One of my favorite things about the Disney Parks is seeing all the characters walking around and fully committed. It takes me back to being a kid at Disneyland and how excited I would be to meet a character I loved and get them to sign my autograph book. Now that I’m an adult, I particularly love seeing what comes from the villains of the Disney universe. For example, something hilarious just happened at Galaxy’s Edge involving a Stormtrooper.

While one guest was at Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, they captured what happened when someone blew a kiss in the direction of one patrolling Stormtrooper. Check out how he responded:

Whoa, that’s savage! The Stormtrooper “caught” the guest’s kiss and gestured like he threw it on the ground and stepped on it like it was a piece of half-chewed gum. The trooper did say, “Thank you for supporting the First Order,” as he walked away, but the rejection was way harsh! Check out how other Disney fans are reacting on Instagram:

• “He’s a married storm trooper…lol” - @inhaledyogagirl
• “The same thing happened to me 😭😂” - @yeahveronica
• “The eye contact while crushing the kiss is crazy 🤣🤣” - @candiedbanana
• “Omg 😂😂 That's diabolical. I love it.” @coneymoo

When you work for the Dark Side, one can expect that kind of behavior, I guess. Of course, it’s all for fun, and in the spirit of fans feeling immersed in the world of a galaxy far, far away. Plus, if a Stormtrooper was sweet to you, you’d question what was going on. Props to Walt Disney World’s incredible team of characters. As you might assume, some expected shots were also fired in the comments about Stormtroopers, too. Take a look:

• “I’m surprised he caught it” -@alenas_crafting_life
• “You notice how the trooper didn't shoot it though.. they knew they'd miss” - @rob0615

If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s Star Wars fans making fun of Stormtrooper aim, am I right? I wonder if more guests are going to be blowing kisses at these soldiers now that this went viral.

Galaxy’s Edge has been going through some changes lately, with the decision to include characters from the original trilogy, even though the land was initially crafted to be set during the sequel trilogy timeline. If you’re going anytime soon, of course, you can ride Rise of Resistance, but a new version of Smuggler’s Run tying into The Mandalorian & Grogu is also among the upcoming Disney World attractions. It's set to land at both Orlando and Anaheim’s Galaxy’s Edge on May 22.

The Mandalorian & Grogu movie is the latest of upcoming Star Wars movies as well, with its release date being on the same day as the Smuggler’s Run upgrade.

However, for now, I'll be thinking about this brutal interaction one guest had with a Stormtrooper.

While going to Walt Disney World on a weekday rather than a weekend is usually a safe bet for a smoother time in the parks, that was absolutely not the case at Hollywood Studios on Monday when the Star Wars fans came in droves for May the 4th. As guests went to Galaxy’s Edge on the pop culture holiday, many suggested the space was actually at capacity.

I’ve never been more inspired to skip a Disney day. Just take a look at this guest’s photo of the view:

The force is strong… perhaps too strong. Galaxy’s Edge is a spacious section of Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, but everyone looks like they are all squished together with nowhere to move. What’s especially wild about this sight is apparently there was no special programming at Galaxy’s Edge.

Star Wars fans just all seemed to want to gather on the franchise’s holiday. One guest called it “unbearable” while sharing this video:

It’s tradition for Star Wars fans to gather at Galaxy’s Edge and raise up their lightsabers together, but it perhaps got a little too popular this year. In one conversation happening over on Facebook, an alleged cast member said that they would absolutely close off the land’s entrance to more guests should they reach capacity.

While we don’t know if that happened for sure, it certainly seems like that may have happened on Monday. Here’s another account of Star Wars Day at WDW’s Galaxy Edge:

This huge Hollywood Studios turnout comes as there’s been some criticism around some recent changes to this section of the parks lately. For one, Disney decided to abandon the land being specific to one time period in Star Wars history. Rather than it being set during the sequel trilogy, guests can now see the likes of Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker walking around. When they made their debut last month, fans had a lot of thoughts about Han Solo specifically. Another viral moment that happened about Galaxy’s Edge is around the park’s introduction to “Pink Milk”.

Changes aside, the big showout for Star Wars Day shows that the fandom remains active and excited to spend the holiday at Hollywood Studios where it really can feel like you’re living in a Star Wars movie. It’s too bad that the new version of Smuggler’s Run inspired by The Mandalorian & Grogu doesn’t come out until May 22.

We’ve been thinking about how Disney perhaps missed an opportunity by not tying May the 4th to ticket sales for the latest of upcoming Star Wars movies since The Mandalorian & Grogu comes to theaters on May 22, but Hollywood Studios certainly got an increase in business! We’ll have to see how Star Wars fans show out for the first big-screen Star Wars movie since 2019 when it hits theaters then.

The opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was such a big deal that Bob Iger once joked that Disney wouldn’t ever need to promote it; just announce it was open, and the people would come. For the most part, he hasn’t been wrong, as the land is still incredibly popular, if only for the fact that Rise of the Resistance is one of the best theme park rides ever created.

And yet, not everybody loves the Star Wars land that we got. While many fans hoped that the theme park land would let guests visit popular Star Wars locations from the past, the decision was instead made to create a new Star Wars planet to set the land, and that decision came directly from the top of both Disney and Lucasfilm.

Bob Iger And Kathleen Kennedy Killed The Original Plans For Galaxy’s Edge

In an interview with WDW Radio, which has recently resurfaced, former Walt Disney World VP Dan Cockerell discussed the fact that originally, Walt Disney Imagineering had the idea to build a version of Star Wars desert planet Tatooine, and were reasonably far into design of the land when they got a call telling them to change direction. According to Cockerell…

Tatooine wouldn’t just be killed at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but also at Disneyland, as near identical versions of the land were built on each Disney coast. The world that was Tatooine became Batuu, a planet that is in the galaxy’s outer rim. The land was also set in the middle of the Sequel Trilogy, with only the characters from those films available to meet with guests.

The Idea Had Promise, But It’s Been Proved A Failure

On paper, the reasoning behind the decision to go with an original location makes a lot of sense. The future of Star Wars was bright at that point, and the expectation was that we’d be getting lots of Star Wars movies from Disney every year after the Sequel Trilogy was completed. However, that didn’t happen. The franchise stalled, and while many loved Rey, Finn and the rest, they, like Star Wars more broadly, haven’t been embraced by younger audiences the way the original characters were in their generation.

Over time, we’ve seen Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge slowly ignore its timeline, bringing in Boba Fett, the Mandalorian and other characters from the era between Original and Sequel trilogies. Next month, Disneyland will officially abandon the Sequel era timeline and bring in several original trilogy characters, including Luke, Han Solo, and Leia.

This, combined with the fact that modern Star Wars series on Disney+, like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, routinely return to Tatooine as a nostalgia play, would seem to make clear that trying to move the theme park away from that was the wrong call.

Still, Kathleen Kennedy wasn’t wrong. When The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives this summer, Disney will have made as many Star Wars movies as George Lucas ever did. When Star Wars: Starfighter comes out next year, we will have crossed the pivot point, where most Star Wars movies have been made by Disney. There is still likely more Star Wars in front of us than behind us, so Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will likely continue to change as it does.

If there’s one thing that you know you’re going to do at Disneyland, it’s wait in lines. There are lines for food, there are lines for photo ops, and of course, there are lines for the rides. Nobody likes waiting in the ride lines, to the point that people are willing to pay money to skip the lines, and many are willing to spend a lot of money to skip the lines. However, some people apparently attempt to take advantage of some of the ways that exist to make lines shorter, and that needs to stop.

Too Many People Don’t Understand How The Single Rider Line Works

An Instagram post shows off the fact that Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run sometimes shifts its Single Rider line to a Double Rider line, allowing two people to use the line together, and remain in the same party. This is honestly great, but it doesn’t change the primary issue with the Single Rider Line on this particular attraction. As one commenter pointed out…

I have called the Single Rider Line on this attraction and even called it the Engineer’s Line, because if you use the Single (or Double) rider line, you are almost guaranteed the role of Engineer rather than Pilot or Gunner, because it's usually the least desirable position.

It seems clear that some people don’t actually understand that the Single Rider Line is used to fill in open spaces with other parties. It is a secondary option. The main line, which, by the time it reaches this point holds everybody from both the standard Stand By line and the Lightning Lane line, will always be the primary focus of the attendants. If you use the shorter line, you are accepting the greater possibility that you will end up in less-than-desirable seats. This is just how it works.

If you want more control over your placement on any attraction, use the standard line. Even then, it may not always be possible to accommodate every request, but Cast Members will always do their best, within reason.

Things May Change On Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run Soon

In just over two months, Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run will be undergoing a major change. The story of the attraction will change, alongside a major shift in the timeline for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a whole. The ride will add The Mandalorian and Grogu, as well as give guests options for where their adventure takes them.

While there’s a lot we still don’t know about how the attraction will change for guests, one item we’re aware of is that those in the Engineer role will be responsible in some way for keeping an eye on Grogu. This may make that particular role more desirable, because who doesn't love Baby Yoda? This might open up roles like Pilot for more people who haven’t had a chance to do it.

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland, it was not an understatement to say it was among the biggest days in the history of the 70-year-old resort. It was the biggest single expansion the park had ever seen, and it brought one of the biggest franchises ever to Disneyland in a way that people had never experienced before.

One of the unique concepts that came with it was the idea that the land would be set during the sequel trilogy, so only characters from the later films would appear. This made it a big deal when it was recently announced that this would be changing, as Han, Luke, Leia, and more are set to come to Disneyland in April. It’s exciting for a lot of reasons, but it’s also a bit upsetting for another reason.

The End Of The Timeline Is A Step Backward For Themed Entertainment

Universal Orlando Resort is credited with starting the trend of building theme park lands around single franchises. The first Wizarding World of Harry Potter encouraged guests to put on robes, purchase wands, and become part of the Harry Potter movies. Disney attempted its first land like this with Pandora: The World of Avatar, but it took it to another level with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

This wasn’t just a land themed to Star Wars, but a land that encouraged guests to live a Star Wars adventure, to play a role in a story that was taking place around them. It wouldn't sell Star Wars t-shirts; it would sell the things you might expect to buy on a Star Wars planet. It was a new level of themed entertainment inside a theme park that offered immersion into the story that hadn’t been available before.

The immersion was even deeper at Walt Disney World when the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser opened. It offered a Star Wars story playing out around you for multiple days, with a variety of ways you could choose to take part in it. It was a huge step forward in themed entertainment.

Of course, the Galactic Starcruiser closed for business, which was the first nail in the coffin of this new era of Disney themed entertainment. The end of the timeline is the next one. At this point, it seems unlikely Disney will be trying anything like it again anytime soon, and if Disney couldn’t make it work, we probably won't see any other theme parks try it either.

Original Trilogy Characters At Galaxy’s Edge Is Still Cool

To be clear, I’m not saying that I am upset or frustrated that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is abandoning its timeline. Having these classic characters in the land is still going to be incredible. For a lot of people, this was a trade worth making.

And, Walt Disney World is still moving forward with the original vision for the land. Perhaps it will continue to add to it and find a way to create the Star Wars story that fans will embrace. Although if Disneyland's new version is a runaway success, a transformation in Florida eventually seems likely.

As a fan of themed entertainment broadly, I wanted what Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was to succeed. It was a new frontier that Disney Live Entertainment and Walt Disney Imagineering clearly wanted to pursue. If it had worked, there were any number of new things we might have seen at Disneyland or Disney World that would have expanded on the concept, creating new types of attractions we’d never seen before.

Maybe theme parks just aren’t the right place for this kind of more immersive entertainment? It's maybe not a surprise, but it's still a bummer.

Back in 2019, Disneyland saw the biggest expansion in its history when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge first opened. I got to preview the land at the time, and was instantly impressed with the way it made me feel like I was in a galaxy far, far away. Having said that, it’s clear that not everybody loves the original concept for the land, specifically its setting.

The world of Batuu, the planet guests visit when going to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, was a new location in the franchise, and its setting was placed firmly in the middle of the then-unfinished sequel trilogy. This was something of a disappointment for classic Star Wars fans who wanted to see the likes of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader walking through it, and starting in April, you’ll be able to see exactly that.

Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge Is Transforming, And It’s About Time

Over the last few years, Disneyland has quietly been moving away from the first time period of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Characters like The Mandalorian and Grogu, Ahsoka Tano, and even Luke Skywalker have made appearances in the park from time to time. However, today Disneyland officially announced plans to abandon the sequel trilogy timeline for most of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and add the Galactic Civil War and New Republic Era. These changes will go into effect starting April 29.

While I have nothing against the sequel trilogy (except for that last movie), and I think using an original setting like Batuu is the perfect location for a Star Wars theme park land, I, like many fans, grew up with the original trilogy, and so being able to experience a period that immediately follows those movies, complete with the characters that made, and continue to make, Star Wars great, is a welcome change.

For those who actively disliked the original concept, this is basically what they’ve wanted the whole time. For others, it’s simply welcome that a change is being made. It will add fresh life to the land and make it feel new again for those who have been there before.

Han Solo, Leia, And Darth Vader Will Join Luke Skywalker On Batuu

One of the things that made Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge great when it first opened was the way it felt alive. The denizens of Batuu would walk around and interact with guests in character. The likes of Rey or Kylo Ren weren’t standing at the end of a line for a photo op, they were wandering around and would talk to you and have in-world conversations (though Rey would still stop for a photo when she wasn’t hiding from the First Order).

That will be the case with the changes coming to Galaxy’s Edge. What will be changing are the characters you may meet. Luke Skywalker, who made a brief appearance during last year’s Season of the Force at Disneyland, will become a regular visitor to Batuu, and he’ll bring with him his dear friend Han Solo and his sister Leia Organa.

Even better, the greatest villain of them all, Darth Vader, will be on hand. Seeing him walk around Batuu looking for Luke is going to make you feel like you truly are standing in the middle of a Star Wars adventure.

Major Batuu Locations Will Change Along With The Story

This will result in shifts in the way the story around Batuu is told. In the original era of Galaxy’s Edge, Oga’s Cantina was run by a woman who had total control of the criminal underworld of the planet. Decades earlier, Oga will be relatively new to the planet, only just beginning to find her place.

Other locations, like the merch store First Order Cargo, will become Black Spire Surplus, with a new collection on offer that will be more fitting to its era. The same will be true for Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities.

The Droid Depot and Savi's Workshop, where guests can build and purchase lightsabers, will undergo light story changes to match the new timeline. It sounds like running into Jedi Knight Luke at Savi's Workshop is a distinct possibility.

One complaint about Galaxy's Edge from some fans has been the lack of the franchise's iconic music. This will also change with the new update, as John Williams' incredible scores will play throughout, putting fans in the right frame of mind.

Sequel Trilogy Characters Will Still Hang Out Around Rise Of The Resistance

Rey and the Resistance won’t be gone for good, of course. There’s still a massive attraction called Rise of the Resistance, arguably the best ride at Disneyland that isn’t going away. For that reason, the area around the ride will still be dedicated to the Age of Resistance.

Rey and any other sequel trilogy characters who might get added will simply be found in this part of the land. Essentially, walking between the two attractions of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will see you travel in time as well as space. With Galaxy’s Edge being so large, there’s absolutely no problem with this concept. The two parts of the land won’t infringe on each other, and each one should make you feel like you're in its specific era.

Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge Will Remain, Giving Fans A Choice

That sound you hear in the distance is thousands of Walt Disney World fans shouting, “Be Fair To Florida.” Unfortunately, fans hoping that Batuu East will undergo this same change are out of luck, at least for the foreseeable future. Disney World's Galaxy's Edge will not see any of these updates.

While that will likely upset some, I think it’s great. I’ve always felt that creating two identical Galaxy Edge lands at Disneyland and Disney World was an error when they could have made the land the same, but set both in different times, when different versions of the same attractions.

While I’m still waiting for that last part, the fact that the two versions of Galaxy’s Edge will have more differences is a good thing, as it gives people more of a reason to visit both locations. I’d love to see Disney World’s land introduce more sequel trilogy era characters and really begin to offer more that can’t be found at Disneyland.

These Galaxy's Edge Changes Are Coming At The Perfect Time

All of this is happening as Star Wars is about to launch what has to be seen as its second wave under the Disney brand. Following a new movie trilogy and a couple of spinoffs, we've been without Star Wars movies for several years, but that's all about to change.

Alongside the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters, the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run attraction will gain a new mission focused on the popular characters. Given everything else that's changing about Galaxy's Edge, it's a safe bet that, at least at Disneyland, this is not a temporary change.

Now is the perfect time to give Galaxy's Edge some attention and make it something a little different, and a bit more special. I'm excited for April 29 as I can't wait to see how all these changes manifest. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Batuu.

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge first opened at Disneyland, it gave fans a chance to live out their own adventure in a galaxy far, far away. Guests could visit a unique planet in the Star Wars universe, fly the Millennium Falcon, and even drink blue and green milk like Luke Skywalker.

Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a “Milk Stand” where guests can get Blue Milk, as seen in the original Star Wars, and the Green Milk that Luke drank in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Now Disney Parks has announced that a third color/flavor is being added to the mix as Pink Milk will be available at Disneyland later this week.

While not everybody is a fan of blue or green milk, I am, so I’m excited to check out Pink Milk on my next trip to Disneyland. Having said that, there is one issue with the product that, if you look at the image, you might also notice. Pink milk is not pink. As theme park journalist Alicia Stella pointed out perfectly.

