Day 5 - Saturday the 7th - Star Wars Weekends
This was the fourth weekend for Star Wars Weekends. I had never been before, but I always thought it would be fun. Same with my parents. Everyone else was fairly indifferent, and they decided that they would rather avoid the crowds and just hit Hollywood Studios later in the week. So we decided to split up for the day. Stephanie and the kids tagged along with the others and I got up early and headed to Hollywood Studios with my parents. Well start with my day, and then Stephanie will write about their day at Animal Kingdom.
We arrived at the bag check area at about 7:30am and got through without too much of a hassle. I was really surprised to see that the lines werent that long at all yet. They hadn't passed the ticket windows yet. Cool!
There were a lot of Star Wars banners and props all over the place!
The park opened at 8:00, but they let us inside about 20-25 minutes early for the rope drop. As mentioned before, my mom has a bad knee. Some days its worse than others and she opts to rent a wheel chair, and other times she doesnt. This was going to be a wheel chair day, so we stopped there first.
Once Disnemimi obtained her wheel chair, we were ready to assimilate into the crowd amassing behind the rope on Hollywood Boulevard.
A couple of storm troopers were stationed on watch towers about half way down the street. The rope was basically between them. They goofed off and told a lot of silly Star Wars related jokes until it was time for them to let everyone in. Some of the gags were actually quite funny
Once the ropes dropped, they stayed on their pedestals for a while and let people take pictures of them. And of course they teased/harassed people from time to time.
So where do we start? We had our fast passes, an appointment for D-Tech Me, wanted to see the parade, etc. Anything beyond that was gravy. Our first FP+ wasnt until after the parade, so we decided to start heading towards the Star Tours area and see what we would find. In hindsight, we should have done our research to find out where the various character meet and greets were happening. We stumbled upon Princess Leah, but it turns out that Chewbacca was at the speeder bike location across from Star Tours. I would have loved to meet him, but the line was quite long by the time we noticed him. No biggie. Were easy going!
She liked my Han Solo shirt
After we met Princess Leah, we saw Chip and Dale dressed up as Ewoks. Cool!
After that, we decided to head back towards Hollywood Boulevard and think about reserving a space for the parade. Not too many people had started staking their claims yet, so my mom went in the shops to look for a new watch (hers had recently broke.) And then my dad and I headed over to ride the Great Movie Ride. (My dad loves this ride, but personally, I think of it as the not so great movie ride.)
Yawn. It was a nice break though.
After that, we met Disnemimi and grabbed a spot to watch the parade in the shade. It was still about two and a half hours before the parade started. Ive never waited that long for a parade or fireworks spot at the parks before, but we felt like it was worth it since this is a rare parade and even more rare to have Mark Hamill in it.
I didnt get a picture or her name, but there was an outstanding cast member working the area. She was super friendly and pointed us to a good spot in the shade, and then checked in on us every 20 or 30 minutes. She gave us some tips and was just fun to be around. I love interacting with cast members who obviously love there job!
A little while later, we wanted a snack so my mom headed over to the popcorn stand and came back with this
Fresh popcorn. Oh yeah!!!
A PhotoPass photographer passed by, so we hopped up to get a couple photos. My dad stayed back at the curb to protect our space from rebel spies.
He said to give him a thumbs up
The time went surprisingly fast and before we knew it, the parade started.
Hello Jedi Mickey!!!
After Mickey and friends passed through, the kids from the days Jedi Training Academy passed by.
After that, members of the 501st Legion (Star Wars cosplay fan club) passed by. There were tons of them. I took a lot of photos, but Ill spare you most of them.
The wookies were cool!
Hey Chewie!
Actually, I'm sort of looking forward to this aspect of MBs. 
