Guide Tour of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland Park, California, United States

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is a themed area inspired by the Star Wars franchise, located in Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is set within the Star Wars universe, in the Black Spire Outpost village on the remote frontier planet of Batuu.

Attractions include the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The land opened in 2019, replacing Big Thunder Ranch and former backstage areas. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and features attractions, shops, restaurants and entertainment.

Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) designed the project, the team decided to set the lands on a new planet, located within the Outer Rim of the Unknown Regions. Described as a “remote frontier outpost”, the planet Batuu has not previously appeared in other media. The team chose to create a newly designed world instead of using an existing planet from the films. The new designed planet wanted to build new Star Wars stories, new Star Wars destinations.

The background story of planet Batuu is described as: “This used to be a vibrant trading port back in the old sub-lightspeed days, but now with advent of hyperspace, its prominence has kind of fallen and faded a little bit which has made it a great spot for those who didn’t want to be on that kind of mainstream path. The smugglers, the bounty hunters, the rogue adventurers looking to crew up, the people who don’t want to be found — basically all the interesting people.”

The landscape of Galaxy’s Edge features 135 foot (41 m)-tall spires standing amongst the rockwork that are intended to be the petrified remains of massive trees of an ancient forest; Imagineers based this landscape from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The development team drew inspiration from real-world locations, including Istanbul, Morocco, and Jerusalem, and traveled there to study the architecture, culture, and weather. The team also cited Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for the original Star Wars trilogy as a basis for the architecture and aesthetic look of the land.

The story events are set between the films Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, and depicts the presence of both the First Order and Resistance. At the time of their openings, both locations of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge had one attraction: Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which allows riders to control the Falcon during a “customized secret mission”. This would be followed by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, that places guests into the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance.

Concept art depicted a full-size Millennium Falcon situated among alien buildings built into tall cliffs. Rise of the Resistance is a 28 minute long experience with more than 300 animated objects; housed within one of the largest show buildings Disney has ever built for a dark ride.

In addition, the area features Oga’s Cantina, which is the first location in Disneyland Park to sell alcoholic drinks to the public. Riders’ performances on the Millennium Falcon influence how they are treated at the cantina, adding to the immersive experience. The Black Spire Outpost marketplace contains a toy stall run by a Toydarian.

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run
Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run is a motion simulator attraction, based on the Star Wars film series created by George Lucas. Located in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the attraction opened on May 31, 2019 in Disneyland. Park guests are seated in a 6-passenger motion simulator, themed after the Millennium Falcon. Guests go on an interactive “smuggling mission” with each guest on the attraction being assigned a different crew role. The story is set between the films The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Riders begin their ride experience by loading into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. The two pilots sit in the front row–the left side moves the ship left and right, and the right side moves the ship up and down. The next row holds the gunners who press buttons to shoot down enemies and obstacles in the way. The back row seats the two engineers who work to repair the ship during the flight.

Similar to Epcot’s Mission: SPACE, Smugglers Run is an interactive ride, with every guest having a role in the mission. Lasting four and a half minutes, the ride takes the guests on a mission led by Hondo Ohnaka and R5-P8 to steal precious cargo from the First Order TIE fighters. How well each rider performs determines the success of the mission. Furthermore, any “damage” afflicted to the ship during the run will affect the lighting conditions in the exit corridor.

The ride is made up of several simulators mounted on a turntable that rotates periodically. Guests that work quicker are given more to do (like capturing additional cargo or navigating through an asteroid field) and receive longer messages from Hondo while they wait for their turn to exit.

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Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is an attraction at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. The attraction. A combined trackless dark ride, walk-through, motion simulator, and drop ride system, puts guests into the middle of an altercation between the Resistance and the First Order.

Featuring four interworking ride systems in conjunction with Audio-Animatronics, practical sets, projection mapping and screen-based media, Rise of the Resistance is one of the most complex and advanced attractions designed by Walt Disney Imagineering.

The ride begins with Finn explaining how to get to the escape pods. The two transports exit the loading station where they pass two other empty transports heading into the loading station, with Bek speaking to the riders through the transports’ radio. They enter another room where a probe droid nearly spots them. However, when about to reach two lifts, two stormtroopers spot the guests. The stormtroopers attempt to blast at the transports, but fail as the transports escape.

They enter the next room which includes AT-ATs. The door leading out of the room closes before the transports can pass through. The stormtroopers spot the transports again and attempt to blast at them. An audio-animatronic Finn in a stormtrooper suit helps the guests as the transports split up and enter two lifts. Finn tells them to go down, but they go up instead. One of the vehicles is spotted by an AT-AT pilot and is almost blasted.

In the next room, audio-animatronic figures of Kylo Ren and General Hux are seen atop the ship’s bridge discussing the situation. Suddenly, a Resistance ship fleet appears and Ren notices the transports. The riders attempt to escape, but Ren jumps down in front of them and ignites his lightsaber as the transports enter two lifts, though the doors close in front of them before he can get to them.

As the lifts go down, Kylo’s lightsaber suddenly cuts through the ceiling as they escape. The riders then enter a room with three cannons firing at the Resistance, which they pass under and make it into the next room where an audio-animatronic Ren uses the Force on the transports, demanding that they tell him the whereabouts of the Resistance Base.

Suddenly, a burning TIE fighter crashes into the Star Destroyer creating a breach in the wall behind Ren and he is almost blown out into space as debris falls over him. If the animatronic of Kylo Ren is not working, an alternate ending is triggered. Ren instead appears through the windows in front of the transports in his TIE Fighter and threatens to blast them if they don’t give him information on the Resistance Base.

All of a sudden, a Resistance X Wing shoots down Kylo Ren’s TIE Fighter and the transports escape. The transports enter the next room and enter the escape pods, where the ride turns into a motion simulator. After two other pods eject, the riders’ pods undergo a sudden vertical drop and escape back onto Batuu. The transports exit the simulator and enter the hangar, where an audio-animatronic Bek is seen in his escape pod, having just crash landed in the base. They then enter the unload station where the ride ends.

Disneyland
The Disneyland Park, is the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17, 1955. It is the only theme park designed and built to completion under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. It was originally the only attraction on the property; its official name was changed to Disneyland Park to distinguish it from the expanding complex in the 1990s. It was the first Disney theme park.

Since its opening, Disneyland has undergone expansions and major renovations, including the addition of New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country (now Critter Country) in 1972, Mickey’s Toontown in 1993, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019. Opened in 2001, Disney California Adventure Park was built on the site of Disneyland’s original parking lot.

Disneyland Park consists of nine themed “lands” and a number of concealed backstage areas, and occupies over 100 acres. The park opened with Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland, and has since added New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country (now known as Critter Country) in 1972, and Mickey’s Toontown in 1993, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019.

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