Star Wars Land Previews at Hollywood Studios
Walt Disney World has opened booking for Annual Passholder previews of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios. Previews will take place August 17-21, 2019. Passholders will be able to enjoy Batuu for 4 hours.
Unfortunately, these Annual Passholder previews filled up within only a few hours after opening, and the event dates are all now full. If you were able to register, you should have received an email with details and a confirmation. If you were not able to register, it’s now too late.
However, there’s some good news! If you were not eligible for these Annual Passholder previews or if you didn’t register in time, all hope is not lost. Soft openings are a very real possibility for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World…
There’s also no reason for Walt Disney World to have any ‘veil of secrecy’ around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge given that the exact same thing opened a couple months ago in California. This all bodes well for the prospects of Soft Openings for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World.
In that post, we have predictions for dates soft openings could occur. We arrived at these via process of elimination–ruling out days of the Cast Member previews, Annual Passholder previews, Club 33 previews, and pre-opening media event. This leaves a multi-day window of time during which soft openings could occur. (Assuming, of course, that other previews of which we’re unaware are not scheduled.)
What follows is directions for registering for the AP preview of Galaxy’s Edge. Obviously, none of this is applicable now…
The good news is that this Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge preview is not a lottery. Reservations can be made by any Walt Disney World Platinum, Platinum Plus, or Premier Annual Passholders. You don’t need the email–all you need is the link, and fortunately, we have that!
To register for the FREE Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Annual Passholder Previews at Walt Disney World, do the following, IN THIS ORDER:
- Open an incognito/private browser window
- Sign-in on DisneyWorld.com
- CLICK HERE!
Note that this link is being temperamental right now. You may have to log-out of My Disney Experience, log back in, etc., in order to get it to work. If you’re on the Chewbacca “the wait is almost over” page (pictured above), try again–that Chewy page works, but this method is faster!
What you’ll want to see is a Woody, “please wait while we complete your request” page (see above), which almost immediately redirects to the registration page and time slots (see below screenshot).
Presumably, Walt Disney World IT is still making tweaks to the registration system, so don’t be surprised if this advice is outdated by the time you read it. For the benefit of everyone, please post in the comments if you have success registering and whether you received an email. Additionally, if you’re having trouble registering, please read others’ comments before asking any questions.
Note that there are three different registration options available for the Annual Passholder previews of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
This means you’ll have to choose at registration whether you want to do Oga’s Cantina and Savi’s Workshop in addition to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
Here’s the text on those other options from DisneyWorld.com’s Annual Passholder page:
Platinum, Platinum Plus and Premier Passholders can experience one of 3 out-of-this-world adventures at the all-new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Explore the land, shops and more during exclusive Annual Passholder preview dates from August 17 to 21, 2019.
OPTION 1 – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, including the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run attraction:
• Take control of the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy on the thrilling Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run.
• Encounter strange creatures and alien languages as you turn around corners and through back alleys–and discover ancient antiquities from across the galaxy.
• Feast on galactic favorites and enjoy curious concoctions for purchase at exotic Batuu dining locations.
• Find the perfect gear fit for galactic adventure available for purchase at the Black Spire Outpost Shops.
OPTION 2 – Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run + Oga’s Cantina*
Travelers of all ages can cool off with unique libations available for purchase.
OPTION 3 – Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run + Savi’s Workshop – Handbuilt Lightsabers**
Build your very own lightsaber for $199.99, plus tax. Payment is due upon arrival. This entitles a lightsaber builder plus one spectator entrance to Savi’s Workshop – Handbuilt Lightsabers.
Event capacity is limited for the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Annual Passholder preview days at Walt Disney World. Please note the number of reservations for this event is limited and subject to availability. There is no additional charge for this in-park preview with valid theme park admission to Disney’s Hollywood Studios…which you obviously have if you’re in one of the Annual Passholder tiers above.
Some additional “rules” for these AP previews of Star Wars Land at Walt Disney World:
- Advance registration required. Eligible activated Annual Pass is required to register.
- Reservations for Annual Passholder previews are only available to Platinum, Platinum Plus, and Premier Annual Passholders.
- Reservations are limited. Limit one reservation per Annual Passholder.
- Reservations are nontransferable and may not be sold or bartered.
- No modifications to reservations.
