*All photos are mine!
Our family was talking endlessly about our visit to Galaxy’s Edge leading up to our reservation (if you don’t know, you have to have a reservation to enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland until June 23rd, on June 24th and beyond, a reservation will no longer be required!) It did. not. disappoint. We had an absolute blast and I want to share some of my thoughts here while they are still fresh!! I’ll have more blog posts up in the coming weeks but this is my recap post!
We arrived at the park for rope drop (a first for us, more on that another day!) and we had an incredible morning riding so many rides, the park was all but empty!! Our reservation didn’t begin until 2 pm, but you can check in 2 hours prior. We headed over to the Star Wars Launch Bay in TomorrowLand to register, I had the email pulled up on my iPhone, showed them my id, they scanned us in and gave us each colored wrist bands. Next, we headed to the entrance we were given (past Splash Mountain), and even got in a ride at the Haunted Mansion on our way. My husband went ahead of us, we knew from what other’s had shared that if we wanted to try Oga’s Cantina, we’d have to be strategic!! I had our stroller + 3 kids and we all applied sunscreen while we waited for them to let us in at our time, the sun is OUT in the middle of the day right now, so don’t forget yours!! Chewy walked around greeting guests while we waited!
Even with my husband being diligent (no running or pushing guys LOL) he was able to get our name on the list for a return time, it still took 2+ hours to get into the Cantina. While we waited we explored, I recommend doing the Droid experience at the Droid Depot while you wait! Honestly, if you have kids under 5, I would skip the Cantina (or try it once, you’ll see what I mean though!) The droid building experience was a must in my opinion if it’s in your budget!! Our kids can’t stop playing with them and fawning over them!
The Droid Depot: 10/10
Jump in line, choose which droid you’d like to build (an R2 Unit or BB Unit) – we did both, pay the cashier, grab your basket, head over to the conveyor belt of droid parts, grab the ones you like (as a designer and visual person, I decided to let the kids choose literally ANY parts/colors they wanted, not what I wanted, it was a hard LOL), wait your turn to start building! I felt like the wait was short (but this is pre full-opening, so I feel like this might change, which is why we did it during our reservation, not after June 24th) Sadly, no AP discount!
Are they worth it? In short, YES!
Longer answer, they are so interactive not only with the land, but with each other (if you have more than 1, we have 3!). The remote control functions are surprisingly fantastic. We have looked at buying something similar for past holidays for the kids and could never pull the trigger for the price tag, these are well worth it in my opinion!
Ronto Roasters: 10/10
I think I’ll do a separate post on the full Droid building experience later. Next up, we explored the shops and drinks! We LOVED the Tatooine Sunset (drink) from Ronto Roasters, in fact I bought it twice during our reservation because it was so yummy! It is tea, lemonade, melon, and blueberry in one cup, YUM! We made a deal with the kids that we’d only be purchasing the Droids since they are pricey, we narrowly escaped all the amazing swag at the vendor stalls, there is some super unique and fun merchandise in there!!
I loved how the characters just roamed the land freely, no lining up for pictures! Try to convince them as they walk around to stop for a “facial scan.” Eli spent his fair share of time stalking Kylo Ren for a photo lol.
Oga’s Cantina: 9/10
We finally made it into Oga’s Cantina!! Woah, this place was FUN! We received a text that we could come back and get in line, it took about 15 minutes of waiting to be allowed in. They had standing room only *at the bar* which wasn’t ideal with 3 kids who didn’t really want to be there, they wanted to keep exploring! The vibe is certainly kid-friendly, but I think one time was enough for them for now, we’d prefer to go back in just the two of us (adults.) I was trying to stay on budget (lol so hard in Disneyland) so we ordered 4 things to try, the Fuzzy Tauntaun, Jabba Juice, Rancor Beer Flight Souvenir Board with Teeth (not budget friendly), and Oga’s Obsession. I wrote my reviews over on Instagram but let’s just say, things were interesting.
Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run: 10/10
The last thing we did was head over to the Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run! The only attraction currently open in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It was a BLAST and a whole new experience. The waiting queue was amazing, the animatronics were unreal (wait, they were SO real…!!), the details were fantastic, it was honestly so much fun. Years later Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land STILL consistently has a 120 minute wait, I can only imagine what it will be for this new ride once the land fully opens June 24th, I’m so thankful we got a chance to ride it before the floodgates open. It’s totally unique because they assign you a position in the cockpit, pilot, gunner, or engineer. Since my husband IS a pilot, and I had heard that it is “less kid-friendly” than the other seats on the ride, we both took up the pilot seats, my boys took the gunner positions, and my daughter and a single-rider took the engineer positions. Pilot is by far the most fun (the right position in my opinion!). Right before you get inside the ride, you get to explore a little bit in the Millenium Falcon, I wasn’t expecting that and it was a really cool aspect of how they designed this ride!
That is it for our recap, I hope you enjoyed!!! I’ll be back soon with more tips, and some free wallpapers, I couldn’t help myself with photo overload while the area was less than crowded (knowing how busy it will be once it opens up to everyone!)