Alicia is far from the only one to notice that pink milk is not pink. There are serval social media posts pointing out that the milk looks more orange than pink, Comments online include…

• Introducing your new favorite beverage, Pink Milk, the bevy contains no milk or any pink! @ThemeParkBar
• Is the milk pink or orange? - @AshleyLCarter1
• So there’s another flavor coming in people will hate? - @NickChaps96
• The green milk is yellow so what do you expect - @PeterSciretta

Pink Milk will be the first “milk” beverage that doesn’t have its basis in a Star Wars movie, however, it does technically qualify as canon, as the beverage was introduced in a Star Wars comic book before arriving on Batuu. The milk comes from an alien creature called a po’ackster.

Thus far, Pink Milk has only been announced for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. There’s no word on whether the drink will come to Batuu East (aka Disney’s Hollywood Studios), though it’s all but certain that it will happen eventually. When that does happen, one of the big questions will be what gets added to it.

Alcohol can only be found at Disneyland at locations where guests sit and eat, and drinks can’t be taken into the rest of the park. That’s not the case at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so shots are available to be added to milk there. Blue Milk can be ordered with rum, and Green Milk comes with tequila.

The exact flavor of the drink has not been disclosed, but Disneyland calls it “sweet and fruity,” which will make it similar to the other two drinks. While most people seem to prefer blue to green, I've always thought green milk is the superior flavor, but perhaps there will be a new best option soon.

2025 was a great year for the theme park industry. At the top of the list, we of course saw the opening of the incredible Epic Universe, but we also saw other major advancements, including an audio-animatronic Walt Disney and the first Universal Studios Hollywood Fan Fest Nights.

It’s going to take quite a bit of work for 2026 to top what 2025 gave us, but what’s clear from every major theme park company in the world is that they are certainly going to try. The behemoths of Disney and Universal have some absolutely incredible new additions coming this year, but the most exciting new addition to theme parks may not be found in California or Florida.

Universal Kids Resort Could Be Epic Universe For The Elementary School Set

It’s absolutely wild that a year after Universal Destinations and Experiences opens a brand new theme park and a new horror attraction, it’s going to go ahead and just open another theme park. Universal Kids Resort in Texas will be a smaller park geared toward families with young children. It will include lands dedicated to Jurassic World, Shrek, and, of course, the Minions. It’s a new endeavor for Universal, but if it’s successful, it has a chance to cause the whole industry to take notice.

Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run & Soarin Are Set For Major Updates (Disneyland/Disney California Adventure/Disney's Hollywood Studios/Epcot)

Disneyland and Walt Disney World don’t have any major brand-new attractions coming in 2026. Both are in the middle of major upgrades that will revolutionize the resorts, but Disney World is only partway through its expansion, and the transformation of the Disneyland Resort is only getting underway now. However, two major attractions are getting updates that will make them feel like new.

Soarin' Around the World is set to become Soarin’ Across America with the aerial theater attraction getting a brand new film to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Meanwhile, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run is getting a new story of its own, which will include The Mandalorian & Grogu.

The Soarin updates will hit Epcot at Memorial Day and Disney California Adventure just before the 4th of July. The Smuggler's Run update will hit both parks in May alongside the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie.

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift Is My Most Anticipated Roller Coaster (Universal Studios Hollywood)

The Fast & Furious franchise has always seemed underutilized at Universal parks, but that may finally change when Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift opens at Universal Studios Hollywood. The ride is the roller coaster that the franchise has always deserved, which includes ride vehicles that drift around corners and loops around the park’s own infrastructure.

Disney Adventure World Isn’t A New Park, But It May Feel Like One (Disneyland Paris)

A brand new Disney theme park is coming, but the collaboration between Disney and Miral in Abu Dhabi is still several years away. In the meantime, we’ll see the transformation of Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris into Disney Adventure Park, which will include the opening of the second World of Frozen in a Disney park and its incredible new animatronics, which will also be coming to the Frozen attraction at Epcot early in 2026.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets Is Everything I've waited For (Disney's Hollywood Studios)

It feels like rumors of the demise of the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith have been running around since shortly after the ride opened. This year, it was finally confirmed that such a thing will happen. While the core ride will remain, it will transform in 2026 into Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets, something fans have literally been asking for for years.

Silver Dollar City Resort Will Take This Amazing Park To The Next Level (Silver Dollar City)

In an industry dominated by Disney and Universal, it can be difficult to get noticed if you’re anybody else, but Silver Dollar City has carved its own place in the business with a combination of great roller coasters, amazing food, and an atmosphere you just can’t find at most other theme parks.

If there’s anything Silver Dollar City is missing, it isn’t a ride; it’s a place to stay when you’re done with rides. Luckily, that oversight will be rectified this year when Silver Dollar City Resort, the first park hotel, opens its doors. Resort hotels are key to making any theme park trump feel ike a real getaway from reality, and I can’t wait to book a stay at this one.

Galacticoaster (Legoland California/Legoland Florida)

As a dad with young kids, I’ve spent almost as much time at Legoland California in recent years as I have at any Disney or Universal park. It’s a great way to introduce theme parks to younger kids with attractions and experiences made for them, but the biggest new addition in years is coming to the park, both in California and Florida.

Legoland Galacticoaster will be the first indoor coaster at Legoland, and while the ride is obviously giving off serious Space Mountain vibes, it has a design element where kids can create their own spacecraft that is distinctly LEGO.

NightFlight Expedition Could Be The Best New Ride Of 2026 (Dollywood)

What’s better than a roller coaster, a whitewater ride, a river journey, or a flying attraction? It has to be a ride that is all four of those things at once. NightFlight Expedition, coming to Dollywood in 2026, looks to be one of the most ambitious theme park attractions, not simply at Dollywood, but at any theme park in the world. It embraces the bark’s location by spotlighting the Smoky Mountains, but in a way that seems guaranteed to impress every rider.

This is only a small fraction of the new additions coming to theme parks in 2026. It's going to be a huge year of rides, shows, events, and more. We may even get a few surprises, but whatever happens, theme park fans are going to be the big winners.

You can set your watch by it now, but when October arrives, prices go up at Disney Parks. October marks the beginning of the new fiscal year for The Walt Disney Company, so by making planned price increases then, it can potentially boost profits for the next year. The primary focus when the most recent price increase hit was on tickets to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but that’s not the only place prices went up.

Prices jumped up on a lot of different things earlier this month, and while ticket prices are the one place that all guests will get hit, other things saw even bigger increases. And for some reason, Star Wars fans may have been hit harder than anybody.

Disney World And Disneyland Price Increases Hit Star Wars Fans Especially Hard

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was a massive addition to both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios when the land opened in 2019. It promised to be a place where fans could live out their own Star Wars adventure, and that included giving fans a chance to build their own lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop. The lightsaber building is an incredible experience that everybody should do, assuming they can afford it.

When Galaxy’s Edge opened, the custom lightsaber experience cost guests $200, but we’ve seen those prices, along with others, creep up over the last few years (though prices actually went down at Disneyland at one point). Savi’s Workshop saw a $25 price increase on both coasts, with the experience costing guests $250 at Disneyland and a whopping $275 at Walt Disney World now.

But that’s not all. Kyber Crystals, the object that gives lightsabers their color, saw their own price increase from $17.99 to $24.99, a price increase of nearly 40%. Each custom lightsaber comes with one crystal free, in blue, red, green, or purple, but if you want to be able to swap the color of your saber, you’ll need to buy additional crystals. Some colors, like yellow and white, are only available separately.

Disneyland And Disney World Increased Prices Across The Board

The fact is that everything at Disneyland and Walt Disney World saw price increases, not just tickets. Most food menu items went up, though mostly by less than a dollar per item. Most other merchandise has also seen a slight boost, with the popular mouse ears at Disney World going up by a couple of dollars per item and the popular shoulder plushies going up by three dollars each.

MagicBand+ also got something of a backdoor price increase. Previously, Disney World Annual Passholders and hotel guests had access to a discount on the useful (at Disney World) wearable, but the discount has been removed.

A trip to Disneyland or Disney World is only going to get more expensive. We already knew that. While I still think Disneyland and Disney World are worth the price, everybody needs to be prepared for just what the price really is.

This week, April comes to an end, and May gets started. While this likely means temperatures are going up and people are looking to spend a little less time in front of the television, your favorite streaming services are certainly going their best to keep us on the couch.

From brand new films to classic franchises, the movie content coming in May is solid. We will, of course, get three new episodes of Andor this week, but that’s not the end of the Star Wars goodness, as there’s also some excellent new Star Wars content for May the Fourth. Here’s a look at what’s hitting streaming this week.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - May 1 (Disney+)

Spider-Man is the one Marvel character the studio still doesn’t completely own the movie rights to, but thanks to a deal with Sony, most of the live-action Spidey movies can now be found on Disney+. Starting May 1, the Spider-Verse grows even larger with the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse makes the jump from Netflix to Disney+.

Another Simple Favor - May 1 (Prime Video)

A Simple Favor was one of those simple, character-driven dramas that occasionally surprises with its level of success. Despite a solid box office return, the sequel, which will see both Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick return, will only be available with a Prime Video subscription.

The Four Seasons - May 1 (Netflix)

In The Four Seasons, three couples who vacation together go through major life changes over the course of one year. Based on the hit 1981 film written, directed, and starring Alan Alda, this adaptation reimagined for Netflix the story as a limited series and boasts an incredible cast including Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Will Forte.

Ocean's Franchise - May 1 (Netflix)

With reports that George Clooney and Brad Pitt may be looking to get the team back together for another Oceans 11 sequel, now may be a great time to revisit the original series. All three previous Oceans movies hit Netflix this week.

Black Bag - May 2 (Peacock)

Based on Black Bag's meager box office take, you probably didn't see it. But based on Black Bag's reviews, this spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett from the incomparable Steven Soderbergh is a movie you absolutely should see. If you've got a Peacock subscription, you can do exactly that this week.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge & Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance | Disneyland® Resort - May 4 (Disney+)

May the Fourth is celebrated as Star Wars Day, and Disney+ usually adds something from the franchise as a way to celebrate. This year, we’ll get the animated Star Wars: Tales From the Underworld, but far more interestingly, this week, a Disney+ subscription will get you a virtual walk-through video of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, as well as a full ride-through of the incredible Rise of the Resistance attraction. One can only hope this will be the first of a new breed of Disney Parks content on Disney+ that will let us experience rides when we're not in the parks.

Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor - May 4 (Netflix)

Conan O’Brien stole the show at the Oscars this year, and his performance as host was so popular he’s already set to return next year. It’s as good a time as any for Conan O’Brien to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center. You’ll be able to watch the whole show with your Netflix subscription.

Next week, two popular series return. Fans of Conan O'Brien will get even more of him when his travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go returns, and the long wait for Season 2 of Natasha Lyonne's Poker Face finally comes to an end.

Star Wars Celebration in Japan over the weekend had a lot of news about upcoming Star Wars movies and TV series. However, as CinemaBlend’s resident theme park nerd, the details I was most interested in were those surrounding the update already announced for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run that will transform the attraction with a story based around The Mandalorian and Grogu.

The event did not disappoint. We gained a lot of new details about how the new attraction at Disney World and Disneyland will likely be a significant upgrade over the original, but it also has me concerned about a different Star Wars attraction.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run Changes Will Make The Attraction Worth Riding More Often

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened, it did so with only one new attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. The story saw fan-favorite Hondo Onaka “borrow” the Falcon from Chewbacca to do a little light smuggling, and guests became the crew of the ship, with groups of six sharing responsibilities for three crew positions: pilot, gunner and engineer.

This gave the attraction a bit of re-rideability, but once you had manned each position, you’d done the ride. While it could be fun to do the ride with a group of friends, doing it with random others wasn’t always worth it.

The new version of the attraction will increase the variability of the ride by giving guests three different choices for locations to travel to: Bespin, Endor and Coruscant. This means guests who want to experience everything will need to do the ride at least nine times in order to experience all three roles in all three locations.

Smuggler’s Run will also make the engineer role, generally considered the least exciting of the three, a lot more fun, as engineers will apparently be responsible for communicating with and caring for Grogu. It used to be that using the Smuggler’s Run Single Rider line all but guaranteed one the engineer slot, but that may not be the case going forward.

I’m More Worried Than Ever About The Future Of Star Tours

If the idea of a Star Wars attraction that can travel to multiple locations in the Star Wars universe sounds familiar, that’s because it already exists. Ever since its redesign, Star Tours has been a randomized experience that takes riders all over the galaxy far, far away. The number of possible Star Tours experiences is significant, and so few rides are alike.

Ever since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was announced, there have been concerns that Star Tours was on the chopping block. The attraction is all the way over in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It’s separated by Muppets, and soon Monsters Inc, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Did it make sense for the parks to have a Star Wars attraction not located in the Star Wars land?

Fears of the ride's departure have been unfounded. Star Tours got a major update as recently as last year, adding characters from various Disney+ Star Wars shows to the attraction.

However, with the news that the Millennium Falcon ride is going to be just that little bit similar to Star Tours (both were already motion simulator flights through space, and will now be able to visit multiple locations), that makes Star Tours feel that much more redundant. Is it on the way out? Considering that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland needs an overhaul anyway, and that the Muppet Courtyard area is about to close for a major transformation, it wouldn’t be that shocking to see Star Tours included in either of those projects.

I will certainly be sad if and when Star Tours goes away. There are a lot of reasons to keep the attraction around, as it’s still quite popular and still different enough from Smuggler’s Run that they each offer things to guests that the other does not. Still, I wonder if Star Tours' days are numbered. The new version of Smuggler's Run won't open until The Mandalorian and Grogu movie does in May 2026, and a lot can happen in that time.

Galaxy's Edge is the perfect theme park land for a Star Wars fan to visit, and it just got a lot cooler. As franchise devotees wait on upcoming Star Wars movies and other projects, Luke Skywalker was announced to be heading to the aforementioned park. To be honest, even though I'm a fan, I wasn't sure just how big a splash Skywalker might actually make upon his arrival. Well, now, I have my answer after seeing a viral video of the massive crowd that came to greet him.

Ironically, Disney Parks' preview video featured an actor who more so resembled Kylo Ren than he did one of the most powerful Jedi in Star Wars. The video that @thecalibae posted to X, though, features an actor who seemingly matches actor Mark Hamill (who has famously played Luke) physically. Said clip shows Luke walking in the park with R2-D2, as a mob of people watch them. Check out the post, which is overwhelming me a bit:

Whew, if that's not proof of Luke's staying power as a character, then I don't know what is. As the the latest Star Wars character to grace the park, Luke will continue to appear at Galaxy's Edge Disneyland through its "Seasons Of The Force" event. The event just kicked off and will run until May 11th. It will feature a unique projection show on the spires that loom over the park. Plus, you get time to see the character who arguably peaked when he destroyed the Death Star.

Shade to Luke Skywalker and his achievements in Star Wars aside, it is incredible to see the character trotting around Galaxy's Edge the same way attendees would see Rey, Kylo Ren, or some of the newer characters in the franchise. I may not have been sure if the turnout would be high, but I love seeing just how many people made their way to see Luke. If I'd told someone 20 years ago that they'd have the chance to see Luke walking around an SW theme park area, I probably wouldn't have been believed. So it's honestly a bit surreal that it's actually come to pass.

And beyond seeing one of the best Star Wars characters, I also need to point out just how cool the projection show is. A video of that performance is making rounds on the internet as well, and I'm so upset I won't be able to get to Galaxy's Edge anytime soon to see it in person:

It looks incredible, and I hope Star Wars fans who visit Disney World will get a chance to experience it as well. I mean, I know it's the bigger park with more going on but, between this new event and all the happenings at Avengers Campus, I'm beginning to think that it's time that I finally make the pilgrimage out to Disneyland. I'll just have to keep in mind that if I go out there, I may have to brave serious crowds when I get there.

For right now, though, you all can check out Luke Skywalker's various adventures and appearances within the Star Wars franchise by streaming the various movies and TV shows on Disney+. I'm really starting to get antsy waiting on the next project from the franchise to arrive, so maybe an excursion to Galaxy's Edge is just what I need -- crowds be darned.

It feels like a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away since we’ve last seen Luke Skywalker. While there’s always a chance for upcoming Star Wars movies to bring back Mark Hamill’s iconic fixture in Lucasfilm’s IP galaxy, we technically haven’t seen him in the flesh since The Book of Boba Fett. Well that’s about to change, thanks to Disneyland’s introduction of Luke Skywalker at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge finally taking place - with a performer that's giving off more of a "Kylo Ren, but good" sort of vibe, now that I think about it.

Starting today, this Jedi (like his father/uncle before him, depending on where you land on the resemblance matter) will be on hand to celebrate Star Wars: Season of the Force, which is set to end on May 11th. That information comes from a pretty neat announcement video, which you can watch below:

It might be the fact that this young person looks younger than even Mark Hamill himself did in the Original Trilogy era. This isn’t a complaint to anyone involved in this comparison, but really more of an observation. For reference, here’s a comparison of this Disneyland Cast Member, in-between photos of Mark Hamill and Adam Driver:

Putting the criticisms in some of the nastier social media reactions aside, I think that the first Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge definitely feels like a halfway point between that Force-sensitive Tatooine farmboy and his more power hungry nephew from the Sequel Trilogy era. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the comment about Luke not being blonde falls flat when you see Mark Hamill’s hair color from his 1983 appearance.

