What: Disney Parks is debuting its new theme park, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Where: Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. Another location opens in Florida later this summer.
When: Galaxy’s Edge opens to the public on Friday, May 31. But CNN Business got a sneak peek.
Why it matters: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is touted as the company’s largest expansion and one of the most immersive parks that Disney has ever created.
The immersion at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is so deep it’ll even impact how you eat iwhile you’re there.
The new land offers all types of food with a Star Wars bent. There’s fried Endorian Tip Yip, or as we like to call it chicken.
There’s also Ronto Roasters, which will offer Ronto Wraps (hot dogs with some coleslaw). In fact, when you walk into the Ronto Roasters restaurant you can see your wraps being “cooked” by an old pod-racing engine.
And, of course, there’s one of Luke Skywalker’s favorite beverages, Blue Milk. The drink is creamy and of course blue (it tastes like a sweeter rice pudding).
I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but hey maybe my palette isn’t ready to go galactic just yet.
You don’t just visit Galaxy’s Edge – you’ll bring it home too.
I mean, it’s a Disney park, so there are naturally gift shops galore – and they have gone to the trouble to offer a truly eclectic selection of merchandise.
For starters, you can buy a lightsaber. And not like a toy one but actual metal lightsaber with a fiberglass blade. You can buy one based on the one owned by your favorite character such as Kylo Ren or Luke Skywalker, or customize one yourself. Pretending to be a Jedi Knight won’t be cheap, however. It’ll cost you around $200.
Then there are the Porgs. Galaxy’s Edge’s creature shop will let you bring home a plush toy based on the franchise’s many lovable or creepy critters. A Porg, which is a penguin like creature, flaps its wings and squawks and goes for the low, low price of $50.
Another character to say hi to at Galaxy’s Edge is R2-D2. A lifelike, up and running version of the droid from the franchise is rolling around the land.
The little droid beeps, bloops and can be found in one of the land’s many gift shops — The Droid Depot. It reacts to you by moving it’s head and beeping different sounds.
You can even bring R2 home if you want it. All you’ll need is $25,000.
What would a Disney park be without characters?!
Galaxy’s Edge is a chock full of Star Wars characters including Rey, Kylo Ren and, of course, everyone’s favorite co-pilot Chewbacca.
The characters walk around the land and even stop to take photos with you. And yes, Chewie is taller in person.
Disney (DIS) pulled out all the stops at the world premiere of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on Wednesday night.
Disney CEO Bob Iger stood in front of the Millennium Falcon, the spiritual heart of Galaxy’s Edge, and told a crowd of hundreds that the opening was one of his best nights as CEO.
He then brought out the man who came up with this whole world, Star Wars creator George Lucas.
”This is like Star Tours but on steroids,” Lucas said.
But the surprises didn’t stop there. Stars from the franchises including Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill and most surprisingly Harrison Ford came on stage with Iger to officially open the land with fireworks and cheers.
2019 has already been a big year for Disney (DIS), with the record-breaking success of “Avengers: Endgame,” the unveiling of Disney+ and the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. And it could get even bigger with “The Lion King” this summer.
For CEO Bob Iger, the biggest challenge of creating his company’s new Star Wars land Galaxy’s Edge was “making sure that this place in every aspect of it is true to what Star Wars is.”
“You’re leaving your reality, and entering the reality of Star Wars,” Iger told CNN Business’ Christine Romans in a wide-ranging interview at the new attraction Wednesday.
“This has become one of our most profitable businesses as we’ve expanded around the world,” Iger said of the parks division.
The CEO also laid out his strategy for Disney’s upcoming streaming service Disney+, and explained how he hopes the company will “do better than we did before” in 2020 and beyond.
Read and watch his full interview here.
Creating that “unique” experience wasn’t cheap. Disney reportedly spent $1 billion on the sprawling 14-acre park in Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
A second Galaxy’s Edge is opening later this summer in Florida’s Disney World.
Context: Disney (DIS) is investing this money in its parks and resorts at a time when profits in its media division are falling. Profits hit a high in 2015, but have since dipped 15%. In that same period, profits for Disney parks and resorts have gone up 47%.
