Star Wars Weekends??? What Happens?

[texasteacher35]

Once the first weekend nears maps will leak out for the charecter locations and all the event info. Also some of the charecter sites will have thier info updated as soon as the first weekend is over. The big ones to hit w/ the longest lines you gotta do first thing in the morning: Chewy, Darth Vader, and R2D2 (and I'm probably forgetting someone) hit those first shortly after RD. Get a FP (TSM would be easiest) on your way and then hop in line, I think last year they came out about 30 min after opening. Bobba Fett and his other bounty hunters also draw decent crowds and should be gotten pretty early if you can as do the classic Disney charecters. Alot of the lines swap out 1-3 people so you could stand in line and get someone you already met. I'd start immediately talking up your line mates as soon as you get in line and see who they are after, if the charecter gets swapped out when you near the front that you want start letting line mates past you to pass the time till your guy comes back.

Some of the charecters will be 'walk up' most of the day like the Clone Wars people still aren't pulling in the crowds yet. The roaming charecters will be easy to get too if you don't get bogged down by fanboys. I'd save them for the busier hotter part of the day too.

OMG OMG OMG I am SOOOOOOO excited!!! Don't I sound stupid! LOL My DS6 is gonna have the best time ever! I am sure my DH will thoroughly enjoy the whole experience, too! We ALL played with Star Wars gifures when we were little! LOL Even the DD16 is excited! Haha Can't wait to ge there for this!

I just have to get through my OTHER WDW trip in less than 3 weeks, first! LOL It will be fun, too...just not the same as our first SWW!!!!!! Awesome tips!!! How many times have you been?

 

[BrerNashville]

Definitely pay attention here after the first weekend. Lots of good tidbits will be posted. The most important one for us was that last year, they consistently opened the turnstyles at least an hour before the "announced" official time for opening. That let us get in and get a FP, breakfast and in line for Chewy right at the beginning. Curious to see if that happens again.

(snarky observation -- I guess to some that was cheating the system by taking advantage of Disney's unofficial policy of letting guests in an hour before the publicly announced opening time. Shame on us).

Back on topic: The other big piece of advice alluded to above is line up for the parade at least 45 mins to an hour ahead of time and be prepared to defend your spot. The parade route was so short last year which made for that much less real estate for an inflated number of people to inhabit.

 

[texasteacher35]

Definitely pay attention here after the first weekend. Lots of good tidbits will be posted. The most important one for us was that last year, they consistently opened the turnstyles at least an hour before the "announced" official time for opening. That let us get in and get a FP, breakfast and in line for Chewy right at the beginning. Curious to see if that happens again.

(snarky observation -- I guess to some that was cheating the system by taking advantage of Disney's unofficial policy of letting guests in an hour before the publicly announced opening time. Shame on us).

Back on topic: The other big piece of advice alluded to above is line up for the parade at least 45 mins to an hour ahead of time and be prepared to defend your spot. The parade route was so short last year which made for that much less real estate for an inflated number of people to inhabit.

LOL Do you know what the parade route is? Or maybe more importantly, if there is any shady spot?? Hahaha

We are eating breakfast with the Disney Junior Characters...so I know we can get in a little early! Hoping to have DH run and grab some FP's for TSM and some character lines if possible! I am making a custom autograph book (6"x6") for all the SW characters to sign in! Can't wait!!!!!

 

[BrerNashville]

The parade route started at guest services near the entrance to the park and ended at the hat. Very short. I was standing under a tree that would have made Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree proud. It was one of the ones on the main street connecting the entrance to the hat, across from the intersection leading to Hollywood & Vine.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

The parade route started at guest services near the entrance to the park and ended at the hat. Very short. I was standing under a tree that would have made Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree proud. It was one of the ones on the main street connecting the entrance to the hat, across from the intersection leading to Hollywood & Vine.

I think I sat under the same tree once.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

OMG OMG OMG I am SOOOOOOO excited!!! Don't I sound stupid! LOL My DS6 is gonna have the best time ever! I am sure my DH will thoroughly enjoy the whole experience, too! We ALL played with Star Wars gifures when we were little! LOL Even the DD16 is excited! Haha Can't wait to ge there for this!

