"MO-OM! Take Small Children by the Hand!" An October 2012 TR New 11/9

[Disneyvirg]

Enjoying your TR. Ready for more.

 

[pellegirl]

I am enjoying your trip report so far! Can't wait to hear more. We stayed at POR in the princess rooms in 2012 and by far POR is my favorite resort. My DD is twisting my arm to stay at POFQ for the pool slide for our next trip (hopefully in 2014) so I am hoping FQ makes me feel at home like POR does. Seeing your pictures makes me love POR even that much more.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Enjoying your TR. Ready for more.

Thanks for coming along...and being patient!

I am enjoying your trip report so far! Can't wait to hear more. We stayed at POR in the princess rooms in 2012 and by far POR is my favorite resort. My DD is twisting my arm to stay at POFQ for the pool slide for our next trip (hopefully in 2014) so I am hoping FQ makes me feel at home like POR does. Seeing your pictures makes me love POR even that much more.

I knew that POR was a pretty resort from the pictures I'd seen from my DSIL, but I had no idea how much I'd enjoy it! It was so nice to come back to that resort after a long day at the park - like being able to just exhale and say, "ahhhh!" when we stepped off the bus. We stayed at CBR in 2010, and while it was nice I didn't find that same "ahhhh" there! POFQ's pool does seem pretty cool, though. I hear you can pool hop between the two...maybe your DD would settle for that?

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

When we left off, our stomachs were telling us that it was time for dinner. But we were distracted as we walked past…



I’ve been collecting pins since our first trip in 2005. I think I’ve mentioned this already, but I really don’t trade them well. I just buy the ones I like! But the kids wanted to try trading this trip, so they all took a turn at the trading board. I liked this, because my kids are still unsure about approaching CM’s to trade pins. Everyone found things they liked here!





I picked up a few that I really liked, and Un bought several for Bryan’s brother. He’d been sent with traders, too (DBIL is a pin trading fiend). But for now he just purchased a few. By now, we were all ready for food. Well, almost all of us.



You can kind of see in this picture that Jack looks out of sorts. It’s another one of our traditions that the kids can get a stuffed animal each trip. It doesn’t help the clutter in my house, but my kids really love this tradition. Jack was determined that we needed to go buy their stuffed animals NOW at World of Disney instead of wasting time on food. I reminded myself that he was probably pretty worn out, since he hadn’t gotten a rest like the rest of us had, and tried to reason with him. Nope. Not working. I finally had to just tell him that we were losing his brother quickly, and the rest of us were starved. It was time to eat. And Bryan and I were looking forward to our favorite DTD eatery – Wolfgang Pucks! I pushed the stroller that way, looking forward to my favorite dish there (the margharita pizza) when I realized Bryan wasn’t behind me.

And neither was Jack.

He was about to melt down now, too. Great – one was melting because he needed to eat, and the other was melting because he didn’t WANT to eat. Can’t win for trying! Thank goodness for Haley, who had chosen this time to be calm and mellow! I ended up heading into the restaurant with Will and Haley so we could introduce Un to the menu. Bryan got into the restaurant with Jack, but that was it. Jack resolutely sat down in the entryway and announced that he would NOT be eating here. At this point, my patience was pretty tapped out, so Bryan stayed with him while I ordered food. By the time we waited in line and were done, Jack had at least agreed to come to the table. We got what’s become our “usual” table – the large one next to the soda machines. We waited for our food and met Steven, our server (who was awesome, by the way). We decided to let Jack just sit and calm down while we waited. I remember answering a text or two while we sat there and entertaining Will. Then Bryan caught my attention and pointed to Jack. What was he doing?



Yep. He’d pretty much passed out at the table. Guess it was a good thing we hadn’t ordered him anything!

The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed our meals. I got my pizza, and Bryan ended up ordering his favorite pizza as well (sausage and peppers). Haley inhaled her pasta (no sauce, of course) and cookie, and Will actually passed up his cookie to eat more of his pizza – that’s saying something about the quality of the food! I can’t remember what Un ate.



(Ok...just realized I have crazy eyes here! But at least this gives you an idea of what our meals looked like…see the yummy crème Brule there? I love the desert options here.)

Jack slept through the entire meal! We ended up ordering him a drink to go, and Steven proved his awesomeness by giving us a cookie for him for when he woke up, as well. The servers here bring your food and refill your drinks even though it’s a counter service restaurant. Steven went above and beyond, checking on us often and joking around with us. Just a good example of Disney service!


