News & Rumor Roundup: Star Wars Land Changes, Castle Refurb, CookieAnn & More!
It’s time for another news & rumor roundup, this time with stories from Disneyland Paris, Tokyo DisneySea, and Walt Disney World–including tweaks to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and an early closure for Magic Kingdom. Let’s start over in France, where we have news about both the quickly-approaching holiday season, and the iconic castle…
We recently shared Christmas 2019 at Disneyland Paris Info & Tips, and the seasonal lineup there looks pretty formidable. Between the decorations, entertainment, festive atmosphere, and even the “authentic” winter weather, Disneyland Paris is one of our favorite places during the holiday season.
Unfortunately, something will be missing this year. Disneyland Paris insider ED92 is reporting that Christmas lights won’t be installed on that park’s Sleeping Beauty Castle (or Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant) this year. This is rumored to be because “the in-depth refurbishment plan is back on track.” This extensive project is likely to include replacement of turrets, roofing, and other details, plus color scheme adjustments and repairs to the Castle Stage.
The rumored Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant project sounds similar to the recent reimagining of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, with the likely rationales for this overhaul taking significantly longer being due to its scope and the reality that there’s more to be repaired in Disneyland Paris.
General maintenance standards at Disneyland Paris is one explanation for this, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out the climate differences between France and Southern California. While the latter doesn’t really have “weather” (unless you count sunshine and like a dozen rainy days per year), Disneyland Paris has perhaps the worst weather of any Disney locale, with everything from rain to snow. This is a big reason why upkeep is a constant battle there.
The silver lining here is that the Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant will still be getting in the holiday spirit this year, as Disneyland Paris has confirmed that the castle will be part of the new tree lighting ceremony. Sleeping Beauty Castle will be enhanced via projection mapping projection and fountain moments.
In addition to this, the new Christmas tree lighting ceremony will feature special lighting on the Central Plaza and Main Street, ending with the lighting of the tree in Town Square. Disneyland Paris has also indicated that there will be special “fountain moment” with Christmas music during the day around Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Disneyland Paris has done these little lighting and fountain shows at night during the holiday season before, so this isn’t entirely a novel idea. Obviously, projection mapping shows are not new either–it’ll be interesting to see whether this is also extended to Main Street, too.
What’s probably most interesting here is that it would seem that Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant won’t be behind a refurbishment scrim (at least initially) if it’s going to have projection mapping this Christmas. This would differ from Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland or in Hong Kong during their big projects, but is at least partially unsurprising if it’s truly going to be a 2-year refurbishment. That would be a long time for the castle to be behind scrims, especially given that it’s so iconic, and such a huge draw to the park.
Moving along to Tokyo Disney Resort, where Oriental Land Company has just announced that Duffy’s newest friend, CookieAnn, will be joining the rest of the gang at Tokyo DisneySea beginning on December 26, 2019. This character previously debuted as a Hong Kong Disneyland “exclusive” and was recently renamed from Cookie to CookieAnn (which now makes sense given naming conventions).
For those unfamiliar with her, CookieAnn is “a puppy with cute floppy ears and a nose for good ideas. With her natural curiosity and healthy appetite for food, fun and flair, she’s a whiz at mixing up unique and wonderful creations, much to the enjoyment of Duffy and Friends.”
As with all of Duffy’s friends, CookieAnn has an origin story–or rather, a story of how she met Duffy (basically the same thing, as none of their lives truly began until that fateful day): “Duffy first met CookieAnn when he was enjoying some delicious cotton candy.
He accidentally bumped into her as she was carrying a huge stack of waffles, and all their treats flew into the air! Luckily, CookieAnn caught them, and turned the ingredients into a cotton candy waffle sandwich. The accident turned out to be a recipe for friendship!”
CookieAnn will be featured in “Duffy and Friends’ Heartwarming Days, which runs from January 10, 2020 until March 27, 2020. She will also appear alongside Duffy and Mickey Mouse in “CookieAnn’s Greeting Drive,” a Disney Character Greeting with the three friends taking a drive around American Waterfront in a Big City Vehicle.
I have some strong opinions about Duffy’s growing circle of friends, but I doubt many of you care, so I’ll keep those to myself. With that said, if Tokyo DisneySea starts serving freshly made waffles topped with gelato as a tag-team effort between CookieAnn and Gelatoni, I’m totally on board with another new character.