Read more about what all this means for the company’s bottom line here.
The galaxy is no longer far, far away. It’s in Anaheim, California.
After four years of planning, Disney (DIS) is finally ready to debut the company’s largest expansion at its parks ever, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
The new land, which opens to the public at Disneyland in California on Friday, is a huge moment for Disney and the Star Wars brand.
This December, the Skywalker era of Star Wars will come to an end with “The Rise of Skywalker.” Disney is now trying to prove that the franchise is much more than just the family drama of Luke, Leia and descendants like Kylo Ren. It’s betting a lot (the land reportedly cost $1 billion) that Galaxy’s Edge will help do that.
When guests walk into Galaxy’s Edge they’ll be entering the unfamiliar village of Black Spire Outpost — a bustling trading port on the planet Batuu – rather than familiar Star Wars locales like Hoth and Endor. And that’s very much the intention.
Disneyland is more than just about meeting Mickey.
Galaxy’s Edge is a major investment in the future of Disney’s parks division. That investment comes at a time when the division looks more and more important to the future of the whole company.
The company’s media networks unit has traditionally been Disney’s biggest moneymaker. Those profits hit a high in 2015, but have since declined 15%, likely due to cord-cutting and rising programming costs.
In that same period, profits for Disney’s parks and resorts have jumped 47%.
Disney (DIS) is investing heavily in its parks, even beyond the Galaxy’s Edge.
It’s adding new attractions to Epcot including a “Guardians of the Galaxy” roller coaster and a ride based on “Ratatouille.” It’s also building new Marvel-themed areas at Disney’s California Adventure, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, as well as a “Zootopia”-themed land in Shanghai’s Disneyland Park.
Galaxy’s Edge is just the beginning.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has been billed as one of the most immersive experiences that Disney (DIS) has ever created in its parks. But what does that mean?
Well, for starters, the choices you make in the land may impact your experience in the rest of the park. For example, if you mess up Smuggler’s Run, the attraction that lets you pilot the iconic Millennium Falcon, then you may find yourself on the list of a bounty hunter in other parts of the land.
That deeper personalization will be made possible by technology including the Play Disney Parks app, which guests can download on their smartphones, and the resort’s all-in-one bracelet, MagicBand.
It also means that Galaxy’s Edge will have the look, feel and even tastes of Star Wars. You can eat “fried Endorian tip-yip” instead of chicken. There’s even shops where visitors can build their own lightsabers, for about $200 a pop.
“We want the place to feel deep, so that your relationship with it can also have that kind of depth,” Disney Imagineer Scott Trowbridge told me last month.
Even Coca-Cola is getting a makeover so it’ll fit in with Disney’s new park.
Coca-Cola (KO) is partnering with Disney (DIS) Parks & Resorts to bring custom bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite and Dasani to Disney’s highly anticipated “Star Wars” land, Galaxy’s Edge. The bottles will forgo the familiar look of Coke products for something that fits right into the park’s storyline.
The bottles will be fashioned into a spherical droid-like shape (Think BB-8).
The containers still have their brand names on them, but the labels will appear scuffed up to fit in with the rusty look of the “Star Wars” galaxy. The labels will also be written in Aurebesh — a fictional language used in the film franchise.
Rise of the Resistance, which will open later this year, is what Disney Imagineer Scott Trowbridge calls the “biggest attraction we’ve ever built.”
Disney (DIS) has kept most of the ride’s details top secret, but we do know it will have multiple ride systems, full-sized AT-AT Walkers and even a John Williams score.
Disney CEO Bob Iger calls the ride “the most technologically advanced and immersive attraction that we have ever imagined.”
For decades, Star Wars fans have dreamed about seeing the Millennium Falcon in person. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge makes that dream a reality.
One of the biggest landmarks in the land (and likely the most popular place to take a photo) is Han Solo’s iconic ship. The ship that sits outside of the Smuggler’s Run attraction is pretty much the same spaceship that flew into theaters in 1977. Seeing it in person definitely took my breath away for a moment. After years of waiting, the ship has finally landed.
Think of it along the lines of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disney’s (DIS) Magic Kingdom – a landmark location that you immediately associate with the place itself.
