Greets,

Just returned from a special Disney Cast member's screening of the new SW Galaxy's Edge Theme park at Hollywood Studios, FL. Overall it was a fantastic experience that really immerses someone into the world of Star Wars for a few hours. A few notes:

• They did a wonderful job with the props and re-creating the physical setting. Ships, speeders, Cantina's, Rebel bases, droids, merchant hutts, etc. The whole area looks like something you can find on a set of a SW movie.
• Oga's Cantina - Fun experience. They ran out of the Blue Milk aka the Blue Bantha Milk.
• Episode IV-VI and Episode VI-IX focus. Very little if any Prequel era attractions.
• The Millennium Falcon ride is fun as heck. Six people ride at once with two people taking on specific roles. Pilot/Gunner/Engineer. Each person has to fulfill their aspect of the simulation otherwise the mission ends in failure. We really felt like we were in the Falcon being chased by the Empire. I rode the ride twice, playing the Engineer and Gunner roles. (I have bad motion sickness otherwise the Pilot role looks the most fun). Just before getting on the ride you have a quick opportunity to take a picture around the circular table that has space chess.
• No Cosplaying - Disney does not want people to mistake attendees as Employees of the park. At least from what I know, no cosplaying around the rest of the park.
• The place is a money pit. There are some cool things to purchase. The prices are very high. Even cast members will not be able to use their discounts when the area opens to the public. Personally, I do not blame Disney. People will spend the money when they attend. They might as well maximize profits.
• Overall very fun: I can't imagine what the area will be like to kids once it opens. I'm an adult star wars fan (a non negative one, I used to be. I still hate the Last Jedi).

I'll try my best to answer any other questions. Cheers.

So are you a cast member? If so, are you able to divulge what kind of character/backstory you are playing? And did your hobby of roleplaying help land you the job?

30 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

So are you a cast member? If so, are you able to divulge what kind of character/backstory you are playing? And did your hobby of roleplaying help land you the job?

Heh no. I have a family member who works for the big mouse. Corporate section. They had to sign up on a list to get the free preview last night.

They were allowed to bring one guest of their choice. Fortunately their spouse is also a cast member so my loved one was able to attend too.

I forgot to mention all of the cast members who worked within galaxys edge roleplayed their parts. Very neat little touch.

Ah, a member of CorSec.

I have a friend that's taking me on Wednesday in Orlando. Can't wait

35 minutes ago, Varlie said:

I have a friend that's taking me on Wednesday in Orlando. Can't wait

Make sure you have money for Savi’s workshop.

2 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Make sure you have money for Savi’s workshop.

I've seen YouTube videos... the experience seems worthwhile the sabers not so much, if you want a great saber for under $400 go to electrum sabercraft. You can get light and sound that's duel worthy for $59 from the pach store. Might take my kids when they're old enough though. But I've already bought my son Samuel L. an approx $800 high end mace windu replica lightsaber for his 5th birthday present (he just turned 2) because it was a limited edition run that I wouldn't be able to get later

8 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Make sure you have money for Savi’s workshop.

I was already planning on it. I was looking at the options they had available.

I was thinking when Galaxy's Edge opened in California that FFG could produce a a game module based in Batuu to sell at the parks. I am thinking of something similar to Under a Black Sun with pregens and a abridged rule set.

15 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

I've seen YouTube videos... the experience seems worthwhile the sabers not so much, if you want a great saber for under $400 go to electrum sabercraft. You can get light and sound that's duel worthy for $59 from the pach store. Might take my kids when they're old enough though. But I've already bought my son Samuel L. an approx $800 high end mace windu replica lightsaber for his 5th birthday present (he just turned 2) because it was a limited edition run that I wouldn't be able to get later

I've seen the same videos. In fact I saw one in particular testing the Savi's lightsaber against an UltraSaber. The Savi' lightsaber won.

1 hour ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I've seen the same videos. In fact I saw one in particular testing the Savi's lightsaber against an UltraSaber. The Savi' lightsaber won.

Surprises me the savi won! Glad it did because my family member works for Disney

It was $99.99 for the build a droid exp. either a bb8 model or r2. The whole process seemed fun and there was a lot of customization. A lot of the add ons have an extra cost.

Reminds me of build a Bear. But much more involved for the purchaser.

8 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I've seen the same videos. In fact I saw one in particular testing the Savi's lightsaber against an UltraSaber. The Savi' lightsaber won.

