Sarasotarockstr
I am the fool who follows
Hello everyone!
I'm back from the first weekend of Star Wars Weekends at MGM Studios @ Walt Disney World Resort so I thought I'd post a little report to let you know how it went.
I got thrown a curve ball as they switched guests about 48 hours before I left. Due to a scheduling conflict, Davis and Piesse switched weekends...so I had to do some last minute screencapping and scrambling the night before we left to find things for Piesse to sign.
We got there at around 7:20 am to get in line for autograph fast passes (park opened at 9). I got in Kenny's line, while Kel got in Bonnie's. This was new this year - usually everyone waited in normal lines and then we all chose a line once inside the park.
This year they had four lines - Kenny, Bonnie, Jay and Merchandise - outside the gates. The merch line was insane as you'd imagine.
Park opens with the usual Stormtrooper skits,etc. and we're marched over to the lines INSIDE the park. Then we wait to get our fast pass. I'm hoping that they reconsider this and march the fast pass people in prior to park opening to get them "set" in their lines. Seemed silly to make everyone wait until the park opens to shuffle them through a line, plus I'm sure some folks "cut" into the line while it was moving through the onslaught of the park opening.
Even getting there at 7:20, I didn't get the auto pass time until late in the second session, 2:25PM. I was pretty surprised as it didn't seem like there were THAT many people ahead of me. Perhaps Kenny allowed fewer signatures for health reasons? Kel got one of the first 5 spots for Bonnie so that was a 10AM ticket. She then got back in line and got a 4:20 ticket for Jay, who only was signing during the last session.
I met Bonnie first who was incredibly kind (then again, I was only the second person she'd signed for that day...lol). She signed two photos for me and we talked about music as I was a musician and I knew she sang. Turns out that's why she switched weekends - she was going to be in the recording studio for the last weekend.
She posed for a nice photo and then Kel & I left MGM to grab some brunch. If you didn't see, we had a tropical storm come through so I was praying the rain would stay away the whole time while planning my afternoon return to the park.
I returned to MGM at 2:15 to get Kenny. It was my first time meeting him - he was pretty quiet but gracious when I told him I'd been saving the photo for ten years to have him sign when I finally met him (it was previously signed by Mayhew and Daniels so there was no way I was sending it TTM).
Having not seen him in person I don't know how he looked health-wise compared to normal - but he seemed winded a bit and was very red. He was pleasant, posed for a photo, etc. But he wrote VERY slowly so I only had him sign one photo (to be fair to the people behind) and he just looked strained. A great experience to meet him regardless!
On the way out of the park I was allowed by the Disney personnel to slip into Bonnie's standby line (there were only a few people) and get an additional autograph and photo. She remembered me, even remembering I spell my name with one "t". I told myself it was due to my good looks.
Unfortunately as it began raining I ended up skipping Jay (I also knew he'd be there every weekend) so I gave my ticket to a kid in a SW shirt I heard whining to his mom that he wanted to meet "a Star Wars". He was thrilled.
All told I got one sig from Kenny and three from Bonnie. We were going to go back on Saturday, but the couple we were with who were from out of town are NOT morning people, so I decided I was all set for that weekend.
Overall notes...
Disney seems to do a good job of line control among those with fast passes. If there weren't many people they let you mingle a bit and get more than one item signed. If there were a lot, then they rushed you through - but you didn't feel rushed. This weekend and the next (with Park & Logan) I think will be pretty one sided among autograph seekers. I imagine the final two weekends will be a little more evenly split. People just walking into the park at 9 I imagine were able to get tickets for Bonnie and Jay.
The merch lines were chaos - mostly for the pins. I saw people walking out with Big Figs late in the afternoon on Friday so they didn't seem to sell out ASAP (they're only doing 600 per piece).
I missed Jay's Q&A session with the guests but I imagine they were great as he's such a good entertainer.
Finally - for those with kids, you may be disappointed as Disney really seems to have cut back on the random characters wandering around the park. In years past you could stroll the street back by "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and you'd always run into stormtroopers, jawas, etc. This year aside from 5-6 distinct locations with backdrops where you wait in line for a photo with Boba Fett, Darth, etc., I only saw a couple other characters either day walking around - two sand people, Zam Wessel and a Gamorrean Guard. Didn't bother me ALL that much, but I've always enjoyed the random interaction with characters as most are usually pretty comedic.
This weekend we're planning to go both Saturday and Sunday and to get there about 1/2 hour earlier. We'll be with another couple so we'll probably do two in one line and two in another the first day, and perhaps 3 for Park and 1 for Logan or Jay the second. According to a few castmembers, people started lining up at 5 AM on Friday for merch and Baker, and some said they'd be going even earlier for Ray Park.
It was Gay Days this weekend @ Disney, so all of the parks were extra busy. Next weekend should be a better barometer of crowds and how the whole thing will be working out.
