The final Star Wars Weekend was the most successful so far, I believe. There were so many more people there!

Friday was the only day I could attend (my Seasonal pass blocked out on Saturday and won't be valid again until mid-August ), so I knew we needed to be there early. As in SUPER-early. So, we got a room at Disney's Pop Century resort for Thursday morning so that we could take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours on Friday morning. I had no idea how much we would really need that extra hour.

When they finally let us in the park at 8:00, we ran directly to the autograph lines. We split up; two in Temuera Morrison's line, one in Jeremy Bulloch's. That began a full hour of waiting as the lines grew steadily longer and longer behind us. I occupied myself with reading the NJO novel Dark Tide: Onslaught and talking to my friend Jan and some other people in the other line.

At 9:00, when they actually started distributing the FastPasses, I looked back at the line. NO WAY I ever would have managed to get a FastPass at all if we hadn't stayed at a resort. The lines were longer than I'd ever seen them! After getting early second session tickets for both celebrities, we got back in line for Warwick Davis, then again for Rick McCallum. When we finally got finished, it was time for Millionaire.

I must say, it was the most unusual day at Millionaire I have ever seen. In both shows, someone won a cruise! First was an older guy (Jared?) and second was a 9-year-old girl (Anna). Congratulations to both! You both unseated me (from my Millionaire-winner's throne) quite spectacularly.

After congratulating both winners, I went to Wicket's Warehouse and bought the final Limited Edition pins. I also bought a Jedi Mickey. (Hey, I have Darth Mickey, so why not get Jedi Mickey?) My brother didn't see the point in my getting Jedi Mickey, and offered this bit of skeptical reasoning: "Why do you need a Jedi and a Darth Mickey? So he can go all schizo and fight himself?"

Stars of the Saga was certainly the funniest I have seen to date. I laughed so hard! One of the funniest moments was when Warwick finished with interviewing Jeremy Bulloch, and called for Temuera Morrison to enter the stage. Suddenly, a Jango Fett helmet flew out of the backstage area and landed on the floor! And as if that weren't funny enough, Jeremy got down on his knees and did his best approximation of the 'Boba Fett cradling his father's helmet on Geonosis' scene. And as if THAT weren't funny enough, Warwick got exasperated, snatched the helmet away from Jeremy, and used it as a footrest! I was crying from laughing so hard!

After that, we went to the autograph locations. Temuera Morrison was very nice and a lot of fun. When Jeremy Bulloch saw the photo I was getting signed (it was similar to this one), he told me, "I remember when we were shooting this..." and went on telling me about how they shot the footage over nine days and so on. And when I left, he shook my hand and said, "It's good to see you here, Rachel." It's a wonderful thing to be able to make everyone you meet feel special, even if just for a moment.

I got Warwick Davis to sign the picture that Tom (Darth Beagle) took of the Millionaire screen when I won. It showed Warwick and me, plus my mom and the host of the show, and across the bottom was the bar that said "Total Points: 1 Million." Warwick congratulated me yet again, and wrote "Let's go cruisin'!" on the photo.

Now would be a good time to acknowledge how truly wonderful of a host Warwick was. I'm sure it must have been a tough job, but he performed wonderfully, and I never once saw him without a smile on his face. He made Stars of the Saga, which in years past was almost boring, into a truly unique (and often side-splittingly funny) experience. He provided valuable help to players in Millionaire, and was overall just a really great guy. I hope we get to see him again next year as official host.

So, once again, we come to the end of a month of Star Wars. It was a blast, and it was over far, far too soon. But more exciting things are in store for us next year; after all, it's the 30th anniversary of Star Wars! Keep tuned in here, at The 'Official' Star Wars Weekends 2007 Thread for updates as they are released. And, as always...

May the Force be with you,
--i12bajedi