Official Star Wars Weekends Thread Tips and Tricks 2015

[Tltorrez]

Sitting on the ledge waiting for fireworks.

 

[Tltorrez]

For all of you doing RH, can you give us a rough estimate turnaround time from entry to food delivery? Is it really feasible to try to do RH between the 3 pm and 5 pm shows, so long as you have a FP for both of those shows....and still have decent seats?

Our food delivery was super fast. But we were early. Not sure if it changed later. We were in and out in under an hour. Ordered food and then desserts.

 

[RedM94]

Just checking in...

In the premium package dessert party. They sure did sell a lot of these. This place is a zoo if you ask me. I don't think I will do any more of these dessert party's. I feel like they don't care about the experience anymore and just prefer to make money and pack them in.

Also just got out of the rebel hanger. Got pics with Ezra and Sabine so that was super cool. But they wouldn't sign autographs. Said they were on a secret mission and didn't want to leave evedence of them behind. Cool experience non the less

@Artax.

That is a shame. It was not like that last year. When I saw a.llof the tables in the picture posted I thought oversold. I was at the same dessert party as sunshine student last year and it was not crowded at all.

 

[mamadragona]

So please forgive me for not searching through so many pages on this thread! Because of our travel schedule we will only be in Hollywood studios Sat May 30 morning although we will not participate in any of the Star Wars activities. We will then hop to Epcot around 11:30-12:00. On the very first post, it says they usually open unofficiLly at 7:30am. We are planning on being there early to head to toy story so we can save our fast passes for epcot.

So my questions are- how early can we catch a bus that morning (from AOA), is there still a big mad dash to toy story, and are the non Star Wars attractions (Disney jr show and characters, RNR, TOT, and frozen sing along) largely ignored by most who would be there for special Star Wars attractions? Any tips or advice are appreciated. Thanks.

Don't know if anyone replied yet, since I haven't made it through the new posts.

We are at AoA and got the early bus today to MK which was 6:45 supposedly, but it left at 6:40. So whatever they tell you at information, go early!

 

[meuseman]

A word to the wise on RH... The characters stop at a certain time. We had a 7:40 reservation. We noticed Greedo walking around, but he didn't stop by our table. He went in at 7:45. No one else came out. Our friends has a 6:25 and saw Greedo and Sabine and Ezra. We saw no one. The manager came over as he noticed us waiting and let us know that the characters were over at the fireworks preshow. Good and drinks were great, but experience was disappointing after previous reports.

 

[LATJLP]

Does anyone have a photo of the AP posters?

 

[Tltorrez]

I am at Rebel Hangar now. They are meeting along with Greedo and the Cantina Band.

The actress playing Sabine is super hot!!

Bummer! We just got the Cantina Band. Would have liked to see Greedo. It was still fun though.

 

[Kaschper]

For all of you doing RH, can you give us a rough estimate turnaround time from entry to food delivery? Is it really feasible to try to do RH between the 3 pm and 5 pm shows, so long as you have a FP for both of those shows....and still have decent seats?

It took about 10 to 15 minutes for our order to come out. We liked the drinks and ordered another round and we're still out in about and hour. Our reservation was at 6:45.

 

[Artax]

From checkin to walking out the door it was about an hour and 25 min. We waited for the check for a while. Could tell it was new experience based on wait staff.

 

[LrdNorman]

Dumb question...

If Senator Palpatine is not signing autographs, can we still get a picture of him? Do we have to wait in line?

 

[Tltorrez]

Does anyone have a photo of the AP posters?

http://twitter.com/tltorrez/status/599210131172302848

 

[jar]

DS's General Grievous costume just arrived today. We leave in a week and will be there for Saturday of Mem. Day Weekend. It'll be our second one -- he was spoiled last time by getting picked for the parade as Vadar.

For those who attend tomorrow, would love info on:

(1) what time people were let into the park (we want to get in at RD, but don't care so much about arriving earlier for autograph FP)

(2) how long the SWW breakfast takes at Sci-Fi (and waiting time from when you show up with a reservation) since we have tight timing with the parade given that they moved up parade a half hour from last year

(3) a general sense of how long the lines are for the A-ticket rides (RnR, ToT, TSMM) at various points of the day without FP+

(4) how long it takes at various times to get into Darth Mall and what the best times are

Thanks!

 

[JayLeeJay]

A word to the wise on RH... The characters stop at a certain time. We had a 7:40 reservation. We noticed Greedo walking around, but he didn't stop by our table. He went in at 7:45. No one else came out. Our friends has a 6:25 and saw Greedo and Sabine and Ezra. We saw no one. The manager came over as he noticed us waiting and let us know that the characters were over at the fireworks preshow. Good and drinks were great, but experience was disappointing after previous reports.

