Nash, TN RE: CELEBRATION III DISCUSSION THREAD

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These suggestions are based on my personal experience at Celebration II. You can take them with a grain of salt if you wish, but I thought this may be pertinent information into helping to make your Celebration III experience as good as it can be, so I'm reposting it here in the Official thread

"Details about programming, guests, activities, entertainment and exclusive merchandise at Celebration III will be released as they are confirmed closer to the convention date. As it did for Celebration II, starwars.com will post all the latest Celebration III information in the Community section of the site. The official Celebration III site will of course also have all the latest news. Online ordering for tickets and discounted hotel rooms is scheduled to begin later this summer."

Make sure you order your badges early on (within the first month or two) as the people who ordered theirs later had problems getting them shipped to them as they ran out. Then they had to stand at the will call line and wait to get theirs opening day. DO NOT DO WILL CALL!!! You will be in an enormous line (a mile long) to just get in the facility. You will not want to wait in another line to get your badges & lanyard once you get inside. You will definitely want to go at least three days. There is so much to do & see, plus you will be spending most of the time standing in line (45 minutes- 1 hour minimum wait for most venues), so get a 3 or 4 day badge from the get go. You will be glad you did.

The best advice I can give is to PLAN AHEAD (but don't be too stringent). Try to use Thursday as a day to prepare for Friday, Saturday & Sunday by getting any tickets for events on Thrusday. Be careful doing the tag team thing as if your friend is not there when they hand out the line tickets in order to figure out the line cut-off, your friends will be SOL. It sucks, but it prevents too many people from line jumping in line ahead of you and bumping the people towards the end of the line out. Anything that you really want to see do on Thursday like if you want to get something from the Celebration store like a CIII action figure. The store does NOT have an unlimited supply of goodies, so I recommend doing this on Thursday & early. I first went to the Celebration store & then got in line for concert tickets. You will definitely need to get your concert tickets on Thursday or Friday (the concert was Saturday night for C2). The concert is something that you do not want to miss. Also get your autograph tickets on Thursday or Friday too. The lines just get really long on Saturday & Sunday. This way you can just go up to the actor's line & get your autograph instead of standing in line to get your autograph tickets & then stand in line to get the autograph. So basically, you will be standing in line for tickets most of the day Thursday so that you can enjoy Friday Saturday & Sunday. Many of the venues are repeated on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. If that is the case, DO NOT DO THESE on Thursday.

You will not get to see everything, so don't expect to. Pick a couple of things you want to see and just go with the flow. The lines get extremely long & require a lot of patience.

 

Well, I meant to reply to the "Who's Going Thread" earlier, but negelected to. I'm diffently going, but since I've been to neither of the Celebration's I'll follow y'alls leave. Seems most are leaving Sunday PM and I may do the same. Probably out to start getting together roommate ideas before we start doing the reservations. But I'm the last one to have an opinion on something as big as this.

 

Here is a little information regarding Celebration III from the online chat with Steve Sansweet on StarWars.com:

When will Celebration III tickets go on sale? Also, how much will they be? Will there be a Hyperspace area for us Hyperspace members to meet each other?

We expect tickets to go on sale by around the end of the summer. We are still working on details such as ticket prices. One of the best things about Celebration is a sense of community, and a place for like-minded fans to get together. So we will strive to have a special place for Hyperspace and Fan Club members.

Hi there Steve. How soon will i need to make hotel reservations and is there a lot of hotels in the area of celebration III.

Discount hotel rooms will go on sale around the same time as we do online ticketing in late summer. We have many hotel rooms blocked and I would strongly suggest waiting until the discounted rooms are posted to make your reservation. Indianapolis is a convention city, and there will be more than enough hotel rooms for everyone who wants one.

hi there steve. At celebration 3, who are we expected to meet.

We're really at the very early stages of planning the programming for Celebration, but I think it's very safe to say that we will have at least the same number of celebrities in 2005 as we did in 2002, and I'm talking about dozens.

Do you know yet weather or not there will be an exclusive figure for C3 like there was for C2? And if there is,could you give us any hints as to what it might be?

Most definitely. It was one of the high-points of C2 for collectors, and we are planning a figure that will be both exciting and germane to the Celebration and the saga. The special Celebration figure will only be available if you attend Celebration III. Or, if you want to pay inflated prices, I guess there's always ebay.

Will you show a more exclusive Episode III preview at Celebration III?

If you were at Celebration II, you'll remember the incredible eight minutes of digital footage that Rick McCallum brought with him. Whether that will happen again exactly like that, I just don't know. You can be sure that we will have a lot of exciting things to say and show about Episode III.

hey steve, first thanks for doing this. my question is this, what kind of special stuff is there going to be for fan club members? and is there going to be benefits for being a hyperspace member?

Yes, we are planning special benefits for both Hyperspace and Fan Club members at Celebration III. We're still currently working on the details of what exactly that will be, but it will be more than at Celebration II.

Any chance of expanding the gift shop area? Most things sold out so quickly last time!!!


