*SUPER LONG POST ALERT!*
Hi all - Our family is just back from our WDW trip and had a great day at Galaxy's Edge (despite going on a level 10 crowd day, the day after President's Day). I attribute our fun day 100 percent to great advice I gathered from this forum. So to pay it back, I wanted to share our experience, in case it's helpful for anyone out there planning a trip.
We went as a family of four, including a 4 year old and 6 year old. Our objective was to do all the GE highlights in one day - Smugglers Run, ROTR, build a droid, and try blue/green milk. We did it all plus a Ronto Wrap and had a great time.
Tuesday, Feb. 18:
5:30AM My husband and I woke up and got ready (we were staying at Swan); put the kids in a double stroller still sleeping (in Star Wars PJs, of course!), covered them each with a light blanket that could be folded up and put in the bottom of the stroller
6:00AM Left Swan and walked to HS
6:30AM Arrived at HS - I misunderstood the advice about staying "almost all the way to the right" - to clarify for others, you might want to go 3 or 4 stations from the right when you're going through security, but then veer ALL THE WAY to the right when you're going through the tapstiles. At least on the day we went, they were allowing all guests through the Passholders tapstiles, and those had very short lines.
(Can't remember the time...) Once we were allowed through the tapstiles we walked briskly with the double stroller to the area right outside the Galaxy's Edge entrance - we made it to the area right outside of Muppets 3D, which was decently close to the front of the crowd-holding area (this placement was important for us, as we were planning to rope drop Smugglers Run)
*We situated ourselves in an area on the right edge of the street (if facing the entrance to Galaxy's Edge), next to the side walk - this was a good area because cast members were keeping the side walks clear, so we had an open area to one side and it made being in a densely packed crowd feel less claustrophobic
*This general area was great to be in because the restrooms here (next to the Ms. Piggy fountain) were open, and I could take advantage of the waiting time to take our kids to the restroom.
*Also - we took an iPad with two sets of headphones and a splitter, so the kids were happy to wait (in what is otherwise a pretty overwhelming crowd) because they were cozy in their double stroller with blankets and watching Frozen II
7:45AM: I made sure my phone and my husband's phone (both iPhone X):
-Were set on low power mode
-Had Wifi turned off
-Had
MDE up and we'd modified a FP to help the app register us as in the park
7:50AM: We packed up all our items (iPad/headphones went in a backpack, blankets were folded and put under the stroller, etc)
7:59AM: We watched the clock icon on the iPhone home page (as it's set to true time) and watched the second hand until it was at 15 seconds to 8AM - then reopened MDE
8:00AM EXACTLY: Hit "find out more," selected members of our party, and hit join boarding group, we got BG 17
8:03AM (maybe): Cast members started leading the pack into the land and, as others have advised, we stayed to the right - as we approached Smugglers Run cast members offered to take our double stroller and park it for us, they showed us the area where it would be - then we walked on Smugglers Run
(At this point I stopped documenting times, but we moved from one thing to the next and had no waits our whole time in the land)
-After Smugglers Run we had been called for our ROTR BG with a 2-hour return time
-We decided to get Ronto Wraps and sat in the cafe area of Ronto Roasters and ate them. I thought the Ronto Wrap was very good, but that the Tatooine Sunset (non-alcoholic) drink was excellent
-Our kids used the restrooms in the marketplace area (and changed out of PJs and into shorts and t-shirts), then we looked in the marketplace shops for a bit
-Then we went and did ROTR - it was awesome!
-Then we grabbed a blue and green milk for the kids, and an alcoholic blue milk for my husband and I to share - I liked the blue drinks, the green wasn't my favorite but it was fun to try
-After a little down time at the milk stand it was time for our 11:15AM Droid Depot reservation - our kids made a BB8 and LOVED the experience (we did the package with the carrying case and "resistance" personality chip - it was by a mile the best souvenir from the trip)
-After Droid Depot we sat in a shady spot with a great view of the land and the kids played with their BB8 in a contained corner (there were plenty of cast members passing by, no one seemed to have an issue with that)
-Then we headed back to the Swan by Friendship Boat around 12:30
Later in the evening we came back and did Toy Story Land with fast passes for Slinky Dog Dash. Before we hit TSL, my kids wanted to introduce their Droid Depot BB8 to the "real" BB8 at Launch Bay. We got some very cute pictures of that encounter and my kids rate it as one of their favorite memories from our vacation.
It was a super fun day and everything went astonishingly smoothly. I realize there's a lot of luck factored into getting a BG, but all of the advice I gathered from this forum helped tremendously. Thanks to all and I hope this (extremely long!) post is helpful to some - especially those going with young kids.
just wondering if it could happen and how it could impact the boarding group situation. Currently anticipating crazy crowds and am thinking I need to get there around 6:30/6:45 to be toward the front of the pack — sound right?
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Thank you so much to these boards for making this easy for me! I'm on t-mobile on data with a Galaxy S10e for reference.