As for the Kylo Ren vibes, those come from the fact that our new park-hopping friend definitely has a youth to his appearance; which is yet another complaint some people have shared online. Mentioning that fact myself isn't me agreeing that’s a reason to write this person off before he’s allowed to really make a mark.

If anything, my own experience with Universal Studios Florida’s costumed characters has proven to me that it’s the spirit of the performance that matters more than the resemblance. When I "met" Doc Brown on my last visit to Orlando, the person playing him didn't look anything like Christopher Lloyd. But you could be sure he knew the character well enough that we were joking about seeing each other again in the past, which left me with a smile.

Keeping that in mind, I’m excited to see the first videos of Luke Skywalker making his way through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge hit social media. Especially since there’s a potential that Mark Hamill himself will throw in his two credits, in what’s undoubtedly going to be a warm wish that reminds this bold performer that the Force is indeed with them.

When and if that day comes, perhaps all arguments to the contrary can end and we can return to the truly important issues, like whether or not Rogue Squadron is still gonna happen. But if you want to meet Luke Skywalker during Star Wars: Season of the Force, head to the Disneyland Resort before May 11th and fulfill your destiny!

A trip to Walt Disney World is almost always great because the resort is usually near perfect, right down to the smallest detail. Of course, when so much is done right, it makes anything that isn't quite up to snuff all the more obvious. Such was the case with a strange smell that has been reportedly ongoing for some time at Oga’ Cantina, the bar at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The smell was brought up in the r/WaltDisneyWorld subreddit, where a poster asked if anybody else had noticed the newest addition to Disney World, a unwanted smell in the bar recently that they described as “mouldy cheese.” The post read…

As it turned out, several other people absolutely had noticed this smell. Many commenters who had visited Oga’s Cantina recently said they noticed the same thing, a smell which, according to most, wasn’t there several months ago but has been recently. Comments included…

• Yes, smells like someone spilled milk on the ground and never cleaned it. - xauronx
• YES! I thought me and my wife were going crazy because it definitely smells sour as hell - Call555JackChop
• Yes. Dirty mop water. - Beautiful-Section-44
• Yes, we love it there and as soon as they brought the new food items in my wife was like yoooooooo wtf happened here? - quirkyscot

While there are many different suggestions as to what might have caused the smell, the last comment above is a potentially interesting one as more than one person suggested that the smell may be connected to a change in the menu at Oga’s Cantina. While the location is a bar, it does serve small bites, including the Umbaran cheese roll, which was just added in December. It’s suggested that this may be at fault as the item is quite pungent.

Others have simply suggested that Oga’s Cantina is a bar and that bars can get funky on occasion. So maybe there’s nothing odd going on here. In an edit to the original post, OP made it clear that this smell was something different, saying…

Oga's Cantina is a popular spot for a drink, so much so that the place is always crowded. While there are plenty of places to drink at Walt Disney World, a couple of lounges are being added to other parks, including the new GEO-82 lounge at Epcot.

To be fair, some commenters say they've been to Oga’s recently and didn’t notice anything. But most do seem to confirm that something is up. If it is the food, perhaps that can be easily fixed. It should be noted that the Disneyland version of Oga’s Cantina, the first place to sell alcohol to the public at Disneyland, doesn’t appear to have the same complaints. The Disneyland and Disney World versions of Galaxy's Edge are slightly different, and that includes the food menu at Oga's -- so perhaps that's the culprit.

When Bob Iger first stood on the floor of D23 in Anaheim and announced that Star Wars was getting not one, but two new lands at Disney parks, people went nuts. It was announced that both Disneyland and Disney World would be getting the land that came to be known as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and both lands would be essentially identical, so nobody would be missing out.

To be clear, there have been differences between Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios since the beginning, but most of them are cosmetic. The design of the land, the food available and the attractions are all largely the same. However, over the last couple of years, the two lands have become significantly different, and it’s time they were both the same again by letting Disney World get access to the characters that can be found at Disneyland.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Origianl Concept Wasn’t Bad, But It Was Too Limiting

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge's original concept was a significant step toward total immersion in themed entertainment. Rather than simply being a land full of Star Wars “stuff” the idea was that the land would be a place in the Star Wars universe. Walt Disney Imagineering created the original world of Batuu and set the land not only there, but at a point in time in the middle of Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy.

For fans looking to live out their own Star Wars adventure, this could potentially be a lot of fun. Disneyland Cast Members were going to speak to guests as if they were tourists visiting an alien world, not a theme park. Characters from the Star Wars universe would be found walking the land as if they were inhabitants, not just characters standing for photo ops. Tiny performances might break out if a stormtrooper caught site of Chewbacca.

Unfortunately, the “life” created in Galaxy’s Edge, while being the land’s greatest strength, was also its greatest hindrance. Because it was set inside the Sequel Trilogy, following the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, that meant that many classic Star Wars characters would never appear. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo would never visit Batuu. You’d never see Darth Vader, only Kylo Ren.

Disneyland Began To Break With The Timeline

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland in 2019, and it would remain consistent with its timeline for about three years. Then the dam broke when it was announced that The Mandalorian and Grogu would appear as characters inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. These were the first characters from outside the established timeline, but they would not be the last.

In much the same way that nearly every new Marvel Cinematic Universe project has resulted in a new Marvel character appearing at Avengers Campus, every new Star Wars show on Disney+ has resulted in new characters appearing at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren have all appeared at various points.

However, all these new characters have only appeared in Disneyland’s version of the land. Only The Mandalorian and Grogu have ever appeared at Disney’s Hollywood Studios version of Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World, and then only sparingly. While the reason for this one-sided favoritism is unclear, the most likely reason is the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

The Galactic Starcruiser Story May Have Controlled The Galaxy’s Edge Story

If there was an even bigger step forward in the world of themed entertainment for Disney than Galaxy’s Edge itself, it was the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. This multi-day Star Wars experience also had its own story that guests were encouraged to become part of, and its story was also set in the era of the Sequel Trilogy. On top of that, the Starcruiser was attached to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and the story of the one was attached to the other.

The Starcruiser told a story of guests on board an intergalactic cruise ship that included an excursion to the planet Batuu. Events that took place inside the “hotel” could be connected to events that could take place in the theme park land. As such, walking out of a Galactic Starcruiser with a mission given to you by Rey, only to bump into Ahsoka Tano on Batuu, wasn’t necessarily going to work.

However, the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is officially no more. The experience closed down in 2023, and we recently learned it was being converted to offices for Walt Disney Imagineering, so it won’t be part of any new Star Wars adventure for guests anytime soon. With that confirmation, it’s time for Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge to get the same love in the form of characters that Disneyland has had for years.

Bring Luke Skywalker (And More) To Walt Disney World

The most recent new addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland is a game changer. When Disneyland’s Season of the Force begins in March, Luke Skywalker will make his Disneyland debut. This is the first time that a core character of the Original Trilogy has appeared at Disneyland, and it’s the clearest indication that the old timeline is dead.

If that’s the case in California, it should also be the case in Florida. Hopefully we’ll see Luke Skywalker, Ahsoka, and all the rest of the characters that have never appeared in Florida finally make that jump.

It doesn’t need to become a free-for-all. As long as you don’t have characters playing Kylo Ren and Darth Vader walking around Batuu at the same time, fans can still imagine themselves in a Star Wars world, just one that might feel like it’s set in different eras at different times of the day.

I honestly wish Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as it was originally intended had been more successful, just as I wish that the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was still around. They were incredible concepts that just didn’t connect with guests for any number of reasons. With that being the case, it’s time for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to appeal to all Star Wars fans. Let’s bring all the great characters from all the stories we love and let guests at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World enjoy them equally.

When Disney first announced a theme park land dedicated to Star Wars fans of the galaxy far, far away obviously went wild. One of the most popular franchises in film history was getting not just an attraction, which it had since Star Tours opened in the '80s, but an entire land dedicated to it. It promised a level of immersion that Disney Parks had not provided before.

However, not every fan got exactly what they wanted. Part of the land’s strategy to make guests feel like they were on their own Star Wars adventure was to set the land in a place and time, specifically, in the middle of Star Wars then underway sequel trilogy, meaning several of Star Wars most iconic characters, like Han Solo and Darth Vader, would never appear.

Over the past few years that rigid storytelling has become more flexible as characters from outside that specific era have begun to appear. But now Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is taking its biggest step to date away from the sequel trilogy by bringing in its first original trilogy character. Today Disney Parks revealed on Instagram that Luke Skywalker is coming to Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland.

Luke Skywalker is dressed in black, showing that the version of the character we’re getting will be based on his Return of the Jedi look. More details are promised to come on February 10, but it’s clear the plan is for Luke to make his debut at the beginning of Season of the Force, the Star Wars-themed celebration happening at Disneyland from March 28 - May 11.

There’s a pretty good chance he’ll also be part of Star Wars Nite, the after-hours ticketed event running select nights in April and May. Whether Luke will only be appearing as a special offering during the Star Wars event or will make regular appearances going forward is unclear, we may get those details when more is revealed next week.

Needless to say, a lot of fans are quite happy to see Luke Skywalker finally appear as a character in Galaxy’s Edge. They were disappointed that the previous story prevented him from showing up. The land was supposed to be set following the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so even having an older Luke appear was off the table.

The only negative response to this news is that so far Luke has only been announced to appear at Disneyland. While the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World is nearly identical to the one at Disneyland, most of the newer characters that have appeared at Batuu West that have broken the timeline, like Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, and Sabine Wren, have not gone east. The only characters outside of the original timeline to show up in Orlando thus far have been The Mandalorian and Grogu.

With the damn now broken as it relates to original characters, one has to wonder how far off the rest of them are. I’d say it’s a question of when, not if, we’ll see the likes of Princess Leia, Han Solo, or Darth Vader.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a land unlike any other at Disneyland. While Fantasyland or Tomorrowland are just collections of attractions with similar themes, Galaxy’s Edge is a place. It creates a Star Wars planet complete with architecture, food, and even characters that walk around the land as if they live there. Guests can interact with these characters in ways they can’t do elsewhere. But sometimes those guests should watch how they choose to do so.

A TikTok is going viral that has people laughing both in the comments and in the theme park. A guy tries to interact with Chewbacca in his native language, calling out with his best Wookiee noises, but Chewie is hilariously unimpressed. Check it out.

A lot of people appear to be having some fun at the expense of this guy and his Wookiee call. The clip of a nonplussed Chewbacca has gone viral with millions of views and thousands of comments. Everybody is laughing at Chewbacca’s reaction.

Who among us hasn’t attempted to talk like Chewbacca? Any Star Wars fan has probably done it. Some people can pull off pretty good Wookiee calls, but some of us just don’t have that innate talent. This is, unfortunately, the case of somebody who really can’t pull it off and Chewbacca lets him know that the attempt just wasn’t noteworthy.

Chewbacca is one of the more likely Star Wars characters that you'll meet if you happen to be walking through Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. He's one character who transcends the eras of Star Wars movies, appearing in all three trilogies of films. Originally Galaxy's Edge was designed as a place where characters from only the sequel trilogy era could be found. However, Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, and others from the recent Disney+ Star Wars series have been added and can be found in the land as well.

It’s actually pretty impressive how nonplussed Chewbacca can look here. Most Disney characters who walk around the parks in full masks wouldn’t be able to give this sort of expression, but Chewbacca’s Galaxy Edge character is essentially identical to the version we’d see in a Star Wars movie, so the mask is full of a lot more expression.

Chewbacca probably has to deal with a lot of people growling at him as he wanders through Galaxy’s Edge and interacts with guests. Honestly, it’s preferable to when some guests decide that grabbing Chewbacca is an acceptable thing to do.

I'm curious what sort of reaction Chewbacca would give to people who are better at sounding like a Wookiee. Can you have a "conversation" with Chewie where he'll respond to you if you are actually any good at making the right screams and growls?

Five years ago, Disneyland opened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and while early attendance wasn't what we expected, it was a pretty amazing new theme park land. While it would be several more months before Rise of the Resistance, one of the best attractions at Disneyland today, opened and made the new land complete, there was a lot to like about it, but there was also a lot that was missing.

Last night, some of what we expected to see at Galaxy’s Edge from the beginning finally appeared. A special event called Blaze Your Path: The Finale took place. The live show was the culminating event of a multi-day experience at Disneyland for a group of Make-A-Wish kids and their families, but everybody got to see the end, which included an epic lightsaber battle between Rey and Kylo Ren on a catwalk above the land. Check out the clip posted by Touring Plans Guy Selga below.

A similar show was performed as part of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge grand opening event when the land opened in 2019, but that’s the only other time we’ve seen anything like this, and the first time it was available to the general public. This was apparently a one-off event for Make-A-Wish, but needless to say we need more of this at Disneyland. I can only hope this won’t be the only time this show takes place. It should be added as a new attraction at Disneyland and become a regular part of the Disneyland schedule going forward.

This is especially true because there’s nowhere else to see anything like this right now. A similar performance was part of the finale of the story on board the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World, using the incredible extendable lightsaber designed by Walt Disney Imagineer Lanny Smoot. Of course, that experience was limited to those who could afford it and the Galactic Starcruiser is closed now, so even if you wanted to pay the money, you can’t.

Early concept art and discussion of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge included references to some sort of show like this, as well as a table-service dining experience. Neither ever materialized in the land, and it’s speculated they were cut from Galaxy’s Edge in order to be created, and sold, as part of the Galactic Starcruiser.

Now that Galactic Starcruiser is dead, it’s time to bring those elements into Galaxy’s Edge. Live entertainment is one of the highlights of every Disney theme park, and nighttime entertainment even more so. Disneyland will be celebrating its 70th anniversary next year. It seems to me that even if plans were to do a show like this only for a year, it should still happen.

When you go to Disney World, the one aspect of the experience that you know is going to happen is that you’re going to wait in line. Even with the current Genie+ and its forthcoming replacement, Lighting Lane Multi-Pass, which can help you skip some lines, there will be lines. This is why a new option to skip what is regularly the longest line at Disney World might seem like a good thing but, honestly, I kind of hate it.

Over the weekend, guests revealed on X (previously Twitter) that Disney's Hollywood Studios opened a Single Rider line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The Galaxy’s Edge attraction is the most popular ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and routinely has the longest line of any ride at Disney World. Single Rider lines are used at several attractions to help fill in empty seats on rides that frequently end up with single empty seats. But, even though I do a lot of Single Rider lines, I might skip this one.

Rise Of The Resistance Single Rider Line Skips Some Of The Best Parts Of The Attraction

As a professional theme park writer, I make most of my trips to the parks for work and, as such, I find myself in the parks alone a lot. When I do have time to just do some rides for fun, I frequently take advantage of Single Rider lines when they are available. I’ve done all the Single Rider attractions at Disneyland Resort, and most of the ones you’ll find at Disney World.

But I’m not sure I’ll ever take advantage of a Single Rider line in Rise of the Resistance, because the line skips some of my favorite parts of the experience. There’s a lot that makes Rise of the Resistance one of the best theme park attractions in the world, and much of that is technically part of the queue.

There’s an entire sequence where guests receive a transmission from Rey and then board a transport meant to escape Batuu. The transport gets captured by the First Order and the guests then get in a second queue to be locked into an interrogation room. It’s only after the bombastic intro that the ride properly begins.

In short, the Single Rider line bypasses the entire transport sequence and dumps quests directly into the Star Destroyer set, similar to what happens if the transport portion of the ride is down. This kinda sucks. The queue is an important part of any attraction, and many of the rides that Disney World does better than Disneyland are all because of the queue.

The Rise Of The Resistance Queue Has Some Of The Attraction’s Best Elements

While the core part of Rise of the Resistance is still an amazing attraction, the queue is honestly one of the best parts of the experience. The transport ship is essentially a motion simulator attraction on the way to the main ride. There's even an appearance from Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameront's great. 

It also includes what might be the single best moment of the whole attraction. The transport ship appears to have two doors so, when guests enter through one on “Batuu” and then the ship gets captured, new riders all expect to exit through the second door to arrive inside the Star Destroyer. However, the ride tricks you, and the First Order arrives through the same door you entered. It’s a minor effect, but it’s well done. And after you get fooled the first time, it’s a blast to watch new riders get wowed the next time you ride it.

I’m not going to lie, if there’s a day that I really want to ride Rise of the Resistance, and there’s a Single Rider line available, I’ll probably use it rather than wait an hour and a half to go on it, but it won’t be the same. It will be a lesser experience. 

At this point, the Single Rider line appears to be a test but, if it's successful enough, it will certainly become permanent. No test is being run at the Disneyland version of the attraction right now, but you can bet that if the test goes well in Orlando, the line will be a new addition to Disneyland Resort before too long. 

Ever since the first few moments of the original Star Wars: A New Hope, when a small shuttle was chased down by a massive Star Destroyer, fans have dreamed about flying through the stars in a galaxy, far, far, away. The various spacecraft of the Star Wars films and TV shows have some of the greatest variety in any franchise, which means everybody has their favorite.

So what are the best ships in all of the Star Wars franchise? From the Rebels to the Empire and from A New Hope to The Acolyte there are so many cool and interesting ships to choose from. Here are some of our favorites. 

