sorry this is long. I tend to rant when I think of SWW........My DS turned 5 when we went to SWW 2 years ago. He, DD9 and DH are HUGE SW fans. Like can quote most of the movies and I have to practically peal his Jedi costume from Halloween off him to get to wash it. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't wear his Jedi Robe and carry his lightsaber (that's DS not DH
), has SW toys, his fav video games are SW, etc. If we would let him change his name I'm sure it would be Luke. Sure of it.
Soooooo we went to SWW in 2010, hit 2 weekends 2 days on each. Crowded doesn't even start to explain it, it was horrible, I've been on full fledged holiday '10' days to the parks and it just didn't compare.DHS is small and compact with streets that seem buiser than they are most of the time anyway and SWW made it worse. DHS was packed, the advice of the other attractions will be slow b/c SW people will be doing SW stuff is a bunch of bologna too. Everywhere was packed. The 100 degree heat I have a feeling was driving even the die hard SW fans inside to attractions for breaks.
The charecter lines varied from 20 min to an hour, even early in the morning the popular ones were swamped, alot of them were out in the sun too. DS talked for months about meeting Vader we went there first (at RD getting TSM FP on the way) and 45 min later at our turn he chickened out, Vader was quiet intimidating to him in real life and it's no wonder he was practically 3 x's his size. Ok no prob DH and DD got thier pics I kept him in the stroller and just went on by he eyed him cautiously but wouldn't get near him. We hit the Fab 4 SW lines a few times and kept getting Vader Goofy, couldn't time it to get another one. Sometimes the CMs' would let us let people in front of us while we waited on another charecter and sometimes they wouldn't that's how we met Goofy so many times.
We got spots for the parade about 45 min ahead of time but by the time the parade was approaching many people crammed in even trying to be in front of my kids front row sitting on the ground. I politely moved them out of the way and prevented them from stepping on my kids. One did drop thier popsicle on DD's shoe but that could happen anytime and heck if someone else didn't she would have probably ruined those shoes by the end of the day anyway.
In the roaming charecter lines adults (using the term losely) would just jump in front of kids patiently waiting a foot from the charecter for thier turn. It's awfully hard to explain to a 5 yr old w/ tears in his eyes why adults are so mean and not waiting thier turn.
Then there was Hoopla an appropriately named event. It was nutso. The first night we arrived 45 min ahead of time got a spot 2/3 of the way back from JTA stage and although the kids could only see a bit of the stage we were happy. In the next 15 minutes more 'adults' that were partaking in the adult beverages
crowded in, cussing, yelling, tramping my kids. One knocked DD down and a few min later when one literally fell over DS in his stroller (ubrella so as small as you can get) b/c they were play shoving each other we had to leave. Vader himself could not have held me back if we didn't. Day 2 we went an hour ahead of time were closer to the stage but as time approached a ton of fans materialized out of thin air to join thier friends closer up so we got jostled back further and couldn't see again. We left. We didn't try again. Now that nightmare is seemed to have been fixed in 2011 by moving the show from the JTA stage but I won't be convinced till we go ourselves. And then there was the profanity...... I know that can happen anytime but having alot of adults in a small space when its hot, drinking and hanging out they seem to let the potty words fly a little more frequently and loudly.
that being said see my ticker.
DH convinced me again to go during SWW. DS will be almost 7 (a week shy) so we will see how it goes. No stroller this time which terrorfies me when I think of that crowd I can just see him getting knocked down and trampled but we are going to give it a go and see what happens. May the force be with me.
) but anyway, we had a GREAT time...it was definitely crowded, but manageable. My oldest DS had just turned 6yo and my DD was 7.5yo and they both loved it. The characters are absolutely amazing!! Would love to take youngest DS, he's 6.5yo this year...but not going to happen, thanks to oldest DS, baseball overtakes our spring. 