Now for some quick hits. First, Magic Kingdom will now be closing at 6 pm on October 22, 2019. This might not seem like major news during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party season. This time it’s due to a park buyout by the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo (if you’re staying in the Crescent Lake Resort Area right now, you’ve probably seen their signs, etc).
In keeping with the crowd-avoidance tips from our Off-Season Is Over: An Overwhelming October at Disney World post, we strongly recommend avoiding Magic Kingdom on October 23, 2019. That’s the only weekday this week with normal park hours, which will make it attractive to a lot of people…which will also mean bonkers crowds. Seriously–it won’t be worth the extra 4 hours.
Next, a couple of one-day special events. On Halloween day, Typhoon Lagoon will have a bunch of special offerings, including a meet & greet with Pirate Mickey and Donald (but not Minnie–that’s just the photo I have).
There will also be trick or treating, Halloween menus, crafts, and carved pumpkins on display. It actually sounds pretty cool! (Disney Parks Blog has the full details.)
On January 1, 2020, Topolino’s Terrace – Flavors of the Riviera will be hosting a New Year’s Day Character Brunch to say, “bonne année” and “felice anno nuovo” to 2020!
We assume the menu is what will be different rather than the character attire, but Walt Disney World is highly encouraging guests to wear accents of red, as the Italian tradition is to wear red as a festive way to ring in the New Year. Maybe that’ll be reflected via the characters, too? (More info on DisneyWorld.com’s official page here.)
Finally, the week’s “biggest” news story (which slows just how slow of a news week it was!), which is the various changes throughout Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In addition to a handful of new menu items being introduced throughout the land, simplified, descriptive names replaced the ‘on-planet’ names at Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo.
As you might recall from our Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo Review, every menu item name was based upon a real Star Wars creature, many of which are featured in the 200-page Star Wars: Visual Encyclopedia. (We also noted that we were oblivious to the meaning of literally all of these things, and assume they’re mostly deep cuts to amuse serious fans.)
Despite this being a wholly superficial change, there was a swift backlash via social media. Some viewed this as an example of why we “can’t have nice things” and demonstrative of how Disney’s attempts at immersiveness can be undermined by guests who won’t put in the effort to play along.
Others found it odd that the menu names at Docking Bay 7, of all things, is the problem with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge that Walt Disney World identified as being in need of a fix.
I can understand some of that sentiment. However, just because this one change is being made doesn’t mean that other modifications aren’t also on the way. Changing menus is probably really simple as compared to other tweaks and substantive changes that probably require a lot more effort. (It also doesn’t mean anything that changes now will be permanent–I could see a lot of tweaks made in the name of ‘testing and adjusting’ to see what improves the guest experience and what does not.)
I love Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. I also recognize that it has not been an immediate hit and have no issue conceding there are some changes that can and should be made in order for the land to resonate more with guests. Some of these (like some epic background music) are seemingly small adjustments that could have a disproportionately large impact. Others would be a bit more involved.
Regardless, I don’t think menu name changes is the hill to die on. It’s easy to point to this and say it’s endemic of Disney scaling back on ambitious and immersive offerings because guests won’t put in the effort to engage with the land. However, we don’t know whether that’s an accurate assessment.
Perhaps it is that–or maybe the menus are difficult to read due to a mix of typeface, spacing & names, ordering is taking too long, and the restaurant is having issues with throughput. I haven’t heard a ton of feedback and I’m not there often enough to know one way or the other.
I suspect some of this frustration is being driven by a larger trend of the least adventurous guests dictating a disproportionate amount of Walt Disney World’s operations and policies. We’ve seen countless examples of this over the years, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge seems like a prime candidate for having its open-exploration and experiential nature diluted in the name of smoother operations.
The great thing about Walt Disney World is that it’s a totally controlled and self-contained universe. (The “Disney Bubble” is very apt here.) It can be a totally frictionless experience, without real world intrusions or the type of issues you might normally encounter when traveling.
Arguably, this is also a weakness. As compared to traveling in the real world, there is less of a sense of discovery and exploration. Guests plan their days checklist style and down to the minute, with little room for spontaneity and free-roaming adventure. When things don’t go according to plan, there’s a sense of frustration and discomfort that you’d never experience when traveling outside of Disney, where ‘the best laid plans going awry’ is actually to be expected.
