The One Where I Review Star Wars Galaxy's Edge at Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World

Could that name *be* any longer?

Much as with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (see last week’s post), there is also a Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in California at Disneyland, which is objectively much closer to Sacramento than Orlando, Florida. But we were already in Florida, and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to check out Galaxy’s Edge.

Here’s my main takeaway: if you’re a Gen Xer like me, raised on the original trilogy that you’ve seen 1 million times, Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t have much to offer you. Most of it is aimed at younger people who were raised on Episodes VII, VIII, and IX (seven, eight, and nine, for the Roman-numeral-challenged among you).

Those movies are the ones with Kylo Ren, Rey, and BB-8. I like those movies just fine, but I know them less well than the original trilogy. All the merch at Galaxy’s Edge is built off things from the newer movies, like Black Spire Outpost. There wasn’t a single Darth Vader thing in the whole park, which was a little surprising to me, let alone anything else related to the original movies.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Galaxy’s Edge! It’s actually a really cool experience, and Disney put a lot of work into making it feel like you’re immersed in the Star Wars universe.

As with all Disney parks, there are employees dressed up like Star Wars characters, roaming around and interacting with guests. We didn’t directly interact with any, but we saw them interacting with others. I tend to think this is more impactful for children, but maybe that’s just me.

The most interesting thing that struck me about Galaxy’s Edge is the sound. They really make it sound like you’re on a distant planet in a galaxy far, far away. The planet in question is Baku, where Rey lives. There’s a background hum in the park that makes you feel like you’re really among droids and land speeders and a slightly menacing undertone of Imperial occupation.

There are two rides at Galaxy’s Edge: Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run. We did Smuggler’s Run right away when we entered the park at 9 am, and therefore walked right in. Later in the day I noticed that there was a long wait for it.

Rhead and I both took dramamine before the ride, just in case of motion sickness. It’s not a rollercoaster, but it is a 3D VR experience. Basically, you’re flying the Millennium Falcon through a gauntlet to deliver supplies to a Resistance hide-out.

The “ride” takes place entirely within the cockpit of their elaborate Millennium Falcon model. You’re with a group of six people: two are pilots, two are gunners, and two are engineers. Rhead and I were in the front of our group of six, so we were the pilots.

The experience was cool, and only slightly nauseating, lol. I actually had more trouble with my head than my stomach, because 3D tends to give me headaches. So keep that in mind. But this is definitely worth doing because it really does feel like you’re in the Falcon.

We also did Rise of the Resistance, but much later in the afternoon, so we had to wend our way through an hour-long line, which was less than ideal. The ride itself was quite interesting. You’re in what is essentially a large bumper car with a total of 8 people. Like Smuggler’s Run, it relies heavily on 3D and VR, but there is some physical movement (and one steep drop) to this one.

Overall, I would recommend both rides, especially because there are only two of them. Galaxy’s Edge in general is fairly small. It’s 100% doable in one day, even with the additional activities we participated in: building a lightsaber and building a droid.

The lightsaber workshop is not cheap at $250. The droid workshop is only a little cheaper at $120. I made reservations for both a month in advance, but you can also do them as walk-ins. Because of the expense (and because we definitely don’t need two lightsabers and two droids) we decided ahead of time that I would do the lightsaber workshop and Rhead would do the droid workshop. (Each “builder” can bring a “guest,” so we were both present for both workshops.)

The lightsaber workshop is the more elaborate of the two. There’s a whole schtick involved with people in character and a storyline about how the workshop is a secret and if you get caught carrying a lightsaber by Imperial troops, you could be in trouble. Again, probably more entertaining for kids. But I wouldn’t spend $250 for my kid to make a lightsaber, lol.

The lightsaber is actually quite heavy-duty. All the parts of the hilt are made of metal (which I’m sure contributes to the expense). They have three styles to choose from, and then once you choose your overall style, each piece has two or three options from which to choose. So you really can customize the design quite a bit.

You also get to choose the color of your blade from among blue, green, red, or purple. I chose blue because that was the color of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber that he inherited from his father in the original Star Wars.

Thankfully the experience also comes with a padded carrying case that you can sling over your shoulder. It’s awkward to carry it around, but it would be a lot more awkward without the case. It also made getting it home on an airplane easier. (Although we flew out of Jacksonville, which clearly sees fewer lightsabers than Orlando airport. The TSA luggage scanner at Jacksonville is bin-based and automated. Even carry-on suitcases have to go in a bin. It’s not the usual conveyor belt situation. So I had to hand my lightsaber to someone to manually scan and walk through. She seemed confused, lol.)

