That Really Big Graduation Trip: May 2011

[momeja]

It is a small world after all, we share the same anniversary date, we too are celebrating at Disney but late. It is our 25th and we have ressie for California Grill just before Wishes in February and hope our evening is as good as yours was.

Sleepy90, that's so cool that we share the same anniversary date. I think California Grill with Wishes would be a truly romantic way to celebrate an anniversary. We've managed to get a window table once at California Grill. I hope you get one for your anniversary.

[cy1229]

LOVE the dinner description! Hopefully one day soon hubby and I will get to do something similar. What a great evening for you both!

[momeja]

5/21 Moving Day and the beginning of resort room madness

The next day we switched resorts from Kidani Village to our wonderful home resort – the Beach Club Villas. It was also the day that H. had to fly back to Calgary to perform two weddings. We hadn’t been able to find two weeks in May or June that were completely free, but these two weeks were the closest. The compromise was that H. would fly back to Calgary on Saturday, perform the weddings on Sunday, then return to WDW on Monday. Yes, it was a little strange, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Because of the late night, we all slept in, then we packed up, gave our bags to bell services to transfer, and headed over to 1900 Park Fare for breakfast. We hadn't been to Park Fare in about 4 years, and we were looking forward to going back. We love 1900 Park Fare for the food and for the characters, although we missed seeing Bert this time, who used to be there with Mary Poppins. They also no longer serve fresh squeezed o.j. , but the breakfast buffet is still great.


Always loveable


Always crazy


Always Alice


Practically Perfect


Forever bouncy

After breakfast, we drove over the Beach Club to check in. Our resort problems probably began at the moment we checked in, although we didn’t know it at the time. Regular check in was busy, so we were ushered over to Concierge to check us in. When the man at Concierge helped us, he told us that we had 5 different reservations (which I knew) and had been assigned 2 different rooms (which I didn’t know). What we also didn’t know at the time was that the reason we had two rooms was because the reservations hadn’t been linked up.

First question first: why did we have 5 different reservations? Well, when we booked the BCV, not all of the days were available, so we started with two sets of two days that weren’t together. Because they weren’t together, they were given separate resort reservation numbers (1 and 2). Then I waitlisted the other days. One set came through immediately (3). The other didn’t. Then one day of the other waitlist came in (4), so only one day was left. Finally, it came through, too (5), and I thought all was good. When I looked at it online, it all looked great – 7 consecutive days at the BCV, exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, I thought they’d all been linked up as the waitlists came through, but they weren’t. Instead, we had 5 separate reservations under 3 different reservation numbers. Add to that confusion, the confusion of H. leaving to go back to Calgary to perform two weddings, and you have one grand confusion for the Beach Club CMs.

Not that I knew this at the time. All I knew was that Concierge made a joke about the number of reservations we had and told us that we were slated to change rooms on 5/24. Perhaps if I’d just said at the time we checked in that we wanted to stay in our first room (sight unseen) for the whole stay the later craziness wouldn’t have happened. Perhaps. But since I hadn’t seen the room, I didn’t want to commit to it for the entire stay, especially since concierge told us that since the second room we’d been assigned was on the top floor with a view of the Epcot fireworks. The description was just too tempting to commit to staying in the first room and letting go of the second without even having seen the first room.

I’m now getting ahead of myself in the story and probably confusing all of you, too! This story will be continued on 5/24. All that you need to remember is that I had an early warning of the trouble ahead. And that I probably had an opportunity to avoid the whole problem (or at least the room portion of the problem) had I agreed to stay in the same room for the whole stay. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, right?

We went to our room: 4th floor, Future World side. Room 471. Plusses: it had a gorgeous, dead on view of Spaceship Earth. Minuses: the rooms that look toward SE also overlook the road connecting the two sides of Crescent Lake, so the room was somewhat noisy (although probably the lower floors are noisier since they're nearer to the road).

By the time we got checked in, it was almost time for H. to leave. He’d called Universal and been told that they’d found the bag(finally, $210 later! ), so he was going to stop there on the way to the airport. Then we realized that he didn’t need to do that. We could just forget having the bag, and he could have them send it directly home and not waste the time picking it up. Once he made that decision, he had just enough time for a quick dip in the pool before leaving for the airport.

Meanwhile, Emilie had her own issues to deal with that day. Her teacher had emailed me on Thursday to tell me that Emilie had to take her Provincial Achievement Test in writing by Monday or she would get a 0 for the test. Of course, nothing had been said about this before we left. Since we didn't have any plans for the day other than moving, Emilie decided to write the test that afternoon, while Judah, Adi and I swam at Stormalong Bay, rode the flying jib slide, and went to Epcot.


