It’s Rising Moons over Batuu as we are all eagerly awaiting the upcoming arrival of the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge BIG e-ticket attraction, Star Wars: Rise of The Resistance.
Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge at Night
Expected to open on December 5th at Walt Disney World (and Disneyland on January 17th) we felt some serious hype at D23 this year when we were treated to the first real look at the attraction. And later when we got to actually GO INSIDE and experience it for ourselves!
Disney has done a good job at keeping things hush-hush and publicly we’ve only been exposed to limited information and hearsay — like a rumor of the attraction potentially lasting 20+ minutes in length with 4+ ride systems.
Entrance to Rise of the Resistance
At a media preview in August, we were lucky enough to actually go INSIDE the attraction and learn additional details about the opening and conclusion of the ride.
Rise of the Resistance Concept Art
But even though we’re SO close to the attraction opening, we’re still left with some pretty big questions to answer.
What will the requirements be to ride an attraction of this nature?
The super immersive, trackless ride system we’ve been promised is a multi-part attraction requiring guests to embark, disembark, and then board another ride system. How will that affect boarding, and especially guests with disabilities? We know guests in a wheelchair will be required to transfer, but with multiple transfers, is that even feasible?
©Disney
Disney confirmed the ride will end with a final drop that sounds similar in nature to that of the iconic attraction Tower of Terror. Much like Tower of Terror, a 40″ height requirement is in place for Rise of the Resistance. Will Disney’s newest attraction feature similar ride restraints to Tower of Terror as well?
When will FastPass+ become available for the attraction?
The land’s first attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, arrived this past August, in tandem with Hollywood Studios changing over to a tiered FastPass+ system. Even with this change, it’s been months and we’re still waiting on the attraction to offer FastPass+. They did combat this issue by offering guests Extra Magic Hours in the wee hours of the early morning, but those are gone, and still no FastPass for Millennium Falcon.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disney World
This leaves us very little information to use when predicting when FastPass+ will become available for Rise of The Resistance. Disney does provide this explanation on their site in regards to both attractions: “We will continually evaluate our operations and services in order to help provide a great Guest experience.”
Will there be a single rider line?
The land’s opening day attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, does currently offer a single rider line, which leaves us curious if Rise of the Resistance will offer the same. Waits have been relatively low and reception seems lukewarm for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — this holds especially true when comparing it to other major Walt Disney World attraction openings in recent years like Avatar’s Flight of Passage and Toy Story Land’s Slinky Dog Dash, which continue to see very long wait times.
But we could predict an increased interest in the land and general visitation because of the overall hype (300 animatronics are NO JOKE!) associated with this upcoming revolutionary attraction. This is in addition to the fact guests may be more likely to visit a land with two attractions, as opposed to currently just one.
Rise of the Resistance Concept Art
So no single rider line, no FastPass+, and a super looooong attraction could mean epically long and arduous waits for Rise of the Resistance, my friends.
But what we DO know is… the anticipation is REAL for potentially Walt Disney World’s most innovative ride ever.
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The problem I have with smugglers run ,and maybe it’s why other people do to, if I go into the single rider line, I’m always the engineer. So my fate is solely based on the pilots, bad pilots, bad experience. Which I have had happen. Seems you get rewarded with better positions if you have a larger group.
We will be heading to Disneyland I Feb 2020 , and are looking forward to seeing Galaxy Edge for the first time and riding both attractions.. I think we have worked out how to transfer my husband from his wheelchair to the Millennium Falcon ride and how to secure him.. but really need information on what we will need to do for the Smugglers run.. you mentioned in your article that they may have to transfer multiple times and has a drop at the end… this set up seems ridiculous , especially for Disney.
I find it terrible that they are building all these new rides with wheelchair accessible lines, but the rides themselves are not wheelchair friendly..
Hoping for some insight on whether the ride will be completely accessible for wheelchair users ..
Nikki, I’ll have the team make note of accessibility issues and report back.
I think it is random it is in there hands and they give the assignments . On you tube a party of 2 received pilot and co pilot the next round they got navigator and gunner . It is probably a 50/50 chance !!!
As long as they are allowing DAS passes we will be trying both rides. When we booked our trip it was 500 days out so we had no idea we would be there for the opening. My daughter loves these types of rides but with her Autism we don’t want to risk standing in line for two hours only for her to meltdown at that point and have to leave.
I have the same concerns about accessibility. I find it hard to believe that new rides, i.e. “Na’vi River is not wheelchair accessible when the movie was about a guy in a wheelchair…..If Disney can update SOME rides to allow a wheelchair on board, why can’t they make ALL new rides accessible? OK….I understand why rollercoasters aren’t accessible….but come on Disney! Do you know how hard it is to tell your son, “you can’t ride this because you’re in a wheelchair?”
I’m really concerned about the drop at the end! That’s the reason I never went on the Tower of terror – I don’t like drops. I’m not a roller coaster person either, but the drops are worse. What I want to know is will Disney have an exit for people who don’t want to or cannot for medical reasons do that drop at the end? I will be in Disney the first week of December when the ride opens and we have reservations for Oga’s so we will have access into GE. I would LOVE to experience the ride, but I won’t be able to tolerate the drop at the end. Does anyone know whether you will be able to exit the ride before that point? Thank you DFB Team for your research and the hard work you do trying to answer all of our questions!
The drop can only be a few feet its only in a 2 story building. So the drop will probably only be about 6 or 7 ft but will feel futher because your surroundings.