More specifically, I reserved our spots for The Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party. It started out great but ended with a little glitch.
It wasn’t perfect, but it has some positives as well as negatives, and I’ll lay those out for you. This way you can weight all the benefits and decide if it’s right for you and your family!
What is The Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party?
The Star Wars Dessert party is held in the Star Wars Launch Bay in Hollywood Studios. As I mentioned before, this dessert party is an extra charge in addition to your park admission for the day. I already had a 3-day park pass and planned to go to Hollywood Studios on this day. Plan accordingly for your visit.
The party is an hour long party that features Star Wars themed desserts and drinks prior to the Star Wars fireworks. You are to have a VIP reserved viewing area at those fireworks. You also get a souvenir stein.
The price is $79.00 per adult (age 10 and over) and $45.00 per child (age 3 to 9); tax and gratuity are included.
Reserving the Star Wars Dessert Party
I booked the reservation online and that portion worked out perfectly. It carried right over to the MyDisneyExperience app, and I could see the reservation in My Plans. Making reservations for this premium Disney event was basically hassle free.
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Checking into the Disney Star Wars Dessert Party
Our reservations were at 8 pm, but I had read that you could check-in early so we went to the check in at 7:30 instead. The check-in is at the Star Wars Launch Bay in Hollywood Studios. There was very clear signage already set up at 7:30, and we checked in at the podium.
We were given our VIP passes that were on a lanyard. We were told we couldn’t go into the dessert party until 7:45, but we were welcome to go on in and look around or meet and greet with characters until check-in.
The Star Wars Launch Bay in Hollywood Studios
There are no restrooms in the Launch Bay, but there are some immediately near the entrance and with our VIP passes we could come and go as we pleased.
We went in and there were small lines for the characters, but nothing overwhelming. Remember, regular guests can still go in and out of the Launch Bay and meet characters, they just can’t go into the dessert party area.
The launch bay is filled with Star Wars props and exhibits. My son enjoyed the lightsaber display the most.
The Characters at the Star Wars Launch Bay
The Chewbacca line was the longest at 15 minutes, but my son really wanted to meet him. We stood in line and met Chewbacca. Disney character meetings are always well done, in my opinion.
Once inside, there are usually two cast members who greet you and give you some basic information like where you can stow your purses or backpacks. They are always willing to take your phone or camera and do additional pictures with it. They will also do regular photos with their own cameras and place it on the Disney Photo Pass gallery. They will scan your band at the end to link this to your MyDisneyExperience app so you have access to them easily.
Chewbacca came up to us and immediately started giving my son a hard time as he had on a Darth Vader shirt, but he convinced Chewbacca he was part of the resistance – only disguised as a spy. Chewbacca seemed to be ok with this explanation but then pointed out my husband had on a red shirt. Ha! We just seemed shady all the way around. Finally, after deciding we weren’t the enemy, we went in to have our pictures made. He shook hands with my husband and son and then wrapped me up in a huge hug! I felt like they gave us a good amount of time to soak in the character greeting.
We had plenty of time during our dessert party to visit Kylo Ren and BB8 as well. We had no waits for them. Again, though, remember that at this time other guests could still see the characters as long as they didn’t enter the dessert party area.
As per typical Disney meet and greets, the characters interacted with us and took a great deal of care to make our experience fun. BB-8 didn’t readily take my son’s explanation he was a rebel spy like Chewbacca did, so he scanned him to make sure he was on the up and up.
BB 8 scanning my son to ensure he’s not on the dark side!
Star Wars Dessert Party Setting and Food
Once we were finished with our Chewbacca meeting, we went to check in to the dessert party. We went to a cast member checking us in and she gave us our table number. All of the tables were small black tables in a roped off area, covered with a black tablecloth and a small sign with your table number, and below it a statement that the commander requests your presence on the bridge.
Once inside, we were able to go ahead and start helping ourselves to the various buffet tables. It wasn’t just a dessert buffet, but they had some savory foods as well. Everything was Star Wars themed. We had some bread, cheeses, prosciutto, and red pepper hummus. We didn’t partake in a lot of the savory foods as we wanted to save room for the wide array of desserts.
This is just a sampling of some of the desserts we ate at the Star Wars Dessert Party. The blue milk panna cotta was delicious.
The desserts were not only delicious but very cool looking. We all tried almost every dessert available.
These peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes were among my favorite foods at the dessert party!
Besides the buffet of truffles, cheesecake bites, and mini cupcakes, there was a table for warm bread pudding. It was not like the Kentucky bread pudding I’m used to, but rather topped with a smores like topping, pretzels, mini m&ms and you could add whatever other toppings available. My son enjoyed the “Galactic dirt” topping which was basically crushed Oreo cookies! It was served with a scoop of ice cream. They also had a frozen hazelnut truffle they froze right in front of you. You had your choice of chocolate or raspberry sauce for a topping.
This frozen hazelnut truffle was very cool!
