glennbo123
DIS Legend
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- May 10, 2008
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Day 2 - Part 8
Lauren and I arrived at the Jedi Training stage near Star Tours at 5:50, over an hour before Hyperspace Hoopla would begin. I thought that we’d need to be there plenty early to get a good spot. When we arrived, they were finishing up a game of “Padawan Mind Challenge”, where they ask kids Star Wars trivia questions. It looked like fun. I only knew the answers to about half of the questions.
It was late in the day now, but it seemed hotter than ever as we stood in this crowd. Similar to Luke, Leia, and Han's death sentence at the hands of Jabba the Hut, "we would find a new definition of pain and suffering as we would be slowly digested" in this crowd over the next hour. Shortly after we joined the crowd I got a text from Judy that they had arrived at the park and wondered where to find us. When they got to us, the kids, Lauren included, couldn’t believe that they would have to stand there for another hour before the show would even begin. And Judy had a headache besides, so I suggested that she go find a shop and enjoy some air conditioning. This show probably wouldn’t really be her thing anyway.
At 6:15 a Jedi Training Academy started, so at least we had something to entertain us. We were a few people back from the rope, but James thought that he could duck under and squeeze past people and get to the rope at the front of the crowd, so I told him to go for it, and he soon made it to the front.
Here’s Ahsoka Tano from the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cartoon. She helped the padawans on the ground while the Jedi trainer helped the padawans on the stage.
The Jedi trainer had some new jokes since we last saw this in 2005 when James received his Jedi training. For example, at one point he said, “What happens when you cut off both of your opponent’s arms?.....You disarm him.” Then he said, “Jedi’s don’t have a lot jokes, but when we do, you will find it funny.” And he swept his hand as if doing the Jedi mind trick.
Later on, while helping a kid, he said, “I sense a high sugar content in this one.”
And of course Darth arrived to fight the padawans on the stage.
The villain who battled the padawans on the ground level was Asajj Ventress. She’s another character from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
At about 6:30 Jedi Training Academy ended and we watched the cast members begin to prepare the area for Hyperspace Hoopla. We didn’t know it yet, but we were about to experience “The Great Rope Fiasco”.
Up to this point in my life, I’d always been super-impressed with Disney’s crowd management skills. I can remember my parents commenting about the back-and-forth queue lines when we visited Disneyland in the early ‘70’s. To me, they’ve always set the standard in how you handle large groups of people; how you keep them moving, and keep them happy. Well, that reputation was about to take a hit. Let me explain. For Jedi Training an area in front of the stage is roped-off to allow a group of kids to battle there, in addition to the kids who are on the stage. For the last 45 minutes or so, people have been assembling behind that rope watching the training and waiting for Hyperspace Hoopla. Now, the cast members were about to move the rope closer to the stage, and since this area was shaped like a cone, the whole mob would be squeezing into a smaller area. A man behind us who had apparently attended before mentioned to someone else that this was going to happen, so we were kind of prepared for it, and Lauren, Marlene, and I stuck together as the crowd shuffled/squeezed forward. I could only hope that James maintained his spot at the rope, and we found out later that he did. Now the crowd was really pressed together. Before, we had a small amount of personal space, but now it was body against body in a great big, hot, sweaty mob. Not fun. I couldn’t understand why the rope even had to be moved at all; we all were content with where we were. Plus, it’s downright dangerous to have a crowd pushing forward like that. I still can’t believe that Disney did this, and worse, that they hadn’t noticed what a bad idea it was when they had done it every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night for the past four weekends.
The other thing about this show was that it attracted a very young-adult crowd. Lauren, Marlene, and I were behind some college-aged boys. I could see all right, but Lauren and Marlene were obviously going to have trouble. Also, for me to take pictures I had to hold the camera up, guess at where to aim, and hope for the best. The display on the back of my camera doesn't show what is in the viewfinder, like point-and-shoot cameras do. So, all of my pictures were pot-luck, as I held the camera up so I could clear people’s heads.
Before the show started I got a text from Judy that she was way in the back, near the buildings, and happy to be out of the crowd. I was glad that she wasn't with us, she would have been miserable.