I just have to get through my OTHER WDW trip in less than 3 weeks, first! LOL It will be fun, too...just not the same as our first SWW!!!!!! Awesome tips!!! How many times have you been?

That was our first SWW, visiting WDW any time during a special event is awesome even if you get to go during 'regular' times alot it's a different kind of excitement. I know how you feel though, for that trip our kids knew we were going but had no clue about SWW and I was super excited for them. I even had customer invitations sent to them to put in their carry ons to open in the airpor from thier fav Star Wars charecters (see the creative DISigns board here they rock) I think that building it up in my head thing really crashed in on me when we had the disappointments we had. Of course I couldn't let it show as it would make it worse but I think this year since both kids know what to expect it will be much smoother.

Don't forget to plan in the Jedi Training Academy dash for one of your DHS days, a non SWW day will be easier to get in but on a SWW day they can fight the girl sometimes as overflow (Ashia or something from clone wars) so it may be worth trying both times. We will be, this will be DD's last year she will probably be able to do JTA so I'll get up at the crack of dawn and trek over there and fight the mob for her as many times as she wants to do it. They grow up so fast......

 

[texasteacher35]

That was our first SWW, visiting WDW any time during a special event is awesome even if you get to go during 'regular' times alot it's a different kind of excitement. I know how you feel though, for that trip our kids knew we were going but had no clue about SWW and I was super excited for them. I even had customer invitations sent to them to put in their carry ons to open in the airpor from thier fav Star Wars charecters (see the creative DISigns board here they rock) I think that building it up in my head thing really crashed in on me when we had the disappointments we had. Of course I couldn't let it show as it would make it worse but I think this year since both kids know what to expect it will be much smoother.

Don't forget to plan in the Jedi Training Academy dash for one of your DHS days, a non SWW day will be easier to get in but on a SWW day they can fight the girl sometimes as overflow (Ashia or something from clone wars) so it may be worth trying both times. We will be, this will be DD's last year she will probably be able to do JTA so I'll get up at the crack of dawn and trek over there and fight the mob for her as many times as she wants to do it. They grow up so fast......

How early should I dash, on a non-SWW day?? I will try on SWW day...I can send the DH to do that with DS...What would be a good time to make the MAD DASH?? LMAO So funny!!!!!

 

[texasteacher35]

sorry this is long. I tend to rant when I think of SWW........My DS turned 5 when we went to SWW 2 years ago. He, DD9 and DH are HUGE SW fans. Like can quote most of the movies and I have to practically peal his Jedi costume from Halloween off him to get to wash it. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't wear his Jedi Robe and carry his lightsaber (that's DS not DH ), has SW toys, his fav video games are SW, etc. If we would let him change his name I'm sure it would be Luke. Sure of it.

Soooooo we went to SWW in 2010, hit 2 weekends 2 days on each. Crowded doesn't even start to explain it, it was horrible, I've been on full fledged holiday '10' days to the parks and it just didn't compare.DHS is small and compact with streets that seem buiser than they are most of the time anyway and SWW made it worse. DHS was packed, the advice of the other attractions will be slow b/c SW people will be doing SW stuff is a bunch of bologna too. Everywhere was packed. The 100 degree heat I have a feeling was driving even the die hard SW fans inside to attractions for breaks.

The charecter lines varied from 20 min to an hour, even early in the morning the popular ones were swamped, alot of them were out in the sun too. DS talked for months about meeting Vader we went there first (at RD getting TSM FP on the way) and 45 min later at our turn he chickened out, Vader was quiet intimidating to him in real life and it's no wonder he was practically 3 x's his size. Ok no prob DH and DD got thier pics I kept him in the stroller and just went on by he eyed him cautiously but wouldn't get near him. We hit the Fab 4 SW lines a few times and kept getting Vader Goofy, couldn't time it to get another one. Sometimes the CMs' would let us let people in front of us while we waited on another charecter and sometimes they wouldn't that's how we met Goofy so many times.

