Official Star Wars Weekends 2014 Tips and Tricks

[Narnian_Princess]

When I went years ago lots of adults were in costume every year. So dress up and have fun! My only concern would be that it is HOT, so make sure you take breaks, drink water, and maybe have a change of clothes (or plan for a trip back to the hotel) in case it becomes unbearable.

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

Greetings fellow SWW fans! I will be attending my very first SWW this year and could not be more excited! I read in the first post that people start lining up for autographs as early as 5 am. I won’t have a car, so I will be dependent on Disney buses to get me to the park. What time do the Disney buses start running on those days?

My DH intends on being there around then. We won't have a car, either. He will probably call a cab.

 

[ajh88]

Thank you for the compliments on Baby G's nursery - I will let DH know his hard work is appreciated.

Does anyone recall when they have announced the hosts in years past? I'm thinking it was February'ish, but I don't remember. I'm really hoping JAT and Ashley are back again even though Clone Wars is over.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We are attending weekend III. I went in 2011 with a girlfriend but my husband hasn't been since 2007 so he's super excited over going back.

 

[yulilin3]

Greetings fellow SWW fans! I will be attending my very first SWW this year and could not be more excited! I read in the first post that people start lining up for autographs as early as 5 am. I won’t have a car, so I will be dependent on Disney buses to get me to the park. What time do the Disney buses start running on those days?

The short answer is not early enogh...but it really depends on the celebs you want to get.
If you want Peter Mayhew you'll be fine arriving around 6:30am, and the busses usually start around 6:30am (someone correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a local and don't use the bus service but this is the info we had last year)
If you want to get Ray Park then you must be in line no later than 5:30am so you would need to take a cab.

 

[yulilin3]

So grateful for this thread! My family and I are going to our very first SWW this May and couldn't be more excited. It is also my fiancé's FIRST trip to Disney. He is a HUGE Star Wars fan and since it's a short trip, he's a lot more interested in the entire experience of Disney and SWW than getting autographs and such. He does want to meet Vader, though. Thank you for taking the time to make this thread!

You're welcome, Priorities is the main tip. If your main thing is meeting Vader be at the entrance around 7:30am and go straight to his line (in the past it's been next to the exit of Backlot Tour) and you won't have to wait long.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but we might be going to the last Saturday and Sunday of SWW in 2014. My husband is a HUGE SW fan, and our son is getting into it too. We've always said it would be fun to go, but we would never, because we really HATE heat and crowds. Yet, here we are...

If we go, we'd be travelling with our kids, plus a good friend of ours and her son, both of whom are also big SW fans. So, there would be 3 adults and 3 kids - a 3 year old girl, and two 7 year old boys.

My 3 year old daughter isn't really into SW. Will it be feasible to split up and try to do some other stuff with her sometimes too, or is the park going to be too packed to really make that work? Any advice on what to do to keep her entertained too? Aside from the Little Mermaid and Disney Jr shows, it seems there's not a heck of a lot for little kids to do at DHS. I'm not going to drag her around all day in the heat and make her wait in endless lines to meet characters she could care less about, so if it comes down to it, I'll just take her somewhere else entirely.

It looks like there are tons of SW characters in the park. We'll be skipping Jedi Training, and probably the theater/celebrity shows, in order to focus on the character meets. How many could we realistically see on that last Saturday and Sunday? I assume those days will probably be very crowded, since they're the last days of SWW for the year, right?

I'd also love some thoughts on where to stay. We're tossing around two different ideas for where to stay that weekend. On one hand, we're thinking of just staying at a value resort, to save money, as we don't expect to be in our rooms much at all. I'm sure our friend and her son in particular will be in the park open to close all weekend.

On the other hand, we're thinking of shelling out the extra money to stay at Beach Club, as the location and boat transportation to DHS sounds like it could be very convenient. I'm not sure if some of us (like my two kids, and maybe me too!) will end up needing to take a mid-day break in order to survive the weekend, so being able to take the boat back to Beach Club and take a quick swim or nap might be a lifesaver. Would that be feasible, or would leaving and re-entering the park take too much time to be worth it?

It looks like the major events during the day that we'll want to see at a specific time (based on last year) would be the motorcade at 11am, the Padawan Mind Challenge at 2:10 or 4:30pm, then the show on the hat stage at 8pm. I was thinking we could do character meets in the morning, see the motorcade at 11am, then potentially leave the park for a little while and come back for the 4:30pm Padawan show and stay until close. We'd try to do that on Saturday, then use Sunday as a day to do whatever we didn't get to on Saturday. Does that sound like a realistic plan?

