We did the
A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party with our kids last year (which also happened to be the first time the kids went to Disneyworld. We kinda went all out). 10 year old boy and 7 year old girl. Not super adventurous when it comes to food.
Price...
First big thing to be careful of: 10 year olds are priced as adults...which is ridiculous.
$79 for 10+
$45 for 3-9
$34 difference!
The real value in the adult price it's it's basically open bar. If you have 4-5 drinks than you've likely made up for that extra $34. But depending on your tolerance levels you may not want to be packing away that much booze in 2 hours.
They have all sorts of assorted mixed drinks and the like and during the party you can easily have 3-5 drinks. Forwarning: the don't skimp on the booze in the drinks. They are mixed STRONG. Also when you go to get your last drink before the fireworks starts they automatically make your drink a double. Luckily we took the shuttle
. But the problem is that kids will clearly not be drinking alcohol and there's no way they eat anywhere near the dollar value in desserts so right away I say if you have any kids over 10 I *really* don't think it's worth the expense.
Secondly..the desserts: our kids were not huge fans. Do some research on some reviews for it and it'll show pictures of dessers. It's alot of tarts and such but they all tasted fairly similar. The freeze dried nutella was neat but our son wanted nothing to do with it. Same with bread pudding...a bit too much of a mish mash of things for them. They mostly ate cookies and loved that they could go grab themselves a pop without anyone questioning it.
That's a large chunk of what you're paying there is for drinks and desserts and for kids it's not really at value.
Now the good parts...
Exclusiveness
the kids (and we) loved being in this exclusive roped off area with our special lanyards. So many other people approach the velvet rope trying to get in and were turned away but WE were allowed. That made them feel pretty special and they also liked they could go into the main area and interact with jawas or what have you and then slip back under the rope back into the dessert area. There's alot of fun stuff to do just outside the dessert party area and then if we wanted to chill it was nice to seamlessly slip back under the rope for a drink or a quick nibble.
The viewing location
It's pretty sweet to get led in by storm troopers past everyone all staked out for good viewing angles to the optimal viewing location with lots of room due to limited numbers allowed in. Everyone in that area also tend to have full bellies and adults have had a couple drinks to take the edge off so it's a very enjoyable viewing experience with you co dessert partiers.
and speaking of storm troopers...
Family of the night
We were excited to get to this party since it was our first night at Disney and wound up being first there. My wife did her hair in Leia buns and my kids had Star Wars shirts on and we wound up getting to teh waiting spot to get in SUPER early. So we wound up chatting a bunch with the cast member about the trip and our excitement and what have you and kinda hit things off and were told to go see Kathy (or Susan or Peggy..don't remember off hand) as soon as we get in to the party because she'd have a "special job for us". Even when we went to see her she told us "Come see me around X o'clock and I'll let you know what we need you to do"
When we went to see she explained we had been chosen as the "Family of the Night". She asked all about us, each of our names, where we were from, etc and she asked our kids if they would help the storm troopers lead the party to the fireworks show and that she had light sabers to lend them so everyone could know what to follow.
Then when it came time to go she called us to the front of the exiting party along side the storm trooper, presented us with a "Family of the night" certificate and introduced us to the Dessert Party and people appaluded, etc and then the kids followed the Storm Troopers to lead the viewing party, light sabers aloft, out to the reserved vireworks viewing area.
*That* made it all worth the price of admission...for us. But there's only ONE family a night that gets that ya know?
Had that not all happened I think we would have really regretted spending that extra coin.
Oh and you each get a massive plastic Chewy stein that you'll never use for any practical reason (mine's a desk talking item). Seriously though..if there's 6 of you...you may need a seperate suitcase for them. They're the size of a large infants head and a real awkward shape. *And* you flip open Chewys head to drink out of it so it's kinda like you're drinking Chewie's liquefied brains...but I digresss...
It's REALLY expensive and the desserts aren't really as lavish as you'd think.
I think it's really catered more to adults and I think they gouge heavily with the pricing for kids...especially 10-20 year olds.
It was a real neat experience but not worth doing a 2nd time by any stretch and if not for the family night nomination we *may* have regretted spending all that coin.
Just my 2 cents....