Official Star Wars Weekends Thread Tips and Tricks 2015

[keishashadow]

100% agree. Having a car there beats dealing with buses.

after a crazy long wait a few years ago after Fantasmic, have driven. Won't have a designated driver this year due to the dessert party (cheers!), hoping if we skip out after the FW it won't be quite as long of a wait.

You know you're close to your Disney Vacation when you can look at the 10 forecast on weather.com and see what the weather is predicted to be

5 days, 15 hours and 8 minutes till I board that plane!

lol uber planner!

DH got his work schedule, we now have our boots on the ground in MCO @ 4:30 pm on Friday woohoo. He will have no sleep since Thursday afternoon, will be the one looking like a Walker hehe.

My youngest graduates from college tomorrow. Taking a caravan of family up. University is so large, they split up the ceremonies. Found out his will have 1,300 students. will help me practice my WDW waiting skills.

OT Question For the Locals, have a concern re traffic due to construction on Buena Vista Drive. I posted on transportation board too. Staying @ HBC for the 'bonus' Friday night. Trying to remember if we can come down Backstage lane vs (Bonnet Creek Pkwy), cross Buena Vista & pick up Chelonia Pkwy into the BC area. I typically skip DTD area when driving in via the back roads from palm pkwy, taking the surface street route from airport vs the highway.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Attention everyone. One week to Star Wars Weekends. Now engaging hyperdrive.

 

[The Sunrise Student]

I read Cinderella ends on the 13th. This might be something to see for me as I have never watched the Rebels and its animated so might keep my 5yo granddaughter interested and little AC is always nice lol

Oh yeah, good AC break and a review to show what new characters you see roaming around that are now part of the SW cannon family.

 

[Music City Mama]

Sadly I have to report. We never made it on the plane today. We had flight delay after delay and finally they cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow. We We're originally supposed to board at 4pm. Wasn't until about 11pm when they cancelled. So we sat around for 8 hours since we showed up an hour early.

The bad. Our legoland day has now been messed up so we have to figure out when to get that in sence we already paid for the tickets. Which means we will have to mess with our disney schedule mid week.

The only good thing to come of it is we are getting reimbursed for the entire first leg of the flight and also giving is $200 vouchers for each ticket. So we basically got these flights for half price and we have the next set of flights almost paid for. But have to use them within a year so not sure if I can swing next years sww with them.

Crossing fingers for a better tomorrow and we can actually make it to Orlando.

The plane we were supposed to get on was deverted to another airport for an emergency landing. We were told it lost cabin pressure. They were supposed to get. A new plane to get the people that got deverted and then take us. But they had other issues I guess. We were told the plan was still coming in but for some reason they were not going to be allowed to fly again last night. It's with allegiant, they are a small airline and I don't think they have a bunch of standby aircraft. As far as the $200, that pretty much covers our entire ticket price. they are also reimbersing the flight to Orlando. So really we are getting about $300 per person along with $60 in food vouchers per person. They also put us up in a hotel and are claiming they will cover out lost room cost for last night. We will see. New flight time is 1:00pm today so crossing fingers here.

That stinks. I hate that it's messing with your Legoland plans, which now affects your Disney plans. Hoping everything works out with the flight today and you get some extra pixie dust once you get there!

 

[RedM94]

I think I have it now.


Good Morning Diser’s

I did a “battle plan” in Excel for my trip to SWW this year. I have attached a photo of it, and hope you are able to read it. I printed it in color, laminated it, and made it into a placemat for my son.

Part of the reason I am posting it is my ADR’s. I have two dinner ADR’s for Monday and Sunday. I am waiting to hear back from Disney regarding the RH. One of my son’s food allergies is sesame, and the Sith humus is decorated with black sesame dust. I want to be sure it will be safe for us to eat there.

As for Sunday, I am waiting to hear from Chef Albert at Sci-Fi to see if he is working that evening. He is the best when it comes to food allergies. We always make a point to visit with him if he is working. If you happen to see Chef Albert, tell him Manny Gordon said hello. He will know what you mean.

Long story short, I will be canceling one or the other, and will post here when I do. I also still need to tweak my Sci-Fi ADR for Saturday. I am hoping TSMM is included in the tour and that the FP won’t be needed.

http://s5.postimg.org/j347z22tj/image.jpg
http://s5.postimg.org/j347z22tj/image.jpg

 

[yulilin3]

after a crazy long wait a few years ago after Fantasmic, have driven. Won't have a designated driver this year due to the dessert party (cheers!), hoping if we skip out after the FW it won't be quite as long of a wait.



lol uber planner!

DH got his work schedule, we now have our boots on the ground in MCO @ 4:30 pm on Friday woohoo. He will have no sleep since Thursday afternoon, will be the one looking like a Walker hehe.

My youngest graduates from college tomorrow. Taking a caravan of family up. University is so large, they split up the ceremonies. Found out his will have 1,300 students. will help me practice my WDW waiting skills.

OT Question For the Locals, have a concern re traffic due to construction on Buena Vista Drive. I posted on transportation board too. Staying @ HBC for the 'bonus' Friday night. Trying to remember if we can come down Backstage lane vs (Bonnet Creek Pkwy), cross Buena Vista & pick up Chelonia Pkwy into the BC area. I typically skip DTD area when driving in via the back roads from palm pkwy, taking the surface street route from airport vs the highway.

