As we head into the final preparations stage for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, some additional information about how Disney is going to handle crowds at this park, not only during the opening reservation period, but also for the foreseeable future. And as you might expect, it’s not going to be easy to experience this land…
Guests visiting during the “reservation” period will be asked to leave if they stay too long
Image: Disney
Beginning on opening day (May 31st) and lasting through June 23rd, guests at Disneyland who want to experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will need a reservation. There will be absolutely no exceptions to this rule, and no one will be admitted without a return time. Guests who do secure a reservation will also only have a 4-hour window in which experience everything they can inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, after which they will need to leave to make way for other guests.
And while we initially wondered how Disney might enforce this reservation window, The OC Register has some new information about how this strict reservation time will be enforced. Much like they do during special events, Disneyland will issue colored wristbands to visitors that will be different depending on the time window.
Image: Disney
After each four-hour window ends, guests who have expired wristbands will not be able to ride Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run eat at Oga’s Cantina or Docking Bay 7 restaurant, and will not be able to shop or make their own lightsabers either. Guests who continue to loiter in this land beyond their return time will be asked to leave, either by employees or by Stormtroopers patrolling the land.
And though this system sounds pretty restrictive, Disney has also detailed how crowds inside this new land will be managed after the reservation system ends on June 23, and as you might imagine, there’s a little bit of a process involved…
Digital queue “Boarding Pass” system detailed
Image: Disney
Beginning June 24, guests will no longer need to have a reservation to enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. However, that doesn’t mean guests will be able to flood this land immediately. Starting from this date forward visitors will need to secure a “boarding pass” that can either be reserved digitally via the Disneyland app or at a paper boarding pass kiosk to get into the new land.
Once they know their return time, guests will have two hours to show up for their boarding pass window, but the good news here is that once your party is inside, there will be no time limits, like with the aforementioned reservation times. However, though guests can spend as much time as they’d like inside this new land, once they exit, they may not reenter, and guests cannot secure more than one boarding pass in a single day.
Image: Disney
And though boarding passes will almost certainly be needed for almost all guests visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland this summer, during certain specific times, boarding passes will not be required to enter the land, such as in the very early morning when the park first opens, as well as late at night, when crowds are thinner. However, as soon as crowds get heavy, Disneyland will shut down free access to the land, and only those with boarding passes may enter.
This virtual queueing system is expected to be in use for the foreseeable future at Disneyland, as long as crowds show up for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. And while it hasn’t been confirmed, we’d be very surprised if some variation of this system didn’t come to Disney’s Hollywood Studios when the east coast version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens this August, as crowds could be just as intense (or perhaps even worse) at Walt Disney World.
