Official Star Wars Weekends 2014 Tips and Tricks -The Adventure Continues

I am interested in the music too.

The whole family has gone Star Wars crazy which doesn't help with the missing if SWW. ;)
 
Looks like there will be Star Wars bad guys at the HS Villains event this summer! It was just posted on the Parks Blog. This bodes well for increased SW presence in the parks!
 
I haven't posted much - but I've been following this thread very closely the last few weeks….

I attended my first ever SWW this past weekend…I was there on Sunday, the 15th. I had a few observations as a newbie:

1. A HUGE thank-you to all of you who provided tips, advice, suggestions and reviews. They were a HUGE help to a SWW newbie, and I appreciate all of your advice.

2. I did the VIP tour on Sunday, along with a couple of others. I enjoyed it for the most part, but would have liked to have at least one M&G thrown in. Having early access to shopping, the parade, and the shows was awesome.

3. I thought the desserts for the fireworks party were AWESOME! I've done the Wishes Dessert Party several times, and those desserts couldn't hold a candle to the desserts provided at SWW. The creativity that went into each dessert was amazing.

4. It was disappointing to find that most of the "coveted" merchandise was sold out by the 5th (and final) weekend. I would have loved the Death Star ice cube - or a cool shirt from the shops. However - it was GREAT to be able to pick up one of the limited edition Magic Bands; I am proudly wearing a Yoda Band, and I have received more questions and comments about it the last two days than anything else! Yes - Magic Band envy DOES exist!

5. Fireworks were amazing. My ears are still popping. 'Nuff said.

6. I had so much fun seeing the variety of t-shirts that the SWW fans were wearing…there were some really humorous ones. If anyone saw me there on Sunday, I was wearing the bright yellow/orange shirt that said, "Keep Calm and Grab A Lightsaber" - which generated a lot of compliments. Thank you! :)

7. The parade was AWESOME! Every bit of it.

Well, that's it - but again, a HUGE thank-you to everyone here who so graciously gave tips and advice. May the Force be with you all!
 


Happy to read all of you reports and even happier that, most of them, are positive. Please make sure to take some time and email Disney about what you liked and didn't like that's the only way for them to know what's working or not.
Personal anecdote: Just as we were walking in on Saturday of the last weekend we see a CM that we met many, many years ago.
See this CM was the first to ever offer my 2 kids (much younger at the time) the chance to march in the parade, this happened about 7 years ago. From then we would see him every weekend of that year and the year to follow. He was in charge of the information desk and getting the kids ready for the parade. (same post as some of the red shirt CM you saw during this year)
Anyways we stopped seeing him after those 2 years and were kinda bummed, then bumped into him about 2 years ago at MK, wearing dress clothes and asked what he was doing. He said he was in charge of the team opening up New Fantasyland.
Again didn't see him for about a year and a half until that last Saturday. He was walking down Hollywood Blvd (again in dress clothes, you know, manager attire) he said Hi and again I asked what he was doing. He was the person in charge of all the marketing, from merchandise to all the shows. I did tell him about my personal experience with FtF and the Sci Fi breakfast and he thanked me for my opinions. We went to the last SotS and lo and behold he was the one to present James and Ashley their partners statue at the end of the show. I just felt very proud of him and all he has accomplished.
Not sure why I'm telling you this story, I guess I'm trying to point out that with hard work and dedication your dreams really can come true.


I guess this is probably my last post on this thread, thanks again to all of you for your kind words it was awesome getting to meet some of you in person. I'll probably open SWW tips and tricks 2015 around October...until then...
May The Force Be With You...Always :hug:
 
We are home now and still full of joy from our wonderful trip. I thought FTF was very worth it and we also did the H&V Dinner and loved it too! Not sure I would do H&V every year but I definitely would do the FTF package again. Eating Star wars themed treats felt like my birthday and Christmas all in one:rotfl2:I felt like I was really hooking into my tribe being with my fellow SW fans! I think I love Mark Hammil even more now that I've seen him talk :love: We were at the world for 10 days but we planned our trip around SWW and it was by far the highlight of an amazing vacation.
 


We are home now and still full of joy from our wonderful trip. I thought FTF was very worth it and we also did the H&V Dinner and loved it too! Not sure I would do H&V every year but I definitely would do the FTF package again. Eating Star wars themed treats felt like my birthday and Christmas all in one:rotfl2:I felt like I was really hooking into my tribe being with my fellow SW fans! I think I love Mark Hammil even more now that I've seen him talk :love: We were at the world for 10 days but we planned our trip around SWW and it was by far the highlight of an amazing vacation.

