My mind went this same direction - although I don't know if Pandora or even Toy Story land are an apples to apples comparison given the intensity of SW fandom. I reached out to my travel agent and got the following:
- It's ONE park out of four (six if you count the water parks). It's easy to avoid that park and the crazies and you'll still have PLENTY to keep you entertained.
- Galaxy's Edge is tucked all the way in the back of Hollywood Studios. If you don't want to be anywhere near that section, you won't need to. You can still enjoy other areas of the park without stepping foot in Galaxy's Edge. (Fingers crossed it lowers the crowd in Toy Story Land!)
- Pandora and Toy Story Land did not add huge increases to the rest of the parks. Those particular sections were crowded - especially Pandora - but it didn't have much effect on Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
- When Pandora opened, Disney quietly opened Animal Kingdom early most days, as early as 7:30am on a 9am scheduled opening day! By doing this, the crowds flooded Pandora and the rest of the park was empty until around 10:30am or so. You could walk on just about anything else even though you couldn't get close to Pandora without crowds.
- The whole land isn't going to be open yet. This is just phase 1 with the second phase opening "later this year." There will be a lot of people holding out to go when the entire land is open and not just half of it. It's a smart move on Disney's part to get the interest there, but not all at once.
Now - I totally get that she doesn't want me to cancel our trip but I'm hoping there is at least some truth to this.
I am really, really hoping it won't be so bad. I think it could go either way.
Plan A - Keep our Sept 17-24 trip as is including MNSSHP on 9/20
Plan B - Keep trip but add Park Hopper and/or pay for Early Morning Magic Hours
Plan C - Keep our travel dates (plane tickets already booked) but cancel Disney and go to Universal instead
I'm eagerly awaiting Touring Plans updates.
I also want to see how bad booking ADRs goes - our window opens 3/21. If that goes badly - and despite repeated checking back to get the ADRs we want we still aren't looking good. That will be a red flag for me. If we get to FP booking window and THAT goes badly - another red flag.
If we're approaching deadline for canceling trip and still haven't gotten majority of ADRs and FPs we want then we could pull the plug and go somewhere else in Florida.
I'm going to breathe into my paper bag (have had it with me since yesterday morning - lol) and give it a couple of weeks. I've already begun researching Universal just in case.