National Park Road Trip: Disneyland & Galaxy's Edge (Part 11)

Normally for a trip to Disney requires months of planning ahead to make sure you get some value out of an extremely expensive vacation. However, in our case, we literally decided to go to Disneyland in California less than 48 hours prior to stepping through the gates of the park.

We have visited both Disney World (Florida) and Disneyland (California) quite a few times, and Disneyland reigns supreme as our favorite park to visit. Having not been back since 2016, quite a bit had changed since our last visit, so we were extremely excited to be returning.

When the addition of Star Wars land was announced at both Disney Parks in the U.S., we had vowed not to return for years until the crowds died down. Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge had just opened about a month or so prior to our visit and was restricted to reservations to access the land. However, just days before our visit, the reservations had been lifted, giving us a golden opportunity to get to see Star Wars.

The other key factor was that during our visit, the passholders were blacked out from visiting the park, giving us the perfect storm to experience Batuu with way less crowds than anticipated.

Our game plan for visiting Disneyland was crammed all into one day, so to make the best of it, we purchased one-day park hopper tickets plus MaxPass so we could make Fast Pass reservations on the mobile app.

The first stop of the day was to get into Star Wars land.

Disneyland Galaxy’s Edge

Before doing that though required us stopping in Guest Services to get a Disability Access Service Card for our son who is diagnosed with ADHD and has trouble waiting in lines for an extended period of time. This proved to be our longest wait of the day, as they only had 1-2 people working Guest Services and a huge line outside. Regardless, we got our pass and were on our way.

It should be noted the Disability Access Service Card does not allow us to cut the line. We wait in line just like everybody else, we just do it virtually. We tell the cast member what attraction we wish to ride, they look at the current wait time, and then tell us to return at that time.

The Disability Access Service Card is the only reason we were actually able to ride the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run within Galaxy’s Edge since they do not offer Fast Pass/MaxPass currently. As we waited for our return time to board, we checked out various parts of Galaxy’s Edge. The land is quite stunning with so many little details of the Star Wars storylines.

Of course we had to check out the frozen blue and green milk drinks, which we all preferred blue. We also picked up one of each of the specialty Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite Galaxy’s Edge bottles as souvenirs. Not cheap at $5.50 each, but a cool keepsake.

We rode Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and it was interesting, but I am not personally sure why there is so much hype. It is a motion simulator that does not quite bring anything new to the table that we expect with Disney. Each guests has a role on the Millennium Falcon, but do their button pushing capabilities really impact the ride experience? Overall, it really was not too much of a departure from Star Tours.

I am not sure what I was expecting with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, but having visited Avatar last year at WDW, and riding Flight of Passage, it was a ground breaking attraction, and certainly a memorable experience.

I am really hoping once Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opens it changes the face of attractions not only for Galaxy’s Edge, but also the parks in general.

Disney’s California’s Adventure

Following our ride, we bounced on over to California’s Adventure where we immediately took in Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! We always enjoyed Tower of Terror, but the new Guardians version was a nice and well done upgrade. It was also the first time ever for our youngest son.

We later used our Disney Visa for an exclusive meet and greet with Pluto, at the best corn dogs on the planet at Corn Dog Castle, checked out the new Pixar Pier, and rode the unbelievable Radiator Springs Racers before heading back into Disneyland.

Disneyland

There is no need to rehash every ride we enjoyed on our day at Disneyland. We will say the MaxPass with PhotoPass at $15 per person was a great upgrade we found well worth it to make mobile FastPass reservations throughout the day.

Using the MaxPass system paired with the Disability Access Card allowed us to ride pretty much everything we wanted within one day.

At the end of the night, we ventured back into Galaxy’s Edge, and got lucky to experience the nightly park fireworks over Batuu.

However, the most impressive thing was just moments away. As we were casually walking through Batuu, we saw Rey roaming the area and no one really interacting with her. Our boys approached her in a moment of awe and asked for a photo, which she gratefully obliged.

Then, as we walked along with her, another guest (who we presume may have been a cast member), starting taunting her. She then made a plan with our 3 boys to run and hide. What proceeded was the most amazing 15 minutes or so of storytelling that capped off an unforgettable experience in Galaxy’s Edge.

Sure it was dark and a lot of the video is hard to hear, but that is what you get with a spontaneous cast interaction.

As you see in the video, we were pulled into an immersive storyline using the mobile app of the previous “taunting” guest to solve a mission. As we scoped out Galaxy’s Edge, we eventually recruited Chewbacca to leave his meet and greet and join the mission. We were in aww!

It was funny because when we first encountered Rey, we felt like the only people within Galaxy’s Edge. However, when our mission was going on with Rey, the land suddenly filled up and more kids joined in the adventure. It was pretty surreal and a fantastic way to end our day at Disneyland.

Also to note, typically we like to enjoy at least one sit down meal when visiting Disney parks. However, due to the spontaneity, we opted to just snack our way around the parks, and it really worked out well.

The heat while in amusement parks typically keeps us from eating too much, as we stay very hydrated drinking continuous water all day. However, snacking allowed us to grab some ice cream bars, skewers from Bengal Barbecue, and even late night sandwiches at Galactic Grill. Overall, we likely saved a ton in dining costs with this method versus are typical Disney dining protocol.

We ended up capping off our night with a ride on the monorail and were lucky enough to sit up front with the engineer. I had thought they stopped allowing this benefit, but we were excited to still see it happening at Disneyland!

As in typical fashion for our family, we rope dropped until park close at Disney to make it a worthwhile adventure. Time to do it all again tomorrow at Knott’s Berry Farm.

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National Park Road Trip: Disneyland & Galaxy’s Edge (Part 11)

Disneyland Galaxy’s Edge

Disney’s California’s Adventure

Disneyland

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