I really enjoyed FTF too and would do it again. Already planning 2015!
 
Enjoyed the Rebel Rendezvous

I thought Rebel Rendezvous was a bust! Hardly any exclusive merchandise for the event that cost $250/person! The lines were LOOONG (like 1+ hours just to checkout), no free food, the photos with the characters was just OK, and the majority of the merchandise that we got to buy before everyone else was still available on Weekend 3! There really was nothing special about it at all.

I just was expecting a lot more for the money. I had a much better experience on Saturday night of Weekend 1... just waiting in line for 15 minutes, got what I wanted, and I was out of there quickly.

But my BIGGEST complaint about Rebel Rendezvous was that we didn't get to pre-purchase Weekend 5 exclusive merchandise, like the Limited Edition Magic Bands and some of the new Star Wars Rebels merch. What the heck did we pay $250 for then??
 
I thought Rebel Rendezvous was a bust! Hardly any exclusive merchandise for the event that cost $250/person! The lines were LOOONG (like 1+ hours just to checkout), no free food, the photos with the characters was just OK, and the majority of the merchandise that we got to buy before everyone else was still available on Weekend 3! There really was nothing special about it at all.

I just was expecting a lot more for the money. I had a much better experience on Saturday night of Weekend 1... just waiting in line for 15 minutes, got what I wanted, and I was out of there quickly.

But my BIGGEST complaint about Rebel Rendezvous was that we didn't get to pre-purchase Weekend 5 exclusive merchandise, like the Limited Edition Magic Bands and some of the new Star Wars Rebels merch. What the heck did we pay $250 for then??

Make sure you send feedback to Disney, they know there were major issues since it not only didn't sell out, you could buy all the swag there. Could have sent one person to pick up everything an entire group of people wanted, might as well have made a group order and all split the $250 fee. Plus no food or drink! I was dying of thirst in that checkout line.
 
Make sure you send feedback to Disney, they know there were major issues since it not only didn't sell out, you could buy all the swag there. Could have sent one person to pick up everything an entire group of people wanted, might as well have made a group order and all split the $250 fee. Plus no food or drink! I was dying of thirst in that checkout line.

Who should I send it to?
 
Good to see everyone still hanging around. As a 5th weekender, I am just returning home and need to leave again for a work trip (someone needs to pay the disneydebt:rotfl2:). Anyway, it will be a good week before I can start posting pics and some reports. Hopefully, someone will still be around to read it;)
 
I got a survey emailed to me about SWW, the character meals and Rebel Rendezvous. Lots of opportunity for feedback on it.
 
Ok - so after going over 800+ pictures in just two days, I've started to look at what was available in my photopass. Some of my pictures are better than them (as usual).

Now, I read that you can no longer add your own pictures and make a CD as in the old site. But is there a way to upload your own to get some borders at least?

Would have loved to make a SWW photo book but that's not an option. Has anyone managed to get some of these borders downloaded or made their own otherwise?

Thanks!
 
You never could put the borders on your own pictures. It was just paying for them to burn a CD.
 
You never could put the borders on your own pictures. It was just paying for them to burn a CD.

Thanks... Here I go expanding on my photoshop skills then... Some borders seem easy enough to 'extract'.
 
It is now a month since we received two of our three D-TECH figures from Weekend #1 and we're still waiting for the last one (princess). Ugh.

Other DIS folks in the same boat?

After an email and phone call to them weeks ago, a CM said ours was "still in process" and that we should "ignore the ready to ship" message on our order status page (it has read that for about a month) since "that's what it says, but it doesn't really mean that." Ummm...ok?
 
It is now a month since we received two of our three D-TECH figures from Weekend #1 and we're still waiting for the last one (princess). Ugh. Other DIS folks in the same boat? After an email and phone call to them weeks ago, a CM said ours was "still in process" and that we should "ignore the ready to ship" message on our order status page (it has read that for about a month) since "that's what it says, but it doesn't really mean that." Ummm...ok?

We did ours on may 30th. Within 3 days they said ready to ship and we had the storm trooper and xwing pilot about a week later. My princess just shipped and should be here tomorrow according to the fedex website
 

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