The Force is Strong With This One
This past Thursday, May 3, 2018, Disneyland hosted its second ever, Disneyland After Dark event, this time, dedicated to Star Wars.
The event officially ran from 9:00PM to 1:00AM with a mix-in beginning as early as 6:00PM. This was a hard ticketed event, meaning, guests who purchased a regular Disneyland ticket for the day of May 3, could experience Disneyland as normal until 9:00PM. After 9:00PM, if you did not have a wristband that signified you purchased a separate ticket for the Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite event you would be asked to make your way out of the park. For those who did purchase this special ticket for the event, you could come in as early as 6:00PM and "mix-in" with the regular guests, enjoy the park for an additional few hours before the official event began at 9:00PM. This was not a bad deal seeing that they had their normal fireworks show at 8:30PM, so guests who arrived by then for the special event got to witness the fireworks show in addition to a special Star Wars themed show later on for the event.
This event was sold out! My girlfriend and I purchased our tickets at midnight the second the tickets went on sale....
A quick note about that. I had called in advance to the Disneyland guest service line to ask exactly what time the tickets would go on sale. The lady whom I spoke with was friendly but not much help. She not only did not know what time they went on sale, she suggested they would go on sale at 8:00AM on March 27th. Now I understand she admitted that she did not know, so 8:00AM was merely a suggestion, but I feel like it was a bit irresponsible seeing how it was untrue. I think the protocol should have been to say that you do not know and leave it at that. Perhaps I'm over analyzing this?....Regardless, I went online at the stroke of midnight on March 27th and easily purchased my tickets. In the guest services lady's defense, there were tickets still available by 8:00AM, however the event did sell out later that day.
Tickets by the way were $95.00 each! Pretty steep for technically a 4-hour event and something we normally would have skipped simply due to the high price of admission, however our love for Star Wars made it difficult to pass up. You might even say it was as if some, "force" was pulling us to go...haha!
We got off from work early, at 4:00PM on Thursday, May 3rd and went home to change into our outfits that we'd made specifically for this event. We left Burbank at 5:00PM and arrived in Anaheim by 7:00PM due to traffic. To our surprise the Mickey and Friends parking structure was closed off and they were redirecting traffic down Disney Way to the Paradise Pier parking lot. This was disappointing to say the least because this parking lot is much further away and there is no shuttle service, so you have to walk to the entire way to and from this location.
We stopped to have dinner at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, hopefully not for the last time, seeing how this location as well as all other stores and restaurants west of the Lego store will be demolished beginning this summer to make way for Disney's newest hotel; but more on that in another blog.
We entered Disneyland just before 8:00PM. They designated the main entrance gates number 17 and up for entrances for the event only. Keep in mind, the park was still open to regular guests coming in, so they wanted to keep the entrances separate because we were getting some extra swag for the event. Immediately after scanning out tickets to get in, we were outfitted with a wristband, then directed to cast members a few feet away who were handing out lanyards that were themed for the event. Although the path was blocked so we could only enter Town Square via the East tunnel, you could clearly see both tunnels and they had placed one red and one blue light atop each tunnel for some ambiance theming which was not overlooked by incoming guests.
Upon entering Town Square we were met by large crowds. This was a combination of regular guests waiting for the 8:30PM fireworks show, as well as a large queue that had formed for people waiting to get into Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln...now we love Great Moments but unless it's President's Day or some special event, there is never a line for this attraction, hence we were able to quickly deduce that something special is taking place there so before we even asked anyone what it was, we got in line. Once in line we found out it was the annual pass holders only and if you showed you AP they gave you a special Disney After Dark: Star Wars Nite button. So of course we stayed in line to get our button, trying to take full advantage of our annual passes whenever we can. The line stretched from inside, where it switch-backed several times, running outside along the brick walkway in front of the hat shop, across the roadway and along the Eastside shops on Main St. Despite the long queue, once they began handing out the buttons, it moved quite quickly and we had our buttons in-hand within 15 minutes.
We headed straight for Tomorrowland, utilizing the overflow walkway behind the Main St. shops which they had opened up to alleviate congestion, since the fireworks were taking place so the majority of the guests would be exiting soon and those arriving for the party were just getting there, this was a smart idea on the parks part. When we arrived in Tomorrowland we found that many others went straight there and there were already long queues for both the Star Wars Launch Bay, where the character meet-and-greets are and to our surprise (although in hindsight we should not have been surprised) there was an equally, if not longer queue just to enter Star Trader, the merchandise store in Tomorrowland where hundreds were waiting to purchase limited edition Disney After Dark and May the 4th Star Wars merchandise.