I'm not going to lie, I'm sort of thinking this might be a terrible idea, as I expect the weather and crowds to be nearly unbearable, and I'm pretty concerned about meltdowns from people in our party. But, if we can have realistic expectations, and a decent game plan, then I think the Star Wars fans in our party will really enjoy it. So, I'll be watching this thread and reading as much as I can, to try to get any tips on how to make the most of the experience!

It sounds like you have a realistic plan. Yes, the heat can be unbearable but if you plan it out you can avoid the worst of it.
The trick here is be at the park before it opens, so around 7:30am. Talk to the SW fans about which characters they want to meet and see the list from Kenny The Pirate to see which ones have the longest lines.
As for accomodations, the Beach Club is a great resort, really close and you won't have a problem re-entering the park. The entire trip from the resort to DHS should take no more than 20min. You can also walk it in about the same amount of time.
I would do the first day early, see as many characters as possible, for the motorcade you need to grab a spot early, for shade and to be at the curb. So I would line up for that at least 1hour and a half. Then leave and depending how the kids are feeling go back for the PMC show.
You could leave Hoopla for the last day since it takes a lot of waiting if you want to watch it from the stage. Or you could watch it from the big AIE screen and only have to be there about one hour before.
Remember to check the weather since Hoopla gets cancelled if it rains/thunderstorms.
Mid-day breaks inside the park: you could go inside the Animation Bldg. or One Man's Dream, the A/C feels sublime after waiting in lines.
There's also the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground if you want to let them blow off some energy.
Hope this helps, if you have any other questions just let us know

Once again many thanks for your help

You're welcome, happy planning

This is our first time attending Star Wars weekends. I have older children and an 8 year old - are they allowed to be in costume (Jedi) and get into the park, or is it the no costumes for big people rule? I would hate to get there and be turned away because they are in costume.

Costumes are actually encouraged. for both kids and adults. Like the other poster said, bring a change of clothes, it's not easy to wear a jedi robe or a darth Vader costume in the heat all day. Hydrate, hydrate,hydrate.

Thank you for the compliments on Baby G's nursery - I will let DH know his hard work is appreciated.

Does anyone recall when they have announced the hosts in years past? I'm thinking it was February'ish, but I don't remember. I'm really hoping JAT and Ashley are back again even though Clone Wars is over.

They actually announced them with the dates, here's the link to the release last year: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/12/star-wars-weekends-2013-dates-announced/

 

[BrianL]

So I was planning on the first weekend, but due to a conflict a friend of mine has we might do the second weekend. Are the crowds significantly worse? I haven't been in a peak time in a long time and don't know how to judge it from crowd calendars. Like I know the difference between a 4 and a 5, but not the difference in a 7 and an 8. Like, when does it get unweildy?

 

[Tasmen]

So I was planning on the first weekend, but due to a conflict a friend of mine has we might do the second weekend. Are the crowds significantly worse? I haven't been in a peak time in a long time and don't know how to judge it from crowd calendars. Like I know the difference between a 4 and a 5, but not the difference in a 7 and an 8. Like, when does it get unweildy?

I'm wondering the same thing. We picked memorial day weekend to go because I knew, at the time, that would be a Star Wars weekend. Now i'm wishing that we were going the weekend before. Oh wells Going to be a fun trip no matter what.

In our experience, the first day tended to have smaller crowds than the other 2.

 

[alayne]

I'm so excited to be able to post that we are finally going to our First Official SWW (we went to HS in 2000 but we had no idea it was SWW and we didn't see anything SW except a few Storm Troopers walking around.) It will be myself, DH and DS (our DD who will be turning two right before the trip will be staying home with MeMe and Papa).

This trip is one we have been working on since our DS turned 7. A few weeks before his 7 birthday (May 13th) he asked if we would take him to SWW instead of having a birthday party. Of course it was to late for us to plan a trip so we told him for his 8th Birthday we would go not knowing his little sister would show up on April 27th. So we promised for his 9th birthday but planning a 1st Birthday Party and having a new baby it just didn't work. So here we are booked and ready for his 10th Birthday at Disney for SWW!!!!!!!!

