TIPS: Star Wars Weekends 2011

[tchrrx]

How long is the new Star Tours ride?

 

[yulilin3]

How long is the new Star Tours ride?

The same length as before, about 5 minutes, 7 minutes with the pre boarding video

 

[thecapells]

Yes R2MK is with the Disney characters as I said they rotate, I haven't seen them walking around but I didn't really spend alot of time outside of Star Tours, it was just so hot and I did all of the shows so I spent most of my time around the Premiere Theater. I will get a better look at the characters this coming Saturday and I'll try to get their scheduled times...no promises on that as the CM are very protective of that info

That would be awesome!
We're going the last weekend so we have some time...

 

[cindermomma]

I'm not sure if it will be the same for all weekends, but weekend #1, the JTA spots for all 15 shows were gone by 8:15. (The park was scheduled to open at 8:00, but opened at 7:00.) I didn't see the sign up for JTA, but I don't think you needed the child's ticket, just the child. The PMC sign up was at Sounds Dangerous starting at noon. We went at about 11:45, and there were only 4 families in front of us. That too, you needed to have your child there. The CM asked which show we wanted, and penciled us in. We had to bring our child back to Sounds Dangerous twenty minutes before the show, and they walked them to the stage. Every child that participated got a SW action figure at the end.

Thank you so much the the reply! DS has informed me he really wants to do PMC so, we will be trying for that!

 

[El Queso Grande]

Is there an easy way to find out when the park opens on a SWW? All I can find through the "official" sites is the standard 8:00AM HS opening time...but I'm also reading in these forums that the park sometimes opens at 7:00AM.

 

[yulilin3]

Is there an easy way to find out when the park opens on a SWW? All I can find through the "official" sites is the standard 8:00AM HS opening time...but I'm also reading in these forums that the park sometimes opens at 7:00AM.

For the rest of SWW the park is opening officialy at 9am, I would get there around 8am just to be there early.

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Really? An hour before the park opens is needed for SWW?

Do they have a show before the park opens or to open the park?

Thanks for the advice and all the feedback from the first SWW this year.

 

[yulilin3]

Really? An hour before the park opens is needed for SWW?

Do they have a show before the park opens or to open the park?

Thanks for the advice and all the feedback from the first SWW this year.

There's a stormtrooper show that happens about 15 minutes before the park opens, I say an hour before you should line up at the turnstiles and when they let you in you would be in the front of the pack at rope drop, from there you can go ride Star Tours or sign the kids up for JTA or PMC or go meet characters. If you're not interested in any of this then you can get to the park later.

 

[MrsPook]

Not counting opening weekend, but in general the other 3 weekends, do you veterans feel that the character lines, crowds size, etc are any different on Friday vs Saturday vs Sunday and morning vs afternoon? We are heading down Thursday June 2 thru Sunday June 12 and were curious if certain days were better than others?

Thanks!

 

[El Queso Grande]

There's a stormtrooper show that happens about 15 minutes before the park opens, I say an hour before you should line up at the turnstiles and when they let you in you would be in the front of the pack at rope drop, from there you can go ride Star Tours or sign the kids up for JTA or PMC or go meet characters. If you're not interested in any of this then you can get to the park later.

Many, many thanks for the good advice - much appreciated!

 

[d-r]

Not counting opening weekend, but in general the other 3 weekends, do you veterans feel that the character lines, crowds size, etc are any different on Friday vs Saturday vs Sunday and morning vs afternoon? We are heading down Thursday June 2 thru Sunday June 12 and were curious if certain days were better than others?

Thanks!

mornings are better for sure for those lines. If you wanted fp for tsm, or for jedi training, etc. you'd want to be there an hour early to position yourself in the front for rope drop. The dark side characters start at 9 (Lord Vader's line shorter, etc.). The "good guy" characters start at 9:30. Oh, and it is usually hot, so the mornings help there. This weekend is supposed to be cooler, but afternoon t-storms. If you are going for talks and hoopla, and don't care about tsm or jedi training etc, then the pm would be better. Celebrities you better be there earlier and you'll be back when the fp says.

