Official Star Wars Weekends Thread Tips and Tricks 2015

[Laura C]

Just booked my package. Total price, without any discounts, was $424.94.

Lol you can tell the amount of tax I was expecting being from the UK! $425 is a lot of money but u seem to get a lot for it this year, thanks everyone for your help and answers does anyone have the email address to register interest and get a call back otherwise will be a very pricy phone call for me! X can't wait until we go in June!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Just booked the VIP package for May 17!! Our first time doing it

to mouseguy77, yulilin3, and tigger1972!!!!

Now THIS is the kind of thing (advance booking) that you don't find out first on WDW's official Twitter account! LOL!!

 

[yulilin3]

@MickeyMinnieMom you're welcome, so happy you booked. Now you can give us a review

 

[Pygmypuff07]

Just saw this! Thank you so much for posting! I am hoping that It will not be sold out in an hour! We are up in the air right now so we can't call! Fingers crossed!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

@MickeyMinnieMom you're welcome, so happy you booked. Now you can give us a review

Absolutely -- will do!!

 

[OZMom]

Those of you that have booked, did you call the number on the email, or did you call the tours line?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Lol you can tell the amount of tax I was expecting being from the UK! $425 is a lot of money but u seem to get a lot for it this year, thanks everyone for your help and answers does anyone have the email address to register interest and get a call back otherwise will be a very pricy phone call for me! X can't wait until we go in June!

Grew up in Canada, so I'm with you on the tax expectation -- still!! LOL! FYI with a discount, including tax it came to $361.20 per person. Not cheap, to be sure, but better than last year and it does SOUND LIKE you get a good deal for it. I'll be back with a review after May 17...

 

[tigger1972]

Those of you that have booked, did you call the number on the email, or did you call the tours line?

Number in mouseguy's email is a direct line to this particular event. I called at 9:01am EST and the recording mentioned the Star Wars VIP event by name and prompted me to leave a message.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Those of you that have booked, did you call the number on the email, or did you call the tours line?

I called the number in the email -- I believe she answered "VIP Tours": 407-934-7973

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Hi everyone. I've been following this thread for a while (as well as several runDisney ones) and decided to delurk and say hello. This is a great informational thread; DH and I have been going to SWW for years now and can see we've only scratched the surface. We are doing the Galactic Breakfast this year in May, so I (and DH - I'm the bigger SW fan) am really excited! I've been a SW fan pretty much as long as I can remember. I even ran the Star Wars Half at DL in January which was seriously the most fun I've ever had running 13 miles.

Looking forward to seeing new tips and suggestions so we can make the most of our time at SWW 2015 - we're quasi-local and will probably daytrip it this year though, even though we typically stay on-property at least two weekends during SWW. Unfortunately, out-of-state family obligations beckon. Sorry for length, thanks for everything!

 

[yulilin3]

@Mimsy Borogove

 

[lovethattink]

The VIP package sounds like much better value than last year! Congrats to those booking. Enjoy and can't wait to read your reviews!

 

[OZMom]

Anyone know if the drinks during the desert party are pre-mixed? Checking the reviews and DH doesn't like fruit, so thinking the drinks on there may not be appealing to him.

 

[Wendybird55]

Just booked VIP package for May 24. I called the # this morning and they got back to me a few hours later. The CM was very nice. I asked some questions and was told:
Breakfast at Derby will include hot items this year like eggs and bacon
The lunch is Mama Melrose (at least for weekend of 22-24)
Tour will start around 7am.
Max people they book per tour is 40
VIP tour will end around 3:30 -4p then you have free time until arrival for fireworks around 9pm. You will have lanyard to get access to fireworks party.
You have up to 7 days before booked tour to cancel.
The total cost for 4 people with 15% discount is $1,445.
It sounds like a good tour and will be especially helpful since this is our first SWW. Though $1,400 is hard to swallow...it's hard to resist...plus I still have the 7 day out, but I doubt we'll take it.
Things are shaping up nicely for our first May & SWW Disney trip.
Now I just need to wait and see if they announce a 24 hr event for May 22..I was first going to book 5/23 for SWW VIP tour, but decided to make it the 24th just in case there's a 24 hr event on the 22nd.

Thanks again to those who posted the updated info about the tour!

 

[alayne]

My family booked the VIP Package for May 31st!! Super excited to do it again this year. It was a lot out of our budget but I think it will be worth it again.