At its best (and for what it’s worth, I do not think it has achieved this…yet), Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge could be a place that fosters such a sense of discover, exploration, and free-roaming adventure–all in the confines of a safe and controlled theme park. The menus might be an example of Disney veering away from that, or maybe not. Personally, I hope Disney leans into this even more, as right now Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is sort of an in-between land, not really offering what guests expect from a traditional theme park land, and also not delivering on its promises of immersiveness, either.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of these news? Willing to take a wait-and-see approach with the changes to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, or worried about losing immersiveness? What about CookieAnn or the Sleeping Beauty Castle project? Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
We were just there 2 weeks ago and I thought the food in Star Wars land was phenomenal! We ate at Docking Bay 7 twice, with 4 kids ages 4-8, one with peanut and tree nut allergies. We always ordered ahead on the mobile food app, and I thought the descriptions were more than adequate. There is also a separate section by food allergen of all the menu items. I was happy to have the kids eat something other than chicken fingers and fries and also meals that came with vegetables- which they ate and enjoyed (they will not eat a salad or any other raw veggie as a side). I didn’t recognize any of the food item names as from the Star Wars movies, but they’re just names, and I think it adds to the immersive nature of the experience (as with Pandora land in AK, where I also thought the food was a wonderful break from a lot of the same old food options for both kids and adults).
I am of the opinion that WDW has too many projects underway at the same time. As a Florida resident and AP I like to go for a couple days at a time but have not been able to make room reservations for any weekend in November or December. I have never experienced this in my 30+ years of going. Is it the room refurbishments, some special event or just my luck? Has me wondering why I am an AP. Anyone have any information or perspective?
There aren’t rooms available because the rooms are booked because November/December weekends are an incredibly popular time to visit WDW. There are some hotel renovations underway, but these only take a small number of rooms out of inventory at a time.
I am a Star Wars fan who saw the original over 150 times…in the theater, One of my must see favorites at the Studios was always Star Wars and Tatooine Traders but this new land sounds, dare I say it, boring. Almost as boring as Avatar. I am going in a week, so we will see.
Thanks for all of the information. We went to Orlando this past weekend and stayed at the Pop Century resort. I did try to ask for something because the Skyliner wasn’t running full time but was met with a pretty meh response. Didn’t matter. I loved the skyliner to return to the hotel, way better than a bus and was nice and cool even in the 90’s on Sunday.
I really liked Star Wars land. The 12 year old in me thought it was the best themed park, Storm Troopers were searching for Chewbacca one evening and apart from tourists trying to take selfies with Chewie while he was hiding, it was like a play with audience involvement as storm troopers asked guests for ID’s.
We didn’t have a reservation for the cantina and we didn’t wait in the line, but apparently my wife has some kind of gift that she walked straight in and no one stopped her. She ordered me a beer, then walked out and got us and brought all of us back in, mumbling “I am with the Force, the Force is with me”, so no one stopped us. I liked it, but there should be a band.
My wife still doesn’t know the difference between star trek and star wars thought it was pretty meh, and the ride was like a 2D Star Tours.
As a die hard Star Wars fan, I fell in love with the land at first visit! Such an incredible experience when seeing the Millennium Falcon for the first time – let alone piloting it! Not really sure why all the backlash…? I will admit, while you do see some free-roaming characters, there aren’t as many as I’d hoped would be there. But that’s about it. Even though it may be a “new” location, it FEELS like the familiar Star Wars world I’ve grown to love. Really confused by people’s over-reactions.
Related to the Park buyout mentioned above, MK will be closing on 12/1 at 6:00 (MVMCP), closing at 4:30 on 12/2 (not sure why), closing at 6 on 12/3 (MVMCP). We are planning to go to Magic Kingdom on 12/4 (which has extra magic hours). Is this a huge mistake??? If so, is it so huge that we should be changing great FP+ and dining reservations to rework our week?
Yes, that is a HUGE mistake. As the only full operating day in a 6-day stretch (!!!), MK should be avoided at all costs on 12/4. Crowds will be completely bonkers compared to the other days.
That said, there is a key caveat in Happily Ever After, which is an amazing show that (in my opinion) is worth braving terrible crowds for a couple hours in order to see. If I was in your shoes, I would spend 12/4 at another park and then hop to MK around 7pm (knowing that it will be a madhouse) with the specific plan of seeing the 9pm Happily Ever After showing and then getting the heck out of there.
