Jedi Training Academy

Cassie S.

Cassie S.

Active Member
We are about 43 days out from our first Disney vacation!! I have all of our restaurant choices picked out, touring plans figured out, and hotel paid off. :) Now I am wondering whether it is worth it and how to go about enrolling my 4 year old son into the Jedi Training Academy. What are your thoughts?
 
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englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
One note, when you go to sign up, it's much more popular than it used to be.

Sign up first thing in the morning (before getting a fast pass to Toy Story Mania even!), and you must have the kid with you. They won't sign up kids who are not present with the parent.

They may have moved it, but in August, the sign up area was in the old Sounds Dangerous exit area.
 
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W

WWWD

Well-Known Member
figmentfan423 said:
It's free!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just sign him up first ting in the morning! It is a must do for little Star Wars Fans!
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Signing up first thing in the morning is absolutely necessary. The Jedi Training Academy times fill up very quickly. On busy park days, at rope drop, send someone over to get fast passes to TSMM and the rest head directly over to sign up for Jedi Training.
 
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englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
WWWD said:
Signing up first thing in the morning is absolutely necessary. The Jedi Training Academy times fill up very quickly. On busy park days, at rope drop, send someone over to get fast passes to TSMM and the rest head directly over to sign up for Jedi Training.
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As I noted in the post prior, the child(ren) who will participate in it MUST be present at sign up.

In 2011 I went early with one kid, hoping to sign up her and her 10 year old uncle (the uncle was still at the hotel). They wouldn't take the kid who was still at the hotel...so rather than sign one up but not the other, we opted out.

Big waste of 30 minutes of waiting!
 
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gooftroop5

gooftroop5

Well-Known Member
43 days out.....does that mean you will be there for Star Wars Weekends? If you aren't really into Star Wars, but would like to do Jedi Training Academy then go during the week and not on the weekend.

I definitely agree with pp's about signing up first thing and needing your child with you to sign up. When we went last year during Star Wars Weekends there were literally people running and pulling their kids so they could get to the sign up and get a spot. Sign-up was at the Indian Jones attraction. During normal times though it is not.

My then 8 year old son and 4 year old daughter did it last year and LOVED it! They teach them little moves and then they get to "fight" Darth Vader. I'm not sure if the character they fight changes or not. At the end they got a certificate.

There is a photopass photographer there taking pictures of the whole thing. They will give you a special photopass card so you don't need to have yours ready. Just make sure you pay attention at the end when they hand out the photopass cards. :)
 
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bethymouse

bethymouse

Well-Known Member
My boys had a blast, but it was a while waiting to sign up, get there on time, and then proceed to the stage for the actual "show". Get there early as spaces do fill up very quickly! They were turning people away and saying they could be an "alternate" which means you have to keep coming back to check!:):( You know it's in the old "Sounds Dangerous" building?;)
It's a load of fun for the kids, and they got a bit bored waiting, but in the end it was cool.:cool:
 
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englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
One note for people who do this...

If it rains during your showtime, don't think they cancelled it. They move it indoors (upstairs) at Star Tours where you can fight Darth Vader indoors. It's not the full show, I don't think, but you still get to fight Darth Vader and from what I could tell they give you a special gift and let you on the ride into the fastpass line.

I don't know all the details, because the one year it happened to us, we arrived 15 minutes early, but I thought it was cancelled, so with a disappointed kid, we decided to ride Star Tours to get her in a better mood. Halfway through the line, we saw the group being let in ahead of us. We looked up the hallway, and we could see Darth Vader. I asked a Cast Member and they said that they were sorry we had missed our showtime, but it had already past.

Anyway, point is...don't think it's cancelled. Ask a Cast Member what happens if it rains. They still do something for the kids...
 
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Cassie S.

Cassie S.

Active Member
Original Poster
Wow, thanks everyone for your comments! This sounds like something we are going to shoot for, not only for the little guy but his older sister, DD6 as well. I'm not familiar with the parks; it has been since I was a kid that I've been. The old "sounds dangerous" building... where is this now??
 
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Cassie S.

Cassie S.

Active Member
Original Poster
gooftroop5 said:
43 days out.....does that mean you will be there for Star Wars Weekends? If you aren't really into Star Wars, but would like to do Jedi Training Academy then go during the week and not on the weekend.

I definitely agree with pp's about signing up first thing and needing your child with you to sign up. When we went last year during Star Wars Weekends there were literally people running and pulling their kids so they could get to the sign up and get a spot. Sign-up was at the Indian Jones attraction. During normal times though it is not.

My then 8 year old son and 4 year old daughter did it last year and LOVED it! They teach them little moves and then they get to "fight" Darth Vader. I'm not sure if the character they fight changes or not. At the end they got a certificate.

There is a photopass photographer there taking pictures of the whole thing. They will give you a special photopass card so you don't need to have yours ready. Just make sure you pay attention at the end when they hand out the photopass cards. :)
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We will be there around the first Star Wars weekends but will be going to DHS on a tuesday. I'm a FL resident and opted to purchase Fl res weekday select annual passes for my crew so we are at the parks m-f only. Really looking forward to this now!!
 
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D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
OK, so obviously every day is different depending on the crowd level and simple motivation of the guests in the park that day, but... can anyone give some rough estimates on when the Jedi Training Academy tends to fill. I know to arrive early, but if we get there at (say) 9:30am does it ever fill by then on even the busiest days?

Here's the scenario: We are going the second week in December, which I think should be a relatively less busy period, especially for younger children because of school. We have an ADR at H&V at 8:05am on our only DHS day, so we'll be in the park early. I think we should be done the meal by around 9am, but I don't want to feel rushed with eating or having the kids interacting with the characters at the meal. I've got to imagine that we'd be done by 9:15am at the latest. I think we should be fine with that and one person in the group will go to the Jedi sign up with my son while the other adult will go to TSMM to get FP (depending on what's going on with FP at that point in time).

Does anyone think we'd have problems with signing up? I've never done it before, so I'm completely naive as to how the Jedi signups end up going, but my oldest son has become quite a fan of SW and so this is somewhat of a priority for that day at DHS.
 
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Reade's Dad

Reade's Dad

Member
We were there the first week of December in 2012.... When the gates opened we went directly to the sign up and of course we were in the first group, but i was told that day that all classes were filled by 11am that day. So you might be fine after your ADR ...but it is extremely popular!
 
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Reade's Dad

Reade's Dad

Member
By the way WDW Jedi Academy is better the Disneyland Jedi...at DL you have to go to ever class schedule times and jump up and down in a large group and hope to be picked...tried 3 times and finally gave up....sort of hard to explain to 4 yr old why they were not selected, at least at WDW you can explain to them that all classes were filled.
 
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Z

Zman-ks

Well-Known Member
figmentfan423 said:
It's free!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just sign him up first ting in the morning! It is a must do for little Star Wars Fans!
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First thing! :)
 
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