Galaxy’s Edge is set on Batuu, a destination along the galaxy’s Outer Rim, close to Wild Space, the uncharted region beyond all known star systems. The main village, Black Spire Outpost, is an infamous port for smugglers, traders, and adventurers most popular before the proliferation of hyperspace travel. It’s home to a myriad of humans, aliens, droids, and other inhabitants selling rare and unique goods, unusual food and drink, and crews seeking adventure, including the recently arrived First Order, Resistance, and pirates like Hondo Ohnaka.

There’s a lot to do in Galaxy’s Edge, even with the anchor attraction, Rise of the Resistance, coming later this year. You can join the crew at Ohnaka Transports Solutions and fly the fastest ship in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon, or pick your side and complete missions in Outpost Control.

Take Control of Black Spire Outpost With The Datapad

Disney has been testing the Disney Play app in an effort to bring about a roleplaying experience you opt-in entirely through the Galaxy’s Edge “Datapad” portion of the Play app. This is your portal to experience Black Spire Outpost’s environment to its fullest potential, as it uses both location and bluetooth data to help you interact with the deeper parts of the outpost and its inhabitants. 

Tools

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Hack

The First Order is setting up surveillance systems all over Black Spire Outpost. Guests interact with security panels, droids, and other devices to “hack” into them. The surveillance systems are integral to the recurring Outpost Control game.

Scan

Markers (that look like QR codes) are set up on objects all around the outpost. Scanning them will reveal the contents of crates, hidden objects, and more. 

Translate

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Dok-Ondar speaks Ithorian, so you’ll want to use your Datapad to understand him

The Datapad will translate both written and spoken alien dialect almost like the Star Wars equivalent of Google Translate. Point the Datapad at a sign or an alien that’s speaking and it’ll translate into Basic (the Star Wars equivalent of English). 

Tuner

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Intercepted transmissions will appear here

Broadcasts from the Resistance, First Order, and other inhabitants of Batuu will reveal secrets about what’s happening there. The tuner will allow you to tap into transmissions coming from antenna arrays scattered around the outpost. They automatically save to your Datapad as well, noting in your profile that you’ve received them.

Jobs

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Ever wanted to work at Disneyland? Well, the inhabitants of Black Spire Outpost are willing to hire you, no experience required! The jobs board will keep a list of tasks you can pick up for residents, some even for big names like Hondo or Dok-Ondar. Jobs will be acquired through various means, some even coming from droid couriers.

A major suggestion: Make sure you’ve got the Play app installed and set up before you ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run so you’ll receive your payout from Hondo at the end of your mission.

Expect a full review of the Datapad in the next few days as coverage for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge continues.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run

Venture into Oga’s Cantina and you might find a mysterious note posted on the cork board: Flight crews wanted. No training necessary. Fair pay, great experience. Discretion a must. Inquire at Ohnaka Transport Solutions in the Spaceport.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

This, of course, is a note from infamous Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka, a recurring character on the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, who has now settled here at Black Spire Outpost. He has a totally genuine shipping mission for you that is in no way piracy. Chewbacca has left the ship with Hondo for repairs, it seems after The Last Jedi’s Battle of Crait, the Millennium Falcon had sustained heavy damage and its Quadex power core was starting to go out completely. Being a very old ship, Hondo is the only one Chewie trusts to find a proper replacement part! That should make you feel confident in the reliability of borrowing the fastest ship in the galaxy for your Ohnaka Transport Solutions mission.

Hondo’s pre-show animatronic is said to be the second most complex animatronic ever built (only behind the Shaman at Na’vi River Journey in Disney’s Animal Kingdom). Jim Cummings (also the voice of Winnie the Pooh and many other Disney characters) also reprises his role as Hondo.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Lucasfilm’s VP and creative director Doug Chiang and Imagineer Asa Kalama.

And what’s Chewbacca doing? You’ll either find him outside, inspecting repairs on the Falcon, or helping the Resistance set up base on Batuu. He’ll also be on comm during your mission.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

The queue for the attraction will wander around the shipyard where guests will see different ships in varying states of disrepair before coming face to face with Hondo. There’s also a bit of Imagineering magic to make you believe the Millennium Falcon is being moved into the hanger you’ll be entering it from. The full-size one you see at the entrance is just an intricately detailed facade.

