(My Star Wars Celebration Orlando & Anaheim badges next to each other)
I can now say that I've been to two different Star Wars Celebrations, Celebration Orlando back in 2017 and Celebration Anaheim this past May. Both Celebrations were amazing. Celebration Orlando will always have a special place in my heart. In this blog, I will compare the two Celebrations now that it's been about a couple of weeks since I was at Celebration Anaheim.
Why don't we start by listing the highlights from Celebration Orlando.
1) I got to go with Brian Ballance and David Vicente.
I've known Brian for almost 25 years now and I've known David since high school (I'm 31 years old now), so it was really special that I got to experience the Celebration with them.
2) It was my first ever Star Wars Celebration.
That is one of the many reasons why Celebration Orlando will always hold a special place in my heart.
3) The 40th Anniversary Panel was an amazing way to start the Celebration.
This panel alone was more than worth the money we spent on the Celebration tickets. My hero Peter Mayhew was there, George Lucas was there, Mark Hamill was there, Harrison Ford was there, and many others. Billie Lourd came out on stage and there was a nice tribute video for Carrie Fisher who had more recently passed away at the time. Curtains opened up and we got a live orchestra performance by John Williams! All of that was just the beginning of the Celebration.
4) I got to meet my hero Peter Mayhew on two different days!
I got to meet the original Chewbacca on one day for an autograph and on the last day of Celebration for a photo-op. I will always remember how I made him smile when I told him that I love his books.
(Peter Mayhew & I, he's almost as tall as me when he's sitting down, according to a video he's a whole foot taller than me standing up)
5) We got to see Daisy Ridley!
She was a surprise guest at the Heroine panel that we went to and that made it a very memorable moment.
6) Ashley Eckstein gave me a cookie!
For all of us that stayed overnight in line for the 40th Anniversary Panel, Ashley showed up with baked goods and passed them out to all of us. I actually hadn't started watching The Clone Wars yet at the time, but I knew who Ashley Eckstein was, and receiving a cookie from Ashley was still a special moment for me.
7) The 501st Bash!
I had a lot of fun at this party with some drinking and dancing. It was also really cool that we had a live performance from Weird Al!
Those are my top highlights from Celebration Orlando that made the event so special for me. Now let's list my highlights from Celebration Anaheim.
1) It was my first time in California!
I spent a good amount of time in Los Angelas, doing a bunch of the touristy stuff and trying the different food places. It was beautiful over there. I was able to find my all- time favorite actor Robin Williams in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
(Robin Williams star)
2) I got to meet multiple celebrities!
For every celebrity that I met I came up with a sentence to tell them.
On Thursday: I met Emily Swallow, the Armorer in The Mandalorian, and I told her "I loved your episode of The Interesting Podcast with Brian Ballance."
(With Emily Swallow)
I also got to meet Ashley Eckstein. Now I must say that since Celebration Orlando I've watched all of The Clone Wars as well as everything else that Ahsoka was in and I've read one of Ashley's books. That being said here's what I told Ashley "Your books inspire me."
(With Ashley Eckstein)
On Friday: I got to meet Ewan McGregor!
I got an autograph from Ewan McGregor the same day that Obi-Wan Kenobi came out on Disney Plus. Here's what I told Ewan "You're a brilliant actor." He seemed really happy to hear that.
(Ewan McGregor Autograph)
On Saturday: I got to meet Joonas Suotamo!
Joonas was mentored by my hero Peter Mayhew and now currently plays Chewbacca since Peter passed away. I told Joonas "I think Peter Mayhew would be proud of you." Joonas was really appreciative of that & said "I think so too." with a big smile.
(With Joonas Suotamo)
I also got to meet Carey Jones!
Carey played my favorite character in The Book of Boba Fett, the Wookiee Krrsantan. It was right before I met Carey that I had realized that I misplaced one of the poster tubes that I borrowed, luckily the tube was empty, but that was on my mind so I didn't have the most creative sentence to say to him. What I said was "I love your character." What was really cool though about meeting Carey was that he first shook my hand and then he put his arm around me for the picture.
(With Carey Jones)
On Sunday: I got to meet Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd!
