Star Wars Weekends

We arrived @ DHS a little after opening.  There were the Stormtroopers on the roof crackin' on people,
trying to look intimidating, but people are just too happy.  The weather is partly cloudy, humid.  Our party included me, DH, DS7 and DS4.  We intended to use Touring Plans, but arrived a bit late. It was crowded but not crazy like I thought it would be.

We headed immediately to the Jedi Training Academy by Star Tours. There was a large crowd by the stage, so we stayed in the back and watched the 1st show.  When everyone left, we stayed at the rope and got front row center.  A few minutes before the start of the 10:20 show, 2 intergalactic comedians came out to warm up the crowd. We had already heard the same jokes from the 1st show, but they were still funny.  If you were there, the male comedian made a comment about my red t-shirt that had Leia and Chewie getting his hair done.

Suddenly, the music starts and a Jedi comes out and shows us his lightsaber skills.  He then proceeds to use the force to seek out younglings who were ready to begin training.  There were many helpful parents who held their boys and girls up on their shoulders. Some also had homemade signs to help point the way. Most of the hopeful applicants had their own lightsabers, including our sons.  The Jedi started choosing random boys and girls from the front row.  DS7 was actually stunned when he got chosen, and I had to give him a
little push to get him out there. I won't give away the whole show, but they do actually go through lightsaber training. I don't know if it was because it was SWW, but Darth Maul was there with Darth Vader.
DS got to fight him.  Darth Maul was very imtimidating- he would come  up to the parents and glare at them and hiss and bare his scary teeth.  At the end of the "class", the padawan get a certificate.

There were also several Photopass photographers who took many pictures of the recruits. If your child is picked, you can later go to Cover Story towards the front of the park and view the pics and have them
uploaded to your Photopass card. We got 35 pics of our new Padawan.  I'm so glad he got picked the 1st time - he'd been waiting for this for months. It was one of the highlights of our trip.  There was a boy next to us that didn't get picked and he had tried twice.  He was in the front and raising his hand, but he wasn't yelling and jumping up and down.  If you want to get picked, you at least have to be heard!  Also it seemed to help if the child was wearing Star Wars gear or t-shirts.

Note:  It was crowded around the stage and hot and humid. A young lady
passed out near us. Please stay hydrated and eat a little something
before you get yourself into a crowd in the heat. We saw a grown man
hit the pavement later that weekend - he was a doctor. We carried
Gatorade and had camelbaks and that really helped.

After the JTA, we ate at the Backlot Express right next door, then waited for the Motorcade parade at 11:40. We got a decent place across from The American Idol Experience. The parade was fun - The Empire and the Rebels evenly represented. Mickey and the gang also in Star Wars costumes. (Where did Darth Goofy leave his pants?!) There were plenty of characters around, but the lines were just too long for us. There are some characters just walking around, not signing autographs but ready and willing to stop for pictures. We saw a Gammorean guard and a Jawa actually being friendly with the little ones.  We were waiting in line for Ahsoka Tano (3rd in line!) when a fast-moving storm came up and we had to seek shelter.  Of course when it rains, the characters also seek shelter...

The wait for Star Tours was only 20 minutes at about 1:30 so we got in the queue. Suddenly everyone was like, "ooohhh", as a Stormtrooper and Vader himself went through the fastpass line. The themeing was completely thourough as usual. We rode in the back row and it was an awesome and bumpy ride. The kids were like, "We never even made it to Endor!"  We ate at the Brown Derby and saw someone's autograph in the guestbook with a sketch of Gen. Grevious' face.

As DH is NOT a SW fan, that was the end of SWW for us, but we definitely enjoyed the rest of the park and the day. For souvenirs, we got blasters, a Darth Goofy trading pin, Jedi Mickey trading pin, and a SWW t-shirt.

Have fun!