For drinks, there was an open bar for the adults, and a drink station for non-alcoholic drinks/children. My son had some “Jettison Juice” which he said was delicious. They also had a variety of sodas available, as well as coffee and tea. I had a Galactic Punch and my husband had a Cosmic Citrus Twist. You could also get the typical beer available, but what is the fun in that?
Stormtroopers were patrolling the area, which was a fun touch. They were interacting with almost every single table. They stopped my husband with a “Hold it right there, citizen! We need ID!” Then proceeded to check his VIP tag and tell him they’d let him go “this time”. They spent time “securing the area” as well.
A stormtrooper stopped my husband and asked him for his ID. He let him go “this time”.
The Star Wars Fireworks That Didn’t Happen and Our Glitch
Toward the end of the party, however, a cast member came over and told us due to a technical glitch, the Star Wars fireworks were canceled. However, they were going to walk us on over to the Fantasmic show. We were told we were leaving immediately. Unfortunately, I felt very hurried.
Some tables of people obviously chose not to go and stayed behind.
This part was a bit chaotic. You could tell this was a definite Plan B that maybe had not been thoroughly thought out. No one seemed to know where we were gathering. Some guests were given the souvenir stein and a bottle of water as we left (we were), and some were not. Also, some child came up and tried to get a stein, but he was obviously just a guest and not part of the dessert party, and so it wasn’t fun to listen to the cast member tell this small child he couldn’t have one. (Yes, I know they didn’t buy the tickets, but I think they should shut the bay down totally for this party – and I’ll get to this a bit more at the end with suggestions I think would improve this experience).
The stormtroopers still escorted us out partially. Once we got to where the original Star Wars fireworks show would have taken place, the stormtroopers stopped and a cast member with a lit up lightsaber took us on to Fantasmic. We walked very very quickly to this, and I felt it was hard to keep up. Especially for my son, who I felt like was almost running to keep up. I understand we had to walk a further distance, so that would explain why, but I wasn’t enjoying such a brisk walk after being at the park on my feet all day.
We didn’t have seats at the show. Obviously, we were just a last-minute addition. We stood in a roped off area in the very back. They tried to accommodate us and make up for it – they continued to offer bottled waters and even brought through a tray of hot dogs and Mickey pretzels. Unfortunately, we were also by a man who complained about this through the whole show. His complaining really did put a damper on my enjoyment.
(Please – I beg of you – if you go to Disney and you aren’t happy with something, please speak to someone in private. We had two experiences where ADULTS openly complained ad-nauseum to the point it really brought down the magic feel we were having.)
What could Disney do to make the Star Wars Dessert party more fun and worth the time/money?
First, I think they could close the Launch Bay down an hour early to the other park guests and have ALL the characters interact with the guests, not just the stormtroopers. Or, if not direct interaction, then at least limit the meet and greets inside the Launch Bay to the dessert party guests. I also found it uncomfortable to be enjoying all this in the open in front of other guests who didn’t pay for the dessert party. Yes, I understand they didn’t pay, but it’s still weird to be eating this cool Star Wars dessert while the child in line for Kylo Ren has nothing to do but watch you eat. It was also uncomfortable for me to take a souvenir stein in front of a nonpaying guest, whose small child had a complete meltdown he couldn’t have one.
Was the Star Wars Dessert Party worth the money?
It’s hard for me to tell you if it’s worth the money for the whole experience because our fireworks were canceled. I’m not sure it was worth quite the price since we didn’t get to see our original fireworks and show, as we could have done a Fantasmic Dessert party for much cheaper. However, when you book the Dessert Party, it tells you on the Disney website that the fireworks are subject to change or cancellation without prior notice. So, that’s just a risk you take.
That being said, we are extreme Star Wars fans/nerds, and we love anything with the theme of Star Wars. The Star Wars dessert party was a fun atmosphere with the very specific Star Wars themed desserts, and especially with the stormtroopers mingling (interrogating?) the guests. I do believe that you pay for the atmosphere and overall feel of an event.
Even the Star Wars adult open bar looked cool!
The party also included an open bar for the adults, and we ended up having three mixed drinks between us, which can add up to quite a price at Disney. Even a soft drink or a bottle of water can be expensive at Disney, so our drinks alone would have added up in costs outside of this party. We also each got a souvenir stein that was Darth Vader themed, as well as our VIP lanyards.
All in all, I don’t regret paying for it, even with the glitch and being switched to the Fantasmic show. My goal was to surprise my son and provide him with an awesome experience. Based on his feedback, it was exactly that!
My son enjoyed the Fantasmic show despite the fact we were supposed to see the Star Wars Fireworks
In the end, though, the person that mattered most – my 9-year-old son – had a FANTASTIC time. He LOVED the Fantasmic show and thought it might have been the best show he had seen. He was over the moon about it all. He says it was his favorite part of the whole trip.
Have you ever done a Disney dessert party? Have you done the Star Wars dessert party or a different one? I’d love to hear your experience as well!
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