Official Star Wars Weekends 2014 Tips and Tricks

[obx_mama]

Yeah, pretty spoiled

We are happy that you are, so you can give us the inside scoop!

 

[obx_mama]

Yeah, pretty spoiled

We are happy that you are, so you can give us the inside scoop!

 

[delmar411]

Lucky you to be a local! That's okay if the kids are out of school as I doubt their families would require a hotel room. I am worried about the value resorts being at capacity before I get around to booking.

I would book now to ensure having a room and cancel if it turns out you can't make it. Early June is quite a busy time as a large portion of the country is already out of school then. With the terrible weather this winter it may turn out that a large portion of the country is still in school for all of June so you may be in luck with smaller than avg crowds at that time.

 

[lemonears6]

We are going to be at disney May 25-May 31st
We plan to do 3 days magic kingdom 2 days hollywood studios. We want to for sure due Friday the 30th at Hollywood studios for SWW. Trying to decide if we should do our second day there on Thursday or Saturday. So eather
M- Mk M-MK
T-MK T-MK
W- off day OR W- off day
Th-MK Th- HS
F-HS F-HS
S-HS S- MK

 

[fozziepitysthefool]

I would book now to ensure having a room and cancel if it turns out you can't make it. Early June is quite a busy time as a large portion of the country is already out of school then. With the terrible weather this winter it may turn out that a large portion of the country is still in school for all of June so you may be in luck with smaller than avg crowds at that time.

Thanks delmar411! I think I will go ahead and book. I never thought that the schools could go longer... interesting.

 

[lovegrumpy]

I just looked and found out were going to be there for Star Wars Weekend. DS#2 is excited about this me not so much. So i'm trying to get all the info I can.

 

[Reizo]

I just looked and found out were going to be there for Star Wars Weekend. DS#2 is excited about this me not so much. So i'm trying to get all the info I can.

The funny thing is that in my small family of 3, I'm the Star Wars fan and my DW and DD3, were pretty new to Star Wars when I began planning a SWW trip to Disney last year before our Disney Cruise.

After getting them involved in the planning, watching every Star Wars movie with them and explaining every little detail I could rolleyes2 I'm a big SW nerd here, haha.) I think it really opened a chance for us to get excited together, some bonding time occurred and when we finally went, we had a blast!

So getting all the info and planning with your DS will get you excited and I'm sure you'll end up being the same and have a blast when you go.

 

[The Sunrise Student]

Do you think they were practicing for Hoopla?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqfHvoUtkU

 

[Alicatt]

We will be in Disney for SWW but I think that it might be too overwhelming for my 2 preschoolers and my parents. My son is a huge star wars fan but, since this is his first trip to Disney, I don't want to push it. My question is, does any of the SWW stuff carry over into the week. I know the JTR and StarTours are permanent attractions, but can you buy any fun snack items or souvenirs that you normally could not?

 

[FreeThinker]

Can some of you post your daily touring plans? When you will arrive, ride, eat, autograph, ect? Are certain days better than others? We plan to be there on a Sunday, if all goes as planned. Do you have to wait for each autograph, or do they do them in groups (like 3 in a row, like they do Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, or Minnie, Mickey and someone else).

 

[lovethattink]

We will be in Disney for SWW but I think that it might be too overwhelming for my 2 preschoolers and my parents. My son is a huge star wars fan but, since this is his first trip to Disney, I don't want to push it. My question is, does any of the SWW stuff carry over into the week. I know the JTR and StarTours are permanent attractions, but can you buy any fun snack items or souvenirs that you normally could not?

There is an R2-D2 popcorn bucket that has been sold year round. I've seen it at the popcorn stand near the Brown Derby most recently.

They had a dessert that was inside an R2-D2 mug for the last 2 years. I'm not sure if this was weekend exclusive or not.

The SWW t-shirts are only sold during SWW.

Last year they released a different gift card each weekend. We thought they were event exclusive, however, I was at Tatooine Traders last week and all 4 styles were available again.

Can some of you post your daily touring plans? When you will arrive, ride, eat, autograph, ect? Are certain days better than others? We plan to be there on a Sunday, if all goes as planned. Do you have to wait for each autograph, or do they do them in groups (like 3 in a row, like they do Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, or Minnie, Mickey and someone else).

My family pretty much wings it. If they are getting celebrity autographs, our day is planned around the FP return time for that. And we don't know until after 7am the day of, when they get the FP.

For the character autographs, it depends. There is a rotation. KTP usually puts it up as soon as he finds out, however, Disney will not officially say who's going to be where and when.

Typically the Fab 4 and possibly R2-MK rotate. Boba Fett and Jengo Fett rotate. Darth Mall stays at the same spot. Darth Vader at the same spot. The Jedis have rotated between Mace Windu, Shaakti, and Anakin. The Clone Wars characters rotated (but not sure what's happening between them and Rebels). But the Clone War characters were Ventress, Rex, Cody, Ahsoka. Chewbacca was sometimes alone and sometimes with an Ewok. Chip and Dale were together last year dressed as Ewoks.