At 7 o’clock the show got underway. The emcee’s are two characters named “Snig and Oopla”. Isn't it amazing that they could find an emcee whose name rhymes with Hoopla?
Remember the people I had seen earlier in the day? Here’s a refresher:
Now I understood who they were supposed to be dressed as. At one point during the show, Oopla told Snig that he could be replaced, and she pointed to those two people in the crowd.
They opened by singing “Hyperspace Hoopla” to the the Star Wars theme music. I still have that going through my head: “Hoop-LA….Hyperspace HOOP-la. I’m Snig. I’m Oopla. It’s time for fun.” As they went through the opening, a lot of the characters paraded out. Here’s a shot of Jango Fett, and from the heads of people in front of me you can get a sense of where we were and what the crowd was like.
Also, I immediately realized that Snig…
…was the same cast member who played the “Wishmeister” at the DVC event we went to last year. Here’s a picture from last year’s trip report.
The Cantina Band came out, which I found out was called “Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes”.
After playing the usual cantina song that we know and love, Snig said that they can play any song in the galaxy, and asked for requests. Some people around me shouted out “Freebird” (of course, it’s kind of a joke now to yell that out whenever anyone asks for requests), but I can’t remember what request Snig took. Whatever it was, someone backstage was working very quickly to get it cued-up, because the band began playing it, and then immediately reverted back to the Cantina song.
Next, they moved on to the dance competition. Our first competitor was Chewbacca and two jawas, who danced to the Aerosmith/Run-DMC version of “Walk this way”.
It was hilarious! That wookie can dance! And I love the hats on the jawas.
I also tried to capture some video with my phone, but I apologize that they turned out pretty bad. They look better on my phone. I think they degraded somewhat in the process of being sent to my e-mail and then uploaded to Photobucket. I guess I’ll post them anyway – they may give you a sense of the energy of the show and the crowd. At the end of this chapter I’ll post links to some really good video that someone else took of an earlier weekend this year, if you’d like to see it after reading this.
Chewbacca and jawas video:
Continued in next post
Link to next post
Lauren and I arrived at the Jedi Training stage near Star Tours at 5:50, over an hour before Hyperspace Hoopla would begin. I thought that we’d need to be there plenty early to get a good spot. When we arrived, they were finishing up a game of “Padawan Mind Challenge”, where they ask kids Star Wars trivia questions. It looked like fun. I only knew the answers to about half of the questions.
It was late in the day now, but it seemed hotter than ever as we stood in this crowd. Similar to Luke, Leia, and Han's death sentence at the hands of Jabba the Hut, "we would find a new definition of pain and suffering as we would be slowly digested" in this crowd over the next hour. Shortly after we joined the crowd I got a text from Judy that they had arrived at the park and wondered where to find us. When they got to us, the kids, Lauren included, couldn’t believe that they would have to stand there for another hour before the show would even begin. And Judy had a headache besides, so I suggested that she go find a shop and enjoy some air conditioning. This show probably wouldn’t really be her thing anyway.
At 6:15 a Jedi Training Academy started, so at least we had something to entertain us. We were a few people back from the rope, but James thought that he could duck under and squeeze past people and get to the rope at the front of the crowd, so I told him to go for it, and he soon made it to the front.
Here’s Ahsoka Tano from the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cartoon. She helped the padawans on the ground while the Jedi trainer helped the padawans on the stage.
The Jedi trainer had some new jokes since we last saw this in 2005 when James received his Jedi training. For example, at one point he said, “What happens when you cut off both of your opponent’s arms?.....You disarm him.” Then he said, “Jedi’s don’t have a lot jokes, but when we do, you will find it funny.” And he swept his hand as if doing the Jedi mind trick.
Later on, while helping a kid, he said, “I sense a high sugar content in this one.”
And of course Darth arrived to fight the padawans on the stage.
The villain who battled the padawans on the ground level was Asajj Ventress. She’s another character from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
At about 6:30 Jedi Training Academy ended and we watched the cast members begin to prepare the area for Hyperspace Hoopla. We didn’t know it yet, but we were about to experience “The Great Rope Fiasco”.