It has everything that the on-screen version of the ship has, from blast marks to rust. It’s also pretty massive at 100 feet long.
Sure, it’s a piece of junk, but a piece of junk that some fans will go crazy for as soon as they see it. I sure did.
Well, here’s something I didn’t expect … being inside the Millennium Falcon is as fun as piloting the Millennium Falcon.
Before you can fly the Falcon on the Smuggler’s Run ride, the line first puts you in the forward lounge of the ship. That may sound boring, but for a Star Wars fan, it’s anything but.
I even got to sit at the Holochess board where Chewbacca and C-3PO played a game of Dejarik (aka space chess) in 1977’s “Star Wars.”
Disney (DIS) even made the ship interactive meaning you might have to fix the Falcon if its compressor overheats.
It’s a great place to take photos and relax before going on the ride. It’s also a really smart move by Disney. They’ve somehow turned waiting in line for a ride into a fun experience.
Hondo Ohnaka may not be as famous as Han Solo, but Disney is hoping to change that.
A very convincing animatronic version of Ohnaka, who is a pirate introduced in the “Star Wars Rebels” animated series, greets you at the start of Smuggler’s Run.
After that, he (it?) sets up the mission of Smuggler’s Run as your guide for the new ride. The gist of his request is that he needs to get a shipment of some shady materials from point A to point B. He needs you to fly the Millennium Falcon to make it all work. One problem: the evil First Order may make the flight a wee bit bumpy.
Ohnaka is a great example of how Disney (DIS) is trying to use Galaxy’s Edge to expand the “Star Wars” franchise beyond the story we know and love.
He’s an unfamiliar character to most fans of the saga, but is now tied to this new attraction. That gives him a larger role in the brand and puts guests – rather than old characters – front and center in the Galaxy’s Edge story.
One of the most anticipated attractions at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. And the ride is, simply, a Star Wars fan’s dream.
You are put in the cockpit of the famous ship from the franchise. It’s not Han Solo or Chewbacca flying, but you. You can either be a pilot or a gunner or an engineer – and every button, switch and control in the cockpit not only looks authentic, but actually impacts affects your entire ride.
Smuggler’s Run moves with your piloting, so if you crash into a giant astroid then you have no one but to blame but yourself. John Williams’ score blasts as you zoom through the galaxy and through multiple planets. It feels like a flight simulator, but instead of an airplane it’s the Millennium Falcon.
The best part of Smuggler’s Run is jumping into lightspeed. The whole cockpit lights up and for a minute you forget you’re even on a ride. After it’s complete, you get a score on your flying ability and lose points if you damage the ship, which can impact the rest of your day at Galaxy’s Edge.
The Millennium Falcon isn’t the only famous ship at Galaxy’s Edge.
The new Star Wars themed land has some of the most well known ships from the space saga.
Of course, there’s Han Solo’s Falcon, but there’s also a few X-Wings sitting around. Those are ships of rebellion and resistance fighters like Luke Skywalker and Poe Dameron. (Another great spot to pull in some Instagram likes).
There’s also A-Wings, which were used in the Battle of Endor in “Return of the Jedi.”
There were also some Landspeeder, which is how Luke Skywalker would get around on his home planet of Tatooine.
If you think Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is all encompassing, it may have nothing on the upcoming Star Wars resort.
Disney (DIS) is planning a full-service Star Wars-themed hotel, which will one day open near Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and will have characters and storylines as well as a starship design.
“From the second you arrive, you will become a part of a Star Wars story,” Disney Parks CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement when the hotel was announced two years ago.
According to Chapek, the hotel’s Star Wars story will “touch every single minute of your day.” Visitors will even dress up in Star Wars attire.
Let’s hope they have a minibar, too.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is one of Disney’s (DIS) largest projects ever. Take a look at some of these stunning stats about the new land from the company.
Disney (DIS) Parks unveiled a new map on Friday that now includes Galaxy’s Edge.
The 14-acre land takes up Disneyland’s back left corner, where it will be accessible from Fantasyland, Critter Country and Frontierland.
Check the colorful map below!
