First Star Wars Weekend - Need Strategy!

[3floridarays]

We will be taking our 12-year old son and his best friend on a surprise weekend trip May 20-22 to celebrate the end of the school year. We have never been there during a Star Wars weekend and I just found out that Star Tours opens on the 20th. We planned on doing Hollywood Studios on Saturday the 21st. I know the boys will want to see all of the Star Wars activities. My biggest priorities are to ride Star Tours and Toy Story Mania as many times as possible.

We will get there at rope drop - what should our strategy be?

 

[loganjared]

To be able to ride TSM is to get there at rope drop and get a fast pass or get in line as soon as you get there. The trick for all of us this year will be trying to do TSM and Star Tours. They are expecting the largest crowds in history on May 20th for the opening of Star Tours and expecting the wait time to be 5-6 hours
My plan is to have one of us head to ST to grab a fast pass while the other heads to TSM to get in line.
Hope this helps

 

[mmafan]

ive seen pics of people there from like 2am and the line is crazy..just plan to see the longest lines you ever saw and crazy crowds get there as early as you can and have some fun

 

[That's So Raven]

I don't recall where I heard this, but someone said that they wouldn't have a fastpass for ST. I really hope it's not true. I'm not willing to wait any amount of hours to ride it.

 

[3floridarays]

To be able to ride TSM is to get there at rope drop and get a fast pass or get in line as soon as you get there. The trick for all of us this year will be trying to do TSM and Star Tours. They are expecting the largest crowds in history on May 20th for the opening of Star Tours and expecting the wait time to be 5-6 hours
My plan is to have one of us head to ST to grab a fast pass while the other heads to TSM to get in line.
Hope this helps

5-6 hours?!?

Hyperventilating now...sure hope they have FP on this one...

 

[DSLRuser]

we are going in 2 weeks. may 27th to june 4th. Like most 35-45 year old males, I grew up on star wars. I am a fan and would love to geek out at star wars weekend. But my wife and 2 daughters 4 and 9 could give a mouses butt about star wars.

therefore, we are avoiding the studios at all costs on the weekends for our trip.

 

[Mrs D]

I would recommend having a touring plan in place for the day.

1. TouringPlans.com has 2 SWW specific plans. I believe you need to subscribe to view these. The allears.net newsletter contains a discount code each week.

2. You will find a wealth of info on the Tips: SWW 2011 thread.

Pack your patience, mister fans and have fun!

 

[TDC Nala]

Get there well before opening. There will be lines for everything. Those who want the celebrity autographs will start lining up WAY before opening. As it's opening weekend there will probably also be huge lines trying to get at the limited edition merchandise. There will be lines to meet the characters so don't wait too long for that. If the boys are Star Wars fans don't miss the Stars of the Saga show - get to that early to see the stormtrooper preshow, they are hilarious. If you want a Toy Story fastpass you need to go straight over there and get it. I think your kid is at the top age limit for Jedi training, I think it is ages 4-12 - if he wants to do that, have one parent go get the Toy Story passes and the other take the kid to register for training (the kid has to be present).

No idea what's going to happen with Star Tours until then, but it's going to be very difficult to get into, especially if they don't do fastpasses or if you want both Star Tours and TSM fastpasses. Hard to tell which might run out first.

 

[SydneyJoLynn]

This Star Wars weekend IS expected to break attendance records, and even block out the park in early morning. If you are expecting to ride Star Tours, I would be at Studios an hour (or more) before opening for rope drop, and dashing your way there. Star Tours is the attraction that will fill up the absolute fastest (since May 20 is the first opening day to the public.)

Then, after doing the Star Tours wait in the morning, go access Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania. By then, the fast pass will be for the late afternoon. Then you can either choose to wait in the standby line, or visit other attractions.

Just know, and expect, absolute 'controlled chaos'.

And have fun! It's an experience.

 

[Bugdozer]

There are a lot of strong rumors that they may not offer fast pass when the ride first opens for a while. This is to help move main line along and also it is being said that only 1/2 the simulators may be working for opening weekend...