Ultrasabers and in this case saberforge aren't exactly known for quality construction, they don't even use a chassis, just free floating electronics. My saber is a Vader's vault rev-n elite with a plecterpixel blade (plecterpixel is rated for medium contact dueling), the blade doesn't wobble. If I wanted a beater for heavy dueling I'd buy a Vader's vault mitsurugi 3k with tri cree suncrusher blue in hilt led and a heavy duty photon blade. Blue led plus photon blade = extremely bright green. The mitsurugi 3k felt perfect in my hand when I held it at their store in Cumming Georgia (19 miles from my dad's house) but I didn't care for the if Darth Vader were a space samurai this would be his lightsaber aesthetic

19 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Ultrasabers and in this case saberforge aren't exactly known for quality construction, they don't even use a chassis, just free floating electronics. My saber is a Vader's vault rev-n elite with a plecterpixel blade (plecterpixel is rated for medium contact dueling), the blade doesn't wobble. If I wanted a beater for heavy dueling I'd buy a Vader's vault mitsurugi 3k with tri cree suncrusher blue in hilt led and a heavy duty photon blade. Blue led plus photon blade = extremely bright green. The mitsurugi 3k felt perfect in my hand when I held it at their store in Cumming Georgia (19 miles from my dad's house) but I didn't care for the if Darth Vader were a space samurai this would be his lightsaber aesthetic

Yes, and?

You're missing the point of Savi's Workshop. You get to BUILD your own lightsaber. Not only that, but the saber has a kyber crystal in it to boot. To be clear, I'm not big on having to remove my blade from a lightsaber in order to wear it on my belt, but, if I had the money to go to Disney, and pay for the Savi's lightsaber experience, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

16 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Yes, and?

You're missing the point of Savi's Workshop. You get to BUILD your own lightsaber. Not only that, but the saber has a kyber crystal in it to boot. To be clear, I'm not big on having to remove my blade from a lightsaber in order to wear it on my belt, but, if I had the money to go to Disney, and pay for the Savi's lightsaber experience, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Yep, it's the experience that draws me to the Galaxy's Edge saber (whenever I finally get to go...probably a couple of years). And swapping out the crystals. I'm not wild about the chunky, "toy-looking" aesthetic, but it is what it is. (Not to mention the crystals pulling double duty in the holocrons.)

10 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:

Yep, it's the experience that draws me to the Galaxy's Edge saber (whenever I finally get to go...probably a couple of years). And swapping out the crystals. I'm not wild about the chunky, "toy-looking" aesthetic, but it is what it is. (Not to mention the crystals pulling double duty in the holocrons.)

Well, I don't know about "toy looking" aesthetic, unless you're simply referring to its dimensions, but all of the parts are metal, and, from all of the videos I've seen, it has some good heft to it.

9 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Well, I don't know about "toy looking" aesthetic, unless you're simply referring to its dimensions, but all of the parts are metal, and, from all of the videos I've seen, it has some good heft to it.

Yeah, I know they’re metal, but they’re oversized in the same way that the less expensive toy versions are, and - at least in the pictures and videos I’ve seen - the paint and detailing just have an...”off”...look to me that’s hard to describe.

31 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:

Yeah, I know they’re metal, but they’re oversized in the same way that the less expensive toy versions are, and - at least in the pictures and videos I’ve seen - the paint and detailing just have an...”off”...look to me that’s hard to describe.

Personally, I like the "somewhat larger" size. For starters, it allows for a wider grip, and therefore more control, than allowable on a smaller hilt.

13 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Personally, I like the "somewhat larger" size. For starters, it allows for a wider grip, and therefore more control, than allowable on a smaller hilt.

Compare it to a brawler from Vader's vault. Brawler is definitely a 2 hander in terms of length (I've held one so I know) but the diameter is by design on par with real sword hilts. It seems to be about the diameter of the savi's inner saber core, or maybe a little thinner, before you put the pieces on top of it. The savi's has an oversized diameter. Unless you have monster sized hands, that makes it harder rather than easier to grip (ultrasabers has the same problem). There are plenty of custom sabers out there that have a quartz crystal in them that take on the color of the blade because of the light shined through them.

You seem not to be aware of the modular hilt system from the custom saber shop, which has way more variety than savi's. Saberforge has kind of the same thing as an option but if you go that route buy an empty hilt and either install it yourself or pay a custom saber smith to install it for you, with a chassis.

By the way the rancor tooth pommel from savi's is plastic, not sure about the rest of savi's cover pieces. The experience (show+saber) seems worth $200 and it's not a terrible price for a budget saber with light and sound. The problem is getting a replacement blade when yours breaks from dueling enough (yeah it happens). Easy to replace if you bought almost anywhere else.