There was one drawback to the restaurant…no bathrooms! Steven told us how to get to the nearest one, and we set off. Bryan was trying to rouse Jack, but it was no good – we figured that by the time we got back he’d be more willing to stir. It took Haley and I a minute to find them, and when we did we ran into Jen! We all laughed about the chances – DTD is a pretty big place after all. It was fun to have familiar faces to run into now and then.

When we got back, this was what we found.



Bryan had at least been able to get him out of the restaurant, and we decided to just leave him in there for now. However, Will was upset about someone else being in his stroller. He decided that if he couldn’t ride in it, he should at least be able to steer it.



Yeah, that didn’t last very long. I’m surprised no one lost an ankle!


We made our way over to World of Disney. Un took this picture along the way. I love the displays at Disney!



We let the boys play for a minute in the Stitch spit-zone.



And they convinced Un to take a picture of Dr. Doofenschmirtz for them.



When we went into the store, it was insanely crowded (of course…any time after dark at DTD seems to be insanely crowded). We decided to split up and each help the kids find their stuffed animals. I think I also picked up some pencils for myself and for Haley’s homeroom teacher, who is a huge Disney fan and kept joking that she was going to hide in our suitcases. Other than that, we decided to call it a night. We had good mojo on the way back and barely had to wait for a boat once we’d returned the stroller (definite drawback of renting a stroller – having to carry/drag Will through the resort to our room because we couldn’t take it with us!). I think Un and I were the only two that didn’t doze off on the way back.







Once we got there, I ran to the food court while Bryan and Un took the kids back to get cleaned up for bed. I grabbed food for Jack and brought it back to the room. This was how he ended up eating his dinner…at 10 pm.



He didn’t seem to mind it. 

I think we were actually all in bed by 10:30, which was good because we were headed to DHS in the morning before our dinner at Chef Mickey’s. Another full day ahead of us!

 

[vleeth]

Fun tr so far. My dd8 wanted to pick a smile and she picked this one...

My dd seems to get sick from all the early mornings and late nights so we're trying to slow things down this trip. Reading your trip report reminding me of this. It would be nice if she just fell asleep when she got tired...but thats not the way it works.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

the build a light saber looks like alot of fun, maybe when parker gets older he will be into that.

 

[glennbo123]

Hey, I found you! I've read the chapters on the first page so far, and am enjoying your report. I loved the story of forcing medicine down with a syringe. We all have our parenting moments! Your time confusion while waiting for Security was a great story too.

I'm glad you like POR, it's one of our favorites.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

the build a light saber looks like alot of fun, maybe when parker gets older he will be into that.

I don't know, Dan. You might not want to get him started. I can't get all our lightsabers to fit into a container anymore, and what did Will put his raffle ticket in for at the library today? A lightsaber! But all my boys (including the biggest one) love this.

Fun tr so far. My dd8 wanted to pick a smile and she picked this one...

My dd seems to get sick from all the early mornings and late nights so we're trying to slow things down this trip. Reading your trip report reminding me of this. It would be nice if she just fell asleep when she got tired...but thats not the way it works.

Glad your dd was smiling! I know the feeling about kids not falling asleep when they should. My oldest, in particular, would never fall asleep in her stroller - she was too busy watching what everyone else was doing! I think slowing down is a great idea. Believe it or not, I actually wanted to this trip and DH didn't. We did ok, but I admit that we all had our moments!

Hey, I found you! I've read the chapters on the first page so far, and am enjoying your report. I loved the story of forcing medicine down with a syringe. We all have our parenting moments! Your time confusion while waiting for Security was a great story too.

I'm glad you like POR, it's one of our favorites.

Hi, Glenn! Glad to see you hop over. Yeah, there's never a dull moment with us. We just got back from this year's vacation (non-Disney, but still very fun) and I think I've got my next few installments ready. Hopefully, more tonight once I get the kids to bed!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Isn’t it funny how, at Disney, 7 am feels like sleeping in? Well, at least it did for us!

Today was a big day – Hollywood Studios! That meant riding Toy Story Mania and the new Star Wars ride. But most of all, it meant JEDI TRAINING ACADEMY! All three kids would be trying it this year (Haley and Jack did it in 2010), and Will couldn’t wait to “be a Jedi!”

We had breakfast in the room and headed to the bus.



I didn't make any notes about bus issues, so I'm guessing we didn't wait long.
While riding, we made our plans: Bryan and Un would take the kids to get signed up for a time for JTA while I took our cards and ran to TSM for fastpasses. I wish they could’ve come with me so that we could then jump in the regular line, but there was no way to do that with signing up to be a Jedi.