- If an Annual Passholder would like to register a guest to accompany them, that guest must also be a Platinum, Platinum Plus, or Premier Passholder, be listed on your Family & Friends list in My Disney Experience, and have opted to share “All My Plans” with you.
As a reminder, during the Annual Passholder previews, the following experiences will be open:
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (Read our Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run Review for more feedback on the attraction)
- Oga’s Cantina (Read our full Oga’s Cantina Review to see drink and interior photos, and more!
- Savi’s Workshop – Handbuilt Lightsabers (Read our full Savi’s Workshop for Handbuilt Lightsabers Review to find out whether this pricey experience is worth the money.
- Droid Depot (Read our full Droid Depot Build-A-Droid Review to determine whether this $99 experience is worth the money)
- Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities (Read our full Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities Review, and why this hidden gem is a must-see!)
- Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo
- Milk Stand…and More!
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 to beat the crowds. It’s a good primer for this huge addition. As for planning the rest of your trip, we have a thorough Walt Disney World Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Were you able to register for the Annual Passholder previews of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World? What was your method of success (or failure)? If you have any questions, please read the stories of others and try to troubleshoot on your own before asking! 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!
Any estimation of how many people this specific preview event accommodates? Will there be similar preview schedule for RoR opening?
We are wondering the same thing…We Have the 9:00 am – 1:00 pm spot on Tuesday…Thinking of not showing up till 10:30
Thank you for posting the link! Saw your email and was confirmed three minutes later for the date we wanted. I got the email from Disney 15 minutes later! You rocked this one! THANKS for the link and for a rainy day at Disney that kept us at the Resort instead of the water park this morning!
I received my confirmation email immediately, but it still is not showing up in MDE, is it supposed to?
I was able to snag 4 passes on Saturday for my family. However because the kids are in school we were going to drive down Friday and head back Sunday. It is 8 hours one way for us from Georgia. My wife and kids are having second thoughts about the trip. Can anyone speak to how good the passholder previews have been in the past? I feel like this is our best opportunity to experience the land with at least smaller crowds than when we go for a trip in October.
We went to the one at Disneyland and 4 hours is plenty to experience the land for the first time. Like your trip, we went out there for a quick day and a half trip from Tennessee. For me, being a Star Wars nut, it was a little overwhelming how immersive it was and this was the first time I had done a preview like this. Sadly, we did not get to do the cantina or build a lightsaber, but it was definitely worth it to do the preview.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback Ryan.
I got the confirmation page as well but also haven’t received an email yet. I spoke with customer service and they said it can take up to 48 hours, especially if you registered closer to noon, 1pm, apparently the servers were slammed at that time and emails are still slowly filtering out. He told me to call back Saturday night (past 48 hour mark) because by then, they should at least have a list and can look you up. I too am bummed and am reserving my celebration until I have email in hand.
I got on and registered and got to the confirmation page that said it would send an email…no email yet. There seems to be no sign on our account that we are registered so I’m pretty bummed. Later, Guest Services told me it may take 24 to 48 hours for all the emails to go out. Seems odd so I’m wondering if everyone else got their confirmation email right away?
I received my confirmation right away.
Any chance we can get our 20% merchandise discount on the lightsaber??? *Fingers crossed
Nope, the discount is specifically disclaimed in the fine print. “Custom lightsabers are nonrefundable and are not eligible for Annual Passholder or other discounts.”
Uh oh, I messed up! I didn’t realize I needed to choose the light sabre at registration. I was going way, way too fast to make sure I got a date I could attend that I didn’t focus. Am I SOL?
Unfortunately, I think the answer is yes… I managed to register for the lightsaber experience, but I don’t know if there will be any availability the day of the event. I’d tend to think not, but I hope (for your sake) that I’m wrong!
On the Passholder FB page, someone asked that question and the answer is yes. If you are not signed up for the cantina or light saber, you cannot do those experiences. Sorry 🙁
I was able to register, but I think the instructions are not clear. I understood it as you register a time to go and THEN you get to choose the canteen or build a light saber when you get there. I never saw the other options of Smuggler’s Run & Canteen or Smuggler’s Run & build a light saber, I though the only option was Smuggler’s Run. Apparently you had to scroll down more to see this and I didn’t because I didn’t know it was there! I am extremely disappointed that I didn’t understand exactly how to register. I called Disney about it and was told that they have gotten many calls about the instructions not being clear. It’s sold out now so they couldn’t change anything for me. Now time to decide if it’s worth even going…so bummed out
Thank you very much for the heads up! Was in a meeting but bolted out and got 2 spots for the 19th. But, I tried to buy an AP for my son and the lines and computer was so jammed up, I finally bought a pass for him, and the site sold out right after I paid for the pass!:(
The CM told me I would be able to use unactivated is why I went on to purchase it.
