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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Debut Dates Announced

Rikki Niblett ,  , 
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The wait is over! We finally have the date for the grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in both Walt Disney World and at Disneyland.

The themed land is expected to open at Disneyland on May 31. The land will open in phases. On opening day for phase one, you’ll be able to ride the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, sample amazing galactic food and beverages, explore an intriguing collection of merchant shops, and more. The Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction will be opening at a later date.

Then, later this year (and much earlier than anticipated), the Walt Disney World version will open in Disney’s Hollywood Studios on August 29.

Guests planning to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland between May 31 and June 23 will need valid theme park admission and will be required to make a no-cost reservation, subject to availability, to access the land. Information on how to make a reservation will be available at a later date. Guests staying at one of the three Disneyland Resort hotels during these dates will receive a designated reservation to access Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge during their stay (one reservation per registered guest); valid theme park admission is required. The land will not be included in Extra Magic Hour or Magic Morning at Disneyland.

For Disney’s Hollywood Studios version, a reservation will not be offered or required to experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, however, capacity will be limited.  Additionally, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be open during Extra Magic Hours.

Also of note, at Disneyland, the Disney FASTPASS service, including access via Disney MaxPass, and at Walt Disney World, FastPass+ will not initially be offered at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. However, that could change with time.

Just one week ago, we got to find out what Guests can expect to experience when stepping foot into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – from more details about the attractions, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, plus we learned all about the different shopping and dining destinations that Guests will experience when stepping “onto” the planet Batuu and into Black Spire Outpost. (You can listen to an interview here or read an article about the latest updates here.)

As a reminder, Batuu is slated to be a port for explorers, smugglers, and traders who all want to fly under the radar and can be found on the outer rim of Wild Space. As the story goes, in their efforts to defeat the First Order, the Resistance has temporarily set up shop in an abandoned, ancient base encircled by forests, mountains, and rivers here on the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost.

Fans who visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge may see some familiar faces, including Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, BB-8, and Chewbacca, and they may even even find themselves in a face-off with the First Order.

So, get your lightsaber ready and make sure you bring a good book or at least a backup phone charger. Because on opening day, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is going to create lines like you’ve never seen.

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Rikki Niblett

I am a co-host of the Be Our Guest Podcast and do lots of other fun Disney stuff all around the interwebs! You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram at @RikkiNibs or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rikkinibs

51 thoughts on “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Debut Dates Announced”

  • Think you right,
    Disney needs to fill rooms and the parks.
    We are still going ,Sept 20 thru the 30
    Disney in past has open new stuff later then what Disney said would be ,,,
    this may be the case too.
    Last year aug 28,2018 thru the Aug 31,2018 the real data showed all Parks/Resorts were empty across the line ,,,all 1 s for crowd levels and 1st part of Oct 2018,,Disney does not want a repete.
    May be reason opening early ,,when the Star Wars Park is only 1/2 completed !!!
    …….. “PLOY ::a cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one’s own advantage.
    synonyms:ruse, tactic, move, device, stratagem, scheme, trick, gambit, cunning plan, maneuver” ……
    . ….This trip been in the savings and planning for 3 years can’t pull out now .got to go make the best of it ..we only go to WDW about every 3 to 4 years ..(COST,TIME TRAVEL from Seattle ,Washington )….
    just mightn spend much time in HS fast pass only …

  • I get a laugh in that this, and a BUNCH of other sites in this industry of planning and predicting Disney have been seemingly caught flat footed. I can see the touringplans crew on their fifth pot of coffee trying to craft new crowd levels….and Angela Dahlgren screaming “I have two hours of video on snacks at the flower and garden festival. NOW WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!?!”

    I’m booked to arrive on 8/29 and we’re gonna stick it out. We’re going to hit HS in a couple FP rides only and stick to the other parks. Let’s hope those 1’s and 2’s hold to 4’s and 5’s. I think the slow roll, partial roll out is to fill beds, and won’t drop like a big grand opening.

    Good luck everyone! These are high-class problems.

  • I had booked 9/4 – 9/8 so we could avoid SW being open. I’m taking my 5 year old and it’s tough to wrangle her in large crowds. I’m hoping they update crowd calendar soon. I can’t get a refund on my flights but I’m thinking a I might still need to cancel and do an alternative vacation spot. I just don’t know how to handle those crowds. Are we thinking there will be a huge bump in attendance at the other 3 parks as well or just HS?

