Official Star Wars Weekends 2014 Tips and Tricks

[d-r]

1.Yes, no clue on Best's line so I'm imagining before 5 should be Ok
2. You can only get a wristband/fp for one actor a day. You can't get both
3. You can take a picture from the outside of the tent
4. same as answer 2. Only one wristband per day.

depending on the CM at the signing one of the adults *MAY* be allowed to forfiet their band and give it to the child. We've done this and it is usuallly fine but sometimes CMs are uptight about it so don't expect that you will be able to.

So what I'm saying is, one adult and the child gets a wristband for one celebrity, and adult B gets it for celebrity 2. Adult A and child go see celebrity 1, and adult B takes child to the queue for celebrity 2, Adult B tells the cm that he is forfeiting the band to the child, and child goes in to see celebrity 2.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

I'm actually sad that the only weekend we can't go (school commitments) is the first one, because the only non-rebels celebrity that I don't have an autograph of is the Jar Jar Binks guy, and we have an episode 1 poster with a lot of signs that I would like to add him to.

Since we can't go, I wonder if anyone would pick me up one of his signed cards, I will pick up one of whoever you want from a later weekend. You don't have to have a fast pass for the signed head shots.

Unfortunately I can't be of assistance since I won't be there until weekends 3 and 4, but how does that work with picking up signed head shots? Is that for the stand-by line, or what exactly?

I would love Ratzenberger's autograph (Hamm is one of my favorite Pixar characters, if not my favorite) but I want no part of that FP, line-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn business. TIA!

 

[southernfriedmom]

Was really wanting to do the new Feel the Force package but I can't figure out how to make it work. Hoping someone sees a solution I don't. We have our H&V F! dinner package scheduled for Friday which means we couldn't do F! and the dessert party because the reserved seating for F! with the pkg. has to be the 9pm correct? And then we have our SWW bkfast planned at 10:35am on Saturday which makes special parade viewing impossible. Then we head home Sunday afternoon so that's a no go. Any thoughts???

 

[mrstomrice]

Was really wanting to do the new Feel the Force package but I can't figure out how to make it work. Hoping someone sees a solution I don't. We have our H&V F! dinner package scheduled for Friday which means we couldn't do F! and the dessert party because the reserved seating for F! with the pkg. has to be the 9pm correct? And then we have our SWW bkfast planned at 10:35am on Saturday which makes special parade viewing impossible. Then we head home Sunday afternoon so that's a no go. Any thoughts???

I would do it Friday, Skip F! and save it for Saturday night. I don't think that seating will be an issue since the Symphony is the sky will be interfering.

 

[d-r]

Unfortunately I can't be of assistance since I won't be there until weekends 3 and 4, but how does that work with picking up signed head shots? Is that for the stand-by line, or what exactly?

I would love Ratzenberger's autograph (Hamm is one of my favorite Pixar characters, if not my favorite) but I want no part of that FP, line-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn business. TIA!

OK. think of the signing locations like tents. Not like a tet with walls but the kind of tent you set up for a sun shade.

Rarely they will put a celebrity inside, but they usually don't because they want guests to see the show as they walk by.

So the tent has a roped (well, not a rope really but those retractable band things) queue to the entrance side. The front, where the celibrity is facing, is barriered off. The other side is the exit.

So, to go in to the celibrity and have something signed you have to go to the cm at the head of the queue and show your wristband and fast pass for the time, and they'll let you in the queue to wait your turn.

But anybody can walk up front and take a gander or a picture.

There is one sort of exception to that, the stand that is on the side of echo lake that is closest to 50s prime time, dad's bar, hollywood and dine, that side, they will block off the line down there so you don't get as close to the front.

Anyway, the celebrities will spend some of their time autographing little white, I don't know cards about 5 x 7 or so, black and white photos that say "disney's hollywood studios star wars weekend" and the name, so like "Ahmed as Jar Jar". The celebrities will sign them and they'll leave them out for people that don't stan in line for fast passes. Some of them will sign a few some will sign a ton of them it kind of depends on the person. Basically, Disney is paying them for X number of autographs, some will just sign the total of X, some of them love the fans or whatever and will sign a ton.