Now if I could just find someone to go to the Galactic Gathering for me so that I could get the limited edition items.

Super excited about SWW this year.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Just booked VIP package for May 24. ...
The lunch is Mama Melrose (at least for weekend of 22-24)

I was told Mama Melrose for lunch as well, booked for May 17.

 

[The Sunrise Student]

Anyone know if the drinks during the desert party are pre-mixed? Checking the reviews and DH doesn't like fruit, so thinking the drinks on there may not be appealing to him.

Yes the drinks are pre mixed. So are all the special Adult Light Side / Dark Side drinks that they have for sale around the park.

We collected the Death Star and Light Saber glow stuff... and have alot of them

 

[The Sunrise Student]

Attendees of last years REBEL RENDEZVOUS lend me your ears and experience

My boyfriend and I are considering attending Galactic Gatherings, however we already have a club level ONLY safari booked for 3 pm that afternoon and not sure we could do both.

Can you tell me what the schedule was like? Can you tell me if you really spent the whole 5 hours at the event? Any details of how things worked last year would be most helpful!

Would love see any event reports you might have of how things worked, and how you liked it.

Pretty please and thank you!

There wasn't much of a schedule. Nothing was in writing for attendees. We were told Ashley would sign at a certain time. Same with the artists. It was more of a come and go as you please thing. Than a stay from 10 to 3 thing.

You order merchandise on RSP which is a lottery system.

We are on the fence about it. Those darn light saber magic bands!

Yes those darn lightsaber magic bands are what have us looking...

Did people just come and go, or did everyone have to be there right at the start. The other catch is we would be cutting it close making it, having to rush straight to DHS from the airport.

Still trying to figure out of we can do this... been getting details from people out here via PMs both here and FB

Our problem is we could run our buns to DHS straight from the airport (we have a rental car) IF the Magic Bands they send you in the mail are active, but since we are Magic Your Way Hopper tickets attached to our resort stay then we have to check into the resort first. We would get to the AKL probably between 9/9:30 am... since we are club level they take you to a special lounge... we kinda figure being that early we might get through check in rather quickly but with unloading bags, checking in and getting everything set up I figure that at least takes an hour.... making us be able to leave the resort by 10/10:30...

*** the Galactic Gatherings event starts at 10***

We would still have to drive over to DHS, park, get over to the event (not even sure where they hold that within the park)...

For those whom have gone is there a real benefit to being there right at the start?! Do they sit you down and have announcements or is it check in, get your free goodies and run to shop and get picture ops? And how long did you stay at the event itself.

If it's just pick up your free goodies (yeah I know not really free $250 entry fee but you know), shopping a few quick meet and greets and then be on our way we might still do this.

UPDATE: We signed up for Galactic Gatherings.... couldn't take the wishy washiness of it anymore. We also each ordered 3 extra light saber magic bands and plan to sell them to help with the cost We are going to keep one of each color for ourselves, and sell the extra two (selling 4 total between the two of us).

 

[AThrillingChase]

Oh man guys. I just booked a SWW trip last week. I'm trying to go through all of this thread but wow am I behind!!

I've been once in 2013 and loved it, now taking some friends and big SW fans with me this time. I was hoping I could get someone to join me, so back in January I snagged some galactic breakfast ADR's for a couple of the weekends in May. Luckily 2 friends approached me about going! Unluckily, I made ADR's for every weekend except the one we ended up deciding on! Thanks to a friendly dis-er I was able to get us an ADR but I still have these if anyone wants them! PM me if you want any --

Sat May 9th at 10:35 for 2ppl
Sun May 10th at 10:25 for 3ppl
Mon May 25th at 10:50 for 3ppl

Also I am just finding out about the feel the force premium package. I don't think they had this in 2013, or at least I had no idea it was happening. It seems like a good deal for viewing areas, snacks, then desserts and drinks. But the reviews I have found are confusing...does this include 1 alcoholic drink? Or can you try them all? I remember trying to get the dark side and the force drinks and they sold out last time so that is a huge plus for me (though my mom begged the guy and he managed to pull one together from the bottom of the barrel and topped with some more vodka or whatever it was...so maybe I was actually a winner there). Thanks so much guys! I ran a search and had some trouble so I hope these aren't silly questions!

 

[Koh1977]

@AThrillingChase - if it's like the FSF package last year, you can have as many of the drinks as you want.