Home Sweet Home

They were playing a water balloon game at SAB, which was totally fun, then we got out and went to Epcot. Epcot was pretty busy, so we just rode SE and played some games before returning to find Emilie, who was cranky about having had to take the test but happy to be finished with it. We had a late dinner at Beaches & Cream, where we had great service from Brian and where we finally had their famous and fantastic No Way Jose (hot fudge and peanut butter sauce over chocolate ice cream). OMG! I thought I'd died and gone to ice cream heaven!



Adi got a small sundae with her meal. When Brian asked her what she wanted, Adi said she’d like a surprise. This is what they made for her:


Adi spilled her sundae just after we took the picture. She was very sad, but one of the CMs behind the counter noticed before we were able to tell Brian, so when Brian came over to ask what happened, the scooper handed the new sundae to him to give to Adi the moment Adi told Brian the story. Now, that’s great service!

After dinner, we went right to bed because the next day was a big one: our first full Star Wars Weekend day.

[Amy]

Wow ~ that does sound like a confusing check-in story If there was a chance for a great overview of the fireworks, I would have probably done the same thing though ~ and top floor to boot!
Smart thinking just having Universal ship the bad back home. You already had the replacement rental car key by this point anyhow right?
A test over vacation ~ no fun! What a trooper for staying and working on it while Mom, brother and sis went and had fun. Great job Emilie
Love the pictures from Park Fare with the characters and your kids. They are all so adorable!
That is a cute sundae that Adi had there. How nice of them to replace it. I don't suppose her spilling it had anything to do with holding it up so Mom could snap a photo?!
How long is the flight from Calgary to Florida? Poor H having to fly back and forth. Better than not going at all though I suppose!

[momeja]

Love the pictures from Park Fare with the characters and your kids. They are all so adorable!

I was just thinking that I hope you all don't get tired of seeing my kids in every picture! With kids, I'm usually not able to take those great artistic shots that I see in other trip reports. My role as the family photographer is more similar to being the secretary of the trip - document what happened. (well, except for the spills...) Someday, I hope to take all those artsy shots I see by Mousekedude and Len and you. Right now, I'm just snapping a quick one before we run to the next ride!

A test over vacation ~ no fun! What a trooper for staying and working on it while Mom, brother and sis went and had fun. Great job Emilie

She hated it, too, but she knew it had to be done, or she'd get a zero for the term and for the test. Of course, the weird thing is that her teacher didn't get clearance to do it by administration, so when we got back, I got pulled aside one day by one of the lead teachers at the school. She said, "I just want you to know that Emilie's teacher wasn't supposed to let her do that, but since it was your family, we let it pass." I felt good about our status in the school but weird about the whole experience. It got worse, too. Over the summer, we found out that the teacher had apparently given answers to some of the questions to the students, and as a result, the class got zeros for two of the tests - science and social studies. The whole thing was a total disaster.

Needless to say, that teacher isn't teaching this year...

[NaCler]

Awesome job... And no, we are not tired of seeing your chillens in every shot! I love seeing children enjoy Disney as much as I do. Keep it coming!

[momeja]

5/22 Star Wars Weekend first day AM.

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to continue, and thank you all for your patience.

And what a great day Sunday was! I still feel a little guilty saying that because H. wasn’t with us on Sunday. Instead, he was home performing two weddings, but it really was a fantastic day, no other way to say it.

The plan of the day was to ride ST2, meet characters and hopefully meet a few friends who were in the park that day. Well, we certainly rode ST2 (several times!) and we certainly met characters, but as for meeting Peeps, well… something else came up and prevented that from happening, as you’ll see.

RD was at 8 am, but I knew from Friday that they were letting people in the park early to ride ST2, so we were there at 7:30. And people were already through the gate and in the park. In the words of my eldest DD, we were early every day this trip but we still usually missed RD. Of course, we went straight over to ST2, fastpassed it, then rode it twice to start our day. It was totally wonderful. Then we went over to TSMM, rode it, then got an FP there to use later. On the way to TSMM, we stopped by the SW booth at American Idol and found out there were still spaces for the Padawan Mind Challenge later in the day. I signed up both Adi and Judah, knowing this was something H. wouldn’t mind if he missed. We’d already discussed that Adi would wait to do Jedi Training Academy until next Friday, when H. would be at SWW with us.

