A DISers Guide to Star Wars Celebration

[JenM]

We had a great time too. On Thursday we made it just in time to get one of the last wristbands available for the 40th Anniversary panel - the streaming room, but still, it was a blast. The surprise guests were really a surprise (Harrison Ford at Star Wars Celebration!!!), and the tributes to Carrie were lovely. Loved the Leia posters we got too.

Didn’t get into any of the Last Jedi panel rooms, but saw the trailer with the crowd from the SW stage, so that was a lot of fun. Got to spend a lot of time on the show floor and picked up plenty of cool stuff (I have a ton of new artwork to hang up in my apartment now - I even got a Walking Dead print for my sister back home). On Saturday we got a photo with Mark Hamill and it was SO cool.

We had so much fun at Galactic Nights. It wasn’t overcrowded at all. I loved the Star Wars music on the Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We met BB-8. I also got photobombed by R2 while taking a picture with the BB-8 outside Launch Bay. I got to see the Force Awakens sequence on Star Tours (my last trip was a year before the movie came out). We couldn’t stay for the fireworks, since we had the Mark Hamill photo in the morning and we wanted to get the convention center early...but we had a great time.

Only part we didn’t like was the Celebration Store. Took us almost 3 hours to get in (sign said it was 2 hours), most of the stuff there was sold out, and then checkout with the stuff we did get took nearly an hour to get through. Dear god...just have booths throughout the convention with the merchandise, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.

But other than that, we had an awesome time. Got tons of pictures. We were wrapped up with everything early enough today that we left and spent the rest of the day over a Disney Springs. Nice way to end the trip!

 

[wilkeliza]

We had a great time too. On Thursday we made it just in time to get one of the last wristbands available for the 40th Anniversary panel - the streaming room, but still, it was a blast. The surprise guests were really a surprise (Harrison Ford at Star Wars Celebration!!!), and the tributes to Carrie were lovely. Loved the Leia posters we got too.

Didn’t get into any of the Last Jedi panel rooms, but saw the trailer with the crowd from the SW stage, so that was a lot of fun. Got to spend a lot of time on the show floor and picked up plenty of cool stuff (I have a ton of new artwork to hang up in my apartment now - I even got a Walking Dead print for my sister back home). On Saturday we got a photo with Mark Hamill and it was SO cool.

We had so much fun at Galactic Nights. It wasn’t overcrowded at all. I loved the Star Wars music on the Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We met BB-8. I also got photobombed by R2 while taking a picture with the BB-8 outside Launch Bay. I got to see the Force Awakens sequence on Star Tours (my last trip was a year before the movie came out). We couldn’t stay for the fireworks, since we had the Mark Hamill photo in the morning and we wanted to get the convention center early...but we had a great time.

Only part we didn’t like was the Celebration Store. Took us almost 3 hours to get in (sign said it was 2 hours), most of the stuff there was sold out, and then checkout with the stuff we did get took nearly an hour to get through. Dear god...just have booths throughout the convention with the merchandise, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.

But other than that, we had an awesome time. Got tons of pictures. We were wrapped up with everything early enough today that we left and spent the rest of the day over a Disney Springs. Nice way to end the trip!

Totally agree about the store. I've been to other cons and this was just weird. I know at D23 Expo i never waited 5 hours even for exclusive stuff but of course I never went to Disney store or Mickey's of glendale. I was shocked that logo shirts sold out. Like ***?! It is so easy to off load that stuff online after a con that their us no real need to under deliver.

 

[JenM]

Totally agree about the store. I've been to other cons and this was just weird. I know at D23 Expo i never waited 5 hours even for exclusive stuff but of course I never went to Disney store or Mickey's of glendale. I was shocked that logo shirts sold out. Like ***?! It is so easy to off load that stuff online after a con that their us no real need to under deliver.

Exactly. T-shirts are not expensive to produce - even for a con, when you can charge god knows what and get a fortune back for them. Why not just produce plenty, have booths set up around the convention so it spreads out the crowd a little bit better? That’s what they do at concerts. I get they’re limited for the event, but it’s got to go better than this. An hour-long line to check out just can’t be a thing.

 

[yulilin3]

I know from a friend that the Celebration store in Anaheim was also a problem, she spent 4 hours in that one day one early morning so she decided to get the VIP pass this year, she was gracious enough to buy the 40th anniversary hat for me, I never made it into the store, I really didn't have money for it but would've been nice just to see what they had.