9.  Lambda Class Imperial Shuttle 

The Imperial Shuttle introduced in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi doesn’t do a lot. It’s a personnel shuttle, so it’s only designed to carry people around. It doesn’t appear to have much in the way of weapons, but it does have an incredibly fun design that requires two of its three wings to fold up whenever it lands. 

Why did they build it like this? Nobody knows. Is it super cool? Absolutely. The design became so iconic for shuttles that the folding wing look would continue to be used, with The First Order having similar designs for Kylo Ren's shuttle.

8.  Razor Crest

When it debuted in the first of the Star Wars Disney+ shows, The Mandalorian’s Razor Crest wasn’t a particularly sexy ship, but that’s part of why it was so great. It was likely preferred by Mando because it was so functional. He wasn't looking for the fastest or the coolest ship in space. He had a job to do and needed a ship that would get the job done. The Razor Crest was that.

If he needed to chase down a bounty, the Razor Crest could do it, but the ship was also his home. It had everything he needed to live since he was always moving. And it had plenty of storage space for his carbonite-frozen visitors.  

7. Naboo Royal Starship 

Everything from the Prequel era is a bit sexier and a bit shinier than the Original Trilogy. If you watch the Star Wars movies in order, it's even clearer that the suffering under the Empire affects everything, even the spacecraft. The Naboo Royal Starship is a perfect symbol of everything that existed before the Empire that was lost.

If you're a queen, you get to travel in style. Queen Amidala's Royal Starship is so sleek it looks like it's traveling through hyperspace when it's standing still. The thing is so shiny it might blind you if the sun reflects off it in the wrong way, but nobody is ever going to claim it's not a memorable ship. 

6.  First Order TIE Echelon 

Not every awesome Star Wars spaceship is actually in a movie. In fact, one of the coolest ships can only be found in a Star Wars theme park. The First Order’s TIE Echelon is a ship that was designed for Colin Trevorrow’s abandoned version of Star Wars: Episode IX. However, as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World were in development around the same time, the ship design was used there, where it still remains today.

The ship was designed to be an armed troop transport, and it's easy to see the inspiration of other Star Wars ships, including some other ships on this list, in the new creation. While we never saw this ship in the films, it's an incredible set piece at Galaxy's Edge. 

5.  Imperial Star Destroyer 

From the opening shot of Star Wars: A New Hope, we knew everything that we would ever need to know about the Galactic Empire. The Star Destroyer fills the screen showing us the power that the Empire has and how small the Rebel Alliance is by comparison. The Star Destroyer is basically a flying city full of evil. 

Future Star Wars movies would make bigger ships, but they'd never quite match the menace of the original. At a certain point, the scale gets lost. The Rebels never had anything to match even the standard Star Destroyer, so anything bigger was just showing off.  

4.  X-Wing 

When you think of space battles, you probably think of the X-Wing fighter. It’s a simple design that looks formidable in a fight, while at the same time showing that the Rebel Alliance is a rag-tag group of fighters because all X-Wings look like they might fly apart at any moment. Whether flown by Luke Skywalker or Poe Dameron, the X-Wing is no less iconic.

Dogfights with the X-Wing are as exciting as anything we've seen in a Top Gun movie. It's why so many were excited by the idea of Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron movie. An entire film about X-Wings and all the action that suggests is too much fun to ignore.

3.  Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter 

The standard TIE Fighter flowed by the Galactic Empire is fine. It’s functional and it looks as scary and menacing as it needs to look, but Darth Vader’s personal TIE Fighter was something else. The first Star Wars movie needed to do something to make sure the audience knew which ship Darth Vader was in, and the minor and simple modifications to the general TIE design were perfect, making the ship look as menacing as the man flying it. 

Vader's ship isn't just shaped differently, it's also smaller. It makes his ship harder to see and hit, while also making it more maneuverable. We would learn later just how good a pilot Anakin Skywalker was, but this ship hinted early at his skill.

2.  Slave I 

We finally got to spend some real time inside Slave I, Boba Fett’s iconic and unusual spaceship, as part of The Mandalorian but it’s been an iconic Star Wars set piece since its brief appearance in one of the best Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back. The ship has a design unlike any other in Star Wars, one that embraces the fact that in space concepts like “up” and “front” are all relative.

These differences may have been part of the reason that Boba Fett, despite his brief time in the original trilogy, became one of the Star Wars characters fans embraced. From his ship design to his full body armor, we had so many questions that eventually the franchise would need to give us answers. 

1.  Millennium Falcon 

What is there to say about the most important ship in all of Star Wars that hasn’t already been said? The Millennium Falcon has been through a lot. Originally owned by Lando Calrissian before being won by Han Solo, lost, and then returned to the smuggler, the Millennium Falcon has been through it all. The Falcon was unlike anything we’d seen in sci-fi movies before, but that’s what made it so memorable. 

While these may be the best, there are so many great ships in Star Wars it's honestly difficult to narrow it down to a small list. And with so many great upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows, including Skeleton Crew and The Mandalorian and Grogu, we're sure to see some amazing new designs that may eventually join this list. 

This month marks five years since Disneyland’s version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened to the public. The land was something new for Disney Parks. Not only was it the single largest expansion of Disneyland since the park’s opening, but it was an entirely new sort of land; one that asked guests to not only enjoy Star Wars, but to experience the land as if they were inside the world of the films by visiting a planet in the Star Wars universe.

Years later, Walt Disney Imagineering would give us one of the most incredible pieces of themed entertainment ever conceived, the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It took everything that Galaxy’s Edge did and pumped it up to new levels of immersion. On paper, the experience looked amazing, but it was ultimately a failure, with the Starcruiser closing after less than two years.

I was one of the people able to preview Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge early when it first opened at Disneyland and experienced the land the way it was originally conceived. I’ve been back numerous times since then, but on a recent trip, I spent a bit more time there than I had in recent years, and realized that the first Disney Star Wars theme park experience was all the evidence anybody needed that the second one wasn’t going to work.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Tried To Immerse Guests In The World Of Star Wars 

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge wasn’t the first Disney theme park land to be dedicated to a single IP, but it took the concept started by Pandora: The World of Avatar and raised it to a new level. Rather than creating a world that guests knew from the films, the idea was to make the theme park land a new place where guests could create their own Star Wars story.

Galaxy’s Edge is set on Batuu, a planet on the Outer Rim of the galaxy far, far away, and one created specifically for the theme parks. In addition to having a location in space, it also had a location in time. The world was set in between the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Only characters from the new trilogy could be found in the attractions or wandering the land.

Beyond that, Batuu was given its own characters, as Cast Members working in the land were people working on Batuu. The items for sale in the shops were not Star Wars-branded merchandise items, they were toys and clothes that might be sold to a person living in that world. Approaching Oga’s Cantina the hostess might greet you with the words “Bright suns,” the traditional “Hello” of Batuu. One cast member stopped me to warn me about the lightsaber I built, to be sure I knew the First Order might arrest me if they knew I had it.

Guests Ultimately Weren’t Interested In Living A Star Wars Adventure 

It didn’t take too long for a lot of the ideas that made Galaxy’s Edge different to fade away. The food items at Docking Bay 7, the major dining location, which had been given unique Star Wars-style names, saw changes very quickly. It seemed most people were either confused on what Tip-Yip even was (chicken) or they just thought it was silly ordering that.

As I wandered through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on a recent trip to Disneyland, just taking in the land in a way I hadn’t in quite a long time, I began to realize how much of those little details had faded away. Nobody greeted me with "Bright suns." When I grabbed a drink at Oga’s Cantina, nobody acted like I was getting a table in a wretched hive of scum and villainy, they just made sure I knew I couldn’t stay for more than 45 minutes. Characters walking the land are now from all over the Star Wars timeline.

The old Galaxy’s Edge isn’t entirely gone. You’ll occasionally see a Cast Member as Rey hiding from stormtroopers, whether or not anybody sees what she’s doing. I overheard some people in Dok Ondar’s looking at lightsabers. The woman working the counter gave it her Batuu best, talking about the hilts as if they were real antiques, or were at least replicas of “real” things, but the family she was speaking with wasn’t interested in playing the game.

I don’t even blame the guests for this. Not everybody is interested in LARPing on vacation. Most of us don't “play pretend” as adults, and even if that’s something you’re interested in, when you’re surrounded by others who aren’t in on it, it makes it difficult. But if there aren’t enough people in Galaxy’s Edge on any given day who are willing to play, how did anybody think the Galactic Starcruiser was going to work?

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Cost Too Much, But More Importantly It Asked Too Much

The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser took the concepts of play from Galaxy’s Edge and turned the dial up to 11. Now guests would be involved in a multi-day Star Wars story that took place around them whether they were there or not. The places you ate and slept were part of the story, and guests were encouraged to play along, interacting with Cast Members in costume as if they were all on the same intergalactic journey.

I never had the full experience, but I did get to preview the Galactic Starcruiser, and I was amazed by everything I saw. It was the most impressive piece of themed entertainment I have ever seen. Many have said the price was a problem, and to be sure, it was an expensive experience. The price was the reason I never went back, as I didn’t have that kind of cash. But that was only a secondary influence on the real problem.

To be clear, the price was probably exactly what it needed to be, as I believe Galactic Starcruiser was likely the most expensive square footage to run at all of Walt Disney World. But the price limited the pool of guests in two ways. Not only did you have to be able to afford the Starcruiser, you had to be able to afford it and believe that what the Starcruiser offered was an experience that sounded like fun.

As Galaxy’s Edge has proven for five years, that second pool of people who want to play like they’re part of their own Star Wars story is limited. Yes, if the price had been lower, more people who wanted to have that kind of experience would have been able to do so. Also, more people who weren’t as interested in playing that game would have shown up, and they would have impacted the experience negatively for everybody else. If Starcruiser had lived that way, it likely would have survived as Galaxy's Edge does now, as something less creative than it was meant to be. It was a lose-lose situation.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I hope there is one. If the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser had survived, I would have done it eventually. I would have found the money because I love what it wanted to be. I hope Disney can make the concept work someday, but this idea was doomed.

This past Mother’s Day, we all got to celebrate our moms, and learned that if you love her, you should take your mom to Disneyland. The family of The Mandalorian star Katee Sackhoff learned this lesson well, as that’s where she spent the day with her family. Which, of course, brought out all the Star Wars fans since we assume she spent some time at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Sackhoff posted an image to Instagram showing herself with her husband and daughter in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Everybody is all smiles and looking wonderful. Sackhoff calls the day the “perfect Mother’s Day,” and honestly, it sounds perfect to me.

Celebrities visiting Disneyland are a common occurrence. Famous people love the parks as much as the rest of us. Of course, for Sackhoff, things can get even more personal, as she can walk into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and actually run into The Mandalorian and Grogu, as well as Ahsoka Tano, characters she "knows" quite well. It’s unclear if that happened, but several comments on the post came from Star Wars (and Battlestar Galactica) fans with comments like…

• "Should go to the Star Wars part of the park and dress up as Bo Katan" - sith.stat
• "Do you just walk into Galaxy’s Edge and claim your throne and dominance?" - brian85b
• "Kid standing in line: “'Mom, that’s Bo-Katan' Mom: 'No it’s not' Dad: 'That’s Starbuck...'" - redweaponx

Thinking about it, I realize there is one thing that is seriously missing at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and that’s Bo-Batan Kryze as a face character. Several characters from the Star Wars Disney+ series have been added to Galaxy’s Edge. The Mandalorian and Grogu are there, Ahsoka Tano is there, and Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are there. But so far Bo-Katan has not been added, and that should probably change.

Bo-Katan is a major character in modern Star Wars. She was first introduced in an animated form in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and has since made the jump to live action. When Ahsoka and Sabine Wren did that, they got to be characters in the parks. Justice for Bo-Katan!

Perhaps she could be added when The Mandalorian & Grogu opens in theaters. While we don’t know for certain that Katee Sackhoff will be appearing in the film, the Mandalorian & Grogu details we have are pretty limited at this point. It certainly seems likely that some of the recurring characters from the series, outside of the title characters, will appear. We’re used to seeing new characters added to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland when new series come out.

It’s virtually guaranteed that the movie, currently slated to be the first of several upcoming Star Wars movies, will result in at least one new theme park character. But honestly, Bo-Katan doesn’t need to wait. She should be added to Galaxy’s Edge now!

Spring is here, and that means that what passes for a slow season at Disneyland Resort is coming to an end. The summer months are right around the corner, and millions are likely planning trips to the park very soon. But if you eyeing a Disneyland trip this May, get ready, because things are going to be significantly more crowded than they usually are. This is not only because crowds are sure to increase, possibly more than usual, but also because these crowds will have less space to move around in.

Two major seasonal events taking place at Disneyland simultaneously this May, and when combined with significant Disneyland attraction closures, this means it will be tougher to navigate the park starting this May. At this point, it’s far from clear exactly when things will get any better.

May Is Always Crowded At Disneyland, And This Year Will Be No Exception 

May isn’t technically summer, but Disney Parks often refer to Memorial Day Weekend as part of the summer season. With the school year coming to an end, May is the month that tends to see a significant uptick in guests visiting Disneyland, as the free time to visit the park significantly increases for many.

Disneyland Resort is certainly going to be encouraging people to visit the parks in May. Two different seasonal events will be running simultaneously in May. Season of The Force, the Star Wars-themed event that began April 5, which includes new elements on Star Tours, will only be half over when we reach May the Fourth. Additionally, Pixar Fest will have begun on April 26 and is set to run into early August.

Whether these two events bring in more guests than your average May remains to be seen, but we can certainly be sure that Disneyland won’t be any less crowded than it usually is, and may very well be more crowded. This is a bigger issue than it would otherwise be because Disneyland is going to be a much smaller park than it usually is in May.

A Significant Portion Of Disneyland Will Be Closed This May 

Disneyland has been dealing with two major attraction closures for the last few months. Splash Mountain is in the middle of its transformation into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a ride that isn’t expected to open until sometime in the back half of 2024. Also, the best ride at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion, closed in January for a major queue renovation, and its reopening date is also unknown. This is especially a problem because both rides are right next to each other. At this point, there isn’t even a break in the construction walls between the two attractions, and those walls are about to get longer.

Starting on May 1, all of Critter Country, the land that includes Splash Mountain/Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, is set to close down as two gift shops attached to the log flume ride get rethemed into Princess and the Frog-themed shops. While it’s unlikely that work will take too long, no reopening date for the land was announced alongside the closure.

This means that an entire corner of the park, basically everything west of the New Orleans Square train station, will be closed. This may or may not also block one of the entrances to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a passage through the construction may be left open.

Critter Country is not the largest of lands. Outside of Splash/Tiana’s, it’s home to only the Winnie the Pooh dark ride, the Hungry Bear quick service restaurant and a few shops. Still, not having access to it just means that the guests in the park will be crammed into even less space. Beyond that, there simply isn’t a reason for any guests to go any further into New Orleans Square than Tiana’s Palace because nothing beyond that is open.

Disneyland Park Is Going To Feel More Crowded Than Usual, And It May Last A While 

Take the normal, if not the inflated, number of guests in the park, and then thrown in a park that is going to be smaller than usual, and you have a recipe for crowds. With two major attractions that usually devour crowds into the queues not able to do so, combined with the fact that the amount of general pedestrian space will be reduced, you’re just going to have a lot more people than usual in the remaining space. This is going to mean longer lines on the remaining attractions, and more than likely just walking through the park is going to be a bit more difficult.

At this point, exactly when this period will end is unclear. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has a “late 2024” opening date, which means we're likely looking at something in the fall. The Haunted Mansion doesn’t have a reopening date, but there’s every reason to believe we might not even see the classic Haunted Mansion at all this year. This could mean that even if the attraction is ready, it also might not open until the end of summer at the earliest. We still have months to wait here.

The Critter Country closure is likely to be much shorter, though how short is difficult to say. The closure of Critter Country entirely will give the people working on renovating the two gift shops the freedom to do whatever they need to do, without needing to work around guests. As such, we can expect the plan here is to work as fast as possible and just get it all done.

Beyond that, the gift shop work is just retheming; there are no moving parts like renovating attractions, so this work shouldn’t take too long, weeks rather than months. But whether we’re talking Critter Country being closed for just a couple weeks or a month or more, we don't know, and every day counts.

All this work, all these construction walls and all the guest inconvenience will certainly be worth it. When the work is done, this corner of Disneyland is sure to look amazing and be better than ever. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a lot of fun to get to that point.

As somebody who goes to Disneyland as often as possible, and is lucky to have a job that allows me to go frequently, I understand the desire to never leave the happiest place on earth. Disneyland and Disney World are both wonderful places that mean a lot to a lot of people, which is why, unfortunately, there is a fairly significant problem with people dumping human remains at Disney Parks. While the Haunted Mansion is, for obvious reasons, the main place such things happen, somebody reportedly dumped human ashes on Rise of the Resistance. And this is just getting out of hand. 

A now-deleted image originally posted to r/Disneyland on Reddit, but since reposted to Twitter, shows the aftermath of what are allegedly human ashes that had been dumped on the ground in the middle of the Rise of the Resistance attraction. The floor is gray with dust, likely after multiple of the trackless ride vehicles rolled through what had apparently been dumped off the ride by somebody who had gone on it with this purpose in mind.

