The Morales Family

When Jedi training time rolled around, Adam was ready! The young Jedi all lined up, received robes, and paraded up and into the shadows of the temple.

Which is when I showed up with the other kids. We hadn't missed anything. We parked the stroller and lined up with the other crazy parents on the edge of the rope that separated us from temple stage. Once again I had to edge my little ones up to the front to give them a chance at seeing anything, although this group was much smaller than most we had been fighting. There were about 35 kids training along with Adam, and we were waiting in an excited huddle with the other families.

The sun was setting now, so it was a bit cooler and the lighting was just perfect for pictures.

There was a bit more waiting, then the kids all filed up and onto the temple stage. I knew this was the moment of truth, and what I suspected was true- Adam had been sorted into the line that was going to the upper stage. He was going to battle Darth Vader!

We were told beforehand that young Jedi must be brave and willing to cooperate with their trainers, and this boy was ready.

We didn't know much of what to expect beyond the training and the battling, but we all quickly got swept up in the dialogue of these two trainers- Danzel, on the right was the older, more confident, wise and experienced trainer, and Nedris, on the left, was the younger, cockier and more flippant of the two. Danzel led the training from the upper stage (by Adam) and Nedris led the group on the lower stage, questioning a lot of the wisdom Danzel shared and revealing some of the mistakes he had made in the past by not controlling himself as well as he should have.

Jason recorded most of the training with his phone while I frantically took pictures with mine.

The training moved quickly- cut to the left shoulder, cut to the right shoulder, block, duck, stand, cut to your opponents head.

Adam, along with most of the young Jedi, did a great job of following along, despite surely not being able to follow along with all that Danzel and Nedris were bantering about.

Then it was time to open the doors of the temple and see what might be waiting inside.

And prepared as they all were, and even though I knew exactly who would be appearing through that clouded door, it was still a shock to see Darth Vader himself storm out onto the very stage where Adam and all of these brave little kids were standing.

He has a very intimidating presence, even when he's holding a light saber made out of plastic!

The Seventh Sister followed out behind him and they immediately started preparing for battle against the young Jedi.

Throughout the training Danzel encouraged the kids and shared nuggets of wisdom that I don't think would have jumped out to anyone, but that I really hoped the kids- especially my boy- were hearing. They were words of wisdom that every young Jedi should live by.

You have to clear your mind of fear anger.

You have to focus.

Use the force for defense, never for attack.

Rule Number One- Remember your training.

Rule Number Two- Always remain aware of your surroundings.

We must embrace the light side of the force.

We can't give into anger or fear.

Your focus determines your reality.

We must all face our fears and be tested.

Jedis are guardians of justice and peace.

The dark side will always be there to tempt you.

You must learn to control yourself.

Adam did an awesome job with his turn, and the smile and wave and total satisfaction and confidence that was shining from him as he hopped off the stage was my very most favorite Adam moment of the whole trip. And I even surprised myself- my heart swelled up and I cried a bit. If you know me you know I'm not much of a crier, and I laughed to think that this was kind of thing that got me going, but it was such a sweet moment for Adam. I kept thinking how much I wanted those words of wisdom to stick with him and continue to guide him as he gets older- you have to control yourself, you can't give into fear, you can choose light over darkness. That is what I want him to remember most of all from this experience.

*****

Of course, the show couldn't just be over once the kids were all done fighting. They sent Darth Vader and the Seventh Sister back into the temple, and cocky Nedris started cheering their success while Danzel warned him not to let his guard down just yet.

And then Kylo Ren appeared, and scared everyone on stage and in the audience.

And he had a bone to pick with Nedris. Their exchange was brief but really intense, with some true fighting moments, after which Kylo Ren offered/threatened to convert Nedris to the dark side.

It was up to Nedris to resist, and there was a good moment of struggle between them.

It was really intense!

But with the power of the force,

and the help of these brave young Jedi,

Kylo Ren was pushed back into the temple and the Light Side won for good!

Thanks to the help of these brave young warriors.

I think this one was pretty darn pleased with himself.

He is definitely going to be a defender of the force in future!

If our first day at the Magic Kingdom was our fullest day in the parks, our second day at Hollywood Studios definitely took second place. This park has more shows than rides, so we had a fairly strict schedule that we needed to follow to be able to see and do all of the things that we wanted. If we missed a show, chances were pretty good that we weren't going to get to see it, or we would have to eliminate something else instead. That combined with all of the stress that comes with getting Adam into Jedi training at the Trials of the Temple made this the day that I was the most worried about from the beginning.

Everyone woke up happily (a mere seven hours after we tucked them all in), we enjoyed another breakfast in our room (the kids were thrilled with the yogurt drinks, mini muffins and orange juice, Jason and I tried to down some Greek yogurt and bananas before the bus arrived) and we were off again.

