Friday, February 29, 2008

Disney Tip #4 - Become a Jedi

Disneyland has a wonderful show for Star Wars fans called “Jedi Training Academy.” In the show, about 20 kids are pulled from the audience to don brown, hooded Jedi robes and learn fancy, schmancy light saber moves with real practice light sabers.

When we visited Disneyland a year ago and attended the Jedi Training Academy show, our boys jumped and screamed and shouted and flailed their arms wildly in the air, but were not selected. We noticed that some of the kids who were selected were holding up signs with catchy Star Wars related phrases on them.

This year, we actually brought some poster board with us, and using some Crayola markers, I made a couple signs the night before our last day at Disneyland. I thought long and hard about the clever phrases I would use to grab the attention of the Jedi Master and created signs that I felt were visually appealing.

We carried the signs around for half of the day since the shows kept getting canceled due to rain. (Since the show is outside, they don’t perform if there is rain, but if a show is canceled, the characters will come out for a meet and greet, so it’s a great chance for a photo op with Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper or two.)

Finally, our time had come. I mean, the kids time had come, because really, this is about the kids right? The show begins, the Jedi Master appears and he selects first from the audience…..”The two boys with the signs!”

Ethan and Jonah were thrilled to be chosen and Robert and I were also pretty excited. I did think Jedi Master could have mentioned something about my sign’s catchy slogans and professional look, but whatever.

Jonah got a spot right in the center of the stage and was the second kid to fight Darth Vader. I think they wanted him to be first, but he was a little shy. I think I would have been shy. Darth Vader was about 7 feet tall!

Overall, the boys had a great time and ended up with two very special looking certificates stating that they had learned the ways of the force. Robert was our photographer and was not in the best location to get super shots, but he did a great job anyway.

If you are interested in having your kid selected for the Jedi Training Academy, internet sources say that kids in costume are chosen first, then kids holding signs, and finally kids with clever t-shirts. Basically, anything that makes your kid easy to identify from a crowd (face painting works too.)

1 comment:

Catherine said...

So cool! We saw the show on our last Disnyland trip but Bruce was too shy to try to be in it. He'd heard about star wars from just about everyone but after this he thought he'd seen Darth Vadar and Darth Maul in person and he kept asking weird questions about the Storm Troopers. This is a great show. Thanks for the tips. If they're still doing it when we go back we'll haul the signs around all day too.