***Official*** Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Information Thread *** Contains SPOILERS ***

[hertamaniac]

I am sure they will - but there are also only so many things you can do when building a whole land - can’t just start on one part of it when lining up all the subcontractors and just the different areas. Also possibly they did allow more time for this and it took even more time than the extra time

I feel like they got killed for when they announced an opening date for Rivers of Light and then couldn’t open on time do to technical issues I really don’t think they would have put out any timeframe unless they were confident about it.

Just perhaps other stuff went faster and they figured why not open part of it early and get sort of “two grand openings” out of each land.

I bet they thought they would get positive responses to opening even part of it earlier than expected

During an assessment stage of a project, you determine your resource allocations/availability to give a projected schedule. Sometimes, you can start one part of a project before even "breaking ground" on another. This comes down to an acceptable schedule lag (which is different than critical path). This is a tried and true method of schedule/risk assessment via the PMBOK and one that I personally employed with moderate success (I did have failures, but also was sprinkled with on-time successes). The triple constraint (time/scope/money) does apply to all projects/sub-projects, but given the complexity of RotR, I think this does/did play an even bigger factor. Throwing money at the solution does not always equate to bringing the schedule in.

I suspect the vocal decibel level and fist pounding at the table invoked heavy stress on the entire PM team. A good PM ignores that noise and looks to the root cause of delays....always. A solid project plan has a recovery sub-plan built-in even with never before technological challenges (it's actually a matrix). IMO, WDW needs a blend of PM's as part of the execution team (raises own hand as a local....).

Your rationale on opening a part of land earlier is well justified; I fully recognize this is a possibility.

My approach has been to build as much task deconstruction into a schedule to challenge those estimates from the technical team; the more you deconstruct the better your chances of hitting your milestones and delivering a more realistic schedule. You certainly won't win friends, but my salaries were always paid by the corporation, not the employees.

To me, we would/should have never heard about SWGE until the PM team did a complete and experienced assessment before going public. Once the date/timeframe is released, you open yourself to become in damage control mode. This is where we are at in my mind.

 

[hertamaniac]

Said in my best Sheldon voice......

Hey...I like Sheldon; only a few episodes left.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

During an assessment stage of a project, you determine your resource allocations/availability to give a projected schedule. Sometimes, you can start one part of a project before even "breaking ground" on another. This comes down to an acceptable schedule lag (which is different than critical path). This is a tried and true method of schedule/risk assessment via the PMBOK and one that I personally employed with moderate success (I did have failures, but also was sprinkled with on-time successes). The triple constraint (time/scope/money) does apply to all projects/sub-projects, but given the complexity of RotR, I think this does/did play an even bigger factor. Throwing money at the solution does not always equate to bringing the schedule in.

I suspect the vocal decibel level and fist pounding at the table invoked heavy stress on the entire PM team. A good PM ignores that noise and looks to the root cause of delays....always. A solid project plan has a recovery sub-plan built-in even with never before technological challenges (it's actually a matrix). IMO, WDW needs a blend of PM's as part of the execution team (raises own hand as a local....).

Your rationale on opening a part of land earlier is well justified; I fully recognize this is a possibility.

My approach has been to build as much task deconstruction into a schedule to challenge those estimates from the technical team; the more you deconstruct the better your chances of hitting your milestones and delivering a more realistic schedule. You certainly won't win friends, but my salaries were always paid by the corporation, not the employees.

To me, we would/should have never heard about SWGE until the PM team did a complete and experienced assessment before going public. Once the date/timeframe is released, you open yourself to become in damage control mode. This is where we are at in my mind.

Well I don’t know what to tell you - guess they aren’t very good PMs

Other issue is they can’t just wait until everything is 100% ready to go and then say “it opens next week” or people would flip out they they don’t have time to plan. They have to give a timeframe ... which, they still might be on time for: they said Late Fall and then Fall and maybe RotR is still on track to be open by the end of fall - just everything else could be ready early so why not open the rest. And those they want to wait until the whole thing is open can wait

So maybe they did build in that cushion for it and it will need some/all of the cushion (but not beyond the built in cushion) just everything else went super smooth / faster than anyone thought and doesn’t need that cushion at all

 

[vacationer1954]

I think this is a big part of it.

And it really makes a lot of sense. Why spend all that money building a themed land and two incredible attractions and not make two events out of it instead of just one? Thinking ahead to when we'll be annual passholders living nearby, assuming that I felt there was a reasonable chance of accessing each attraction (without 60 day FP access), we would definitely visit a week or two after opening to see the themed land, ride Smuggler's Run, and perhaps have a drink at the cantina, and then make a separate trip after Rise of the Resistance is open.

Waiting until Rise of the Resistance is ready to open before opening the rest of the land, which is already ready to open, serves no one's purpose.

 

[SgtTibbs]

When PotterLand opened, and possibly most days still, there are queues to get into the stores. I expect much the same here.

 

[Sarah1024]

Then you are going to have to book a tour or special event in order to do so until FP comes online.

Disney is emphasizing no FP initially in these rides. I don't see that as a penalty.

I see it as a penalty when I booked a CL room specifically to get extra FP's to experience SWGE. I would be really upset if it's a year without FP's.

 

[rteetz]

I see it as a penalty when I booked a CL room specifically to get extra FP's to experience SWGE. I would be really upset if it's a year without FP's.

I see your point but it’s not like Disney announced them with FP and then said no FP. This is no FP from the start. It’s difficult for Disney to please everyone and try to make the best situation for how incredibly popular this land will be.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I see it as a penalty when I booked a CL room specifically to get extra FP's to experience SWGE. I would be really upset if it's a year without FP's.

