SWC17 The Last Jedi panel..Friday 4/14

I thought the lines were handled fairly well at Anaheim. Other than the opening TFA panel that I waited overnight for, I skipped the really popular panels. It was my first Celebration and I didn't want to waste most or even part of a day waiting in line, especially when I could just watch anything I missed on youtube later on. Ray Park, Ian McDiarmid, and Anthony Daniels were all on the main Celebration stage, and I was able to walk right in no problem without waiting. For the few smaller panels I went to I didn't wait more than an hour. And I'm lucky to have seen the TFA props exhibit on the first day without having to wait too long, because from what I read that wait was 3-4 hours the rest of the weekend.

I think the real disaster was in how completely oversold it was, not necessarily how it was managed. Because no matter where you went or what you tried to do, there was going to be an insane amount of people doing the same thing. The biggest complaint I heard from people, especially from those only attending one day, was in how little they were able to do simply because of the massive amount of people there.

The Celebration store is the only thing I saw that was actually poorly managed. That, and the forgotten queue room of people waiting to see Episode III.

 

From previous overnights, I'm guessing it will arrive around 11pm

 

That was always my biggest complaint about Anaheim: they way oversold the event. I don't see that changing this year considering single day passes are still available.

Those panels being the last of the day on the main stage also helped I'm sure. My wife and I went to all three and your right, the lines didn't seem as long.

 

For Anaheim, I was able to buy my four day pass literally the weekend before. I think it was on Monday that they finally announced four day passes were sold out. Looking back, I do feel kind of bad for being one of those people that contributed to the overcrowding, but hey, it is what it is. Now for Orlando, four day passes sold out a long time ago. So hopefully that's an indication that Orlando won't be nearly as oversold as Anaheim was. I'm not so worried about the day passes still being on sale.

 

They were selling single day tickets to London just about up to opening day last year as I recall.

 

While the listed capacity for the stage at Anaheim is 7,500, which is still less than the 7,653 that Galaxy, Celebration, and Behind the Scenes are combined by the way, it was a directed stage which means that at least 20% of the arena was closed off since you'd be staring a the back of the stage. So it's more like a capacity of 5000-6000. I will grant it's still bigger than any one room at Orlando, but it wasn't 100% utilized either.

 

That too. Definitely in the smaller panels I went to it did seem like a lot of people were there simply to get the collectible being offered. At one panel they even began lining the back of the room while the panel was still going on. I had left another panel a few minutes early, and the staff person at the door told me if I wanted the collectible I would have to wait until the panel is over, and he almost seemed surprised that I had no interest in it.

 

Well, they're not giving out startots at every collectors panel this year so at least a handful of them should be easier to get in to. But yeah, there are a couple this year that I'd like to go see, I don't care about the startots, but I'm not going to bother trying to get into.

 

Isn't it the opposite? Every year previous to this one, it was random panels that had handouts. This year is the first time you're guaranteed to get a star tot at every panel, 20 panels, 20 star tots.

http://blog.theswca.com/2015/04/celebration-anaheim-collecting-track.html

 

What is parking like at the Convention Center? Is it realistic to expect to drive there early? Do all of the participating hotels have shuttles running in the early AM for fans who want to queue early without staying over the night before?

 

There are parking garages in the area as well. And you can always just Uber.

one less thing to worry about

 

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Those panels aren't giving out star tots (there's 26 panels on the Collectors stage this year). They're making up for it by having several panels on Sunday that are only 45 minutes.

 

Ah. I was going by the official Collector's Panel schedule:

http://www.starwarscelebration.com/...s-Panel-Descriptions.pdf?v=636251846606041505

20 panels and 1 social are all that's listed on there. So if it's not on this schedule, you're not getting a Star Tot.

 

Who do you think will appear as special guests on the stage besides Kathleen and Rian?

 

I'm sure Ridley, Boyega, Isaac, Hamill and maybe a couple others.

 

Apologies if this has already been asked/answered!

Question regarding the overflow rooms for TLJ panel... If they do show a trailer and/or footage and cut the feed to the wider streaming audience (i.e. those at home, not actually present at Celebration), will that include those rooms as well? Not sure what took place during the panels for TFA and RO in previous years...

 

Given that people will theoretically be lining up from very early in the morning for the overflow rooms, they SHOULD stream exactly what is shown on the main Galaxy stage to the overflow venues for those on site. At last year's celebration, I couldn't go to the Rogue One panel as I was volunteering at the same time, so figured that I'd be able t catch what I missed later online. I was wrong as the sizzler reel or whatever it was, was only shown live (and streamed live).

The only real bonus of being in the main venue might be that you'd get some form of special handout as they did with the Rogue One teaser posters at last year's event (and even those were available on eBay only an hour later).

Wherever you end up, the atmosphere and anticipation will be fairly amazing, so I'm sure that you'll enjoy yourself.

 

Chewies_bandolier Thanks for the info! And agreed. Whatever happens, I'm just so excited to be going.

 

Well can I tell you that it was my first con ever and my favourite bits were meeting other fans and chatting with the very talented artists, as well as seeing ANH with 3000 other people The autographs /etc were a real letdown in a way and the main panels involved way too much waiting for what they were worth in the end.

 

This will be my first of both; convention and Celebration.

I've known going into this that I didn't want to spend all my time in lines and TLJ panel is really the only one that I am aiming to (hopefully) get into. So I appreciate the advice.

 

Never done the wristband thing before so I have a question.....If you sleep over and get a wristband, then leave to go to the hotel for a few before returning, are you guaranteed that you WILL get into that panel. I understand that your seating may be towards the back, but am confused on how this works after you are wrist banded? As long as you have the wrist band, am I guaranteed to get in even if I don't return until a couple of hours before the panel begins? Are the wristbands for the overflow rooms different from the main stage or would they allow them to jump in front of main stage wrist banded folks that have not yet returned? Thanks inn advance for any help or insight on this!

 

^ Get the wristband and you are good. Overflow wristbands should be different than main stage wristbands.

 

Wristband guarantees a seat and there's different wristbands for the overflow room so they won't do that.
For the 2 big panels, since they are escorting us in around the time the doors open, ask and get a good look at where they line us up after we have our wristbands, so you don't get stuck at the back of the general line when you return and have to wait for all those people to go in while our line is being moved differently


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You're in luck then, given the fact that both the 40th Anniversary and TLJ panels, the two most popular panels of Celebration, are in the morning on separate days that you can wait in line overnight for and attend. That way you can get the popular panel over with early on and still have the rest of your day to do whatever else you want to do. As opposed to popular panels being mid day or at the end of the day where people will line up first thing in the morning and spend all day waiting for it, which is something I saw at Celebration Anaheim. I would not recommend doing that for anybody attending Celebration for the first time. There's plenty else to do and see than wait in a line all day for a panel, especially when you can just youtube it later and still feel like you were there. But if I were you, I would take full advantage of the overnight line up and get in on the two most popular panels without having to sacrifice any time at all during the days.