The plan for this day was to immediately split up- Jason and Adam to Jedi training sign up and me with the other kids to wander a bit, then all meet up at Star Tours (the ride). Even though the park was listed to open at 9, when we got there at 8:15 we quickly realized that, just like Magic Kingdom, the park gates had opened early and there was already a wall of people between us and the sign up station. I had given Jason the two times that would be most ideal for our day, and after waiting in line for almost 30 minutes, he got our second choice of time slot. (Not that earlier slots weren't available, this was just the best choice for our day.) So phew! First stress down, and then we had to wait until 5:10 in the evening to find out about the second stress factor of the event- would Adam actually get to battle Darth Vader? Or would he be assigned to the lower stage, where he would see Darth Vader but battle a random and relatively unknown female villain instead?

While Jason was sending me text about the length of the line that were sending my heart rate through the roof (which is so uncharacteristic of me, really, but man, so much planning and hoping went into this event!), we bumped into a few friends- first Donald Duck, then Olaf (who couldn't sign our book because he has stick hands). Noah was all smiles when he met Donald- we love watching the classic Chronological Donald Duck cartoons from the 1930s and 40s- he is a definitely a Disney favorite in our house.

Jason took this picture while they were waiting in line to sign up.
I'm guessing he asked,

"How do you feel about fighting Darth Vader?"

After we met back up with the boys (and I saw that Adam was completely chill about his evening Jedi training time- he is so level-headed, just like his dad) we all walked right onto Star Tours- a 3D motion simulator ride that we all loved, but didn't do a very good job of explaining to the kids ahead of time what kind of ride it was. It was awesome traveling at the speed of light through the Star Wars galaxy in a Starspeeder, but so very realistic- Noah and I crossed "scary rides" off of our list for the rest of the day.

Hollywood Studios is relatively tiny and very oddly laid out, so we spent more of our day zigzagging from one end of the park to another so that we could catch everything we wanted to on time. Disney Junior Live was next- and it was delightful to see Jake and the Pirates, Mickey Mouse and the Clubhouse gang, Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First all dancing and singing on stage. And it rained bubbles and gold dubloons and was a great reminder of the magic of the Disney cruise- plus the littlest two loved the chance to sit and enjoy the entertainment without getting scared at all.

We stopped for a quick visit with Pluto-

then headed over to see the Little Mermaid, where we watched Ariel magically transform into a human before our eyes. Noah wanted to know if the giant Ursula was real, Emma kept her eyes transfixed on Ariel the whole time, and Leah was positive that the show was shortened and less magical than the last time she saw it. The magic certainly seems to change as we age.

Jason and I were a bit distracted during the Little Mermaid because we hadn't needed to use the FastPasses that we had for the show, but instead of modifying them, Jason cancelled them- because I told him to- so we were scrambling up until the show started to figure out what other options we had that fit into our day. I think we ended up getting FastPasses for the Indiana Jones Stunt show, which we didn't end up using anyway. I think it would be so nice to take another trip to Disney World just to use all of the trial-and-error knowledge that we gained this time around- it would make the next trip even better! Chances are that probably isn't going to happen before they switch all of the policies up again though.

After the Little Mermaid we scurried over to catch a seat for Beauty and the Beast and we enjoyed a whole slew of snacks as we watched the condensed but just as magical as ever version of one of our favorite Disney movies. The girls were disgusted- and delighted- to see Gaston in full pompous chauvinist mode, complete with kissing his own biceps- something they pretend to do at home. He just may be our favorite villain.

We had a bit of time to kill before our Toy Story Mania FastPass time, and we wandered into the Star Wars live show on Hollywood Boulevard right around 11 AM. Boy was it hot! The Florida sun was beating down on us (happily!) and we were far enough back from the stage that we decided to catch a later show with better temps and a better view.

So we headed over to Pixar Studios, where it was finally time to go on the one really awesome super fun ride of the park for our littlest ones- Toy Story Mania!

Because there are so few kid rides at this park, it was essential that we got a FastPass for it- the standby line was two hours long! Because of that, we had never been on this ride before, and it was a super fun one! Any time we had to have a child under 7 with an adult over 14, Leah and Adam would pair up and Jason and I would each take a little kid. It worked out nicely for this ride because it's basically an oversize carnival-style video game, which we all loved but the little kids definitely needed some help figuring out the "shooting" part. Still it was one of Noah's very favorite rides of the whole trip. A ride through Andy's room- so much fun!

After grabbing our daily Mickey bars we headed back over to the Star Wars show- it was still plenty hot but we had a much better view this time. This show was a classic example of Disney World ignorance though- adults who are oblivious to the four foot tall children around them that can't see much because they are insisting on standing front and center with no regard to who might be behind them. Hence the gray hat in nearly every picture I took. Adam kept saying (almost frantically), "Did you get a picture? Did you get a picture?" Infamous character after character kept appearing on the stage, and I promised him that I got pictures of it all.

