Star Wars Weekends discontinued at Disney's Hollywood Studios

[asianway]

Really, You mean the Imperials in Ill fitting uniforms, You could tell who was the CM vs the 501'st and it was embarrasingly far in favor of the 501'st. The chubby aladdin's we periodically see I could go on but WDW has a problem with recruiting good 'face' characters recently.

The Imperial officers that debuted this year were equity who have different Union rules. Stormtroopers fall under the same area as Aladdin. Chubby usually gets someone disallowed quickly.

 

[RAXIP]

501st & Rebel Legion are in this year's Christmas Parade.

 

[Tigger1988]

And however rigorous your standards are, Disney's are even higher for their character performers.

Again....not discounting the good work the legion does but Disney is not Lucas. Seems to be a lot of shooting the messenger on this, but time will tell. We've seen Disney boil the frog before, they've perfected it to an art.

You haven't seen some of the Disney face characters lately, have you? I've seen an Alice with white powder on her eyebrows attempting to hide the fact the actor was a naturally brunette.

Just admit you're bitter about the 501st for whatever asinine reason.

 

[ford91exploder]

You haven't seen some of the Disney face characters lately, have you? I've seen an Alice with white powder on her eyebrows attempting to hide the fact the actor was a naturally brunette.

Just admit you're bitter about the 501st for whatever asinine reason.

As I recall Disney had to fly in some characters from Anaheim because the WDW face characters were so unsuited to the roles in the last 24 hour party (chubby Aladdin's and a few others whom I cant recall).

 

[note2001]

As I recall Disney had to fly in some characters from Anaheim because the WDW face characters were so unsuited to the roles in the last 24 hour party (chubby Aladdin's and a few others whom I cant recall).

Can you imagine being a CP kid working for close to minimum wage, being told you're being flown across the country on the company's dime while being paid the whole time? Those kids must have been jumping for joy thinking: major overtime = Cha-ching! And a paid trip to Florida!

 

[ford91exploder]

Can you imagine being a CP kid working for close to minimum wage, being told you're being flown across the country on the company's dime while being paid the whole time? Those kids must have been jumping for joy thinking: major overtime = Cha-ching! And a paid trip to Florida!

Yes I think it goes like "Best day at work EVER!".

 

[asianway]

As I recall Disney had to fly in some characters from Anaheim because the WDW face characters were so unsuited to the roles in the last 24 hour party (chubby Aladdin's and a few others whom I cant recall).

I can assure you, that is not accurate.

 

[jlsHouston]

For what it is worth, I first attended a Star Wars Weekend about 3 years ago and it was a great time with big enthusiastic crowds. A friend visited this past year for the first time and thought it was wonderful.

@Andrew C asks if Star Wars Land is not better than Star Wars weekends, and my response would be that Star Tours has already been in the park for many years but when Star Wars Weekends are going on, the whole area is enhanced in a positive way. I'm sad to hear the special event has been canceled even before the land area will be ready to open.

This is exactly how I feel. I have been able to visit twice now on a SWW and it was very exciting. I will miss these weekends being offered. Of course I'n happy we are finally getting a Star Wars Land at HS...

 

[rucifee]

Can you imagine being a CP kid working for close to minimum wage, being told you're being flown across the country on the company's dime while being paid the whole time? Those kids must have been jumping for joy thinking: major overtime = Cha-ching! And a paid trip to Florida!

Well if TWDC is like any other company it's on their dime but it would be expensed. They probably paid for their own flights, meals, etc and were reimbursed later. For someone who's paid $10 an hour something as small as that could bankrupt them. I'm hopeful that they would have covered the whole expense, but I doubt it. They're also probably not paid for their travel time unless the time is booked during normal business hours.

 

[ford91exploder]

I can assure you, that is not accurate.

@WDW1974 reported it tend to trust his reportage. in any case just repeating what I read here, But the last SWW the Disney CM Imperial Uniform fit was truly awful.

 

[ford91exploder]

Well if TWDC is like any other company it's on their dime but it would be expensed. They probably paid for their own flights, meals, etc and were reimbursed later. For someone who's paid $10 an hour something as small as that could bankrupt them. I'm hopeful that they would have covered the whole expense, but I doubt it. They're also probably not paid for their travel time unless the time is booked during normal business hours.

If they are like my outfit they probably have a travel system which takes care of plane tickets etc

 

[elizabeth '49]

Agreed! I think they should have been ready with Season of the Force details/ dates

so sad to hear that SW 2016 was cancelled...... my husband being a CPA will not be able to go the march weekends. And just two weeks ago i got two separate families to go to WDW because of SSW in June...... saddened!!!! reality trumps magic again.

 

[Bulldog1653]

Disney DOES have rigorous standards, yes. Do their Star Wars characters come close to ours at the 501st? In principle, yes but their attention to detail is simply not there. Trust me, from my standpoint they need work. The good thing for them is that it's minor details like the armor gaskets, etc. From the look of it, their costumes are set to "One size fits all". Ours are tailored to fit us individually and it takes a LOT of time and money to do it correctly.

