Stars Wars Weekend Pre Trip Report

[BaseballMoM2007]

Hi and welcome to my first ever pre-trip report! Since this is my first one please bare with me. Let me introduce myself. My name is Maggie, I am a 29 year old Realtor in the Day time and complete Disney obsessed nut by night (really by day too when I have any spare time).

I would love any tips or advice you have for us on our ADR’s or plans.

My favorite Disney Character is Belle I love that she is so smart and a princess.
Favorite Ride is- Haunted Mansion or Peter Pan (I also secretly love It’s A Small World) guess I like the classics.
Favorite Treat is Turkey legs and Dole Whips (I am going to try a cream cheese pretzel this time)
Favorite Restaurant is ‘Ohana
Favorite Park is EPCOT with Magic Kingdom being a close 2nd

Joining me on this trip and all others of course is my DH, Justin, 31. He is a team leader for a major appliance company manufacturing plant here in our area. He is the best. He is just a go with the flow type of guy. He lets me do my planning and as long as I work in some stops to try out some craft beer he is GOLDEN!

His favorite Disney Character is- Goofy
Favorite Ride is- He says a tie between Tower of Terror and Kali River Rapids
Favorite Treat is- Any Craft Beer
Favorite Restaurant is- ESPN at the Boardwalk
Favorite Park is –Hollywood Studios he says he just feels more relaxed there (it is my least favorite)

And the STAR of the show and our lives our 7 year old NASH. He is a 1st grader, Disney loving, sports obsessed, rambunctious little boy! (It amazes me how much he grew in 15 months between our last two trips.

His favorite Character is- Pluto because he signs autographs on his nose
Favorite Ride is- Hands down STAR TOURS we usually ride it MULTIPLE times to see how many different things we can get. He hopes to one day be the spy but hasn’t been lucky enough yet
Favorite treat is- Mickey bars as you can tell from photo above
Favorite Restaurant is- Chef Mickey’s we are leaving it out this trip I hope he don’t get to mad at me.
Favorite Park is- Magic Kingdom


We came down in October 2014 for F&W and MNSSHP and we had an AMAZING trip. I think my husband is officially hooked. Come about November I started seeing friends trip photos seeing the Christmas lights and immediately started planning a Christmas trip for December 2015. One day I randomly asked my DS if he would rather go for Christmas or go to Star Wars weekends. So this trip was moved up about 7 months.

So here are our tentative plans for the Moment.

Booked May 23rd-30th. We have identical ADRS booked for the week before also because my husbands work hasn’t approved these dates yet and didn’t want to miss out on our reservations if we have to move it up a week. Hopefully I will know if it is approved in the next week so I can release extra ADRs. This report will probably be dining photo heavy with some photo pass photos mixed in. I usually don’t walk and take a lot of photos just like to enjoy it more through my own eyes. But plan to do some food reviews and photos this time for sure. We are on the Disney Dining Plan and Have Memory Maker (any good places to get photos that might we may have not thought of before or magic shots to ask for)

We plan to drive to Tallahassee (7 Hours) or Gainesville (9 hours) depending on what time I can get out of the office on Friday so we can get there and enjoy part of our day on Saturday the 23rd.

SATURDAY 23rd Arrivial/Epcot
Plan to Check in to Coronado Springs Resort around lunch time. I will have swimsuits handy in the car so we can swim for a little bit if room isn’t ready. Going to try to get to Epcot around 4 or 5 that afternoon. Hopefully we will have FP for Test Track and hoping mission space will be a short wait. After we ride those two rides going to go and start visiting countries and getting the stamps (and of course some beers and margaritas). I still feel like I’m a rookie and didn’t know you could do the stamps until about half way through our one day at the world showcase last year and we only had time for a couple of countries.

Saturday night we have our First ADR at ROSE and CROWN at 7:15. I really want to stretch this out so we can see Illuminations from here (ANYONE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH DOING TRYING TO WATCH ILLUMINATIONS HERE? SHOULD I SEARCH FOR A LITTLE BIT LATER ADR OR JUST KEEP SITTING AND HAVE A FEW EXTRA DRINKS AFTER WE EAT?)