Still, it was pretty awesome seeing so many of our favorite Star Wars characters all at once, and so close too. Despite hat man.

Next we headed over to Frozen, where we had our first "talking to" of the trip- we had to wait for about 25 minutes to be let into the air conditioned waiting room on a sloped concrete pad that we weren't allowed to sit down on. And it was hot! And we were getting hungry for some real food, and the first (or maybe third) time someone said, "How much longer do we have to wait?" we had a quick chat about how standing in line at Disney World must surely be better than sitting in school in freezing cold Iowa (literally freezing- we dodged the biggest ice storm of the winter by one day), and everyone fairly perked back up right as we headed into one of the largest indoor theaters, and certainly the biggest indoor stage we'd seen so far.

We like Frozen, but we've never caught Frozen fever like so, so many other people. Still, this show was just fun. It was a condensed version of the movie, narrated by two of the cutest and sarcastic grandparents- the royal Arendelle Historians kept us laughing and engaged through the show. Especially when the grandma stopped all she was doing to oogle and pet Kristoff, whom we shall forevermore refer to as "Mr. Dimples", just like she did. And it was a sing-along, so we sang our hearts out right up until Elsa dumped snow on the audience at the end. My expectations for this show were nothing, really, but it was a highlight of the day.

And it was followed by another highlight- my favorite restaurant of all of our park dining experiences- the Sci-fi Dine In! The restaurant is set up like a drive in theater, and the tables are the parked cars. Everyone is watching the nonsensical 50's sci-fi thriller movies interspersed with classic Disney shorts, the restaurant is dark, and it was by far one of the quietest places we enjoyed all week. It was the only time all week that we ate hamburgers, turkey sandwiches, mac and cheese, fries, and milkshakes, and everyone loved it!

50s-style cars serve as whimsical eating booths

Plus, we stuck the kids in the front of the car and Jason and I got to go on a mini-date in the backseat. What a treat!

The kids loved it too. We all ate as much as we wanted and watched the silly shows and just rested a bit before we headed back out into the chaos of the park. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of our day at Hollywood Studios.

After our leisurely lunch break it was time to split up again- the girls, Noah and I headed back to Pixar to see if we could meet some characters. The first one we saw was a bonus character- little green men wandering around outside Andy's room! After parking the stroller Noah and dashed over to see if we could meet one.

He was so friendly!

But then I turned around and realized that the girls weren't with us. I could see that they were still back by the stroller, and I could see that they didn't know where I was. There was a wall of people passing between us and the green men, and when Noah and I dashed over they didn't see where we had gone. But they did exactly what we had talked about many, many times, which was to stay put until they were found. It was the closest we came to losing anyone the whole time we were there, which wasn't too bad at all. So all together, after waiting for just a bit too long and taking lots of silly pictures,

this little boy's dream came true.

A visit to Andy's room while his favorite toys were alive!

And they were much larger than life!

I told the girls that Buzz put his strong gloved hand around my waist, which got the same reaction as Gaston's appearance in the musical- delightfully disgusting! That little space ranger had a nice firm grip! And seeing these smiles made the longer-than-I'd like wait totally worth it.

We had just enough time after that to hop into line to meet Moana- someone we weren't sure would be at Disney World just yet! This exhibit was the complete and total opposite of Andy's room- just a small dark room with a serpentine measure of tape marking the line that we stood in for 30 minutes while Jason was texting me pictures and minute-by-minute happenings over at Jedi training. I was sweating bullets by the time we got into the room with Moana, and was just about as stressed out as I was all week. I didn't want to miss one second of Adam's biggest moment of our trip!

Thankfully, by the magic of Disney World we got up to meet our new favorite princess with just minutes to spare.

She was especially impressed with Leah's fish hook!

And was delighted to share a few minutes and hugs before we hurried as fast as we could out of the building and back over to Jedi training. Did you know there is no running at Disney World? I understand the idea for safety's sake, but that was the fastest stroller-driving speed walking I think I've ever done!

*****

Meanwhile the boys had gone over to the Star Wars Launch Bay (which Adam saw earlier in the day and was insistent about checking out- I stand corrected from my observations at Magic Kingdom about 100% easy-going, waiting to be told what to do kiddos). The Launch Bay was filled with movie artifacts, including light sabers, pod racers, and BB8 himself.

They had just enough time to meet a few characters.

All of the characters throughout Disney World play their parts perfectly, so it made sense that the Stormtroopers marching through the park wouldn't stop for a picture, Kylo Ren was cold and brief, and that Chewbacca was skeptical of a young Jedi with a red light saber.