So we have booked CBR Pirate Room May 15 thru May 18th. (My DS is still in school so he can only miss two days.) We plan to drive down on Thursday - get to bed early and be at HS by 7 Friday morning. We want to spend all day Friday and Saturday at HS doing everything we can SW related. We just spent 16 days at disney in Nov/Dec and we are going back in March/April for another 5 days so we aren't looking to do the everyday things like TSM, RR, TOT, etc. We just want to focus on Characters, SW Shows, Parade and shopping. My DS has requested to eat at Ohana's Sunday morning so we will not be at HS early. If he has seen all he wants to see we will head home after breakfast (he has to go to school Monday morning no matter what time we get home Sunday night) if we missed something we will try to go back to HS on Sunday and then head home. We have no plans to see other parks since it's a short weekend and we have other trips planed during 2014.

I can't wait to read this thread from the start this weekend and catch up with everyone who is already planing. I have a list of questions already but I will wait till Sunday to post them since I haven't read everything yet. There is one that I would love to know now since I'm sure some of the resorts are booking fast.

Since this is my DS Birthday trip he requested the CBR Pirate Room (we stayed there in 2011 and he loved the Pirate Room). We have stayed at CBR lots of times in the past and really like the rooms, layout but have found the buses run really slow. What is the best resort to stay in if your plans are to spend everyday at HS? I can't afford Deluxe so I'm wondering if there is a Moderate or Value that is closer to HS with better access. We will have a car this trip but we have never used our car in the past. We have always just used Disney Transportation.

Thanks so much for creating this thread. Again, I can't wait to read all of it this weekend!!!

 

[yulilin3]

So I was planning on the first weekend, but due to a conflict a friend of mine has we might do the second weekend. Are the crowds significantly worse? I haven't been in a peak time in a long time and don't know how to judge it from crowd calendars. Like I know the difference between a 4 and a 5, but not the difference in a 7 and an 8. Like, when does it get unweildy?

I'm wondering the same thing. We picked memorial day weekend to go because I knew, at the time, that would be a Star Wars weekend. Now i'm wishing that we were going the weekend before. Oh wells Going to be a fun trip no matter what.

In our experience, the first day tended to have smaller crowds than the other 2.

Memorial Day weekend tends to be busier but with good planning it's still doable, And yes, Fridays are less crowded than the actual weekend but not by a lot. Don't worry about the crowd calendars as they are chanching their numbers all the time. We still don't know if the full MM+ will be rolled out by then so that is going to be a factor for the rides.
Since during the holiday weeks (these past 2 weeks) they had FP+ for the Comedy Warehouse show at the Premiere Theater I'm inclined to think that FP+ will be offered for the Premiere Theater shows. So at this time it's all about the planning

 

[yulilin3]

I'm so excited to be able to post that we are finally going to our First Official SWW (we went to HS in 2000 but we had no idea it was SWW and we didn't see anything SW except a few Storm Troopers walking around.) It will be myself, DH and DS (our DD who will be turning two right before the trip will be staying home with MeMe and Papa).

This trip is one we have been working on since our DS turned 7. A few weeks before his 7 birthday (May 13th) he asked if we would take him to SWW instead of having a birthday party. Of course it was to late for us to plan a trip so we told him for his 8th Birthday we would go not knowing his little sister would show up on April 27th. So we promised for his 9th birthday but planning a 1st Birthday Party and having a new baby it just didn't work. So here we are booked and ready for his 10th Birthday at Disney for SWW!!!!!!!!

So we have booked CBR Pirate Room May 15 thru May 18th. (My DS is still in school so he can only miss two days.) We plan to drive down on Thursday - get to bed early and be at HS by 7 Friday morning. We want to spend all day Friday and Saturday at HS doing everything we can SW related. We just spent 16 days at disney in Nov/Dec and we are going back in March/April for another 5 days so we aren't looking to do the everyday things like TSM, RR, TOT, etc. We just want to focus on Characters, SW Shows, Parade and shopping. My DS has requested to eat at Ohana's Sunday morning so we will not be at HS early. If he has seen all he wants to see we will head home after breakfast (he has to go to school Monday morning no matter what time we get home Sunday night) if we missed something we will try to go back to HS on Sunday and then head home. We have no plans to see other parks since it's a short weekend and we have other trips planed during 2014.

I can't wait to read this thread from the start this weekend and catch up with everyone who is already planing. I have a list of questions already but I will wait till Sunday to post them since I haven't read everything yet. There is one that I would love to know now since I'm sure some of the resorts are booking fast.

Since this is my DS Birthday trip he requested the CBR Pirate Room (we stayed there in 2011 and he loved the Pirate Room). We have stayed at CBR lots of times in the past and really like the rooms, layout but have found the buses run really slow. What is the best resort to stay in if your plans are to spend everyday at HS? I can't afford Deluxe so I'm wondering if there is a Moderate or Value that is closer to HS with better access. We will have a car this trip but we have never used our car in the past. We have always just used Disney Transportation.

