The Force is Strong in This One: SWW and Celebration VI, Disney Done Differently

[lovethattink]

The Force is Strong in This One
Disney Done Differently​

Ask DS(8) what his favorite season is? Without hesitation, he will exclaim, Star Wars Season!!! What?! You didn't know there was a Star Wars Season? This year the season was weekends May 18th to June 10th. Yes!! That's right, Star Wars Weekend 2012!


All four of us are Disney loving, Star Wars Enthusiasts! But the biggest Star Wars fan is the littlest member of our family. At times it seems like his whole life revolves around Star Wars.

Our family "does" Disney differently because DS(8) who is affectionately known as Anakin in the other thread has multiple health concerns and cannot "do" Disney as most other people "do". His pace is slower, days don't usually start early, heat needs to be avoided as much as possible, over exertion needs to be avoided, in addition, his 5 senses are magnified, loud noises/bright lights are painful to him.

By now you may be wondering how on earth can we attend Star Wars Weekends and have any fun? We can and we do!! Star Wars weekends is a total of 12 days!! We try to go for a little each day. All 12 didn't happen, but we did get there 9 of the 12 days!! We didn't get to do or see everything, but everything we did see and do was so much fun! There was so much magic and pixie dust along with Storm Troopers and Jedi. I hope you'll stick around to see all that the Disney magic and Star Wars excitement created!!

Anakin, our little Jedi. His favorite Star Wars character is Boba Fett.

Myself (Usually answers to Tink or Michelle), DH (Goofy on the other thread, so we'll stick with it) and Anakin

DS(18) and Anakin (Grumpy on the other thread. He's not Grumpy. He loves wearing Grumpy shirts and collects Grumpy mugs and glasses)

 

[lovethattink]

Celebration VI August 23 - 26​

Day 1 - August 23rd - Part 1​

​

Day 1 - Part 2 - Jawa Customizing with Pat (Family Room)​

)

Day- 1 - Part 3 - Face Painting/SCAD drawings/Star Wars Origami with Chris Alexander/Lunch ​

Day 1 - Part 4 - Autographs/Shoot A Trooper/Bullied Panel/ Japanese Star Wars Vegetable Carving/More Family Room​

Day 1 - Part 5 Shoot A Trooper/End of Day 1 ​

Day 2 - Family Room, Panels, Dee Bradley Baker​

Day 2 - Part 1 - Family room, Zac Jensen,

Day 3 - Part 1 Autographs/Family Room/Panels​

Week 1​

Day 1 - Opening Day - May 18th

Day 2 - Skipped

Day 3 - Darth Mall Shopping - Hyperspace Hoopla​

Week 2​

Day 4 - Part 1: Helicopters/Fire/Road Closures​

Day 4 - Friday Part 2: Characters, Hoopla, Sci Fi Dine In​

Day 5 - Part 1 - Stars of the Saga​

Day 5 - Part 2 - Characters and Hoopla​

Day 6 - Part 1 - Characters​

Day 6 - Part 2 ​

Carbon Freeze Me​

Carbon Freeze Me Arrived!!​

More Carbon Freeze Me Pictures​

Week 3​

Day 7 - Skipped​

Day 8 - Skipped​

Day 9 - Evening​

Week 4​

Day 10- Part 1 - Room Upgrade​

Day 10 - Part 2 - SWW

Day 11 - Part 1 - Celebrity Fastpass - Darth Vader​

Day 11 - Part 2 - Boba Fett​

Day 11 - Part 3 - Captain Rex/Shaak Ti/Kit Fisto​

Day 11 - Part 4 - Dark Side, Light Side, or Lunch? Yes​

...

Day 11 - Part 5 - Jedi Mickey​

Day 11 - Part 6 - The Mask​

Day 11 - Part 7 - Forgot to post this M&G - Asajj Ventress​

Day 12 - Part 1 - First Family?​

Day 12 - Part 2 - Meeting Celebrities and a Minute of Fame​

Day 12- Part 3 - Roaming and Staying Cool​

Day 12 - Part 4 - Those Eyes​

Day 12 - Part 5 - Padawan Mind Challenge​

 

[blessedmom4]

I am sitting here on the phone on hold and signed on and saw your siggie when I was reading your kind message on our TR! WOOHOO another TR!!!