Good luck!
Just a heads up, the menus have already been changed back to their in-universe terms online and via the app, and physical menus were removed. This was probably due to Lucasfilm getting involved, but who knows. Themed menus are back.
They didn’t change at DLR but the WDW my experience has removed the themed names. Check again.. I just did
As of 3pm eastern on 10/22, themed entree names are gone from the app. Desserts and specialty drinks still have unique names, but not the entrees.
We’re heading to Star Wars for the first time in a few weeks, my daughter is already a little disappointed that it wasn’t a familiar world. I think where Disney is missing the boat in terms of immersion is making new things, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are huge hits are Universal because they are familiar to visitors. They know what butter beer is even if they haven’t tasted it. As far as I can tell “blue milk” is the only familiar food in the new Star Wars land. Likewise the stores in Harry Potter world at Universal are familiar. People want to go to Weasleys joke shop and Ollivanders wand shop. They want to eat at The Three Broomsticks. It’s hard to become immerse in a world you don’t know. Having not been there yet, I expect that this is the fundamental failing of the new Star Wars land. There seems to be little to do with only one ride, especially when there is no back story to draw you into the various shops and eateries. I hope we’ll be pleasantly surprised…
Our neighbors went to Disney World this past weekend for Fall Break. I asked their 14 year old son how the new Star Wars land is, and he commented that he wasn’t that impressed, and there wasn’t that much to do. He also wasn’t wowed by the ride that is currently open. Not sure what kind of fan he is of the movies, but I thought to myself that Disney might have a problem if a 14 year old boy was underwhelmed by the new land.
My experience as a die hard star wars fan is hum oh, I like alot of the small details. But didnt like the fact i could walk around the falcon, the x wing or a wing. The two troopers walking around was fun, but would of love to see some Astromech droid moving around.
The Google cantinas was a disappointment, we had reservations and still had to wait 30 minutes. Only to be lead in and told this small corner of the bar is ours. It was way to small when it should of been two stores with more table. And the only food service was overpriced chix mix.
As for docking bay 7 food, it was awfully. And when I told the staff they just shrugged. Ended up paying 16 bucks for ribs and tossed them after two bites. Other people also said the food was bad.
It would of been cool if they moved star tours sonit dumped you into black spire, but as of now there nothing to do but build a overpriced droid and saber.
The only ride is the falcon however it confusing with part group and such.
And that 200 saber you built, while the store and build is great. You cant even take your saber out for photos at the set points. I seen some great photos at night with the offical photo guys and the sabers turned on. But that a no no now.
That is a completely false rumor. You can have your saber out all you want. You just can’t swing it around or have mock fights. It’s common sense what’s okay. There’s been so much nonsense floating around from no sabers to bomb shaped soda it’s insane! The cokes aren’t shaped like thermal detonators.
The design of the Batuu coke/diet coke/sprite bottles is very clearly based on the thermal detonator Leia holds while threatening Jabba in RotJ. The brief TSA thing was entirely silly, but that IS what the cokes are shaped like.
So this is my boy’s take on the land. They are due hard fans of Star Wars and know all the terminology. They found it frustrating DW didn’t make a land that reflected simmering they already knew and loved. Avatar did. Why not make an Ewok land? They didn’t Want to learn new terms like “to the spies” when they already know “Untini!” They enjoyed the land but it wasn’t as interactive as promised and wasn’t a well known planet
When you get the menu for Star Wars Galaxy’s edge docking bay 7 and the other restaurants, can you please publish it?
We are going in Nov. and I have kids. They won’t eat most of what is currently offered, which means I don’t get to either 🙁
It’s on the Disney web site, which will be the most up to date on the offerings available.
I’ve been following all the SW|GE post closely as we are heading down the first week of November. I’ll be curious to see it in person and how it feels. We’ve been to The Wizarding World a bunch of times (I admit, while I like and enjoy Star Wars, I LOVE Harry Potter) and I’ve been mentally comparing all the experiences tit for tat trying to figure out why SW|GE is not as successful. I can only speculate but I think the Wizarding World connects with more people on an emotional level through multiple generations. It feels like a place we know (because it is). Again, comparing the two, WW is a bit of a better value. A wand only costs about $50, not $200 and creates the opportunity to interact with the environment and become a wizard. And not with an app. You can be a part of the wand experience without actually having to buy one. Much of Diagon Alley is just shops and food much like SW|GE. There is one ride (well, I guess two if you pay extra for the two park ticket to ride the hogwarts express) but there is something comfortable and inviting. There is also planned entertainment through the day in both Hogsmead and Diagon Alley that add to the experience. The make-up of each land is practically formulaic but for some reason, I think the Wizarding World just got it. But, again, I haven’t been yet and I know I’m going to love it. Just maybe not as much.