Up to this point in my life, I’d always been super-impressed with Disney’s crowd management skills. I can remember my parents commenting about the back-and-forth queue lines when we visited Disneyland in the early ‘70’s. To me, they’ve always set the standard in how you handle large groups of people; how you keep them moving, and keep them happy. Well, that reputation was about to take a hit. Let me explain. For Jedi Training an area in front of the stage is roped-off to allow a group of kids to battle there, in addition to the kids who are on the stage. For the last 45 minutes or so, people have been assembling behind that rope watching the training and waiting for Hyperspace Hoopla. Now, the cast members were about to move the rope closer to the stage, and since this area was shaped like a cone, the whole mob would be squeezing into a smaller area. A man behind us who had apparently attended before mentioned to someone else that this was going to happen, so we were kind of prepared for it, and Lauren, Marlene, and I stuck together as the crowd shuffled/squeezed forward. I could only hope that James maintained his spot at the rope, and we found out later that he did. Now the crowd was really pressed together. Before, we had a small amount of personal space, but now it was body against body in a great big, hot, sweaty mob. Not fun. I couldn’t understand why the rope even had to be moved at all; we all were content with where we were. Plus, it’s downright dangerous to have a crowd pushing forward like that. I still can’t believe that Disney did this, and worse, that they hadn’t noticed what a bad idea it was when they had done it every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night for the past four weekends.
The other thing about this show was that it attracted a very young-adult crowd. Lauren, Marlene, and I were behind some college-aged boys. I could see all right, but Lauren and Marlene were obviously going to have trouble. Also, for me to take pictures I had to hold the camera up, guess at where to aim, and hope for the best. The display on the back of my camera doesn't show what is in the viewfinder, like point-and-shoot cameras do. So, all of my pictures were pot-luck, as I held the camera up so I could clear people’s heads.
Before the show started I got a text from Judy that she was way in the back, near the buildings, and happy to be out of the crowd. I was glad that she wasn't with us, she would have been miserable.
At 7 o’clock the show got underway. The emcee’s are two characters named “Snig and Oopla”. Isn't it amazing that they could find an emcee whose name rhymes with Hoopla?
Remember the people I had seen earlier in the day? Here’s a refresher:
Now I understood who they were supposed to be dressed as. At one point during the show, Oopla told Snig that he could be replaced, and she pointed to those two people in the crowd.
They opened by singing “Hyperspace Hoopla” to the the Star Wars theme music. I still have that going through my head: “Hoop-LA….Hyperspace HOOP-la. I’m Snig. I’m Oopla. It’s time for fun.” As they went through the opening, a lot of the characters paraded out. Here’s a shot of Jango Fett, and from the heads of people in front of me you can get a sense of where we were and what the crowd was like.
Also, I immediately realized that Snig…
…was the same cast member who played the “Wishmeister” at the DVC event we went to last year. Here’s a picture from last year’s trip report.
The Cantina Band came out, which I found out was called “Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes”.
After playing the usual cantina song that we know and love, Snig said that they can play any song in the galaxy, and asked for requests. Some people around me shouted out “Freebird” (of course, it’s kind of a joke now to yell that out whenever anyone asks for requests), but I can’t remember what request Snig took. Whatever it was, someone backstage was working very quickly to get it cued-up, because the band began playing it, and then immediately reverted back to the Cantina song.
Next, they moved on to the dance competition. Our first competitor was Chewbacca and two jawas, who danced to the Aerosmith/Run-DMC version of “Walk this way”.
It was hilarious! That wookie can dance! And I love the hats on the jawas.
I also tried to capture some video with my phone, but I apologize that they turned out pretty bad. They look better on my phone. I think they degraded somewhat in the process of being sent to my e-mail and then uploaded to Photobucket. I guess I’ll post them anyway – they may give you a sense of the energy of the show and the crowd. At the end of this chapter I’ll post links to some really good video that someone else took of an earlier weekend this year, if you’d like to see it after reading this.
Chewbacca and jawas video:
Continued in next post
Link to next post
I also can't imagine someone knowing the names of all of those characters, without looking them up (assuming since you only confessed to research on two of them I think), claiming they aren't a geek!!! 