And ps, never did receive an email from Disney (which I frequently do not).
I’ve seen people commenting that they registered for multiple days and I think that’s a bit unfair. I’m surprised with such a limited amount of spots they didn’t limit it to one reservation. We’re not die hard Star Wars people so I was of the camp that if I got a reservation cool, if not no big deal. We didn’t by the way. I’d pick a date and time and one by one they would suddenly have a like through them and say they weren’t available. We’ll be there the first week of December when the entire land will be completed and I’d almost guarantee they’ll do special ticketed events like they do at night and early am now or extra extra magic hours still. We’ll see it and we’ll see it 100% complete.
For the die hard people though I just feel like everyone should have only been able to make one reservation, in order for more people to get to experience it. That’s just my 2 cents.
I agree. I have a vacation book as an out of state AP for that weekend. I was hoping to get on and get one. By 130 it was all sold out. I’m bummed. Can’t believe people were able to get several.
There was no way for me to do that (yes, I double checked just to see if I had a morally questionable decision to make). Those people you reference are either lying (lying on the internet? surely not!) or found a loophole to link their accounts with another person’s MDE account and then they would reciprocally sign up with each other as their respective “guests.” No idea if such “guest swapping” was ultimately allowed or not (I don’t actually know anyone else with an AP and am just taking my 5yo daughter), but it appeared from the rules Disney put out that it was one reservation per passholder, whether as a guest of someone else or not. In any case, I strongly doubt that a significant number of people, if any, were able to make multiple reservations.
Dolph the website also said you had to have a valid annual pass to book and several people have said their passes were not current but they were able to book. Somehow people with no valid pass were able to book and somehow people got multiple reservations. There are people in this comment thread that say they have reservations on multiple dates. Whether it was a work around they found or not, still sucks that they’re getting to go when they don’t have passes or going multiple times, when those slots could be taken by other people.
1:43pm EDT on Thursday, july 25: Disney website gives me a Mickey head that says Sorry, event is full.
Received my email but choosing not to go. I have motion sickness so can’t the ride, not spending money on a lightsaber so no sense in me driving two hours just to look around. I will wait. Heading down anyway 2nd week of september.
Thank you!! Received your email a full 15 minutes before I received one from Disney. Was able to go on and have my pick of dates/times. Was a “Tom” fan before but now even more so
I received the email at 10:01 AM, and it about 30 minutes to wait in the queue, register, and get my confirmation from Disney.
As a UK Passholder I’m apparently not entitled to receive emails from Disney, so thank you Tom and Sarah for giving me the chance. I must be crazy, but I’ve just registered for a preview on August 21, and will be travelling over from London just for the day. Unfortunately there were no Cantina or Lightsaber reservations available for any day by the time I managed to log in, but I’m hopeful more slots will open up… Fingers crossed. Will you guys be keeping a check on this? I’ll be checking daily, but your heads up would always be appreciated 🙂
I still haven’t received an invitation from Disney, but thanks for posting about this–your blog helped us jump on our first-choice date and time slot right away! Unfortunately I misread the website and didn’t add in the lightsaber experience before I clicked through to book, but I called Disney and they said they’d note the request on my booking and they *might* be able to get us into Savi’s during our already-reserved time slot.
Many thanks for the heads up. I was able to confirm a spot on Tuesday. Still have not received an email from Disney. Crowd levels must be low that week as many Fast Pass options were available.
Thank you! I was stuck on the Chewie page and I read your newsletter and quickly followed the link you provided. All set and reservation secure and confirmed!
Thanks for the heads up Tom. Also got the email at about 11am.
Just snagged mine – Aug 20 and 21 Smugglers Run ONLY are still available. And two time slots were deleted as I was trying to register. Thank you, Tom!! I’m dropping my kid off at university the day before – now I plan to drive south after and drown my sorrows in Disney!