The droid workshop is not as well done as the lightsaber one. It’s less hands-on and less guided. For the lightsaber workshop, we were in a group of 12-14 (I didn’t actually count) and we were all at work stations that formed a large oval in the room. Every two guests had a dedicated tech to guide us through the assembly process. It was all very orderly.

Conversely, the droid workshop is chaotic and loud. There’s a conveyor belt with random droid pieces moving past you. When you check in, they give you a basket and leave you on your own to choose your droid pieces. They have schematics on display screens in front of you so you sort of know which pieces you’re supposed to choose to build each particular droid, but it was confusing.

Once you have your pieces chosen, then you move to a workstation where there’s a guide to help you assemble the pieces and activate your droid. The droids all come with a remote control, but they do not come with a carrying case. They do sell backpacks that the droids fit in, but we didn’t buy one because it happened to fit in the backpack we had brought to carry our personal belongings.

As I mentioned, Galaxy’s Edge is on the small side, but it’s located within Hollywood Studios at Disney World, so there’s a lot of other movie-based attractions. For example, there’s an entire Toy Story Land that we had to walk through to get to Galaxy’s Edge in the first place. The only non-Star Wars thing we did was a 3D Muppets show that is set to permanently close soon to make room for something else. It was entertaining, but it probably won’t be there if you’re planning a trip in the future.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we had lunch at Oga’s Cantina, which is the only place to eat within Galaxy’s Edge. I had made a reservation, which I was led to believe would give us access to a table (and seats). I mean, what do the words “table service” mean to you? To me, they mean there’s a table involved. But nope. They made us stand at the bar. I complained about this, but the only way for us to get a table would have been to wait for 40 minutes, and that would have thrown off the rest of our day.

The bar is mostly standing room, and the few tables are all designed to seat large groups. It’s not very well designed. And it’s really not well designed acoustically. The interior is made to look like it was carved out of a stone hillside, and it’s very dark and cave-like in there. They definitely could have made everything in there out of sound-dampening material. As it is, they seem to have made everything out of hard surfaces so that sound just bounces around forever. It was seriously deafening in there. I could barely hear our bartender.

It also was expensive, just like everything else on this trip. They mostly serve drinks, but they do have four small plates if you want food: a charcuterie board, a flatbread, a soft pretzel with cheese dip, and an odd mix of snacky things that seem to be in the vein of those bagged veggie straws you can buy at stores. We ordered everything but the charcuterie board. It was all good, but way more expensive that it should have been. And the drinks were aggressively mediocre. I mean, I had low standards, and they met them, lol. I don’t recommend going here unless you really, really want the cantina vibe.

So all in all, we had a good time at Galaxy’s Edge, and I’m glad we went. But it wasn’t, like, the greatest thing ever. I may someday go check out the one at Disneyland, but it’s gonna be a while.

We left the park around 5 because we had to go pick up a rental car, get our luggage at the hotel, and then drive to Daytona Beach airport to drop off our rental car. (My dad picked us up in Daytona and we spent several days with him and my stepmom—which was the entire reason we were in Florida in the first place).

There’s actually a rental car center on Disney’s property, which is sort of convenient. But you know what would be even more convenient? If one of the dozens of Disney buses actually went to the rental car center. They have a literal fleet of buses that will take you to all the other Disney parks, various Disney hotels, and who knows where else. But we had to call an Uber to get to the rental car center. 🙄

Here’s the breakdown of costs for this portion of our trip:

Hollywood Studios, two one-day passes: $370.62
Lunch and drinks at Oga’s Cantina: $94.01
Lightsaber workshop: $266.24
Droid workshop: $127.70
Ubers from hotel to Disney and from the park to the car rental: $40
Car rental: used points
Breakfast: brought Rx bars
Dinner: ate at my dad’s
Merch: $0 - there was nothing we wanted to buy!
Grand total: $898.57

So yeah, we basically spent $1700 for two days in Orlando, and we didn’t even pay for a hotel or car rental with actual dollars. It’s outrageous.

That concludes my series on our trip to Florida! We had a great time visiting with my dad and stepmom, and we also got to see my uncle and aunt, who live in the same town as my dad. We hadn’t been there in nine years, so we were overdue for a visit.

You may have noticed that my Friday Substacks have been less regular lately. I figure I’ll post when I have something interesting to write about, but I’m not going to struggle to come up with a topic just for the sake of getting a post out.

But I’ll keep doing my Sunday Instagram Sneak Peeks (until I get so sick of IG’s bullshit that I quit posting, lol).

Cheers!

Risa