 

[yulilin3]

Can some of you post your daily touring plans? When you will arrive, ride, eat, autograph, ect? Are certain days better than others? We plan to be there on a Sunday, if all goes as planned. Do you have to wait for each autograph, or do they do them in groups (like 3 in a row, like they do Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, or Minnie, Mickey and someone else).

It really depends on what you want to do.
Getting before the park opens gives you a huge advantage on character lines. Check Kenny The Pirate's site, the link is on the first page of this thread so you can have an idea on wait times and popularity of characters.
We like to grab a spot for parade around 9:30 to guarantee we have a shady spot and eat right after the parade at 11:30am so we avoid the crowds later on.

 

[franandaj]

Subbing! I just found this thread and I'm so excited. We are going to our first SWW this year and while we are WDW Vets, we are SWW rookies! After I read everything, I will probably still have questions, but I'll wait to see if they have already been answered in the pages back.

 

[d-r]

We will be in Disney for SWW but I think that it might be too overwhelming for my 2 preschoolers and my parents. My son is a huge star wars fan but, since this is his first trip to Disney, I don't want to push it. My question is, does any of the SWW stuff carry over into the week. I know the JTR and StarTours are permanent attractions, but can you buy any fun snack items or souvenirs that you normally could not?

This is just IMHO, you know your family better than I do.
But I would go to star wars weekend.
It is only as big a deal as you make it.
We have gone three or four weekends a year for the last three or four years.
My daughter is six now.
Some days we hit it hard. We are there at 3 am for a big celebrity autograph. Or the kids are wanting to get specific character autographs. Or they want to do jedi training or padawan challenge. Most days we hit is soft. We get there early. We get an autograph fast pass. We go to toy story at rope drop. It is the best days of the year to go to toy story at rope drop because the park usually opens before most people expect it to. So you can ride it three or four times if you want. Then we hang out and do what we want, catch some star wars characters. Here's the thing. If you don't want to "push it" don't try to get every character. Just get some. If your kids want to do jedi training this has gotten crazy on star wars weekends so if they don't mind fighting darth vader and not getting a chance for assaj ventriess or darth maul then do jedi training on a regular day. Last year it was a bigger rope drop mess than toy story. Sign up for padawan mind challenge first thing instead if your kids want to do that. Anyway, if they want to see darth vader go do that right after riding toy story first thing. That is the longest character lines. The worst character lin is the disney characters in star wars costumes. It is in the hot sun and the characters are hot so they rotate quickly and trying to time it to get all of them can be hard. If the kids will be happy to see anyone catch the roaming 'dark side' characters by pixar place in the afternoon (gamorean guard, storm troopers, tuskan raiders, aura sing, zam weasel, etc.) you can wait here for darth maul or the fetts (boba and jango rotate) and catch the roamers in the afternoon. or the clone wars characters (clone troopers, asoka, ventress) as long as the kids won't get upset that the character changes when they get up there. Like you may get in line for captain rex and then he changes with commander cody, that sort of thing. the jedi council can be an easy line too as long as you don't mind seeing anakin - basically kit fisto never comes out. They started putting Luke/Leah/droids in the jabba merchandise tent and this line can get long because it is inside, but the good thing is that it is inside. the kids like just going in there and shopping.

so what I'm saying is, don't be afraid of the crowds because you don't have to do everything. Just go watch the parade for that matter. it's only as stressful as you want to make it. Its all for fun.

Hey here are some pictures from previous years=
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114635202254762309027/albums/5638149663137790273


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102404813112064.3525479.2354663&type=1&l=21d26239c9



https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10103651106634854.1073741838.2354663&type=1&l=ca966bd096

 

[franandaj]

OK read through the whole thread and still have some questions.

1) We are D23 members so we are used to "Disney seminars". Is that what we can expect from the events in the Premier Theater? How early does one need to line up for these events? I saw in 2013 that there was a 12:00 and 1:45 event that sounded the same, are they or should we plan on both? Plus there were more throughout the day, are these things like at D23 conventions that you need to pick and choose and line up for the 6:30 PM one at 12:00 if you want to go and skip everything else, or can you go to the 3:30PM event and still have a hope of getting into the 6:30 one too?

2) There was a 3:30 event Stars of the Saga Talk Show Q&A, was this and the previous shows the same for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the same weekend or did they have different shows so that if we saw Friday's, we would want to come back for a different show Saturday and Sunday?

3) What is Hyperspace Hoopla, is it a dance party? I couldn't tell from the description. Is it something that we should attend all three nights that we plan on SWW or just one or at all?

4) We are going to be there for the 3rd weekend and have allotted all three days for the event because we have no idea what to expect. We would like to attend the panels, see the parade and some characters. We are an older couple with no kids and have HA needs. Where is the HA parade viewing location?

 

[Reizo]

OK read through the whole thread and still have some questions.

1) We are D23 members so we are used to "Disney seminars". Is that what we can expect from the events in the Premier Theater? How early does one need to line up for these events? I saw in 2013 that there was a 12:00 and 1:45 event that sounded the same, are they or should we plan on both? Plus there were more throughout the day, are these things like at D23 conventions that you need to pick and choose and line up for the 6:30 PM one at 12:00 if you want to go and skip everything else, or can you go to the 3:30PM event and still have a hope of getting into the 6:30 one too?

