I can think of no better place for a theme park junkie to get a strong dose of excitement than the updated Hollywood Studios. Both the "Rise of the Resistance" and "Millenium Falcon: Smuggler's Run" attractions inside of the new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge area of the park are fabulous. And they're surrounded by an area of shops, restaurants and a famous cantina from the films that make you feel like you are on an actual movie set of a planet in a galaxy far, far away. Be advised that as of the writing of this review it may be difficult to get to see or do many things in this theme area without reservations or at least prior planning. Ogs's Cantina is taking reservations up to 180 days in advance and the day I visited the park they were all sold out with only the opportunity for cancellations. Likewise the Droid Depot (build your own droid) and Savi's Workshop - Handbuilt Lightsabers require reservations and have very limited access at this time. You must absolutely download and become familiar with the My Disney Experience app to help you make reservations and for getting a boarding group number for Rise of the Resistance (until further notice) as it is not available on Fastpass. To get your boarding group number you will have to have your ticket(s) linked to your account on the app, enter the park prior to opening time (everyone), and then request a boarding group number at official park opening time. Be prepared to act exactly at park opening time. On the Galaxy's Edge splash screen you will click on "find out more", then on the next screen click on "Join Boarding Group". The app will then take a few seconds to load the names of all of the people you have linked to your account. If they are all riding you have to click on each and then proceed to request a group number that your party will be assigned. I got boarding group four and the man standing next to me had a problem in that he didn't immediately understand adding the people in his party. Less than a minute later he was in group 70. Anything over 63 was considered standby. If you do not act quickly there is a good chance you will not ride that day. I had lots of luck using the single rider line for Smuggler's run so don't be afraid to try that if you aren't fussy about being split up. The advertised wait on the app was 90 minutes and I was on the ride in 20. Last, note that there are only a couple of rides that are appropriate for very small children in this park along with a few shows like Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Frozen.

We arrived early and had managed to get a fast pass for Tower of Terror while doing single rider on Aerosmith Rock'n'Rollercoaster. Next up was Slinky Dog where we waited around 45 minutes. Star Tours and The Muppets were all done before the main event - Galaxy's Edge. When we booked the opening date hadn't been advised and when they announced it a month before our arrival we thought we wouldn't get into this area never mind get on the Millennium Falcon and a time slot at Oga's Cantina. The attention to detail here is staggering and seeing a full size MF is jaw dropping, but there was too many (overpriced) shops and not enough "action", and Smuggler's Run was underwhelming even as a pilot (we also did engineers). Hopefully the recent opening of Rise of the Resistance improves the experience. Oga's is great though with again attention to detail and atmosphere, but again the pricing is eye watering - $42 for a souvenir cup with a soft drink ?!? We left the park and returned when dark and there seemed to be a different / better vibe to Galaxy's Edge and when we had our Oga's Cantina time slot. Smugglers Run wasn't busy so we tried it a agin and remaisn underwhelming. We also got onto Toy Story Mania with little queue time later in the day and bagged a last minute FP for Tower of Terror (in the dark). Some good shopping and themed restaurants too.

My wife and I went to the park, and everything you have read about arriving early is correct if you want to have a chance of getting on Rise of the Resistance. We also arrived early so that we could get closer to the front of the line for the Millennium Falcon ride first thing. One tip about the boarding passes for the RotR...we were ready to go at 8:00 and ... the button on our phone didn't work to join the boarding group! Everyone around us was excited about getting a boarding pass and I was frantically pushing the button with nothing happening. I ended up trying to go in through the My Status button which acted like a back door as in that new screen I was able to select to join a boarding group. Keep that in mind. We ended up getting boarding group 89 which was a backup group with no guarantees. Lucky enough, we did get on the ride around 3:30pm. All of the passes were gone in about 30 seconds after 8:00am, so you really have no choice but to get there and be inside the park for the opening time. I can understand the frustration many people have written who did not get a pass and I'm not sure this is the really the best way to manage the ride, but I'm happy it worked out for me. As for the ride, we loved it. Just an incredible experience that I won't spoil here. Along with Flight of Passage (in Pandora, Animal Kingdom), this is our favourite ride of our trip. The rest of the Star Wars park makes you feel like you are in the movies. All of the small details make it feel real. We had breakfast in Hanger 7 and enjoyed it. We had booked our trip late, so we were not able to get reservations for any of the extras like building a lightsaber, but I'm not sure I would spend $200 to do that. The ones I saw did look great though. The Millennium Falcon ride was great, and we were able to get on a second time in the evening when the wait times tended to be much shorter, around 25 minutes. Some comments note that the pilot role is the one you want, but we didn't get to do that and still enjoyed it. I'm not sure it would have changed our experience. As for the rest of the park, we enjoyed everything we did. Tower of Terror is a lot of fun. The Aerosmith coaster is fun but as it is in the dark, I don't find it as thrilling when you don't really see what is coming. The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular is old now but I still enjoyed it, and I've seen it 3 times over the years (the last time 8 years ago). We did not go on anything in Toy Story Land, so no comments on that area of the park. Overall, a great day! Now we just need to rest our feet...