Now, here is the tricky part. It is hard to say between Fri-Sat-Sun based on the trends from last year, IMHO. Last year this was impacted a LOT by them not having a lot of fantasmics during the week. So the every weekend but the last one, Sunday was pretty crowded because they had fantasmic that day but not on Saturday. After they changed the tickets a couple of years ago, more tourist guests do not have park hoppers, so they pick a park for the day, and the day that had fantasmic was noticeably more crowded. Now they have more fantasmics during the the week and so I believe, just imho, that will impact the weekend crowds. My prediction is that Sat. will be noticeably more crowded than Fri. (because locals have school/work) and Sun. (because tourists are more likely to have a travel day). But that's just my opinion. Honestly, I think the biggest impact on crowd level is casual guests who are on vacation and just happen to go to the studios that day during their vacation, and not the sww fans.

 

[d-r]

Re-asking!

It didn't seem to be a problem, just be cool about it.

 

[d-r]

I don't know about this one...I think someone posted something about the rotating characters...I'll do some investigating on Saturday about this and report back.
I'll also ask about rain locations for the characters, I did see at Jabba's Tent, different backdrops, like Amidala's and Jedi Council so I would think it's there, but I'll find out more about the characters onSaturday.
I feel pretty foolish I didn't think more about the characters the first weekends, but since both my kids are over the whole character experience I completely forgot to find out, but I will....Patience my young padawans...Maybe I'll need to go on Friday to do this research

rain locations = characters don't come out.

 

[d-r]

We were there last Sat-Sun, and the line for Darth Vader was longer than these two any time we went by it. BUT that may have something to do with the Darth line being in the shade...

And wrt the Mickey/Minnie/Goofy line... we saw several people get pretty cranky when they switched the characters in and out... I think some people REALLY had their hearts set on Mickey and were not thrilled to get Goofy... poor guy...

Darth Vader's line is always the longest, because more guests want to see him, and because - for whatever reason - it seems like every single guest in every party wants an individual picture with him. Watch it - most character lines people will take pictures of the kids or maybe a group shot. With Vader, everyone wants to take one at a time. Especially Dads. Dads love to get in there a pose with Lord Vader. It's funny like that.

The Disney characters always switch. Those people thought they found a shorter-that-typical line for Mickey and didn't understand what they were getting in to.

 

[chicagoshannon]

So if the parks do indeed open at 9am like posted would you ride Star Tours or get a picture with Vader first? We'll be trying to sign up for JTA when we enter the park.

 

[yulilin3]

So if the parks do indeed open at 9am like posted would you ride Star Tours or get a picture with Vader first? We'll be trying to sign up for JTA when we enter the park.

Are you staying till late? If so I would: sign up for JTA, grab TSM Fp. Go to Vader and ride Star Tours later.
Alot of people want to ride first thing and the line can get a bit long (45min-60min) later in the day ot goes down to 35min, and most of the qeue is indoors so it's easily done.

 

[chpmnkfan]

I was wondering if they have R2MK available for pictures. I haven't seen anything mentioned about him. He is too cute in his Mickey ears. Another question is when do they post the maps for the upcoming weekends? I am planning on going on June 3rd and was wondering when the schedule and map for that weekend comes out. Thanks for all of the help!

 

[yulilin3]

I was wondering if they have R2MK available for pictures. I haven't seen anything mentioned about him. He is too cute in his Mickey ears. Another question is when do they post the maps for the upcoming weekends? I am planning on going on June 3rd and was wondering when the schedule and map for that weekend comes out. Thanks for all of the help!

R2MK comes out with the other Disney SW characters by ABC commisary. I will try and find out the schedule for their rotation this weekend.
The schedule of events should stay the same for the rest of the weekends. Just the visiting celebrities change. and Anthony Daniels time slot for his one man show will change to Trip to the Maul with Ray Park, same time slot.

 

[chpmnkfan]

R2MK comes out with the other Disney SW characters by ABC commisary. I will try and find out the schedule for their rotation this weekend.
The schedule of events should stay the same for the rest of the weekends. Just the visiting celebrities change. and Anthony Daniels time slot for his one man show will change to Trip to the Maul with Ray Park, same time slot.

Thank you for your quick reply! It can be overwhelming with all of the things going on at the same time. I really wanted to see the Ray Park show too! That was one of the things that I was curious about.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Are you staying till late? If so I would: sign up for JTA, grab TSM Fp. Go to Vader and ride Star Tours later.
Alot of people want to ride first thing and the line can get a bit long (45min-60min) later in the day ot goes down to 35min, and most of the qeue is indoors so it's easily done.

We're not staying late BUT we're hoping to go the night before for Hoopla so maybe we'll try to ride Star Tours then. I was hoping to run and grab a TSM fast pass while DH takes DD to sign up for JTA.