Congrats on the Graduation!!
Ok I need help with this one: what's HBC?

 

[AngiTN]

That schedule is awesome! Jealous

 

[Music City Mama]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed already (it's hard to keep up with this thread!), but we really need to savor Star Wars Weekends this year. After the new film comes out, Star Wars popularity is going to have yet another resurgence, and people who weren't into SW before, will be by this time next year. SWW will look very different next year. Some things will be for the better, but I think next year will be crazy. Enjoy it this year before the masses really come out of the woodwork!

 

[R2D2]

@RedM94 awesome job on that itinerary!

 

[Skywise]

Ooh, that's a good question - What's the bus wait time after the last showing of Fantasmic at 10:30?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed already (it's hard to keep up with this thread!), but we really need to savor Star Wars Weekends this year. After the new film comes out, Star Wars popularity is going to have yet another resurgence, and people who weren't into SW before, will be by this time next year. SWW will look very different next year. Some things will be for the better, but I think next year will be crazy. Enjoy it this year before the masses really come out of the woodwork!

I was thinking about this as well. Might make things like VIP that much more attractive...

 

[yulilin3]

@RedM94 I love how you scheduled "sleep in" and got slightly confused with the "meet and greet/Darth Maul" before the park opened, then I saw you have the VIP, so it's Darth's Mall (just a heads up)
ADR's are kinda close together, are you planning on dropping some?
EDIT TO ADD: I just read your edited post about the ADRs

 

[yulilin3]

Ooh, that's a good question - What's the bus wait time after the last showing of Fantasmic at 10:30?

Not sure on this one. I would speculate that it should be better than leaving right after the fireworks though

 

[RedM94]

@RedM94 I love how you scheduled "sleep in" and got slightly confused with the "meet and greet/Darth Maul" before the park opened, then I saw you have the VIP, so it's Darth's Mall (just a heads up)
ADR's are kinda close together, are you planning on dropping some?

I updated my post with an explanation. Sorry about that. Still trying to learn how to post pictures.

 

[RedM94]

@RedM94 awesome job on that itinerary!

Thank you. Now all I need to do is enter it into the calendar on my phone.

 

[Dugette]

Not only can you not currently get RH reservations, you can't even cancel them (from my MDE):

Sorry, cancellation of this reservation is currently unavailable.

That must be quite some glitch they are having.

 

[soniam]

@RedM94
I read a couple of reviews from last year. They said TSMM and Star Tours were included as rides. Also, I believe it was posted that they were included from someone who had asked Disney about this year's VIP. I think you could safely switch the TSMM FP+. TOT and/or RNRC are also possibilities on the tour.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I wonder if the site DisneyDiningBuddy is going to start to put a wrinkle in the drop/pickup coordination? It probably wouldn't for RH since it's not loaded in their system yet but it could for the others TS locations. I don't know what system they use to scout for openings but it's possible for someone to drop and their system notify someone of it and they grab it before the other person that wants it can.

FWIW, the DisneyDiningBuddy notifications don't come right when an ADR becomes available, because they're not constantly pinging the system, apparently. Since I've switched my H&V ADR so many times and still have a notification set up, I actually get notified when my dropped ADR becomes available. The notification time has varied between 5 and 20 minutes after dropping before I get a notification.

Also, when I was coordinating a drop from another DISer, the ADR he was dropping, showed up, then disappeared, then showed back up about 20 minutes later. So I do think there's a delay in the system sometimes.

 

[Candleshoe]

Sadly I have to report. We never made it on the plane today. We had flight delay after delay and finally they cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow. We We're originally supposed to board at 4pm. Wasn't until about 11pm when they cancelled. So we sat around for 8 hours since we showed up an hour early.

The bad. Our legoland day has now been messed up so we have to figure out when to get that in sence we already paid for the tickets. Which means we will have to mess with our disney schedule mid week.

The only good thing to come of it is we are getting reimbursed for the entire first leg of the flight and also giving is $200 vouchers for each ticket. So we basically got these flights for half price and we have the next set of flights almost paid for. But have to use them within a year so not sure if I can swing next years sww with them.

Crossing fingers for a better tomorrow and we can actually make it to Orlando.

Oh nooos.. I'm sorry this happened. Fingers crossed! Will the airline -- or your schedule -- allow you to push out your return date by a day to adjust for this? They should! Free! (as long as you have a day extra you can stay).

 

[Skywise]

Also, when I was coordinating a drop from another DISer, the ADR he was dropping, showed up, then disappeared, then showed back up about 20 minutes later. So I do think there's a delay in the system sometimes.

Definitely - From what I can gather dining reservations for particular restaurants seem to be tied to different systems. (Because sometimes you won't be able to look up reservations for certain restaurants but others work perfectly well). Releasing ADRs back to the pool seems to sometimes happen instantaneously or sometimes takes up to an hour to appear on the system. It implies to me there's another system in there that's responsible for collecting the freed reservations and putting them back on the chart and it's not always working (because its behavior isn't consistent).

TL: DR - ADRs are a gamble even with a sniper service or doing a person to person "trade"