Official Star Wars Weekends Thread Tips and Tricks 2015

[lovethattink]

Ok, I've read all the ways people keep cool. My gut tells my 7 year old with sensory issues isn't going to like the menthol cooling things (though I might). For you native floridians - what is the best cooling gadget? Misting fan? Frog togs? Another brand?

My son sometimes fights drinking water when he gets too overheated (completely counterintuitive but whatever) so I need to keep him cool in order to keep him hydrated. @lovethattink could you weigh in?

We spent an arm and a leg on a new cooling vest for ds. It uses four giant "ice packs". They re-freeze at 58 degrees. So no freezer needed!

http://www.disboards.com/threads/st...and-a-day-at-sea.3406184/page-2#post-53615449

He likes the deep pressure it provides.

Best to hydrate before you go to the park and continue while at the park. We all start drinking water the night before. My son loves those canteens or tumblers with a plastic straw. It's the only way I can get him to drink water. He been drinking water like never before after we got him the May the 4th tumbler.

He also like to play with a misting fan. He's been using a MistyMate. No batteries needed, you add water, pump, then push a button at the top. He loves it, but they break easy. He likes the novelty of it. But his broke on May the 4th which caused issues. A rubber band thing on the inside popped off the plunger thing and the pump stopped working. There was no way to fix it.

We've tried so many water based cooling systems, and with the heat and humidity, you have to keep rewetting with cool water. My son's cooling vest is suppose to get him 2 hours of cooling, but his old one lasted about 10 minutes in direct sunlight. Hoping the bigger "ice packs" last at least twice as long.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I just got my VIP confirmation email. It contains different information than the emails posted earlier so I thought I'd share.

Jedi’s, Padawans, Rebels & the XXX Family,

Your Ultimate Day at Star Wars™ Weekend – A Disney World VIP Tour Experience is just around the corner. To prepare you for your visit we wanted to provide you with additional information and make sure that the information we have regarding your party is correct:

·Your fellow participants – XX, XX

·Allergies or Special Dietary Restrictions/Concerns? – None

·Will anyone in your party be traveling in a wheelchair or electronic convenience vehicle? - No

·Best contact number to reach you while visiting Walt Disney World? XX

·Will you be arriving at 6:45am at Disney’s Hollywood Studios - Guest Relations Window OR at 8:15am for Breakfast at the Hollywood Brown Derby? 6:45am

Overview of your Ultimate Day at Star Wars™ Weekends VIP Tour Experience

Your day will begin with a meet & greet with a character from the Dark Side followed by exclusive shopping time at Darth’s Mall. Afterwards, breakfast will be served at the Hollywood Brown Derby. Next you’ll enjoy some of the parks most exciting attractions before heading to your reserved location for the Legends of the Force: Star Wars™ Celebrity Motorcade. Lunch will be served at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano. During the afternoon, you’ll the have best seats in the house for our most sought after Star Wars™ Weekends offerings at the Theater of the Stars. After the guided portion of your tour concludes you’ll have a break in the afternoon to enjoy the park on your own or head back to the resort for a well-deserved nap. Around 8:45pm you’ll have access to the Feel the Force Dessert Party featuring a DJ Dance party, VIP Viewing of the Finale Show – Summon the Force and a great location to view our Symphony in the Stars Fireworks Finale. Here is a snapshot of your day:

Tip

Before you arrive download the FREE Aurasma app on your smart phone. You’ll have a variety of opportunities to enhance your Star Wars Weekends digital experience! See the link .

Itinerary with your Walt Disney World VIP Tour Guides

6:30am Meet outside Disney’s Hollywood Studios - Guest Relations Window

7:15am Character Meet & Greet and Shopping at Darth’s Mall

8:15am Breakfast at The Hollywood Brown Derby

9:15am Visit some of our most popular attractions

11:00am VIP Viewing for Legends of the Force: Star Wars™ Celebrity Motorcade

11:45pm Lunch at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano

1:45pm VIP Seating for the Star Wars™ Rebels Show

3:15pm VIP Seating for the Stars of the Saga Show

Optional Evening Itinerary included in your Ultimate VIP Tour

7:00pm VIP Seating for Obi-Wan & Beyond Show

8:45pm Feel the Force Dessert & Dance Party Begins

9:30pm Summon the Force Finale Show on the Main Stage

9:45pm Symphony in the Stars Fireworks

Jedi Training Academy Information - Must RSVP via e-mail by Saturday, May X, 2015

If you have a Padawan between the ages of 4-12 confirmed for The Ultimate Day at Star Wars™ Weekends VIP Tour, you may pre-book them into one Jedi Training Academy Experience during your vacation stay. Here are the criteria and instructions:

·Child must have a confirmed, paid reservation to participate in The Ultimate Day at Star Wars™ Weekends VIP Tour

·You must schedule your Jedi Training Academy Experience at least 5 days in advance by calling our office at 407 934-7973

·You may schedule your Jedi Training Academy Experience anytime during your vacation stay.