I have a three day trip planned in Nov. With the new policy of letting "good neighbor" hotels book FP's 60 days out I know there is no chance I would get a SWGE FP even if they were offered. I booked Pop for the Skyliner.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

When PotterLand opened, and possibly most days still, there are queues to get into the stores. I expect much the same here.

They had a queue to get into the store in Pandora when it first opened so I am sure they will have to do similar here. I know they will have a time registry for the “build your own lightsaber” and wonder if they might do the same for the creature stall and/or droid store

 

[Sarah1024]

I see your point but it’s not like Disney announced them with FP and then said no FP. This is no FP from the start. It’s difficult for Disney to please everyone and try to make the best situation for how incredibly popular this land will be.

This is true. I would be FAR angrier if it had been given and then taken away!

 

[Sarah1024]

They had a queue to get into the store in Pandora when it first opened so I am sure they will have to do similar here. I know they will have a time registry for the “build your own lightsaber” and wonder if they might do the same for the creature stall and/or droid store

They are going to have to do some kind of sign-up system. Aren't only 20 people allowed in each of those shops at once?

 

[Sarah1024]

I think opening without fp+ is the right call...and it makes me wonder how they will handle Rider Switch for the SW:GE attractions. I hope there is a much less liberal interpretation of it on Batuu.

I don't know what you mean about less liberal interpretation? But I will have my huge SW fan husband and 2.5 year old son, so we would need rider swap. I will be SUPER unhappy if that is not offered here at opening.

 

[yulilin3]

They are going to have to do some kind of sign-up system. Aren't only 20 people allowed in each of those shops at once?

confirmation of 14 people every 20 min for the lightsaber expeience, this was is also confirmed to need a reservation. The droid experience does not have a set number of people and it is confirmed that there will be no time limit to building your droid

 

[yulilin3]

I see it as a penalty when I booked a CL room specifically to get extra FP's to experience SWGE. I would be really upset if it's a year without FP's.

If the no fp situation works for Disney's liking they might leave it at that for a long time. They won't know until it opens to see how the crowd flows through the queue without fp

 

[ThistleMae]

I see your point but it’s not like Disney announced them with FP and then said no FP. This is no FP from the start. It’s difficult for Disney to please everyone and try to make the best situation for how incredibly popular this land will be.

True...but folks who stay onsite expect to have FP+ available, it's part of the whole planning process, which takes quite a bit of time to perfect. I don't mind the initial no FP+...but I hope it doesn't last too long. I suppose it will depend on the actual turnout and the days to follow before they make a decision as to when to release them.

 

[hertamaniac]

They have to give a timeframe ... which, they still might be on time for: they said Late Fall and then Fall and maybe RotR is still on track to be open by the end of fall - just everything else could be ready early so why not open the rest.

I thought DL SWGE had an initial projected opening for Summer 2019? What I don't know is if Disney uses their fiscal calendar for release time frames or a traditional calendar. For HS SWGE, I feel very confident they'll hit late fall as the baseline from DL will already be captured.

What was interesting is the phrase "opening later this year". Later to me, in a calendar year, says well past June.

It is possible, although extremely unlikely, that DL SWGE will have RotR open just past June or even by May 31. I've been a part of marketing approaches using phased releases to relieve stakeholder expectations and then when you actually deliver the product "on time", the team gets major accolades (and in actuality we just performed per the contract terms); it was pure posturing.

 

[yulilin3]

True...but folks who stay onsite expect to have FP+ available, it's part of the whole planning process, which takes quite a bit of time to perfect. I don't mind the initial no FP+...but I hope it doesn't last too long. I suppose it will depend on the actual turnout and the days to follow before they make a decision as to when to release them.

that's true but not all attraction and shows offer fp. So saying that guests staying onsite they EXPECT to have fp available means that said guests do not know that not all attractions have that option. Like others have said, I would understand if they said that the ride would offer fp and then they took that away I would be frustrated. But Disney NEVER said this attraction would have fp, once they announced they made sure to say it wouldn't offer it, so guests staying onsite or off should not be frustrated

 

[sponica]

Yes purple will be one of the options. Samuel L Jackson begged Lucas to get a purple lightsaber and after much begging Lucas approved but Jackson never said the reason for the color and he says he's taking that info to his grave

I remember seeing an interview where he said he wanted purple so he could tell who he was in a wide shot with a lot of fighters (he used a lot more colorful language though)....of course he also said that captain marvel can time travel. So he's prone to just trolling all of us...

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

that's true but not all attraction and shows offer fp.

There are no headliners that don’t have FP. Disney has built a reasonable expectation at this point that they would.

We need only look at a list of no FP attractions to see what the majority have in common — lack of high demand.

They’ve made this choice for opening, but I really don’t think it would be smart to extend the no FP period for a really long time. Many people will be understanding about handling an opening rush one way — but I think it’ll be different as time goes on.

 

[yulilin3]

There are no headliners that don’t have FP. Disney has built a reasonable expectation at this point that they would.

We need only look at a list of no FP attractions to see what the majority have in common — lack of high demand.

They’ve made this choice for opening, but I really don’t think it would be smart to extend the no FP period for a really long time. Many people will be understanding about handling an opening rush one way — but I think it’ll be different as time goes on.

that's the thing with Disney....never expect anything. It's the sad reality that a lot of people have to come to terms with. I really do understand the frustration, look, here we are 5 months away from our WDW opening and they still have not changed operating times, we expect they will be extended, we expect that EMH will be added to DHS morning and/or night, but until that happens never plan with that in mind.
That's why I don't go to the rumors page, even if most of the rumors come true I never expect anything until Disney announces it