This is disappointing. We have a 7:15pm reservation for a Thursday so I have no idea what to expect. I guess they aren't ~promising~ characters, but I understand why you would be disappointed.

 

[Artax]

I asked if there would be characters at rebel hanger during the week and the waitress didn't know. We were about to walk out so I didn't want to stick around anymore to find out since we were there for so long already and needed to get to the dessert party checkin

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

From checkin to walking out the door it was about an hour and 25 min. We waited for the check for a while. Could tell it was new experience based on wait staff.

Do you recall an approximate time that you met Ezra and Sabine?

 

[Tltorrez]

I was seriously considering dropping the Rebel Hangar because our schedule is too full, but after the reports today, it seems like a MUST DO!!!

YMMV. I think there's a reason they didnt promise characters. I suspect it may continue to be random based on availability.

 

[Tltorrez]

I was seriously considering dropping the Rebel Hangar because our schedule is too full, but after the reports today, it seems like a MUST DO!!!

YMMV. I think there's a reason they didnt promise characters. I suspect it may continue to be random based on availability.

 

[yulilin3]

Hi guys I'm back home. Decided to come back early since we have another full day tomorrow.
Uploading pics and video of the Chewie Run soon.
I have not read thru the 25 pages I missed today but again thanks to @Itinkso and @MunchkinandSugarBear for all of your help with the posts I only went thru 2 phone batteries doing it this way
Just general impressions:
It's been the most crowded opening day so far in my experience
The lines for characters were generally well organized, I compared MDE times with the actual experience and they were on point as far as I could tell. Very happy they added the SWW characters to it
Luke roaming in the morning, early afternoon took us by surprised, we managed to meet him with no wait. I hope he keeps doing this, we heard Leia was out roaming as well but never saw her. We did meet her at the designated spot in the evening
The Jedi Council line is nice, shady and has huge fans running. Anakin was a great interaction, he was very chatty which made the line go very slowly. He asked Stephanie who she was if she was a Bounty Hunter. Stephanie said she was a Rebel. And he said cool glad to have you on our side. (Since Anakin Episode III doesn't know Sabine)
Ahsoka was also great and Leia called Stephanie by her name (Hi Sabine)
Chewie coming out with the Ewoks from the morning is awesome, seriously do this meet as your first thing the line got an hour long in the first 15 minutes of park opening.
The celeb autograph area was nice and organized, welcome change with the A/C still feel that it kinda sucks that just regular guests won't be able to see the celebrities from outside the tents like they used to.
Tiya Sircar was very sweet, loved Stephanie's costume
Rebel Lounge was a welcomed place to relax. I approached it as a cool, sw themed area to recharge. We were the first ones inside and all the CM cheered for us and asked from what galaxy we were. Kinda bummed that we missed Sabine and Ezra but we have reservations for each weekend so I'm sure we'll meet them. The service was super fast (at that time) the food and drinks were good. I would recommend it but don't expect to fill your bellies or meet characters, just a place to unwind for a bit
It was SUPER FUN to meet so many of you, there's some cool group pictures from the early morning Chewie run DISers, special thanks to @Ninja Mom you have no idea how much I appreciated your thank you card and gift.
Ready to sleep and recharge fr tomorrow. We are doing the DDP. I heard things here and there about it but will have a review tomorrow night.
Will post video and photos soon

 

[kpd6901]

New flood of questions.
Can we find out from our RH CM's if the character interactions will be different for non-weekend dates? Are the M&G's only for the weekends and the non-weekends get the non-M&G character cameos? Are there fewer characters?

Thurs, June 11 - we have a Sci-Fi B-fast ADR for 9:45 and an Indy Stunt Show FP for the 12:30 show. We plan on hitting the JTA line at rope drop. Given the time needed for JTA and the time needed to be there beforehand, and the length of the ADR, did we box ourselves into only having the 11am JTA slot workable? we were hoping to fit ST in at some point before Indy also. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think there are JTA shows for 9:20, 10:10, 11, and 11:50 - and I am guessing that the ADR conflicts with 9:20 and 10:10 while the 11:50 conflicts with the Indy show...or would we still be able to do 11:50 and make the Indy show? Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

[Berlioz70]

YMMV. I think there's a reason they didnt promise characters. I suspect it may continue to be random based on availability.

THIS! Characters are 'passing' through with no guarantee of appearing at all. There's not enough time to stop at all tables when they pass through so they will just walk the area and may stop at a couple tables.

New flood of questions.
Can we find out from our RH CM's if the character interactions will be different for non-weekend dates? Are the M&G's only for the weekends and the non-weekends get the non-M&G character cameos? Are there fewer characters?

The characters for weekends v non-weekends are not expected to be the same, we'll have to wait until Mon to see who shows up.