Official Star Wars Weekends Thread Tips and Tricks 2015

[HCinKC]

As an invested fan, I disagree that sww are for more invested sw fans. But I can't claim to have any idea what motivates this decision.

Oh yeah, I know other people like it, and some who maybe don't still go because someone in their family does (and I'm sure they enjoy themselves!). I think what I mean is that Disney hopes to draw in people (fans of SW) who might make different (possibly cheaper) plans or who may not otherwise even visit WDW. We sure overheard plenty of people who didn't even know it was happening until they were in the middle of it. We (and obviously most of the folks on this thread) planned a trip specifically for it. If we weren't fans, if ODS especially was not such a huge fan, we would never have gone. We would have chosen a cooler, less crowded time of year. So, we would still go to WDW, but they definitely got more money out of us because of this event.

 

[Skywise]

Oh yeah... it's Friday... Memorial Day is throwing me off...

T minus 1 week.
(Technically T minus 6 days as I'm going to that place that shall not be named first. )

 

[Felipe4]

I got my R2D2 shirt in the mail! I'll be there Weekend IV Friday and Sunday celebrating DH bday, if you want to say hi! Is everyone still wearing their buttons? Looking forward to meeting all of you helpful dis'ers who have helped me plan! I'll pick one up on my way into park.View attachment 99652

I *almost* got that shirt! But then I realized I needed to Disneybound as more princesses, so I'm doing Jasmine with a blue Star Wars/Tangled shirt.

 

[williamscm3]

So is the day before your trip when cancelations will pop up the most? I'll keep an eye on my phone then! Maybe I can catch one or two on Thursday 6/4 for weekend IV.

I set up DiningBuddy alerts to find our breakfast on May 22 and never turned them off once we booked. My phone seriously went off at least 4 times from 8:00 to midnight the day before! This may not happen every time obviously but check often if you can the day before if your looking for any reservations!

 

[itsthatdisneygirl]

Ok so far my favorite has been the Galactic Breakfast again for a second year in a row.
And my least favorite....No Hoopla the fireworks are awesome I just don't see why they can't have both

 

[Arich01]

I want the Boba Fett stein so bad. I hope their still available Sunday, oh and a cool looking SW ball cap.

I too am hoping to snag a SW hat! If for whatever reason you don't get that elusive stein, I'd be happy to grab one next weekend (if they have them) and ship it to you after we get back home.

 

[mesaboy2]

For Baymax watchers, line is 15 people deep with 1 hour still before his first set.

Probably 40 deep now at 10:00a.

 

[lovingeire]

This is strange and hopefully we are worrying over nothing but is anyone here actual, real life friends with @ConnieB ? I sent her a pm but she hasn't answered. We haven't seen the twins at all and she hasn't posted here since Celebration. Just hope it's nothing bad. Kinda worried at this point

I have been wondering as well. She seemed to disappear after celebration but was super active prior for as long as I can remember!

All this talk about t-shirts.... Yesterday, I stopped in Kohls and in the boys clearance section they had 6 different SW designs! I got 3 shirts at $1.80 each and 1 for $3.40!!!! $1.80 y'all!!!!!!

And now I feel the need to go to Kohls! (Even though we are all packed and ready to go in 3 days!)

Well it's a good thing I changed everything over to Sunday for SWW because I'm suffering from a massive combo of sinus head ache and allergy issue this morning. Being on the ball when packing and knowing what works, I packed my meds for this so I should be good in time for a hotdog and fries at Casey's at MK and the following FP: Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
2:45 PM - 3:05 PM, Wishes nighttime spectacular 9:35 PM - 9:55 PM and Main Street Electrical Parade 10:30 PM - 10:50 PM. In all the times I have been, I have never seen the Festival of Fantasy Parade or Main Street Electrical Parade. T

Hope you feel better soon! The Featival of Fantasy parade is great IMO. Just saw it for he first time in Feb on my princess half girls trip as we are not ally at the resort for midday break during the 3oclock parade, but it's totally worth checking out!

We ate at Pizza Planet on Saturday maybe 12:30ish. It was definitely crowded, but I found a table with the kids while DH got in line to order. He waited probably half an hour. The line was continuously filling in behind him, but it probably stayed around a half hour wait. I was actually pretty surprised at how quickly they were moving it. We sat on the main floor, and they were getting tables cleaned off pretty quickly, too. All in all, it took us about an hour to eat. I didn't think that was too bad considering prime lunch time on a Saturday during a special event.