Thanks so much for creating this thread. Again, I can't wait to read all of it this weekend!!!

I'm sure your son and you are going to have a blast. 2 full days of SWW is the best thing and you'll be able to get everything you plan for done (weather permiting)
The first post on this thread I put all the info on shows, characters, and general tips so that should give you a good start.
The resorts that are closer to DHS without being the deluxe ones are Pop Century and Art of Animation. I have stayed at the CBR in the pirates room once and they are so much fun. If you have your own vehicle I would highly recommend taking your car instead of relying on Disney buses especialy since you want to be there early.
Looking forward to all your questions.

 

[BrianL]

Memorial Day weekend tends to be busier but with good planning it's still doable, And yes, Fridays are less crowded than the actual weekend but not by a lot. Don't worry about the crowd calendars as they are chanching their numbers all the time. We still don't know if the full MM+ will be rolled out by then so that is going to be a factor for the rides.
Since during the holiday weeks (these past 2 weeks) they had FP+ for the Comedy Warehouse show at the Premiere Theater I'm inclined to think that FP+ will be offered for the Premiere Theater shows. So at this time it's all about the planning

Arrgh, I forgot that was Memorial Day weekend! I realise the SWW at DHS will be more crowded than usual no matter what, but I want to hit the other parks too. I'll have to think about this.

 

[ajh88]

Arrgh, I forgot that was Memorial Day weekend! I realise the SWW at DHS will be more crowded than usual no matter what, but I want to hit the other parks too. I'll have to think about this.

We were there over Memorial Day weekend last year. I won't lie - it was busy. Maybe the busiest and craziest I have ever seen DHS. I'm pretty sure we heard at least one CM mention that on Saturday, it was the busiest she had ever seen, including NYE. That said, we did everything we wanted and still had a great time. Friday felt much less busy than Saturday or Sunday - maybe we were just more energetic that day! The biggest difference I felt was that the entire park felt crowded on Saturday and Sunday, where on Friday, the Star Wars areas were crowded, but the rest of the park didn't feel so packed. Again, just our perception and it probably depends on what you enjoy doing there! On the upside, the weather was pretty nice!

No matter when you go, I'd strongly recommend getting there prior to posted park opening and, as yulilin has emphasized, prioritize what you want to do. I'm interested to see how things might be different with FP+, but I imagine it is probably safe to say you will accomplish the most by getting there early with a plan. We knew we were going all 3 days that weekend, so I think I let us pace ourselves a little more and not get so stressed out by the crowds.

I skipped the parks on Memorial Day itself - DD and I went to the spa while DH did a 4 parks in one day tour solo - he hit a couple of headliners at each park and I was pretty impressed he was able to do it. I think you could still do the other parks over the weekend too if you were pretty laid back about it - I still might skip Memorial Day itself, but if your trip is really short, you might not want to. Overall, I prefer any weekend in May to the weekends in June - any time we have gone in June, it has been busier and hotter. Perhaps it was just our luck of the draw, but we have had better luck with the May weekends.

 

[The Sunrise Student]

This year we are trying for weekend 3 (May 29th - June 1st) rather than weekends 1 & 2 that we attend SWW 2013, hoping that the crowds will be less than weekend one, and certainly much less than memorial weekend like last year.

Can anyone tell me if it REALLY makes that much of a difference?

 

[yulilin3]

This year we are trying for weekend 3 (May 29th - June 1st) rather than weekends 1 & 2 that we attend SWW 2013, hoping that the crowds will be less than weekend one, and certainly much less than memorial weekend like last year.

Can anyone tell me if it REALLY makes that much of a difference?

I can't talk for people that go to enjoy DHS's attractions and shows, since we are local during SWW we tend to only do SWW things. But I see little difference between the weekends.
True that the first Friday is insane for merchandise, true that Memorial weekend is busier and true that Friday are the slower of all three days, but other than that I don't see much difference.

 

[BrianL]

We were there over Memorial Day weekend last year. I won't lie - it was busy. Maybe the busiest and craziest I have ever seen DHS. I'm pretty sure we heard at least one CM mention that on Saturday, it was the busiest she had ever seen, including NYE. That said, we did everything we wanted and still had a great time. Friday felt much less busy than Saturday or Sunday - maybe we were just more energetic that day! The biggest difference I felt was that the entire park felt crowded on Saturday and Sunday, where on Friday, the Star Wars areas were crowded, but the rest of the park didn't feel so packed. Again, just our perception and it probably depends on what you enjoy doing there! On the upside, the weather was pretty nice!

