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Is Star Wars Land Still Crowded? | New Stores, Single Rider On Smuggler’s Run & Friday The 13th Fun!

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Three weeks after Galaxy’s Edge opened its gates, the line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run still wraps around Black Spire Outpost — but there’s a shortcut most guests are missing.

Tim and Jenn Tracker headed back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in mid-September to answer the question every Disney fan was asking: is Star Wars Land still slammed weeks after its late-August debut? They walked Hollywood Boulevard, ducked into a freshly remodeled shop stocked with land-exclusive merchandise, then ran an actual test of the single-rider line at Smugglers Run to see how much time it really saves. They closed things out on Sunset Boulevard with a Friday the 13th ride on Tower of Terror.

• Keystone Clothiers, remodeled for the land’s opening, now sells Galaxy’s Edge merchandise outside of Black Spire Outpost itself — pre-built Droid Depot R2-D2 and BB-8 units, C-3PO figures, monkey-lizard creatures, and porg puppets.
• Tim clocked the single-rider line at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at roughly 15 minutes total, from queue entry to stepping off the ride.
• The single-rider route skips the Hondo Ohnaka animatronic pre-show entirely, trading story setup for speed.

Merchandise Spreads Beyond Black Spire Outpost

The first sign that Disney’s Hollywood Studios was adjusting to Galaxy’s Edge traffic came before Tim and Jenn even reached the land. Keystone Clothiers, the Hollywood Boulevard shop that got a full remodel around the land’s late-August debut, is now carrying Star Wars merchandise once confined to Black Spire Outpost. That includes pre-assembled Droid Depot droids for guests who don’t want to wait for the build-your-own-BB-8 experience, along with C-3PO figures, porg puppets, and the odd monkey-lizard creature that’s become a minor cult favorite among the land’s plush lineup. Spreading inventory to a second location is a small logistical move, but it matters — it thins out the crush of shoppers trying to squeeze through Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities and the other tightly packed storefronts inside the land itself.

Testing the Single-Rider Shortcut on Smugglers Run

Once inside Black Spire Outpost, Tim went straight for the single-rider line at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — the cockpit-simulator ride that’s been drawing the land’s longest standby waits since opening day. His full elapsed time, from entering the line to walking off the ride, came in at roughly 15 minutes. For a ride that’s spent weeks generating multi-hour posted waits, that’s a dramatic swing.

Fifteen minutes, line entrance to exit — no group, no Hondo pre-show, just the cockpit.

The tradeoff is real, though: single-rider guests bypass the Hondo Ohnaka animatronic pre-show that sets up the smuggling run’s story beats before you board. If you’ve already ridden Smugglers Run once and gotten the full narrative, running single-rider on a repeat visit is close to a no-brainer. Guests chasing the ride purely for the flight-simulator payoff, without caring about the pre-show, get the better end of that trade every time.

Hunting Merchandise and Wrapping Up on Sunset Boulevard

Between ride stops, Jenn kept up her running search for a specific piece of merchandise — her frequently requested Mickey Mouse necklace — a recurring bit for viewers who’ve been asking where to track one down at the park. The couple’s approach to navigating Hollywood Studios echoes tips they and other creators have shared before on skipping lines and managing park logistics, the kind of ground-level detail covered in Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Skip the Lines At Walt Disney World! For anyone still planning a first trip into Galaxy’s Edge, that same practical mindset shows up in What I Wish I’d Known Before I Went To Disney World.

The vlog closed out on Sunset Boulevard, where Tim and Jenn rode The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in honor of Friday the 13th — a fitting bookend after a day spent measuring how much Galaxy’s Edge has settled since its opening rush. For anyone curious how the land’s other headline attraction stacks up against Smugglers Run, the trackless build gets its own breakdown in NEW! Star Wars Ride – Rise of the Resistance Trackless Dark Ride.

Fifteen minutes for Smugglers Run without the Hondo pre-show is the number worth remembering here — that’s the single-rider line doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, and it’s the move for anyone walking into Black Spire Outpost who’s already seen the story once and just wants back in that cockpit.