We got spots for the parade about 45 min ahead of time but by the time the parade was approaching many people crammed in even trying to be in front of my kids front row sitting on the ground. I politely moved them out of the way and prevented them from stepping on my kids. One did drop thier popsicle on DD's shoe but that could happen anytime and heck if someone else didn't she would have probably ruined those shoes by the end of the day anyway.

In the roaming charecter lines adults (using the term losely) would just jump in front of kids patiently waiting a foot from the charecter for thier turn. It's awfully hard to explain to a 5 yr old w/ tears in his eyes why adults are so mean and not waiting thier turn.

Then there was Hoopla an appropriately named event. It was nutso. The first night we arrived 45 min ahead of time got a spot 2/3 of the way back from JTA stage and although the kids could only see a bit of the stage we were happy. In the next 15 minutes more 'adults' that were partaking in the adult beverages crowded in, cussing, yelling, tramping my kids. One knocked DD down and a few min later when one literally fell over DS in his stroller (ubrella so as small as you can get) b/c they were play shoving each other we had to leave. Vader himself could not have held me back if we didn't. Day 2 we went an hour ahead of time were closer to the stage but as time approached a ton of fans materialized out of thin air to join thier friends closer up so we got jostled back further and couldn't see again. We left. We didn't try again. Now that nightmare is seemed to have been fixed in 2011 by moving the show from the JTA stage but I won't be convinced till we go ourselves. And then there was the profanity...... I know that can happen anytime but having alot of adults in a small space when its hot, drinking and hanging out they seem to let the potty words fly a little more frequently and loudly.

People can act so stupid! No drinks should be served when there are that many kids around. We were accidently in E during F&W in the late evening, just heading back to BCV. The problem happened when we walked through Mexico a few locals/college kids/whatever were throwing the F bomb around and being obnoxious as all hell. I told him to watch his mouth, and he acted like he could care less...so I promptly got a CM and he was escorted out...Drunk and falling down the steps coming out of the Mayan Temple/Mexico Pav...RIDIC!!!!

Blah. Call me when it's Star Trek weekends.

Funny note... Apparently it seems to run at the same time as "Gay Days" some years. I knew somebody who went and knew nothing about Gay Days or that it was running at the same time that year. The first thing that they said when they got home is that they had no idea that Star Wars had such a huge same-sex couple following because they were just EVERYWHERE. He attributed it to a Rocky Horror Picture Show-like cult phenom that he had no idea about that must have also included Star Wars.

I about friggen died.

That's funny! I am sure that was somehat surprising to see so many same sex couples around Star Wars...LOL I don't even think they coincide...I haven't heard anything from my friend who goes all the time for SWW. Hahaha

 

[mmmcl]

Hi All! We'll be making our first SWW visit on opening weekend of this year. It's quite by accident since we had not originally planned to me making a trip back to WDW this summer. Anyway, my DH is the main one who will be interested in the event. The kids and I will check in with DH occasionally, maybe to get a pic with Mickey/Minnie but we'll spend most of the day visiting regular DHS attractions.

I've heard that most of the crowd will be focused on the SWW stuff and that while the regular attractions will be somewhat more crowded, they're not unbearable. Is this true?

 

[Dixiemom]

What time does Hoopla begin? Need to see if I need to change our dinner ressie!

 

[Mamu]

If your a Star Wars Fan it a not to miss weekend.

We went last year, my DS and his family are huge fans, while I'm not a huge fan it was awesome. There's so much going on and so many characters.

While everyone will tell you it crazy, I found it to be just the opposite. We were there for the opening of the new ride. I'm sure we will do that weekend again we all enjoyed it that much. for a magical weekend.

My only problem was the heat, having a very cool spring (temps in the 40-50 range) to weather in the high 90's with a heat index of over a 100. I did have a few problems with the heat. I was told it's usually not that hot the week we went.

We spent the whole 3 days at DHS. it.

They will also tell you the lines to have your picture taken with the characters are very long. I never found it that bad.

The one line that was crazy and endless was the line into Jabba's Hut where the limited merchandise is sold.