·We suggest that, if possible, you participate on another day, earlier in the day. Sometimes entertainment may be canceled due to inclement weather

·Once scheduled, you will not be able to change your time.

·If you miss your show or it is canceled due to circumstances beyond our control, it cannot be rescheduled

·You must arrive at ABC Sound Studios Exit/Padawan Check In 30 minutes prior to your reservation to check in for the Jedi Training Academy Experience

·At the check in location, your child must agree to a variety of questions to confirm their interest – Are you interested in participating? Do you understand that you can’t switch to the Dark Side? etc.

·When you are ready to schedule, please call our Disney Ultimate VIP Tour line at 407 934-7973

Making it to your VIP Tour on time

You will need to drive or take a taxi in order to arrive for your tour on time. Walt Disney World Transportation begins running no earlier than one hour prior to park opening. If you are staying in the Epcot Resort Area, you can walk from most of those resorts. You may ask your concierge for your best options. If you are running late, please call our VIP Tour Coordinator at 407 913-1388 so that we can make arrangements to get you to join the tour in progress.

Guest Policies for the Ultimate Day at Star Wars™ Weekends

•Theme Park admission is not included with your tour fee and is required to enter the park

•Guest under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a paying adult

•There is a 7 day cancelation policy, after which full price will be forfeited

•Late arrivals may not be able to join the tour promptly

•Tour occurs rain or shine with the exception of severe inclement weather

•Tour itinerary is subject to change without notice

•Food allergies must be mentioned at least 48 hours in advance

•Comfortable shoes are recommended

•Please allow up to one and half hours to travel to your destination when traveling within WDW property

•This tour is wheelchair and ECV accessible, however guest must be able to transfer in order to experience some attractions

•Photography and/or video may not be allowed during certain aspects of this tour

Do you need to respond to this message? If so, please reply no later than Saturday, May X, 2015

You do not need to respond to this message unless any of the following applies to your party :

·We have a wrong or misspelled name or names

·We don’t have the correct cell phone for your travels

·We don’t have your party’s food allergies/restrictions properly notated

·You have a child between the ages of 4-12 years that wishes to participate in the Jedi Training Academy

·You are going to start your tour with breakfast at the Hollywood Brown Derby not shopping at Darth’s Mall


Please reply via e-mail with any information that we need to add or correct. If you have questions or need to clarify any of this information you may reply to this message or call our office at 407 934-7973 and leave a message. Your calls will be returned as soon as time allows.

Trying to figure out the differences... The aurasma app mention, and the deadline to respond to the email?

 

[soniam]

@Cynister

Thank you for posting. What weekend will you be attending?

I looked at the roll call thread below. @Cynister will be doing the VIP on 5/24 (weekend II). Weekend II has 4 shows: Rebels, SOTS, Ewok, and Obi Wan. The email only lists 3. Hopefully, that's just a generic email, and all weekends get all available shows. It was confirmed that DPP would, assuming that info was correct to begin with.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/sww-2015-roll-call.3358654/

 

[Candleshoe]

^^ PS this scares the hell out of me when I see:

"12:00pm-3:00pm….Merchandise signing with Ashley Eckstein, Voice of Ahsoka Tano and designer of Her Universe Apparel"

Hopefully they will let her sign my poster too! I am planning to buy stuff from her at the event.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. Signing events are usually pretty restricted.

 

[SnowChaser]

We have the following set, and I'm wondering if it's too much to cram in:

11am motorcade (FtF)
11:35 Star Tours FP
12:10 Hollywood Brown Derby

This seemed perfect to me at first, but I'm having doubts now about that FP time.

Thoughts?

 

[Cynister]

@Cynister

Thank you for posting. What weekend will you be attending?

Yep, like Sonia said, week 2.

Trying to figure out the differences... The aurasma app mention, and the deadline to respond to the email?

The differences I noticed were the instructions to email RSVP rather than call as well as the difference in shows.