2) There was a 3:30 event Stars of the Saga Talk Show Q&A, was this and the previous shows the same for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the same weekend or did they have different shows so that if we saw Friday's, we would want to come back for a different show Saturday and Sunday?

3) What is Hyperspace Hoopla, is it a dance party? I couldn't tell from the description. Is it something that we should attend all three nights that we plan on SWW or just one or at all?

4) We are going to be there for the 3rd weekend and have allotted all three days for the event because we have no idea what to expect. We would like to attend the panels, see the parade and some characters. We are an older couple with no kids and have HA needs. Where is the HA parade viewing location?

I'll let yulilin3 or the others answer your questions because they are more SWW inclined than I am however, since I was still awake at this odd earliness of the morning and just felt inclined to answer #3 for you.

Hyperspace Hoopla really is hard to be explained and should just be seen:

http://youtu.be/GKSp1dVTrYk

But in shortest description, it's a dance off show featuring Star Wars characters dancing off to popular pop songs in a Rebel vs Empire, Jedi vs Sith, Light Side vs Dark side sort of storyline. Some and most hardcore SW fans dislike it but if you're a SW fan like me and just enjoy the fun and humor that's offered and realizing it's for the kids, you'll enjoy it anyway and might even catch yourself having a good time but I wouldn't IMO attend it all 3 evenings. Once you've seen it once, that's good enough The songs change each year and it seems the storyline (if you want to call it that) advances just a bit too with each one.

 

[RAPstar]

Looking at my dates, seems like I'll be there the first weekend. Is the first weekend more crowded than the other, or is it pretty consistent? I'm excited either way, it will be my first time going.

 

[yulilin3]

OK read through the whole thread and still have some questions.

1) We are D23 members so we are used to "Disney seminars". Is that what we can expect from the events in the Premier Theater? How early does one need to line up for these events? I saw in 2013 that there was a 12:00 and 1:45 event that sounded the same, are they or should we plan on both? Plus there were more throughout the day, are these things like at D23 conventions that you need to pick and choose and line up for the 6:30 PM one at 12:00 if you want to go and skip everything else, or can you go to the 3:30PM event and still have a hope of getting into the 6:30 one too?

2) There was a 3:30 event Stars of the Saga Talk Show Q&A, was this and the previous shows the same for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the same weekend or did they have different shows so that if we saw Friday's, we would want to come back for a different show Saturday and Sunday?

3) What is Hyperspace Hoopla, is it a dance party? I couldn't tell from the description. Is it something that we should attend all three nights that we plan on SWW or just one or at all?

4) We are going to be there for the 3rd weekend and have allotted all three days for the event because we have no idea what to expect. We would like to attend the panels, see the parade and some characters. We are an older couple with no kids and have HA needs. Where is the HA parade viewing location?

1.- First of all...no, you don't need to get in line 5 hours before an event to get a seat. The Behind the Force show is the same for 12 and 1:45pm so you can pick whick one you want to go to. The Q&A show is basically the same with the same visiting celebs each weekend, the questions may be different for Fri, Sat. and Sun. but the show stays pretty much the same. I always say to get in line for each of the shows at Premiere Theater an hour before, unless it's visit to the Maul, this one is very popular and people line up a bit earlier (maybe 1 hour and a half before the show) I have gone to all the shows at the Premiere Theater on the same day so it's doable.

2.- Read number 1, again the interactions might be slightly different but it stays pretty much the same.

3.- Someone already answered this one...if you love it you can see it all 3 nights but this show is exactly the same every night (unless it's the last night of the last SWW they have added new surprises on the very last one)

4.-Is HA handicapped? if it is, It's a very small area on Hollywood Blvd. between the Tip Board and the Hat, you'll see it marked. I would recommend arriving early to grab a spot on the shady side (the left side facing the Hat) they have spaces on the left and right but the left side will guarantee the most shade.

 

[yulilin3]

Looking at my dates, seems like I'll be there the first weekend. Is the first weekend more crowded than the other, or is it pretty consistent? I'm excited either way, it will be my first time going.

All SWW stay pretty consistent, the first weekend you will have more crowds on Friday only for Merchandise. So you might see a huge line forming outside before the park opens that will go straight to the merch. tent on Friday. These are people that buy the collectibles and Limited Edition merch. So the crowds will concentrate around the merch. tent behind Rock n Rollercoaster. If you want to buy stuff that first Friday go after 3pm and you shouldn't have a problem going inside the tent.
In general, Fridays seem to be the least crowded of the 3 days because a lot of locals (like me) have work/school.

 

[BrianL]

Well, thanks to everyone for helping me out earlier, but due to scheduling issues and concerns about crowds and such for my friend (for whom this is his first trip in 15 years) I've had to take a pass on SWW. I'll be there just a week prior, but it works out for the best cost/scheduling wise. So, enjoy the Force and maybe someday I'll get to check out the SWW. In the meantime, I have a nice, moderate crowds week and can check out the tail end of Flower a& Garden at Epcot, so all is well. Have fun, everybody!