 

[asianway]

Disney DOES have rigorous standards, yes. Do their Star Wars characters come close to ours at the 501st? In principle, yes but their attention to detail is simply not there. Trust me, from my standpoint they need work. The good thing for them is that it's minor details like the armor gaskets, etc. From the look of it, their costumes are set to "One size fits all". Ours are tailored to fit us individually and it takes a LOT of time and money to do it correctly.

Disney's costumes are indeed literally one size fits all. If the performer can't fit the costume it's a non starter

 

[Ignohippo]

Interesting that after the Lucasfilm purchase SWW got cut way back the last SWW that really rocked was the one in 2012 it seems to be a disease at TWDC everything must be reduced to a husk and the husk used for marketing experiences which no longer exist.

I don't think it's across the entire company. Just the Parks.

Whether it was Rasulo, or whoever, there's just an attitude from too many executives (who are completely out of touch) that the parks are a cash cow and fine the way they are. SWW was bringing in people by the truckload, so why spend money on it?

Btw, I don't think it's any coincidence that the wallets are finally being loosened now that Rassulo is gone (acknowledged that most of this was being planned while he was still there, but there has been a definite culture shift over the past year). I think he had the ear of Burbank and an outlook that many of them could buy into when they would see profits coming in year after year.

Honestly, Imagineering's output has been so mediocre and their budgets are so inflated that I would be gunshy if I were signing my name to their budgets as well. The additions that they are greenlighting, IMO, (FLE, Avatar, TSLand, SW) are overly-priced exercises of style over substance.

I've heard a lot of people talk about how Imagineering can still do amazing things and put Shanghai up as an example. Shanghai is a bloated monster of style over substance that is absolutely everything that's wrong with Imagineering today. It doesn't, in any way, compare to DisneySea, which has substance crammed in at every corner and is the most amazing bit of theming ever created in a theme park.

<sorry. rant over>

 

[alissafalco]

Does anyone know if they will still have the SW character meals? Even though they aren't having the SW weekends anymore? There has been no mention if they will be returning.

 

[Ignohippo]

Does anyone know if they will still have the SW character meals? Even though they aren't having the SW weekends anymore? There has been no mention if they will be returning.

At this point, it certainly doesn't seem like it. The SW character breakfast at Sci-Fi was a highlight for us last year at SWW and I was looking forward to doing it again.

I know there are plans to have possibly two restaurants with SW character dining permanently after the expansion, but not sure if this has changed since the Lucasfilm edict that they no longer have cartoon characters dress up as SW characters. One of the two was supposed to be the Fab 5 in SW garb.

 

[alissafalco]

At this point, it certainly doesn't seem like it. The SW character breakfast at Sci-Fi was a highlight for us last year at SWW and I was looking forward to doing it again.

I know there are plans to have possibly two restaurants with SW character dining permanently after the expansion, but not sure if this has changed since the Lucasfilm edict that they no longer have cartoon characters dress up as SW characters. One of the two was supposed to be the Fab 5 in SW garb.

I did notice that Sci-Fi was still closed in the am, so they could bring back the same one they had last year for breakfast if they wanted. Hollywood & Vine is now having a seasonal Minnie dinner all year round. Plus that was the dinner that had the Disney characters dressed in SW. Oh well...I'm hoping for the breakfast at sci fi to come back

 

[GoTheDistance]

While I understand why people are upset that this -upcoming- year's SWW is cancelled because I know people have already planned their trips, I completely get why SWW are going away. Disney has been saying for a while now that their ultimate (and obvious) goal is constant SW representation in the parks. Once that is achieved, I'm sure some kind of SW event will happen, but I don't think it will ever be what SWW was because most of that need will already be met on a daily basis.

Also, I'm not sure Studios could handle 2016's SWW with all the construction and closures. It was over crowded and chaotic before things started closing, I can't imagine what it'll be like with even less places for all the people to go.

 

[WhatJaneSays]

As I recall Disney had to fly in some characters from Anaheim because the WDW face characters were so unsuited to the roles in the last 24 hour party (chubby Aladdin's and a few others whom I cant recall).

Can you imagine being a CP kid working for close to minimum wage, being told you're being flown across the country on the company's dime while being paid the whole time? Those kids must have been jumping for joy thinking: major overtime = Cha-ching! And a paid trip to Florida!

While Disney did indeed bring in people from the other coast to WDW they were not your regular CP/CM kids and the reason was pretty far from simply having unsuitable face characters on the east coast. They have a fairly tight face continuity for any Disney produced items. Any printed materials, television, online media, promotional stuff, or anything that is going to have a face character portrayed on it .... is almost always going to have the same actor playing the part. (With in reason of course the "corporate Cindy" now is obviously not the same woman who played her 10 years ago.)

There is a LOT of filming and photography that goes on during events like that, even if it rarely gets used. There were some that probably started their day at WDW and ended it at DL. I know there were some face characters from DL that were in town not that long ago to do filming for the Christmas parade here.