Until then, MTFBWY and happy collecting.
Bret
I'm back from the first weekend of Star Wars Weekends at MGM Studios @ Walt Disney World Resort so I thought I'd post a little report to let you know how it went.
I got thrown a curve ball as they switched guests about 48 hours before I left. Due to a scheduling conflict, Davis and Piesse switched weekends...so I had to do some last minute screencapping and scrambling the night before we left to find things for Piesse to sign.
We got there at around 7:20 am to get in line for autograph fast passes (park opened at 9). I got in Kenny's line, while Kel got in Bonnie's. This was new this year - usually everyone waited in normal lines and then we all chose a line once inside the park.
This year they had four lines - Kenny, Bonnie, Jay and Merchandise - outside the gates. The merch line was insane as you'd imagine.
Park opens with the usual Stormtrooper skits,etc. and we're marched over to the lines INSIDE the park. Then we wait to get our fast pass. I'm hoping that they reconsider this and march the fast pass people in prior to park opening to get them "set" in their lines. Seemed silly to make everyone wait until the park opens to shuffle them through a line, plus I'm sure some folks "cut" into the line while it was moving through the onslaught of the park opening.
Even getting there at 7:20, I didn't get the auto pass time until late in the second session, 2:25PM. I was pretty surprised as it didn't seem like there were THAT many people ahead of me. Perhaps Kenny allowed fewer signatures for health reasons? Kel got one of the first 5 spots for Bonnie so that was a 10AM ticket. She then got back in line and got a 4:20 ticket for Jay, who only was signing during the last session.
I met Bonnie first who was incredibly kind (then again, I was only the second person she'd signed for that day...lol). She signed two photos for me and we talked about music as I was a musician and I knew she sang. Turns out that's why she switched weekends - she was going to be in the recording studio for the last weekend.
She posed for a nice photo and then Kel & I left MGM to grab some brunch. If you didn't see, we had a tropical storm come through so I was praying the rain would stay away the whole time while planning my afternoon return to the park.
I returned to MGM at 2:15 to get Kenny. It was my first time meeting him - he was pretty quiet but gracious when I told him I'd been saving the photo for ten years to have him sign when I finally met him (it was previously signed by Mayhew and Daniels so there was no way I was sending it TTM).
Having not seen him in person I don't know how he looked health-wise compared to normal - but he seemed winded a bit and was very red. He was pleasant, posed for a photo, etc. But he wrote VERY slowly so I only had him sign one photo (to be fair to the people behind) and he just looked strained. A great experience to meet him regardless!
On the way out of the park I was allowed by the Disney personnel to slip into Bonnie's standby line (there were only a few people) and get an additional autograph and photo. She remembered me, even remembering I spell my name with one "t". I told myself it was due to my good looks.
Unfortunately as it began raining I ended up skipping Jay (I also knew he'd be there every weekend) so I gave my ticket to a kid in a SW shirt I heard whining to his mom that he wanted to meet "a Star Wars". He was thrilled.
All told I got one sig from Kenny and three from Bonnie. We were going to go back on Saturday, but the couple we were with who were from out of town are NOT morning people, so I decided I was all set for that weekend.
Overall notes...
Disney seems to do a good job of line control among those with fast passes. If there weren't many people they let you mingle a bit and get more than one item signed. If there were a lot, then they rushed you through - but you didn't feel rushed. This weekend and the next (with Park & Logan) I think will be pretty one sided among autograph seekers. I imagine the final two weekends will be a little more evenly split. People just walking into the park at 9 I imagine were able to get tickets for Bonnie and Jay.
The merch lines were chaos - mostly for the pins. I saw people walking out with Big Figs late in the afternoon on Friday so they didn't seem to sell out ASAP (they're only doing 600 per piece).
I missed Jay's Q&A session with the guests but I imagine they were great as he's such a good entertainer.
Finally - for those with kids, you may be disappointed as Disney really seems to have cut back on the random characters wandering around the park. In years past you could stroll the street back by "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and you'd always run into stormtroopers, jawas, etc. This year aside from 5-6 distinct locations with backdrops where you wait in line for a photo with Boba Fett, Darth, etc., I only saw a couple other characters either day walking around - two sand people, Zam Wessel and a Gamorrean Guard. Didn't bother me ALL that much, but I've always enjoyed the random interaction with characters as most are usually pretty comedic.
This weekend we're planning to go both Saturday and Sunday and to get there about 1/2 hour earlier. We'll be with another couple so we'll probably do two in one line and two in another the first day, and perhaps 3 for Park and 1 for Logan or Jay the second. According to a few castmembers, people started lining up at 5 AM on Friday for merch and Baker, and some said they'd be going even earlier for Ray Park.
It was Gay Days this weekend @ Disney, so all of the parks were extra busy. Next weekend should be a better barometer of crowds and how the whole thing will be working out.
Until then, MTFBWY and happy collecting.
Bret