Adventures of a DisneyWORLDholic! Updated1/24 I was an unofficial WDW tour guide.

[dismagiclover]

Great seal pics! Your free military tickets can be used at Discovery Cove! How cool is that! We've never been to Sea World, but I'm sure we'll make it one of these years. Have a great time at the Star Wars Convention! Sounds very cool.

 

[dancer4life22]

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[jmskinner]

How exciting for Jacob on the Star Wars Celebration! I am so jealous you live so close to all of these attractions but then I couldn't take the humidity again (we live in VA and it's humid here but seemed much more so when we lived in Kissimmee for a short while back in 1994).

I love your pics of the seals

I am really excited to see the look on his face when he sees how large this event is going to be. Just watched a video from yesterday and there was an Australian Darth Vader. How cool is that!!!!

We really just lucked out with the Star Wars Celebration happening in Orlando this year. Think this is the 2nd or 3rd time it has been held here in the US.

Great seal pics! Your free military tickets can be used at Discovery Cove! How cool is that! We've never been to Sea World, but I'm sure we'll make it one of these years. Have a great time at the Star Wars Convention! Sounds very cool.

Oops, I was afraid that was misleading. No, the military tickets can't be used at Discovery Cove. I had hoped to take Kara there, but we couldn't swing the cost of that. But could take her to Seaworld since those were free. Sorry for the confusion.

Seaworld really was a nice park. I would love to go back.

seaworld looks like so much fun! we were supposed to do that this next trip but didnt have the money for tickets! they are soo expensive!

guess i wont be reading this for a while but ill catch up when i get back from disney! have fun at the star wars celebration!

Hope you have a great time on your trip. Keep a look out, you just may see us hanging around. I'll have to check out your PTR for your plans.

Everything is getting so expensive. Just to park your car now is almost what we use to pay to enter amusement parks.

 

[tinkgurl]

I did enjoy the Pirate takeover though.

Don't think I have mentioned this here, but we got to attend a Fireworks presentation last year with the speaker being the VP of Entertainment and Parades. He explained how these shows come about and how his original plan usually involves a lot of explosions, but then he is reminded that they have to tell a story, and follow a budget! During the presentation he showed us how he presented Wishes the first time. I could really see his ideas coming out during that Pirate takeover. It looked like they went over the budget a little.

I liked that part too!!

That is so cool you got to do that. What a great memory that you'll have forever!

 

[SimmerBaggins]

It's funny -- I can read some posts during work/well, lunch break/ but can't see Melissa's pictures. So...when you said the "guy on the left" kept getting all the fish, I thought it was some dude in line getting fish for the seals and cutting in line, or something!

Anyway, that was my funny moment. I can't believe we haven't gone back to Sea World for rides since...since Jordan was an infant. I mean, we've gone with school excursions, but those are special park openings just for a few shows, and no rides. We thought about getting some season passes this last year, but the funds just didn't work out.

Maybe next year. But I like your pictures. The seals are awesome to watch.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Sea World, ahhh, haven't been in such a long time, never to the Orlando one, only been in San Diego. Hope I get to take my boys next year on one of our trips to either Fl or CA.

Can't wait to see what else you did there...

 

[jmskinner]

I liked that part too!!

That is so cool you got to do that. What a great memory that you'll have forever!

It is a great memory! And I want that VP position, how fun would it be to plan parades and fireworks!

It's funny -- I can read some posts during work/well, lunch break/ but can't see Melissa's pictures. So...when you said the "guy on the left" kept getting all the fish, I thought it was some dude in line getting fish for the seals and cutting in line, or something!

Anyway, that was my funny moment. I can't believe we haven't gone back to Sea World for rides since...since Jordan was an infant. I mean, we've gone with school excursions, but those are special park openings just for a few shows, and no rides. We thought about getting some season passes this last year, but the funds just didn't work out.

Maybe next year. But I like your pictures. The seals are awesome to watch.

I can't remember, the one time we went with you to Seaworld, did we ride?

And about you thinking it was a man taking all the fish. Seals have a special place in my heart, they remind me of little Constanze in the face.

Sea World, ahhh, haven't been in such a long time, never to the Orlando one, only been in San Diego. Hope I get to take my boys next year on one of our trips to either Fl or CA.

Can't wait to see what else you did there...

Hope you get to take the boys too! They will love it.

 

[jmskinner]

Going to interrupt this TR with a chapter on Star Wars Celebration. Hopefully there are a few Star Wars fans here.