Anyway, they'll leave those in the front or the cast members working the queue will have them in their pouches and you can ask them for one and they will give you one.

Here is one from Warwick Davis from the internet

My son is 10 now and he has been collecting those for years. He keeps them in a binder. For example, he used it for his cub scout collecting project a couple of years ago.

So I know he would like one to add.

I don't know maybe I shouldn't have written that on the internet, I don't want a bunch of people swamping the poor cast members. There are only so many.

EDITED to add -
OK here I think you can see it in these pictures.

OK the kids are standing between Daniel and the Barrier, here you can see the sort of desk/chair area they have:

Here, you Ashley is in front of the chair/table thing:

See that cast member behind them? That is the "exit" side. Go to that cast member and ask if you can have one of the pictures.

Now, this is that picture from the side, you can see the barrier in front of them. Anybody can come up to there and take a picture. So if your kid has a fast pass and you don't you can take their picture from there, for example.

In that one you can see the cast member at the exit side also. I don't think I have one of the queue side, sorry.

 

[southernfriedmom]

I would do it Friday, Skip F! and save it for Saturday night. I don't think that seating will be an issue since the Symphony is the sky will be interfering.

That was kind of what I was thinking but we have the F! package already booked & I can't change it to the regular character dinner. I just feel guilty about wasting the extra $. I guess since we will be on DDP, it's just a few extra dollars for the tip.

 

[mrstomrice]

That was kind of what I was thinking but we have the F! package already booked & I can't change it to the regular character dinner. I just feel guilty about wasting the extra $. I guess since we will be on DDP, it's just a few extra dollars for the tip.

That's what I would do. I would also keep watching for the non F! packages to open. I was able to snag an adr tonight after 2 weeks of trying. Book the Feel the Force before it sells out

 

[tink'smom2B]

We are going on the 23rd of May. How difficult will it be to see Jeremy Bulloch? Is it a sure thing that there won't be a way to get a fastpass online? Will getting there at 5:00 am guarantee us to meet him? He's been my son's favorite forever! This was a huge coincidence that he and his wife are able to come as they are both in the army. It just worked out for us in every way Now, we just have to make sure we get to meet Boba Fett

 

[d-r]

Yes, 5 should get you one. The thing is that weekend there aren't a lot of big names so Jeremy may be hit hard.

Warwick Davis will be the biggest line but Jeremy will be #2. It depends on how many people are motivated.

 

[junebug21981]

So, just wondering if the Feel the. Force package is new to this year or not? I already booked it bc it seemed like since you really get 2 things in 1 it would be worth it. Any ideas on this package?

 

[Itinkso]

So, just wondering if the Feel the. Force package is new to this year or not? I already booked it bc it seemed like since you really get 2 things in 1 it would be worth it. Any ideas on this package?

It's new for this year. There are quite a few people on the Roll Call who have booked it for the first weekend. I'm sure yulilin and others will report on it as soon as they can.

 

[karabeunso]

Last year Billy Dee Williams was signing indoors. No tent for him.

 

[horse11]

I tried to book feel the force for Friday the 16th already booked up. Missed an oppourtunity again. I did not see it posted until tonight. Guess I will have to seek out a spot for the parade 2 hours in advance UGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

 

[ladylyons]

Your dh and son are going to have an awesome time at SWW. You need to get the younger children use to seeing storm troopers, DV, DM, Chewbacca because they are big and can be intimidating. Maybe they know all about Star Wars from big bro? Darth Vader and Chewie are super tall like Goofy or the Beast. The Storm troopers and Darth Maul are intimidating. My ds was actually intimidated by Darth Maul and you know how he is about Star Wars.

I hope the vest works for SWW too. I'm in the process of working out details with First Aid and that is going well. I'm so glad mitomom pointed me in the direction of a cooling vest with "icepacks" that freeze with refrigeration.

