A Star Wars Jedi Training rant

[Joanna71985]

There is an age limit to the show. The max is 12 years, I believe.

 

[Finally08]

There is an age limit to the show. The max is 12 years, I believe.

I never saw them even ask ages of kids. My ds was 11 (and looks more like 9) and was literally the 2nd kid waiting there for the show to start. I think we waited 45 minutes, and they didn't pick any of the boys that were older (and by older I mean over about 7 or 8).

 

[Joanna71985]

I never saw them even ask ages of kids. My ds was 11 (and looks more like 9) and was literally the 2nd kid waiting there for the show to start. I think we waited 45 minutes, and they didn't pick any of the boys that were older (and by older I mean over about 7 or 8).

They don't ask. But they go by visuals.

 

[SCPP]

Funniest thing I saw all week was a woman going postal on a CM prior to the 450 show on Sunday.

The woman just went off and for 5 minutes just berated the CM on why her son should be chosen. The CM was great and smiled and explained to her that the Jedi were different and picked based on what they saw and not the CM.

The white woman then told the black CM that they were being discriminated against by not being chosen.

At that stage I went over to the CM and interrupted with a series of questions about nothing just to break up what was becoming a one sided heated argument. The woman left and went back to her spot and the CM thanked me over and over. She then asked if my son wanted to be a Jedi (wink wink, she could make it happen) and he said no. He just wanted to watch and let others have a chance.

 

[DisneyDude_82]

I feel your kids pain. I'm 26 and would love to do the Jedi Academy training but I know they won't let me. I'm going down in 4 days and when I found out I was going during not one but two star wars weekends I was psyched, and saw the Jedi Academy thing and got excited, but then saw it was only for kids lol.

 

[sk!mom]

Sorry you guys are still sad over this.
Generally what I use to do in these situations is give my kid one shot at it then move on. I just say "Oh well, it's not our lucky day, let's do some thing else". Not enough for me to allow them to dwell on and if they get upset unfortunately I have to give them the old "that's life" speech (definitely a little nicer for a 10 year old). It's a life lesson they have to learn even at Disneyworld.

This is exactly how we handle these things. One try and then move on. We just returned from 10 days and my nephews (7,9,12) would have loved this as well as Pirate training. We tried this once with no luck and moved on to continue having fun. No one got upset. I think it helped that the event had not been built up ahead of time and it was not the focus of our day. We never tried the Pirate thing as it was so crowded it would have been difficult to watch much less be picked to participate.

I have to say, I would have been disappointed as well if my child was but to cry only makes it really seem like the end of the world to the child and blows the whole thing out of proportion.

I would have had no patience with my child carrying on about it. A child at WDW from half way around the world who gets to go on a firework cruise and to a cool restaurant on his birthday needs a reality check if he's going to let not getting picked for a show ruin the day.

 

[TDC Nala]

I remember thinking when we went that they really had no rhyme or reason to who they picked - I mean, there were kids there (like my ds) in star wars t-shirts, obviously more into the star wars "thing" (being older boys) jumping up and down acting crazy - and they grabbed like 4 little girls none of which looked more than 5 years old, dressed like princesses and barely even paying attention to what was going on.

If it were a princess show, it would seem odd to grab a bunch of 13 year old boys, right? So why for this don't they look at pulling more of the "target market" star wars fans?

My ds was very sad - but hey we just saw a whole crew including darth vader at a local event (not disney related) so we had our fun eventually.

I don't believe they should not pick girls. If the girls want to participate, pick them.

I'd have wanted to do this at 12. Badly.

 

[thomas998]

getting picked for Jedi or Captain Jack is really a matter of gaming it and deciding just how badly they want to be picked and how much money you are willing to spend to get them picked.

I've seen times when there were barely enough kids to make a class... and others with a sea of kids... yet the one thing I have noticed is that if you have gone to the trouble of putting little John or Jill in a some costume that works for that particular thing (pirate for jack and jedis for the academy)... those costumed kids get picked.

In general I would never recommend anyone try to do with their son or daughter if they knew their kid wouldn't be able to handle it if they didn't get picked. Disney is supposed to be fun, if you know your kid is overly sensitive then don't put them in the position to let life smack'm in the backside... It will do that soon enough, to have it happen during a vacation at Disney is not what you want.

 

[SuperTink]

So why for this don't they look at pulling more of the "target market" star wars fans?

My girls would have been thrilled.

Glad to know that Disney does not discriminate.