Since we were excited for the opportunity to meet Rey, the newest edition to the character meet-and-greets in Disneyland, and this night marked the first time ever that you could do this, we wanted to be apart of this experience. We waited for almost 30 minutes just to get inside the Launch Bay only to find the lines split inside to the different characters and that Rey's line was over 2 hours long! Just like the Stormtroopers we decide to "move along" to something else, but not before quickly sneaking a picture with Boba Fett who was hanging out in a side room by himself. We headed back outside and straight to the store just to see what that line's wait time was, because perhaps the line outside was long but maybe once 9:00PM hit they just let everyone in? Luckily for the safety of everyone, they did not do that, they instead let "x" amount in at a time so the store was not over crowded and so people were not being trampled. The result of this was that the line to get in remained 2+ hours long. Our friend was working this queue on the special events team and unfortunately had his hands full with irate guests who did not like that they had to wait in line to enter the store...I guess they'd rather be trampled? Because of this we were unable to talk to our friend, but it was more than understandable and we sympathized with him greatly.
So after striking out twice, we then decided we needed to find some of the photo opp locations to take advantage of those. We had asked a cast member in the Launch Bay where they were and they didn't know, but suggested they were in Tomorrowland somewhere....not very reassuring. We then asked another cast member outside and they suggested we go into the Launch Bay. This would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. Very disappointed that the cast members were not coached up efficiently for this event. Luckily for us there was another cast member nearby whom we asked and they suggested the Starcade, and although they did not say it with much confidence, it not only turned out to be correct, but at least they had a fresh answer.
We walked to the Starcade location to find two large photo displays, one of the trash compactor in the Death Star from A New Hope and the other was of the Wampa ice cave, when Luke is hanging upside down, from Empire Strikes Back. Both of these were fun photo opps and although there were queues for both, they only took about 15 minutes each to get through. We did the trash compactor first, because it was already 9:25PM and we hoped to watch the Star Wars themed fireworks show at 9:45PM, so we were cutting it close!
We made it out of the photo opp at 9:43PM, rushed to the hub on Main St. and got a great spot to watch the fireworks. The show was shorter than the Pixarfest fireworks, however was still about 12 minutes long and was of course showcasing the wonderful scores of John Williams from all of the Star Wars films.
After the fireworks we headed back into Tomorrowland to try out some of the Star Wars themed snacks at the Galactic Grill. We ordered some Lightsaber Taquitos and Marzz got Baru's Special, which was Julep tea with blue milk and boba balls. I'm not a tea fan so I only tried a small sip. But the taquitos were delicious, the plate consisted of two taquitos, one covered halfway in red sauce and the other covered halfway in green sauce. I felt that for park food, the taquitos were good sized and filled with a good portion of meat. Still probably not worth the $8 we paid but that's also expected with Disneyland food.
From there we went back to the Starcade, checking off the other photo opp of the Wampa cave. When we exited, tons of people had lined the Tomorrowland walkway, which we quickly realize it was for the March of the First Order. This was another first for Disneyland, something that Disney World already does at Hollywood Studios, but Captain Phasma and a regiment of Stormtroopers march through the area. Along the way Phasma speaks to some of the guests, periodically stopping, sometimes pointing at people. The display is fun, although it's not quite a parade, literally just them marching through the land. It's fun to witness, but unlike the parades, I think it is something that if you're there, you'll watch it, but you would not line up in advance for and wait.
Next we left Tomorrowland, making our way to Fantasyland where another photo opp was set up, this time of the skiff that accompanies Jaba's barge in Return of the Jedi. The same one that they try and make Luke Skywalker jump off of in the Sarlaac pit. This photo was fun because it used forced perspective to make it look like we were on the skiff and hovering over the pit.
They had a lightsaber training demonstration near It's a Small World. We did not go up there, but viewed it from a distance. From our observations, it seemed like the Jedi Training that they do in Tomorrowland, however this was open to everyone, including adults unlike the daily one that is limited to children.
We stopped to purchase our lightsaber churros! One red, and one blue, the red being strawberry flavored and the blue was a blueberry or grape? I can't remember, but both were delicious!