  • I’m gutted. We had originally planned to go in mid-October but moved it to mid September and avoiding the GE crowds in Florida was a HUGE part of that decision. We’ve been planning and saving this trip for a year already, haven’t been since 2011 and it’s unlikely we’ll be back in the forseeable future. We love Star Wars but also wanted to spend our trip actually experiencing things instead of standing in lines. Toy Story Land is still a novelty, you would think they would let that calm down for a minute before opening GE! Hopefully the other parks will be manageable, and we’ll just go to HS for a few essential rides…

  • Here’s Two Cents worth:
    since only one StarsWar ride!! AND not all of the 14 ac’s are done ,,most die hard star wars folks wont show,,, Wait till both rides are open and running ,,and the rest of the Start Wars land open ,, MOST people that i know and talt to are going to wait,,,, do to cost and time to get to WDW ..THEY WANT THE WHOLE REAL DEAL .Thats not to say the Die Hards will show ..THINK IT GOING TO BE LESS THAN DISNEY MANGMENT THINKS THAT WILL SHOW UP. YES THERE WILL BE MORE FOLKS THERE FOR STARS WARS OPEN ,, THE OTHER 3 PARKS SHOULD NOT BE TOO BAD ..This is a a a roust,, Just to try get WDW attendance up!!
    SALE ARE LAGGIING . just a little not what they care to have .We did same thing booked 10day(Sept 20 thru the 30th ) end of Sept to stay away from crowds ,,taking Grandkids age 4 , 6 and 8 years old ,,was thinking doing same going at a diffrent time ,,Well heck no still going ,we will make the best of the time and hope for no mob crowds ..still going to be great ,, Dream the Dream and magical golden Pixie Dust too !!! should be be all good ..

    • Oh, we’re going, all right. Already have an on-property reservation at Disneyland from 5/29 to guarantee at least ONE “reservation” to visit Galaxy’s Edge. Now, for the WDW reservation, we made that one the moment reservations opened, although we overestimated when GE would open in Florida, and are booked at the Coronado the week before Christmas.

      My point being, we wouldn’t care if no rides were available at all—it’s Galaxy’s Edge, and for lifelong Star Wars fans, missing the opening is unthinkable. It’s not quite the same as having been there on July 17, 1955, but it’s close. Close.

  • I planned my trip early September 4-10 and was crushed when I found out this was opening so soon. I tried to cancel my flights or move my reservations but it is too late now! Why couldn’t they just keep what they said originally? August 29 is still summer! I am hopeful that they will stop ticket sales to avoid capacity or that mot will be heading there the last week of August so kids don’t miss to much school .

  • I am on the ‘I can’t believe they are opening early’ bandwagon. Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars and am looking forward to seeing it – in 2020 or even 2021 🙂
    I am booked 25th-1st, so I can avoid HS from opening forward, but I am just worried that there will be an influx of people booking the week now.
    I will not stand in line for 3-4 hours just to get in the land, then another 3-4 hours for the ride, which based on Pandora & TSL opening is what will happen. You can’t even see anything when it is wall-to-wall people.
    I understand for the die-hard fans the waits are acceptable, but I care way more about crowd levels overall.
    I am considering moving my trip to the week earlier. Hoping there are some predictions coming out on overall crowd levels – I know they are going to be a best guess, but that is the best we can hope for at this point I think

  • I know that the number of bookings will offset the number of cancellations tremendously. Disney will never release the information, but I would be interested to know what percentage of cancellations of trips is due to the earlier then expected opening date.

    • I would cancel mine if I didn’t have to pay a cancel fee for each one of our flights!

    • I cancelled my trip from 8/25-8/30 this morning. I re-booked for 8/11-8/17. I’m going to be alone with my kids. They have sensory issues and elope. I cannot watch them in the kind of crowds GE will draw. This is really terrible news for people who intentionally planned not to be there during the opening. It would be one thing if they announced before the 180 day mark or if later summer was ever suggested as an option. We just finished planning everything, bought flights, paid for early morning magic and MNSSHP. To have to turn around and cancel and book again where it is harder to get ADRs sucks. Disney was good about rescheduling the Halloween party tix.

  • This is awesome! We will be there in late September. When we booked i had a sneaking suspicion it would open the day after we went home (because that’s just my luck) and i’ve already started planning a trip for just me and my boy to go back for Star Wars in 2020….. now it seems we’ll get to at least experience some of Galaxy’s Edge! I expect i’ll be dragging kiddo out of bed super early so we can take advantage of extra magic hours… and likely spend it in line for Millennium Falcon…. but i think we’ll both be ok with that.

  • We have a trop planned for mid-November, any idea if crowds will have died down at all by that time? We’re excited about GE being open in time for our trip but are also worried about crowds and how this will effect all of the other parks.