Most definitely! That was a big problem and a lot of fans were disappointed. We plan to work on that and make sure that we have both an adequate supply of cool merchandise and lines that aren't out to the street. We also want to make sure that everyone who wants one of the exclusive action figures can get one.

what is being done about long lines to get in? i read that it was like an hour just to get in the door to the convention center

That's a problem we are really going to try to solve this time. There is always a line the first day just when you have that many people trying to get in the first time all at once. That's one of the reasons we added an extra day to the convention, and we are devising plans to deal with the long lines inside the hall.

 

I know im planning on going but have no idea what the plan is.Ill most likely be working events in and out of costume.
im sure this will be a major event since it could be the last Celebration.

 

Nothing in this world will stop me from going, it's going to be better then the last one. I'm thinking of skipping this and next years dragonCon so to justify all the money and time I will spend at the convention. I'm sure I'll be working in costume for some time and checking things out. I don't like lines and did not stand in many at cel 2. Instead I waited unit Sunday to get my figure and walked right in (risked them running out). Picked up a colored reservation slip for the concert and walked right up to the counter after people waited for hours. It was a bonus to be in Armor and working some of the events, but I also missed alot because of it. I'm glad it's not Wizards running the show this time because I did more work then those idiots and did not even get paid a dime.

 

I'm going to do the same and forego Dragon Con again in order to save up for Celebration III. I've been to about 4 Dragon Cons so its not a big loss to me this go around. Celebration is so much more laid back & a lot friendlier & family oriented atmosphere than Dragon Con anyway.

 

CIII may be more family-oriented, but I haven't found DragonCon to be anything but friendly. The folks there are great.

I may skip DCON 2005 if I have to in order to go toCIII, but not this year. The only thing I need to save up for will be hotel cost, meals and the ticket price, I don't do souveniers, toys and autographs.

 

I dunno, I'm kinda torn. The more I think of it, the more I think it might be a good idea to skip Dragon*Con this year. For one thing, it would free up three vacation days that I could definately use. Plus I would save a ton of cash. And don't get me wrong, I had a great time last year, but I just didn't think there was a ton of stuff there for us SW fans. Plus I would really like to go back to Disney World this year if they do the Fan Club breakfast during SW Weekends again, and for what I spent on D*Con last year, I could easily go to Disey World again.

 

I didn't necessarily think that DragonCon was unfriendly for the most part, but Celebration seemed to me like we were all one big family. I couldn't get over at how nice just about everyone was. It was almost sureal.

 

Sticky thread? So is this gonna always be the first topic on the board.

I already sent in for my DCon tix. So I am going. I just have to save with intensity.
I havent gone to DCon before but it doesnt like it is a question of un/friendly. But like Scott said, family-oriented. You dont see and topless Slave Leia's running around the Celebration. Plus DCon is for all genres. Celebration is very specific. So it makes sence to feel more comfortable around people who are in to what you are, specifically.

 

What? No topless slave Leias? Hmmmm...
:{Þ>

 

Bummer. Now who's going to be my "Wayne" sidekick this year? And who's going to cheer me on at "Mr. Star Wars 2004"? Or entertain me with Hank Hill impressions? Or help us "find Scott" when confronted with Stargate über-geeks? Most importantly, who's going to room with me?

Come on, Michael... you know you want to go back to Dragon*Con this year!

 

Now, I'm not out for sure, just kicking around the idea. It might just take a little arm twisting (see above) to persuade me!

 

I'm there...........DragonCon, too.

 

We there to doth.will hope to meet and hang some of you here.It is so hard to be of two groups.I cant keep up,but I try.cause I like to meet up with as many SW fans as pos.I hope to meet up with some more gal friends that are like me in SW.fewout there.
We are in fun fun fun.and so littel Time.

 

"will hope to meet and hang some of you here"

Does the Empire really hang people?

 

LOL Empire hangings....


we plan to go to C3...
(Even tho i've been a no show on here...sorry...newly married, trying to adjust still....)

I really hope they fix all the line messes...man...a line just to GET in line....i'm definitely starting my "endurance standing" training soon! ;-)

 

Congrats on getting married! We were wondering what happened to you. Now we know.

 

thanks
he likes SW and all too. definite plus......

Yeah, sorry i've been in a black hole lately...been busy, and we're in Murfreesboro, so it's kinda hard to get to anything to much past Franklin....

 

Dumb Question: So when/where is CIII?

 

Indianapolis, April 21-24, 2005.

 

I am going for all four days. I went to CELEBRATION II and loved it!!! The costume contest on the last day was the best.

One very important thought for anybody who is going. Be very, very prepared to take lots and lots of pictures. That means possibily taking a digital and 35mm cameria with extra memory chips and extra film.

The digital will give you more pictures and you have the capibility to delete them. The 35mm will give you a little higher quality shots.

I averaged taking over a hundred pictures a day at CELEBRATION II including the ones I deleted.

Paul

 

For anyone who hasn't noticed, there is a new forum for Celebration III news, planning, and discussion.

I'll try to copy anything newsworthy here as well.

 

does anyone know how it worked last time if you were a fan club member, but were married ...did the spouse get a fan club lanyard too? or did they have to go in with the rest of the cattle.

 

You'll have to ask them when you purchase your tickets at the end of the summer. I'm not sure. It would seem kind of silly to let The husband in & not let the wife or child in or to have to have 3 subscriptions to the Insider.