There is no emotional connection to ge it’s not like walking through the books and movies that everyone loves. It doesn’t mean it’s not cool it is just cannot be compared to Harry Potter.
@ Jill- I’m the opposite, I like the Star Wars movies (at least the first 3 released; vowed to never see another one after #4) much better than the Potter series.
That said, on a fantasy level I’d much rather be in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade than any of the Star Wars locations if I had to choose between them.
Having now been to both Parks, I’d rate Hogsmeade and Batuu as roughly equal, while Diagon Alley is far superior to both for me. The Potter lands far outshine Batuu in terms of dining options, but Hogsmeade seems to be missing a level of immersion which Diagon achieves, and Batuu falls somewhere in the middle. Note that I went to Universal before the Hagrid’s ride opened, so in some sense this is similar for my experience to the second Batuu ride not being open yet.
As always, YMMV.
“Guests plan their days checklist style and down to the minute, with little room for spontaneity and free-roaming adventure. When things don’t go according to plan, there’s a sense of frustration and discomfort that you’d never experience when traveling outside of Disney, where ‘the best laid plans going awry’ is actually to be expected.”
I agree that this is an issue, and I think that Disney of the last several years has been going through a lot of pains defining its target demographic and messaging to them. Part of the issue is that they are in many ways sui generis. What do I mean by that?
Well, nobody would go to Paris for a week and expect to do and see everything. The idea that you’d be sampling a wide range of offerings is expected. Similarly, nobody would go to Six Flags or Water Country and not expect to be able to cover most of the whole thing — and certainly the highlights — in one day with maybe some time to hit a couple of things twice. Disney World is in this weird space where it is best approached like Paris — as you note, an experiential offering — but people *want* to approach it like Six Flags where they look up the best rides and have an expectation of getting on all of them.
To me, the trend towards IP-based offerings and lack of dark ride development (where dark ride is defined as “all ages, pregnant women, and people with back problems can ride”) signals muddiness from Disney about what they want to be going forward. You want to be an experiential park, where the majority of offerings are open to the whole family and revisit value is sky-high because of that experiential trend? Commit to that and *sell* it. You want to be a park where people come to see familiar IP and ride thrill rides? Well, then commit to that and sell *that*. But you can’t try to be the former and sell it to the audience of the latter.
The problem, of course, is that I think that as an experiential discovery offering, Disney occupies a unique and valuable niche and competes well. As an IP-based collection of thrill rides? Not so much, long term. They’ll never beat Cedar Park and Six Flags at the thrill ride game. They’ll never beat local one-day IP theme-ish park offerings at the local and cheap game. Long term, I think that Disney’s historic market is their future market too; I don’t see good things coming out of the trend to put a coaster as 50% of the rides in every new land. But right now, I don’t think that’s where they are aiming; I think they are instead trying to pull in and please too wide of an audience with the end result that sometime in the future they risk finding that they’re not making the cut against any demographic as a value proposition.
@Jennie – i really enjoyed your take. I think this is very much the issue Disney is having (well at least one of them). Trying to cater to too many demographics.
I am a Disney diehard. Going since I was 2 years old. However, I am so tired of all the coasters. I ride them all, but I want “classic” dark ride Disney and i fear they are pushing me away. Not renewing my AP for 2020 (held it for 6 years). Just not happy with the direction Disney is moving. Hopefully 2021 and the 50th will lure me back in, but I don’t have high hopes.
I agree with you MeechO on the coasters and the need for classic dark rides. Let me add, I am more tired of the screen based rides and simulators.
Interesting take. And, I think, pretty accurate. I can only assume that the audience they’re counting on for future *growth* is international and does not have a 50 or 75 year emotional history with the Disney parks. To that customer, seeing known characters is probably a highlight, spending 10 minutes on a nostalgia trip via a dark ride with your grand parents maybe not so much.
Disney World is vast and sampling is really the only way to get a sense of everything without running flat out for one plus weeks and forget about eating and drinking everywhere.
