Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has opened at Disneyland and will be opening in just over a month at Walt Disney World. Unfortunately, both of these lands opened without their flagship attraction. Today, Disney announced the last piece of the puzzle, giving the opening dates for Rise of the Resistance.

In a bit of a surprise, Disney World’s Rise of the Resistance will open ahead of Disneyland’s version of the attraction on December 5th. Disneyland will follow that with a January 17th, 2020 opening date. Once open, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be complete (at least until further expansion).

Frankly, these dates are later than I expected. While rumors have been circulating for quite a while that the Disneyland attraction had fallen behind schedule, I still expected it to open by the end of the year. Pushing it out until January is disappointing, especially for a land that has failed to draw the massive crowds that were expected. The news in Disney World is a little better, although I did expect a pre-Thanksgiving opening. Having it open for the Christmas holiday will be a nice boon for the resort.

As for soft openings, I could see that happening, especially at Walt Disney World. With opening dates announced so far in advance, it stands to reason that there is a decent amount of testing included in the timetable. Of course, this assumes that the attraction’s construction timeline stays on schedule which is a dangerous assumption.

If there is a long testing phase, I could also see Disney doing testing on the project via an upcharge event for guests or with Annual Passholder previews. All of this said, I wouldn’t recommend booking a vacation a few weeks ahead of the announced opening dates in hopes of a soft opening. Instead, play it safe and just book after the announced opening dates.

As for what this does in the short-term, Disneyland will likely have smaller crowds through the rest of summer. I do think the resort will be more crowded once Annual Passholder blockout dates are lifted in September. Still, I don’t think there’s much of an incentive for people to book a long-distance trip to Disneyland in the Fall so the crowds may still remain low through the end of the year.

All of this leads us to say that it’s a really good time to book a trip to Disneyland. Of course, if you are a huge Star Wars fan then you may want to hold off until the new attraction is open. But if that doesn’t appeal to you or you can do multiple trips then Disneyland won’t likely be very crowded for the rest of the year. You’ll be able to enjoy Galaxy’s Edge before the land draws more crowds. Along with that, the rest of the resort should be very pleasant to walk around.

While today’s news isn’t exactly good, it’s nice to at least have opening dates for what should be one of Disney’s best attractions. Melissa and I, as well as many others I’m sure, were waiting for these dates before deciding when to go where and this will at least keep us out of limbo.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts, along with any questions you have, down below in the comments. Thank you for reading Wandering in Disney. If you enjoy what you’re reading please subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. You can also follow our social media accounts. There are links to all of those on the right side of this page. Have a great day!