**Official** Star Wars at DHS, Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party/Galactic Nights/Launch Bay/JT

[LATJLP]

News about Launch Bay. Disney has started auditions for characters for this experience, here's the audition call from their site

Character Performers for STAR WARS Launch Bay: heights 6' - 6'3"
For: Walt Disney World
Audition City: Orlando, FL
Location: Disney's Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facility
Looking For: Disney Character Performers Thursday, September 24, 2015
04:00 PM
Time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Disney Creative Entertainment is seeking energetic and outgoing performers for Character roles at the brand new STAR WARS Launch Bay experience, coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios® at theWalt Disney World® Resort near Orlando, FL. We are currently only hiring for FULL TIME positions. Seasonal work is not available.


Performers must have a height between 6’ and 6’3”.


The Star Wars Launch Bay is an interactive experience which will take guests into the upcoming film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," with special exhibits and peeks behind-the-scenes, including opportunities to visit with Star Wars characters.


Performers will also have the opportunity to bring to life the world famous Disney Characters.



Seeking the following roles:Character Performers: Male and Female, 6’ – 6’3”, with a slender or athletic build. Performers should be willing to demonstrate high energy levels, a full range of motion with their bodies, and basic coordination to music. These roles require wearing large body costumes, heads, and feet, and exposure to hot and humid weather.

Audition Location Disney's Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facility
3271 Sherberth Rd.
Kissimmee, FL 34747

Sign-in: 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM – Late applicants will not be accepted
Requirements:

• Performers must be at least 18 and authorized to work in the United States
• Please wear comfortable attire that allows for a full range of motion, and athletic style of shoes
• All performers will learn an animation improv exercies, and potentially, a basic movement combination
• Performers must be willing to relocated to the Orlando area within the next four months
• Only seeking FULL TIME work. Seasonal work is not available.
• Current WDW College and International Program students are not eligible to audition.
• Current WDW Character Performers are not eligible to audition.

Ok, now this has some possible "spoilers".....FULL TIME WORK NOT SEASONAL.....that would make it pretty clear that this is not just a seasonal thing. Move to Orlando within 4 months....that's December-ish....so that would make it sound like it will start here in Orlando by February/March....which coincides with a lot of strange things on the calendar....the difficulty/impossibility of booking Fantasmic ADRs...so is this going to cancel F!? I hope not.

Gee....I wish I were about a half a foot taller (maybe they won't notice????)...oh and athletic build.....and high energy.....and hot and humid weather..............yeah...no.

 

[soniam]

Just a thought... I've been getting into using Periscope a bit these days. Might anyone on here consider Periscoping live while at SWW this time? I'm thinking it could be a cool way to show people where/how certain things are set up, share character experiences/sightings, etc.

It's very easy to install and use, and you can periscope for just a minute or two, or I've seen people periscope entire fireworks shows. Again, just an idea...

@yulilin3 did it with the fireworks one night this year. I am sure it will definitely get used more next year. Maybe people will do it on the first day.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

@yulilin3 did it with the fireworks one night this year. I am sure it will definitely get used more next year. Maybe people will do it on the first day.

We were there on the first wknd last year, and had I known about this, I would have been happy to periscope parts of our trip including VIP! Guess I'm late to the game! LOL!

 

[soniam]

We were there on the first wknd last year, and had I known about this, I would have been happy to periscope parts of our trip including VIP! Guess I'm late to the game! LOL!

I think it was a really new app at the time, because I don't remember people doing it at Celebration. I would think they would have if it had been out for a while.

 

[LATJLP]

I take a break from working on beskar'gam and find this happiness. I fear SWW Could be forever changed yet perhaps for the better. My biggest concern is celebrity autographs will be a thing of the past. I for one enjoy sleeping on wet concrete in 90 degree weather while they blast frozen music all night until the ewok village wake up at 5am.

Have to say that I would be much happier if there was a better way of doing the celebrity autographs.....I don't enjoy sleeping on concrete, no matter the time, place or reason, lol.

I don't quite understand why they don't set it up as FP+ the same as the shows.....they should have a general idea of how many people each celebrity can sign in an hour....divide that by 4 and set up FP+ every 15 minutes. Let people get in a standby line in case this celebrity signs faster, or people miss their FP, etc. Every 2 hours skip one of the 15 minute increments to catch up or to let the standby have a shot. No more security issues, no more crazy people causing problems in the middle of the night.....no more one person sleeps on concrete and 25 friends show up the next morning to cut in front of you (which is what caused a lot of early morning crazy people problems.....seeing a pattern here?).

I personally think it works great for the shows.....no standing in line for hours hoping to get in.....just stalking the boards waiting for the show FP+ to load.....only I get to do that in the privacy of my own home so strangers don't see my obsession, though I believe my family fears this time in our lives as I can only cook meals that are VERY quick, least I miss out on the 5 minute window that was Mark Hamill (2014) or Frank Oz (2015).

