The Disney Plus free trial is back (for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers)

From today until the 31st of January 2020, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can access 30 days of Disney Plus for free. It's perfect timing, with many Australians getting their hands on Microsoft's latest consoles, the powerful Xbox Series X and the digital Xbox Series S.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is a games subscription that gives Xbox users access to a digital library of over 100 games, as well as various perks and discounts. New subscribers can currently get their first month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1. Once subscribed, you need to navigate to the 'Perks Gallery' in the Xbox dashboard to claim your free trial.

It's the only way you can currently stream The Mandalorian online in Australia with a free trial and with Season 2 finally here, a month of Disney Plus free is a good bounty for Star Wars fans who have invested in one of Microsoft's next-gen consoles.

Now that the Disney Plus hype train has slowed to a crawl, we’d wager there’s nary an Australian out there that hasn’t taken the service for a whirl. But if you are one of the few that haven’t tried out the new streaming platform from the House of Mouse, there's not better time to check out the best TV series and movies it has on offer.

We’ve been subscribed since launch and can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, what’s worth your time and what’s not.

So let us guide you through your first week with Disney Plus.

Yarp. If you’re signing up to Disney Plus, chances are those Baby Yoda memes finally got to you and you’re looking to stream the original Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. That’s completely fair enough. It was the thing keeping us subscribed for the first eight weeks.

If you’re a Star Wars fan from a long, long time ago, you should have no problem whipping through the first season. It’s nine episodes long with run times varying from 36 to 44 minutes. All up, Season one will take you 5.38 hours (or 323 minutes to complete).

Now that’s a mighty task for your first day of streaming but we’re housebound at the moment so it doesn’t just seem doable, those are rookie numbers. If you absolutely must, you can probably split this one up into two days but that would be a coward’s move.

Early 2020, Disney dropped Frozen 2 early on its shiny new streaming service. Whether you’ve got kids or not, you might as well take advantage of the service by bingeing some of the latest flicks from the studio.

Speaking of, the 2019 remake of The Lion King and Pixar's Onward are also streaming if you missed them at the movies.

Even if you aren’t able to go outside, you can still take a trip down memory lane and remember what it was like with the outstanding documentary Free Solo. This rock-climbing doco isn’t just “good for Disney Plus,” it’s genuinely one of the most thrilling documentaries we’ve ever seen and it could offer some much-needed fitness inspiration while you’re in quarantine.

If you’re spending this quarantine like a hot-headed smuggler, Solo, why not revisit the timeless classic Home Alone. Culkin’s slapstick home security measures might not offer anything of use under quarantine but it might get those creative juices flowing.

Of course, in today’s climate the Wet Bandits’ home intrusion wouldn’t just be criminal, it would be downright irresponsible. Stay at home folks.

Alrighty, moving along at lightspeed as we jump back on the Star Wars sandcrawler. If you truly despised the Star Wars prequels, we’re here to tell you there’s an animated series that (almost) makes up for it. This prequel trilogy spin-off has been running for years now but was ultimately cancelled without a satisfying conclusion. That was until Disney Plus stepped up to the plate.

But how? I hear you ask. How am I expected to binge through seven seasons in a single week? You don’t.  Just watch a recap video of the events leading up to Season 7 and get it over and done with. Historically, the show’s quality hasn't been super consistent and there are really only a handful of story arcs you need to follow. Get yourself clued up and hop aboard for the series’ thrilling climax.

Oh my god, we’re running out of time. Okay, on to the sixth day. No, not that Sixth Day. Saturday, probably.

If you’ve got kids and a Disney Plus subscription, there’s no better way to show those little squirts what television was like back in your day with these Saturday Disney cartoons and kids’ movie classics.

On the TV side of things, you’ve The Simpsons, Recess, Spider-Man, X-Men, Darkwing Duck, even Adventures of the Gummi Bears. But if you really want to show them how hard cartoons used to rock, you’ve got to show them Gargoyles.

For movies, there’s a decadent feast of your most fondly-remembered films; Mighty Ducks, Mrs. Doubtfire, Cool Runnings, Blank Check, Mighty Joe Young, and of course, 90s animated classics, like Hercules, Aladdin, and early Pixar picks, like Toy Story and A Bug’s Life.

Take your pick.

On the seventh day, you’re going to want to make a list of missing movies from your Marvel and Star Wars repertoire.

Look, there’s just no way you will be able to binge every Marvel or Star Wars movie on the seventh day. But, it’s as good a time as any to start catching up.

I’m pretty sure nobody saw Thor 2: The Dark World when it first released. And the criminally underappreciated Iron Man 3 certainly didn’t fare much better.

We know for a fact that a lot of Star Wars fans noped out of seeing Solo in cinemas.

Take this time to catch up on some of the more under-loved entries in the world’s two biggest franchises.

Bonus Day 8: Sign up to another streaming service free trial and do it all again

Almost every streaming service in Australia offers a free trial, except for Netflix and Disney Plus. There’s no better time to take each service for a test drive to at least stream the most popular exclusives on offer. We’ve got round-ups for days here at Reviews.org so have a browse through our top picks to decide which free trials are worth your time.

• The best movies on Netflix
• The best TV shows on Netflix
• The best movies on Stan
• The best TV shows on Stan
• The best TV shows on Amazon Prime Video