No matter when you go, I'd strongly recommend getting there prior to posted park opening and, as yulilin has emphasized, prioritize what you want to do. I'm interested to see how things might be different with FP+, but I imagine it is probably safe to say you will accomplish the most by getting there early with a plan. We knew we were going all 3 days that weekend, so I think I let us pace ourselves a little more and not get so stressed out by the crowds.

I skipped the parks on Memorial Day itself - DD and I went to the spa while DH did a 4 parks in one day tour solo - he hit a couple of headliners at each park and I was pretty impressed he was able to do it. I think you could still do the other parks over the weekend too if you were pretty laid back about it - I still might skip Memorial Day itself, but if your trip is really short, you might not want to. Overall, I prefer any weekend in May to the weekends in June - any time we have gone in June, it has been busier and hotter. Perhaps it was just our luck of the draw, but we have had better luck with the May weekends.

The trip is going to encompass more than just the weekend. At this point, I am thinking arrive on Tuesday before the desired SWW (Memorial Day Weekend), then get out of there on Sunday or Monday.

 

[The Sunrise Student]

I can't talk for people that go to enjoy DHS's attractions and shows, since we are local during SWW we tend to only do SWW things. But I see little difference between the weekends.
True that the first Friday is insane for merchandise, true that Memorial weekend is busier and true that Friday are the slower of all three days, but other than that I don't see much difference.

I wondered about that because when we went last year, we saw a bit of a raise for memorial weekend, but not that much... So I wondered if it was the same across the 4 weekends.

We like the merch but we are really there for the experience and the shows, so I guess it's pucker time now and I wait with baited breath for the celebrity list to show up

 

[StayAwake]

Thanks for all the information so far! I'm a new AP holder, and have decided that my nephew's 12th birthday present will be a trip for the two of us to SWW.

I want him to help with the planning, so I'm not making too many plans yet, but am planning for us to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the 3rd weekend. I'm hoping that will allow us to get to most things.

For those that have gone in past years, what are your thoughts about making ADRs vs Counter Service? I like the idea of ADRs for the AC and guaranteed place to sit, but with celebrity autographs, JTA, the parade, and character meet & greets, it seems like it would be difficult to time things correctly.

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions, and I'm looking forward to sharing the excitement with all of you! Thanks in advance!

 

[yulilin3]

Thanks for all the information so far! I'm a new AP holder, and have decided that my nephew's 12th birthday present will be a trip for the two of us to SWW.

I want him to help with the planning, so I'm not making too many plans yet, but am planning for us to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the 3rd weekend. I'm hoping that will allow us to get to most things.

For those that have gone in past years, what are your thoughts about making ADRs vs Counter Service? I like the idea of ADRs for the AC and guaranteed place to sit, but with celebrity autographs, JTA, the parade, and character meet & greets, it seems like it would be difficult to time things correctly.

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions, and I'm looking forward to sharing the excitement with all of you! Thanks in advance!

You spend a great deal of time having an ADR, if you feel like it would be a great time to relax then do it, since you are planning on going for all 3 days you'll have time to sit down and relax for an hour and a half. It'll probably conflict with show times or autograph times. If you look at the first post there's the map with show times and autograph times so it can give you an idea as to what time to make your ressies.
What we do is, we watch the oarade and go straight to Backlot Express or ABC Commisary, at that time it's not that busy so we can be done in about 30 minutes.

 

[delmar411]

Thanks for all the information so far! I'm a new AP holder, and have decided that my nephew's 12th birthday present will be a trip for the two of us to SWW.

I want him to help with the planning, so I'm not making too many plans yet, but am planning for us to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the 3rd weekend. I'm hoping that will allow us to get to most things.

For those that have gone in past years, what are your thoughts about making ADRs vs Counter Service? I like the idea of ADRs for the AC and guaranteed place to sit, but with celebrity autographs, JTA, the parade, and character meet & greets, it seems like it would be difficult to time things correctly.

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions, and I'm looking forward to sharing the excitement with all of you! Thanks in advance!

The normal advice is no ADRs during SWW days. You can't really predict when you will be available during the day to sit and eat for so long. If you need an AC break, seeing the characters in Darth's Mall is good to do. It is really nice and comfortable in there.