That's awesome! And encouraging because my boys always want to eat at Pizza Planet.

Waiting in line for as Sci-Fi and people are coming out with light sabers.

This is encouraging. Fingers crossed there will be ligntsabers next weekend!

 

[yulilin3]

As an invested fan, I disagree that sww are for more invested sw fans. But I can't claim to have any idea what motivates this decision.

Any guess is good at this point. No clue why

The fireworks were amazing! Definitely my favorite nighttime show I've seen at any of the Disneys. I also really liked RH. Being unsure of what to expect weekend 1, it was great!

I was a bit disappointed by unique Mall merch. I didn't see anything that I wanted for myself. I liked some of the HU stuff, but I can get that on her website. Plus, I noticed a lot of the merch was located in other stores around HS. However, my true least favorite part was...leaving! I envy locals who can go at a more leisurely pace. I tried to take in all of ODS's reactions, but it gets so hard when trying to get the pictures, keep moving to get it all in, and we went all three days! It would be great to have it spread out, even over two weekends would help. Yet another reason I'm thinking of a trip for just the two of us in 2017. Lots of time to think...

I was dissapointed in the merchandise as well. Just seemed very generic

Ok so far my favorite has been the Galactic Breakfast again for a second year in a row.
And my least favorite....No Hoopla the fireworks are awesome I just don't see why they can't have both

I miss Hoopla as well.

 

[Skywise]

I set up DiningBuddy alerts to find our breakfast on May 22 and never turned them off once we booked. My phone seriously went off at least 4 times from 8:00 to midnight the day before! This may not happen every time obviously but check often if you can the day before if your looking for any reservations!

I'm using ******** but not for the galactic breakfast (already got that). I'm surprised though because I went for Christmas week this last year and I was getting all sorts of hits for Ohana and BoG and a couple of other places weeks and days before. But I haven't gotten one bleep for Ohana or Beaches and Cream now for almost 2 months solid! (I've been checking manually too). Either people are more set in their schedules or my weekend is just going to be a mess... But it's gonna thunderstorm the whole trip so.. I've got that going for me...

Edit -- Oh you can name YOUR place but my place gets blocked... fine!

 

[yulilin3]

Oh, hey look a DPB post about SWW, they haven't forgotten about us
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...ake-you-as-close-to-the-force-as-you-can-get/

 

[williamscm3]

My favorites this year were the character interactions and the dessert party!My son had the BEST time meeting all his favorite characters!





My least favorite thing was the rotating lines. I know that's kind of inevitable but it sucks when your so close to meeting who you want to and they leave. Some CM's were super nice about it and tried to accommodate people, but one particular Luke/Leia CM was just downright rude! I also wish that Vader and Boba Fett signed at breakfast. We saw Boba Fett again on our last day and got his autograph but never had the time to stand in Darth Vaders line for him to sign. With how much the breakfast costs it would be nice if it was included.

 

[jennab113]

This morning I was successful meeting Vader first thing and then Padme, then riding Star Tours stand by. I've tried to get in line for Maul twice, but the line is always closed and the guy running it is rude. So I'm giving up on him. I mostly was just trying to get the AP poster signed for my BFF's boys.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

This is another one of those "don't kill the messenger"

I've been told by inside sources (you guys know I will not divulge them so you can take it as rumor until confirmed) that this will be the last year for Disney/SW characters to meet and greet. They might stay for the Jedi Mickey dinner next year but this will be the last year for Jedi Mickey, Minnie Organa, Stormtrooper Donald, Darth Goofy and Chipwoks to meet and greet guests outside the dinner.
Apparently Lucas doesn't want to cross breed the brands.
I guess at this point it's a wait and see until next year. I hope it's not true or they change their minds because it's a great way to use both brands but after the cancelling of Hyperspace Hoopla, the lack of Disney/Star Wars characters in the finale show it seems like the next step to take.

I don't think that at all. Lucas does still have a voice, and we all know how...specific that voice can be. I think they want to keep it separate because it is, really, an entirely different "world". I would feel confident in a guess that most SW fans do not care about Disney. In fact, when Disney bought the franchise, many SW fans were horrified at what might come. I think Disney is trying to protect their investment, also a wise business plan. I see nothing wrong with not mixing the two. To be fair, I also don't see anything wrong with having the core Disney guys dressed up for a special event. They do it in a respectful, not silly, manner. I also think it is a more comfortable m&g opportunity for some kids, but I suppose that is not the point of SWW. It is presumably for more invested fans. And maybe Disney thinks "true" SWWeekenders probably primarily care about "actual" characters. For us, we only did the dinner for ODS who loves anything SW. DH and I couldn't have cared less about Jedi Mickey. Fun, bet nothing we would ever wait for. Nothing against adults who love the Disney guys. We just don't.