  • Will Touring plans be updating the crowd calendars to factor in the earlier opening dates? We are planning a trip from Australia in late Sep/early Oct due to lower crowds. However getting to see some of Galaxy’s Edge would be a bonus for us. We were going to stay off property (we have 4 kids and on property just way too expensive for us) so hoping that there is no advantage to staying on property other than potential extra magic hours in the morning? Any advice?

    • Hi Kirrily, assuming that you are referring to WDW, then I think you can expect very big crowds in DHS and probably bigger crowds in the other parks too than is currently on the crowd calendar.

      I’m in your boat (well … plane) too – planning a trip from Melb to WDW at that time.

      I think that if you don’t stay on property you might be at a disadvantage of Disney introduce the no-cost booking entry like they are with DL.

      Otherwise, choose a day with no early entry and brave the lines at rope drop. I think that’ll be my strategy until this site suggests otherwise.

  • Super bummed because we are due to arrive on September 3rd. HS is our favorite park and we were looking forward to the low crowds. We know nothing about Star Wars, so we have no interest in the new land. Touring plans did send us an email bumping crowd level from a 1 to a 4 last week…maybe they knew before the announcement?

    • I think that jump was bc Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway was anticipated to open Sept 1st. I don’t think anyone saw this coming lol

  • We’re booked at the Coronado for the week of August 24-31. Now we don’t know what to do.

    Will the whole week be crazy or just the 29th on?

    Will all the parks be affected or just Studios?

  • Just read on another site that GE HS will also open in phases…..and won’t be accepting FP+….anyone else.

    I’m supposed to be there that week. I might keep the trip and just cross HS off the list altogether. It’s supposed to be low crowds anyway…maybe the spillover only bumps the other parks up a little.

    • My understanding is was that DL will be opening in phases. And yes, I have seen NO FP+ reservations for the initial opening.

  • Will this be a hard ticket ‘park/land’
    Or will it be included with admission to Hollywood studios (WDW).

  • I agree with Duane, I think you will all be okay. September was all 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s. Yes, Hollywood will probably now be 10’s, but I don’t think the others are all going to go up that much. We go in June when it’s all 7’s and 8’s and we do just fine. Plus everything ought to be running at full capacity and full hours. Plan well and you’ll have a great time!

    • In my opinion, this would be a good happy medium. I’m ok with one or two of the parks being 10’s, but was afraid this would bump all of the parks to unprecedented numbers. Most of our time with the litte ones will be MK and AK anyway, so this may turn out to be ok. Appreciate the optimism!

  • Being “gutted,” “crushed,” “upset,” etc. about Galaxy’s Edge opening just does not compute with me. Even if I had scheduled a trip during this time with the idea of low crowds, I would still be through the moon excited to be able to see this new land. While not ideal, I would gladly brave the crowds to experience what promises to be an incredible, next level theme park experience.

    • For you, the excitement of the new land outweighs low crowds. Not everyone does the same calculus.

    • @disneydadben -I think it will be more manageable in Florida. If I don’t want Star Wars, I just avoid Hollywood Studios. But Disneyland is a completely different story. This has the potential to make Disneyland Park a parking lot of people. Also, in my experience, die hard Star Wars fans are not necessarily Disney fans and they have very little patience with people who aren’t there for Star Wars. I so wish this could’ve been a separate park, or at least a separate entrance.

      • You’ll be going when you have to have a reservation to get into Galaxy’s Edge, so this may help. I assume this is their attempt to curb attendance somewhat. You should be away from the Star Wars fans most of the time (like they’re going to go ride Small World), so if you can survive rope drop (which I would guess may be earlier than 9) and have a good plan, you can still have a great time! Just warn your kids about, you know, the dark side and all that.
        Or you could just come to Florida instead. 😉

    • It’s not incredible for those of us who don’t like Star Wars. Our family struggled to coordinate and all get the sane time off to go this week…specifically for the low crowds.

    • Depends on how old your kids are, and more importantly, what their needs are. If seeing GE is not a big deal for you, but light crowds are because of thise needs, people’s opinions about this upsetting them shouldn’t be called into question, especially given an often 5-figure price tag attached to a Disney vacation. Not everyone gets to go every year; some save for a lifetime to go.