 

[Finally08]

My girls would have been thrilled.

Glad to know that Disney does not discriminate.

And mine would have been afraid of it - just as I'm sure some 10 year old boys would love to dance with a Princess - to each their own. I just think a better variety, at least one that included a few of the typical fans would have been nice.

And apparently they do discriminate - against all kids that look at least 12 or older.

 

[rabyoga]

This Spring when we were at DL, my 11 yr. daughter wanted to participate in the Star Wars- BUT... She wanted to be on Darth Vader's side. She yelled to the little boys "Go to the Dark Side! Darth Vader is way cooler!" Too bad we were in the back of the very crowded area. It did crack us and everyone around us up. She's decided that next year when we go to DW she wants a picture with Darth Vader-her hero. She finds it funny that I found Darth Vader scarey as a kid but she saw the newer Stars Wars first. She has some compassion for Darth.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Our 8 year old was picked on the first try. We were the 3rd family at the stage, about 20 minutes before showtime. Ironically, all the kids that were there early got on stage. He did not jump up and down and scream, he just put both hands up. There were maybe 50 to choose from.

 

[SuperTink]

She's decided that next year when we go to DW she wants a picture with Darth Vader-her hero. She finds it funny that I found Darth Vader scarey as a kid but she saw the newer Stars Wars first. She has some compassion for Darth.

My kind of gal!

 

[carmiedog]

I don't believe they should not pick girls. If the girls want to participate, pick them.

I'd have wanted to do this at 12. Badly.

I don't think the opinion meant to express that girls can't participate. I think the poster meant that kids who are really interested should be picked, instead of kids who don't even know who Darth Vader is - and that could mean girls OR boys. My 3yo dd has light saber fights with her brothers all the time so she'd be all into it (they were Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker, and a tiny Princess Leia for Halloween). But if I had kids who didn't care about Star Wars, I think we'd skip the show or hang back so others who were really looking forward to it could have the opportunity.

 

[Finally08]

I don't think the opinion meant to express that girls can't participate. I think the poster meant that kids who are really interested should be picked, instead of kids who don't even know who Darth Vader is - and that could mean girls OR boys. My 3yo dd has light saber fights with her brothers all the time so she'd be all into it (they were Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker, and a tiny Princess Leia for Halloween). But if I had kids who didn't care about Star Wars, I think we'd skip the show or hang back so others who were really looking forward to it could have the opportunity.

Yes that was exactly my point. There were people who strolled up as the guy on stage had already started his little light saber show and just stood to the side sort of looking on that got picked, and then there were kids that waited 30-45 minutes who got nada. We purposely stepped back with my dd when they started picking because there was no way I wanted them to grab her and make a kid that it would really mean something to miss out because of it. I know it's random and such, and I *know* there are girls little and big that like Star Wars too. But to see what the average kid looked like there waiting - in comparison to the the kids that were all chosen to play, it was definitely skewed.

 

[TDC Nala]

How is the guy (or woman) onstage supposed to know when each kid got there, or how much of a fan each kid is?

Is it being postulated that they purposefully pick children who are not that interested? I guess it's possible that they don't want the overly enthusiastic kids on the stage. But there have been other posters who say they have seen only the overly enthusiastic ones get picked, and the shy ones don't have a chance.

If the training was run only one time a year like it used to be, I suppose they could have gone to a sign up procedure like they do for the Star Wars trivia. Kids had to sign up for that and get wristbands. The trivia is run only twice a day during Star Wars Weekends. But since they do Jedi training all the time, that might be too cumbersome.

 

[thomas998]

just wait... if the Disney folks realize it is this popular it is only a matter of time until it becomes a premium pay to do thing, like the princess tea party or pirate cruises.

 

[Brian Noble]

I make it a point to never tell my kids about the little "you can be chosen" opportunities more than a few minutes in advance---goofy on barnstormer, waking tink, finding paintbrushes, that sort of thing. I also don't plan to do any of them---if we happen to be there at the right time, great, otherwise, no big deal.

For the participation shows (Jack, Jedi, Belle, Crush, Miyuki, etc.), I mention "you know, they might want some volunteers, so if they ask and you are interested, let them know you want to" right before the show starts.

More than 123,000 people visit one of the four theme parks on an average day, but only one rides with Goofy, and at most a few dozen fight Darth Vader on stage.

Edited to add: I will note that just being there, having fun, and being willing to play along seems to open up plenty of opportunities for us, both with the planned shows and with Streetmosphere characters in the parks.