Two major rides out of the way, it was time to find some characters. We found out that Darth Vader was one of the first characters who'd be coming out, so we went to find him.

Vader’s line was already long, but I remembered my friend’s advice that Vader and Chewbacca are the two most popular characters at SWW, and knowing the line would only get longer, we decided to stick it out and wait. Btw, Vader stood right across Boba and Jango Fett, so the kids and I worked out a plan that involved two people standing in each line, so that one person could run back and forth while the other held their place. Sadly, we figured it out too late to use it for Jango, since our turn for Vader came up first, but it was a plan that came in handy later in the day. Plus, it amused Adi to run back and forth keeping the line holders (always me plus usually Judah, who liked standing in line better than running back and forth) informed about what was happening.



After meeting Vader, we tried our strategy with the Jedi and Clone Wars characters lines, and the kids got to meet the Capt. Cody while I waited for Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker. (that was fine with me, since I know that CAPT. CODY AND CAPT. REX ARE TOTAL TRAITORS!!!). Mace was wonderful, so was Anakin. Indeed, that’s one of the best things about SWW. I know it bothers some people who are waiting, but it is so great for the kids, after waiting forever and ever in a line, that the characters spend some time with them, ask them questions and talk a bit with the. That’s so different from many of the regular Disney characters, and it took a while for my kids to get used to the idea that the Star Wars characters wanted to talk to them. Once they figured it out, though, they had a blast. It also made waiting on line much better, since you knew that once you got to the front, you’d have a memory and not just a signature.


We met Mace several times over the two days we were there, and he remembered us every single time. Another thing I loved about SWW.


Of course, knowing that the Clonetroopers were traitors didn’t stop me from getting a quick picture with one of them. I just refused to wait on a line for them. It's a very important difference.

The next characters on the list were C3PO (Judah’s favourite character) and Princess Leia (Adi’s favourite character, so we headed over to the Merch tent (a.k.a. Jabba’s Hut), where they were supposed to be. On the way, I suggested we stop around Keystone Clothiers, where the meeting spot was for the TGM peeps for the parade. In previous years, the parade has been at 11:30, so the meeting time was 10:30ish, but this year the parade was at 12:30. I didn’t know if people might be gathering early, so I wanted to drop by to see.

Okay, now is when the pixie dust happened. We wandered in front of the crowds already gathering, hoping to see our friends. Didn’t see them, so we decided to ask a friendly looking CM who was just standing in the street about the timing of the parade.

“It’s not until 12:30 today,” he answered.
“When do people usually gather?” I asked (okay, stupid question because people were already gathering but sometimes magic happens to those who ask stupid questions…)
“About an hour before. But would your kids like to be in the parade instead of just watching it?”
“Be in the parade?”
“Yes, they could be in the parade. I have bracelets for them. Then one parent can follow them in the parade.”
“Yes, they would love to be in the parade!”

And so, they were in the parade. We had to be back at the American Idol booth at 12:10. With an hour and a half on our hands, we went over to get a fastpass for RnRC and go to Jabba’s Hut. Once there, we stood on line for whomever would be out. They alternated between C3PO/ R2D2 and Princess Leia and Luke. As we had fans of both, we were happy to meet either pair, although Judah really wanted to meet C3PO, who was out when we got in line. There’s a certain anxiety about waiting on a line when you really want to meet one character at SWW because there’s always the possibility that they will change before you get to the front. Actually, that’s a probability, given how long the lines are.

I was talking with a long time SWW CM about it, and she said the best rule of thumb is to get in line about 20 mins. before the character you want to meet is due to come out. Of course, this raises another question, since there are very few CMs who actually have the detailed schedule graph of exactly when each character is supposed to come out. Most CMs just get a more general schedule that gives the general times for each character. I discovered that the best thing to do is to keep asking until you find the right CM, and smile politely when a CM who just has the general schedule tells you that it’s the only one available.

Back to the anxiety of waiting in line: the kids jumped in and out of line to look at merchandise, while I held their places. We knew that R2D2 would probably leave before we got there. The question was C3PO. Of course, Leia was due to come out afterward, so someone in the family was going to be happy no matter what.

And the winner was: Judah with C3PO!


C3PO was one of the best characters to interact with the kids. When he found out that he was Judah’s favourite character, he made a big fuss over him, asked him about whether he hoped to travel to another galaxy and how many languages he could speak. He was the best character we met all morning, and I definitely was hooked on SWW after our meet and greet with him.