One thing to note, before arriving to the event, it was listed on the Disneyland website that only select attractions would remain open, and those included: Star Tours, Space Mountain, which had it's Star Wars overlay: Hyperspace Mountain, It's a Small World, the Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Mountain. However, to our surprise, when we got there and were walking around, all of the Tomorowland was open, all of Fantasyland was open, the train was running that circles the park. I thought this was really good. Ironically we did not ride anything this night, because we were so focused on getting pictures and eating, but it was a great opportunity for those who just wanted to ride some rides.
There were many photo opps around the park, spreading all the way into Critter Country. Although we walked there, we only participated in one of the two photo opps in Critter Country. There were others in Frontierland and on Main St. This was a great idea because it spread things out, gave you a lot of variety of photo opps, many with face-characters and others with droids and as mentioned, some of just backgrounds/sets.
We made our way to the Jolly Holiday around midnight, and by this time, to no surprise, all of the specialty treats here were sold out. We strolled down Main St. to check if the Emporium had any merchandise...they did not. We stopped for a moment near the firehouse to say hello to the Astro-mech Droid builders club, who brought our their lifesized R2-D2's, some in various color schemes as well as an MSE-series droid or most commonly known as a "mouse droid" that can be seen in A New Hope cruising around the Death Star. We always love watching these fully functional droids and speaking with the builders. We hope to one day build one of our own.
We then headed back to Tomorrowland to attempt to say hi to our friend whom we could not speak with earlier due to an upset guest. He was not there, hopefully long gone, on his way home to a much deserved rest. But we were able to get into the Star Trader store, and we only waited 10 minutes! They still had plenty of May the 4th merchandise. Someone said there was Disney After Dark: Star Wars Nite merchadise but we never saw any and there is none on ebay, which tells me there weren't any, or by some off chance, no one is trying to hock it on ebay; which I doubt. This means not only did we not wait 2 hours in line, we still were able to purchase the same merchandise after only waiting 10 minutes. It gets better, after leaving the Star Trader, we decided to check out the Launch Bay.
It was around 12:30AM by now, but just like the attractions, if you get in line before the park closes or in this case, before the event ends, you're good to go assuming the attraction doesn't break down or some other major issue. So we went into the Launch Bay hoping that Rey's line would be shorter and perhaps we could get our picture with her after all. The odds were on our side and her line was only about 25 minutes long! Just like the store, we saved ourselves about 100 minutes of waiting and still got the same result! I believe even Master Yoda would be pleased by our choices on this night...use our feelings, we did!
Rey was very friendly, I'm not sure how long she was there or if they switched out or took any breaks, but she was very nice, had a good British accent, dropped some good Star Wars lingo that really brought it together. Overall I thought her meet-and-greet was very good. I hope the quality standards remain as she becomes a permanent fixture at the Launch Bay.
We then left to make our long journey back to our car which was all the way in the Paradise Pier lot. We left around 2:00AM.
Overall we enjoyed ourselves. Our only real criticisms were lack of signage out front, because we first got in the wrong lines before being told that the special event had their own entrance...then the cast members not knowing where the photo locations were and it would have been nice if they had produced more of the snacks so that we could have been able to eat some of them. But besides that, we really had a wonderful time, the atmosphere was that of the Star Wars Celebration convention, being that everyone was either dressed up in Star Wars costumes or sporting their favorite t-shirts. There was definitely a lot of nerdy Star Wars conversations being had and all of this added to the experience and made it a lot of fun. It was fun just seeing other people's costumes, as many had extensive and intricate costumes that they made themselves. The photo opps were all good, even though we only experienced about 75% of them, we felt they provided a good selection and the fact they were spread throughout the park helped alleviate the crowds. I feel this was a success, and a great way to ring in Star Wars Day, May the 4th Be With You.
I understand that as I write this, there are still tickets remaining for the second Star Wars Nite that they added due to the popular demand for the first one. However I don't think Disney fully realized why people wanted to go to the first one...it's like this.....Going to a 4th of July party on July 4th is a lot of fun. Going to a 4th of July party on July 11th is weird. I'm sure the second event will be fun because it's essentially all the same experiences, however the fact that tickets are still remaining and the event is tonight, tells me that it is by far not as popular.
I have no doubt that Disney will continue to host these events and it would not at all surprise me if this one in particular becomes an annual event much like the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween parties. Unlike Han, I have a good feeling about this! Great job Disney and we look forward to more events like this.
Sorry for such a lengthy blog this time, but I wanted to give a full picture on the time table and our overall experience at this event. Please check out our pictures below and like, subscribe and follow us on our social media platforms!
Thanks for reading.
