Star Wars Nite: Disneyland After Dark – 2026 Dates & Party Review

Star Wars Nite is the Disneyland After Dark special event during Season of the Force featuring galactic entertainment, rare characters, themed snacks, and unique photo ops. This review covers what to expect during the party, whether the hard ticket party is worth your time & money, and who should (and should not) attend.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the events, Disneyland After Dark parties are limited-time parties that take place after regular park hours and feature unique themes, festivities, character meet & greets, special nighttime entertainment, access to attractions with reduced wait times, and more. It’s the Disneyland equivalent of After Hours at Walt Disney World, albeit typically with more on the thematic front. In this case, that means Star Wars stuff. 

With each separately-ticketed Disneyland After Dark party, attendees get 4 hours of party time after the parks close to day guests. Plus, the Star Wars Nite ticket also includes admission to Disneyland as early as 6:00 PM—that’s 3 hours before the party begins—on the valid date of your ticket. That amounts to a total of 7 hours park time before and during Star Wars Nite.

In addition to all the Star Wars themed fun brought to life just for the party, admission also includes commemorative keepsakes such as a souvenir credential and an event guide map, plus unlimited digital downloads of Disney PhotoPass photos taken throughout Disneyland After Dark, which is a nice since a lot about these events revolves around photos and fun.

Here are Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite party 2026 dates:

• Tuesday, April 28, 2026
• Thursday, April 30, 2026
• Monday, May 4, 2026
• Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Annual attendees will notice that this is a significant year-over-year decrease. Last year, there was double the number of Star Wars Nites, at 8. The event began in early April and likewise continued until May 6th. However, ticket sales were sluggish, which is the explanation for fewer dates.

Disneyland has not yet revealed 2026 Star Wars Nite ticket prices. Last year, the cost was $169 or $179 per guest (ages 3+) for most dates, with May the Fourth costing $189. We would be shocked if there’s a price increase for 2026 given last year’s slow sales. We would also note that that tickets for both Sweethearts’ Nite and 70 Years of Favorites After Dark start at $159.

Guests with a ticket to this event do not need to make a theme park reservation to enter Disneyland at 6:00 PM or later. Parking fees are not included in the ticket price. Lightning Lane Multi Pass is not available during the event.

During Star Wars Nite, there’s an expanded array of entertainment, themed foods and other out-of-this-world offerings with new plot twists and enhanced excitement. Here’s a rundown of what to expect during Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nites (note that this is subject to change for 2026–we’ll update once a final schedule is released):

Star Wars Nites Entertainment

• A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey – Bring your lightsaber to the Millennium Falcon and participate in a powerful show of unity!
• Lightsaber Instructional – Attend a demonstration of lightsaber skills at Fantasyland Theatre and learn how to wield a lightsaber from elite instructors.
• Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes – Fresh off their gig at Mos Eisley, the famous Cantina Band will take a quick trip around the Rivers of America, playing their most iconic piece of music.
• Fans of the Force Costume Cavalcade – A Star Wars Nite Costume Showcase – Dress as your favorite Star Wars character and participate in a sensational celebration of your fandom on Main Street, U.S.A. To participate, meet in Town Square 10 minutes prior to the show.
• Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga – Watch stunning projection effects transform the spires of Batuu into a canvas for the legendary story of the Skywalkers.
• Galactic DJ Party Zone – Dance the night away when a DJ kicks off a galactic celebration on Main Street.
• Choose Your Path – Declare your allegiance to the light or dark side of the Force during an interactive duel of the fates on Main Street.
• Fond Farewell – As the galactic festivities come to a close, bid a fond farewell to your Disney pals Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse—dressed in costumes inspired by their favorite droids—as you pass by the Main Street, U.S.A. train station.

Star Wars Nites Attractions

Ride some of the park’s Star Wars-themed attractions—including Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (subject to availability, which may vary and is not guaranteed) throughout the event, usually with shorter wait times.

In addition to the Star Wars attractions, just about every high profile ride in Disneyland is open, aside from those that are closed for refurbishment (obviously).

Star Wars Nites Photo Ops

Let Disney PhotoPass photographers capture shots against event-themed backdrops, including:

• Light Side Photo Location
• Dark Side Photo Location
• Star Wars Nite Lightsaber Photo Op
• Scarif Postcard
• Speeder Bikes
• Endor Postcard
• Mythosaur
• Mustafar Postcard
• Tatooine Postcard
• Jabba the Hutt
• Hoth Postcard
• Boba Fett’s Throne
• Emperor Palpatine’s Throne
• Bo-Katan’s Throne

For the most part, these had short lines. That was especially true with the postcard backdrops, all of which seemed like they were 5 minutes or less.

Star Wars Nites Characters

There are a variety of character meet & greets around Disneyland, as well as character encounters. The difference is that the former is something with a line with a posed photo, whereas the latter is one you see from a distance.

