Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Opening Date
Disney has announced grand opening dates for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance for Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World. In this post, we’ll cover the official debuts for Star Wars Land’s flagship attraction, plus some thoughts.
The big twist here is that despite opening Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge a few months later, Walt Disney World’s version of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will actually open first, right as Christmas season kicks into high gear on December 5, 2019.
By contrast, the official grand opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland has slipped into next year, with an opening date of January 17, 2020. Obviously, this is an interesting turn of events for the two Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge projects…
Note that there is not a single team of Imagineers that personally builds every Disney attraction brick by brick, detail by detail. While the attraction is being cloned for both coasts, it has distinct construction crews, with each version having its own third party contractors and subcontractors.
This is to say that it’s not as if resources have been diverted from one coast’s version of the project to rush the other one towards completion. To the contrary, Disneyland’s Rise of the Resistance was months ahead of Walt Disney World’s at one point, but saw significant issues in early spring that has necessitated previously completed work to be redone.
Given the nature of the delay, we’re actually a bit surprised that Disneyland is setting an official opening date for Rise of the Resistance so many months in advance. While some ‘rumors’ have suggested the attraction would be ready to open in this month or that, it’s been our understanding that there were internal goals for its completion, but nothing certain.
Having a precise, remote opening date for a project that has had problems strikes us as odd. It’s possible that Disney wanted to release something, and chose a very conservative official date. This gives people more certainty in their planning, and Disney always has the freedom of debuting early (as we saw with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge itself) or doing an extended soft opening preview period.
This might make sense from another perspective, as well. As we’ve covered extensively, crowds have been really low at Disneyland this summer. (See our “Why Are Star Wars Land Crowds So Low?” post for more on that.) At least part of the reason for this is because there are a lot of Disneyland locals who have said they’ll “wait a couple of months to visit when it’s all open.”
Perhaps by announcing a 2020 debut date for Rise of the Resistance, Disney is hoping to get these potential guests to stop waiting and visit now, knowing it’ll be more than a couple of months before Rise of the Resistance is ready to debut. In the last couple of weeks, Disneyland has taken numerous moves to help address this low crowd “problem” and this could be yet another move with that goal.
We have zero insight into the progress on Rise of the Resistance in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Given that original rumors (that date back into last year) indicated Walt Disney World was targeting a December 2019 opening date for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we’re inclined to believe that the project is more or less on schedule in Florida.
It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if there have been technical challenges in getting all of the effects working and timing of the attraction right on both coasts. As has been stated countless times, this is Disney’s most technically-ambitious attraction ever, and has a lot of “moving parts” (in a manner of speaking). It’s going to have some amount of hiccups in getting everything working properly.
An early December 2019 debut date in Walt Disney World suggests minor hiccups (at most) for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. A January 2020 date at Disneyland, for the version that was previously several months ahead of schedule, suggests something more serious.
As for how this will impact crowds on either coast or how the parks will handle operations, we are hesitant to even speculate. Obviously, we thought the grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would bring a huge influx of crushing crowds to Disneyland…and pretty much the exact opposite happened.
January is typically a slow month at Disneyland, with the only real exception to that being a couple of years ago when Main Street Electrical Parade returned and an aggressive SoCal resident ticket special was offered. The parks were bonkers then, despite it being California’s off-season for tourists. It’s hard to say if January 2020 will be the “turning point” with Star Wars Land and locals, with crazy crowds.
Personally, I think that turning point will occur in September or October, at the latest. This low crowd phenomenon is likely a temporary one that’ll likely end with summer. (It’s great for guests, but incredibly concerning to Disney, which has made itself beholden to quarterly numbers.)
December is a busy month at Walt Disney World, and would be irrespective of all things Star Wars. On-site hotel occupancy is high for December, and some room types have been totally sold out for certain dates for a while now. That doesn’t tell the whole story, as off-site guests and locals do make up a considerable number of guests. Nevertheless, we’d be shocked if Walt Disney World is not busy this December.
