Fast passes are handed out between Prime Time Cafe and Indiana Jones Stunt show. If you are there at park opening, you will be escorted there, so it won't be hard to follow the crowd. You will go up the main drag and hook a left at Keystone Clothiers, pass Hollywood and Vine and Prime Time Cafe. They have three lines set up for each celebrity. I don't know how fast the handing out goes, we haven't actually gotten fast passes for any of the celebs. After fast passes are gone, you could have the opportunity to get into the standby line. Each celeb has scheduled times they will be signing. A CM last weekend told us that if we wanted to attempt the stand by line, to show up about 15 minutes before the signing was over and see how many people were in line. But this will not guarantee anything.
The way the lines are set up you can easily step in front of the booth where they are signing and take pictures, you just can't cross over and meet them.
As for merchandise, the soundstage, called Wickets Warehouse, sells limited edition merchandise and anything that has the official Star Wars Weekends logo. The limited edition pins can only be purchased here.
There is another store, by the ABC TV Theater, that has the t-shirts, hats, bags, jackets, etc, with the logo, but no pins.
For regular Star Wars merchandise that is not SWW specific, you can still shop at Tatooine Traders, which is still busy, but not nearly as bad as last year. They have all the regular plushes, action figures, lightsabers, books, etc, no Star Wars Weekends merchandise.
Our favorite purchase from the weekend was a sketch that we bought at Art of Disney of Jedi Mickey. They had this at Wickets Warehouse as well, but we knew they carried it elsewhere, so we didn't have to wait in the outrageous line. We had it personalized by one of the on site animators, and we bought a Jedi Mickey pin at the same store. We're having them framed together. We know it isn't limited edition, but its special.
As for ride time, I've never ridden anything during Star Wars Weekends, so I don't know the answer to that.
Good luck, hope you have a great time!