Your photopass CD must have arrived, I am LOVING the pics!!!! Prayers for DH, is it the job??

 

[lovethattink]

I

You! LOL. Welcome Judy!!

 

[lovethattink]

I am sitting here on the phone on hold and signed on and saw your siggie when I was reading your kind message on our TR! WOOHOO another TR!!!

Well that was odd. At first your post just said, I.

Yes, I just added it to the siggie. Did you see the pictures I added to the first post? I just added them. Love photopass!!

 

[lovethattink]

Friday May 18th, Opening Day!!

We were so excited for this day to arrive. We went to bed the night before with plans to get moving right away after Anakin's 6am dose of medication. I got up and showered. Tried to wake up dh and Anakin to no avail. So what's a girl to do?!

I get on the DIS to see if there are any updates on Star Wars Weekend Tips 2012 thread. Caught up on the thread and went back to wake everyone up. Grumpy decided to pass since he had to coach football practice in the afternoon. Goofy got up and ready. Anakin did not budge. So I changed my tactics.

Me: "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey..."
Anakin: (nothing)
Me: Do you know what your going to do today?
Anakin: Star Wars Weekend!!!!!!!!!
Me: Yes
Anakin: Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!

According to the first picture, we arrived at 9:42AM. We were parked all the way in the back of the right side of the parking lot. Can't remember the name of that lot. We got the w/c out of the car and started walking. Parking lot traffic was busy with cars going both directions. The parking lot attendant told us to walk inside the tram lane. Yes!! That's right, not a typo, INSIDE the tram lane. Usually they emphatically enforce staying BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE. Today they have us walking on the INSIDE, in the "forbidden zone".

When the tram past by us, we were to stay between the yellow line and the red poles.

After the long trek to the entrance, we had to get Anakin in the air conditioning. So we walked through the stores once we entered the park. We were too late in the morning for the Storm Trooper show at the entrance. Goofy said we should go straight to Darth Mall. We expected it to be crowded.

We got in line.

Until a CM came up to us to announce it would be a 1 to 2 hour wait to enter.

There was no way we could chance standing outside that long with Anakin, it was starting to get hot out! We ducked back into the stores to cool off.

BYW, if you are an NBC fan, there are some awesome things inside the villians store. The candy smelled sooooo good too, as we walked through that store.

With plans awry from getting there too late, we held a quick conference under a tree deciding where to head next.

Goofy: What do you want to since the mall was so crowded?

Anakin: I'd like to see the characters. Do you think we can see Jedi Mickey?

Me: We can walk by to see how long the queue is. If it's too long who else do you want to see?

Anakin: Captain Rex.

Me: Remember the characters rotate, you see whoever is there.

Anakin: Ok.

The queue for the Fab 4 was an hour long. We skipped that and headed to the Clone Wars characters. Guess who was there when we got there? Commander Cody. Wait, no, now it's Captain Rex. We are this close to seeing Captain Rex...

When who comes back?

Commander Cody

To pass time waiting for characters Anakin ate some grapes and we put frozen waters around him to cool him off a bit. We knew we soon had to get him into the air conditioning again.

Which character did he see? Commander Cody? Captain Rex? Ahsoka? Asajj Ventress?

It was ...

Commander Cody.


Next stop...air conditioning. I think we went to the Muppet store to cool him down.

We saw it was almost time for the show Behind the Force! We decided to chance it and went in line. There wasn't much of a line. I think most people must have been lining the street for the motorcade, or maybe it's just there aren't that many Clone Wars fans? Either way, the queue was small. Our wait was in the shade. We got out the frozen water bottles again for Anakin. The line moved shortly after that, and so did the frozen water bottles. They fell on the ground.

If you haven't ever been to the Premier Theater for SWW, you need to know that the queue is across the street from the theater. They have to stop traffic in both directions to get the people into the theater. And I just created a gap in the line by stopping to pick up the water bottles. People behind me were not happy. People in the street were not happy that they were blocked from moving. So after I held up the line and apologized quickly we bolted off to the entrance.

Last year there was w/c parking right up front. So we headed there. There was a one seater and spot for the w/c so I sat there and parked Anakin. Goofy sat right behind us.

