Well I didn’t think week one could be topped….boy was I wrong!!!!

Week 2 ended and I’m still trying to recover from such a crazy fun weekend. To quote my fellow blogger, Becca, it was “funtastic!”

It started Saturday morning. Nice and early in the morning, my partner in crime Robbie and I head out again before the sun rose and made our way into line at Hollywood Studios for our pass to meet Warwick Davis. After sitting in line for hours, the passes were secured, the park opened and the fun began. We were blessed with an early signing session with Wicket himself. He wasn’t too talkative that morning, which he apparently made up for later during the Stars of the Saga show. That’s something we will discuss later, since we saw it on Sunday.

After the Ewok meet and greet, we decided to try a stand by autograph for Tiya Sircar, who is the voice of Sabine in the new show Star Wars Rebels. By stand by I mean we walked up and stood there forever waiting on all the guaranteed autographs to be done. Once they were all done, time permitting and if the star wants to, they will take some walk ups. So we were blessed once again as we were first of the stand-bys and met Tiya. Unfortunately she was losing her voice so there wasn’t much talking but she was very nice and recognized my Coffee With Kenobi t-shirt. Tiya said she had been tweeting back and forth with Dan and Cory which was pretty awesome.

She signed the autograph for Robbie and I and off we went, but not far when we were stopped right out side Tiya’s tent by someone else who recognized the CWK t-shirt. I couldn’t believe my ears when she introduced herself. Her name was Tracy and she is the publicist for Star Wars Rebels from Lucasfilm. Once the initial shock wore off, we had a great conversation about fandom, from the original trilogy, to prequels, to The Clone Wars to Rebels. We discussed the impact the voice actors from The Clone Wars has had on fandom and the cast of Rebels. That discussion inspired another blog, but that will be for a later time. This encounter had me flying higher than I thought I could at a SWW.

From our talk with Tracy we roamed the park and stumbled across a video shoot Disney was doing in front of the replica Endor bunker with the men and women of the Rebel Legion. It appears they were shooting a promo for Star Wars Rebels which was to air on Disney XD. It was awesome to see pilots, Jedi, clone troopers, rebel troopers and more all together. They did several takes, shouting things like “join the Rebellion!” and “Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD”.

After the promo shoot, Robbie and I headed to the Premiere Theater. We had fast passes to enter the Behind the Force Star Wars Rebels show. We got there as early as possible cause the fast pass doesn’t guarantee a good seat, just a seat. So we got there an hour ahead of time, were the first in line and sat down to relax. This is where the best encounter of SWW to date occurred. While sitting outside the theater’s side door, it opened. Through it came a Disney employee and James Arnold Taylor. He smiled, said hi, and walked by. After he got about 5 or 6 steps past me, he stopped, turned around, pointed at my CWK shirt and said “I know that show. I was on it. Do you know those guys?” I anxiously replied that I did and that I was the SWW correspondent for the show. JAT’s eyes lit up and he came back to where I was sitting. I scrambled to my feet as he extended his hand and said “That’s awesome! Hi, I’m James.” I took his hand and introduced myself. He asked if we were having fun so far, which I had to confirm as a big fat yes. He was happy to hear that and then offered to take some pictures. We snapped couple and then he went on his way. You know, some people have such a great experience they are on cloud nine….I was off the planet by that point. For those of you who don’t know, JAT is one of the ones responsible for the revival of my fandom, you can read that blog here on the CWK site, it’s called How Disney Saved My Fandom.

While still riding that high, Robbie and I were joined by Gian Pietri, the photographer who graciously allowed us to share his videos from week one. We had a great time catching up, then the doors opened and everyone rushed for the best seats possible in the Premiere Theater. Ashley Eckstein, as always, did an incredible job interviewing Tiya Sircar. What was great about this show, they showed a different clip this show than the one shown week one with Vanessa Marshall. This weeks being a Sabine centric clip. Of course, as you know from week one, secrecy is requested. I will say this….we have all seen the clips of Sabine spray painting the TIE fighter, the clip shown during this show as an extended version of that clip. From what I have seen during this Rebels show through these first 2 weeks, we have a lot to look forward too.

This concludes Saturday.

Sunday started the same as Saturday, leaving the house at the butt crack of dawn, getting in line to finally snag a Jeremy Bulloch meet. I have been trying to score a meet and greet with the original Boba Fett since each year, but something always ends up causing me to miss him. We were again blessed with an early autograph session. Jeremy Bulloch was awesome. Genuine in his conversations and interactions. I had him sign a movie card from Empire Strikes Back which has Boba Fett pictured on it. He said it was a really nice card he hadn’t seen before. I took that as quite the complement, since he is quite the Fett collector himself.

From there we went to our favorite spot to watch the parade. There I got some great shots of the Rebel Legion and the 501st Legion. If you have never seen or met any members of these groups you are missing out. They work hard on making the most movie accurate costumes and do it all for fandom and charity. These men and women have huge hearts and do so much good for charities worldwide. Definitely check them out if you love Star Wars and doing charitable work.

The Stars of the Saga show was INCREDIBLE! Warwick Davis and Jeremy Bulloch are hilarious and when you throw James Arnold Taylor into the mix, I was laughing so hard I was crying. They kept the crowd rolling through the whole show. I was honestly disappointed cause it went by so fast!

It was an incredible day for meeting other Star Wars fans as well. I was honored to meet Eric Geller from the Forcecast. We shared a ride on Star Tours and did a recording about the interactive queue of the ride as we passed through. I met the lovely Teresa Delgado from Jedi News and Fangirls Going Rogue while she was in Darth’s Mall. Then later that evening, met Sarah and Rich from Skywalking Through Neverland. Sarah was cosplaying as Jedi Tink. Quite original. All of them were great to talk to and I wish we had more time to sit and talk. Hopefully we will in the future.

The day was enhanced cause around dinner time, my family and Robbie’s family joined us for the evening. After a quick dinner and a few rides, we set up shop in front of the main stage and waited for the Symphony of the Stars fireworks show. DJ Lobot and the Galactic Dance Party was keeping the tunes spinning up til the show started. Hosted of course by the great James Arnold Taylor, the 15 minute pre show contained characters from the saga. He even made a comment about the last time he saw Darth Maul, he had to “split”. Then the lights all over went out as the soothing melodies of John Williams Star Wars pieces filled the air. All kinds of colorful explosions filled the air to the beat of the greatest soundtrack ever written. By the time it had finished, I had chills and was completely speechless. Matter of fact, I was so entranced, I tweeted the name of the fireworks show wrong. It is now my belief that there should never be another fireworks show done to any other type of music.

So with the flash of lights and the beats of John Williams my night finally came to an end. What a day! What a weekend! I can’t believe the experiences I’m having, and all thanks to Coffee With Kenobi. I am forever grateful.

Week 3 is here, unfortunately due to work obligations, I will only be at Hollywood Studios on Sunday this week. So if you’re out there, look me up! If you can’t tell, I love meeting new people. Follow me on for updates from the park on Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to leave a comment below or email me at aharris@coffeewithkenobi.com with comments, questions, thoughts, or to let me know about your experiences!

Until next time, May the Force be with you.

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