At Walt Disney World, the wildcards will be whether Extra, Extra Magic Hours gets extended and when FastPass+ is offered for Rise of the Resistance. We would not bank on FastPass+ being available for either Galaxy’s Edge attraction until Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway debuts, and perhaps not even right away then.
As we’ve stated several times, we’re incredibly excited for Extra, Extra Magic Hours and think the perk will offer a huge advantage to guests who leverage it. Extra, Extra Magic Hours currently run until early November, ending well before Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance officially debuts.
Unfortunately, an extension of Extra, Extra Magic Hours is also uncertain. If September and October are not insanely busy, there’s a good chance Disney management won’t want to continue running Extra, Extra Magic Hours beyond their slated end date. That’s unfortunate, as December is the month when something like that will be needed most. Here’s hoping Disney has a little more foresight and faith in Rise of the Resistance’s drawing power.
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.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you going to be there for the grand opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland or Walt Disney World? Excited for this attraction? Will you avoid grand opening until crowds are at a more manageable level? What do you think of the delayed opening at Disneyland? Other thoughts to add? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below
Ugh. Going to have to heavily consider cancelling our November trip. With the extra extra hours ending the day before we get there, we were holding out hope that RotR would be open. Doesnt look to be the case and rescheduling isnt an option. Feels like we booked the worst possible time (blindly, months ago). Oh well.
It has been four years since Pandora opened up in Animal Kingdom. We are Florida Residents (Tampa Bay) and still have not managed to get fast passes for those rides. We have not even tried the two at Hollywood studios yet. We do stay in the Hotels but this has not improved our chances. I do not anticipate getting to ride anything of Star Wars for several years
For the bigger attraction rides like pandora, 7dwarfs, slinky dog, you have to make those your fastpass at 64+days out. so essentially, 4th, 5th and 6th days of your trip. not sure how long you stay, but if you’re not staying that long, it gets hard to find decent times or even availability of fastpasses.
This link shows you whats available 63 days out (from 7/12/19) at Animal Kingdom. Just a few evening passes for Avatar Flight of Passage left, and that’s updated overnight. https://touringplans.com/animal-kingdom/fastpass-availability/date/2019-09-13.
That link is useful to see what’s available at any park on any day up to 70 days out. Good luck getting into Star Wars! 🙂
We did this recently. We booked a stay at a Disneyworld hotel and you are able to book a fastpass online 60 days before you go. Since I live in California, I set my alarm for 3 am and went online exactly 60 days before my arrival to Animal Kingdom and was able to get 10 fast passes for Flight of passage. Takes some planning but it can be done.
“At Walt Disney World, the wildcards will be whether Extra, Extra Magic Hours gets extended and whether FastPass+ is offered at first for Rise of the Resistance.”
As of right now Disney has said that both the Millennium Falcon and ROTR will NOT have Fastpass when they open on their respective dates. So barring any changes, planning on there not being Fastpass for ROTR, like you point out, is probably the way to go.
Source: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/fast-pass-plus/star-wars-galaxys-edge-fastpass/
Tom,
I am going the week before Thanksgiving to WDW. My thinking is there will be a lot of people cancelling there trip in oct and nov and wait till after Dec. 5 to see both star wars attractions. Why go to WDW in oct,nov and see one star wars attraction when you can wait a couple months and see both. Your Thoughts?
Massive crowds?
We’re going in early and May 2020. D’you think FP+ will be up and running for RotR, Smuggler’s Run and MMRR by then?
Do you think that there’s a likely chance of soft openings at least two weeks ahead of the official DHS opening date?
With Galaxy edge not opening till September at Disney World. I checked rates on hotels next week. Seems that a lot of Disney resorts were still available and offsite hotels at deep discounts.
I booked yesterday for all next week at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista for 152 bucks a night for a JR suit that sleeps 6. I am taking advantage of what has to be low crowds with the price of room rates and what’s available. Going now when rooms are cheap!
No telling if it will be crazy or slow after new opening but not going to fight tons of people and pay more!
Do you think it possible that the recent seismic activity could be the cause of Disneyland setbacks, or possibly exposed some design/safety failures in the design? This might account for the delay of California and earlier opening in Florida. The timing of the California delay announcement fits. Just a thought.
