Something that truly amazes even myself is that I have been an Annual Passholder for years, and a Star Wars fan since I can remember, yet I have never once attended a Star Wars Weekend until this past week. If you are not in the know, Star Wars Weekends is an annual event at Disney's Hollywood Studios that takes place in the late spring. During it, you'll find celebrity appearances, a special parade, special entertainment, and, of course, special treats. This year, the big new thing was two Star Wars themed character dining experiences: a breakfast with characters from the Saga and dinner with Mickey and the gang dressed up as Star Wars characters. For our trip, Tabby and I decided to attend the later meal, as the only times we found available would have interfered with our viewing of the parade, but more on that later.
Even the cheap plastic cups were Star Wars themed! "Solo"... get it... ha... ha... I'm so sorry.
After extensive research on various blogs (AllEars.net being the main one I used), it seemed prudent to arrive at the Studios two hours before the park opened in order to get a FastPass to see the celebrities of the day and get their autographs (Billy Dee Williams was the one and only priority on our expedition) so we headed out from Tampa at 4 AM so we could be sure to get there on time. When we arrived, we discovered that people had camped out in Billy Dee's line since the previous night, so despite getting there so early, we still ended up with wristbands that put us in the "standby" line. As we later discovered, the autograph sessions went as such: the session would begin at a certain time, and a cast member would proceed to call out times for the guests who had gotten there early enough for a guaranteed spot. If they managed to get through all of the guaranteed guests with time to spare, they started calling out the numbers on the standby tickets, and then we could proceed in and get our autographs, if they got to us. Did we get in to meet Mr. Williams? Well, if I told you, that wouldn't leave much of a surprise in the story later, now would it?
This Gamorrean clearly does not like having to wait.
Since we left so early, we did not take the time to grab breakfast, so once the rope drop ceremony took place (a rather amusing skit featuring a pair of Stormtroopers), we headed straight over to Starring Rolls Cafe to get the most nutritious breakfast we could possibly think of.
Never did I say that "nutrition" was something we're very good at
That's right - cupcakes for breakfast. The Darth Vader cupcake featured chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting and even more chocolate on top of that. Yoda featured chocolate cake, as well, but with a hazelnut frosting. Tabby and I both found the slightly more dark chocolate flavor and saltiness of the peanut butter to be better balanced than the extreme sweetness of the Yoda - which also was quite delicious, if a bit extreme. As we were trying to find a seat, we found a fellow Star Wars fan who was alone and needed a place to enjoy his breakfast, so we invited him over and struck up a conversation. He was a veteran of Star Wars Weekends, and recommended that we head over to parade route after breakfast and stake out a spot if we wanted a good, close view. So, for the next three hours, we sat with this gentleman, chatting about Disney, our various careers, and other things as we waited for the parade to start.
And some fun with Mimi Kaboom, in the meantime!
I will note that if you're just wanting to watch the parade with your family, three hours might be a tad bit excessive, but I'd try to get there about two hours early if you want a spot in the shade where your kids can see easily. If your younglings aren't too great at being patient for long periods of time, be sure to bring something to entertain them. If, however, you do want shade and a good spot to photograph the parade, stake out a spot fairly early. Just don't sit in front of the trash cans - we were seated next to a pair of trash cans, and every five minutes someone came along to try to sit there, and were quickly shooed away by cast members. At the beginning, it was somewhat reasonable that people would think that those spots were available, when when the crowds really started filing in and those were the only spots on the curb that no one was sitting on, you'd think they'd take a hint.
This is what happens when you're waiting for a parade to start:
you take pictures of ducks staring at Stormtrooper steins.
The parade was definitely worth waiting for. I was actually a bit surprised that Disney had members of the 501st make up a large chunk of the parade. (For those not in the know, the 501st is a worldwide Star Wars fan organization, largely consisting of Stormtroopers, though there are others in the mix, as well, who attend parades and do charity work, among other things, in remarkably well put together costumes). The parade was relatively short, but definitely a lot of fun, with close up encounters with various Star Wars characters and, if you don't plan to attend autograph sessions, the closest view of Star Wars actors that you'll get to see in the park. You can check out all of the Star Wars Weekends photos, including all of the parade photos at the official MyWDW Flickr Page.
They look intimidating in formation, until you realize just how inept the Scout Troopers were.
Mark Hamill seemed to be having quite a bit of fun with the crowd.
Billy Dee - smooth as always.
After the parade, Tabby and I set out to explore, mentally noting the locations of Star Wars characters we wanted to be photographed with later on. We encountered a few very well costumed fans, including an exciting one for Marvel fans - a Deadpool-themed Mandalorian. Now, I'll put in the official notice that people shouldn't cosplay in order to have people take pictures with them at Star Wars Weekends, as it can definitely get you in trouble, but it is still a fun thing to see what fans come up with for their own personal takes on the Star Wars universe (more on this later).