Here are the previous convention dates:
Celebration Japan - July 19-21, 2008 - Makuhari-Messe - Tokyo, Japan - 17,000 attendees
Celebration Europe - July 12-15, 2007 - ExCeL Exhibition Centre - London, England - 29,000 attendees
Celebration IV - May 24-28, 2007 - Los Angeles Convention Center - Los Angeles, CA - 35,000 attendees
Celebration III - April 21-24, 2005 - Indiana Convention Center - Indianapolis, IN - 29,000 fans - celebrating the release of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Celebration II - May 3-5, 2002 - Indiana Convention Center - Indianapolis, IN - 27,000 attendees -celebrating the release of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Celebration I - April 30-May 2, 1999 - Wings Over the Rockies - Denver, CO - 12,000 attendees -celebrating the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Not something held every year, or even here in the States, so it was very cool that it was happening so close to us this year.

Now the Main Event was George Lucas being interviewed by Jon Stewart. 1000 or so people would get to see it live and another 6000 would see it on video screens. We debated about whether to attempt seeing this, but decided it would just be impossible. Wrist bands were being given out at 6:00am. We ended up arriving at 10:00am, which is when it opened. The convention was being held at the West Convention Center, but we had to park at the North. Guessing the other side was already full.

But they had coach buses to drive us over. If you have never seen the Orlando Convention Center, it is like it's own city. HUGE!



Once inside the building we were told that if we had our badges to go left (I had picked them up Tuesday so we wouldn't have to stand in line on this day). I see this guy first thing:

Two reasons as to why this may be blurry, I kept walking while snapping, but the guy in front of me didn't. Oops. Not sure if I snapped this as I hit him or just before.

We were rushed into a large hall where we saw this:


See all those people, now think about this...7000 people had already received wrist bands for the main event, so this was people that entered after them. The guy in front of us said this was nothing, Thursday was about 5 times worse.

It was a fun line though, because you saw all the people dressed up waiting in line also, plus there were some really cool t-shirts.

Loved the 'stache on this guy:


Fianlly made it onto the show floor:


Of course Lego had a booth:






This group is called GFLUG (Greater Florida Lego Users Group).

 

[jmskinner]

More of the GFLUG displays:










Even his jet pack


And then I realized these are Bionicles, don't know if Lego is coming out with Bionicle Star Wars or if this group just made their own:


And of course we had to find this booth:


And there were CM's running the booth, which I thought was kind of cool. And they had some photo ops set up,




I have decided I must have all Disney Star Wars pins, picked up these two


I wasn't planning on spending much money, but Jonas said we had to get these:


Each pin is an Empire Strikes Back poster, including the ones from overseas.

And had to get the limited edition Donald:


So, here we are at a Star Wars Convention and Mickey still got my money. But, we did save money, when Jonas handed over the Disney Visa the CM said, "Oh, you get 10% off." I then remembered the 20% discount for being a Premium AP holder and mentioned it was too bad I didn't bring my AP. The CM asked what type and I told her Premium, she gave us the discount. A little magic there at Celebration!

Jacob found a Cartoon Network booth, where they had monitors with trivia quizzes on some of their shows:


We left him there and walked across to look at this artwork:


We had seen some this at SWW at DHS. Very cool to see that artist himself.






More merchandise:

And StrideRite:


The hubby requested this pic, but I have no idea why?

 

[dancer4life22]

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[jmskinner]

We had also left Jacob to explore the Lego booth and made a surprise purchase for him, a Clone Wars book with all the characters and had it signed:


Had to get a pic of this booth:


Dark Horse is the comic book company that publishes the Star Wars comics. I once managed a comic book store, which is how I met my hubby.

A booth selling the costumes:




Even came across a booth selling furniture, this is a desk:


Another book company, hadn't heard of this book involving Zombie Storm Troopers:




And of course people need their weapons:


A booth selling some amazing statues:




And everyone wanted a pic of this banner:


Jonas had to have this t-shirt:


This company had some amazing merchandies:








Anyone know what this ship is from:

 

[jmskinner]

I'm sure all of you are wondering..."What about everyone dressed Up?" Here ya go:








Jonas thought this was from a German organization:










Just having some dinner:






And how about a wedding:


And check out who officiated:


And I believe that was his hair:








We were trying to leave when I spotted this guy, and took off after him. Then Jacob realized what I saw and freaked. Finally Jonas saw him and realized why we were so excited:




He had no idea where Jacob came from and was trying to figure out what camera to look into.

 

[jmskinner]

I know I am doing a lot at once, but thought I would get this side trip done so I can start back with Disney tomorrow. Only two more posts to go, first up DROIDS.

There were R2 units everywhere you turned. This is the first one I saw as we headed towards the big line:








There was even a room full of them:










Even a Darth Maul R2:


And a Mini Darth:













A wood R2:








Another pic of the security poles:



These droids were built by individuals. Each had a sign stating their occupations, where they live and also the cost to build. The ones I read went from $1800 to $5000.