Judah showing his dark side

We still had a little time before our meeting time, so we went over to stand on line for Assage Ventress:

She was so scary! Some of them really get into character and can be a little freaky when you meet them. Asage was one of those. Darth Maul was another).

The kids traded with a Jawa, who gave Adi a Kitt Fistu keychain (that Judah still lusts after, but she won’t trade him for it.).



It was actually pretty funny to watch my kids trading and their personalities. Emilie traded here and there and was happy with whatever she got. Adi traded huge amounts and received great stuff in return (like the Kitt Fistu keychain, which she traded an entire bag of goodies for). Judah decided to be cagey about it. He didn’t want to give much, and he didn’t always accept what was offered. As a result, he did the worst of the three of them, even though he was the keenest trader of the three!

We walked back past Keystone Clothiers one more time hoping to see our friends (no luck!). Then met at American Idol. We were given wristbands (I was given three of them – one for each kid), then we were escorted over to a backlot area behind 50’s Primetime Café, where the kids got robes from two CMs and light sabers from Kitt Fistu (the one we’d missed in the morning) and Mace Windu.



I loved that they had Kitt and Mace give out the light sabers. It kept with the spirit of the weekend. Kitt and Mace showed them basic light saber techniques, then the CM they were to follow gave them instructions on what to do while they were marching.




Proud mother of three Jedi Knights

Mickey Skywalker, Princess Minnie, Darth Goofy and Donald Maul came out to greet the kids, too. And you could see all the other characters and stars as they lined up for the parade. It was really, really fun having a backstage view of the parade.

And I got to walk behind them. When we’d arrived at where we check in, the CM told us that one parent could walk while the other parent took pictures in a designated spot on the side. I’d originally planned to just take pictures and not walk, but Emilie really pushed me to walk instead of watch. And I’m glad she did. Even though I don't have any pictures of the kids marching, I’d never been in a Disney parade before. I walked and waved to the crowd. (plus, Disney took pictures, as I found that out later)

The Fab 4 led the parade, followed by the kids, followed by the parents. The kids stood at the front, while we parents were led over to the side. Then came the characters. First came the Empire and Sith guards, then the Storm and Clone troopers, the Sand People, then the good guys: Chewbacca, the Jedi Knights, then R2D2 and C3PO. R2 stayed with the kids, which was nice (and much easier for him, too, since there were steps leading to the stage). After the characters came the first set of stars in a motorcade. Then came the bad guys, then the last stars. Then they all assembled on stage (except for R2).


Emilie is the tall one in the back on the left side. She said afterward that she was probably a bit too old to march at age 15, but I think she really enjoyed having the experience. After all, you're only a kid once.

Btw, once I stopped smiling and waving, I have lots of pictures of the parade after I stopped marching, except I don’t know which ones people would like to see. If people would like to see more parade pictures, let me know, and I’ll try to post more.

It was a great parade, except it was so hot! The kids were out front the entire time boiling in the sun in those robes. By the end of it, I could tell that my Canadian children were wilting, and as much fun as they had, they were also happy to be out of those robes and out of the sun. They had to give back the robes, but they were allowed to keep the light sabers, a really nice souvenir. We were also given a slip of paper and told to go to the photo shop near the front for pictures, so I didn't lose out on picture taking by walking after all.

All the kids wanted to do now was swim, so we grabbed sandwiches and sushi (and tasty, amazing cupcakes) from Starring Rolls (we also grabbed another FP for ToT) and headed back to the Beach Club Stormalong Bay. We met Linda Skywalker on our way out and I introduced her to the girls.

[MadEye]

We met Linda Skywalker on our way out and I introduced her to the girls.

Oh, how I miss seeing Linda Skywalker-Sparrow(-effron or so I've heard). Thankfully you didn't meet her while she was in her high school musical cheerleader outfit... *shudder*

[Amy]

What a great start to the day. That is awesome that your kids were chosen to participate (and Mom too!) I don't know who a lot of the characters are since I have only seen the very first Star Wars film, but it sounds like you got to get pictures with a lot of your favorites. Plus that is cool that the characters took time to chat with the kids. As you said, it makes more of a memory than just a photo.
I would like to see at least a few of the parade photos

[momeja]

Thankfully you didn't meet her while she was in her high school musical cheerleader outfit... *shudder*

MadEye, that image is just too scary.