Jeremy keeps talking about it at school and keeps getting into trouble. Guess I shouldn't have told him about all the people he's going to get to meet yet! His best friend also enjoys Star Wars but they aren't going until August so he's pretty jealous of Jeremy right now so we're thinking of finding something special to bring back for him. Sarah and James are a little leery of the characters but do fine as long as they don't have to stand next to them so I figure one of us will hold baby Jeffrey, one will hold James and then Sarah will stand on the far side of one of us. I need to find the picture but Jeremy has met Darth Vader before and absolutely loved it!! He walked up to him with his Star Wars cape on and light saber drawn and Vader took the light saber from him and closed it. Jeremy just looked at me and goes Mommy help me open it back up!! So I did and as soon as I opened it the storm troopers jumped back. It was a great interaction all around!! We are going to start re-watching all the movies next week after school so the younger one's get used to who's who and hopefully not be to scared to meet them. If they are then I guess it's just DH, Jeremy and baby Jeffrey that will be in the pictures. The baby already has no fear when we've met the Peanut's characters at our local park the last few weekends (we're going back Saturday so he'll get to meet more. ) They've also seen DV and DM during the Jedi training at DL so they kind of know what to expect there but Jeremy's the only one who's done Jedi Training but Sarah is talking about doing it at WDW so we'll see how she feels when the time comes (I'll sign her up for a spot if she says yes but won't force her to do it when the time comes and she get's to scared. But I'd rather her have a spot and back out than not have a spot and want to do it.) Jeremy doesn't get intimated by much, he actually prefers Darth Maul over Darth Vader!! He has gotten to defeat both of them at Jedi Training so I know he'll be good meeting them and that's the important part for me. As long as Jeremy and DH get to meet them I'm happy.

Glad to hear that the vest seems to be working and that your in contact with First Aid to find a way to keep the packs frozen. I can't wait to see all the fun things you guys do before we get to be there and meet you both!!

 

[SorcererDonald16]

d-r, thank you so much. This will be my 8th year at SWW (several of those years I've been on two different weekends), and I never knew that because I just don't do autographs due to the lines and not being that big of a Star Wars fan. I like Star Wars, but I am not a "super fan", so to speak. I didn't even know you could get that close to so many of the tents to take pictures. I always figured they would shoo people away for security.

I hope I can get one of John. That would be an unexpected treat for sure. TY again!

 

[Ferrentinos]

That was kind of what I was thinking but we have the F! package already booked & I can't change it to the regular character dinner. I just feel guilty about wasting the extra $. I guess since we will be on DDP, it's just a few extra dollars for the tip.

We switched things around and had to book a F! package to do the Feel the Force - we are just sucking it up that we won't be able to see F! and just keep checking the dining reservations for a cancelation for a regular character dinner. Good luck!

 

[yulilin3]

I'm actually sad that the only weekend we can't go (school commitments) is the first one, because the only non-rebels celebrity that I don't have an autograph of is the Jar Jar Binks guy, and we have an episode 1 poster with a lot of signs that I would like to add him to.

Since we can't go, I wonder if anyone would pick me up one of his signed cards, I will pick up one of whoever you want from a later weekend. You don't have to have a fast pass for the signed head shots.

You can go to the information desk any weekend and ask for the celebrity picture pre signed from weekends that have passed.... not sure if you can actually ask for ones for celebs still to come, but I've gotten every one from the people that have already been there

 

[SorcererDonald16]

You can go to the information desk any weekend and ask for the celebrity picture pre signed from weekends that have passed.... not sure if you can actually ask for ones for celebs still to come, but I've gotten every one from the people that have already been there

Oh, that is helpful! Where is the information desk located? TIA.

 

[lovethattink]

Oh, that is helpful! Where is the information desk located? TIA.

Traditionally, it's been located in front of Sounds Dangerous.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Traditionally, it's been located in front of Sounds Dangerous.

Thank you! All the times I have been, and yet I feel clueless right now about all this. I usually just saw the parade, sometimes part of Hoopla, and visited the merch locale; otherwise I stuck to my normal DHS routine.

I did see one show before-- Anthony Daniels' one man show a few years back. Oh my, the ego.