Florida too, but hopefully for a longer period of time. I’m still amazed Disney set the initial reservation period for all of three weeks at Disneyland. For me, setting the period thru the end of August makes/made much more sense. The reservation system has a couple of built-in benefits for all parties: for Disney, it incentivizes guests to make hotel reservations on property, since they are granted an automatic time slot upon doing so (an obvious benefit for overnight guests too). For day visitors with reservations, it keeps general crowds lower since the masses know they can’t get into Galaxy’s Edge, so many don’t even bother visiting in the first place. I just don’t understand how Disney will handle going from something orderly to just opening the doors to everyone after such a short amount of time.
my fingers, toes, eyes, and anything else i can physically cross are crossed they are in fact using this period as their soft opening to determine what works and what doesn’t for crowd control and once the reservation period ends in CA they will announce plans for florida. i keep repeating this everywhere, but i just cannot imagine a scenario that EEMH is their only measure of crowd control in florida. we know disneyland is unique and requires such measures due to space, but everything seems to be running smoothly, which makes for great PR. i mean, looks at tom’s pictures! brochure worthy.
you know what doesn’t make for great PR? thousands of people waiting hours in the hot florida sun (and afternoon storm) just to step foot in a new land. add to that people’s impatience, people daring to try jumping the line, heat stroke, pushing/shoving, arguing, etc. no pretty pictures from that.
i just can’t see from a standpoint of cast member and guest safety that they would have a free-for-all on opening day. what’s happening today is what they want people to remember. now june 24th, who knows, but i really hope they announce a plan for florida. if they do reservations, i’d love to get one for my family since we had a trip planned for labor day week LONG before GE opening was announced, and we can’t move it. and the more that comes out about it, the more i want to see it. but i won’t stand in line for hours, there is too much else to see and do.
Thanks, Tom! You’ve been on a roll this week, the blog is COOKING with hot, fresh content. My one thought about your morning update — if someone without a SWGE reservation just wanted to show up and do all of the non-SWGE Disneyland activities, it seems that (ironically enough) today would have been an incredible day to experience all that!
Tom – Look forward to following you throughout the day and Thank You updating live. It will be interesting to see actual line sizes and wait times. Soak it up and enjoy and again – thanks for taking us all along!
Your photos, as always, are spectacular! I’ve watched a few preview videos but your stills are much better in teasing my senses because I’m one who doesn’t want to visit for a year or so.
Thank you for sharing the excitement! I hope you have a great day!
I have a Question Tom.
Is there going to be any difference from the Disneyland and Walt Disney Galaxy Edge?
Is it the same exact layout and size?
I was told by an imagineer at WDW that once you’re inside, the parks would be identical. However, that was well over a year ago, so plans could have changed. That same imagineer told me the plan, if at all possible, was to open Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World on the same day. That was ambitious.
The two lands will be nearly identical (slight differences in the entrances to the lands due to the layout of the parks.)
From what they released, GE in WDW will have only two entrances instead of Disneyland’s three, so there will be at least some minor differences.
I think what’s key is that there’s more easily available space for future expansion for GE in Florida than there is in Anaheim. Podracing ride when?
Nice work Tom. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see what time you got to the park.
Following from NYC! What an awesome opportunity you’ve had and are having. Soak it up! Thanks for sharing so much with us. These images are amazing.
And, that Salacious Crumb is by far the coolest character I’ve seen, and he will be joining my family in the near future.
Hi Tom thank you for taking us with you the excitement grows. I will be in Disneyworld in September. Your photo’s are amazing!
I’m so excited to follow along with you guys! We’re on the east coast today driving my son home from college in Savannah back home to Pittsburgh (12 hours)!, and was hoping someone would be doing a live report. Will be reading this to my family in the car as they are interested in your travels/experience as well. Thanks!