If the image really is what it purports to be, it’s pretty terrible, both because it’s not exactly hygienic, but it also requires a pretty considerable cleaning response from the Janitorial cast members. It’s called Hepa Cleanup because special filters are required for dealing with such fine particles when vacuuming everything. It’s also a biohazard issue because you’re dealing with biological material.  

The problems with doing this are many. First off, the ride has to be shut down for a not-inconsiderable amount of time to do the necessary cleaning. It's never fun to have to deal with closed attractions at Disneyland, and dealing with an unscheduled, but significant closure for this sort of cleanup would be really frustrating.  

A closure on Rise of the Resistance means closing one of the best rides at Disneyland. And it’s not exactly nice for people to have to have to clean up such things. It's always the best rides where this seems to happen as well. Remains get dropped in the water of Pirates of the Caribbean and in various places all over the Haunted Mansion, by people who apparently want to make a loved one the 1,000th happy haunt.

This has been an issue for years, decades, and it certainly doesn’t appear to be fading away. At the end of the day, there’s only so much that Disney Parks can do. Human remains are something that would be fairly easy to sneak into the park under anything but the most invasive searches, and that’s just not likely to happen. As such all the theme parks are going to be able to do is react to it happening, rather than prevent it from happening. 

All I can do is recommend that you just don’t do it, there are cast members who watch attractions specifically for this, so there’s a decent chance that you’ll get caught even if you’re successful, and getting banned from Disneyland seems likely to be the response from the resort once you’re busted. And who wants that?

Walt Disney Imagineering has created some pretty incredible stuff over the decades, but few have been quite as embraced as Walt Disney World’s “real” lightsaber. It was fully extendable, just like the real thing and something we had never seen before. The invention was the work of Imagineer Lanny Smoot, who says developing the new lightsaber was even more difficult than he had anticipated.

Lanny Smoot has been inventing things for Disney Parks for over 25 years. His work has been so influential and inspirational that he was recently named one of the newest inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. I had a chance to speak with Smoot this week and I asked him if there was any invention of his that he found particularly challenging to create. He gave me two different examples, but both were different variations of the classic Star Wars lightsaber. Smoot said…  

First demonstrated in a media livestream by Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro, the extendable lightsaber was a hilt that could be ignited, as we’ve seen in Star Wars movies, that resulted in a full-size glowing “blade” extending up. It was used as part of a finale performance as part of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience before it joined the list of attractions that have closed at Walt Disney World.

Lightsaber Training was an “onboard experience” for the Galactic Starcruiser. Guests used “training lightsabers” to learn to block incoming blasts. When I visited the Galactic Starcruiser before it officially opened for guests, I got to do the lightsaber training and I saw the extendable lightsaber in use, and both were quite impressive. 

Of course, with the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser officially closed, both of these cool lightsabers, which took a lot of work to make, are unavailable to guests, putting them in the same class as Where's the Fire?, the Epcot attraction Smoot misses the most. I asked Lanny Smoot if he was aware of any plans to bring them back into Walt Disney World at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. While he didn’t confirm anything, it certainly sounds like the extendable lightsaber will return, and the technology behind the lightsaber training could be repurposed. He told me…

We know that Walt Disney Imagineering is already working on ideas of what to do with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser now that it's closed. It will likely become something else Star Wars-related, so perhaps that’s where we’ll see this cool technology again. Imagineering is always working on new attractions for Walt Disney World, so we can be sure the building, and the lightsabers, won't be gone too long.

The Star Wars sequel trilogy introduces Kylo Ren a man who is absolutely unhinged by his anger. By the end, however, he has moved on from that darkness. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland is technically set in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, and one now has to wonder if the moment that set the villain back on the path of righteousness was an adorable child Stormtrooper.

A TikTok going viral shows an adorable moment at Disneyland Resort that sees a small child, dressed as a Stormtrooper, come up to Kylo Ren. The kid just gives him a look, and Kylo Ren immediately puts out a hand, like the kid just pulled a Jedi mind trick, and the two begin to walk together. You can hear people in the crowd audibly reacting to the beautiful moment, and it will likely melt your heart as well.

Generally speaking, these characters in the parks have a role to play, and they play them. The Stormtroopers and Kylo Ren don’t speak with their own voices, instead reacting with several preprogrammed options that the performers can access. As you might expect, the majority of statements that Stormtroopers or Kylo Ren can say are not exactly friendly. The dialogue here, despite being preprogrammed, is perfect. The first Stormtrooper tries to warn the kid off, but then Kylo Ren says everything is “fine” and then the Troopers visibly stand down.

It’s a somewhat delicate balancing act to have characters who are supposed to be the bad guys, but not in a way that they will be entirely off-putting to small children. The fact that these performers don’t break character is part of the fun for all ages. And hey, we never see Kylo Ren with small children in the sequel trilogy, maybe he’s always like this with trainees.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World are still some of the most impressive achievements we’ve seen from Disney Parks. As a construction project, it transports you to another world. When you walk into it feels like you’ve left Disneyland and become part of the galaxy far, far away. Over the years we’ve seen the land’s original concept, as a location in both space and time, begin to falter, with Disneyland especially adding characters from all over the Star Wars timeline to visit Batuu. But I’m not sure anybody is too worried about the details when they see their favorite character, whoever that might be. 

But that’s the magic of places like Disneyland. The suspension of disbelief, to be able to see a person in a Kylo Ren costume as the character, and not the performer, is a kind of magic that we just don’t see elsewhere.  People can have real emotional reactions to hugging Mickey Mouse or holding hands with Kylo Ren. 

Star Wars has been a major movie franchise for over 40 years, which means it has had a significant impact on multiple generations. People who saw the original movie as young adults may be introducing grandchildren to it today. But one Disneyland fan recently introduced her Star Wars-loving father to the galaxy, far, far away in a whole new way by taking him to Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and it’s all quite emotional.

Fellow theme park reporter, and general all-around lovely person, Sabina Graves posted a pair of videos to Instagram which have been getting a lot of love. They show her father, who watched the original Star Wars as a child in Mexico, experiencing Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland for the first time. The joy on his face as he sees the Millennium Falcon cannot be properly described, it must simply be seen.

In this moment, Dad is all of us. If you’re a big Star Wars fan who has been to Galaxy’s Edge, I just have to assume that you had a similar reaction to seeing Chewbacca or the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon especially is an incredible set piece, one that, in many ways is more “real” than anything ever designed for the movies.

Sabina talks about how trips to Disneyland for her own birthday were a way they celebrated, so this was her birthday present to her Star Wars-loving dad. That makes all of it just that little bit more special. They’re certainly not the only family that shares a love of Star Wars.

But if there’s one thing that’s even more amazing than seeing the Millennium Falcon, it’s flying the Millennium Falcon. In a follow-up video, we see Dad on Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. He’s in the co-pilot seat, which is, without question, the best spot on the ride because you get to pull the lever that takes you into hyperspace.  This act is guaranteed to make any Star Wars fan smile, and it certainly does that here.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a truly unique location. It’s unlike any other land at Disneyland or Walt Disney World when it comes to making you feel like you’re inside the world created by the films by simply walking around. Even though the planet Batuu was created specifically for the theme parks, it feels distinctly Star Wars. Whether you visit Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland or Disney World, it's worth the trip.

I never get tired of walking through Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge during my trips to Disneyland. I often don't even bother with either of the rides. I just enjoy walking through the land, maybe seeing one of the Star Wars characters also wandering through, as if we're both just visiting. Maybe grabbing a glass of green milk, which is superior to blue milk.

People often talk about the attention to detail that you find when you visit Walt Disney World. While the major attractions and creative design are what capture the imagination, if you look closely, you’ll find that everything, from the paint to the ground beneath your feet, is specifically designed to help tell the story. That’s all the more true at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, where even the trash cans occasionally need to be overhauled so that guests don’t lose the illusion. 

Recently a picture surfaced on the Walt Disney World subreddit showing a truck full of Batuu trashcans being hauled away. The OP assumed that the trash cans simply needed to be repainted since spending every day in the Florida sun is going to eventually cause any paint to fade. However, a professional custodian chimed in with a comment that changed the whole thing, as it may not have been only the outside of the cans that required attention. He explained…

When you hear it explained, it makes all the sense in the world, but it likely wasn’t something most of us consider. Especially when you think about all the stuff, mostly the amazing Disney World food, that ends up in Disney World trash cans, and then ends up sitting in them for most of the day in the previously discussed Florida sun, there are going to be some interesting smells that develop. And yet, trash cans at Disney World are generally so clean you can sign your marriage license on them at Magic Kingdom. 

One of the biggest Walt Disney World myths is that trash doesn't stay in trash cans because there's a tube system underground that vacuums the garbage out. While such a system does exist, it's located at a few points backstage, not actually under the trash cans. You can tell because trash cans move when costumed characters get mad and kick them.

I have to say that, while I’m sure there have been cases when I have smelled garbage at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, those times have been few and far between, which likely means that a lot of work is done to keep these trash cans clean. The fact that this is one of those things that guests don’t think about speaks to how well the resorts must handle it. We’ve never needed to think about it.

Of course, now it’s all ruined as I may never walk past a trash can at a Disney park without thinking about what might be going on inside there. The good news is that I can apparently be thankful that they can get regularly cleaned inside as well as out.

Walt Disney World took a leap into the unknown with the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. The two-night stay gave guests a cosmic experience that we hadn’t seen before in the world of themed entertainment. Unfortunately, the "Star Wars Hotel" as many called it, was apparently a bit too specialized. With that, Disney World announced that the Starcruiser will close at the end of September after it had difficulty finding enough Star Wars fans to keep it profitable. But it sounds like the resort may already be looking toward whatever is about to come next.

Attractions and experiences end at WDW all the time, but rarely does that happen without something new filling that space. Once a ride closes, construction begins on whatever ride is set to replace it as is happening with the anticipated Tiana's Bayou Adventure right now. So are there plans to replace the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser with something else? Speaking with The Points Guy, Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products Chairman Josh  D’Amaro made it clear that something is coming, and it sounds like there may already be more specific plans in play. D’Amaro said:

The Parks Chairman smiled when he said this apparently, and the fact that he specifically refused to provide any hints would seem to indicate that there are hints that could have been given. We can then perhaps read a bit into the statement to believe that not only will something replace the Galactic Starcruiser, which seemed all but certain, but that plans are already in motion.

That doesn’t mean that Disney World already knows exactly what’s going into the space. However, they may already have a general idea that is currently being discussed, designed and refined. 

What comes next could be literally anything, though something else that’s also Star Wars-related would seem to make the most sense. There’s already a path that leads from the Star Cruiser to Galaxy’s Edge, as guests who stayed there had access to the Star Wars land during their time, so using it to transport guests between the two similarly themed locations would certainly work.

And expanding Galaxy’s Edge in some way would certainly be popular. A lot of the concepts that had originally been announced for the Star Wars theme park land ended up getting locked behind the paywall of the Galactic Starcruiser, to the frustration of many. Perhaps we could see some of that brought into the area proper via the newly free space. 

Whatever comes along almost certainly won’t be happening too soon. The Galactic Starcruiser still has three more months of operation before it closes and, whatever comes next, even if exec know exactly what they want by then, will almost certainly take time to transform the space. Still, however it pans out, we know for sure, something will happen, and that’s exciting. 

With the creation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World the galaxy far, far away has become a huge part of the parks, quite literally. Between the land’s two incredible attractions, Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, as well as the previously existing Star Tours, fans have several different ways to experience Star Wars in attractions, but Jon Favreau has an idea for a Mandalorian attraction that sounds even better than any of them.

Speaking with IMDb, Favreau was asked how he would create a Mandalorian ride in the Disney Parks. Needless to say, Favreau would probably consume all of Walt Disney Imagineering’s budget with his idea. It sounds incredibly massive, but also absolutely incredible. He imagines a Razer Crest flight experience that would actually implement aspects of the filmmaking techniques that the show itself uses. Favreau said…  

There’s a lot to absolutely love about this idea. At its core, it sounds like it could be a version of Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run that swaps out the Falcon for the Mandalorian’s ship. That ride is quite immersive as it has you actually controlling the ship in various ways, with lots of haptic integration as the ship gets knocked around in battle, or by bad piloting.

But beyond that, Favreu would want something that also shows elements of what The Mandalorian show deals with on a regular basis. Rather than using green screens to create alien worlds, The Mandalorian films in what’s called the Volume, a collection of screens that display the world and are able to move along with the actors on screen to make it look like they’re really there.

For Favreau, this would be a key element of his attraction idea because he thinks combining the educational aspect of teaching people how the show is made is important. For him being able to see behind the scenes was a big part of why he fell in love with movie-making. He continued…

And something that looks behind the scenes certainly wouldn’t be out of place at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened as a park where that was its main focus. Combining educational elements with entertaining attractions was also an early focus of both Disneyland’s Tomorrowland as well as the park that became Epcot Center.

It would be cool to see some of those educational and behind-the-scenes elements return in a Disney Parks attraction. And the odds of seeing something like this, while still a long shot, are perhaps better than they once were. The Mandalorian was recently added as a walk-around character at both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which would seem to indicate the parks are paying less attention to the previously established timeline. If that’s the case, a Mandalorian attraction in a future Galaxy’s Edge expansion is at least a theoretical possibility. 

It’s only been a year since the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser opened at Walt Disney World. And while the “Star Wars Hotel” was met with massive crowds and positive reviews at the outset, things have changed drastically in the last few months. It’s become clear that the Starcruiser is having trouble filling itself to capacity, and now the location has made a new big change to deal with this problem, by simply reducing the number of available dates. 

Currently, Galactic Starcruiser dates are available every other day, and when I say available, you can still book a stay for tomorrow if you want to. Only a handful of individual stays are currently sold out in the next few months, which is a big change from opening when it was sold out for months. But starting in October, the Galactic Starcruiser is set to essentially shut down mid-week. With stays starting only on Fridays and Sundays, with holiday weeks, like Thanksgiving and Christmas including an extra stay on Tuesday. In a statement, Disney said…

What this also says, if read a certain way, is that guests don’t need as many Starcruiser launch dates as they previously had; the demand is simply not there. This had been a concern from the beginning. The fact that the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was designed to be an “immersive” Star Wars experience, and that it was quite expensive, caused many to wonder just how big the potential audience was. 

It now seems clear the audience was not as big as previously believed. If the Starcruiser simply doesn’t have enough guests to justify running full-time, that’s not a good sign. If the Starcruiser can basically cut one-third of its operational time, it can cut more. While this certainly doesn’t mean the Starcruiser could shut down entirely anytime soon, it’s certainly a first step in that direction if this change doesn’t improve things. 

In recent months we’ve seen signs that Disney World was having trouble filling the Galactic Starcruiser. While no discounts on the Star Wars experience have been offered to the general public, we have seen discounts given to resort stays that include the Starcruiser. Discounts have been offered to Disney Cast Members who book the experience, up to 50% off.

More recently, we’ve seen the addition of The Mandalorian and Grogu to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This is a significant addition because the characters are from a different point in the Star Wars timeline than Galaxy’s Edge, and more importantly, the Galactic Starcruiser had been set by Disney. The story being told on the Starcruiser is set at a point in time, but if Galaxy’s Edge is becoming more flexible, one wonders if that could mean changes are coming for the Starcruiser.

Changes were always to be expected with the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. What Walt Disney Imagineering did there was unlike anything that anybody had ever tried before. As such, it was all but certain that mistakes would be made, and not everything would be just right. How do you perfectly do something that nobody has ever seen before? At the end of the day, if this is the change that is required to make sure the Starcruiser remains in operation, then it’s a change worthy of making. 

When Disneyland opened in 1955, it set a template for the idea of what a theme park is meant to be. It wasn’t simply a collection of attractions within a border. These rides -- along with restaurants, gift shops, and everything else -- were designed to fit together in small groups, creating different lands. Nearly 70 years later, this concept is still largely in use today.

But today, something is a bit different. Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood, the newest theme park land to open, follows in a long line of theme park areas that don’t simply bring together similar ideas. Instead, they focus on a single intellectual property in order to try and bring it to life on a grand scale. From the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, every new theme park land for the last several years has been like this and, with this, it seems like the classic theme park land may be dead.

Classic Theme Park Lands Were Based Around Concepts, Not Specific Stories

Not every theme or amusement park even bothers to divide itself up into different areas or themes but, when Disneyland opened in 1955, it largely set the standard by which all future parks would be judged. The original Disneyland saw a variety of different attractions, some inspired directly by films, others by general concepts and themes found in the House of Mouse's projects.

This allowed various attractions from different properties, or even those not based on a specific property, to co-exist. It made sense to have Dumbo’s Flying Elephants close to the Snow White dark ride or the Jungle Cruise near Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. 

Tomorrowland had attractions that looked to the future, and Frontierland gave you a look at civilizations past. Nobody worried about the fact that Autopia was next to Space Mountain. As new attractions were added, a place was found for them and said location made sense. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Started A Trend That Is Not Stopping

For the most part, this was how theme park lands generally worked for decades. There were certainly some minor exceptions. Universal’s Islands of Adventure opened with locales dedicated to Marvel Comics characters and even the world of Dr. Seuss, which certainly focused things a bit more than more general lands -- but the park had some of those too.

Things changed in a pretty big way in 2010, and Universal Orlando Resort was actually the place where it happened. When The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened, we were given a brand new theme park land, with attractions, shops, and food -- all focused on a specific film franchise. This was the first time fans would see a theme park land so specific, but it wouldn’t be the last.