  • We booked first week of September for 7 days on the free dining plan. Figured it would be a good time to go as crowds would be low with our two kids (5 and 8). The Star Wars Geek in me is uber excited by the news as we will get to experience this when were thinking we would need to go again in early 2021and the other part of me is worried this will make the parks more crowded. In reality we only planed an afternoon and an am at Hollywood Studious initially but will probably add in one of the early morning hours. As today was 180 days out, we booked all our dining reservations to include Hollywood and Vine for an 8am breakfast before the park opens first thing today when reservations opened. So I will take it in stride and look at it as a bonus. If we can get fast passes for the new rides great, if we can soak up some streetmosphere that will work too and if need be with park hoppers we can tool over to a less crowded park for the day. For those worried unless you were planning a ton of time in HS I think you’ll be fine as Disney jumped up the seasonal prices for tickets and I am sure for reservations as well so I am guessing the crowds that add on will be for 1 or 2 night stays to go to the new attraction.

    • We’re thinking of canceling altogether like some others. We go to Disney quite often but the last time was 2016. Wanted to see Toy Story land but it looks like HS will be totally off limits. Never been to a park opening but have seen crowds on YouTube videos. Got all my dining reservations, like you, in for the week of Labor Day. Do you really think the other parks won’t be affected? Thinking of actually heading to Universal Studios as we’ve never been and bypassing Disney this time around.

  • I never saw the ‘phased opening’ approach coming. I just figured that by the second half of August, the whole land at DL would be operating for sure, but now it looks like RotR will be pushing back to sometime in autumn. D’oh

    • I was hoping for something like this—a bit like what they did for Harry Potter when it first opened in Orlando.

  • I predict a 10 in Hollywood studios for a while following. This is around the same time Runaway Railway is set to open. Waiting to see what it does for the other parks. Unfortunately, Touring Plans will probably only be able to give well educated guesses, but wont know anything until after opening. Hopefully the Len, Fred, and the team of statisticians at touring plans will be able to compile some info quickly.

  • My co-worker and I are over here freaking out! She had planned to take her family for 2 weeks in Sept to DW and I planned to attend the 2nd week in October with my family. Hopefully, if we managed to avoid anything to do with Star Wars, we can enjoy shorter cues at the other parks!

  • I’m gutted. We had planned to take our kids to Disneyland one last time before GE opens…starting on May 31st. We were at Disneyland last year for Pixar Fest and they added a Star Wars Disneyland After Dark while we were there. The Star Wars cosplayers who entered the park before the fireworks were incredibly rude to my children (“Why the $&@# are there children here?!”) made me realize that Star Wars diehard fans are not necessarily Disney fans at all. 🙁

  • Get to work, Len! I need you to tell me what to do!!

  • Its opening the DAY we booked to arrive…..for a trip that was going to be the last for our family….because of the watered-down cattle drive that will be post GE WDW.

    Irony.

    I know there is an entire camp excited for this…I guess I wanted one last look.

  • Oh my gosh, I am so upset too! We were booked for Sept 25th – Oct 1st to avoid it just like all previous commenters!!!! If it’s going to be busy for 12 months though, is it even worth postponing?? I’m so sad!!!

  • I’d cancel if I had a pre-opening trip planned that’s now post-opening. It’s going to be insane.

    Wonder what opinions are for how long it will take for crowds to die down to reasonable levels. 2 months? 6 months? 12 months?

    Star Wars seems like such a bigger IP than previous expansions (Toy Story, Pandora)…do we even have precedent?

  • We planned a “trip of a lifetime” with our grandkids the end of September during a typically less busy time. Looks like it’s not going to happen now. The crowds will ruin it. Very sad.

  • Cancelling our Sept 8-16 trip. This is terrible (for some).

  • Ughhhhhh! What happened to “late Fall” ?Of course this is the one-time something is waaay ahead of schedule. We also booked our trip to be going during a slower time with our young ones.
    Really need a crowd calendar update to see the damage. Trying to keep excited but it just got really hard to do!

  • I can’t believe WDW GE is opening this early! I planned our whole trip around the lower crowds pre-opening. I’m not even looking forward to this now.

    • I agree! We are there Aug 31-Sept 5. One of the main reasons of going then was to beat the Star Wars crowd and now we are there on opening day. Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars but there is no way we are even going to get to ride that new ride and now we have to contend with crowds of people. What a nightmare!

  • How is this going to affect the other parks? We booked first week in September to avoid Star Wars crowds!

    • It’s not going to be good, that’ s for sure. Hopefully the crowd calendar/tracker is updated soon.

    • We did the same. I could cry!

    • Me too- I’m crushed

    • We did the same thing. Hopefully with school being in session it will just affect the one park tremendously and only bump the other parks up a little. We will see. As of right now we are still planning to take our trip.

    • We did too!!! I’m panicking and thinking of canceling my trip all together . My son has sensory processing disorder so I specially plan our trips on low crowd level days to make our trips as successful as possible. We’ve never done Universal, but I bet this will spike the crowds there too… super sad

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