PrincessBetsy
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,544
I've finally found time to post my SWW experience! 
We arrived at DHS an hour before opening. We wanted to get fastpasses for Temuera Morrison's autograph, but upon arriving we learned he couldn't attend because of a family emergeny (Ashley Eckstein took his place). Instead, we got in line to wait for the opening. A few minutes before they let us into the park, 4 Storm Troopers arrived on the roof - they are really funny and I would get to the park early just to see them. Once we were in the park and the rope dropped, we headed to TSM and got fastpasses for 10:30. Since the wait was only 15 minutes, we decided to ride TSM as well.
Afterward, we headed to Wicket's Warehouse - this place is huge and is full of wonderful Star Wars merchandise. Since we got there early there was no wait to get in. After taking a few pictures with characters wandering around, we headed back to TSM to use our fastpasses. If you want to see any of the Star Wars characters, I would suggest going to see them in the morning. Some of the lines get ridiculously long by the afternoon and as a result we ended up not seeing any other characters.
We then went to get our spot for the parade. We headed over to the stage near Star Tours because we wanted to see the celebrity welcome ceremony that takes place right after the parade ends. We had a wonderful spot that was fairly close to the stage. We stood right beside the opening that leads to Backlot Express. If you want to get a good spot for the parade, make sure you start waiting at least 45 minutes before it starts. There were a lot of people running around looking for spots 5-10 minutes before the parade began, and since there weren't any good places left there were a lot of frustrated parents and children that were trying to squeeze in. Anyway, the parade was AMAZING!! Definitely make sure you get to watch it - it was one of the highlights of our trip.
We also watched the Padawan Mind Challenge. If there are young children in your family that love star wars, I highly recommend having them sign up for this. Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun.
Since we didn't get any fastpasses for the celebrities, we couldn't get their autograph later in the day. The celebrities autograph stations are set up around echo lake and I highly recommend walking around there while the celebrities are there and when they aren't. When the celebrities are signing autographs you can still get fairly close to them to get some awesome pictures. When they aren't signing autographs cast members usually hand out presigned pictures of the celebrities, which are really neat.
Probably my favorite part of SWW was Hyperspace Hoopla. It is so much fun!! If you want to get up front you need to get there at least 30 minutes early. We were in the middle of our dinner at that time, so we ended up getting there about 10 minutes before it started. Even though we weren't close to the stage, it ended up paying off later. During the show a ton of star wars characters come and walk/dance through the crowd. Chewbacca, Ewoks, Jawas, Kit Fisto, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Tusken Raiders, and Zam Wesell all walked right in front of us. Chewbacca ended up stopping right beside me and started dancing!! Luke also stopped near us and I got a great picture with him. He is my favorite Star Wars character so I was really happy! Hyperspace Hoopla is wonderful and not to be missed!! Overall SWW was a lot of fun and I would definitely go back again!
We arrived at DHS an hour before opening. We wanted to get fastpasses for Temuera Morrison's autograph, but upon arriving we learned he couldn't attend because of a family emergeny (Ashley Eckstein took his place). Instead, we got in line to wait for the opening. A few minutes before they let us into the park, 4 Storm Troopers arrived on the roof - they are really funny and I would get to the park early just to see them. Once we were in the park and the rope dropped, we headed to TSM and got fastpasses for 10:30. Since the wait was only 15 minutes, we decided to ride TSM as well.
Afterward, we headed to Wicket's Warehouse - this place is huge and is full of wonderful Star Wars merchandise. Since we got there early there was no wait to get in. After taking a few pictures with characters wandering around, we headed back to TSM to use our fastpasses. If you want to see any of the Star Wars characters, I would suggest going to see them in the morning. Some of the lines get ridiculously long by the afternoon and as a result we ended up not seeing any other characters.
We then went to get our spot for the parade. We headed over to the stage near Star Tours because we wanted to see the celebrity welcome ceremony that takes place right after the parade ends. We had a wonderful spot that was fairly close to the stage. We stood right beside the opening that leads to Backlot Express. If you want to get a good spot for the parade, make sure you start waiting at least 45 minutes before it starts. There were a lot of people running around looking for spots 5-10 minutes before the parade began, and since there weren't any good places left there were a lot of frustrated parents and children that were trying to squeeze in. Anyway, the parade was AMAZING!! Definitely make sure you get to watch it - it was one of the highlights of our trip.
We also watched the Padawan Mind Challenge. If there are young children in your family that love star wars, I highly recommend having them sign up for this. Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun.
Since we didn't get any fastpasses for the celebrities, we couldn't get their autograph later in the day. The celebrities autograph stations are set up around echo lake and I highly recommend walking around there while the celebrities are there and when they aren't. When the celebrities are signing autographs you can still get fairly close to them to get some awesome pictures. When they aren't signing autographs cast members usually hand out presigned pictures of the celebrities, which are really neat.
Probably my favorite part of SWW was Hyperspace Hoopla. It is so much fun!! If you want to get up front you need to get there at least 30 minutes early. We were in the middle of our dinner at that time, so we ended up getting there about 10 minutes before it started. Even though we weren't close to the stage, it ended up paying off later. During the show a ton of star wars characters come and walk/dance through the crowd. Chewbacca, Ewoks, Jawas, Kit Fisto, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Tusken Raiders, and Zam Wesell all walked right in front of us. Chewbacca ended up stopping right beside me and started dancing!! Luke also stopped near us and I got a great picture with him. He is my favorite Star Wars character so I was really happy!
Hyperspace Hoopla is wonderful and not to be missed!! Overall SWW was a lot of fun and I would definitely go back again!