 

[mountdew1]

No one is even sure if Star Tours will open when the park does. Some places are reporting they may open it early. Others are saying that since the ceremony isn't until 10 something, the ride may not open til after that.

Doing it more than once may be hard to do. Best bet will be to plan on getting there early. Well before rope drop. Plan on waiting during the day. And keep checking here and any other location to see if they announce their plans beforehand.

And the rumors that Lucas will be on hand for the opening weekend aren't calming the fires any.

 

[MightyGitis]

5-6 hours?!?

Hyperventilating now...sure hope they have FP on this one...

Deep breath!!! That is all speculation for the 20th because a LOT of Disney/Star Wars die hards are going to be trying to ride it on opening day. You are going the next day and while it may not be PHENOMENALLY better, it shouldn't be as crazy as the day before.

The Fastpass question has not been confirmed either way, though they did train new CMs how to run the Fastpass machine. My bet is it won't run on the 20th but they will start with Fastpasses on the 21st.

There is a StarTours2Live app for Star Tour lines, and Fastpass dispensing times. It also has the two TouringPlans.com plans for Star Wars Weekends built into it. It is available for Droid phones and iPhones.

I will be there on Friday, and am a little scared about crowds. But I will check and see about Fastpasses that day. I will be tweeting live from the park.

 

[Bugdozer]

Deep breath!!! That is all speculation for the 20th because a LOT of Disney/Star Wars die hards are going to be trying to ride it on opening day. You are going the next day and while it may not be PHENOMENALLY better, it shouldn't be as crazy as the day before.

The Fastpass question has not been confirmed either way, though they did train new CMs how to run the Fastpass machine. My bet is it won't run on the 20th but they will start with Fastpasses on the 21st.

There is a StarTours2Live app for Star Tour lines, and Fastpass dispensing times. It also has the two TouringPlans.com plans for Star Wars Weekends built into it. It is available for Droid phones and iPhones.

I will be there on Friday, and am a little scared about crowds. But I will check and see about Fastpasses that day. I will be tweeting live from the park.

Great advice. I am thinking Saturday could be bad too. We are planning on returning on Saturday to ride the ride again and see anything Star Tours we missed the first day.

 

[MightyGitis]

Great advice. I am thinking Saturday could be bad too. We are planning on returning on Saturday to ride the ride again and see anything Star Tours we missed the first day.

Haha, us too. We are doing an EPCOT morning and coming back to DHS for the Hyperspace Hoopla and Fantasmic 9pm show. We are slightly hoping that after that showing we will get in line and try to ride Star Tours again.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . My biggest priorities are to ride Star Tours and Toy Story Mania as many times as possible . . . what should our strategy be?

1) Walk fast.
2) Don't stumble or fall.

 

[MightyGitis]

1) Walk fast.
2) Don't stumble or fall.

 

[3floridarays]

Deep breath!!! That is all speculation for the 20th because a LOT of Disney/Star Wars die hards are going to be trying to ride it on opening day. You are going the next day and while it may not be PHENOMENALLY better, it shouldn't be as crazy as the day before.

The Fastpass question has not been confirmed either way, though they did train new CMs how to run the Fastpass machine. My bet is it won't run on the 20th but they will start with Fastpasses on the 21st.

There is a StarTours2Live app for Star Tour lines, and Fastpass dispensing times. It also has the two TouringPlans.com plans for Star Wars Weekends built into it. It is available for Droid phones and iPhones.

I will be there on Friday, and am a little scared about crowds. But I will check and see about Fastpasses that day. I will be tweeting live from the park.

Great information! I will be looking for the reports from those in the park on the 20th.

I think our new plan is to get there early, run to ST, see if they have FP - if yes, grab them and run to TSM. If no FP we will probably hold off on ST and ride it on our next trip.

1) Walk fast.
2) Don't stumble or fall.

Ummm...have you read the line below my screen name? On several occassions my New Year's resolution has actually been to try not to fall down so often. I pretty much write it off that I will fall down at some point while at WDW. Heck, there's a decent chance I won't even get out of our driveway without tripping over something.