And hopefully by next May, Frozen and all their paraphernalia will have moved to what was once Norway and certainly the May weather will melt any remnants away! Please God, please.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Have to say that I would be much happier if there was a better way of doing the celebrity autographs.....I don't enjoy sleeping on concrete, no matter the time, place or reason, lol.

I don't quite understand why they don't set it up as FP+ the same as the shows.....they should have a general idea of how many people each celebrity can sign in an hour....divide that by 4 and set up FP+ every 15 minutes. Let people get in a standby line in case this celebrity signs faster, or people miss their FP, etc. Every 2 hours skip one of the 15 minute increments to catch up or to let the standby have a shot. No more security issues, no more crazy people causing problems in the middle of the night.....no more one person sleeps on concrete and 25 friends show up the next morning to cut in front of you (which is what caused a lot of early morning crazy people problems.....seeing a pattern here?).

I personally think it works great for the shows.....no standing in line for hours hoping to get in.....just stalking the boards waiting for the show FP+ to load.....only I get to do that in the privacy of my own home so strangers don't see my obsession, though I believe my family fears this time in our lives as I can only cook meals that are VERY quick, least I miss out on the 5 minute window that was Mark Hamill (2014) or Frank Oz (2015).

And hopefully by next May, Frozen and all their paraphernalia will have moved to what was once Norway and certainly the May weather will melt any remnants away! Please God, please.

I have to say that if they did FP the celeb autographs, we'd do some. Selfishly, we'd love this change. As they are now, we just don't want to put in that time when coming for just one weekend trip. I suspect demand would go up because of people like me, but all's fair in love and fast passes as long as the info is made available far enough in advance, and as long as locals w/APs get same booking advantage as out-of-towners with hotel reservations. My two cents.

 

[hiroMYhero]

which coincides with a lot of strange things on the calendar....the difficulty/impossibility of booking Fantasmic ADRs...so is this going to cancel F!? I hope no

I'm part of the RunDisney Princess thread where the Fantasmic concerns were mentioned because everyone was booking ADRs for Princess weekend over the past few days.

Because Season of the Force includes fireworks and Fantasmic's schedule has to coordinate with the timing of the fireworks, they probably haven't confirmed the firework-Fantasmic scheduling. Once that is set, then they can confirm the timing for the F! Dinner Packages. It seems everything is dependent upon the Season of the Force schedule.

 

[likesdisney]

Thanks for the help & advice. I'll be eagerly keeping watch on the thread for more info. Excited to find out about Seasons of the Force and when it will be etc. Kind of (well maybe more than kind of lol) excited and overwhelmed while I wait to find out so I can book something. Wondering if Seasons of the force will somehow lead into SWW? Or 2 separate events at separate times? In any case, I'll be eagerly waiting and watching the thread.

 

[keishashadow]

In the past, Star Wars Weekends was not a hard ticket party. I don't think it would be this year, but we don't really know. Season of the Force sounds more like Frozen Summer Fun, which is not a hard ticket party either. There are some events that can be purchased as SWW and probably Season of the Force, like the fireworks dessert party.

hmmm the thought never crossed my mind. WDW could make a ton of dough off it but to close the parks for a day to all but special ticket holders would equate to plenty of unhappy campers if they did, especially locals & AP holders.

re the FP+ suggestion for autographs, it also would cut out the locals who don't get the same FP options. I wouldn't be surprised to see a $$$ add-on specialty package, above & beyond the standard method in place now, where limited number of guests would have access to the stars.

Making progress in our reservation, now have Monday thru Thursday May 12th...all I need is my Friday waitlist to come thru & May 13th to be the kickoff weekend!

 

[yulilin3]

Just a thought... I've been getting into using Periscope a bit these days. Might anyone on here consider Periscoping live while at SWW this time? I'm thinking it could be a cool way to show people where/how certain things are set up, share character experiences/sightings, etc. Could be useful for meet-ups, too, to show your location, etc.

It's very easy to install and use, and you can periscope for just a minute or two, or I've seen people periscope entire fireworks shows. Kinda' like Twitter in that you pick people to follow, people can follow you, and when you periscope, your followers get a notification so they can join if they'd like. Again, just an idea...

I also periscoped one of the shows from the theater this year. I'm sure it'll be used more next year. When Launch Bay launches I'll be sure to use it as well. I'll let you guys know

Thanks for the help & advice. I'll be eagerly keeping watch on the thread for more info. Excited to find out about Seasons of the Force and when it will be etc. Kind of (well maybe more than kind of lol) excited and overwhelmed while I wait to find out so I can book something. Wondering if Seasons of the force will somehow lead into SWW? Or 2 separate events at separate times? In any case, I'll be eagerly waiting and watching the thread.

