We got to ride Rise of the Resistance at Galaxy’s Edge on opening day and it absolutely blew us away. With the help of the unexplainable special effects to the full scale immersion, it was not very hard to believe that you actually boarded a spaceship, went to space, and had a full on life-threatening adventure and hot pursuit chase through the galaxy.
Make sure you watch the video below if you like to see our first reaction to the ride and all of the details in the queue, pre-show, and more.
I know you’re probably thinking - “wow that headline is a bit much…” and yeah, you might be right. However, this review is based on my first hand experience of the ride, it is my honest opinion and I will proceed to breakdown why I think that Rise of the Resistance deserves the title of best ride at Walt Disney World.
Rise of the Resistance entrance at Galaxy’s Edge
It’s a Two Part Attraction
It was announce a while ago that Rise of the Resistance would be a two part experience that would have the riders exiting one ride vehicle and moving into another. Upon hearing this I was a little confused at first and honestly I totally forgot that this feature would be implemented into the ride until I experienced it. Yet, this is the most important feature of this entire ride that will forever separate it from the rest! Here’s a breakdown of the experience:
Part One
You start your adventure in this beautiful queue with gorgeous waterfalls, otherworldly rock works and space weaponry everywhere. Moving into the next room, you’ll watch a pre-show with a how-did-they-do-this hologram of Rey and a very cool BB-8 animatronic. You’re then brought into an area where the Resistance has landed some of their life-sized space crafts and quickly board this space ship with an alien animatronic, a pilot animatronic, and dual screens in the back and front of the ship. All the while the ship is literally moving beneath your feet, red and green lasers are bouncing back and forth, as you evade the First Order and unfortunately get captured. You can even feel force of the “tractor beam” pull your ship in and for a second! When this was over I was overly impressed, but this mini Star Tours adventure was just the beginning.
Part Two
Shortly thereafter, a First Order Officer barges through the doors and tells you that you and whomever your riding with has been captured but you can BARELY focus on them with the massive fleet of Storm Troopers and towering room scaling behind them with a giant “window” into space. This is the part where you think, “Wow, what even is this ride?!” The best part is that all of these Storm Troopers are not just statues, they are moving ever so slightly as they stand attention.
At first you feel this will be some kind of elaborate walk through until you’re thrown into a prison cell and made to watch yet another pre-show featuring non-other than Kylo Ren himself, a storm trooper, and their shadows that move across the room as the projections move. This just blew my mind! After a few minutes, the Resistance laser-cut through the wall to rescue you and take you on the most screen accurate high-speed chase you will ever see in your life with towering AT-ATs, storm troopers shooting at you (and missing of course), light sabers, lasers, canons, and a rough landing. There is no better ride at Walt Disney World right now and we just cannot express how much of a technological advancement this experience truly is for the entire theme park industry.
Towering AT-ATs
The Environment is Built to Scale
As I stated before, everything in the environment is built completely to scale and made me, a full-sized adult woman, feel like a small little child again. Everything felt bigger than me, intimidating, and exciting much like the Star Wars franchise is supposed to feel on the big screen. This is made especially clear when you enter the First Order ship and you see that giant area that photographs just cannot do justice. I felt as if I were looking through the lens of a virtual reality game because everything from the hologram of Rey to the AT-ATs was to scale. The environment is just unreal.
Unexplainable Special Effects
Of course there is a logical explaination to all of the special effects that are used during the ride however, with this ride it will make you think back and say, “How did they even do that?!” I’m no engineering major so I’m not going to sit here and tell you how they perfectly cut away parts of the environment and made it look as if lasers were actually melting the metal walls. I can’t even begin to tell you how they programmed this entire ride to line up perfectly with the sound with so much going on. This ride is a mystery to me and that kind of ignorance brings me to feel like an adolescent. I like being wow’d and not necessarily knowing how everything is put together - it makes the experience all the more amazing.
It Combines All of Disney’s Best Ride Elements
This is a ride I can truly say is for everyone. The pre-shows give me Harry Potter Escape from Gringots vibes, the first ride vehicle you enter reminds me of Star Tours, and the escape scene reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean meets Mr. Toads Wild Ride meets Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. I know that last bit sounds insane, but if you ride it, you’ll completely understand!
Something’s fishy about this animatronic!
The Ride that Saved Galaxy’s Edge
This is a ride that anyone will love whether they’re a Star Wars fan or not. This is a full on experience that will immerse you in the land, make you appreciate the new generation of Lucas Film’s characters, and have you feeling as if Galaxy’s Edge was not a complete waste of money on Disney’s part. As we all know, Galaxy’s Edge has had some pretty low attendance from what was projected, jobs were terminated, and money was lost. While initially impressive and immersive, the land lacked the kinetic energy that makes Disney Parks unique from every other theme park on Earth. There was no familiarity with the new characters and locations, no outdoor entertainment, and a serious lack of movement throughout the land.
While a lot of that is still missing, I truly believe that Rise of the Resistance will save Galaxy’s Edge and make it seem as if the land isn’t just a money pit for overpriced lightsabers, gift shops, a VR game, and droid construction. This is the attraction that Star Wars fans everywhere deserved from Galaxy’s Edge and you’re just going to have to take my word for it until you ride it yourself!
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