Not at all.
Disneyland’s issue was discovered months ago–the main problem there is a specific mistake that was made and needed/needs to be corrected. There could be other issues of which I’m unaware, but the big cause of delays is nothing seismic-related.
I’ve been a skeptic, not of Galaxy’s Edge in particular but rather of whether Star Wars in general is the cultural juggernaut it once was (it seems like the MCU holds that position now, and Harry Potter before it). But my most skeptical prediction was “less crowded than the apocalypse everyone expects” not “less crowded than even pre-GE normal” –which I’ve found really baffling. I have been watching developments with interest to see what happens next.
Meanwhile with today’s news my interest turns practical: I’ll be there December 2-6 with the specific goal of following your self-guided tour of Disney World at Christmas, and right now Dec 5 sits as an open day on my itinerary except for Mickey’s Christmas Party that evening. At first I wasn’t planning to visit GE at all, saving it for a future trip, then with the low crowds inCalifornia I thought maybe I should plan on seeing it, and now I’ll have a close eye on the Disney news about how the GE opening in Florida goes, and on my Fastpass window when it opens.
So what does December 4th at Galaxy’s Edge look like? Calm(er)? Or crowds hoping for unannounced opening? Curious, because we have planned for a year to be there on the 5th. I’m weighing going the day before if it means not riding Rise of Resistance and getting to experience more as a whole in GE.
My guess is there will either be a media event on December 4 that closes Galaxy’s Edge to the public. If not that, I’d anticipate the attraction would soft open that day.
Interesting, thanks! I may do some additional maneuvering of our plans and consider going the 3rd. Time and future announcements will tell!
We are still hoping to avoid crowds in disneyworld this September. We’ll see if the gamble paid off.
Same. Hoping the CM and passholder previews plus ROTR opening later means the first few weeks won’t bring the masses.
How do you think it bodes for January/February 2020 at WDW?
To be honest, I have no clue. January and February have been all over the place the last couple of years, and I’ve heard that room occupancy is already pretty solid for early 2020.
I would not expect low crowds, but that’s just me–I could be wrong.
I just booked the weekend of January 245 at Disneyland and there were tons of hotel rooms available, both on and off site. No issues there. However, the prior weekend when ROTR opening which also coincides with a holiday weekend, there were hardly any hotel rooms available.
I’ll be two and a half weeks too early for the new ride! Kind of lame. But maybe good, if people will be holding out to experience everything and may change their plans? One can only hope. I’m seriously crossing my fingers that EEMH are extended, but I have a feeling that the week we will be going will be excluded. We don’t get to do any Food & Wine festivities for our dates (at least food booths will still be there), why would we get anything else awesome?!
I fear that EEMH won’t be extended, even though November and December are the months that will truly need extra hours.
In fact, I think if WDW hadn’t already announced EEMH for September and October, they wouldn’t do them even in those months.
After the slow start for Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, this is going to be a disappointing quarter for Parks & Resorts. Normally, that means we could expect to start seeing some budget cuts for both coasts…
I’m still hoping we get some kind of resort discount in November, since I’m probably the only one paying full room rates at this time. Give me something, Disney! But hopefully not any major budget cuts that will make my first visit to WDW seem like something is missing.
It’s disappointing that GE in Disneyland isn’t doing as well as expected, because it looks amazing! Although I think a major factor is because if you want to do something other than the rides and explore, it’s going to cost.
Love your blog but this is crazy. We have been dual coast APs for years living in SoCal. Disneyland this summer has been an absolute dream. Last Thursday was dead. The previous Saturday of the holiday weekend was like a normal weekday in January. We have been waiting less than half an hour for Rise of the Resistance. There were two open light saber building spots last week during our building time. That was a GREAT experience. So glad we took your advice and went for it. The line for the cantina is long but with reservations we were in after about five minutes for a 4:50 pm reservation! The shopping is fun even for teenage boys who don’t usually shop. All going well in Disneyland! I hope it lasts! I have also heard revenue is up so maybe Disney is achieving its goal of a better park experience. It really has been way too crowded here prior to SWGE opening.
