I'll be there opening day, and many days to follow. And I am beyond thrilled that I have this land to explore for years to come. That doesn't mean I have to think Disney lived up the potential of what it could have been.
This is the last I'll say on this because I don't want it to seem like I'm being negative or trying to hate on Disney and rile people up. I just really don't understand the echoing of the "you can live your own adventure" or "if they created it like the movies, that's those characters adventure, not yours." Is ANYONE outside of these boards really thinking that way? Why can't I have my own adventure in the same location Luke or Han did? Of course I can. And again, I just don't think more than 5% of people going in there are actually running around living out their own movie in their heads. And if they are, they are likely children and I don't think they'd feel bound in their creativity because they are somewhere they've seen before, or be confused as to why THEY would be piloting the Falcon. Because it's a ride and you're at Disney.
To me, it's just taking it too far and too literal. I'd say I'm in the minority in that I actually really love Toy Story Land. It's one of my favorite things Disney has ever done. But they did the same thing with it being "Andy's Back Yard" so you can't have Pizza Planet or Al's Toybarn. Really? The vast majority of guests at Disney are not even going to think about something like that. They just want to see something cool from a movie they love. And I think that MOST people, would be happier to have gotten something closer to Diagon Alley. I don't think people would have been upset because we've already seen _____ place and they wanted to see something new.
We know exactly what Disney is capable of and that they were going to spare no expenses on this project. They knew the land would be a success no matter what they did or would have done. Any Star Wars Land is better than no Star Wars Land. And I think because they knew that, they took the easy way out. That's all. I don't hate it, I'm not mad or bitter. I just think it's modern day Disney doing what they do best, and the same line of thinking that's giving us all these live action remakes and that refuses to build new rides without IP being involved. Mission Breakout is maybe my favorite ride ever. But I don't want them to limit themselves to that. And that's what I think they've done. The land is massive. They could have built 2 or 3 areas and found a way to naturally transition between them. But that would have been more difficult to pull off.
I'm not saying Disney isn't justified in how they decided to do it. It makes sense for all the reasons many people have pointed out and many more. It just bothers me when it seems like we can't even be critical of something and have to pretend they did it this way because it is better, and they know better than us what we want. If you ask a random Star Wars fan who doesn't know anything about Disney to pick between the two concepts, very few would say "yes, please build a place we've never seen before that kind of looks like Tatooine. And make sure the blue milk doesn't use dairy." They didn't do it because it was better. They did it because it was easier. And that's fine.