For example, Padme Amidala was previously one of the most popular character meet & greets at Star Wars Nites, commanding a 2+ hour wait. She now has a selfie station (with a character attendant) allowing for photos of guests on benches. It’s much higher capacity, and took me only ~5 minutes. To each their own, but I’ll take this over a lengthy line.

Another more extreme example is Darth Maul. He was up on the top level of the Star Wars Launch Bay building, twirling around his lightsabers, putting on a little show and interacting with guests. I guess a selfie would’ve been possible, but it would’ve looked just as much like Puddy in Devils face paint as Darth Maul.

Other characters you may spot during Star Wars Nites include Anakin Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Ewoks, BB-8, Boba Fett, Jawas, Mandalorian with Baby Yoda, Ahsoka Tano, R2-D2, and many others. The Ewoks and Jawas were both meet & greets, and they had really long lines.

Star Wars Nite Strategy

If you’re into meeting characters, you should start your night by lining up for your highest priority one at least 30 minutes in advance. You can line up earlier, but there’s diminishing returns–especially if you’re not an Annual Passholder and would otherwise be enjoying Disneyland. Character lines can get long during the event, so waiting now means not having to wait later.

If you’re not into characters or they’re low-priority, you should start with the 1-2 punch of “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga” and “A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey,” both of which are held in the courtyard in front of the Millennium Falcon. Shadows of Memory is fantastic, but it’s not party-exclusive. You also want to arrive 30 minutes early for this, as the courtyard does fill up in advance of showtime.

You can also do either of these things at the tail end of Star Wars Nites. There’s another “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga” and “A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey” showtime at the end of the night, so you can finish with that if you start with characters. Or you can finish with characters if you start with the shows.

If Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is something you want to experience, consider doing it around official park closing. It’s technically open during Star Wars Nite, but frequently closes halfway into the event. It also is still breakdown prone. When I passed Rise of the Resistance at around 8:30 p.m., it had a posted 30 minute wait and I saw no line outdoors–so it probably wasn’t even that long. It was closed by 11 p.m.

Nothing else really requires strategy, at least from what I experienced. I have heard people mention Mobile Order time slots, but there was no food that was must-eat for me. I ended up waiting ~5 minutes in line at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree for a “Porg” Belly Sandwich. It was absolutely fantastic. I have less than zero interest in merchandise, so I can’t speak to that at all.

Is Star Wars Nite Worth It?

In the interest of transparency, I should disclose a couple of things. The first is that we were invited guests of Disneyland, and thus did not pay for these tickets. You might want to weigh our opinions accordingly or take this review with a grain of salt. I’d like to think the review is fair and wouldn’t differ had we paid out of pocket, but you can be the judge of that.

Perhaps the more damning disclosure is that we are not diehard Star Wars fans and, as such, realistically wouldn’t have paid to attend this particular Disneyland After Dark in the first place. To be clear, we don’t dislike Star Wars–we’re just casual. We’ve watched the original trilogy more than once, and the Disney movies 1-2 times each, as well as all seasons of The Mandalorian.

But after that, we fell off. Not for the reasons some angry fans cite–I’m not on some moral crusade against Star Wars or whatever. We just feel that the quality has been scattershot in the Disney+ era. (I feel the exact same way about Marvel.) I do kind of wonder how Kathleen Kennedy is still employed given the recent output and cancelled projects, so perhaps that does make me a diehard fan after all!

Anyway, Star Wars Nites is very clearly aimed at the most hardcore fans. I would take that a step further and say that it’s aimed at a specific type of the most hardcore fans: cosplayers. 

This is not to say that you couldn’t have fun if you’re not a Star Wars cosplayer. You can. I’d actually take that a step further and say that even casual guests can have a fantastic time at Star Wars Nites. But the target demographic is quite obviously and undeniably cosplayers. Everyone else won’t get as much out of Star Wars Nites.

To get the most mileage out of the Star Wars Nites, you will absolutely want to dress in costume. And most guests did! I felt a little out of place wearing my ’84 Los Angeles Olympics sweatshirt, even though I shouldn’t have; it’s a rad sweatshirt. Beyond dressing for the occasion, you really should have a lightsaber. That’s almost mandatory. Thankfully, we did have one of these thanks to our past experience doing Savi’s Workshop for Handbuilt Lightsabers (which we highly recommend).

Star Wars Nites is like a park-wide version of the ‘Live Your Own Star Wars Adventure’ slogan for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Which is to say that this event is oriented around guests, and giving you the chance to be an active participant in Star Wars fun, festivities, and fandom.

For these guests, Star Wars Nites is bound to be a ton of fun, as it offers the opportunity to immerse themselves in all things Star Wars with fellow fans, take a ton of photos with cool backdrops and characters.

The event also has a palpable energy, and there’s excitement amongst the audience. There’s something to be said for communal experiences like this, and Star Wars Nites reminds me of the D23 Expo–which I absolutely adore as a hardcore Disney fan–from that perspective. At least, that’s the charitable framing.