Since the Wizarding World opened at Universal Orlando, we’ve seen Disney answer back with several similar theme park lands. First, there was Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Later, the world marveled at the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which not only was designed to create a new planet in the galaxy far, far away but was also set at a particular point in time of the Skywalker Saga. Most recently, parkgoers were welcomed to Avengers Campus at both Disney California Adventure and Disneyland Paris. The area takes the Islands of Marvel concept from Universal and ups the ante by setting the land specifically inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, rather than simply being a land full of various Marvel attractions.

And now, Universal Studios Hollywood has Super Nintendo World. The name is even something of a misnomer, as it would sound like its a land dedicated to multiple Nintendo properties. But there’s nothing Zelda or Metroid related to be found there, the whole land is a version of the Mushroom Kingdom from the Super Mario Bros. games.

Now, Super Nintendo World is amazing. I got to visit the new land, and it’s an incredible place that I love. It simply wouldn’t be the same pl if it didn’t go all-in on the Mushroom Kingdom aesthetic, but the fact that even a land about Nintendo is limiting itself to only one of the company's notable franchises shows that theme park lands that could bring multiple IPs together are not really being considered.

Most Of What’s Coming From Theme Parks Sounds Like More Of The Same

And when we look at what’s coming from major theme parks in the future, nearly everything is more of the new normal -- entire theme park lands dedicated to single IPs at the exclusion of all else. Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris are getting lands dedicated to Frozen, while Shanghai Disney Resort is getting one focused on Zootopia.  (And not only are the lands in development, but so are sequels to both films.)

Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe, the new theme park set to open in 2025, looks to be an entire theme park dedicated to only a few franchises. While little about the park has been officially confirmed, we know it will get its own Super Nintendo World. It’s also being reported it will see another Harry Potter-themed land, one dedicated to How To Train Your Dragon, and one dedicated to Universal Monsters, which allows for some flexibility but is still the equivalent of a Marvel land that focuses only on the MCU.

While we have few specifics about what Walt Disney World is planning for its next big additions, what we do know would seem to back this up. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is getting ready to replace the Dinoland U.S.A. area and, at last year’s D32 Expo, Parks Chief Josh D’Amaro floated two possible ideas for what could go there. These were a land dedicated to Zootopia (which would probably be similar to what’s happening in China) or one dedicated to Moana. In either case, it’s another single-IP project. 

At the same show, an expansion was teased for Magic Kingdom that could see a new land built there. Two of the three ideas that were floated were again single franchises, Coco and Encanto, in this case. However, there was a third that might make for an exception to this new rule.

Could Disney Villains Change Things?

The third idea that was floated for the area being called “Beyond Thunder Mountain” was a land dedicated to Disney Villains. This is an interesting idea because it would break this trend of single IP theme park lands. Anything dedicated to Disney Villains as a general concept would need to include lots of characters, and that means creating multiple attractions, with each one dedicated to a different Disney story.

Of course, we have no idea if this land will happen, and honestly, based on the popularity of Super Nintendo World, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and the rest, it seems unlikely that we’re going to see a theme park build a modern version of Adventureland anytime soon.

These lands that only focus on one media property are pretty amazing in their own right. They allow for some incredible design ideas that we wouldn't get otherwise. But it would be nice to get a mix of elements, a land like Super Nintendo World followed by one that brings more variety into the park. Maybe that day will come again.

Today’s a big day for Star Wars fans as the first episode of Season 3 of The Mandalorian has arrived. And as it turns out, that’s not the only new place to find Din Djardin and Grogu today. The duo made their first appearance, completely unannounced, at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While a cool moment for fans, it raises potential questions about the future of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

The Mandalorian has been appearing regularly at the Disneyland Resort version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge for months, but there had never been any mention of the character making the jump to Walt Disney World. While we were never given an official reason for this, the belief has been it’s all about the Galaxy Edge timeline. While both lands are officially set during the Star Wars sequel trilogy, the Disney World version is seen as less flexible due to the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. We've now seen that timeline flex for the first time. Is this an indication of changes to come for the Starcruiser?

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Is Set In The Sequel Trilogy

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was first opened, the land was unique in many ways for a theme park, but one key way that was the case was in how the land was set in time. The events happening on Batuu were designed to occur in the middle of the sequel trilogy of Star Wars, specifically, in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. What happened there was supposed to be, more or less, Star Wars canon.

This was cool when it came to an element of role-playing, where guests could feel like they were part of a Star Wars adventure in a new way, but it was also limiting, as it meant only characters that could exist in that era would appear. Fans hoping to see Darth Vader were out of luck.

That started to change, at Disneyland at least, with the introduction of The Mandalorian and Boba Fett as walk-around characters. The timeline became a bit flexible, with the idea that now you could be standing on Batuu in different eras in time based on which characters were walking around. But Disney World has remained locked into its sequel-era timeline, almost certainly because of the Galactic Starcruiser. 

The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Tells A Very Specific Story

The Star Wars (don’t call it a hotel) Galactic Starcruiser is a multi-night Star Wars experience that takes the idea that started at Galaxy’s Edge to an additional level of immersion. Guests can truly create their own story by interacting with characters and engaging in different activities, and a story unfolds around guests as time passes. But once again, that story is about the First Order commandeering the cruise ship that guests have boarded, and the Resistance trying to fight back. 

Starcruiser guests get access to Galaxy’s Edge for one day during their stay, and they can engage in unique activities that tie into and impact their Starcruiser story. And for that reason, Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios sort of needs to continue to exist in the sequel trilogy era only. And yet, not only is the Mandalorian walking around today, he’s doing it on the day that Starcruiser guests will be visiting.

If the timeline is now allowed to be more flexible at Walt Disney World, then what does that mean for the Galactic Starcruiser? We know that the Starcruiser hasn’t been as popular recently as it was when it opened a year ago. Disney has been offering promotional deals to entice people to visit and has even been offering Cast Members substantial discounts.  While it's unclear how full the Starcruiser even needs to be in order to be considered successful, there aren't that many rooms available, so not filling them is a significant issue. 

Could Changes At Galaxy's Edge Mean Changes For The Galactic Starcruiser?

Could Disney be getting ready to make some sort of change to the Galactic Starcruiser? It may seem like a minor thing to have different eras of Star Wars collide at Galaxy’s Edge, but Disney is known for getting the details right. And for those who have decided to spend a lot of money on Galactic Starcruiser, it’s going to potentially lose a lot of magic when guests move to Batuu and find themselves standing face to face with characters that aren’t part of their story.

The Galactic Starcrusier certainly isn’t going anywhere, not anytime soon, and to be fair changes to it shouldn’t be surprising. What Walt Disney Imagineering did here was unprecedented, and there was no way to know it would work the first time out. It’s clear that those that get the most out of the Starcruiser are those that are getting involved and engaged with the story and the characters. And any story like that needs to exist at a fixed point in time. It doesn’t have to be the sequel trilogy, but you can’t do what Starcruiser does without setting your story in time. 

It’s possible that The Mandalorian’s appearance here is not going to be a regular thing the way it is at Disneyland. This could simply be a move to promote the new season, and Mando could be gone forever tomorrow. But if this is the beginning of something new for Galaxy’s Edge, that could also mean something new for the Starcruiser. New doesn’t mean bad, but for those fans that like what Starcruiser is, who wanted to experience their own Start Wars adventure in that way, this change is potentially bad news.

Both Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and the Galactic Starcruiser will change over time. Themed entertainment changes and evolves, it's part of the deal. If The Mandalorian is part of the regular cast of characters that Disney World guests will meet going forward, that's great for them. And if the Galactic Starcruiser really is struggling to find its niche, that's ok too. Hopefully, if this is a sign of a big change to come, whatever Imagineering has come up with will be even more impressive.

When Bob Iger returned to the role of CEO of the Walt Disney Company it was clear that significant changes would be in store for the entire organization. Many top-level changes, like the dismantling of Bob Chapek’s DMED organization, were expected. But what’s been perhaps more surprising are the number of significant changes that have already taken place at the consumer level. First we saw changes to everything from parking fees at Walt Disney World resorts to park hopping rules, making trips to the resort much easier. And now Disneyland has done the nearly unthinkable, and actually removed recent price increases, making some add-on experiences more affordable.

Back in October, we saw a massive price increase nearly across the board for domestic Disney parks. Ticket prices went up, of course, as did prices on food and additional experiences, like droid and lightsaber building at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. However, as of now, the prices for those Star Wars experiences have seen prices drop back down, at least at Disneyland. The Lightsaber building is back down to $220 per blade, down from $250, and the Droid workshop is down to $100 from $120. Lightsaber building is still a bit more expensive than the $200 it was when Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland in 2019.

As of this writing, pricing hasn’t changed at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World. It’s possible that the Disneyland experience saw a noticeable drop in revenue due to the price increases, but Walt Disney World did not, leading to the two resorts having different prices. But whatever the reason for Disneyland dropping the price, it’s incredible to see such a move made. We almost never see prices at Disney Parks go back down once they’ve gone up. 

This change, along with the addition of free hotel parking at Walt Disney World resorts, something that was available years ago but hasn’t been for some time, shows that there’s something of an effort to walk back some of the changes made under the previous regime, and to generally try to give guests at Disneyland and Walt Disney World more for their money. Many fans and vacations have found over the last few years that between price increases and added paid services, like the paid Genie+ replacing the free FastPass system. Parks were more expensive, but were adding little to no additional value for those added costs.

One hopes this won’t be the end of the changes at the consumer level. While a complete rollback of all recent price increases seems unlikely, some of these changes are happening without attention begging drawn to them, so it’s possible we could see more changes happen in the weekend and months to come. Bob Iger will host his first earnings results call since Iger’s return this week. There will certainly be questions for the new old boss, and possibly some new announcements of further changes.

A trip to Walt Disney World is going to cost you some money, we all know this. Prices have only gone up year after year and the Disney Parks saw a massive price increase a couple months back. One park goer recently highlighted just how expensive a day in the parks can be, and while the amount, nearly $,000 is quite mind boggling, not everybody thinks this is a fair look at what a trip costs.

A video recently went viral on TikTok which shows a family that visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios and spent $3,758 over the course of a single day. While that amount might convince you to never visit Walt Disney World, you may want to watch the video to just see how that money was spent over the course of that day.

No matter how you look at it, that is absolutely a lot of money to spend in one day, especially considering that most people go to Walt Disney World for more than one day, and thus will be spending a lot more. However, many comments on the video are critical of the way this is presented.

While this family of five chose to spend that much money, there was no requirement that they actually do so. Their breakfast was expensive, over $200, but it was a character breakfast, where costumed characters visit your table and you can get photos with them, and those are going to be more expensive. Cheaper breakfast is available. Their total also includes their nightly hotel rate of nearly $1,000 a night, and there are many other much cheaper hotels even on property. 

There are also the ancillary optional charges that of course guests don’t need to pay. They spent the money on the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lightsaber building experience, which arguably is worth more because there’s a whole show that goes with it, so part of what you’re paying for is the experience. They're also simply some of the most expensive souvenirs in the parks.

They also bought other souvenirs, like ear headbands, and unless they plan to spend the same amount on souvenirs every day of the trip, it’s perhaps unfair to put that cost all on one day. The same goes for Memory Maker, the service that allows you to own all your pictures taken by Disney photographers. They put the $170 cost all on this day, even though that price covers your entire vacation. Also, if they paid $170, they actually paid for Memory Maker prior to their trip, not on this day, it’s more expensive if you buy it while already on vacation.

If you can afford to spend $4,000 in a day at Walt Disney World, the resort will certainly give you plenty of options to do it, and you’ll probably get your money’s worth. It's clear that this sort of guest is exactly who Disney Parks are currently courting. Having said that, you can still enjoy a Disney vacation without spending that much.

Nobody likes it when something they want becomes more expensive, and considering that Walt Disney World becomes more expensive basically every year like clockwork, seeing fans get upset by price increases is a regular occurrence. Last week, however, Disney Parks took some extreme steps by increasing prices on basically everything across the parks all at once. Of course people didn’t love that, but of all the recent increases, the changes to the individual Lightning Lane prices may be the most frustrating.

Two days after Disneyland saw increases to ticket prices and the Genie+ service, the price of an Individual Lightning Lane for the park’s flagship attraction, Rise of the Resistance, went up from its previous maximum cost of $20 to $25 per guest. Fans on Twitter, were less than thrilled

Each Disneyland Resort park has one attraction that has a Lightning Lane that skips most of the line, but is not included in Genie+, which offers shorter lines for a variety of attractions at both parks. At Disney California Adventure that attraction is Radiator Springs Racers. At Disneyland, it’s Rise of the Resistance. ILL pricing has always been variable, with the cost of skipping the line dependent on how busy the park is that day. Rise hit a new high last week, which makes simply doing this one attraction quite expensive, especially compared to some other options. 

At this point, we’ll have to wait and see if $25 is the new maximum price for Rise of the Resistance, or if it could get even more expensive during the heart of the busy summer months. Even at $25, it matches the brand new higher price of Genie+. At Disneyland Genie+ is up from $20 to $25 when you buy your ticket. When you enter the park and decide to by it that day, it could be even more expensive. Disneyland did just add a new feature to Genie+, though it's probably not worth the price increase for most.

On the plus side, it has to be said that the Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance really does skip the line. Unlike many Lightning Lanes, that just skip most of it, on Rise it drops you immediately into the room right before the first part of the show, so you do get that much for your money. And unlike something like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, that has a queue worth seeing, Rise's queue, while well designed, has less to draw your attention, Of course, that doesn’t mean that the ride itself will always be worth spending the money. 

There are a lot of strong feelings about the nearly across the board price increases at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. While Orlando avoided ticket price increases, for the moment, every other price increase that California was hit with also happened at Disney World, though the variable pricing of Genie+ in Florida does still start at the lower $15 price point. The pricing on Rise has yet to hit $25 there, but it seems likely it will eventually. 

A trip to Walt Disney World or Disneyland has never been cheap, but starting today, it’s all become a lot more expensive as the price for a lot of different things have just gone up. Ticket prices and parking at Disneyland have gone up, as have the prices for Genie+ at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. The lightsaber and droid building experiences at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in both parks have increased. 

Disneyland Resort is where a lot of the new price increases are coming in. According to KTLA, ticket prices have gone up more than 6% and in some cases more than 10%. The price of a Disneyland ticket varies by the day, and while the cheapest possible one day ticket will remain the same, at $104, the rest of the price tiers, which previously ran from $104-$164 per day, now run between. $114-$179. The most expensive increase comes in the cost of a 2-day ticket, which went up from $255 to $285. The price of three, four, and five day tickets have also gone up. The price of a single day park hopper  add-on has gone up from $60 to $65. Park hoppers for multi-day tickets have remained at $60.

Parking at Disneyland has also become more expensive. While standard parking remains unchanged at $30, it went up from $25 earlier this year, preferred parking has seen a $5 per day increase. Hotel valet parking has gone up from $50 to $65.

Possibly the biggest change happening today is with the Genie+ service. Previously the service, which gives guests access to Lightning Lanes for select rides and some additional features, costs $20 per ticket per day at Disneyland Resort and $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World. Starting today, Disneyland guests who buy Genie+ prior to arrival will pay $25. Those buying it on the day will see a variable price similar to ticket prices. 

Purchasing Genie+ prior to arrival isn’t an option at Walt Disney World, and while there has been no increase to the base price, the new variable pricing will also take effect. Currently the Walt Disney World website lists Genie+ prices in October as running between $15 and $22 per ticket. 

Disney has also announced that the price of Individual Lightning Lane attractions will also be adjusted. Key attractions in all parks have major rides that are not included in Genie+. Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios tops out at $22 per ticket in October.

One positive change regarding Lightning Lanes at Disneyland is that Web-Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, which had previously been an Individual Lightning Lane attraction, is being added to Genie+ starting today. 

One final set of price increases will be found at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The lightsaber building experience at Savi’s Workshop has gone up from $220 to $250. The Droid Depot droid building experience has seen an increase from $99 to $120.

Seeing any of these price increases happen, as frustrating as it is, is still expected. We see the price of everything slowly creep up on a regular schedule. However, seeing all these prices go up at once is a bit surprising. 

As somebody who would have to classify himself as a “Disney Adult,” I generally would come to the defense of other adults at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. While some seem to feel that there’s something wrong with adults having fun in the Disney parks, nothing is further from the truth. There is, however, a line, and when you cross it, all bets are off.

Having fun in the parks is one thing. But when your fun results in other people in the park, especially kids, not having fun, then you’ve simply gone too far. Also, if you think it’s ok to put your hands on a Cast Member in literally anyway for literally any reason, then you are out of your mind. Yet, that’s just what one woman, who clearly thought she was being funny did, potentially ruining a great experience for several young kids at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The TikTok video showing this woman messing with Chewbacca has gone viral and it’s not surprising. While Cast Members dressed as Rey and Chewie are having some fun with a group of small kids, a woman comes up behind the Chewbacca performer and starts messing with the fur on the suit. Unfortunately, that meant that Rey and Chewie had to basically end what they were doing right then and get away, leaving the kids wondering what had just gone wrong.

I certainly understand that sometimes, even as an adult, seeing a full size Chewbacca walking around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge can briefly make you forget that you’re looking at a theme park employee in a costume. And the thing is, if you want to give a character a hug at Disney World, that’s not off the table. However, there is process for that, and this was certainly not that.