The Mandalorian With a Mouth and Friend
As we still had time before the second autograph session with Billy Dee Williams, we decided to get our picture taken with Darth Maul, who was appropriately intimidating, as he paced around before the picture, eyes perfectly locked on Tabby and me. I tried to get into a staring contest with him, but fairly promptly lost before we carried on to our next stop: drinks!
This year, Hollywood Studios featured two special drinks for Star Wars Weekends: The Force, made with Grey Goose vodka, Chambord, and wildberry lemonade (one can assume that they used Grey Goose because only a Sith deals in Absolut. These are the jokes, people); and the Dark Side, made with Parrot Bay coconut rum, Cointreau, and pomegranate lemonade. Earlier in the event, these drinks came with a lightsaber glow stick and a Death Star glow cube, respectively. Unfortunately, by the time I got to them, they were using just plain old glow cubes, like the kind you can get at the Tune In Lounge and 50's Prime Time Cafe, among other places. Both drinks were quite tasty, though the inexplicably blue Dark Side was my preference over the red Force, as I'm not terribly fond of Chambord.
A Stormtrooper stuck in between the Force and the Dark Side.
Once our drinks were polished off, we headed back to the ABC Sound Stage to wait for stand-by for the Billy Dee autograph session. The guaranteed tickets were called by their times, group by group, as the stand by folks waited patiently, if a bit anxiously, for them to get to the numbers. Thankfully, they were extremely efficient and moved through the line very quickly, and Tabby and I (ticket numbers 041 and 042) were among the last called for that particular autograph session. Mr. Williams was quite pleasant and friendly, signing a pair of headshots that he had available, as Tabby and I couldn't find anything at home worth signing.
"What have we here?"
After our encounter with the smoothest scoundrel in the galaxy, we headed over to the American Idol Experience so that we could watch the Mark Hamill interview in air conditioned comfort. We found out too late that if we'd headed straight back to the Premiere Theater, we could have actually gotten in to see the event in person, but you live and you learn! The interview was pretty fantastic and insightful, not to mention a heck of a lot of fun with a pair of excellent voice actors on screen (Hamill was interviewed by James Arnold Taylor, voice of Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars) doing impeccable impersonations back and forth. The highlight was most definitely this moment, captured by Inside the Magic:
After the interview, we found ourselves with quite some time to kill before our dinner reservations, so we began to make our rounds, getting our photos taken with the various characters around the park. The characters were having a lot of fun, especially Ahsoka, who got on Tabby's case for wearing a Sith t-shirt, and mine for hanging out with someone wearing a Sith t-shirt. We also discussed the weather with Mace Windu, and I was complimented on my beard by Chewbacca, which was, indeed, a great honor.
The face of a disapproving Jedi.
During this time, we also hit the Darth Mall, a one-stop shop for all of the special merchandise (as well as items that they have in the park on a regular basis at Tatooine Traders). There was a short line to get into the Mall, and once inside the place had a bit of a convention floor feeling: crowded, with temporary walls on which merchandise was displayed. Inside the Mall was also where you could find Mickey and Pals dressed as Star Wars characters (which Tabby and I decided to not visit, as we'd be hanging out with them later at Hollywood and Vine) and where you could find the Ackbar Snackbar - which featured the Force and Dark Side drinks, and still had the lightsaber glowsticks. I decided against getting another drink, however, partly to save some cash, and partly because the day was incredibly hot and alcohol was definitely not going to help with dehydration. I ended up picking up a set of Star Wars pins featuring Star Wars characters riding various Disney rides, a special edition jumbo pin featuring Darth Vader as pictured in the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Star Wars, and Tabby picked up a Disney Parks Yoda decal for her car (the first pin set and the decal are both available year-round as far as I can tell, but we really liked them, so we picked them up anyway!)
Straight from the Darth Mall
After we finished at the Darth Mall, it was time for our reservations at Hollywood and Vine for dinner with the Star Wars-attired Mickey and Pals, which I shall write about in a later post (since I have rambled on quite long enough in this one). In short, the food was decent, but meeting the characters was extremely fun. Minnie was also very disappointed in Tabby for her Sith shirt - poor woman didn't even get praise from the Sith characters, just shamed by a couple of Light Siders.
Fort he record - Jedi Mickey hugs are just as awesome as regular Mickey hugs.
At the end of the night, we headed out to watch the finale show (sort of a toned-down version of the Hyperspace Hoopla, where each group of characters comes out and gives a short performance [eg., Darth Maul coming out to red flames and giving an acrobatics performance]), followed by Symphony in the Stars. I have to say, despite it being a temporary show, Disney really pulled out all of the stops for this John Williams score inspired fireworks spectacular. The pyrotechnics perfectly suited each piece, all pulled from the classic trilogy, and the finale was perhaps one of the biggest (at least the loudest) I've seen in the parks.
Forceful fireworks fill the firmament
Shameless plug: If you happen to like the shirts Tabby and I are wearing, you can check them out at the following links:
No comments :
Post a Comment