In 2017 we headed back to Florida as a family and as always we wanted to book something different and as a suprise for the lads. I was talking with another Florida mad man at work and he mentioned the Star Wars guided tour he had seen mention of, that was it, we were off an running.
This Star Wars Guided Tour is located at Disneys Hollywod Studios where all of the Star Wars elements are located. We completed this tour in 2017 BEFORE the opening of the new Star Wars land (Galaxys Edge) and so it did not include anything to do with the new locations. This said they were ramping up hard on the theming and getting people excited, so we got to do basically everything there is to do Star Wars at the park.
The first thing is of course to book the tour. This was done by calling the Disney hotline which is the same one we used when we booked the Surfing at Typhoon Lagoon that I have already written all about but there has been mention this would be stopped once Galaxy’s edge opened.
There are a number of different things that came as part of the experience which was spread over an afternoon and evening. We checked in at 1pm to start the day which is done within the Star Wars section of the land. At this time you are asked to select your meal from the menus so that it is all ready for you when we make it to the food location. As part of this introduction we were all handed out our name badges which were written in both English and a weird alien language and these also determined if you were a goodie or a badie! This was set at the time of calling and booking so many months before, we decided it was only right that the kids be the bad guys and we be the boring good guys 🙂
We then met our Star Wars Guided Tour guides and were all handed ear pieces that we would wear for the duration of the tour. This meant that as we walked around the park we were always being told loads of interesting information about the story, the filming as well as bits of information of the park. We had 2 guides as one would stay at the front and one at the back to not lose anyone and we became that typical sightseeing group as we marched around following the lady with the light saber.
For those of us with children we were able to sign them up to take part in the first of the Star Wars shows where they train to be a Jedi and then take on Darth Vade which you can see in the photos. Both our lads took part in this althogh Leo the older one was more hesitant as he was not that keen and being a tall lad when he put on the costume cloak it waved around his knees and so looked more fitting for Harry Potter than Star Wars but off he went to help support his brother who loved it.
Then off we went for the day, here we managed to cover off
- Star Tours Ride (walked to front of queue VIP Style)
- Lunch at the Star Ways Themed Quick Service – But this included a visit by 2 Storm Troopers which was rare
- Lads to join in the Star Wars production which we have some videos of below
- Join the Star Wars parade up the main street. We then had reserved standing location in front of the stage to see all the characters as the show and day time fireworks were set off.
- Never ending amount of information through the guides on Disney and Star Wars
- Evening Dessert Party and light show
It was a busy day that took us up to about 6:30 and then we came to the evening part of the event which is that it included the Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party. This is a great way to end the evening. With this you get to join into the Dessert party where there are weird and wonderful deserts of all kinds of colours and flavours for you to help yourself to, along with strange bubbling drinks. You have about an hour or so to get some of these deserts but also this is when you can visit the 3 characters that are available which was BB8, Kylo Ren and C3P0. At this time BB8 was the trendy and most popular character and so off we went to visit him. As you can see from the second video on the playlist above, that was just awkward for the lads as there is no interaction as such – But hey, we can say they met him.
Once the desserts are done and you have taken off the ear phones of information you are walked across to the Light Show to a reserved location to stand and have a great view of the lights and fireworks among the many people that had been waiting for the event. This was a great way to finish the tour and the day.
We were all full of Star Wars, we had learnt a lot and even taken part in a march with Storm Troopers. Now, with Galaxy’s Edge open there are some trully amazing new rides and locations to explore which we are dying to go and experience but this was something special that we did as a family. This tour is sadly no longer available but there is still the Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party element available. The desserts are great to see but didnt love them to be honest and the character meets are fun (Kylo Ren was more interactive) but these are available through the day as well. The cost for just the Dessert Party is about $70 each (family of 4 that gets expensive), which I would do if you wanted to maximise time and ensure good positioning for the event but if you are able to just wait for a good location for the fireworks then I would likely say it isnt worth the money particularly now that Galaxy’s Edge is open and you can buy any fun foods you want directly.
The star wars guided tour was a great experience as all Disney ones are. A shame that it is has gone now with the new land but I am sure there will be new ones for Galaxy’s edge soon as there must be a WORLD of information and options that they can offer.