The problem with spontaneity is different. People plan schedules (the fore-mentioned lists), because Disney World is so popular. This is not a bad thing, but it means spontaneity on certain things is not possible with one trip.
For eating, you trapped into making reservation way ahead of time (aka ADRs), if you want to enjoy any of the popular table service places. Frankly, it is impossible to get any table service without reservations at any typical eating time. This locks you into a very specific schedule of time and place for at least dinners and possible lunches too, if you want any real sit down meals. On rides, there can be some spontaneity around your eating schedule for nearby rides, assuming that you are OK with long lines. Else, you need to revert to more scheduling with fastpasses, locking down more times and places.
We have been to Disney on many short trips. This lets us discover and then plan what we get crowed out of for the next trip. This broader view allows us to eventually enjoy everything without having to plan every minute, and with the new stuff run into some surprise moments.
As someone who has seen maybe 1 hour total of any Star Wars film, Galaxies Edge was fun. I didn’t mind the odd names etc and found the “in character-ness” of the employees to be a great added touch. Honestly, I think it is something Disney could absolutely use more of. For example, when getting directions on where to head for my husband’s light sabor building appointment I thought the added touch of letting us know we were looking for the “scrap metal shop” was cute and added to the fun of it.
My interpretation is that their food sales are poor and they had some complaints, so they’re hoping they’ll reverse that by making it obvious what people are buying. However, what they’re missing is that this is not the reason the food sales are poor. The reason is that the food in Galaxy’s Edge sucks. The drinks at the Cantina are wonderful, but the food is boring, and so-so quality, particularly as compared to most of WDW which has excellent food offerings. They should replace the whole menu with better, more creative offerings, and bring back the immersive names.
As many have said, they need to lean into the immersion to make it something truly unique. Moving away from it is what will really make the land a failure. So changing the names on the menu to super boring names that destroy immersion is ominous to say the least.
I am surprised that people want background music in Galaxy’s Edge. I think the sound design is maybe my favorite part of the land. When we went, I found myself looking to the sky more than once when I heard something “fly over.” Incredibly convincing. And in parks that are wall to wall music, the lack of music really makes the experience feel more authentic and lived in. Not unlike the lack of background music in Mysterious Island.
It’s a tough call. I agree that the soundscape is phenomenal, but there’s nothing to say sound effects and a score can’t coexist.
I’d also agree that Mysterious Island benefits from no score, as it heightens the tension and ominous nature of the land. However, Galaxy’s Edge already has a lot of dead space and the lack of BGM seems to amplify that. Not to mention that it’s based upon films known for their dramatic scores.
I would like to hear some John Williams while in Batuu
There is background music though. Are people not listening? And on top of the music there’s chatter from Oga’s office above the marketplace and other people in their apartments. As well as ships flying overhead and droids beep booping.
Chatter above the marketplace? Cool detail!! I’ll be sure to check it out when we’re there.
I totally agree about the background music, Tom! We heard all about how John Williams wrote new music for Galaxy’s Edge and then we got there and said “Where is this new score??” I’m a musician and a huge film score enthusiast and it was one of things I was looking forward to. We explored all over and unless we totally missed something, where was it? Definitely need more.
I may be in the minority, but I would like to know your opinion about Duffy and his expanding circle of friends. What do you have against Duffy making friends? Do you not believe that animals of different species can enjoy each other’s company?
I’ll just give you the TL;DR version…
Dogs rule, so I’m glad that Duffy now has a canine friend, and one that makes waffles. However, what started as something that grew organically with the first few characters now seems like more of a calculated and contrived way to increase revenue. This is especially true with Cookie and the turtle, who not-so-coincidentally debuted in places with attendance and guest spending woes.
Basically, I don’t want OLC to make the same mistake with Duffy that Disney already made. Don’t ruin a good thing that actually works well with guests by milking the cash cow dry.
In my household we are suckers for the Duffy and Friends merchandise. I like the addition of CookieAnne and chef theme. Unfortunately, we caught the Duffy craze toward the end of its run in the domestic parks so now we have to rely on Ebay to purchase new merchandise or look in awe at the merchandise on TDL website.
As a parent of a child with food allergies, I wondered if the menu changes in Galaxy’s Edge had anything to do with more clear naming of main ingredients for safety reasons. While I really enjoyed the idea of the immersive food theming, I also believe that playing around with the clarity of ingredients can be dangerous. Usually, people with food allergies are over cautious, but when there is any kind of confusion around what’s in a meal, bad things can happen.