13 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Compare it to a brawler from Vader's vault. Brawler is definitely a 2 hander in terms of length (I've held one so I know) but the diameter is by design on par with real sword hilts. It seems to be about the diameter of the savi's inner saber core, or maybe a little thinner, before you put the pieces on top of it. The savi's has an oversized diameter. Unless you have monster sized hands, that makes it harder rather than easier to grip (ultrasabers has the same problem). There are plenty of custom sabers out there that have a quartz crystal in them that take on the color of the blade because of the light shined through them.

You seem not to be aware of the modular hilt system from the custom saber shop, which has way more variety than savi's. Saberforge has kind of the same thing as an option but if you go that route buy an empty hilt and either install it yourself or pay a custom saber smith to install it for you, with a chassis.

By the way the rancor tooth pommel from savi's is plastic, not sure about the rest of savi's cover pieces. The experience (show+saber) seems worth $200 and it's not a terrible price for a budget saber with light and sound. The problem is getting a replacement blade when yours breaks from dueling enough (yeah it happens). Easy to replace if you bought almost anywhere else.

I actually prefer the larger diameter of my Hasbro blades, so I wouldn't have any problem with a Savi's blade. And as you know I have relatively small hands. Also, unlike the custom sabers you refer to where the crystal takes on the color of whatever blade it put into it. with the Savi's sabers, the blade's color is determined by whatever color crystal you put into the hilt. T he crystal determines the color of the blade, just like in canon, not the other way around.

As for replacing the blade of a Savi's saber. The same guy who made that video I linked to above, also came up with a way of replacing a damaged blade.

OK, I agree with Sinceragegape , the detail there was incredible. The only ride open in Orlando was the Millennium Falcon and that was entertaining. When going in, try to get into the 1 and 2 positions in your group of 6 if you want to get the pilot spot.

I did not build a lightsaber but I did build a Droid. Now I can't use it too much at home as it terrifies my dog.

14 minutes ago, Varlie said:

OK, I agree with Sinceragegape , the detail there was incredible. The only ride open in Orlando was the Millennium Falcon and that was entertaining. When going in, try to get into the 1 and 2 positions in your group of 6 if you want to get the pilot spot.

I did not build a lightsaber but I did build a Droid. Now I can't use it too much at home as it terrifies my dog.

First time, we rode the falcon it was about a 20 minute wait time. My wife and I ended up in the gunner roles while my brother and sister in law were the pilots. I was trolling my brother so bad at his poor piloting and Roleplaying the exp.

The second time we rode it, only a 10 minute at most wait. Naturally fell into the Engineer spot which is fine to me due to motion sickness. I did enjoy playing the Engineer (Fixing the damage was fun. And shooting the grappling hooks).

The ride has a lot of replay value due to the various roles, and combinations. My wife said her side of the engineer and gunner slots were different than mine. There is the manuel and automatic setting for gunner too.

Once the park opens to the public, the wait time will be sick. For the average person I can't imagine waiting in line for 2 hours to be the engineer. LOL.

Completely agree about future wait times.

For the pilots, the passion in the right seat handles vertical controls and THE HYPERDRIVE! The left pilot controls left and right. Really well done in structure, design, and flight imagery.

I wonder how well the buttons and switches will hold up because in just my two rides I saw people slapping the down hard.

I'm guessing that the Orlando park is going to start with the same 4-hour window reservation system that California had to keep initial crowds manageable, then transition to the current virtual queue system I've heard they've adopted after the first month.

9 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I actually prefer the larger diameter of my Hasbro blades, so I wouldn't have any problem with a Savi's blade. And as you know I have relatively small hands. Also, unlike the custom sabers you refer to where the crystal takes on the color of whatever blade it put into it. with the Savi's sabers, the blade's color is determined by whatever color crystal you put into the hilt. T he crystal determines the color of the blade, just like in canon, not the other way around.

As for replacing the blade of a Savi's saber. The same guy who made that video I linked to above, also came up with a way of replacing a damaged blade.

It's the diameter of the hilt not the blade that matters, and for someone who hasn't held a Vader's vault combat class saber in their hand, that's an uniformed preconception.

An opaque plastic and obviously fake "crystal" that changes blade colors vs a real quartz crystal i can see through, refracts light, and that I can change the apparent color of by pressing a button. You get what you pay for (I didn't get a crystal btw, wanted a hilt it wasn't an option for wasn't willing to pay for it either).

