Disney Day 2 - Hollywood Studios

On Friday, February 13th, we went to Hollywood Studios. The one thing Jake really really wanted to do at Disney was the Jedi training. The Jedi training was at Hollywood Studios (it's for boys & girls ages 4-12 to learn Jedi moves). He built it up in his mind that he would get to use a real lightsaber and it would be a true Jedi fight. We tried explaining to him that it wasn't real, it was just pretend. And it wasn't something we could reserve, pay for or wait in line for. It was just a first come, first picked. And he might not get picked. We warned him of this, but it went in one ear and right out the other. Thankfully on Friday, there were no magic hours, so everyone would enter the park at the same time. We were there at the time of opening and went immediately to the area where signups were. The line was already extremely long. (How did these people get in front of us?!? Did they spend the night in the park?) After about 47 seconds of waiting in line, an employee walks back to our area and says that all slots are full, but we could put our names on a waiting list. We'd be around 45th in line. We could check at the beginning of each training class and see if any of the 12 original kids picked for that time slot didn't show up. If one of the 12 didn't show up and the 44 alternates in front of us didn't show up, then Jake would be picked. So our chances were slim to none. We broke the news to Jake that he didn't get picked. His eyes started watering and his lip quivering. He was trying to keep from crying. It absolutely broke my heart. I know if that is the worst thing that has happened to us, we've had a good life. But still. It breaks your heart to know your child was looking so forward to something that he won't get to do. I had to go to the restroom so he wouldn't see me get upset that he was upset. (Poor Robbie got stuck having to calm us both down.) This is why I wished we had not used our 1 lucky chance on eating at the Be At Guest restaurant!

Thankfully, we had an early morning fast pass for the Toy Story Mania ride. This was such a cute ride! We all loved it. We would have rode it again, but the standby wait time the rest of the day never got below 120 minutes.

Jake initially refused to get his pictures made with any characters. I finally made him take a picture with Lightening McQueen & Mator.

"Geeze. This is so embarrassing mom."

We rode the Star Wars ride Star Tours. Jake & Robbie both loved it! We ended up riding it several times that day.

These are all pictures from the waiting line
You could take no pictures inside the actual ride

Afterwards, Jake got to build his own custom double lightsaber. Extended it is over 6 feet tall and there is no latch to keep it collapsed. So yes, that was as much fun to carry around the park as it sounds.

We had lunch at Pizza Planet. Jake had been very excited about that and it did not disappoint! He had fun playing the games inside the restaurant.

We got to see a stunt show

There was never an opening at any of the Jedi training classes (they had one every few hours). It really wasn't as cool as they made it sound. They basically just have the 12 kids picked early that morning that go on stage. They learn a few Jedi moves, but so does everyone in the crowd. At this point, Jake began to be okay that he wasn't picked. He still got to learn the moves, he just wasn't up on stage. But then at the end Darth Vader comes out. Each kid on stage gets to fight him for about 5 seconds. Darth Vader is defeated and then goes back inside.    

Once it was over, Jake kept asking when he would get to fight Darth Vader. We had to explain again that he wouldn't get to fight DV. So the tears started again. Unfortunately DV makes no appearances at any of the parks other than the few minutes at the end of the Jedi training. Jake's crying was breaking my heart. So after the show, I went up to one of the workers. (This is something I would normally NEVER do. How embarrassing. But for my child, I would do anything.)  I asked if there was any time DV made any appearances or could Jake please meet him. That was the one thing Jake wanted to do out of everything at Disney World. Jake was standing beside me crying and the workers seemed sympathetic. She said she would go backstage and see what she could do. I just knew that Disney magic would come through. I give her credit, she either tried or at least pretended to try. Unfortunately, DV couldn't make an appearance outside the performance. Jake was crushed. And my heart as a mom was crushed. The one thing my child wanted so badly at the happiest place on Earth and I couldn't make it happen. It was a defeated feeling, but I didn't want it to ruin our day. There was still so much fun to do. We just had to convince Jake! 

I wanted to take Jake to the Disney Junior Live show but he insisted he didn't want to go. He did at least meet some of the Incredible's. 

Jake was still bummed about DV and wanted to ride some rides. Hollywood Studios just doesn't have a lot of rides, so we took a gamble and rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The coaster is inside, so I couldn't tell what type it was. We wait in line for it. We could see that it took off very fast. We kept asking Jake if he was sure he wanted to ride it and he kept saying yes. Finally it was our turn and he sat with Robbie. Within about 5 seconds after taking off, we go on our first loop. This was a coaster that went upside down, and did loops. I was terrified for Jake. He has never ridden a real roller coaster. When the ride ended, I half expected him to be crying. He wasn't! He was laughing and said it was so much fun. Yea!! It was a perfect ride to turn his mood around.

Do you see my extremely concerned face?
I was so terrified for Jake, I couldn't even enjoy the ride.
And look at his sweet face. He was loving it!

We also rode The Great Movie Ride. It was okay, but boring for Jake. We attended Muppet Vision 3D. We all loved it! That was our favorite show from all 3 days. We didn't ride the Tower of Terror. Jake said he wanted to ride it, but we just didn't think he needed to. He likes fast rides, but gets scared of ghosts. So we skipped that ride.

Thoughts: We liked Hollywood Studios, but could have knocked it out in half a day. The rides they had, we LOVED. But they didn't have that many rides. I thought they would have more shows that Jake would be interested in, but they really didn't. The whole not getting picked for Jedi training put a little damper in my book on Hollywood Studios. For little girls, you can meet princesses, have dinner with them, get dressed up like them. I wish they had more options like that for the Star Wars characters.  

Go Figure: My child would pick the one thing you can't reserve 1,025,864 days in advance, you can't pay a small fortune for, you can't wait 3 hours in line for. It was slim pickins and we didn't get picked.

Jake's Favorite Rides: Toy Story Mania, Star Tours and Rock 'n' Roll Coaster

My Favorite Moments: His excitement over building his own lightsaber and his loud laughs during the Muppets show.