Also, while at the show, we attended a couple of presentations, first was The Force Unleashed II, the new video games. This is Matt Omernick and Brett Rector from LucasArt's and on the right is host David Collins.



We were even able to watch them play the game on the big screen. And the sound was so good our chests and the chairs were vibrating.

In the same theater we saw a preview of Star Wars: Clone Wars season 3. On the left is CG Supervisor Joel Aron and then Dave Filoni who is the Supervising director, and host David again.




Not sure if this works, but was trying to give you an idea of the size of the screen:


Thats a new bad guy in the pic.

Now, at the end of each presentation they had a question and answer segment. We didn't stay for the first, but we did for the Clone Wars one. The kids were asking some good questions and putting Dave on the spot. As he said, George Lucas is all for spoilers, but Marketing is not. One kid did ask a question and then asked "Was that Seth Green that just walked out?" Yup, Seth Green was in the same room with us and we didn't even know it. Wonder who else was around.

At the end they showed us a very long trailer for the new season, it did look fantastic. Sadly, Jonas will be overseas when it begins. Thank goodness for DVR's. They even showed the trailer twice since it was so good. And there are suppose to be some links to the original series within this next season. Dave did give that away.

 

[jmskinner]

Right outside the Droid room was a big commotion. Jonas and Jacob went on in, but I had to see what was going on because there were hundreds of people trying to get pics. Turns out the 501st was gathering for a group photo:













After our tour of the Droid room, the 501st had disbanded, but some were still hanging out:












I have to say, I really enjoyed this. Told Jonas that I would even consider traveling to the next one. The really cool part was all the families. How cool is it that what we enjoyed growing up, our kids can now enjoy, old and new. One of the first things I saw was a little girl (maybe 5) all excited to be there.

Sadly, we couldn't afford to do both this and the Last Tour to Endor. During one of the presentations, it was mentioned that all the stars would be there. I sat through that whole presentation thinking, "I could order the tickets right now (actually the Disney booth was selling them), drive home to let the poor dog out for a little bit, come back and pick up the boys at the convention and go to DHS." "Or I could get Bubblegum to the kennel, they close at 7:00." Jonas said we needed to be smart about this.

I get up this morning, and was doing some research on the Celebration and saw the following posting "Mickey defeating George with the Lightsaber at Disney was the best thing!" So kicking my butt for not going into further debt now.

Hope you all enjoyed the little Star Wars detour.

 

[jmskinner]

what a cool event! its great it was so close and your family got to go!

love all the disney stuff too!

Saw you posted while I was doing my book. There were several more posts after you posted, if you want to check them out.

It really was a great experience, and very family friendly event.

 

[SimmerBaggins]

That was amazing. Thanks for sharing that, Melissa. Even though there were a LOT of people that were there, probably a handful of Dis'ers might have been there.

I really enjoyed the R2 room!! I want ONE!! They were so pretty.

And you're right...Star Wars has become kind of a legacy to our kids, and probably to grandkids. I can't think that far right now!!

I knew you would enjoy it. I am sad for you about missing the Endor trip, tho.

 

[CaptHomer]

Great pictures thanks for the update.

 

[jmskinner]

That was amazing. Thanks for sharing that, Melissa. Even though there were a LOT of people that were there, probably a handful of Dis'ers might have been there.

I really enjoyed the R2 room!! I want ONE!! They were so pretty.

And you're right...Star Wars has become kind of a legacy to our kids, and probably to grandkids. I can't think that far right now!!

I knew you would enjoy it. I am sad for you about missing the Endor trip, tho.

Jonas wants one also. That's what he needs, another hobby.

Great pictures thanks for the update.

Hey, a fellow Texas. Your welcome, always hoping I can bring something a little different.

 

[natebenma]

WOW!!!! That was so very cool! It is fun to see how commited people get to this. The Lego stuff was incredible! I think the Star Wars sets are my boys favorite kind.

In November, I am chairing my 4th PTA Mother-Son dance. This year's theme is 2010: A Space Odyssey. I will have to carefully look through your photos to see if I can come up with costume ideas. Maybe Ben can be Jabba and I could be one of the slave girls. NOT!

Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful event with us!

 

[Mickey's Sister]

Hi! SOOO enjoyed your Celebration V posts! My son & I were supposed to be there, but my elderly Mom fell & broke her hip & we couldn't leave her alone. So we're trying to live vicariously through others' experiences. Glad you had a good time!

The model ship you ask about above - I think it was post 111 - is a Trident starfighter, the kind used by Asajj Ventress & the Seperatists. It has it's solar fins folded up.

We especially wanted to go to Last Tour to Endor. We've been hearing some great things. Anyone here attend? I vote that they add this party to Star Wars Weekends! I'd love to hear about the Star Wars fireworks display!