In no time, we were through the gate and seeing this…



(This is DH’s favorite icon – he loves Sorcerer Mickey. You’ll most likely see several more pictures of it before this trip is done.)

It was a little after rope drop – yikes! They all but ran to sign up while I hoofed it to TSM along with the masses.



It didn’t take me long to get them at all. While I was there, and because I figured it’d take a little while for Bryan to get the kids signed up, I went ahead and took a few pictures of the details. I love this section!







Eventually, I made my way back to the old Sounds Dangerous area where the sign-ups were. I thought that surely they’d be signed up by now – in fact, I kept waiting for my phone to ring while I walked back over there. No such luck. The line was incredibly long. We even worried that we wouldn’t get in at all – we had an ADR at Chef Mickey’s at 5:45, so we couldn’t do one of the evening times. I couldn’t believe being a few minutes late for rope drop put us so far behind! Thankfully, we ended up in the 3:40 show. That meant that we’d be staying in the parks instead of taking our usual mid-morning break, but it would have to do. We could go straight to Chef Mickey’s from there!

Remember the title of this chapter?? Yeah…I really should’ve named the TR that. See, since Bryan was in line with the kids still when I got there, I asked him to give me the stroller receipt and I’d go get us a stroller while I waited (since we’d rushed past it to get everything done). That’s when Bryan realized he’d left the receipt back in the room. (By the way, there really should be a slap-yourself-in-the-forehead smilie!) In other words, we’d already paid for today’s stroller rental, but our proof was back at POR. UGH! Bryan was adamant that he’d just hop a bus once they got through the line and go back. Well, to me that was an awful lot of vacation time wasted to save a day’s stroller rental. So…I went and got another one while he was in line. He wasn’t happy with me, but he couldn’t do anything about it at that point!

Once they were all signed up and we had the stroller, we went over towards Star Tours to try the new ride.



Unfortunately, the ride was down. So we kept on walking towards the Muppet Courtyard.



I have loved the Muppets since I was a kid, and my kids enjoy them now, as well. Will, in particular, loves Beaker. We are big fans of the YouTube channel that they have – the songs are all played over and over again.
The pre-show was great for occupying Will, and we didn’t have much time before we were in the theatre and ready for the show. I agree with some people that this could stand to be updated, but it was a hit with our crew.

We gathered up our stuff and headed out the door – only to see Phineas and Ferb standing right outside with only about two people in their line! I grabbed the kids and ran for the line…unfortunately, I didn’t let my husband know where we were going, and I freaked him out a bit. I was just trying to beat the crowd! And it worked. He found us eventually.

We did have to wait for the characters to change (I’d imagine it gets mighty steamy in there), but we were the next ones in line for when they came back out. The queue was really well themed.









And before we knew it, the characters were back!







The kids loved the interaction with them. As we were leaving the queue, we spotted a few more Phineas and Ferb goodies…





Up next: We use our TSM fastpasses, and will the Force be with us?

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Once we got through with Phineas and Ferb, we made our way back towards Star Tours to see if it was up and running again. We ended up making a pit stop along the way, though…



Will, in particular, loves the Muppets. He has a stuffed Beaker that he sleeps with most nights (it actually made the trip to the beach with us this past week), so we had to take this picture. We went inside to look around. I always debate whether or not to get one of the T-shirts they have here. I need to just do it one of these days, but not this time. I did take a few pics, though. This one was my favorite – I always loved the band. They’re missing Rolf, though!



We grabbed the stroller and headed back towards Star Tours. We knew we were getting close…





…and to everyone’s excitement, it was open! We headed in to try it out. Bryan, Jack, and I had ridden the old one about two months before they closed it. It was never one of my favorites, but of course Bryan loved it because it was Star Wars themed. I have to admit to being quite the Star Wars fan as a kid myself, but I’m nothing next to my husband. He hasn’t purchased an adult-sized costume yet, but it’s only because I won’t allow him to. 

I took a few pictures as we entered the ride.










And before we knew it, we were waiting in line at the gate listening to the droid doing the pre-show and safety instructions. (Anyone who's ridden the ride - is that Allison Janney, the actress who played C.J. on The West Wing? Bryan and I decided it sounded like her.)



I have to say – we LOVED the ride! I thought the effects were great, and the storyline was fun. I laughed at the “rebel spy” element that they added in, as well. Jack and Bryan walked out of the ride plotting how to get picked as the rebel spy, and listing the different places they still wanted to go to. On this first trip, we went podracing, then to Naboo, and ended on the ship scene where it seems like you’re going to get skewered. We all agreed that we had to ride it again later.

