I’m new to the whole blogging thing and by no means do I consider myself a Disney expert. That being said, I’ve been to Walt Disney World a handful of times and wanted to share my experiences and keys to having a great time. I follow other Disney blogs and wanted to give more of a novice approach from a dad’s perspective. I chose to start the blog with the newest addition to WDW, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, the planet of Batuu located in Hollywood Studios. After our trip, I got a fair amount of questions and requests for my opinion so here’s a summary. My Disney tips are labeled as KEYS.
My family of four chose to travel to Disney around New Year’s this year....despite all my efforts to pick a different timeframe, it just wasn’t doable. In the past, we’ve always gone a week while the kids were in school. Disney has never been “dead” then, but in most cases, the crowd level has been moderate to light. I was recently introduced to the online crowd calendars (KEY) that show expected traffic for a given day that year. You hear about the holidays being extremely busy and even reaching capacity limits so I was worried. The New Year’s week predictor showed so much red you could taunt a bull with it but....challenge accepted.
~Cries of the Resistance 😢
I planned our Hollywood Studios day on Friday, January 3rd since it was our last day that week and the farthest from the holiday. The night before, we agreed we would get to the park when it opened to try to get on the newest ride, Rise of the Resistance. This new immersive ride had just opened about a month before on December 5th. So far, Disney is trying something different to avoid high wait times called boarding groups. Think of it like a virtual line. When your party arrives at the park, you sign into the My Disney Experience app (a KEY must have!) and when the land officially opens, you can select “Join Boarding Group.” The park opened at 7AM that day, but they let guests in before that time (pic below at 6:45AM). I have no idea how early they let guests in, but I will say for Rise of the Resistance that there is no added benefit to show up early. They don’t allow you to join a boarding group until the land opens, so as you can imagine at 7am right around when my family got scanned into the park, everyone and their cousin was trying to join a group causing the app to drag. You’re waiting for the grayed out button to turn red. You are at the mercy of your phone’s reception and data speed. My page wouldn’t refresh so as my wife is pushing our stroller, I asked to try her phone. It let me get a little further, and eventually around 7:10AM, I got in (after it made me enter my password again 😡). I was placed in group 174. Anything above 125 that day was considered a “backup” boarding group so getting to ride was not a guarantee. Each day the threshold for backup groups is different, but it will tell you if you get in. I didn’t get my hopes up and knew we wouldn’t be out until closing this day. Fortunately, they sent a text alert around 2PM stating that they apologized, but our group would not be taken that day. Bummer, but at least I didn’t have to worry about being called back after leaving. Plus, it gives us an excuse to return sooner rather than later!
~Smuggler’s Line
So we got up at the crack of dawn and no Rise of the Resistance. The other reason for the early arrival was to get ahead of the lines and high wait times for Smuggler’s Run. I had been seeing 2-3 hour wait times on the app days before. The path I mapped out to get to the land quickly was for nothing because Disney ropes off one pathway which everyone is forced to go. Here’s where that plan got me:
By the time we got into Galaxy’s Edge, the wait time for standby had jumped to 180 minutes. There was no way I was spending that much time of our last day in line. We looked around the land taking in the sites I was excited to see and regrouped. My son had seen advertisements for the Disney Play app and how you can interact with the land. I told him I wasn’t keen on having our heads down in a screen when there was so much to see. Since the rides were a bust, I figured why not. We had a blast! We ran around Batuu looking for panels, scan keys, and antennas. You unlock achievements by completing puzzles. You can also accept jobs to perform and play for the Resistance or the First Order. Quickly, my phone battery was down to 48% and it was only 9:30AM 😬. We walked by the Smuggler’s Run entrance and noticed an empty-looking Single Rider line. I asked a cast member close by what the details of that line were. He asked how old my son was. I said 10 and he said ok (this is the minimum age for an adult ticket). He explained the single rider line can’t estimate a wait time so it could be quick or hours. They use this to help fill in groups boarding the ride so you never know when there will be a need. He also said you have no choice in the position you’re given. The ride holds six people and each are given a position in the cockpit of the Falcon: two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. With single rider, you’re most likely to get engineer and from what I read it’s hard to see because you are in the back two seats and you only have one small role in the entire run. The last catch with single rider is that you’re not guaranteed to be in the same group during the ride if you enter that line together. Another dad overheard me talking and told me he’s used those lines before and in most cases they try to make sure you board together if you’re with a younger child. I asked my son if he wanted to try it so we could at least see the ride while we were there. He said sure so we went in. We waited 25 minutes, got called to the ride in the same group, AND he got a pilot position and I was a gunner!
The ride was a fun experience but not sure it’s worth the standby line wait time of more than 90 minutes. You get your score at the end and those credits get added to your Play app! I received Hot Shot status with 52%! Pilots are scored based on how well they avoid hitting things. My son was the left to right pilot and the other pilot controls up and down. Let’s say I hope the Falcon has more than liability coverage 😂. If it’s not too long a wait, definitely do this ride. We missed several sights not going through standby so there’s more for us next trip.
Do Droid Depot
I reserved several experiences when they first became available. I recommend reservations anytime they’re available at WDW (KEY). The standby line was a 90-100 minute wait! They can be reserved through the website where the app will redirect you. Savi’s Lightsaber workshop, Oga’s Cantina, and Droid Depot. I didn’t necessarily intend on doing all 3 but wanted to keep options open. We decided to pass on Oga’s this time because it was mainly drinks and the “lunch” listing was two snacks. Savi’s is on my list but given the $200 price tag I passed on it as well. My kids have always like Build-A-Bear Workshop and this is basically the droid version...and way cooler!! The kids got to pick from a BB or R unit. They both picked the R units which ended up being a better choice for kids in my opinion because the BB units use a magnet to keep the head attached....with kid play, it falls off in occasion. They pick from colors and styles of the head, body, and leg pieces with a couple accessory pieces that go on the body and legs. Normally I don’t go for extras but what the hey it’s Disney, right? So we sprung for the personality chip and carrying bag. They got to pick from 3 different chips that were specific to the Resistance, First Order, or Scoundrels (think Han Solo, kinda work for themselves). The chips make the droid interact in certain ways within Galaxy’s Edge as well as other droids. If you don’t choose the back packs you still get a box with handle. We did our reservation at 12:40PM so the money for an easier transport was well worth it in our case. We’re down to an umbrella stroller now so in some ways we miss the cargo basket under our double stroller. Then again, I don’t miss it going through the airport lol. Another plus was they have an open flap option so the droids were visible during our travels. Anyway, they go to a station, use a power drill to screw in the leg pieces, place their personality chip, then place them in the activation hub complete with lights and sounds! They are remote controlled to turn the head, go forward/backward, spin, and make sounds. Outside the depot look for the red canopies and there’s a section where droids can be played with. It is the only place this is allowed. It’s kind of like a droid dog park. The droids will “talk” to each other while they’re on and use Bluetooth in the park. It’s important to turn them off at night so the batteries don’t drain. A huge win for our trip!
Other random things I enjoyed were some of the unique items only found in Batuu. The blue milk is a must! It’s a coconut/rice milk combo and it was fantastic. I wasn’t sure about going with blue vs green, but the cast member said she like blue when I asked. Plus, the original Star Wars had Luke drinking blue milk so it seemed like a good start. I also loved the details of the other drinks. The Coke products are designed to look like they’re from another planet. Cool collectibles!
Overall, there was way too much to see in one trip so I definitely plan on going back with lighter crowds. More Keys 2 Disney to come! As they say goodbye on Batuu, May the Spires keep you!
