Here’s Why You’ll Want to Time Your Disneyland Trip During This Specific Window in 2025

Disneyland recently released its full 2025 special events calendar so that guests can have a full picture of what to expect during the year for their planning.

2025 includes a number of great special events, and if you are planning a visit at any point during the year you are bound to be at the parks during one of these. However, there is a particularly exciting overlap that combines two of my favorite special events running at once!

These two seasonal events bring some exciting offerings that add even more value to a typical park experience. Keep reading for why you'll want to plan your Disneyland trip during this specific window in 2025…

This Is One of the Best Times to Visit in 2025

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While certain events are resort-wide like the Halloween and Christmas celebrations at Disneyland, other special events at Disneyland are unique to a specific park. Two of the best seasonal celebrations at Disneyland overlap during Spring at Disneyland.

The Disney California Food & Wine Festival starts February 28 and runs through April 21, while the Season of the Force celebration at Disneyland Park begins March 28 and runs through May 11, meaning that the two share about half a month of overlap.

You'll get a lot out of your trip beyond the typical park experience if you visit during this time! These two festivals have something for everyone to enjoy. Visiting during a special event like the Food & Wine Festival is a great move especially if you are visiting with someone who is a reluctant Disney visitor. This period in April is a great time for a multi-day trip especially if you want to time your visit around some of the bookable/separately-ticketed experiences that happen during these special events, which we will talk more about below.

Disneyland's Season of the Force celebration this year brings some exciting offerings like the new nightly projection show “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga,” telling the story of the Skywalkers with a musical score made up of themes heard throughout the Skywalker Saga films.

The celebration features the return of Hyperspace Mountain, themed foods, an assortment of novelties (see the Jabba the Hutt popcorn bucket from last year pictured below), special merchandise, and more. We also know that Disney will be adding new projections to the Fire of the Rising Moons fireworks experience in Galaxy's Edge during the celebration which is another great reason to visit during this time! You can see our review of the Galaxy's Edge fireworks and why we recommend it.

One especially exciting element of this celebration for Star Wars fans last year was the debut of live-action Sabine Wren from Star Wars: Rebels at the parks, part of a bigger move that Disney has been making to fix the biggest mistake of Galaxy's Edge.

This year, another rare character will be coming to Batuu for the celebration! Disney has teased that Luke Skywalker will be appearing, a huge move in fixing the biggest problem of Galaxy's Edge. We hope that they continue this trend of softening the rigid timeline of the land (and hopefully featuring these characters on a more permanent basis).

Over at Disney California Adventure, the Food & Wine Festival is a fan-favorite special event that shares some overlap with Season of the Force during April. If you're starting off your day in Disneyland Park enjoying the Star Wars offerings, you can park hop over to Disney California Adventure in the afternoon for lunch (and/or dinner) to enjoy the various festival marketplaces throughout the park offering limited-time food and drink offerings. There will be ten Food & Wine Festival marketplaces this year including two with new themes!

This festival brings the return of Soarin' Over California for a special run and features special entertainment as well as unique bookable culinary experiences. Some of the coolest experiences are the ones offered at the Disneyland Resort hotels, including a fun mixology class at Trader Sam's where you can make a classic tiki drink in the atmosphere of this best Disneyland restaurant.

If you really want to go all out during a trip during this time of year, you could book one of these hotel classes or one of the wine and beer seminars offered, and there will also be a few Star Wars Nite party nights during this time (see dates for Star Wars Nites in our guide) as well! All of these add great value on top of your typical park experience. You can read about our experience at Star Wars Nite for an idea of what to expect!

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A few things to keep in mind if you're visiting during this time of year—this period of April does include the height of Spring Break crowds as you will see reflected in our predicted crowd levels in our Disneyland crowd calendar. There are still ways you can manage the parks when they are crowded like utilizing a solid Disneyland morning strategy or closing out the parks in the evening, but this is something to keep in mind if you would rather visit during a quieter time. You will also be missing the start of Disneyland's 70th anniversary celebration by a few weeks, but it is planned to run through the summer of 2026 so there will be plenty of time to visit and enjoy those special offerings.

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