Star Wars Weekends

Well, due to circumstances beyond our control, we did not make it
into MGM until 10:45. I really wanted to see the parade and get some
pictures but alas, the exclusive merchandise was our priority. While
people were lining up for the parade, we high-tailed it over to the
Jabba's Hutt exclusive merchandise store. Before entering, you receive
an MGM SWW pamphlet that gives you all the info about the parade,
autograph locations and locations of characters as well as a printed
sheet that tells you all of the exclusive items.

The place they sold the exclusives was about 100 times smaller than
last year. First, you walk into a small room that has the standard
items that are sold at every SWW and where you can grab the cantina
band action figures. Then, there is a cast member asking you whether
you want to get the collectible merchandise. If you do, you're ferried
through some Disney-like line to a table that has a handful of people,
you tell them what items you want, they hand them to you and you end up
in a line with the people who don't want the exclusives. Checking out
is a two rows of about 5 cashiers set up on long tables. Also, the cast
members had fun with lightsabers and used them as a way to ferry you
through to the cashiers.

One of the things my husband bought was the set of six vintage
figures (the figures that are part of the 2007 galactic hunt). When you
ask for this, they give you the six figures in the original Hasbro
shipping box. The first box they gave him was smashed in on one corner.
He asked the cashier if he could open it and sure enough two of the
plastic protector packages were smashed in on the corners. The second
box wasn't any better and he requested a third box. Basically, what
happened is that Disney cast members opened every single box and took
the cards out of the protective covers and put a Disney price tag on
the cards. When they put them back into the plastic protective covers,
they didn't handle them very well. So the advice here is that you need
to open the Hasbro shipping box at the table, inspect the cards and
protective covers as well as make sure that there are 6 unique figures
in the box. The receipt when you check out says, all sales are final.
You should inspect everything and open it before checking out, it's
kind of dark in there which makes it harder, you don't want to get home
or back to your hotel and find out something is really wrong with the
items you purchased. The advantage to buying them at SWW is that you
don't have to ruin the cards and mail in to get the galactic hunt
vintage coin set, you purchase all 6 at SWW and they hand you the coin
set with it.

Since we got to MGM so close to the parade, we went through the
exclusives lines pretty quick. After shopping, we went over to Tatooine
Traders (Star Tours ride gift shop) and it was crazy, there was barely
any room to walk through. They had some cool new shirts but we didn't
get any.

I didn't see too many characters except for two Jawas near the Star
Tours ride. They were "true" sized Jawas unliked the giant ewoks we saw
last year, they were about my height which is 5'3". By now, it was
starting to rain, we had Tropical Wave/Storm Barry looming over us
which made the day windy and overcast. With the weather pattern we were
having, we were hoping that the crowds would be less because of this. I
think it was but as the day went on, the weather got nicer and the
parks did get more crowded.

We had made plans to eat lunch in Mexico at Epcot so we started heading that way.

After Epcot, we went back to MGM. By now, it was no longer overcast
and the sun was out. The characters were back in full force. Bounty
hunters abound and we got nice pictures. The line for Jedi Mickey and
Darth Vader was long. There was Luke, Leia and R2-D2. Anakin was
popular again this year. We went around near the autographs and got
pictures of all three stars there this weekend. We also went by the
Jabba's Hutt which was pretty much empty. Then went by Star Tours and
saw the entire Cantina band milling around, Tatooine Traders was once
again a madhouse which is why I believe most people did not know about
Jabba's Hutt. Especially since they didn't hand you the SWW pamphlet
until you got onto Mickey Avenue which is where most of the SW stuff is
to begin with. I heard a cast member telling someone else that the
pamphlet will be reprinted for each weekend so be sure to grab one when
you get to the SWW areas of MGM.