People putting their hands on Disney Cast Members is unfortunately something that happens all too often. For what it’s worth, Rey handles the situation well, shutting down the encounter. At that point, you don’t really know who this woman was or why she did what she did, so the prudent move is for the Cast Members to exit in order to avoid any further confrontation. 

I’m certainly curious if there was anything more that happened after this. Putting hands on a Cast Member like this is the sort of thing that will get you banned from Walt Disney World and the park can do a pretty good job of keeping tabs on people, even among the massive crowds, so it’s possible that’s exactly what happened here.

There are plenty of ways to have fun at Walt Disney World that don’t involve putting your hands on a costumed Disney cast member. Hopefully we can all agree that doing that is wrong. Let these people show kids a good time and just stay out of their way. 

Last week during Star Wars Celebration, a not-insignificant period of time was spent discussing Star Wars within the Disney Parks. With both Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and the brand-new Galactic Starcruiser being there to enjoy, and of course Star Tours still going strong. there’s plenty for fans of a galaxy, far far away to enjoy at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. There were no new attractions or major initiatives announced over the weekend, but it was revealed that Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are set to appear inside Galaxy’s Edge, and have since done so. And while that might seem like a minor new addition, it’s actually an earth-shattering change to Galaxy’s Edge.

New characters walking around a land isn’t usually a big deal. Disney California Adventure adds a new character to Avengers Campus every time Marvel releases a new movie or Disney+ series, which at this point feels like about once a month. However, in the case of Boba Fett, as well as The Mandalorian and Grogu, who will also arrive at Galaxy’s Edge later this year, this is a much bigger deal, because it means Disneyland Resort is reversing course on a core component of Galaxy's Edge.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Is Part Of Star Wars Canon

From its inception, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was designed not to simply be a theme park land full of Star Wars stuff, but a piece of the larger Star Wars universe. You wouldn’t be able to buy a t-shirt with the Star Wars logo on it because the land was created to be a planet in the Star Wars universe, so the merchandise on sale was to be the sorts of things people from that planet might make.

As part of that, Galaxy’s Edge is also set in a certain time period. When you walk on to Batuu, you are (or were) walking onto the planet at a point in time between the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. The two attractions told stories that reinforced this. When wandering the land, you might come across Rey or Kylo Ren, but you wouldn’t find Han Solo.

The decision to drop Boba Fett and Fennec Shand into Batuu changes all this. Now Batuu is a place that is hosting stories from multiple eras of Star Wars simultaneously. If you walk past Rey, you’re in the Sequel Trilogy, but later you might walk past Boba Fett and find yourself in the era post-Original Trilogy, when The Book of Boba Fett is set. 

Galaxy’s Edge Was An Incredible Concept That Never Fully Executed

With its elaborate setting and fixed time period, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was something new and different when it came to theme park creations. What Universal Parks and Resorts had started with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter by creating Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, i.e. areas that made you feel like you were walking in the footsteps of Harry Potter, Walt Disney Imagineering took to another level with Batuu.

There were concessions that had to be made with the creative decision. You couldn’t have Qui-Gon Jinn and Luke Skywalker both walking around Batuu if you wanted to make guests feel like they were inside their own Star Wars adventure. These characters could never exist in the same space. And, of course, since Disney wanted to support and promote its own new trilogy, the decision was made to set the land there. 

From the beginning, there were people that were unhappy with Galaxy’s Edge as it was. If you wanted to see Darth Vader at the new Star Wars land, you were out of luck, and for many much more casual fans, as well as serious fans of the Original Trilogy, that was exactly what they wanted. 

In the end, we saw a clash of ideals. What Walt Disney Imagineering had done with Galaxy’s Edge was a new level of theme park storytelling and guest immersion, but its very nature meant limiting which familiar Star Wars elements would be included. 

But the storytelling built into the land involved risks. Food, while not being actually strange or unusual, had names that were. Some experiences, like the lightsaber building workshop, were not posted as such because followers of the Jedi did not want to run afoul of the First Order, and thus were meant to be hidden. These ideas were exciting and fun for some guests, but confusing for others. They slowly faded away to make things easier for guests.

One of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s biggest selling features was the fact that the new land was absolutely massive, but that also presented a hurdle. Because the land was so big, it would have required a lot of characters walking through it to make it feel “alive” in the same way that the much smaller Avengers Campus does. 

In the end, it may have been impossible to make everybody happy with Galaxy’s Edge. People simply wanted too many things out of the new Star Wars land. Now, with the addition of characters outside the Sequel Trilogy timeline, it seems that the land is swinging the pendulum the other way.

Why Walt Disney World Probably Won't Be Getting These Changes Anytime Soon

However, if there’s a silver lining to those who really loved what Galaxy’s Edge used to be, there’s good news. These changes to the land have specifically only been announced for Disneyland Resort’s version of the land, not the one at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.

While Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney World are functionally identical, to see the Florida park go through similar changes seems unlikely, at least in the short term, because of the other new Star Wars addition there, the Galactic Starcruiser. The Starcruiser has a story of its own to tell, and that story is also set during the Sequel Trilogy era. The Galactic Starcruiser is also interlinked with the attractions at Galaxy’s Edge. 

You can be assigned missions on the Starcruiser that you must complete on Batuu, so adding Star Wars characters from other eras would do some pretty significant damage to the immersion the Starcruiser is working so hard to achieve. For that reason, it seems unlikely that Boba Fett or The Mandalorian will be showing up in Orlando in the near future.

Maybe in the end, this is a good move. There are now two slightly different versions of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, potentially giving guests more reason to visit both. If however, you really want a particular version of the land, there’s only one place to get it.

The idea with this change is that Galaxy’s Edge will now host multiple Star Wars stories. While all still anchored to the planet Batuu, they will cover various time periods, and the characters from different eras will not cross paths. How well this will ultimately work remains to be seen, but for fans simply happy to see Boba Fett in a Star Wars theme park attraction, it likely doesn’t matter. 

This week has been an especially exciting one to be a Star Wars fan with Obi-Wan Kenobi recently premiering, Star Wars Celebration happening in Anaheim, California this week and a variety of exciting news about the future of the beloved universe being dropped. While many of the announcements are set to happen months from now, one exciting announcement is here today. At Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge, you can now meet Boba Fett and Fennec Shand from the Book and Boba Fett (streamable with a Disney+ subscription), and characters from The Mandalorian are set to come to the park in the coming months! 

During the Star Wars Celebration panel “From a Galaxy Far, Far Away to a Disney Park Near You,” it was announced that the legendary bounty hunter and his mercenary ally debut this weekend at the original Disney Park. Check out the characters' reveal, via TikTok: 

Following the success of The Book of Boba Fett, which dropped episodes between December 2021 and February 2022, it's exciting to see them enter Disneyland. The Disney+ show told the story of Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett following the events of 1983’s The Return of the Jedi, where it was long believed that the bounty hunter had been swallowed by the sarlacc. Morrison was joined by Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec, who had previously been introduced on The Mandalorian. 

The characters' arrivals are not the only news about the Star Wars-themed park. Disneyland will also welcome Mando (a.k.a. Din Djarin) and Grogu (also known lovingly as Baby Yoda), who will also arrive at the California theme park at a later date, via a Disney press release. It’s likely that Din Djarin and the child’s debut might come closer to the release of The Mandalorian Season 3, which was announced to be coming in February 2023. 

Galaxy's Edge is set on the planet of Batuu, where the popular Black Spire Outpost exists, which is one of the last stops before wild space and unknown regions in the galaxy. When Disneyland guests see Book of Boba Fett and Mandalorian characters, they’ll be able to “share an untold part of their story” in Batuu. 

Since it opened in 2019, the section of Disneyland has aspired to be a more immersive experience where characters walk around organically throughout Batuu rather than standing in a specific place for pictures. If you visit the park and are looking to find Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, you’ll likely find them around Black Spire Outpost, “attempting to remain in the shadows.” 

The place usually has characters from the sequel trilogy such as Rey, Kylo Ren, Chewbacca and Finn roaming around, but it’s possible that those characters may not show up with the addition of The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian characters now finding themselves at Galaxy’s Edge. If they showed up together, it would be confusing to the Star Wars timeline, but we don’t know for sure how the park is officially handling it at this point. The additions of these characters to Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge are sure to bring new excitement and fun to the theme park land. 

Theme parks have always been about making guests feel like they were part of a story being told by using an attraction to put them right in the middle of things, but in recent years we’ve seen that taken to a new extreme. From Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, we’ve seen theme parks not simply build immersive rides but entire lands that want you to feel like you’re inside the story. And now Disney has pushed things even further with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

While Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge allows Star Wars fans to enter their own Star Wars adventure for a few hours, Galactic Starcruiser lets them do it for a couple of days. It’s an entirely new and different way to create a themed entertainment experience, but it started with creating Galaxy’s Edge. During my recent visit to Galactic Starcruiser I asked Matt Martin of the Lucasfilm Story Group what they learned following the opening of Galaxy’s Edge that helped them develop the story for the Starcruiser, and he told me that character interactions were the key. Martin explained… 

Vi is a character that you might meet wandering around Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. She’s a Resistance spy, created by author Delia S. Dawson, and if you come across her she might ask you for help, maybe by distracting some Stormtroopers so she can get past them. It can be a fun little thing to do but it’s a brief encounter and there isn’t much else like it to do inside Galaxy’s Edge.

Part of the reason for that is that the sort of character interaction that you get on the Galactic Starcruiser simply can’t happen inside the theme park land. It would be too difficult to give deep and meaningful character interactions for individual guests when thousands of people are wandering in and out of Galaxy’s Edge every single day. 

By moving the experience into the finite space of Galactic Starcruiser, guests don’t just interact with the characters but get to know them, and the character’s get to know the guests in turn. This creates a depth to the story that wouldn’t exist otherwise. 

Of course, getting this level of themed entertainment is not cheap. But there is certainly hope for the future. In the same way that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was the pilot for the Galactic Starcruiser, Imagineers and other storytellers can take what they learn from the Starcruiser and improve and iterate on it again for whatever the next big thing is. Some of this will certainly come back to the theme parks, or could otherwise become part of experiences that might be more accessible to more guests. 

On March 1, the first official guests will make their way to the Halcyon for its maiden voyage. Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a first-of-its-kind themed entertainment experience, is part hotel, part cruise ship, part theme park and all Star Wars. The simple fact is that nothing like Galactic Starcruiser has been attempted before, but that means that going in, there are a lot of unknowns.

I was lucky enough to spend some time onboard the Halcyon before it opened to the public, and while I certainly didn’t learn everything, I was able to pick up a number of important details that guests are going to want to know. Whether you’ve already booked your trip or are considering doing so, here are six things you need to know before entering Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

You Won’t Be Able To Do Everything In One Trip 

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is a massive two-night experience where guests will be able to insert themselves into a Star Wars story and become part of a galaxy far, far away. As part of the story that is unfolding, guests will be able to take advantage of a variety of activities, from lightsaber training to piloting the Halcyon itself. However, even spending two days on board won’t be enough to allow every guest to actually do everything there.

This is because as each guest makes decisions and takes certain actions on board, they will find themselves taking certain paths within the larger story. These paths will send you to do certain activities at certain times, but they’ll also result in you not doing other things. At its most basic, choosing to aid the Resistance means you’ll lose access to some of the adventure that the First Order is on, and vice versa. If you really want to see it all you’ll need to come back, possibly multiple times. This may be tough considering the cost. 

You’ll Need To Pay Attention To Your DataPad 

When you board the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, you will be issued a datapad, which is basically a cell phone that you’ll use on board the ship. This is a vital object that you’ll want to keep with you at all times. That’s because the datapad is your link to the story happening around you, and it will tell you where you need to go and what you need to do. 

As you get to know the various characters on board the Galactic Starcruiser, they will get to know you as well, and they may send you a message on the datapad to perform some kind of task for them. If you’re not paying attention, you could miss the message, which in turn could end up impacting where your story goes from there. 

Wandering Around The Halcyon Is Basically Required

While many of the events of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser are set in time or will be delivered to you via datapad, others are a bit more spontaneous. The Halcyon contains several characters, from the ship’s captain to the hired entertainment, who you may come across as you hang out in the atrium or simply walk the halls.

You can engage them in conversation, or they may choose to engage you, and that conversation could lead to a story event. Or you may simply find yourself in the right place at the right time to witness something especially cool. If you spend all your down time in your room, you will miss things.

Your Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Experience Is Connected To Your Starcruiser Story 

The Galactic Starcruiser story is not limited to on board the Galactic Starcruiser either. When the Halcyon lands on Batuu and you disembark to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, you’ll have an experience in the Star Wars land unlike anybody else there. Bringing your datapad along will result in you being given missions in Galaxy’s Edge as well, and completing these missions will mean changes to your story when you’re back on board the ship. 

Beyond that, simply going on the attractions at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be a somewhat different experience. Halcyon guests will have a special version of the Disney World MagicBand that will be used onboard the ship to access consoles and rooms as part of the trip, but they will also communicate within Galaxy’s Edge. When Hondo Onaka speaks to you on board Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, he may say something different to you because he’ll recognize that you’re a guest on board the starcruiser.

Dinner Is A Set Menu 

The story of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser takes place largely on board a cruise ship, and on any cruise, one of the highlights is the food. That is very much still the case here, as the food on board is quite delicious and also unique, but what you don’t have on board is a great deal of choice. Each night’s dinner menu is set, consisting of small portions of a variety of dishes.

The menu is still able to deal with any dietary restrictions, so if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you may get a slightly different version of the meal (and this is still Disney World, if there's something you don't like they'll fix it), but it’s not designed to make a la carte selections. 

Galactic Starcruiser Has A Unique PhotoPass Option

The thing that makes Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser stand out from the crowd in the world of themed entertainment is that guests are encouraged to become part of the story. This means they are also encouraged to be on board the Starcruiser in costume, and if you decide to go all out with a look, you’re going to want to get some good pictures.

The good news is that Disney World PhotoPass photographers will be onboard the Starcruiser offering photos in the same way they do in the parks (and you’ll need to purchase the Memory Maker in the same way). But there is also an exclusive option that can be ordered when you book: the Chantilla Star Lines Portrait Experience. It gives you a full 30 minutes to spend with your very own photographer to get pictures of your party all over the ship, including in places that your storyline might not otherwise take you. 

Reviews for the new experience at Disney World are mostly positive, so a lot more people are probably at least considering the trip. There’s a lot going on with the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and while, as I say, you won’t see everything, by knowing what to expect, you can see as much as possible and get all the fun that comes with it. 

When Disney first announced Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge it was described as something unlike anything we’d seen in a Disney theme park. More than just a land themed to Star Wars, it was supposed to be a place that was Star Wars. It would be a planet in the Star Wars universe where guests could feel like they were inside the galaxy far, far away.

In many ways, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was exactly what it promised to be, but in others, it came up short. A number of the elements that were either hinted at or outright announced for the land, like a Star Wars dinner show or individual storylines for guests that could change as part of their actions in the land, never came to fruition as part of the theme park experience.

They are, however, now a part of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a two-night Star Wars-themed experience that costs a great deal more that a ticket to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While visiting the Galactic Starcruiser recently, I asked Walt Disney Imagineering’s Wendy Anderson why the things people can do inside the Starcruiser couldn't have been a part of Galaxy’s Edge, and she explained that the experience they wanted to create was something that simply could not be experienced in a single day. Anderson explained…

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a massive land and it does a remarkable job making you feel like you’re inside the world of Star Wars. However, at the end of the day, it is just one land among many in one theme park. Most people won’t spend their whole day there because there’s so much more to experience.

But with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser you are dedicated to this one thing for a couple of days. Perhaps more importantly, you’re in a space with a finite number of people, all of whom have also come on board for the same purpose. Part of what makes this experience work is that you can also interact with the other guests in the same way that you do the characters. Anderson continued…

There are certainly fans who are frustrated that things that were expected to be part of Galaxy’s Edge are now behind an additional, and not inexpensive, paywall. Something like the dining experience, that includes a live band performance, certainly could have been part of Galaxy’s Edge, though getting reservations would have almost certainly been the hottest ticket in town.

At the same time, other elements, like those character interactions which lead to additional adventures, would have been difficult to pull off in a theme park land. There, quite simply, would be too many people wandering Galaxy’s Edge for each to have their own experience. And lots of the guests would not be interested in playing, which would have made it difficult for those that wanted to play to have the full experience. 

As with all things, there are trade offs that need to be made. No theme park project has ever made it from blue sky to opening day in the same state. It is frustrating that Galaxy’s Edge is missing things that undoubtedly would make it a better place to visit. But in the end Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is its own experience that is not just another theme park. Perhaps for this new themed entertainment experience to truly shine it needed to be something else.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was a very different addition to Disney World when it arrived at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Rather than simply being a land themed around Star Wars, it was designed to make you feel like you were inside the franchise, with attractions and experiences that created a new planet in the galaxy far, far away. Now with the addition of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Disney’s even more immersive Star Wars experience, the level of immersion has increased yet again, but that includes the way guests will interact with Galaxy’s Edge as well.

Anybody who has been to Walt Disney World will be familiar with MagicBands, soon to be updated into MagicBand+. They are devices worn on the wrist that act as your park ticket, room key, and more. They also can be used to track you in the park and on attractions can be used to make sure your ride photo ends up on the right PhotoPass account, and now they’re being used to give Galactic Starcruiser guests a unique Galaxy’s Edge experience. 

