How to Spend One Budget-Friendly Day at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Walt Disney World

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I want to start this post by explaining my level of Star Wars fandom because I feel its important. Do I love Star Wars? Yes. Have I seen every movie multiple times? Yes. Do I know the name of every single jedi and sith lord to walk the planets? No.

I am a pretty big Star Wars fan. In fact, I did cry during the Rise of Skywalker but I still haven’t finished the Mandalorian or the Clone Wars. So, I think I have some foundation to provide an accurate review while not being completely biased by the fandom. Alright now that that’s straight, I want to give my full opinion, review, and tips for enjoying Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. This post is designed for people who only have one day to spend in Galaxy’s Edge, and aren’t looking to spend all their money there.

First Impressions

First things first, the detail in Galaxy’s Edge is UNREAL. They really went all out for this land. You walk through a tunnel to get to Galaxy’s Edge and immediately when you emerge, you are no longer in a Disney park, you are in Batuu. Bright suns! (the Galaxy’s Edge greeting). At every turn, you see something new. Creatures in the corner, an X-wing on display, and droids operating the food stalls. It’s unlike anything Disney has done previously. Truly.

One way to maximize your experience is to participate. Characters are often walking around – we saw Kylo Ren, Rey, Chewy, and a new character named Vi Moradi, who is General Leia Organa’s spy (she has the blue hair in the picture below). They will interact with guests, especially kids dressed like them! The cast members in this land act their parts as well. We stopped into Oga’s Cantina and were immediately thrown into a rowdy, fun drinking song lead by a cast member.

Aside from the people, the Play Disney app really enhances Galaxy’s Edge. When you open the app, zoom in on Galaxy’s Edge (it might also detect where you are). Turn on your Bluetooth and location services and look for Star Wars: Datapad. From here, you can hack into gadgets, translate signs, and tune into radio signals to pick up on First Order and Resistance transmissions! We had such a blast just sitting down and hacking a bunch of things around us to make them light up or respond in some way!

Rides

There are two main rides in Galaxy’s Edge – Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance. Right now, you can purchase Genie+ (which replaced the Fastpass+ system) for Smuggler’s Run and a Lightning Lane ticket (~$15-25) for Rise of the Resistance.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run

The ride itself is super fun though! There are 6 people to a ship – two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. Pilots steer the ship from the front, gunners control the blasters, and engineers fix the ship and control the harpoon. I was an engineer so I had to push buttons as they lit up to “fix” the ship. Once we approached our cargo (that we were smuggling), I harpooned it by pushing another button that lit up.

My only complaint about this ride is that if you are prone to motion sickness, this one might be the worst for you. Generally, I don’t get too motion sick on rides where you move while watching a screen (like Star Tours). However, this ride requires that you aren’t always looking at the screen which provoked my motion sickness slightly. Take that as you will.

Rise of the Resistance

Rise of the Resistance is truly unlike any ride that exists right now. The process for getting on is complicated and requires a little work (keep reading for detailed instructions), but holy cow it is worth it 1000%. The ride itself is like a combination of Indiana Jones and Star Tours. You are seated in a car that moves freely around many rooms on a star destroyer. At one point the car goes in an elevator, drops, then immediately begins moving like Star Tours. If that doesn’t convince you, the line itself was totally immersive. There is an entire story that leads up to the ride and its amazing!

How to get on Rise of the Resistance?

You can now purchase Lightning Lane tickets for Rise of the Resistance to speed up your wait time. There used to be a virtual queue, but now you just wait in line like every other ride. However, lines can be long and it’s easier and often worth it to just purchase a Lightning Lane pass.

We’ve capitalized on short wait times once the ride has come back after being in a delay.

They’ve also started testing out single rider lines!

Food Review

Overwhelmed by Galaxy’s Edge yet? Well I’m not done so hang in there. The next big ticket item to cover is FOOD.

There are a number of places to eat in Batuu:

Ronto Roasters is a quick service spot serving wraps and sandwiches. While I can’t speak on the food because this was the only one I missed, I did walk by and the ambiance alone was awesome! The restaurant is round and in the center are meats on rotisserie being spun by a droid and heating with a pod racer engine…because why not. It was cool to see!

Docking Bay 7 quickly became our favorite. They had delicious plant-based pasta and salad that my mom could not stop raving about! We used mobile ordering so it was fast and easy! It costed us $12 on average, where the kids options were cheaper around $8. At the location in Disneyland, you have to try the black caf cold brew topped with cocoa puffs!