The lounge area is extremely detailed. Everything you find will be post-The Last Jedi so you’ll find things like porgs hiding in the walls, metal floorboards clanking and echoing like there’s something beneath them, and of course that iconic chess table. It’s an Instagrammer’s dream.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

The ride itself is a massive simulator which uses the Unreal Engine, a game engine developed by Epic Games (best known for Fortnite and Gears of War). It uses a group of eight NVIDIA Quadro P6000 GPUs to render the experience in real time (versus playing a traditional ride film) on five QuadroSync projectors. In Layman’s terms, each individual simulator has a lot of horsepower on board. 

The attraction is like a really big video game played by a six-person crew. The six roles include:

  • Pilot: Horizontal motion
  • Copilot: Vertical motion
  • Two Gunners: Press buttons to shoot down TIE fighters
  • Two Engineers: Press buttons to put out fires or redirect power

The height requirement for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run is 38″ or taller.

Dusty has written a fantastic review of Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run covering what was great and what needs improvement. Make sure you read that here.

Rise of the Resistance

While Galaxy’s Edge’s anchor attraction, Rise of the Resistance, won’t be opening with the rest of the land on May 31st, it will be opening later this year.

This attraction can be very simply put: Rise of the Resistance is going to be intense. The experience begins at the Resistance’s new base on Batuu, which is a ragtag encampment in the forests outside of Black Spire Outpost amongst giant alien ruins. To make the HQ feel alive, outside the attraction you’ll find Rey, Chewbacca, and other Resistance members priming starships, recruiting new Resistance members, and watching out for the First Order. The queue itself is made up of winding halls of what will look like an actual Resistance base full of military gear, supplies, and armories. The Imagineers were pretty stoked on large depressions in the queue shaped like flat shelves of rocks which are great for sitting on like benches.

As new Resistance recruits, guests will join a climactic battle against the First Order, including a run-in with Kylo Ren. Their journey will take them inside a full-size starship and aboard a nearby Star Destroyer.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Groups of up to 55 people will be put into a standby room for a pre-show where BB-8 and a holographic Rey (reprised by Daisy Ridley) will give you your orders for a special mission. The mission will be led by hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (reprised by Oscar Isaac) in his slick black X-Wing. Doors will open to an outdoor area (separate from the rest of Galaxy’s Edge, think Pirates of the Caribbean on a massive scale), where you’ll be hurried into a shuttle piloted by Rebel veteran Nien Nunb in animatronic form (reprised by Kipsang Rotich)!

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
The Resistance base once you exit the pre-show with Poe Dameron’s X-wing on display

The shuttle itself is a simulator of sorts, think the elevator at Gringott’s bank at Universal Orlando or a mild Star Tours. No Resistance mission is without peril, though, as the First Order will capture your shuttle and take you to their Star Destroyer. When the doors open you’ll be faced with 50 animatronic and static stormtroopers, First Order TIE Fighters, and plenty of cast members dressed as First Order officers inside of a massive auditorium sized hangar.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

There will be a 100-foot screen displaying a huge space battle between the First Order and the Resistance on the other end of the hangar (check the concept art above). The scene you’ll be experiencing in the hangar should be similar to Rose and Finn’s capture in the Last Jedi. The cast members will be barking orders (which will sure to be fun for them) to get into detention cells, similar to the rooms where Kylo Ren interrogates Poe Dameron and Rey. And that will be where you will encounter Ren (reprised by Adam Driver) before being loaded in prison transports (which are cleverly disguised trackless vehicles) and whisked away on a high-speed chase. Disney has stated that the blaster bolts are so scaringly convincing you’ll be legitimately frightened that you’re getting shot at; as if full-size AT-ATs weren’t enough. Finn (reprised by John Boyega) will come to your rescue.

The height requirement for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will be 40″ or taller.

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

The teaser trailer for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance:

 

 

 

(This post was originally published on February 28th but has been adapted to information as of May 29th)

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge


For more information about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, please check out our complete Galaxy’s Edge coverage here:

, Your Guide to Attractions at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
All Star Wars News HERE

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Scott Attula
Author, photographer, videographer, Disney Cast Member. Scott comes from multiple Disney generations and disciplines, including his Grandpa Fred and father at Imagineering and his Grandpa Bill and mother in Live Entertainment. For MiceChat, Scott focuses on other SoCal parks like Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios. He can be found at theme parks on a semi-frequent basis trying to get that perfect angle. Check out Scott on Instagram @AttulaPhoto