Slated to open just about a year from now, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, will be the biggest single-themed land ever added to a Disney theme park. In this case, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando. The 14-acre deeply immersive experience will, it feels pretty safe to say as an objective fact, blow away the many wildly popular Star Wars attractions, entertainment, and marketplaces already thrilling rebels of all ages at Disney World and Disneyland. And it won’t just stop at the theme park. There will also be a spaceship hotel seamlessly integrated with Galaxy’s Edge.
The Theme Park
Announced last year, recent months have rolled out a lot more detail about the Mother of All Theme Parks.
1) It’s on Planet Batuu: This once thriving crossroads on the old sub-lightspeed trade routes, left behind with the rise of hyperspace travel, is now a haven for smugglers, rogue traders, and frontier explorers. New to us, it’s familiar territory to Star Wars characters as a stepping off point for epic adventures. Point the way!
2) You Can Pilot the Millennium Falcon: The first of the Galaxy’s two signature attractions puts you in the cockpit of Han’s beloved, trusty space jalopy. You can have your fun shooting blasters and preparing for the jump to hyperspace, but you also have a critical mission to complete and – here’s the really cool unexpected part — you are in control of the outcome. How you do either earns you galactic credits or lands you on a bounty hunter’s list, which could mean trouble when you show up at the cantina. Of course there’s a cantina. With blue milk.
3) Board a Star Destroyer: The second signature attraction, which Disney reps say is on “a scale…never done before” puts you in hangar bay in the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. The imagineers are still designing this one, so the information is maddeningly scant so far. No doubt, mind blowing will ensue.
4) Characters, Characters, Everywhere: This land is appropriately peopled. It isn’t just you and other visitors roaming the roads, back alleys, and gathering spots of Batuu. You mix with Batuuans, BB-8, Chewie, members of the First Order, and many others. Try to be chill with the selfies.
5) There’s a Pretty Cool Sneak Peek: Some people don’t want to see it until they get there, all at once with every sight a thrilling, brand new revelation. If that’s not you, you’re in luck because Disney has loaded a fly-through model here.
The Resort Hotel
At the February 2018 D23 Expo in Japan, no less than Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced the coming of a Star Wars luxury hotel that will be seamlessly integrated into the Galaxy’s Edge lands. It doesn’t have a name yet, or even a scheduled opening date, but we have heard a few things that make whatever the opening date is be simply not soon enough.
1) Shuttle Bus? Ummm, That’s a Big No: The first-of-its-kind, intense Star Wars resort hotel experience starts with you boarding a starship transport. Manned by characters, stories unfold around you during the voyage to your quarters.
2) Citizens of the Galaxy: Immediately upon your arrival at the hotel, you become an active citizen of the galaxy with proper attire provided, if you want to go full-on with the role playing. And why not?
3) Space View Windows: You’re not in Kansas anymore. You’re not on Earth anymore. Actually, you aren’t on any planet anymore. The Galaxy’s Edge resort hotel is in space, Star Wars space, so that’s what you see through every window — space, asteroids, TIE Fighters, X-Wings, V-Wings, the Falcon, an Imperial Star Destroyer… perhaps the Death Star? And battles, needless to say! Awesome.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Already under construction in Orlando, with a similar park on a lesser scale also coming to Disneyland Anaheim, there’s still a lot of SW:GE detail in the design and development stage, so expect many more reveals to be coming our way. Stay up to date with regular, possibly breathless, check-ins at Disney’s Star Wars blog.
In the meantime, as we mentioned earlier there’s a ton of Star Wars experiences at Disney World and Disneyland already, so you don’t have to wait for the mold-shattering new park debuts to indulge your inner Han, Luke, Leia, or Rey (hopefully not Vader, Jabba, Kylo, or heaven help us, the Emperor – not that we’re judging). Check us out at Roomongo.com for great Orlando and Anaheim hotel rates with Cash-Back Rewards on all bookings, no exceptions!