I never got to meet Carrie Fisher before she passed away, but meeting her daughter was really cool. Billie was the only celebrity I met that used plexi glass in her pictures, so I got right up to the glass to get as close to her as I possibly could. I told her "I love all of your characters in American Horror Story."
(With Billie Lourd)
3) The Panels
I went to more panels at Celebration Orlando, but the panels that I went to at Celebration Anaheim were amazing!
The 20th Anniversary of The Attack of the Clones: I went to the streaming stage for this panel and it was almost as if we were there at the Celebration Stage. The audience that I was with laughed and cried along with everyone at the Celebration Stage, the energy in the room I was in was amazing! That panel was amazing! It was hosted by Ashley Eckstein with guest including Temuera Morrison, Daniel Logan, Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, and more! Ashley got to meet Hayden for the fist time, which is a big deal because her Character Ahsoka was trained by Anakin in The Clone Wars.
The Bad Batch Season 2 Panel: I got to go inside the Celebration Stage, the largest stage, for this amazing panel! Dave Filoni came out on stage and introduced his cast and crew before taking off. Dee Bradley Baker and Michelle Ang were there and they cold-read a script for us as the troopers and Omega, which was awesome! We got to see a beautiful clip from season 2 and we got to watch the season 2 teaser trailer twice, which made me scream at the top of my lungs.
Wonderful World of Wookiees Panel: This panel was my personal favorite. Before the panelists came up on stage, Amanda Wirtz had fans who were dressed up as Wookiees go up on stage and one of them was a little girl.
(Wookiee Cosplayers)
First, Angie Mayhew who is the widow of Peter Mayhew came on stage and we got to watch a wonderful tribute video for Peter Mayhew. Then Joonas Suotamo, Carey Jones, and Charles Soule who wrote the Wookiee Burryaga in The High Republic came on stage. At the end of the panel fans got to go up and ask questions. I was one of those fans! Before I left the microphone, I gave my own Wookiee roar for them.
On Friday I also got to go to a couple of podcast panels that were really cool. In the morning I went to the Talking Bay 94 panel with Brandon Wainerdi. Brandon interviewed Sr. Creative Executive and Lucasfilm Story Group Matt Martin.
In the afternoon, I went to the Skytalkers panel with Charlotte Errity and Caitlin Plesher. I did have to leave this one early because they moved my timeslot for the Ewan McGregor autograph to an earlier time.
4) I got to meet Angie Mayhew!
Peter Mayhew was my hero, so getting to meet his widow at the Peter Mayhew Foundation booth was amazing and it was one of the last things I did at the Celebration.
(With Angie Mayhew)
5) I got to go to Disneyland!
I went to the Disneyland Star Wars Night, which was so much fun! It was on my bucket list to go to Disneyland in California. Well, I got to take that off the list and celebrate Star Wars at the same time. The park was open past midnight just for this Star Wars event.
(My badge for the Disneyland event)
6) I went to the 501st Bash in Anaheim!
I had a blast at this one too with some drinking and dancing too. A local Inde band called The Flux Capacitors performed for us and they were really good.
7) Friends:
Getting see some of my friends was definitely one of my high lights of my trip. I got to see my friend Savanna Oudit and meet her wonderful mom on Friday. I was sitting with them at the Sykytalkers panel and they tapped me telling me to check my phone and that's how I found out that I had to leave earlier for my Ewan McGregor autograph signing. Savanna and her mom were also at the Talking Bay 94 panel.
I also got to see my friend Brenda and meet her boyfriend as well as some of her other friends. I sat with them inside the Celebration Stage for The Bad Batch Season 2 panel.
I also made a new friend named Catherine who cosplayed as different colored Wookiees throughout the event. We met at the Peter Mayhew Foundation booth. She took the picture of me with Angie Mayhew.
Those are my high lights from both Star Wars Celebration Orlando and Celebration Anaheim. I hope you enjoyed reading my lists and looking at my pictures. I could probably write a whole new blog about my experiences in Los Angelas. Like I said at the beginning, Celebration Orlando will always hold a special place in my heart, but I think I enjoyed Celebration Anaheim slightly more with my first time in California giving it the slight edge. Next up, we have Star Wars Celebration London to look forward to next year! So until next time, I hope you all have beautiful days ahead of you.
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