SUNDAY 24th HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
This is our STARS WARS WEEKEND DAY- ANY ADVICE ON THIS WOULD BE APPRECIATED. I don’t think Nash will want to spend a tremendous amount of time in line for Characters. (this is our first and probably only time we will be enjoying Star Wars weekends so any advice for can’t miss things is appreciated. We have Friday the 28th left open to come back if there is anything we think we really missed out on.)
Plan to Rope Drop and try to go see Chewbacca.
Ride Star Tours
See if there are any characters walking around like storm troopers or characters with short lines (ANY ADVICE ON WHO IS EASY TO SEE)
FP TSMM hopefully around 10 am
Watch the MOTORCADE at 1130
LUNCH – Right now planning on doing a counter service but could pay OOP and do a sit down like maybe 50’s Prime time to give us a mid day break.
FP Tower of Terror 1230
FP STAR TOURS 130.
We have a Dinner ADR for the Jedi Mickey Meal at 630 pm then plan on seeing the 2nd Showing of Fantasmic if we make it that long. Good chance we may leave after dinner. I am leaving a lot of open time this day for shows or seeing Star Wars stuff. Basically just going to kind of do whatever DS wants to. This is the First time (and probably only time) we have ever did a entire day without a break so I know we will definitely need some indoor shows for a break.

MONDAY 25th- Animal Kingdom
We are Rope Droppers. I think that I do Animal Kingdom backwards from most people but I have tried both ways and this is the way I prefer. If we have time to kill between stuff here we will probably do some of the Wildnerness Explorer activities. DS is a boy scout so he enjoys these.
Start at Dinosaur, Primawheel, Triceratops Spin,
FP Kali 10 am
Its tough to be a bug
1045 Flights of Wonder Show
FP 11 at Expedition Everest
Lunch at Yak and Yeti Quick Service
FP 12 at Safari
1:00 Festival of the Lion King Show.
Then Back to the Resort for some rest and pool time since the last three days before have been gung-ho. Have an ADR for Maya Grill at the Resort this night. May do campfire and movie. May do an early Bedtime!

TUESDAY 26th- Magic Kingdom.
We will Rope Drop and try to do Splash mountain, BTMRR, Pirates, Jungle Cruise before first FP at 11. If we have time I want to try to fit in Country Bear Jamboree and Hall of presidents DH and DS have never done those two.
FP 11 am at Haunted mansion
It’s a small world and Lunch
12 pm FP Peter Pan
Then whatever has a short wait maybe tea party, carsouel, and mickey’s philarmagic.
1pm FP 7DMT
Back to resort to rest/swim.
Dinner ADR at Whispering Canyon at 6:30. Hope to come back to MK after Dinner for Wishes and MSEP.

WEDNESDAY 26th- Magic Kingdom
Rope drop again and hopefully before 11 hit SPACE Mountain 1st Thing, BUZZ, ASTRO Orbitor, Monsters Inc, Tomorrowland Speedway, Barnstormer
FP 11 Pooh
Voyage of the Little mermaid, and any other low wait things in Fantsy Land we missed.
FP 12pm at 7DMT
Lunch at Cosmic Rays
FP 1pm Space Mountain
Back to the resort for Rest/swimming. Then dinner ADR at 6:30 at Rainforest Café. (This is the one I am really questioning the most not sure why. I know DS will love it we did T-Rex in a previous trip. I originally had Raglan Road and swapped to this because I felt guilty about leaving off Chef Mickey’s This trip.)

THURSDAY 27th- Epcot
I assume by this point we will be completely exhausted. For the first time ever we are going to skip rope drop and spend the morning at the resort sleeping in and enjoying the pools at the resort.
Plan is to go back around 3 and hit the other side of FutureWorld
FP Spaceship Earth 330
Living with the Land, NEMO
FP 430 Soarin
FP 530 I guess Figment hopefully it is just a walk on
Then back to the world showcase to finish visiting the countries (Does anyone know what time they Stop doing the Stamps at the countries or any countries we need to be sure not to skip)
ADR at 630 Via Napoli will probably visit a few more countries then leave before Illuminations to beat the bus crowds.

FRIDAY 28th MAYBE Hollywood Studios
We will again be sleeping in and skipping rope drop. I have a ADR this night for 50’s Prime Time if we accomplish all we want to on the first day of Star Wars Weekend I don’t really want to fight the crowds again. So we may just see where we can get some FP’s and plan to do an evening only there (my vote would be for Epcot again since we are only doing two evenings there right now) Any advice on Easy to Score last minute ADR’s at Epcot. We will likely make this decision Sunday night after our 1st Day at Hollywood.