Less charitably, Star Wars Nites is a guest-centric event because almost none of the entertainment can stand on its own from a passive perspective. Meaning that if you’re just hoping to sit back and enjoy entertainment, you’re going to be disappointed. Almost none of it works unless you’re an active participant.

Honestly, I’m not even sure it works from that angle unless you’re a kid (or kid at heart?). The Lightsaber Instructional, for example, isn’t even as good as Jedi Training Academy (RIP) and feels like its target demo is elementary school aged kids, despite attendees and participants skewing my age. Then there’s the costume cavalcade, which is about the saddest cavalcade ever. It’s basically just a bunch of guests walking to Sleeping Beauty Castle while being led by a car with Minnie & Mickey. No one will enjoy watching this–it’s all about the group photo at the end.

This is a sharp contrast to Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party, which is the gold standard of events at Disneyland Resort. As someone who is both a casual Star Wars enthusiast and a casual Halloween enthusiast (meaning we don’t decorate and didn’t wear costumes when it was just the two of us), I view Oogie Boogie Bash as head-and-shoulders superior to Star Wars Nites. Now that is a strong event, and one we have paid to attend every single year it’s been offered.

The one good piece of entertainment that’s unique to Star Wars Nites is “A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey.” This is a relatively straightforward and simple Resistance vs. First Order scene, the kind of brief story moment originally planned to occur night in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

It culminates in the many guests with lightsabers activating them to help defeat the First Order. The guests are what really make this punch above its weight and turn it into something special. Otherwise, at any other hard ticket event, it’d be a minor entertainment offering.

My biggest frustration with Star Wars Nite, as a whole, is that there’s next-to-nothing that couldn’t be happening nightly in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or daily during Season of the Force. Aside from the costume cavalcade and chance to cosplay in the park with tons of other guests, there’s nothing here that feels like it necessitated a hard ticket event. And even the participatory angle was already done better a decade ago during the (free) Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

However, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to dismiss Star Wars Nites as an offering only for hardcore fans who want an evening oriented around them and immersing themselves in the fandom.

Star Wars Nites is also a good event for casual guests who couldn’t care less about Star Wars and just want a low crowds night in the park. Basically, when viewed as Disneyland After Dark with a light layer of Star Wars stuff on top, that’s best enjoyed in passing or at arm’s length.

From my perspective, what made Star Wars Nite cool was seeing all of the other guests and the energy they gave off–not participating in any of that, myself. It was an opportunity to experiencing Disneyland with very low crowds (minus Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) and incredibly short lines (minus the Star Wars rides).

Pretty much every ride was a walk-on during the date we did Star Wars Nites, from Matterhorn to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The worst wait times I saw for a regular ride was Peter Pan’s Flight, and even that was only 10 minutes.

If you want to do rides with short lines, Star Wars Nites makes a lot of sense. You could easily get more done during the 7 hours of ticket validity than during regular operating hours on the same day during Star Wars Nites. With event tickets costing less than $30 more than 1-day tickets, I would absolutely recommend this Disneyland After Dark event over a regular day in the park (especially since Lightning Lane Multi-Pass isn’t offered–the lack of that bridges the gap).

This is really where all of the Disneyland After Dark (or After Hours at Walt Disney World) events are winners from my perspective. They are all superior to a regular day in the park, and offer a quasi-VIP experience with short wait times and no need to hassle with Lightning Lanes. In fact, the argument could be made that this event is almost akin to Lightning Lane Premier Pass, which is much more expensive.

Ultimately, Star Wars Nites strikes me as a worthwhile hard ticket event for hardcore fans who have disposable income and want to ‘live their own Star Wars adventure,’ be immersed in a fandom-centric experience, and come home with tons of cool photos. The party has a great vibe, and the energy alone probably makes it highly appealing to fans who want to actively engage.

It’s not a good event–at all–for those who aren’t into participatory offerings and want to enjoy passive entertainment. The best thing on that front is “A Gathering of the Resistance with Rey,” and even that isn’t that good. Other offerings are cute, like the Cantina Band floating around the Rivers of America, but they’re so fleeting (less than 5 minutes for a set) that they’re barely a blip on the radar.

As locals and Annual Passholders, unique entertainment and other worthwhile offerings distinct from day-to-day Disneyland experiences is mostly what we wanted out of Star Wars Nite. Honestly, I walked away incredibly underwhelmed. But I recognize that not everyone is us, and this Disneyland After Dark event will hold a lot more appeal for tourists, infrequent visitors, and others.

At the other end of the spectrum, Star Wars Nites can be great as a Disneyland After Dark event for casual guests who want low congestion & crowds, short lines & wait times. Guests who might like seeing the Star Wars stuff from afar, but aren’t there for it.

Rather, they’re there for the rides, first and foremost. So whether you’re a Star Wars diehard or a casual guest who doesn’t know a Wookie from a Wampa, this event could be worth your time and money. Definitely not if you’re into enjoying entertainment, though. Stick to Oogie Boogie Bash for that.

Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Are you excited for Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite ? Excited or disappointed about the entertainment and other offerings? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!