[momeja]

Onward we go...
The PM Report: Padawan Mind Challenge, Hyperspace Hoopla, F! and FP madness 1

We spent the afternoon at Stormalong Bay, cooling off in the pool with Adi enjoying the pool games. Adi really enjoyed SAB this trip. She was a regular at the pool games in the afternoon.

Our Fantasmic! dinner package reservation at Mama Melrose was at 4:20. H. had requested that if we went there, we go when he wasn’t with us. He hated MM the last time we were there. The wait was long, the food was poor, and Adi at age 3 was in a terrible space that night. He spent most of dinner up and about walking her around. He didn't want to go back and he didn't mind missing Fantasmic!, so tonight seemed like the perfect time for us to go.

I’d thought about going to Hollywood Brown Derby, but the cost for the Fantasmic! dinner package at HBD is crazy, and it gives you way too much food, especially when one member of your party is 10 or 11 (and you know can’t eat all that food). So, MM without H. it was.

We arrived a smidge late at 4:30 but were told it wouldn’t affect when we were seated. That was true because everyone, not just us. We all waited... and waited... and waited... and waited. We got there at 4:30 in the afternoon, and we waited in MM's tiny and really crowded lobby almost forty-five minutes to be seated. It was just like last time. I was so glad H. wasn’t with us.

When we finally were seated at 5:10, I had to tell the waiter that we needed to order and eat as fast as possible since the kids were supposed to check in for the Padawan Mind Challenge at 6:10.


(Notice Adi practicing the Force on me... )

The food was better than last time (we had calamari and flatbreads with gelato – the fastest food we saw on the menu), and our service was really quick since we told the waiter that we needed to be out by 6:05 pm, but honestly, a 40 min. wait in the mid afternoon???? It’s happened to us twice now, so MM is now one of those places where I say, “Go forewarned.” If you need speed, go to Hollywood & Vine. If you want service and don’t mind the cost, go to HBD. Sometimes, you need the F! package (which we did that night, as you’ll see), but if we do the F! pkg. again, we’ll probably go to Hollywood & Vine. Like I said before, I love HBD, but their package is too expensive and it's way too much food.

The Padawan Mind Challenge

This is a moment of Disney brilliance. I loved the Padawan Mind Challenge and not just for its total fun of having kids on stage answering Star Wars trivia. But also because if you’re in the 6:30 challenge, you have fantastic seats for the Hoopla, which follows. That’s great when you have kids – you know, the kids you put in the challenge who really want to be at the front of the stage for the Hoopla.

Adi and Judah did the challenge together. Adi hardly knew anything about Star Wars, but the woman told us that everyone wins, so she’d be fine. They give the kids two light sabers – green and blue – then ask a series of questions with two possible answers. The kids have to hold up the light saber that represents the answer they think is right. Most of the kids look at each other, so there’s a certain herd mentality. They either all get it right or all get it wrong. Except for the kids that really know their stuff. And except for that one little kid who always put up the wrong light saber no matter what the question was. He said that R2D2 was the name of a space vacuum cleaner. Whoops. (kind of reminded me of the kid, Joey Nichols, in the movie Annie Hall that Woody Allen says always had the wrong answer: “2 plus 2 is 5…”)

He's the kid on the left in the red.


I knew Judah would do well because he reads just about everything Star Wars. Only he and a girl in the group got a very tough question right about “What are Veermoks?” (they're nasty looking Naboo creatures in SWI) Of course, then Oopla and Stig (the hosts) asked them questions about themselves. The girl was asked about her favourite movie and favourite character. My son was asked if he collected Star Wars figures or played Star Wars WII. When he said no to both questions, Stig asked him how he’d gotten to the final round! (that would be endless viewings of the movies, combined with Star Wars books and Star Wars Lego). Fortunately, they asked him who his favourite character is, and since it's C3PO, it was an easy one for him to answer.

It also turned out that the girl was from Ottawa, and Judah was from Calgary, prompting Stig to shout, “The Canadians are taking over!!!”


Adi was brought back on stage for the final question (who’s R2D2?) then they were each given a Star Wars figure and came back to join Emilie and me in the audience.



I let the kids go ride ToT before the Hoopla began (as long as they promised to bring back a set of Fastpasses for later), and I hung out talking to a mom sitting behind me.