Saturday 30th- We will probably get ready and load car and try to be on the road home by 10. We have almost a 12 hour drive home.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure and please let me know if you have any advice on my plans or ADRS!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi Maggie, I'm Su-Lynn! Just wanted to say hi and you have a beautiful family!

My DH and my sister are going to WDW for Star Wars Weekends too! Except we're going from May 15-22. It's our first time as well so not sure what to expect. Since they haven't made any announcement as to the stars or events we'll see that day, I too have left that weekend pretty open. It's also the end of the Epcot Flower and Garden festival so we're going to make sure we stop by and have a taste of the food kiosks!

I think it's smart to make identical ADRs for the previous week just in case! I actually made ADRs for the Star Wars meals for 3 out of the 4 weekends in May as we were not yet booked but I wanted to lock in the meals. When we confirmed our reservation I went back to cancel the ADRs we didn't want.

I'm pretty excited to hear any news about the Star Wars Finale fireworks dessert party. Will you be going to that? My sister and I went to the Frozen themed one last year and it was a lot of fun. I can see the Star Wars one being just as fun. It's an extra cost, but I thought it was worth it as it does include lots of desserts and drinks. Unfortunately there were no chairs so we had to stand for the whole thing!

I think your plans sound great! It's always hard to make the initial plans but much easier to start tweaking after that.

 

[BaseballMoM2007]

I do definitely want to do the dessert party I have been checking every day for it to come available. We are very excited about the whole trip!

 

[nemodeb]

Hi there. Your little guy is so cute! Love all your photos.

I like your touring plans. You have lots of things to do without trying to do literally everything. The afternoon breaks are good, as needed. Like you said, take it by your DS's pace.

Hey, you missed my favorite show at AK. Really like Nemo the musical, but perhaps you saw it in October. It's not everyone's cup of tea, I know. FOTLK is great though, a must do!

Star Wars Weekends. We're not huge SW fans, just moderate, but we'll be there too for the first weekend. Expect crowds. We've seen lots of roaming costumed characters. Long lines and waits for photo ops and signatures. You have a good schedule, but navigating through crowds could slow you down just a bit. Oh, the Jedi Training Academy is fun to watch too.

Enjoy!!

 

[BaseballMoM2007]

DH and I aren't star wars fans at all. DS likes to watch the lego star wars and star wars rebels cartoons. He has never actually saw a real episode or movie (whatever they are) of Star wars. But he does have a Star wars lego book he loves and loves actual star wars legos so he thinks he will enjoy this. We have zero expectations for the SWW day or days. We want to get in some of our normal rides using FP but that is really it. I asked if he would rather do the jedi mickey meal or meal with regular characters and he said the jedi mickey meal. This will be our 4th trip as a family to the world and we hope to come annually so we are good with missing something if we can't work it in. The one thing I haven't worked in yet is Rock 'n' roller coaster DS was one inch to short in October. So we hope he will be tall enough for it in May I will worry more about that when our FP date gets closer though.

 

[nemodeb]

I hear ya. We may even avoid DHS during SWW, or maybe pop in for just a bit just to see it. Don't really like all the crowds and we're not big fans either. We go every year (almost) so we don't mind missing things either. We actually go for the Flower and Garden Festival, so we spend a lot of time at Epcot.
Sounds like you have a good plan, all around. Have a great time!

 

[lovingeire]

Hi there! We are doing our first SWW this year as well. It's on my oldest son's bucket list so I figure there's no time like the present. He was a huge Star Wars nut until about age 10ish so I know he'll love it. Our 4 year old is just starting to get into Star Wars. Should be fun, but I definitely don't want to spend all my time during our vacation. We will be in the World 5/29-6/5ish. One day might come off as we firm up our plans. We have reservations for both Star Wars meals and plan to do a day and a half at DHS. Looking forward to following along!

 

[vacantsea]

Just chiming in to say we are staying May 24-30th! We've been for Star Wars Weekends in 2013 and had a lot of fun. As someone with a visible Star Wars tattoo, I got a lot of attention from fans.

Have you thought about doing the Star Wars breakfast at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant? I'm not sure what your character preference is, but I thought that one looked like fun.

The only character we decided to wait around for was Darth Vader. I really wanted to get a picture with an ewok (the subject of my tattoo) but we got there just as they closed the line.

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!