This one comes from our last family trip to Disney World – Hollywood Studios specifically. The Jedi Training Academy – once our son heard about it we knew we were going to have to do it. Over the course of the 9 day trip we tried twice and on the second go we got him in and while we were at it we signed up our daughter who had just turned 4 a couple months previously.
She was excited at first and then got scared once she realized she was going to have to fight Darth Vader and started saying she didn’t want to do it. We knew she would be disappointed if she didn’t do it in the end so we cajoled her (and think a bribe was involved too) to follow through with it.
She definitely had fun doing it (as did our son of course) even though she was maybe a bit young and had a few issues doing exactly what she was told – she tried but got a little overwhelmed. The Disney Cast Member who was teaching the Padawans that day was very good and when it came to be her turn he really helped her out and kept chuckling through the whole thing. In the end I think her total was 1 hit on the Jedi Master and 2 on Darth (she was swinging pretty wild) but everyone had a good time.
But I guess the big thing I took out of this was that she was a bit scared and intimidated by Darth but with the help of someone who genuinely wanted to be there and help out she was able to fight past being scared and enjoy herself. With a little help – you can take on anything.
The pic was near the end of the encounter – she has already gotten Darth a couple times at this point and if you look closely I think you can see that Darth looks a bit frightened.