I'm not sure if they will have Seasons all the way to SWW. But more SW is better for me

 

[slaveone]

I personally hate the idea of autographs becoming fp+ because it makes it impossible for ap holders to get anything. That was my problem for Frank Oz. When my thirty day came up the fp were gone. The most irritating thing about it was people had pulled the fp and then didn't use them.

Also the job offer sounds like casting for First Order troopers. It's the right general height for a trooper was 5'11 and up which is why Luke is a little short to be a stormtrooper. So between 6 to 6'3 would be about right same with the athletic build. Most standard trooper kit is that kind of build. Which is why the short and stout are great as Mandos.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I personally hate the idea of autographs becoming fp+ because it makes it impossible for ap holders to get anything. That was my problem for Frank Oz. When my thirty day came up the fp were gone. The most irritating thing about it was people had pulled the fp and then didn't use them.

Yeah - agreed on that point. For autographs I think they should make it either 30 days or 60 days for EVERYONE. For Disney IT that may be unachievable (only kinda' joking here), so perhaps they won't do it...

 

[soniam]

Yeah - agreed on that point. For autographs I think they should make it either 30 days or 60 days for EVERYONE. For Disney IT that may be unachievable (only kinda' joking here), so perhaps they won't do it...

I thinks it is rather unfair. It doesn't make sense for most AP holders to stay onsite, when they live close by. I think the rule should be 60 days for AP holders and onsite guests. I don't understand why they are being treated like second class.

 

[yulilin3]

Stephanie (my DD14 almost 15 yikes) and I were talking about the autographs. I agree that making it a fp would be unfair to many people.
Before you used to be able to get in line for whomever, get your wistband and fp and get back in line for a less popular guest, so people could be holding 2 guarantee fp and sometimes even some standby. They did away with that because people started complaining that they would get to the park at 7 am and not be able to get anyone's fp...so not sure if they will change the current system or not.
The other thing we were talking about is what if they did it like a lottery, like they do with the DPB meetups. They publish the story and you are ready to send an email with the number of fp you want and then they tell you if you have them...I don't like this idea at all either.
FP 60 days out would be a good idea but not everyone has a good server, or maybe they are working that day and time...
There's no real good option here.

 

[HyperPippi]

Please treat this as a RUMOR until Disney officially announces:
JTA will go down October 4th to prepare for the new Rebels show. Rebels show will begin rehearsal. Unsure at this time if when it opens up again (which will be before the movie comes out) if it will be the same JTA format or something completely different.

Oh no! My wish child really wants to do JTA on his wish trip (not to mention his next two younger brothers)! It's not like we can "do it on another trip" - this will likely be our one and only trip to WDW. I've already avoided telling him about the star wars expansion coming because he'd be bummed that he'd miss it. I really hope it opens back up before Halloween. Disney really should tell Make-a-wish about this before they book wish children for the time frame that this is down.

 

[CJK]

@yulilin3, please post if you hear confirmation that JTA will be down for the month of October. I've avoided telling my friends so far, until we are 100% certain. They're going to be so disappointed.

 

[yulilin3]

@yulilin3, please post if you hear confirmation that JTA will be down for the month of October. I've avoided telling my friends so far, until we are 100% certain. They're going to be so disappointed.

CM were telling people last day is Oct. 4th even though JTA doesn't show up on the schedule after Sept. 12th (this was yesterday)
As soon as I know anything else I'll let you guys know

 

[DisneyBabies]

CM were telling people last day is Oct. 4th even though JTA doesn't show up on the schedule after Sept. 12th (this was yesterday)
As soon as I know anything else I'll let you guys know

I was actually getting pretty worried about the JTA closing date (would like my kids to get to do it before it changes), so I did a little snooping and I don't think the Sept. 12 date is a big issue. There are several things that don't have schedules available at all or are only showing 2-3 weeks out.

 

[Savagekids]

Oh no! My wish child really wants to do JTA on his wish trip (not to mention his next two younger brothers)! It's not like we can "do it on another trip" - this will likely be our one and only trip to WDW. I've already avoided telling him about the star wars expansion coming because he'd be bummed that he'd miss it. I really hope it opens back up before Halloween. Disney really should tell Make-a-wish about this before they book wish children for the time frame that this is down.

That would be a huge bummer. I hope it works for your kiddos one way or another. I know it seems unlikely that they would tell you any secrets but can you ask Make A Wish or WDW somehow? I think they should accommodate your family.

 

[yulilin3]

"Force Friday" September 4th...anyone planning on going to Toys R Us that night?
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/hasbro_unveils_star_wars_the_f.html