Kat Saka’s Kettle serves flavored popcorn where the two choices are a sweet and spicy or salted butter. I obviously chose the sweet and spicy, which is red and purple. A cast member told me that you should eat the red (spicy) with the purple (sweet) because they were intentionally mixed to be eaten that way. I really liked it, but I couldn’t really eat a ton of it. The popcorn was $6.50. I was there for the experience my first time, but given the price, I probably wouldn’t get it again in lieu of other yummy things.

The Milk Stand, aka the most divisive part of Batuu (according to me anyway), serves blue milk and green milk, which are both frozen and flavored, plant-based blends of coconut and rice milks. The blue was fruity and refreshing, while I found the green to be a little planty. To me, it kind of tasted like pears plus leaves. I would drink the blue milk all day everyday and in the Florida heat it was so wonderful! At Walt Disney World, you can also get alcoholic versions with rum in the blue and tequila in the green. Cost-wise the regular milks were $8 and the alcohol was $14. I couldn’t really justify $6 for a little alcohol so I passed. Ballin’ on a budget always – plus the blue milk was seriously so satisfying, I wasn’t mad.

Last, but not least, Oga’s Cantina is the big name restaurant in Galaxy’s Edge. You need reservations to get in that you can make using the Disney Experience app. If you search for the restaurant’s name, you can hit “Reserve Dining.” Search for your date and the time, you’d like and if you’re lucky, it will be open. You can make dining reservations 180 days in advance, so the sooner the better. I looked 30 days out at they were booked. I checked back everyday and managed to squeeze us in for a breakfast reservation.

Mind you, Oga’s Cantina really isn’t a breakfast place, but you go for the ambiance, not necessarily the food. I did try the cinnamon roll but it wasn’t anything amazing.

The interior was awesome though! DJ R-3X was blasting some fun music. She was the original pilot or Star Tours before C3PO, so that was fun. And again, the cast members here were so fun!

If you can get a reservation for lunch or dinner, I highly recommend. The food and drinks looked so good for lunch and dinner! One other note: there are souvenir cups that you can buy, but considering this is a budget-friendly guide I’m assuming you’re passing on a $33 cup.

Shopping

Black Spire Outpost is the shopping hub in Galaxy’s Edge. Multiple shops line the edges of a covered pathway, all with different merchandise. If you’re looking to save money and don’t need souvenirs, I recommend walking through the Outpost without going into the shops if you need to resist the temptation.

However, there is one shop that you should definitely go into. It’s called Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities. You can find it across from Docking Bay 7, completely separate from Black Spire Outpost. Even if you aren’t planning to buy anything, this shop is worth a visit for the details and ambiance alone. The idea is that Dok Ondar is a collector of artifacts and treasures from across the galaxy. You can purchase all sorts of things here that you’ll recognize from the movies – Padme’s jewelry, Han Solo’s dice, Sith robes, etc. I highly recommend stopping by just to look around if anything.

Related read → Grab a themed Loungefly bag to splurge (although there are no outside galactic brands in Batuu so they’re not labeled as such)

How much did all this cost?

I mentioned that this blog post was designed to be budget-friendly. I haven’t yet mentioned two key parts of Galaxy’s Edge because they were beyond my budget.

These are the Droid Depot, where for $100 you can build your own custom droid, and Savi’s Workshop, where for $200 you can build your own custom lightsaber. I won’t be discussing those experiences here because (1) I didn’t do them and (2) I honestly only expanded my budget to try all the snacks Galaxy’s Edge had to offer.

Here is a complete price breakdown of what I spent at Galaxy’s Edge:

Oga’s Cantina – Mustafarian Cinnamon Roll: $6.00

Docking Bay 7 – Plant-based Peka Pasta Rings Youngling Meal: $8.99

Kat Saka’s Kettle – Outpost Popcorn Mix: $6.49

Milk Stand – Blue Milk and Green Milk $7.99 each ($16 for both)

TOTAL = $38

Again, this is above what I would normally spend for mostly just snacks, but this was where I decided to prioritize my budget.

I hope I’ve convinced you that it’s 100% possible to see Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in one day and on a budget. It really is an incredible addition to the Disney parks, and I hope you get a chance to visit!

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