From the descriptions I’d read of the Hyperspace Hoopla, I expected it to be cheesy, but maybe it was the fact that I was completely immersed by this point, but I loved it!!! It was so funny, especially “Back in Black” with the Emperor and “Welcome to the Jungle” with Chewy. And I loved "Stump the Band" with the Cantina Band, too. Yes, you know you’re a Star Wars nerd when…


Every song was the Cantina band song.[8D]


Back in Black


Welcome to the Jungle

After the Hoopla, we had half an hour until F!, and we held 1 FP to RnRC, 2 FPs to ToT, and 2 FPs to ST2. We had to act fast. We decided to use one of our ToT FPs before F! and the other after. But when we went through, we discovered that the line for ToT was EMPTY! I said to the kids: we can go to F! now, or we can risk losing our seats and ride ToT one more time. ToT they all said! I LOVE MY KIDS! So we rode ToT again.



Now it was about 8:15. Everyone was already in Fantasmic by now. We went down the side entrance and were told by the man who looked at our F! passes that F! was full tonight and there probably weren’t any seats left for us. But lo and behold there were still seats on the far side in the F! package section about 4 rows up from the bottom. PERFECT! I went to buy us all Itzkadoozie popsicles (btw, I just read that they stopped selling Itzkadoozies in the parks. Sadness. ), then we sat back and enjoyed the show.

Fantasmic begins in one minute:


I would definitely do Fantasmic! this way again. We’ve seen F! several times, so we don’t need the best seats, but the F! package enabled us to have really good seats at the last minute at the first show of a busy night. In the winter time, you can easily just wait and go to the second show, but in the summer when the second show is at 10 pm the package enabled us to enjoy riding rides and still make it to the show.

I’ll just go to a different restaurant next time…

After F!, we used our other RnRC FP, our second ToT FP, then we went over to Star Tours and used our FPs for two more rides. The first ride, we got Hoth and Courriscant again, but the second time, we got Tattoine and Naboo. Plus, we were with a bunch of fans who hadn’t seen Leia yet, so when Leia showed up in the middle segment everyone cheered. It was a great moment for us Princess Leia fans.

I love the entrance to RnRC at night:


Almost home. We needed to stop and get our pictures from the parade. Of course, we didn’t realize that it would take me half an hour to go through and load 250+ photos on our Photopass card… By the time we actually got back to the resort, it was after 11 pm. I convinced the kids that we shouldn’t try for RD at Epcot the next morning (“Let’s just have an easy morning.”). They all agreed, and we all fell into bed.

It had been an amazingly fun day.

Before I sign off on this installment, I want to finish with one of my favourite Disney pics ever, taken by Emilie of me with a picture of one of my favourite Star Wars characters ever - Jabba the Hutt:

[Amy]

I am loving your report momeja! It sounds like another lovely day ~ minus the super long wait at Mama Melrose What is the problem there?? They must be way overbooking!
I wonder if I would like the Hoopla since I am not much into the Star Wars franchise. It does look cute ~ and what a nice way for the kids to be involved
That's great that you got to get extra attractions in AND see Fantasmic! What are these Itzkadoozie popsicles? Is is a special flavor, shape??
More, more, more!
The picture of you and Jabba is pretty funny

[momeja]

Amy asked for more pictures of the parade, so here are some more for you. Except for the first one, which was taken backstage as the parade began, these were all taken by me once I'd finished marching and was in the crowd watching the show. The kids led the parade, followed by us parents. Then the parents were ushered to a spot on the side to watch, while the kids stayed out front.

Heading out of the backstage area:


The Empire:




Sand People:


The Republic:


And friends of the Republic:


Jedi Knights:


Flag bearers (these showed up throughout the parade):


R2D2, leading the special guests cars:


Daniel Logan (who played the young Boba Fett in SW2):


Anthony Daniels (C3PO). He was a really nice guy when we met him on the second weekend, but he obviously loves the attention he gets at this event:


Darth Maul (not sure why he was here instead of with the Emperor???):


It ended with Clone Wars characters. Dave Filoni who directed Clone Wars and Ashley Eckstein, who voiced Ahsoka Tano, were also there as special guests.
Here's the character Ahsoka, whom my kids loved:

[Amy]

Very nice ~ thanks for sharing them momeja
The Ahsoka character's sticker is always one of the most popular stickers with my students...

[MmeLeota]

Wow! What an amazing trip so far!!! My hubby will be so jealous when he sees these pics...he's a Stormtrooper kind of guy. (We were trying to make a short trip down for the last weekend of Flower & Garden/first weekend of SWW...but his work kinda dampened those plans )
Thanks for the pics of US/WWHP and V&A's!!!! Not sure when/if we will ever get to experience those!
Looking forward to the rest of the trip report! It's very pleasurable to read and the pics are great!