Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite

Last night, I had the pleasure of being able to ring in May the 4th with thousands of other rabid Star Wars/Disney fans at Disneyland After Dark.  This was a new offering at Disneyland to celebrate Star Wars Day, a popular moment in geek culture.  The event sold out within hours of going on sale and people were eager to see what there was to offer.  I was only able to get one ticket, so I went by myself.  While it would have been more fun with friends and/or family, there were plenty of people to talk to and generally a positive atmosphere.

First, I went to a panel where I got to see some of the head Imagineers discuss their roles in developing Batuu (aka Galaxy's Edge, aka Star Wars Land).  Unfortunately, I couldn't take videos or pictures because we had to seal our phones for this part of the event, but needless to say, it's going to be amazing to walk through the streets of a real Star Wars planet and come face to face with the Millennium Falcon.

There were many food offerings throughout the park.  I did not get to try many because I spent a good portion of the evening in line for other things, but Beru's special was delicious (blue milk with boba) as were the clone potatoes.  The offerings were whimsical and most people had a positive response to the food.

Merchandise was kind of a disaster.  There was a line from Starcade all the way through the normal queue for the Tomorrowland theater area.  I considered myself to be fairly close to the front of the line, but it still took 45 minutes to get through.  Unfortunately, this is where Disney fell short big time.  The lower level cast members did a great job with what little direction they were given.  However, the "ties" (you know, supervisor and up level) were all standing in a huddle laughing and chatting when they really should have been helping out.  At one point, myself and the people around me were helping direct traffic properly and one man that looked like a bouncer was shuffling people through who were cutting in line.  The people who exited Star Tours were not forced to wait in line for the merchandise as the ride exit spits itself out in the store, so people waiting in the merchandise line were pretty frustrated.  I scored a May the 4th t-shirt, but honestly?  If I had known how little variety of merchandise they had, I would have skipped that part of the night.

There were many photo ops throughout the park.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any.  I was too busy trying to see the professional lightsaber duels and catch a glimpse of Captain Phasma and her troopers. 

Overall, it was a fun experience.  I am hoping they make this an annual event and that they manage to work out some of the kinks and start training their employees better so that when Star Wars Land opens, they don't have riots.  I will say, above all, it was sort of magical to see the park without it being packed wall to wall.  It's especially beautiful at night.

Here are some other pictures from earlier in the day before the event began.  It was a beautiful day and I couldn't resist taking some photographs.