Star Wars Galactic Nights at Disney's Hollywood Studios

For Memorial Day weekend we attended the 2018 Star Wars Galactic Nights event at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.   Star Wars Galactic Nights are special ticketed evening parties that accompany the theatrical release of a new Star Wars Movie, the 2018 event timed with the opening weekend of Solo: A  Star Wars Story.

We had seen Solo at the Disney Springs AMC this same weekend and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it didn't quite catch fire at the box office and there were lots of headlines about how it was the first Star Wars box office flop(212 million domestic box office as of the writing of this post and a world wide haul of 385 million).

We were let in right at 4:00 PM in the afternoon after "walking the red carpet" and were given lanyards with a photo op scavenger hunt on them. The event staff was super friendly including several managers (they always seem to be in professional attire and not a costume). It was recommended we head for the photo ops first as the lines start to get progressively longer as the evening goes on. We took their advice (making an exception for fast passes we had obtained for Toy Story Mania and The Tower of Terror).

 As you entered the queue for each photo op you were given a sticker to place on your lanyard, if you managed to visit each location you would have a complete artwork on your lanyard. Because we started right at 4PM (essentially the earliest time you will be allowed in with an event ticket) and we prioritized the photo ops we were able to complete the lanyard.

 The actual event time was 7PM-12PM. The park closed to day guests sometime in the 6 o'clock hour. The fast passes came in handy as the standby lines were otherwise fairly long. We wanted to make sure we had Toy Story fast passes as that was the only ride Toddler Son would be able to ride this evening...he did not meet the height requirement for the other rides.

There was an area behind the Rockin' Rollercoaster that was set up for photo ops. Here we met the "Seventh Sister Inquisitor" from Star Wars Rebels, then we proceeded into a sound stage where they had 3 photo ops set up. The first was with a Rancor monster from Return of the Jedi, then a couple of Tusken Raiders/Sandpeople, and the final photo op here was of a monster from Star Wars The Force Awakens. There was hardly anyone here at this point and all of these photo ops were no waiting. The highlight was the Rancor and the Sandpeople for sure.

We took pictures in front of a backdrop of Luke Skywalker's hermit cottage on "Achto" from Star Wars The Last Jedi and then in the Emperor's Throne Room from Return of the Jedi. The boys got to sit in the throne and the photo pass picture included a pair of Royal Guards so that was a treat.

The next photo op was in front of "Jedha" from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with the scene stealing K-2SO droid. It was lots of fun to stand next to the giant droid. That completed the scavenger hunt portion of the event.  

Captain Phasma leads the March of the First Order periodically through the park...this is something that usually happens outside of the event. They also were having a Star Wars Saga Show on the stage in front of the Chinese Theater...so occasionally we would see the characters march by on their way to the "Star Wars Launch Bay" exhibit.  

There were some exotic looking Star Wars themed foods but frankly they did not seem apetizing. We went the safe route and enjoyed our dinner at the ABC commissary and would like to return there on a future visit.

We bought an AT-AT Popcorn bucket and lightsaber churros. The popcorn was great but the churros were really hard and the "lightsaber" coloring didn't stick very well...so they didn't look good or taste good. The saber hilt holders were a lot of fun though.

Lines to meet the characters(who regularly appear at Hollywood Studios) were fairly long so we only met BB-8.  We did however take pictures with droids on display in the Animation Courtyard, and with a Shadowtrooper who was patrolling the same courtyard. 

We also took pictures on the Speeder Bike from Return of the Jedi which is permanently on display near Star Tours. Star Tours surprisingly was pretty much a walk on throughout the night.

Rockin' Rollercoaster had a Star Wars soundtrack and very basic projections on the walls of the show building in lieu of the usual effects and Aerosmith music. None of us had ever been on this coaster before so we didn't know what it was "supposed" to be like, but we did enjoy the ride a lot. It is the most intense Disney Coaster we can recall.

Through this arch will be the entry to Walt Disney World's "Star Wars Land" at Hollywood Studios

There was a couple of presentations on the "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge" park expansions at Disneyland & Walt Disney World but we did not attend them. It was at these events that the name "Black Spire Outpost" was revealed.

As we exited the event we were given a bag with this poster and several packs of trading cards

We did mange to see the fireworks & projection show at the end of the evening. The projections were nice but the fireworks were a little disappointing as they were only the ones launched from right near and on the roof of the Chinese Theater and there were none of the fireworks that go high into the sky.

Toy Story Land under construction with one month until opening

It had been 2 and a half years since our last trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios and in that time the park has seen a tremendous amount of construction. We saw that "Toy Story Land" was nearly finished, and "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge" and "Mickey's Runaway Railway" (replacing The Great Movie Ride) were both underway.

We attended the last Star Wars Weekends back in 2015 and it is interesting to contrast the 2 events. For one thing Star Wars Weekends was spread out over many weeks and was included in regular admission. It also had a really long parade. The time we did Star Wars Weekends was on our very first trip to Walt Disney World and Hollywood Studios was the first Walt Disney World park we visited. The crowds were heavier during Star Wars Weekends as it was not just Star Wars fans in attendance.

Star Wars projections on the Tower of Terror

We ended up doing more photo ops during the Galactic Nights event in a much shorter period of time than we did spending an entire day at Star Wars Weekends. The special ticketed events do generally manage to be a lot less crowded than a typical day at the parks.