Anyone else underwhelmed by SWW this year?

[Ignohippo]

It may just be me, but the whole thing seemed to be almost like a afterthought. Absolutely everything about it was been there, done that. It's really time they gave the event some thought and re-designed it to make it fresh and work better.

They're rotating way too many characters at one location and the lines have gotten ridiculous. It can't be that expensive to have two copies of some of the main characters (Boba, Jango, Rex, Cody, Ashoka, etc) and give them their own locations. I went to take my son to see Jango and the attendant said by the time we got to the front of the line, they'd probably have 3 or 4 shift changes - way too long for a kid to wait in line for in the hot Florida heat.

Characters were kind of here and there - many were in the same places as years past, but the additions of the Cars area and Phineas and Ferb have spread them out too much. Surely they could use areas like Streets of America, the Animation Courtyard or along Sunset Boulevard to put the characters in a more cohesive area.

What the heck was up with the merch tent being located all the way at the end of Sunset Boulevard? Great location, but there were no signs to let anyone know where it was and it was ridiculously too far away from everything else. Why not have some meet and greets or SOMETHING along Sunset Blvd. to make the tent not seem so far out of place? And please, get some new merchandise. It's the same type of stuff every year!

The shows. Love Behind The Force, but my heavens, it's the same performers doing the exact same schtick we've seen them do year after year.

And the biggest gripe: the parade. New stage = great! Cutting the parade in half = EPIC FAIL. We passed by tons of people waiting along the former path not having any idea that it now stopped at the stage in front of the hat. And the Main Street is WAY too small to accommodate all of the people who want to see the parade. Solution: have the performers stop at the stage but have the characters and the 501st continue on to Star Tours like they used to.

For an event like Star Wars Weekends, it really seems like they may be putting it on auto-pilot and not giving people enough new to justify coming back every year.

 

[KevinYee]

I pretty much agree with the gripes - it felt kind of ho hum, and the parade was a major bummer.

About Jabba's Hut: I have heard that the usual soundstage near Backlot Tour/Millionaire was unavailable, due to some... ahem... technology testing going on. NextGen stuff.

 

[Kirk88]

I agree, the lines were ridiculous. We hardly saw the park because everything was so congested. With everything being so spread out, it made it hard to stick to a certain path through the park. We didn't even know there was a 'CARS' area in the park. Don't get me wrong, my kids had a blast with the meet & greets but, we spent MOST of the day in lines for them. It got tough on my 2 youngest, not to mention the adults. On top of that, it seemed like Hollywood Studios had their 'B-team' cast members working the day we went. Most of them seemed to have no control over the meet & greet areas. On more than one occassion, folks just walked right through the 'exit' area and right up to the characters for pictures. I also agree with the merchandise tent location. There was really nothing to tell you it was there except for the one sign between Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster. While it was fun for my oldest son, we probably won't do Star Wars Weekends again until the kids are older.

 

[Ignohippo]

It's a shame other folks had the same feelings. I was honestly hoping it was just me. SWW, I would think, would have to be one of WDW's biggest draws of the year. I can't believe they've taken such a careless attitude towards it.

Their merchandise sales have to be WAY down this year. With the tent clear across the park and the plethora of old merchandise (like the "Judge Me By My Size, Do You?" t-shirts), they couldn't have sold anywhere close to the merchandise they used to.

Kirk, my apologies. I should've been more clear. It's just a Cars meet and greet area back next to where Phineas and Ferb are now. McQueen and Mater are out getting updated for Cars 2 and will be returning in a couple of weeks. If you saw the Cars 2 mural, that's where the meet and greet is. A few years a go, they had 3 or 4 Star Wars meet and greets in that area. Now that P&B and Cars are there, they only have room for one Star Wars meet and greet in that area.

 

[ptaylor]

Yep agreed, it has been my least favorite year for SWW. The new motorcade route is not good at all. Cutting the route in half has meant that you need to be in position at least an hour before to get a good viewing spot. The commentary from the stage was also annoying and hokey. I believe in the later weeks they did have the 501st carry on to Star Tours, but you need the entire parade. I cant see why they don't leave the motorcade as it was, go all the way to Star Tours. Then have them all appear on the stage at a slightly later time. The stage viewing was a complete zoo.

Hoopla viewing is still a problem. The new stage is great, but it still is very difficult to see from the crowds. Most people do not get a good view. They need a higher stage to make it work.

The other glaring problem is the same celebs, and the same shows year after year. It needs a refresh. I think this year they decided that Star Tours would be enough to satisfy everyone.

The merchandise tent was awful. Looked very temporary (which of course it is), and not really guest facing. It was not up to standard.

And just a small guest rant - why do parents think it is necessary to put their kids on their shoulders when they are already on the front row. A 10ft effective tall person on the front row is not very helpful.

 

[Ignohippo]

Heh! We had a guy on the street stand up on a bench completely blocking all of us standing around a landscape island behind him. There was absolutely no reason for him to need to stand on the bench to see.

The 501st didn't continue along the parade route on the day I was there. It stopped at the stage. Your idea about having the celebs on stage a little bit later is a really good one. Or maybe even separate the celeb motorcade from the 501st and character parade and have them at two different times?

 

[Tori]

I think the merchandise location was great this year. There were a couple of signs telling you where it was and it was on the map too. This location was a big improvement over last years. I hope they continue to use it for upcoming years.

