Star Wars Weekends

Wow, that's all I can say, wow!!!! George Lucas showed up to open the Star Tours ride in person with the president of Disney. They arrived to a pretty classy video presentation also. As far as celebrity autographs go.....most lines started right after the park closed at midnight every night for Anthony Daniels. He was always sold out way before 2 hours before the park opened. I guess they started a new thing with wrist bands this year to get a fast pass. You also could not get more than one fast pass per person so you better pick wisely each day or have more than one person with you. Also you had to wear the wrist band the entire time up untill you got the autograph and then they punch a hole in your fastpass and cut off your wrist band afterwards so you can't use it again. Most of the other celebs fastpasses could be gotten about 3 hours before the park opened as the weekend died down.

The first day on Friday like I said we attended the opening ceremonies for the ride itself but we had already ridden it at like 7 that morning. It had a soft opening during the week they said. They definitely did a great job on upgrading the star tours ride. We also managed to get wrist bands and fast passes for Ashley Eckstein and James Arnokd Taylor the first day. My wife got James Arnold's autograph for us on an official pix picture of Clone Wars Obi-wan I ordered earlier in the month and she had her picture taken with him. He ofcourse chatted with my wife while he signed. My son and I were standing close by during all of this. The handlers always insist on taking the pictures but occasionally you could do it yourself. Next was Ashley Eckstein. She was really cool and talks the whole time she signs. Her signature is huge. My son got another pic signed for us of Ahsoka next to Chewbacca. I'm going to get Peter MAyhew to sign this one os well. Next was my turn with Ashley. She is a very pretty young lady in person and it's like you are talking to Ahsoka all the time. She had never seen my pic before. It was one of her as a padawan welding her lightsaber in a full body shot. She asked if we had rode the ride yet and how we were enjoying our weekend. I told her we were here to see her and the other celebs mainly, but we were having a great time. I got my pic taken with her also and ofcourse that was done by one of the handlers as well. We got our pics taken in the park all day with randon characters from Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars shows. There were lines for pics with them but they were generally short and quick. They had to switch out often with other characters because of the temperature outside. It was a scorcher all 3 days above 95 degrees easy. We attended Ashley's Behind the Force show and her special guest was Dave Filoni. They did an excellent job showing what goes into making a scene in the clone wars show and brought in audience members to vie for a chance to do a scene with Ashley.

Day 2: I managed to stay at the park all night from 1 am till opening and got a wrist band and fast pass for Anthony Daniels. Of course he was not signing any personal items during the whole weekend and you could only get this face card supplied by Disney Hollywood studios signed. But he made up for that by sneaking in line with the stand-by people and acting like he was there to get his own autograph. Some of the stand-by people had no clue who he was and it was hilarious. I got pics of the whole incident and he was gracious enough to pose before entering the building where he does his session. Once inside you had to put your backpacks and personal items in a corner. He was being a diva that weekend is what they said lol. You approach the podium he is signing on and tell him your name and how to spell it because he makes the autograph out to you. While he does this he chats with you and let me tell you this guy is funny. He was definitely on his game that day. I was wearing a Darth Vader shirt that said "Who's your Daddy?" He saw it and replied "Well rumor has it" and we both started laughing. He posed for a picture with me after signing that was ofcourse taken by his handlers again. They did take one of me talking to him while he was signing so I was pleasently suprised to find that one later. I rode the ride again that morning right as the park opened. You could get in like 3 or 4 rides before the line got long in the mornings. Again we did character pics most of the day and rode rides often. We bought most of our SW merchandise on this day also.

Day 3: I arrived at about 5:30 am and snagged a wrist band and fast pass for Dave Filoni. By this day the lines were way low in the mornings except for Anthony Daniels. His lines were sold out every morning well before the park opened. We got to watch the entire Stormtrooper and Boba Fett skitt on this morning. It was really entertaining and funny. The Stormtroopers will make you laugh for sure. Once the park opened I rode the star tours ride twice and then departed to go get my family from our resort. We had military park hopper passes all weekend so it was fairly easy to get around. I was so glad to only have to get Dave's autograph on this day because it was another wicked hot day. My family sought out shade while I waited in line for Dave. I had the original Clone Wars animated movie hologram edition dvd for him to sign with me. I had no idea where he would sign it so when it was my turn he shook my hand and started talking with me. He was very cool. He took the dvd case out and pulled out the insert sleeve for the outside of the case and signed it and drew a clone trooper helmet and his signature avatar on it. He even put it all back together for me. I said "Wow you even package yoour autograph back up for people" and he started laughing. He replied that I was the one who had to stand in the heat to get it and it was no big deal. Then we got on some tangent about wal-mart self checkout and how you should get a discount if you go through that line. He was great. He posed for a picture with me and this time they actually let my wife take it. She also managed to get 2 more of us while we talked and he signed. That concluded our autograph experiences for the weekend. I waited longer for Dave to sign than anyone because some people 2 spots in front of us had him draw avatars on those Mickey Mouse vinyl figurines and ofcourse there we 2 of them. Other than that it was a great experience. We found a few more characters to take pics with while waiting for Anthony Daniels show to start. I got a really cool one done with the Ahsoka character chick with our backs together. Once we got into Mr. Daniels show we were on the front row. He came in thru the side door with ewoks and girls wearing I love C-3P0 t-shirts and the ewoks threw gold confetti. It was really neat. His show pretty much covered from the time he was hired to do the first Star Wars movie all the way up until today at Star Tours. He is one of the best entertainer/actors I have ever seen. My wife and son enjoyed it alot. The best part is when he is on stage with C-3P0 at the end. It was kind of surreal really seeing him and 3P0 together. We stuck around for James Arnold Taylor's one man show later. This guy is so talented. The voices he can do are endless. I never knew he was the voice of Johnny Test also. He of course did Jedi Masters Plo Koon and Obi-wan as well. As the afternoon turned into evening we got our spots for the hypersace hoopla that closes the day for Star Wars weekends. The had a rock 'n' roll them this year. It was the best show of the weekend by far. Seeing all of the characters on stage performing to the classic rock ballads and todays music was a perfect way to end things for the weekend. Of course it didn't compare to seeing George Lucas on the first day but it was a close second. At the end C-3P0 and R2-D2 came out and 3P0 did the robot dance to one of the closing songs as it ended. By now we all know you can see the whole thing on youtube and yes I checked already and it's there lol! It was a magical weekend and me and my family enjoyed ever minute of it. Sure we were tired everynight after wards but, it was well worth the hassle and line standing to enjoy Star Wars weekends the opening weekend.