On the second day of one’s vacation on board the Halcyon, the ship will land on Batuu and guests will be able to visit the Star Wars themed land of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It would seem to be a fairly safe bet that anybody who would want to go to the Galactic Starcruiser has probably been to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge before and done all there is to do, but things will be different this time around.

Because guests will be wearing unique Halcyon bands on their wrists, they can be tracked through Galaxy’s Edge. They will be given Lighting Lane access to the land’s two attractions, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance. When they get on those rides, however, the system will know that Starcruiser passengers are on board. Not all the details of what will change have been revealed but one example given was that when Hondo Onaka is talking to you on Smuggler’s Run, his dialogue can be different. He knows you’re from the Halcyon.

There will also be other experiences, like the lightsaber building, or a visit to Oga’s Cantina, that guests can book along with their Starcruiser trip. While we don’t really know what’s going to happen to guests who go to these places, it seems quite clear that they will be included in the story and visiting them may impact things back on the ship.

These changes might be small, but certainly for anybody who has been to Star Wars; Galaxy’s Edge before, anything that can enhance and refresh the experience will certainly be welcome. 

Walt Disney World’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel experience is only about a month away from opening. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the new location, which is equal parts hotel and theme park attraction, built on a cruise ship model. There will be a lot of eyes on Galactic Starcruiser when it opens just to see how well all of it actually works, but the location may already be dealing with one issue as it’s being reported that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is having trouble finding experienced wait staff. But the reasons don’t make a lot of sense.

Normally when a new location at Walt Disney World opens, existing Cast Members are given first shot at the openings. Usually there’s a rush of people who want to be part of whatever the brand new thing is. Disney made a big deal when it drafted Cast Members for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the people chosen to open the new land were clearly over the moon. But WDWNT is reporting that is not the case with the Crown of Corellia dining room in the Galactic Starcruiser.

It’s not clear where this information is coming from. The article doesn’t even reference some anonymous source, so grains of salt should be liberally applied. Especially because the major reasons being cited for the alleged lack of staff seem odd. The first is that staff are concerned about working shifts in a windowless room. The Galactic Starcruiser will have windows but they’ll show scenes of outer space rather than the outside world.

Most existing Walt Disney World restaurants have windows, but the Galactic Starcruiser won’t be the first to not have them. If you eat at the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot you have an aquarium on the other side of the glass, not the outside. Epcot’s popular new Space 220 restaurant uses the same outer space window display that Galactic Starcruiser will use. Those servers work for a third party that operates inside Disney World, they don’t technically work for Disney, but there’s been no indication working in that environment is a problem.

Other restaurants have windows, but depending on where you’re sitting you may never know it. The Galactic Starcruiser would certainly be a change of environment for many, and maybe it’s enough to make the staffing issue happen but this wouldn’t seem like a deal breaker.

The other item of concern, which is certainly important, is financial. Potential wait staff are apparently afraid that moving to Galactic Starcruiser could mean they earn less money. The main question is if gratuities will be comparable to what they make now. 

It can’t be denied that there’s a gamble here. If you’re a server at one of Disney World’s high end restaurants you probably make really good money in tips. The possibility that you might make less at Galactic Starcruiser can’t be overlooked and we know how vital tips are to people in the food service industry.

There is an upside to this issue as well, however. Since Galactic Starcruiser is using the cruise ship model, gratuities for food service are actually included in the price guests pay up front. This means that servers should end up receiving more consistent pay since they’ll be receiving the same gratuities for every table they serve. Servers won’t need to worry about bad tippers. And many guests will tip additional money on top of that. We have no idea what the pay being offered these servers is, but considering the cost of this experience to guests, one hopes it's on par with what Cast Members get paid at other high end locations. 

In the end, Disney World will certainly find the Cast Members it needs for the Galactic Starcruiser. One way or another the resort was going to need to hire new people anyway, either for the Galactic Starcruiser itself or to replace the people that left their current jobs to work there. If you think you might want to book a stay make sure you check out everything we know about the Galactic Starcruiser, 

Anyone who has taken a vacation to Disneyland knows that it can be a challenge to make the most of your time and money. With so many amazing attractions to enjoy, and so many other guests who want to enjoy them too, guests often plan their trips months in advance. So, when some of the park guests’ upcoming reservations for the popular Oga’s Cantina were canceled without notice, they shared their surprise and displeasure on social media.

Just recently, some Disneyland guests with trips planned in early 2022 got some unexpected news in their inbox. Check out the tweet down below: 

The automatically generated emails appear to have gone out to any guest who made a reservation to dine at the popular restaurant. While the park did not offer a reason for the cancellation, it appears that at least guests allegedly received gift cards from the park. The sudden notice, leaving some guests with just a couple of weeks to make new plans, naturally led Twitter users to hypothesize about the situation. Given that reservations were once again opened up once the cancellations went through, one Twitter user speculated that Disneyland will be changing their capacity limits for attractions: 

Many people replying to the tweet with the news seemed to believe it was in some way related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever the reason, fans left without reservations may be scrambling for a plan B during their upcoming visit. Oga’s Cantina is one of many Star Wars-themed attractions at Disneyland, as part of Galaxy's Edge. The park's official website highlights its authentic atmosphere, designed to make you feel as though you’re among the galaxy’s hardest-working bounty hunters and smugglers. It even has a droid DJ on site. 

Since it opened, the eatery has been one of the busiest dining locations at Disneyland, with hours-long wait times – so it seems as though reservations would be especially coveted by guests. One of the reasons for its ongoing popularity could be that it’s the only restaurant in the park where guests can get an adult beverage. 

There’s also the fact that it’s connected to Star Wars, one of the park’s biggest draws these days. Rides like  Rise of the Resistance have also seen long standby lines since they opened. 

While Disneyland is currently in full swing celebrating the holiday season, it’s too soon to know whether there will be additional changes made for other guests’ reservations. Since the park reopened following its historic closure at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, its staff has navigated a few logistical challenges, including major changes to its Annual Pass system and a lengthy closure of the iconic It’s a Small World ride. Disney has not yet released a statement clarifying why the Oga’s Cantina reservations were cancelled. 

Rise of the Resistance isn’t a new attraction. It’s a bit newer at Disneyland than it seems because the park was closed for a year only a few months after the attraction opened. And so, if you didn’t have a chance to visit Disney World, that saw the ride first, and reopened sooner, then you’ve only had a few months of total time to give it a try. Which maybe why, now that Disneyland is using a standby queue for the first time, wait times have been a little nuts.

When Walt Disney World opened its standby queue for Rise of the Resistance, the wait time, while pretty high on the morning of the first day, calmed down pretty quickly even later that same afternoon. Waiting for Rise of the Resistance is now largely on par with any other E-ticket attraction. But when Disneyland opened up the line this week things were even crazier.  

Things were certainly wild early on. With the virtual queue system that was the only way to get on Rise of the Resistance previously, if you were not fast enough to get a boarding group, you simply lost out. Now, there is a guarantee that people can at least get on the ride. Even if it means waiting a significant amount of time. Whether or not a two and a half or three hour wait is reasonable, is going to be up for debate, however.  

However, while a three hour wait might be either reasonable or insane depending on how badly somebody wants to ride Rise of the Resistance, waits weren't over two hours all day. At other times in the last couple of days the wait times have been much more reasonable.  

And then there have been the times where the wait has been insane, but not insanely long, rather insanely low. Although, it looks like you have to forego fireworks to be able to get that kind of wait time. And I’m not sure that’s entirely worth it.  

Officially Disneyland is running a hybrid system for Rise of the Resistance, so the park still may use virtual queues on busier days, while doing standby at other times. However, it seems likely the goal here is to transition strictly to the standby queue.

Walt Disney World moved to a standby queue just before it opened its newest attraction, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, at Epcot that uses virtual queues. It also introduced the Genie+ system and the Lightning Lanes, the replacement for FastPass, shortly thereafter and it seems like that’s the plan here as well. While Disneyland hasn’t revealed when Genie+ will launch at the park, it will likely be soon. Then guests won't have to wait in the line, no matter how long, if they're willing to spend a few bucks. 

The holiday season is about to get started at Disneyland Resort, and while that means Christmas or Chanukah for most people, the Star Wars galaxy has its own winter holiday to celebrate and that means that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be getting in on the seasonal festivities with its own event surrounding that great Star Wars holiday Life Day.

Life Day was first introduced into Star Wars mythology as part of the famous, or possibly infamous, Star Wars Holiday Special. Since then Life Day has appeared now and again in various Star Wars stories, even though the holiday special is one of those things that Lucasfilm mostly wishes you had forgotten ever happened. 

But Life Day will live on at Disneyland this year. While the rest of the theme park gets dressed up in traditional holiday decorations, and offers seasonal food to enjoy, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will have its own special menu to celebrate the season. 

The primary dining location on Batuu, Docking Bay 7, is adding Pork Broth Noodles to the menu which should warm you right up if the weather actually turns cold in Southern California. Kat Saka’s Kettle, which primarily focuses on a unique popcorn mixture, will add a couple of unique items, a Tikka Masala-spiced hand pie and a black sesame macaron with passion fruit buttercream that sounds amazing. 

Oga’s Cantina will also have a special Life Day menu that will include pork sliders, which will be the most substantial food you can get at the cantina to date,, as well as a special holiday drink, a Gin Huckleberry Cocktail. It doesn’t appear that any of these special items have cool Star Wars names, but maybe on the menu they will.  

This is the first real holiday season that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has had a chance to celebrate at Disneyland. It was open in November and December in its initial opening year, but with the land still new, there likely wasn’t much thought given to holiday experiences. Then, last year, Disneyland Resort was still closed in December, so obviously nothing happened then. Although there were hints that maybe Life Day events have been planned for some time. 

Decorations will be going up all over DIsneyland to celebrate the winter holidays, who knows what the plans might be for Galaxy’s Edge. I don’t believe pine trees are native to the planet. Still, it’s cool to see even the newest part of Disneyland get into the holiday spirit, and there’s the possibility that there are even more holiday surprises on the way. The holidays start at Disneyland November 12. 

The first footage from Star Wars’ The Book of Boba Fett is here, and it's already stirring up speculation among fans of the franchise. Theories spread like wildfire and, with the imminent introduction of new characters, some are theorizing that one specific character, aside from the lead protagonist and his right-hand, that appeared in the trailer has been seen before. Remember that Ithorian sitting in that throne room-like setting? Well, here’s a crowd of fans openly wondering whether that Ithorian is the one known to hang out at Batuu, the city used for Galaxy’s Edge in Disney World and Disneyland. 

Dok-Ondar runs his Den of Antiquities in Batuu during a period of time after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but could he also be in The Book of Boba Fett? Let’s break down all the evidence that could validate this fascinating theory, as well as acknowledge some of the evidence against it: 

Dok-Ondar Has Prominent Connections In The Criminal Underworld And Isn’t A Model Citizen 

Dok-Ondar may seem like a lowly salesman who comes in possession of some of the coolest gear one can find at Galaxy’s Edge, but one doesn’t always come into rare artifacts by legal means. With this, he's known to be well-connected in Star Wars' criminal underworld, possessing ties to many factions, including the Hutt family and even Crimson Dawn. Due to his work with both in the past, he's traveled the galaxy plenty of times to pick up different goods. 

And while the dealer may not be as feared as Jabba the Hutt or Darth Maul, he’s still not exactly someone to be trifled with. Some that have tried to cheat him in the past have found a bounty on their head shortly after, which is rarely a fun situation. Long story short, Dok-Ondar isn’t a person to deal with unless you’ve got the money to pay or the guts to face what’s coming if you cross him. 

So for those wondering if he's capable of running with the types of villains Boba Fett associates with, the answer is an emphatic, "Yes." The next question is whether Dok-Ondar would be around during that time frame and whether this Ithorian in the trailer even looks like him. 

Dok-Ondar Has Traveled To Tattooine And Was Around During The Book Of Boba Fett

Dok-Ondar is a fixture in Batuu and, if we’re speaking in terms of Disneyland and Disney World, he’s set in place behind his counter. In George Lucas' fictional universe, however, he gets around and travels to various locations to get some of his rarer finds. We know he’s traveled to Tatooine, for example, for Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber following his death, so he could very well have a place on the desert planet and could’ve crossed paths with Boba Fett. 

On that note, we also can confirm that he was alive well before and during the events of The Book of Boba Fett. This is partially due to a reference in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, during which Qi’ra mentions the dealer is present on the First Light, the yacht seen in the movie. The Crimson Dawn official then told the staff to make sure he was well-attended. Solo takes place about a decade before the Battle of Yavin. And we know Dok-Ondar survived until at least after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, as he's working at his shop in Galaxy's Edge. So he is indeed alive and could likely be searching for rare artifacts during the events of the upcoming show. And an antique hunt would be the perfect way to bring him to Tatooine.

The Ithorian In The Book Of Boba Fett Doesn’t Look Exactly Like Dok-Ondar, But That’s OK

One big point against the theory is that, outside of the fact that this character is an Ithorian, there isn’t anything explicit within the Boba Fett trailer that confirms it’s the Galaxy’s Edge character. This Ithorian is wearing lavish robes and looks to be clean-shaven, while Dok-Ondar dresses a bit more casual and has a gray beard.

With that being said, this upcoming Disney+ series takes place decades before the timeline Batuu exists at in Disneyland and Disney World. It’s not crazy to think that Dok-Ondar went without a beard in his younger years. It’s also not insane to think he’d be a bit more flashy and dressy in his youth, as some tend to care a bit more about keeping up appearances in their youth than in old age. Though I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into naysaying based on a few aesthetic differences, as time can explain away a lot of that.

The Star Wars Franchise Loves To Make Connections

The world of Star Wars is massive and includes tons of planets in its galaxy, yet stories always seem to have the same familiar faces pop up. It’s one of the coolest or most annoying things about the franchise, depending on who you ask, and it happens frequently. I think it’s a natural consequence of hyperspace being able to take characters anywhere rather quickly, thus erasing the problematic distance that separates many key figures in the franchise. 

Dok-Ondar already has connections to prominent Star Wars characters, but that doesn’t mean the franchise is content to leave it at that. After all, wouldn’t it be cool to see the guy who runs the shop in Galaxy’s Edge also appear on The Book of Boba Fett? Again, the answers to that question may vary but, in either case, there’s no denying this expansive universe loves to create ties between characters whenever it can. 

Why We Shouldn’t Be Too Quick To Assume Dok-Ondar Is In The Book Of Boba Fett

It’s fun to make a case and assume that Dok-Ondar is in Star Wars’ The Book of Boba Fett. At the same time, we have to remember that there’s plenty of Ithorians in this universe, so we shouldn’t necessarily expect it to be him. I mean, this could be an entirely new character that ends up being an enemy of Fett, which might be more interesting than seeing a character we've already been introduced to.

I mean, does he have a rifle and helmet that looks a lot like Din Djarin’s gear right behind his counter? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean anything in regards to Boba Fett. At least, I would hope not. I guess we’ll have to wait and see in this upcoming adventure and see if we learn anything about this Ithorian and who they may or may not be. 

The Book of Boba Fett will premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday, December 29th. Keep an eye out for any chatter regarding characters appearing on the series in the meantime, and continue to stick with CinemaBlend for all updates regarding Star Wars.

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Star Wars has been delighting audiences for years and, as a result, parents can share their love of the galaxy far, far away with their children and even grandchildren. George Lucas’ cosmic universe just has a special way of binding people together, not unlike the Force. Justin Timberlake is among the many who are fans of the franchise, and his joy was on full display during a recent family trip to Walt Disney World. And the Force was definitely with his kid.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now seemingly turning a corner, theme parks are starting to get back to normal, and this includes Disney Parks. Justin Timberlake revealed in an Instagram post that he and his family took a Disney World trip of their own, during which they indulged in all that the Star Wars corner of the park had to offer. In Timberlake’s video, he and young son Silas can be seen wielding lightsabers and exploring the grounds together. Check out the sweet post down below:

When it comes to Star Wars, it really doesn’t matter how old you are. Even the sternest adult can turn into a big kid after taking hold of a lightsaber. It’s nice to see Justin Timberlake got to take some time to enjoy the park and bond with his son in the process.

Justin Timberlake is far from the only celebrity to take in the fun at the Star Wars-themed park. Marvel alum Brie Larson has also visited Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and, like many fans, her mind was blown by the experience. Franchise vet Hayden Christensen also went to the park and seemed to have a fun time himself.

Disney Parks has put a lot into making its Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge sections at Disneyland and Walt Disney World what they are and, as a result, they become fan-favorites. They include exciting attractions like Rise of the Resistance and even offer guests drinks that will have you feeling like you’re in the actual Mos Eisley Cantina. Not only that, but Disney World will eventually include Galactic Starcruiser, a Star Wars-themed place that’s similar to a hotel.

Of course, should someone opt not to venture to the theme parks, they can still find plenty of enjoyment in watching the films. The Skywalker Saga is available to stream on Disney+, which you can sign up for using this link.

Justin Timberlake’s experience at Walt Disney World represents what most fans are hoping for when they attend Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Ideally, they want a fun and safe experience that allows them to enjoy the atmosphere with those closest to them. And that’s something that’s even more powerful than the Force.