I had a lot of fun. Loved the hat stage for the Hoopla but hated when parents would put their kids on their shoulders. Wasn't a fan of how they were doing FP for the stars this year either.

They really need to do something about the characters rotating in one spot. I hated that they would put like 4 or 5 characters in one spot.

 

[Since1976]

I've only been once (last year), and only got to see about half of the events available due to the crowds (absolutely loved what we did see, though). Based on what I'm reading here, I'd surmise that SWW is pretty much a "do-it -twice-and-that's it" sort of event?

Granted, the average parkgoer only attends a single day / weekend, so even if the same celebrities appear year after year, depending on which weekend you attend and who is appearing, you may experience something different.

 

[Thrill Seeker]

You must understand a lot was done in order to prevent too many people hovering around Star Tours since the lines were expected to be ridiculous (they weren't only due to how high capacity it is). The parade was cut in half because of this, as well as one of the reasons why the Hyperspace Hoopla was re-located to the big stage.

I thought Jabba's Hut was great this year. It was in a large location with plenty of room for the masses. Studios is not a very big park, so those complaining about the location should be ashamed...

I didn't get a chance to see any of the shows, but I heard good things from those who attended. The Hoopla was excellent on the big stage and I really hope it returns next year.

I do agree that a lot of the same stuff returned this year, and it would be nice to see some changes next year, especially since they won't have Star Tours to flaunt.

 

[ptaylor]

I thought Jabba's Hut was great this year. It was in a large location with plenty of room for the masses. Studios is not a very big park, so those complaining about the location should be ashamed...

Why would I be ashamed about complaining that the merchandise tent was inadequate? The park is the one that should be ashamed of itself for putting guests in that. Disney have the resources to do far better than a white tent in a parking lot. It was hot, noisy, crowded, showed backstage areas that really shouldn't be seen, and was just not up-to Disney quality standards. They can do much better, even within the confines of that space they have.

 

[Ignohippo]

Why would I be ashamed about complaining that the merchandise tent was inadequate? The park is the one that should be ashamed of itself for putting guests in that. Disney have the resources to do far better than a white tent in a parking lot. It was hot, noisy, crowded, showed backstage areas that really shouldn't be seen, and was just not up-to Disney quality standards. They can do much better, even within the confines of that space they have.

Yeah, I'm really not sure why ThrillSeeker would say people who complain "should be ashamed.." It's obviously a very common complaint and everyone's entitled to their opinion.

While I liked the size of the tent, I had my 5 year old son with me and a trek all the way down to the end of Sunset Boulevard was way too much since all of the other events were on the other side of the park. The location wouldn't be nearly as bad if they had some SWW related activities somewhere along Sunset Blvd. But, they didn't and the only thing SWW related on that side of the park was the merch tent, hidden behind Rock n'rollercoaster.

A couple of signs and putting it on the map isn't good enough. But, I'm sure Disney has learned that by sub-par merchandise sales.

As for the stage, it's a welcome addition no doubt. I disagree that the parade was shortened due to the new Star Tours. The parade used to exit at the Jedi Academy Stage, on the opposite side of the attraction from the queue and overflow queue. It really wouldn't interfere with the queue itself.

 

[Figment1986]

The parade of course is a problem when using the main event stage, perhaps they can find a good medium next year... With the general use of the medium stage they needed to maybe mark out an area and say if you are here no kid on shoulders, they also didn't have much advertisement for the handicap area which I found on the last day, At least they TRIED to get as many to see it as possible by broadcasting it on the idol screen... though I wish they could do the hoopla somewhere like the idol theater or indy theater instead...

Chracter placement was odd, they tried too much to use the same spots as possible and moving luke / leia / C3PO / R2 inside the tent since their overflow queue location was being used. There is plenty of area they could have used like near LMA or sunset boulivard...

Also they need to work on the Muppet Overflow queue by blocking out more sun, as thats used as the holding queue for the premier theater and a chunk of it is in the sun, and other chunks have no air circulation.

 

[NMBC1993]

I can't really say too much because I actually had a good time at SWW this year, but that's because I only did three things before fleeing to the quiet areas of Epcot. The real reason I went was because I wanted to meet James Arnold Taylor, the voice of Wooldoor Sockbat from Drawn Together and get my box set signed. I knew from last year that the fast pass thing is impossible so I just brought my DVD set with me just in case. As we were watching the behind the force show, James said that he was just going to sit in the audience and watch the show. What was exciting for me was he sat two rows behind me, I had to take a chance. I told him I was a HUGE fan and if he could sign my dvd set. He looked at it, did a double take and smiled. After a month of Star Wars I guess he really liked meeting a fan of some of his other work. After that I got a fast pass for Star Tours and got out while I still could. So I guess I can't say much about SWW this year because my dream came true. Thank you Mr. Taylor if you're reading this, it was great meeting you:sohappy:

 

[disneyrcks]

We had a great time but it was our first time going so we don't have any comparison. We went on Friday the 3rd and it wasn't too crowded. We walked right up to get our lanyards at the Jabba tent and walked comfortably through the tent to look at merchandise. My husband was able to get the guy who played Boba Fets autograph with about a five minute wait without a Fastpass. We got lots of pics with wandering storm troopers and sand people. Star Wars really isn't my thing so luckily the line for stop light margaritas was short!

Like I said it was our first time so I hope we didn't miss out on too much that they have had in previous years.