Celebration Europe 2023 starts here: Day T -1 The journey

Stopped at Mike’s to unload my stuff and then reload his so everything fitted….just!

So the van went from this……

To this……😂

And this is just the rear doors view 😂, R5 on the right, two droids in the middle, R2-XL behind, then two more behind him! Plus extras, plus travel bags.

We set off from Bristol around 2pm. Arrived at our destination at 8pm!?!?! 😳😲😳😲😳 Yes, 8pm!!! We had delays from accidents, pedestrians on the motorway and by the time we got to the M25 circular ….home time work traffic and possibly football fans heading to Wembly stadium.

Thankfully there were people still there to help us unload and help set everything up. We parked the van up £130.00 lighter, for the next few days as we’ll be travelling from our hotel via the underground/overground train. One thing I don’t have a problem with is the cost of travelling within london on it’s transport 👍🏽

We got off at Canary Wharf tube station and Oliver reminded us that Rogue One was filmed here 🤩🤩🤩 we have to get photos tomorrow said Mike 👍🏽 then a 10min walk to the hotel, dump bags and back down to grab a drink (or two) with Sam P, Nik H and old acquaintance Brian Herring (BB8 fame).

Was to late for food but not for drinks 😂👍🏽

After two of those I was ready for bed.

Helped calm me down lol.

Day one starts in a few hours. So lots of photand videos to come, plus some surprises and behind the scenes stuff 😎👍🏽

Celebration Europe 2023: Droid Builder’s assemble

This year Star Wars Celebration is coming BACK to the UK. Representing Europe, all droid builders will be attending……

Well, that is still what we hope will happen. As many of you will know, the ticket situation was an absolute nightmare for being organised. Myself and others, signed up to purchase four day passes, but the small print, meant that even though you were in a queue, it was still a random selection…….well that’s NOT a queue, and us Brits know how to queue 😂👍🏽

Then on Thursday 5th January I got an email from the Ibis hotel, cancelling my reservation!!

Double checked it wasn’t a hoax 😳, nope!

With no reply to my emails, I phoned them to ask…..there’s been a block booking! And it automatically sends out a cancellation notice! They were no help at all and even gave me the same email direct to the hotel I had already used.

Soooooo…… Saturday was spent searching for hotel rooms for the required dates.

The good news, was I was able to find a room with twin beds (not a double 😂).

The bad news, is that it was further out and more money 😒. I didn’t book it though, as after not hearing back from the hotel, I Tweeted about the situation, and ‘@‘ the hotel directly!

Within a matter of hours I had a response AND a DM saying someone would be in contact. After a few days I received another DM & an email confirming that my cancellation had been an error and that my booking was now reinstated.

This was a relief, but still the ticket issue was still outstanding. This matter was eventually resolved between the organisers and the R2 group organisers.