Hi everyone! I am grateful for all of your expertise and advice as I plan for our mother-daughter trip.
I hate to spend my early hour waiting to sign up for Jedi training, but my daughter (11) really wants to do this (though she did it last winter at WDW). The crowd calendar for our day, Jan 21, is 5 and with our early entry we’ll be allowed in at 7AM. I’m thinking about doing rides from 7-7:45ish and then getting in line to sign up for the Jedi training. What do you think about this idea? Also, can anyone share a comparison between Jedi Training at DL versus HS? Lastly, any tips for us? Which line fights Vader?
If you are on a slow day, there shouldn’t be an issue. They have multiple shows a day and we didn’t have a problem signing up. We didn’t use early morning time standing in line, but you want to be sure she is with you. They won’t let parents just sign up their kids without them being there.
You do not have a choice of who you fight. Darth Vader is not always the option. They switch around without notice and even if she is in line for one, they move around midway through.
Yes, and although TP shows low CLs for that day, I’m dubious. If it’s really important, prioritize! At least you can get Space or ST fastpasses nearby…
The last I heard for EE is they would allot half the spots for sign-up during EE with the other half saved for regular RD. The last time I went to sign-up my son for Jedi training on a Fri in Nov (non-EE since we rarely stay onsite and have APs), it was a 0 minute wait 20 min. after RD to sign him up and we had our pick of shows ( I think maybe the first show was gone, but we wanted the 2nd one anyway so I wasn’t paying particular attention…).
I would be remiss to use my EE for a spot and would just go at regular RD, but I would also want to verify they still are splitting up the availalbe slots and only filling half during EE. If you will be in the parks at all before Jan 21st, you can always go to the counter and inquire with the CMs at the sign-ups f they still do this.
As far as a comparison between WDW and DL JTA’s, the shows were exactly the same set on slightly different stages. The biggest difference really is that at WDW you have a little bit of control over who your kid will fight based on which line and DL there is no pattern to it and the two will switch half-way through the show too. The only other difference I can think of, is that at WDW they wanted one parent to stay with the kids to help walk the lines the show. At DL they don’t have you do that, but will have a CM walk the group of parents down separately.
If your daughter is a big Star Wars fan though and has her heart set on it, I would definitely make the time to do it! She only has so much time left before she will be too old for it anyway so it may be one of her last chances to try it out in DL. I know my son loves saying that he has done them in both parks and it has been one his favorite Disney experiences and has been fun for me and my husband to watch him as well.
I realize I will be in the minority on this, but JTA was my son’s number one, must do on our last trip. Since that, combined with meeting Darth Vader (which was still a possibility then) was literally all he wanted, I made it my number one priority. We scheduled a pre-RD ADR for our Hollywood Studios Day. We showed up early, were let in (and it appeared we were literally only the second group of people in the park), went straight to JTA sign up, signed up with no wait, went to our breakfast, and were done eating shortly after RD. I realize that the first hour of touring is very efficient and valuable, but to me, no amount of efficiency would have compensated if we somehow couldn’t get a JTA slot that worked with our FPs and ADRs, so I wanted first pick no matter what. I had made a TP taking into account the fact that we would be a little behind the RD crowd, and our touring was smooth and seamless all day, despite being behind the RD crowd.
When we went to WDW JTA was our #1 priority for our DHS day too.
Since we have APs to DL I don’t always let it be top priority, but every 2-4 trips, I’ll make the effort to have it done first. In DL we never have EE/MM and they used to not start sign ups until RD even though a healthy line would form making the line at RD 1 hr long so my advice used to be, don’t ever do it on an EE day. DL seems to have wizened up and now allows for half the slots of each show to go to whomever wants to spend their precious EE hour in a JTA line. Now that DL allows you also sign up early, I do agree that starting at JTA as long as you plan to be early and head right to it, doesn’t set you back in your touring at all