Anakin kept triggering his light saber. It was loud! So I passed it back to Goofy so it wouldn't bother anyone, just as the show began. Big mistake!!! Goofy was triggering them every time he moved. He clapped, and boy were there swooshing sounds of a light saber. He moved....Swoosh. He breathed...Swoosh. It was so embarrassing and annoying. So we tried to ignore it. S-W-O-O-S-H. Isn't there an off/on switch on a Gen. Grievous saber?

This is a show that demonstrated how voice actors match their voice to the animated character.

Demonstrating how to make alien noises

Enlisting the kids to help

Demonstrating how they get the voice to match the animation with the help from 2 members of the audience.

Before we leave the park, we see C3PO walking around. In fact, he played a game of peek a boo with us as we headed up the ramp from the pixar area to the GMR area. By the time I reached my phone to take a pic, he was heading into a door at the GMR.

Anakin couldn't wait to see him again. He couldn't wait to see C3PO and R2D2 at Darth Mall. Would that be possible? Will he see C3PO again?

11:55am, tired, overstimulated, and overheated we head to the exit of the park

Goofy and I felt bad for Anakin that we didn't get to do much. But our feeling badly was quickly gone, when Anakin once again declared today, in Phineas and Ferb style, TODAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!

 

[Lidian]

I am totally here! We haven't decided if we're doing SWW next year or not ... so I'll totally be sharing your post with DH so he can learn more about it!!

Glad that Anakin had the "best day ever!"

Waiting impatiently for more!!

 

[lovethattink]

I am totally here! We haven't decided if we're doing SWW next year or not ... so I'll totally be sharing your post with DH so he can learn more about it!!

Glad that Anakin had the "best day ever!"

Waiting impatiently for more!!

Welcome to both of you!! That would be awesome if you could go during SWW! Sometime around Dec or Jan they should announce the weekends.

 

[kaoden39]

I'm here!!

 

[lovethattink]

I'm here!!

Yay!! Welcome!

 

[disney212]

Doing SWW with our son next year and his soon to be fiance. Your son is adorable! Guess they are never to old for Star Wars.

 

[lovethattink]

Doing SWW with our son next year and his soon to be fiance. Your son is adorable! Guess they are never to old for Star Wars.

Welcome!

Thank you!

Never too old for Star Wars! There is a huge following of the Saga. Are you a fan too? Will this be your first SWW or have you all gone before?

 

[KatMark]

I'm here; my computer crashed and too hard on iPhone, so I'll be back tomorrow to catch up

 

[Dashzap]

Smart kid knows the glass is half full!

 

[lovethattink]

I'm here; my computer crashed and too hard on iPhone, so I'll be back tomorrow to catch up

Welcome!! Glad you are here!

Hope your computer problem isn't anything serious.

Smart kid knows the glass is half full!

Welcome!! So nice to see a VMK friend! I'm reading Kingdom Keepers II and all the VMK talk in the begining of the book makes me miss it!

Sometimes it takes a kid to put things in perspective for you!

 

[Millie12591]

What a great start to your Star Wars weekends!!

 

[lovethattink]

What a great start to your Star Wars weekends!!

Welcome! Great to see you Camille!

 

[JustRZ]

I love your trip reports!

As I was reading, my 4 year old DS, who is also Star Wars obsessed (as it the rest of our household), looked at the screen and said, "MOM, that boy is at Dis-i-ney, and he's holding a General Grevous lightsaber!!! He needs to be my best friend!!!" So I think it's safe to say that Jayne will be asking about his "Star Wars Dis-i-ney friend" quite a lot. It's so funny how kids just decide that they are friends with someone, even if they've never met

 

[mommy2mrb]

I'm hear! love all the PP pics! and love the TR title! Anakin is in his element and so happy you all got to do so many of the M & G and shows during your 9 days!!!

 

[cgncga]

The Force is Strong in This One
Disney Done Differently​

Our family "does" Disney differently because DS(8) who is affectionately known as Anakin in the other thread has multiple health concerns and cannot "do" Disney as most other people "do". His pace is slower, days don't usually start early, heat needs to be avoided as much as possible, over exertion needs to be avoided, in addition, his 5 senses are magnified, loud noises/bright lights are painful to him.

We'll be following along with your new report, too. Sounds like everyone had a gereat time. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your SWW adventures.

Like you, we have to do Disney differently, too--for a lot of the same type of health reasons. We just can't do it as frequently as your family can.

Catherine