In A Galaxy Naysaying Away

Your newsfeed might not give you article after article about Disney. Mine does. Because the machines are listening albeit selectively like a kid in the other room when parents think it’s safe to talk about Christmas. Since the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in California, articles about the new land is began to filter in. This trend didn’t decrease when the sister location opened in August.

 

This might be a sign my phone has a somewhat negative bent in its selection algorithm, but I didn’t get a huge amount of rave reviews in those articles. Some said the land wasn’t Star Wars. A lot of the titles included the word flop or failure. Clicking into the meat of those articles ends up being the author hanging his or her hat on attendance being low as if that was the sole measure for success.

 

I was under the impression success lived in more than just the numbers.  I have no idea what the target was for this latest expansion of the Disney empire. There hasn’t been a statement confirming the nay saying is accurate. All I have to go on is the three days spent taking it in. And, while it may be an amateur’s analysis, I’m most certainly part of the demographic they were targeting.

 

Being bounced around in a sea of people jockeying for space isn’t fun. Waiting for hours on end for a two minutes ride sucks down a lot of your day. Having to ear mark experiences for another trip is a serious let down especially in the wake of how expensive the Florida theme parks are. A one day ticket for Disney in late September ranges between $109 and $130 before taxes. For that amount of money, guests should be able to enjoy their time and not leave disappointed. So, without further ado, I’m going to carry on with a, perhaps, not so popular opinion.

 

My big vacations this year happened to coincide with the opening of the Hagrid coaster at Universal and the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in Orlando. And the two experiences definitely offered perspective.

The trek to Universal did coincide with the opening week of the rollercoaster. I know, what the hell were you thinking? Florida in June? It’s just how it worked out. That’s why pools and showers exist.

 

We went into the park knowing it was going to be difficult to get on the ride. Yes, I know, we were in the busy season. It seemed reasonable at the time that while we would probably have to wait two hours, we still would get on it. We were headed into an amusement park, waiting is just something you expect to do.

 

We didn’t get on the Hagrid coaster. Our bravado did play into that. We assumed that Universal staff would drop the rope at the ride entrance and people would begin queuing. Nope. There was a line to wait in line. By the time we discovered it, it was already at the three hour mark. And the ride wasn’t even running yet.

 

That was too much. I’m sorry. I love rollercoasters but Universal tickets are far too expensive to spend the day waiting to wait. So we walked away from the rollercoaster to enjoy the rest of the park. We did go back later in the day to check out the wait on the single rider line but the staff member we talked to indicated the single rider line didn’t move any faster than the regular line. We left the park that day bummed the ride had been out of reach.

 

Fast forward to September, we were back at our crazy ideas. We booked a trip to Disney to celebrate our anniversary. And we made sure to set our expectations this trip. If it was busy and the lines were ridiculous, we’d go to another park or do other things. We didn’t want to spend the trip in a huge crush of people and bummed out.

 

We dedicated our first full day down there to getting up early. And I mean early. It’s rare I see quarter of five for anything, but I was up and ready to go. Coffee was put on hold. Blasphemy, but yes, we went sans coffee for a chance at experiencing the land without gobs of people.

 

We weren’t the only ones there. Hollywood Boulevard was busy, although not packed, with other lunatics like ourselves. When the rope dropped and the First Order March started playing, the stream of people headed toward the new section of Hollywood Studios added to the experience.

 

The majority of visitors had their targets aimed at Smugglers Run, aka the Millennium Falcon ride. We were no different. This wasn’t going to be something we missed out on. So whether it was two hours or two minutes, our butts were sitting in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

 

This determination and grit was, in a word, unnecessary. From the walk to the land of Batuu to exiting the Millennium Falcon didn’t take forty-five minutes. Yep, that’s right. No muss no fuss. The rest of the Extra, Extra Magic hours were ours for the making. We were able to get “seated” at Oga’s cantina without reservations, stroll through and experience the rest of what Batuu had to offer, and ride everything in Toy Story Land all before the park opened to non-resort guests.

 

Oh, God, how awful, right? What was Disney thinking? They let us into the park where the ride times were reasonable and there was little worry or stress about missing out on things. Such a horrible flop.

 

Rolls eyes.

 

Everyone loves numbers and graphs full of data, especially the corporate world. In simple terms, no matter what the numbers are for the third and fourth quarters of 2019, they are going to be on an up tick from the numbers from last year and the year before at Hollywood Studios. Not to mention Batuu isn’t fully operational. Rise of the Resistance won’t open until December 2019, ensuring a boost in attendance during the first quarter of 2020. Which just happens to be another slow time of the year for the resort. That seems like a pretty intensional move to me. But, numbers aren’t everything.

 

Between the two experiences had this year in Orlando, I think you can probably guess which I would choose as the better one. Customer satisfaction is often overlooked in these articles condemning Batuu. I don’t think my experience would have been heightened by double the number of people in the park. 

 

By that I mean it would have been awful. I wouldn’t have been able to get on Smuggler’s Run four times in three trips to the park.  I certainly wouldn’t have been able to duck into Oga’s twice. Or even been able to step one foot, let alone both, into Dok Ondar’s Den of Antiquities. And that wouldn’t just be stealing experiences from me, that would be robbing the company of dollars spent inside the park. Which is kind of important for a theme park. Wouldn’t you say?

 

For this Nerd Girl, Batuu was not the land of mediocrity. It allowed me to step into the Galaxy far, far away. Something previously only available in make believe and imagination. The presentation was a work of magic. Each element had a purpose and a place. It wasn’t just the building fascades and props littering the landscape. The sounds of outlandish animals and space ships taking off filled the air. Creatures inhabited the waterworks. Chewy and Rey walked about the lanes and passage ways. Stormtroopers and the First Order were omnipresent.

 

And what’s even better, I didn’t have to fight to enjoy it. The land was undulating with people but never to the point where the voice in the back of my head starts screaming get the hell out of dodge. That did happen while were in the Harry Potter land with Hagrid’s coaster. It stunk to have to give in to that screaming voice since I enjoy Harry Potter so much.

 

So, which would you say is the success story there?