I looked at the roll call thread below. @Cynister will be doing the VIP on 5/24 (weekend II). Weekend II has 4 shows: Rebels, SOTS, Ewok, and Obi Wan. The email only lists 3. Hopefully, that's just a generic email, and all weekends get all available shows. It was confirmed that DPP would, assuming that info was correct to begin with.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/sww-2015-roll-call.3358654/

I noticed 1 was missing as well. Not sure what to think of it.

 

[Monykalyn]

I think I went a bit overboard this year lol

You guys look great!

 

[katrina1122]

We got the email to test the food pre-order app too. I'm not going to bother, it just seems like more effort that it will be worth. We eat when we get hungry and I don't want to have to hike to the pick up point if we are on the other end of the park.

 

[mykidsrqts]

Guinea Pigs are useful that way. I'll be posting constantly on Friday, I'll talk to each character handler to get a tentative schedule and post it here in real time so people coming Saturday have an idea on schedules. Let's see how many characters I can meet that day

Thanks! We'll be there all day Saturday.

 

[loribird]

Guinea Pigs are useful that way. I'll be posting constantly on Friday, I'll talk to each character handler to get a tentative schedule and post it here in real time so people coming Saturday have an idea on schedules. Let's see how many characters I can meet that day

Thanks very much for this! I am going weekend four, so I will be glued to this thread watching everyone else's updates. I am waiting for the character schedules before I put together my final touring plans

 

[Monykalyn]

Thanks very much for this! I am going weekend four, so I will be glued to this thread watching everyone else's updates. I am waiting for the character schedules before I put together my final touring plans

We will be there weekend IV (Fri/Sat) and Fri of weekend V. Was starting to feel I was going to be alone on Weekend IV as so many will be in the Guinea Pig Weekend! Although it will be easier to get a plan after the first couple weekends reports.

 

[SnowChaser]

Just dropped a Galactic Breakfast 5/22 8am for 2

 

[Teamanderson]

Anyone else having trouble looking for RH openings? It won't let me click on any dates, they are all greyed out

 

[CampbellzSoup]

You guys look great!

Thank you SO much it took a LOT to get him in those robes too! But when we did we felt like super stars I gotta be honest leading up to it I felt so nervous but everyone was saying we looked awesome and people took pictures of US too it was awesome!

The characters loved them too! I got them on Amazon for 40 each and the sabers for 4 dollars each too it looks like since Star Wars weekend is coming they jacked the prices up too which isn't nice.

Star Wars with Disney characters is nothing but perfection for me it was an amazing experience I wouldn't trade it for the world

DH was whining how 50s prime time looked better ...now I have an excuse to go back

PS this is NOT an inexpensive experience...the two of us WITHOUT fantastic and with tip was $140.00. So just brace yourself!

 

[loribird]

We will be there weekend IV (Fri/Sat) and Fri of weekend V. Was starting to feel I was going to be alone on Weekend IV as so many will be in the Guinea Pig Weekend! Although it will be easier to get a plan after the first couple weekends reports.

I will see you there on Weekend IV! It's going to be exciting watching all the updates and using the info to plan, but it will be hard waiting so long for the trip!

Anyone else having trouble looking for RH openings? It won't let me click on any dates, they are all greyed out

I don't even see Rebel Hangar showing up to try to book...

 

[yulilin3]

Anyone else having trouble looking for RH openings? It won't let me click on any dates, they are all greyed out

The page has been down all day. Someone reported they couldn't even cancel a reservation for it.

 

[Da Splatter Man]

I'm going to SWW either may 15th or 16th. Is their any bonus for going opening day or is better to go the 16th because opening day is probably super crowded? Looking to buy some sweet merch and it seems no really big stars will be there except in June. Any advice would be awesome!

 

[kennythepirate]

It may have been both of us. He will be updating the app throughout that first day as he finds out information. Right @kennythepirate ?

Yes, always do this. Not only first day, but repeated through the weekends.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Yes, always do this. Not only first day, but repeated through the weekends.

Kenny just make sure you note Mickey is the character photo for the diner this year it's an excellent photo too! Also your site is awesome I use my character locator app while I'm down here and it's PERFECT.

Btw the WHOLE Hollywood Studios was in line for Baymax...

Are you guys excited or WHAT for Star Wars weekend!? I have a huge feeling that once the new movies come out this weekend is going to be jam pack booked so this to me is the last fan event before it explodes!