I also like to be able to pick my sound fonts (there's a very large number of them on saberfont.com, my saber has the default rev-n sound font, the gcs fates and rogue sound font, and shameem's invictus sound font which I can best describe as a cross between a thunder storm and lightsaber hum which makes it perfect for a dragite gem imho. The gcs soundfonts are really sophisticated (stab, spin, etc). I currently have a crystal shard 4.5 sound card but plan to send my and my son's sabers back to get the newly released crystal focus x sound card (so I'll get the stab; spin sounds, smooth swing, etc.)

I also don't have all the tools (e.g bench drill and the bench clamp) to execute that 7 step process. I do have the Allen wrench and retention screw that comes with the saber. You also don't get scrolling ignition, localized blaster reflect visual cues or unstable blade effects without neopixel blades (which run about $145).

My 2 year old son is Samuel L. So (while I could) I got him a limited edition 89 sabers replica mace windu saber (installed by vaders vault) . It's not quite a screen accurate replica because it has sound vents on the pommel and I had them cut the black rubber grips down a bit to be easier for a 5 year old to hold. It has the gcs shatterpoint sound font plus the 3 extra I bought and have on my saber. The sound on that thing is amazing. Same speaker as mine but the resonance/sound venting on it is superb. Mine is good but it blows mine out of the water when it comes to sound.

Of course I got the havoc pommel instead of the rev-n pommel to add an extra half inch of gripping length, so using a pommel not designed for it could have affected the sound. I also have black leather wrap, 3 accent LEDs, a copper covertec wheel so I can clip it to my belt, which matches the copper emitter accent. Oh and i had them mill down the protrusion under the copper accent. You're not going to get that level of customization on a savi's. Including the neopixel blades I paid about $800 each on our 2 sabers. And that's including 2 extra high capacity batteries because neopixel draw a lot of power (they're very bright), and a covertec belt clip. This is my saber. I was going for something that popped visually without being ostentatious/pretentious.

15 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

It's the diameter of the hilt not the blade that matters, and for someone who hasn't held a Vader's vault combat class saber in their hand, that's an uniformed preconception.

An opaque plastic and obviously fake "crystal" that changes blade colors vs a real quartz crystal i can see through, refracts light, and that I can change the apparent color of by pressing a button. You get what you pay for (I didn't get a crystal btw, wanted a hilt it wasn't an option for wasn't willing to pay for it either).

I also like to be able to pick my sound fonts (there's a very large number of them on saberfont.com, my saber has the default rev-n sound font, the gcs fates and rogue sound font, and shameem's invictus sound font which I can best describe as a cross between a thunder storm and lightsaber hum which makes it perfect for a dragite gem imho. The gcs soundfonts are really sophisticated (stab, spin, etc). I currently have a crystal shard 4.5 sound card but plan to send my and my son's sabers back to get the newly released crystal focus x sound card (so I'll get the stab; spin sounds, smooth swing, etc.)

I also don't have all the tools (e.g bench drill and the bench clamp) to execute that 7 step process. I do have the Allen wrench and retention screw that comes with the saber. You also don't get scrolling ignition, localized blaster reflect visual cues or unstable blade effects without neopixel blades (which run about $145).

My 2 year old son is Samuel L. So (while I could) I got him a limited edition 89 sabers replica mace windu saber (installed by vaders vault) . It's not quite a screen accurate replica because it has sound vents on the pommel and I had them cut the black rubber grips down a bit to be easier for a 5 year old to hold. It has the gcs shatterpoint sound font plus the 3 extra I bought and have on my saber. The sound on that thing is amazing. Same speaker as mine but the resonance/sound venting on it is superb. Mine is good but it blows mine out of the water when it comes to sound.

Of course I got the havoc pommel instead of the rev-n pommel to add an extra half inch of gripping length, so using a pommel not designed for it could have affected the sound. I also have black leather wrap, 3 accent LEDs, a copper covertec wheel so I can clip it to my belt, which matches the copper emitter accent. Oh and i had them mill down the protrusion under the copper accent. You're not going to get that level of customization on a savi's. Including the neopixel blades I paid about $800 each on our 2 sabers. And that's including 2 extra high capacity batteries because neopixel draw a lot of power (they're very bright), and a covertec belt clip. This is my saber. I was going for something that popped visually without being ostentatious/pretentious.

Yes, I’m talking about the diameter of the hilt as well. As for the crystals at Galaxy’s Edge, they’re not opaque. They’re translucent . And do glow when in the hilt. The different color crystals also affect how the saber sounds, so the sabers don’t all sound the same. This is all accomplished through RF ID chips embedded within the crystals.

Also, the Savi’s lightsaber blades (also used by the “Legacy “ blades sold at Dok Ondar’s) do “scroll” when they activate and deactivate.