How to Ship your Lightsaber from Savi’s Workshop at Disneyland Park, back to Australia

Planning a trip to the US via Los Angeles goes without saying that Disneyland Park in Anaheim was on the list, especially if you love theme parks and have never been before. I visited Disneyland about 15-years ago, so it was great to come back again, and this time with Tim.

Tim had never been to a US themed Disneyland Park, so I left it to him to decide where and what activities he wanted to do.  As an avid Star Wars fan, spending time at the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was a must, in addition to booking in Savi’s Workshop to build his very own lightsaber.

Let me come back to how we finally had this lightsaber shipped back to Sydney, Australia, but as a guest of Tim, it was fun to watch him take part in the building experience.

Stepping into Savi’s workshop felt like you were being transported into Star Wars itself.  All the Gatherers were in character from the moment you met them.  There seemed to be more adults participating in this workshop vs children, possibly the generation of Star Wars fans re-living their childhood, just like Tim. 

Watching on, the staff had a ratio of about 2-3 builders to one, supporting the individual construction of each lightsaber.  The meticulous build required to connect all the pieces and unlock the power of the kyber crystal was magical – the joy it brought the builders was fun to watch on.

To design the entire hilt, several parts were required to be connected, including the hilt, sleeves, emitters, cap and a set of activation plates and switches. Any remaining parts were returned to Savi’s inventory and not included with the lightsaber package.  And on completion of assembling the hilt, the 31” lightsaber blade was connected.

If you want to purchase additional parts for your lightsaber (as spares), including hilt pieces and kyber crystals, Disneyland Park at Anaheim offer this, and you can do so after the workshop is finished.

Once it’s built, the practicality of it sinks in and the next question was what to do with your lightsaber whilst you’re still wanting to have fun in Disneyland Park? A few options included:

1. Carrying it around all day in the provided case, keeping in mind, you can’t always carry the lightsaber with you on the rides and will need to put it down somewhere if you can’t
2. Store it in an extra-large locker in the park
3. Store it in one of the package check service locations
4. Take it back to your hotel
5. Ship it home directly from Disneyland Park (First Order Cargo does not ship lightsabers to Australia)
6. Take it to the post office – aka as US Postal Services or USPS – and ship it home. US post offices are generally open Monday to Friday, and closed on the weekends.

Let’s be super clear, Savi’s Workshop at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, does not offer delivery or shipping of your newly built lightsaber to Australia.  Unfortunately, we learnt the hard way on how to bring this back and I’m hoping to give you some reprieve if you’re still keen to participate in the experience.

After finding out about the restricted shipping to Australia following the workshop, we decided we didn’t want to walk around Disneyland Park with the lightsaber, so we left the park to find a post office. 

We still had seven more flights on our trip to follow before heading back to Australia – and Los Angeles was just the beginning.  We weren’t prepared to carry the lightsaber with us as carry-on everywhere, as the lightsaber blade is nearly 1m long and it would not fit in our checked luggage as we had hiking back packs (not a tough shell suitcase), with multiple flights to follow.

Before booking in Savi’s workshop, I’d recommend the following:

1. Measure your checked luggage to see if the entire lightsaber fits.  If it would’ve fit in our bags, I’d consider buying a postal tube and pre-pack this in my luggage to protect the entire blade of 31” inches. If you can accommodate extra space, I’d give yourself an allowance to about 90cm in length, as it does not fold down in size.
2. See if there’s a post office near where you’re planning to stay in Anaheim (or whichever theme park), as you can bring the lightsaber back to your hotel and send it from there.  If there isn’t one, you can arrange it at the local post office near Disneyland Park, but you’ll need to take an Uber
3. Learn how to remove the 3-AAA batteries from the hilt before going to the post office if you want to send your entire lightsaber back to Australia
4. When we reached the post office, we did not know at the time how to remove the 3-AAA batteries and there’s a declaration if batteries are included in your shipment. In moments of panic, we decided to hold onto the hilt. It looks like Australia Post only permit a maximum number of dry-cell batteries; two batteries or four cells per package. More than likely, if you post the entire lightsaber inclusive of batteries, your delivery will get held at customs and take longer to retrieve.
5. If I had a choice in doing Disneyland Park at the beginning or the end of my trip, next time I’d do it at the end (if we’re to participate in this workshop, specific to carrying the lightsaber on future flights).

It cost US$9 each way in an Uber to and from the nearby United States Postal Service, location at 1180 W Ball Rd, Anaheim, CA 92812.  It’s located right next door to SpringHill Suites Anaheim Maingate, and very easy to pick up another Uber close by to bring you back to the park afterwards.

You can purchase bubble wrap, postal tube with tracking, and delivery to a Sydney, Australia address for a total of US$78. 

As mentioned, this was only to post the lightsaber blade, not including the hilt, so our round-trip including the Uber ride to and from the post office totalled US$96.

We were told by the staff at the Disneyland Park that the lightsaber is TSA (Transportation Security Administration) approved for travel on US flights and around the US as carry-on.  This is incorrect information, as we travelled via Dallas Fort Worth Airport and nearly had the hilt confiscated from our carry-on backpack.  On the original advice of the Disneyland Park staff and their website, we assumed we could carry it in our backpack, and we had flown two US flights already following Los Angeles, with no issues. That said, it seems to be discretionary – and unfortunately the security team in Dallas Fort Worth Airport would not give any leniency. They did know what the hilt was (associated to the Disneyland Park lightsaber), and we tried speaking to a handful of different security members to avoid exiting security, but no luck.

Long story short, and another US$50 later, we had to check in our backpack, otherwise the hilt would have been confiscated due to it being considered a weapon. Save yourself the hassle of all this especially if you’re travelling beyond the US, as you don’t know what security measures any airport will take in classifying your lightsaber as a weapon, or not.

The lightsaber blade took less than a week to arrive back to our neighbour’s house (we weren’t going to be back for another three weeks), and we were reunited with the hilt being carried home by us through our checked luggage for the remainder of our flights.

Address
Savi’s Workshop inside Disneyland Park
1313 S. Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA, USA 92802

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