Please help! Jedi Training Academy Question.

[hauntdmansion79]

Hey everyone!

We leave for Disney in 39 days and couldn't be more excited! This will be my first trip with my little boy who is almost 5. Obviously we can't wait to share all the wonderful memories with him. He is a HUGE Star Wars fan and one thing he is most excited about is battling Darth Vader at the Jedi Training Academy. We already know how early you need to be there to sign up and stuff.

But the question I have is this: I know they have expanded capacity to include a lower stage and I know there is a second villain who battles those kids down there. I am wondering who the 2 villains are currently? Is Darth Vader still on the upper main stage? Who is on the lower stage? And is there any way that you can request who your child battles? I know that if Darth Vader or Kylo Ren is on the upper stage and then some villain from Star Wars Rebels is on the lower stage....if my son got on the lower stage and had to watch all the kids up on the upper stage battle Darth Vader or Kylo Ren, he would be disappointed.....and frankly, so would I!

So in closing, any advice from anyone who has been through the process before, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Tuvalu]

When my 5 year old nephew did this last week, Darth was on the upper stage and a female villain (sorry I am not familiar with her) was on the lower stage. It seemed the younger and smaller kids (which included my nephew) were on the lower stage. I don't know if you can request which villain you child battles but my guess would be no, since I imagine everyone would choose Darth or Kylo.

 

[carriebeth]

seventh sister is the other fighter on the lower stage. They had kids pretty well dispersed age wise between both stage areas at our show. I do know that if you have multiple children they work at putting them on the same stage so parents don't have to watch both places at once but I am not sure on requesting an actual area. If its really important, I would ask quietly when I signed up if there was any way to insure you could get Darth Vader. If you were told "no" at that point when you checked in for your time I would quietly ask then, too. I thought the seventh sister was more interesting to watch, really, but maybe that is just because I have watched Darth Vader many times before.

Last year in Sept we were at Disney and at the time slot my children did Jedi training we had the surprise that they did a second group and Darth Maul came out. I was really hoping he would be the new standard second character for the show. He was so scary looking and his moves were really cool to watch.

 

[Weather_Lady]

The Seventh Sister (I know, right- WHO!??!) is on the lower stage.

My 5-year-old nephew did it a few months ago on his first and only WDW trip to date, and was placed on the lower stage to fight the Seventh Sister... after spending MONTHS dreaming, and talking to everyone who would listen, about how he was going to "fight Darth Vader" (and my sister and BIL didn't realize there was more than one villain, so they never corrected him -- they just quietly made a H&V breakfast reservation, for the sole purpose of ensuring that they'd be able to sign him up). Once my nephew realized he was being led away to fight someone else he'd never seen or heard of, he was visibly upset and confused, to the point where a CM approached my sister and BIL after the show to ask what was wrong. They actually offered to sign my nephew up for a future show and to make sure that in that show, he would fight Darth Vader -- which they did.

I'm sure they don't do that in every case, so I don't mean to create false expectations -- but clearly the CMs do have the ability to ensure that a child is in a certain group, even if they don't advertise that as a possibility (because otherwise, I'm sure 99% of children would choose a "big name" villain over a Rebels character). I would quietly and politely ask the CM at sign-ups if your child could be placed in the Darth Vader (or Kylo Ren, etc.) group, but would prepare your child for the fact that they might end up in either group. The worst the CMs can do is say no.

 

[hauntdmansion79]

Thank you to everyone for sharing your experiences and offering advice. I think I will ask a CM at sign up and at check in, but at the same time prepare my son that he may not fight Darth Vader. I REALLY think that if they are going to expand the show to a second stage, they NEED to make the 2nd villain a major character such as Kylo Ren, Darth Maul, or at least someone cool like General Grievous. My son is gonna be super bummed if he doesn't battle Darth Vader; he is his absolute favorite! We'll see what happens. Again, thank you for chiming in.