We exited through the store (of course), and Haley and Jack decided that they wanted to do the “Create-a-Droid.” Now, let me tell you that there are two things we definitely do NOT need more of in our house: lightsabers and action figures. However, we came home with both. (of course). Will wasn’t interested, but the older kids really liked customizing their droids.









(Notice that Jack showed off both, while Haley covered his up. Gotta love those sibling relationships. )

As we left with our new droids in hand, we hit a Photopass photographer by the speeder bike. Can’t pass that up! We started with the boys.





When he got to Haley, he decided we needed a girly touch. So, here she is trying not to lose her shopping bags as she speeds away.



And, of course, the biggest kid had to get in on it.



Next up: time for our Fastpasses to Toy Story Mania!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

good update, but better get your muppet stuff next trip, i heard that atraction will be part of the new expansion so it might be going away.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

good update, but better get your muppet stuff next trip, i heard that atraction will be part of the new expansion so it might be going away.

I know!! I was so disappointed to hear that. We love that particular attraction. Plus, it's just nice to get my kids excited about something I was so into when I was a kid. I'm all for the expansions for DHS that are in the rumors, but I hate to see it go.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

I know!! I was so disappointed to hear that. We love that particular attraction. Plus, it's just nice to get my kids excited about something I was so into when I was a kid. I'm all for the expansions for DHS that are in the rumors, but I hate to see it go.

i figured if they were going to do something with it to at least update it...i cant see the design in my head to take that down for star wars, seeing how pizza planet is basically between them, unless they take that down and move it somewhere? but either way im excited for the additions

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

We grabbed the stroller and all our goodies from that galaxy far, far away and headed over to Pixar Place.



We hopped into the fast pass line and headed in. I was a little disappointed we wouldn’t get to see Mr. Potato Head, but we still passed a few interesting props from Andy’s room. Of course, none of them seem to be uploaded to Photobucket...hmm. Apparently I wasn't paying attention when I uploaded them. Even without pics, I can tell you that everyone was excited to go! This is one of our favorites. We all paired up and loaded into our vehicles.




(Can you tell he's determined to beat his dad? I can assure you that there was quite a bit of competitiveness in that car! In fact, I'm surprised Bryan stopped to take a picture!)

Everyone had fun, even though my 11 year old daughter beat me by 14,000+ points! Bryan was particularly impressed with his performance. See, this is his score….


(Yeah...Jack needs a few years of practice before he can catch up to Dad!)

And this is the high score in the car. It also happens to be a personal best for him, I'm pretty sure.




Yes, we heard about that one for a while! 

By this point, we needed food. We actually went into a few different places to check because the menus on Bryan’s Disney app seemed to show that the kids menus were different than what I’d written down from the DIS. As it turns out, we ended up where I’d figured we’d need to. But we did get to see a poster for my favorite show…


(Ok, no pics of the toys from TSM, but a pic of the Castle billboard? I really must've been tired when I was uploading these last night!)

And we ran into the Disney Channel Rocks show. Jack was not impressed, but Haley got right out there (and Will sat in his stroller and sang along).


(Haley's the one with the ponytail in the air. Love this pic, even though it's blurry - it shows how excited she was about it!)





It wasn’t something we had to see, but I was glad Haley got to participate. We’ve watched all those movies, and have many of the soundtracks. I think Jack just was grumpy because he was hungry. One thing I’ve learned – in my husband’s family, if you let the males get too hungry, you pay for it. Unfortunately, both my boys inherited that gene.

Options to make everyone happy for CS are few and far between for us in DHS, and the Backlot Express was the only one that we found that worked. (And my research beforehand paid off, even if it was only to tell my hubby that I was, in fact, right. ) It was nice and cool (which we really needed) and served up drinks with lots of ice. What more could you want, right? Actually, Will ended up getting this “Power Pack” that came with yogurt, apple slices, grapes, string cheese and goldfish (perfect for my little grazer). But the best part was that it came in a plastic R2-D2 container! I can’t believe I don’t have a picture of it from that meal, but I don’t. And since it currently is missing its top and laying forelornly (is that a word?) on the floor of the boys’ room, I guess you won’t get to see it. It was definitely the highlight of the meal, though. The rest of us got chicken fingers or burgers, I think. No once complained about their food, so it must’ve been ok!

