It's not closed yet
I guess I'll post this here as well
Here are my thoughts on this year’s SWW:
Crowd Levels: Higher than last year and I’m expecting them to grow for next year’s event. The first Friday was crazy busy, along with second and third Sunday. Also much more people seemed to know it was SWW. In years past you could see people lost about the whole thing but this year. I saw many more people prepared and ready to take on their SWW day
Celebrities and host: James A Taylor did a superb job once again; he’s funny, engaging and entertaining. All of the celebs were awesome, as usual, with one exception, Amy Allen; she just seemed to not care, like she didn’t want to be here. I heard she took several breaks during her autograph sessions and wasn’t particularly nice to the CM. On the other side of that, Frank Oz, OMG, could've listened to that man speak for days, so engaging, entertaining, thought provoking. I hope they continue with these Conversations.
Having McDiarmid and Oz not signing autograph sucked but I understand completely why this was done. DHS couldn’t handle the amount of people camping out for days for them. It was a smart decision, IMO.
Shows and Theater: All the shows were pretty much the same as years past. Loved the addition of the huge screen in the background. The theater was not as hot as I thought it would be but the benches are so uncomfortable. I hope we have a better theater for next year but I wouldn’t count on it.
Character meals and specialty food: We had previous experiences with Jedi Mickey and Galactic Breakfast but the surprise hit was Rebel Hangar. The food, the ambiance and decorations and the prices were great. The character interaction was also good. Once you get over the fact that it’s not a character meal and you shouldn’t expect each character to come to your table it’s great to just see them walking around. The key to this experience was showing excitement for the characters and they would come and stop by your table, or you can just get up and get a quick pic. If Disney changes this to character meal the prices are sure to go up. I like the fact that there was an experience for all budgets.
Between breakfast and dinner I liked breakfast better, the atmosphere inside Sci Fi lends itself to SW, the dinner was fine but just not SW feely enough for me.
Characters: More characters came out in the morning around Backlot making for some fun and fast interactions. Amazing interactions with all of them, the queue lines were kept organized, rotating characters is always an issue but once you figured out their schedule it wasn’t hard to do. Having the schedule on
MDE this year helped a lot, especially for those coming other weekends. My only negative was the lack of a Sabine, Ezra and Chopper meet.
Legends of the Force Motorcade: same as years past, yes the parade route is short but there’s no way to have it anywhere else on DHS. They can’t have the full motorcade go to the JTA stage like they use to do because there’s simply no space over there for the amount of people following.
Autograph sessions: All of them in the afternoon created a problem for people wanting to see the shows. They should have some of them in the mornings, from 9 to 10am would work fine. The lines outside the park this year seemed shorter to me for weekend I thru III. Maybe it’s because all of the guests have come so many times before. Ray Park’s line weekend IV and V was a huge mystery. I’ve never seen his line be so crowded so early.
The other big change this year was that they were done inside the old AIE audition rooms. My theory is that this was the downfall of the standby and walk up line. Celebrities used to sign under tents around Echo Lake, they would see the people waiting in line, in the sun, for them. This gave them a sense of urgency and they got done with their guarantees and had time to take standby and even walk ups. This year this was not the case, only a few people were able to walk up. There was no sense of urgency once inside the A/C room, there was more general chit chat. We’ll see if they continue signing inside
Packages: having done the PP last year and DPP this year I think they are good deal. With the DPP being the better deal of the 2. Having the ability to go to all the SWW shows and not having to wait in line for Darth’s Mall was great. The parade viewing for DPP could’ve been better, but again not a lot of options on the short route. Thankfully they added the umbrellas by weekend II. Dessert party was great, plenty of tables this year, good desserts and drinks. Fireworks viewing better than last year because of the removal of the hat, still not awesome but you did get a great view of the Summoning of the Force pre show
The question of “is it worth it” is completely subjective; it might work for some and not others. You can still get a great view of both parade and fireworks without the package and a little planning.
Darth’s Mall: I love all the extra décor that they put into it but I felt that the merchandise was lacking this year. Nothing really seemed to catch my attention. Again small even though they tried to make it a 3 shop experience. They need to leave enough room for the Her Universe changing room. Most of the merchandise stayed well stocked throughout the event. The Boba Fett stein being the exception but it looked like it was something beyond Disney’s control.
My What were they thinking?!?!
Not having Sabine, Ezra and Chopper out for regular meet and greets. If you’re promoting the show have the characters out.
Ray Park having only one autograph session weekend V. Why? He only did his show Friday at 7pm he could’ve done 2 sessions that day and then 3 Saturday and Sunday
Not having standby tickets for Frank Oz…having people waiting in line for 8 hours is not smart. They get tired, cranky, dehydrated…then having only 50 standby wristbands for Saturday and Sunday. What’s the point, you still had people waiting for hours…bad costumer service on Disney’s part
My They knocked it out of the park!!
Rebel Hangar: good food, good atmosphere, good music and good prices.
Characters: All of the interactions were great, it seemed better than years past. Mickey sitting on the floor playing with kids, Chewie’s awesome hugs, bad guys at their baddest selves. Greedo asked for a kiss from Stephanie, they were all just awesome, fun meets.
It was so great to meet so many of you, truly, my favorite part. I’ll repost this to the reports thread along with links to all of our pictures
me and two other people are on the bus. Maybe it has to do with it being 350 am. 
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Thank you all so much for your recommendations, advice and all the laughs! I'm going to go through withdrawal from this group. I may have to find some way to do SWW again next year.
. I will post my thoughts on the other thread when I'm back. And thanks to 