This news makes me very “nervous,” with the potential for “devastated.” I recently booked plane tickets for a 4-day trip to Disneyland for 1/21-1/25. My travel companion has never been to the west coast parks and was hoping to see as much as possible in a short trip. We chose these dates because we were sure the parks would be slow, and our Burbank-based friend could use her cast member pass for our admission. Now it seems probable that her pass will be blocked, and the non-existent crowds we had planned for may turn into just the opposite. **hyperventilating**
I think it’s premature to worry. I find it very hard to believe that Disney has a precise date for Rise of the Resistance’s opening at Disneyland, and this date is more likely strategic positioning than anything else.
If the problems with Rise of the Resistance are truly resolved to the point that they feel comfortable setting an opening date, the real date is much sooner than January. In which case we’ll see an extended soft opening or some sort of previews.
That is, unless they’re deliberately holding the ride back until the off-season for some reason…
At least your experience in Disneyland will be better than what will be going on in WDW! Plus weather in CA is unpredictable in January (possible rain) so hopefully a lot of people will not risk it and wait to visit in spring.
We are a little upset to have booked Christmas in WDW last January so we are stuck with potentially huge crowds! Oh well, we will not cancel a big family trip. It’s still WDW!
I’m not sure how I feel about this. We arrive the 4th, leave the 12th and planned to just do an afternoon in Hollywood studios on the 6th. Thinking we’ll now skip it altogether and do an extra day at epcot. We’ve always gone during summer but I’m afraid the parks will be wall to wall people and it’s our first year with a baby who will probably be just walking. No option to move the trip around or cancel but I’m actually very worried. Toy story land may have to wait for another time. Also the xmas party, think it’ll be packed on the 5th? Haven’t bought tickets yet and questioning if we should or skip it because it’ll be packed.
As to all of these things, I’d take a wait and see approach.
In general, I’d expect RotR to have a negligible impact on crowds in the parks that aren’t DHS. Perhaps it won’t move the needle as much at DHS, either? Wait for crowd reports on SWGE and MVMCP before making any concrete plans for both.
Do you expect, at this time, September to be insanely busy?
My Walt Disney World September crowd predictions are the same now as they were several months ago: it’s likely to be the best month of the year to visit.
(To reiterate, though, I was totally wrong about Star Wars Land crowds at Disneyland, so don’t take my word as the gospel!)
Any thoughts or hopes for me that the week of Thanksgiving won’t be terribly busy since Rise of the Resistance won’t be open yet?
Thanks Tom. Always love your perspective. I am in the sweet or maybe not so sweet spot at end of October. On the one hand I don’t want to be in the midst of crazy crowds; on the other hand I feel I just missed something spectacular
I have been anxiously awaiting this as we booked our stay at port orleans riverside the week after our week at Universal instead of the way we did it 2 years ago Disney then Universal. We check in 12 7 19 and it appears the gamble worked. BTW still trying to figure out where to download the ebook for Xmas at Disney
Yes, this is very exciting.
However, equally exciting is the news that a permit has been filed for WDW to, after many years of all of us anxiously waiting and wondering, we are finally being told that the never completed pathway between the Magic Kingdom and the Grand Floridian is to be finished! How exciting is that! No more walking the dead end path (though romantic with no one else on it at night) to nowhere and wondering why it existed… :o)
Rory
I had not hear that, Rory. It would be great! I might book a meal at 1900 Park Fair or Citrico’s just to have an excuse to walk the path.
Here is the link re the new pathway…
https://attractionsmagazine.com/magic-kingdom-grand-floridian-walkway/?utm_source=Attractions+Magazine+E-Mail+Newsletter&utm_campaign=572236a2f8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c529c144eb-572236a2f8-76857174&mc_cid=572236a2f8&mc_eid=a48cf674ee
I saw a headline about that in passing, but haven’t read it yet. After a couple weeks of traveling, I have a lot of news to catch up on!