After lunch, since we were there, we decided to head back to Star Tours. As we exited Backlot Express, we saw that there was a Jedi Training Session going on. We watched for a minute, then headed on to the ride. Just before we got into the ride, I realized Will was crying. I stopped and asked him what was wrong. He said, “I guess I don’t get to be a Jedi after all!” I had a hard time making him understand that there were lots of “Jedi classes” and that his was later. Gotta love preschoolers!

We snagged a few pictures on our short wait (I think it was posted at 20, but took more like 10).




(Got one of the screen without the gobbledy-gook alien language on it this time!)

We were surprised – we had a completely different ride this time! I knew that the segments got shuffled, but nothing repeated for us. We went to Hoth and Geonosis, and ended with Slave I (Boba Fett’s ship) this time, which made us a group of happy passengers.

At this point, we decided to split up. Bryan would take Will to the Playhouse Disney show, and I would get to take Jack on another one of the thrill rides he came to love on this trip…



I was excited, because I had never ridden this before. There were always small children that needed someone to stay with them, I guess. The wait on Bryan's app said 30 minutes, but since we'd had such good luck with wait times that day we decided to chance it. Anyway, we’d just split up and headed that direction when my cell phone rang. It was Jen. They’d been in the park and were hoping to see the kids do the Jedi thing, but the girls had had it and they decided to head back to the hotel since we had such a late show time. But, they had gotten Fast Passes for Rock ‘N Rollercoaster that were good right now that they didn’t plan on using. Would we be interested?

YES!!

We ended up meeting up with them there by the street that goes back towards the roller coaster. We chatted for a few minutes, Jack and I thanked them profusely, and headed down the street.



They had four Fastpasses. I figured we could ride twice if Jack wanted to. We did end up waiting about 15 minutes even with the Fastpasses, but it was worth it. We got through the little preshow w/Aerosmith (I had to explain it to Jack a bit) and then headed for our stretch limos. I thought that the theming was pretty fun, but I’m glad I knew I was supposed to be in a back alley or I’d have been a little confused!

We loaded in…to the first car. YIKES! I like roller coasters, but I’ve never been the type to wait on the first car. I wasn’t sure about this for Jack’s first ride, but he was excited about it. We got strapped in, our car moved forward, and we waited for “takeoff.”

And we waited.

And waited.

Yes, this was where the "failure to launch" from the title of this update comes in. I couldn’t figure out what could be taking so long until a CM appeared beside us. She motioned to Jack, who had his hands over his ears (my kids have always been put off by loud noises – we take earplugs with us to the movies) and explained that he had to hold on to the hand grips or we couldn’t take off. Oops! So he put his hands where they were supposed to be, and the little “get ready, get set, go!” thing started up again…and we still didn’t go. Sure enough, I looked over and he’s got his hands on his ears again! The music, of course, plays while you're waiting to go, and it really was pretty loud. I finally got through to him that we wouldn’t be allowed to go unless he kept his hands on the handles. And then, finally, we were off!

We both loved the ride! Jack still talks about it, and about the cool gift shop afterwards (yes, my kids are born shoppers – they get it from their dad, believe it or not). We headed back out, and I asked him if he wanted to ride again. He didn’t (but still claims it’s his favorite ride of the trip, along with Space Mountain), so he sat and colored a picture at the little kid entertainment area they had set up outside in the courtyard while I tried (and failed) to touch base with Bryan. I did find a couple of teenage girls to hand the extra Fastpasses to, though. They looked at me a little funny, but they ended up taking them with several “Thank you!”-s and big smiles on their faces. By that time, Bryan got back with me. They’d just made the show as the doors were closing! It had just ended, so we agreed to meet up to watch a little of the afternoon parade before our Jedi got trained up.

On the way back to meet them, we rand into these guys.



They were great! It had been a long time since we’d really just stopped and watch Streetmosphere people here in DHS. We always seemed to be running from one place to another here. I forget the whole gist of their act, but they were plumbers. The boss told them to wait to spray water until he said a certain word, then proceeded to say that word several times in the context of his speech and kept getting pelted with water by the other two. Both Jack and I got wet a few times, which he thought was great. He actually sat down on the curb and belly laughed at them. He particularly liked the line that the boss had: “Grab your cans and head for the truck.” And, of course, the two workers grabbed their hind ends and ran for the truck. Physical comedy is very much his thing!


(continued in next post)

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

We finally met up with the others, who’d managed to snag an ok spot for the parade that was shaded, so it made up for the slight lack of view. Haley pulled out her other purchase from Tatooine Traders as we waited.



