In 2009 we moved from California to the East Coast, a side effect of this was an end to our regular visits to Disneyland. In our time on the East Coast we had never been to Walt Disney World. After returning to North Carolina from a March 2015 trip to Disneyland- our first in 6 years we found ourselves Disney crazy. We decided to plan our first trip so we could attend a day at Disney's Hollywood Studios during a Star Wars Weekend. Agent P our Teenage Son was 10 year old Son and Toddler Son was due to be born in September of 2015 so Mom was 6 months pregnant on this trip.
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June 2015 was a time of such promise for the Star Wars world, Disney had purchased Lucasfilm, had released the Star Wars Rebels animated series and the release of the first Disney Star Wars movie was slated for December 2015. It was in this time between the old and new that we attended "Star Wars Weekends" at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
We arrived right after they opened, and signed 10 year old Agent P up for the Jedi Training Academy where he ultimately dueled Darth Maul! There was a fairly long line to do this using the queue from the Indiana Jones stunt show.
There was several character meet and greets set up, but we only met Darth Maul as the lines for these were fairly long. The bounty hunter Zem Wessel from "Star Wars Attack of the Clones" had a neat interaction with Agent P while we walked along a studio walkway.
The early June Florida heat & humidity was so intense and something none of us had ever experienced or were prepared for. On our first trip to WDW we suffered from too many preconceptions of it as an East Coast Disneyland(including expectations of the weather!) but we would develop a deeper appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses over repeat visits.
The parade was the real highlight of this event for us. We managed to find a spot on the curb for Agent P while Mom & Dad were a few folks behind. Classic Disney Characters appeared in Star Wars Costumes, and many Star Wars Characters appeared.
There were several celebrity guests in the parade riding in open cars:
Ashley Eckstein (The voice of Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars Animated Series)
Taylor Gray (The voice of Ezra Bridger from the Star Wars Rebels Animated Series)
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca)
Ray Park (Darth Maul)
Frank Oz (Puppeteer and voice of Yoda)
James Arnold Taylor (The voice of Obi Wan Kenobi from The Clone Wars Animated Series)
The 501st Legion (Star Wars Costume Fan Club) made appearances...this was fun as their large numbers gave life to the parade by populating it with Imperial & Rebel troops.
"Bounty Hunters! We don't need their scum!"
Jawas....."Utinni!"
The night closed out with a fantastic fireworks show over the Chinese Theater. This show had a live narration by James Arnold Taylor and character appearances on a stage in front of the theater. This event used to run for several weeks out of the year lasting 3 days at a time, but 2015 was the last year they did it. It has been somewhat replaced by Star Wars Galactic Nights ( a one night special ticketed after hours party that accompanies the theatrical release of a new Star Wars movie) which we shared in the previous post.
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