We attended the 8/27 dessert party; we're a family of 5: me, DH, and 3 DDs (13, 9, and 8) We were at DHS that entire day, from rope drop on. We got to Launch Bay later than I wanted, so we could squeeze in a meet with Mickey and Minnie. Probably right around the posted opening time, but 15 minutes after the party actually opened. All of the tables in the main dessert area were taken; DH and I jumped into what I thought was a VERY slow moving drink line, while the kids grabbed food and went in search of a table. This gave me a pretty sour first impression. But, they found a table in the Cantina, right at the top of the stairs by the Nutella station, and right next to the game room. There was a bench in the game room that remained open for quite a long time (I was surprised how long it stayed open, actually), but those of us set up at Cantina tables were just sitting on the floor against the walls, watching the Jawas and eating and drinking. The kids ate their first round of treats, then started playing the video games. Once DH and I got our first drinks (2 each) and first round of food, we sent them to meet Chewbacca (the wait was still posted as 30 minutes, but they were through in less than 1/2 that time), as we had done the VISA meet with Kylo earlier in the day. Our spot turned out to be great -- we could see when the drink line was shortest, and DH would go grab 2 more drinks each time he noticed it going down. We grabbed the to go cups and filled them with our drinks before heading out to the fireworks location. I think I had 4 or 5 in me by the time we walked out.
We were definitely towards the back of the group walking out, and at one point the line of people got broken up, and we weren't sure we were going through the right path, but a CM appeared out of no where and pointed us to the walkway we should use. Because we were towards the back, we didn't have to wait too long for them to open the front area to kids. The kids were all told to sit down and stay seated, except my oldest (13) was told she had to stand in the back of that section. She wasn't happy -- her feet were aching and all she wanted was to sit at that point. I'm guessing that the CM pegged her as being technically too old for the section (they opened it to kids 10 and under), and thought she was being nice by letting her stay with her sisters. I didn't even try to get to the back of the area -- I stayed just to the left of the front space. So, up against the front rope, but way over to the left of the viewing area. I couldn't really see the left screen, but everything else was perfect, as I had that main walkway right in front of me as a buffer.
I think the dessert party was worth it, but it wasn't as good a value as the early morning magic at MK (which we also did). I think having to pay the adult price for our oldest hurt the overall value, since she obviously couldn't do any drinking (she doesn't even like the non-alcoholic stuff Disney has, just drinks water), but the kids definitely ate their share (we have at least 50 of those skewers at home now, since they went to town on the grapes). I wasn't able to try everything, but what I did try was good, and some things (like the Nutella) were great. Watching the jawas was fun, too. And there were a few times when they weren't interacting with other families when they would come over and start interacting with those of us who were camped out in the room, which was fun. We also had good interaction with Stormtroopers while there -- when I asked one if he was trying to steal my drink, I got an "Affirmative" which cracked the CM up. Would I do it again? Maybe, but there are enough other extras to try at Disney that it won't be on the top of the list for a while.
Oh - and Yullin - feel free to use any portion of this that you think is useful.