She loved collecting these things when she was younger. She played with them constantly. Now, I think she mainly wanted it for the outfits! We all got snacks, too. Bryan, Haley, and Un ended up with ice cream, and I think the boys had slushies. What did I get, you ask?



(Sorry for the post-first-bite picture!) I’d read about the Butterfinger cupcakes from Starring Rolls on the DIS for a while, and decided to try one. Butterfinger and chocolate are some of my favorite combinations! I have to admit that, since I’m not much of an icing person, this one didn’t excite me quite as much as I thought it would. But it was enjoyable, and definitely big enough for everyone to have a taste!

The afternoon parade started up while we munched. I have to admit, I wasn’t impressed. We’d seen the “Stars and Motorcars” parade in 2007 and loved it. We hadn’t seen a parade here since, and we won’t be making our plans around seeing it again. It was ok, but nothing special. I did get a few pictures, though.







In no time at all, it was time to check the kids in for Jedi training! Stay tuned!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

i figured if they were going to do something with it to at least update it...i cant see the design in my head to take that down for star wars, seeing how pizza planet is basically between them, unless they take that down and move it somewhere? but either way im excited for the additions

I know, I am too. I guess I can't have the new stuff unless they take something away...wish it wasn't that, though.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

(Yes, that title is my attempt at Yoda Speak. Pathetic, I know. Should’ve asked Bryan to help me out with that one!)

It was here – the thing we’d been waiting for all day long: JEDI TRAINING ACADEMY! I was very impressed that my kids wanted to do this badly enough that an entire day in the parks without a break (definitely not the norm for us) didn’t put them over the edge. It probably helped that we got to wait inside after we checked in, which meant we could be in the A/C! Un and Byran went to go scope out good picture taking positions while I stayed with the kids. They waited around while a few more kids arrived.



Then they lined the kids up according to height. Thankfully, Will’s pretty darn tall for his age so they were still all fairly close together. They marched across to the staging area.



There they got their Jedi robes and proceeded to wait for the show to start.







Un and Bryan managed to get us dead-center for the show.



It really wasn’t that crowded until the music started up. Then our Jedi Master came out.





I have to say, she wasn’t my favorite. I was kind of excited to see a female Jedi master, but the guy we had back in 2010 (and another guy I saw later on in the trip) were much better! She was ok – just seemed not to be enjoying herself as much, and definitely didn’t engage the kids or the audience the way the others did.

The younglings came up to the stage and got their weapons.







After a few minutes of basic training, the party got crashed!






My kids have watched the video of Jack and Haley doing this in 2010 about a hundred times, so they know the routine backwards and forwards. This didn’t stop them from having a good time, though…or stop Daddy or Un from having a heyday with the cameras!



Will was the first one up for the battle.








Then Haley (who was sticking to him like glue so that she could be a mother hen. )







(Continued in next post...)

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Then Jack.








This wasn’t from my kids, but I love when they do the bit where one of the kids gets to “force push” the stormtroopers, and I got a good picture of it.



Of course, in the end Vader can’t persuade any of the younglings to join the Dark Side. Yoda chimes in, and the kids all work together to force push Vader and get him to go away.




There’s a shtick that the stormtroopers do at this point that Will repeats out of the blue every so often. Vader leaves, and they find themselves still onstage. They look at each other and say, “I think it’s time to go,” and then realize the doors have closed behind Vader.



So then they decide to exit stage right. “Good idea,” one of them says. Then they get to the edge of the stage.



“Bad idea,”: the other one says. They kind of look at each other funny, like, “What do we do now?” and go back to the doors. I think they get ready to bang on them, and the Jedi master says something like, “Boys, allow me.” She opens the doors for them (using the force, of course) and they’re all amazed. She tells them to have a good day. Then one stormtrooper loses his tough guy exterior and says, “Thanks! You, too!”



The doors close on them while the other stormtrooper gives his buddy a shove for breaking character. I have to admit, it’s a cute addition to the show.

At this point, the Jedi master says some words of encouragement and congratulations, and gets all the new padawans to wave to their parents in the audience.



Each kid gets a diploma (my kids were bummed, because when they did this for Star Wars Weekends they got a figure, too) and returns to their parents.




Do you think he enjoyed himself??




Up next: we have dinner with Mickey!

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Great update!

Thanks! I didn't realize until I uploaded them, but I have a TON of pictures from this experience! We should finally finish this day in the next installment. I really have to get this TR done before school starts!