I agree -- if they make this call, it's because they think it's the best way to safeguard the SW brand -- and it wouldn't hurt the Disney brand at all. They'd be insane to sell the franchise; don't think that would be the impetus. While I do think some attend SWW SPECIFICALLY to "meet" Darth Vader or Boba Fett, I doubt many people SPECIFICALLY attend just to meet Jedi Mickey. We did the dinner because it was new to us and the kids thought they were cute. As cute as the SW/Disney characters are, if they weren't there, it would not affect our decision to go back to SWW in the least. Now if they took the "real" SW characters away, forget it. That said, I wonder how many die-hard SW fans are in some way put off by the mixed characters? I'd assume that if they do this, they have some market research to back it up.

If you think you can better protect one brand (SW) while not hurting the other brand in the process (Disney), seems like a reasonable thing to do, from a business perspective. I'm just not sure it "hurts" the SW brand to have mixed characters for 5 wks out of the year...

 

[williamscm3]

Probably 40 deep now at 10:00a.

Thank God we just so happened to visit last November the week Big Hero 6 came out! Their line was still long but nothing like it is now

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Probably 40 deep now at 10:00a.

Sounds like it's best to meet them on a weekday if you can.

We did last Tuesday and were second in line at 945 on a day so busy that tot had a 40 minute wait at 930.

Maybe people know they are leaving soon.

 

[Felipe4]

And now I feel the need to go to Kohls! (Even though we are all packed and ready to go in 3 days!)

I'm pretty much packed and I have 13 days until my flight. I had a pile of outfits set aside and just decided, screw it, I'm taking out a suitcase and putting them in!

 

[yulilin3]

This morning I was successful meeting Vader first thing and then Padme, then riding Star Tours stand by. I've tried to get in line for Maul twice, but the line is always closed and the guy running it is rude. So I'm giving up on him. I mostly was just trying to get the AP poster signed for my BFF's boys.

what do you mean "Maul line closed" in the evening you mean. From the MDE schedule it seems Maul is meeting all day

 

[HCinKC]

My least favorite thing was the rotating lines. I know that's kind of inevitable but it sucks when your so close to meeting who you want to and they leave. Some CM's were super nice about it and tried to accommodate people, but one particular Luke/Leia CM was just downright rude! I also wish that Vader and Boba Fett signed at breakfast. We saw Boba Fett again on our last day and got his autograph but never had the time to stand in Darth Vaders line for him to sign. With how much the breakfast costs it would be nice if it was included.

I agree. That is tough for kids especially! Some CMs didn't care if you were letting people in front of you, as long as the line kept moving without hold ups. I noticed a few were quite strict about it. If you are next, you are next, period. I also agree about the breakfast. I don't know why they don't just hand out a card at the front like they do at dinner. I know I've mentioned it a zillion times, but since DH didn't know to ask, ODS missed out on Vader's signature. They seem to have the cards, so I don't know why they don't just give them at the front.

 

[msmama]

I like the Disney SW characters and would be disappointed if they took them away completely, but I'm totally ok with having to pay for dinner to meet them. I was happy they were the first "SW" characters we saw because sometimes my son can be iffy with new characters. So to have some old favorites dressed as something new worked well for us. I feel like it's a nice way to keep it more "kid friendly" for the little ones who maybe haven't seen SW's yet (but who have SW loving parents or older siblings). Meeting Darth Goofy is VERY different from meeting Darth Vader!!

During the VIP tour I opted out of Star Tours and stood in a nice air conditioned spot outside of Tattoine Traders while the rest of the group rode. It was very obvious that about 95% of the people were there for SWW (were dressed in their SW gear). About another 2-3% you could tell that they knew it was SWW, but they didn't care about the SW's stuff. That last few percent though just looked totally confused - like who in the heck are these crazy people?!?! Granted Star Tours probably isn't the best place to get a truly random sense of the parks, but...

Also, while waiting near the theatre for SW shows, I saw maybe 4 people (over 2 days) come up and ask CM's when the next Beauty and the Beast show was going to be.