I took a kid with a tree nut allergy and ate at Docking Bay 7. I specifically told the cast member I needed them to break character to discuss this and, to her credit, the cast member immediately did just that, pulling out the food allergen information and confirming what my kid could eat. The cast member then went back into character and I finished ordering. Absolutely a flawless experience. What I don’t understand here is why they didn’t just leave the actual food as a subscript under the “in-world” menu item name. It seems that would be the most logical compromise, but I’m wondering if people for whatever reason got flustered and never made it past the first line to see what the actual food is in the subscript? Either way, I agree with Tom that this doesn’t seem like its the hill I’m going to choose to die on.
Glad to hear this! We’re visiting in a few weeks with pistachio and cashew allergy. Good to know we can count on the cast members to take it all very seriously. Still, I agree with your comments completely. I wish we’d get to experience this as it was imagined originally, but I’m not going to let it get in the way of our fun!
To be clear, there was never any secrecy about what was “really” in the docking bay 7 entrees. They had fun names, but the descriptions immediately below the names tells you what’s in them. You can scroll back up to the 10th image in the article to see what I mean. It’s just like a bar menu where a signature cocktail has a name you’ve never heard of, but also a clear description of the (very familiar) ingredients.
“Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge could be a place that fosters such a sense of discover, exploration, and free-roaming adventure…”
I’m trying to avoid just being contrarian or cynical (or choose your term) but there is no way to up sell free-roaming adventure. Maybe things will change but the trend seems to be minimizing operating expenses where it’s hard to quantify the return on investment. I just don’t see Disney investing more in “immersion” when they can add other events and experiences that they can monetize (e.g. everything in Galaxy’s Edge except for Smugglers Run). If I’d have to bet I’d put my money on a hard ticketed event (unlimited Blue Milk! just $85 for adults!) within Galaxy’s Edge before we get some epic music or streetmosphere.
I hope I’m wrong.
I also hope you’re wrong, but I don’t think you’re being contrarian or cynical–just reaching logical conclusions based upon recent precedent.
There are some pretty obvious fixes that could be deployed to improve it. Most obviously in terms of entertainment–but I also think being so heavily reliant on phones for engaging with the land itself was a mistake. Nothing against the app-based stuff, I think that’s a great-value add for some guests. Personally, I have zero desire to spend time on my phone while in a theme park. I want something tactile.
I would hope that Disney learns some lessons from the opening of SWGE not all they expected. Perhaps like you, I fear they’ll learn the wrong lessons or seek to cut their losses, rather than doubling down on improving the guest experience.
Agreed on the tactile experiences. WWoHP sells $50 magic wands by the truckload because they create an interactive experience within the land (in addition to being a cool souvenier).
Disney’s answer to that in *their* heavily-hyped mega-immersive environment was…download an app on your phone, enable bluetooth access in your settings, and then you can hack that panel on the wall to make the red light turn green.
Honestly, Epcot’s Kim Possible adventure (from 10 years ago) offered a more fun and rewarding “immersive experience” than anything in SW:GE.
I love galaxy’s Edge maybe not exactly the the way it is now some tweaks could certainly make a difference. I would love to see it be more like the Star Wars everyone knows and loves. I think I understand Disney trying to make it their own, Somethings just can’t be changed. I don’t think it would take much either. They say there is 14 acres there just wondering if anyone else thought it was just one loop that was pretty small!
It seems I’m in the minority on this, but I really like that Galaxy’s Edge isn’t just a “greatest hits” land of Star Wars. As much as fans complain about everything being based on IP, Galaxy’s Edge feels like the perfect marriage of IP and something original. (At least, in theory.)
With that said, I’d agree that minor changes could make it feel more familiar to fans without compromising its originality.
As for it feeling smaller than 14 acres, I’d agree with that. At present, there’s a lot of dead and wasted space in the land. Rise of the Resistance will help with that–to a degree–but it still needs more for other areas to really make Batuu feel more like a real, “lived in” place.
I think the issue for most people is not so much the adding of IP, but the replacing of quality attractions with lazy IP. Like how many people were concerned France might entirely get rid of the movie with the new sing along plans, but very few seem to be upset that Ratatouille is being added.