The badge art is lovely this year. Last year was a bit meh, especially the 4 Day Adult one, I've no idea what they were thinking when they picked that design! Not got mine yet, not even shipped yet.
I would go in with lower expectations with the lottery, I know a ton of people who had no success in Anaheim and the rooms had far more seats than the Excel, so we'll see. You're right though Kenobi should hopefully be a bit better odds since it was quietly added.
The Celebration store was a funny one last year, everyone kept saying it was a nightmare to get into but they must have meant early in the day cause I just wandered in around 4 or 5pm a couple days in after about 2 minutes of queueing. Sure the daily pins I wanted were sold out by then but 95% of the store was still in stock.
Portable power bank for your phone would be very useful if your phone battery is getting on. Some kind of poster tube/protectors too if they give any out at panels, though they sold those right next to where you pick them up. Comfortable shoes. If you want any autographs they have a bunch of prints and you pick which one you want signed, or bring your own. If they do the daily panel reservations, as many phones as you have like we talked about. Make sure to stop off at the droid room too. Snacks and drinks for the queuing. They revealed the Celebration live stage guest times, or at least a chunk of them, so have a look and maybe see who you'd like to listen to. They didn't do that last year and I randomly walked up to the stage seconds before Doug Chiang was brought out. Result!
I have apparently bent a rib last week. I dropped a large wooden plank on my chest and while it hurt, it wasn't much. I was a bit sore the next few days but nothing serious. Now, though, it hurts every time I breathe, and sneezing is terribly hurtful! It's apparently normal for the pain to grow steadily worse over 7-10 days. I can't exercise properly because heavy breathing is painful. Hopefully the recovery will be swift.
Story trailer hype:
(okay but why does the music keep wanting to break out into the main melody of the Game Awards theme )
Oh, and also obligatory High Republic hypeeeeeeeeeee (and even more Coruscant muhahahahaha)
Thanks for the heads-up! Spotted it the other day when trying to figure out if I'd applied for everything (I had, but the email confirmation for the lottery for some took a while to come through), got to imagine that's the lottery panel with best odds to get into because I think its addition will have flown under the radar for some. I'm surprised it wasn't put down as a lottery panel originally, to be honest, so I'm glad it has been – I'm kind of shocked Andor hasn't got the same treatment too, to be honest. Out of the lottery panels I think Kenobi is slap bang in the middle for me in terms of priority (behind Lucasfilm and Ashoka, ahead of Bad Batch and Sequel Villains), so I'm curious to see how it all plays out!
Now just nervously waiting for the passes to arrive (any day now hopefully, I've seen others start to get theirs over the last week!), starting to plan what I need to take, and waiting for the Store/Funko Pop reservations drop and hopefully getting some luck with those (I'm not a Funko guy but my sister's boyfriend is, so hopefully I can nab him one of the exclusives?).
Going to be a manic couple of weeks – excited but very nervous!