Got to ride the newly rebooted Star Tours at Disneyland. Pretty freakin’ awesome.
Last time I went on it would have been 20-25 years ago. I don’t really remember much of it from its original form (though I do remember the guide was a droid, maybe an alien, voiced by Paul Reubens).
The guide on the new version is C-3PO, and he sits right up at the front of the shuttle with you. It’s a beautiful animatronic life sized C-3PO, it really is like you’re with the real droid himself.
The 3-D is awesome. For those unfamiliar: it’s one of those “room moves with the image on the movie screen” rides. There’s a seating area in a small compartment made up to look like a galaxy traveling shuttle. You (the riders/audience) are passengers on the shuttle. The pilot’s seat is up at the front (C-3PO isn’t supposed to be the pilot, but there’s a “glitch” and the ship’s computer “thinks” he’s the pilot so the ship goes into launch sequence despite 3PO’s protests). The movie screen is the front view window of the shuttle. As the shuttle flies through space the compartment you’re seated in moves to match the motion of the filmed action.
The major 3-D highlight for me was when a wookie gets thrown from his own vehicle and lands on the front window of the shuttle. He tries to hold on but ends up sliding down until he falls off. As he slides down the window, you can even see the sliding finger prints dragging down the window.
Here’s the super cool thing:
You can ride it over and over and each time get a different experience. There are two segments to the filmed action (one sequence follows the other with no break, basically in one ride you visit two different worlds). I don’t know how many worlds they filmed, but the various worlds are paired randomly for each time the ride is run.
We rode it three times:[ul][li]First Ride: visited Kashyyk and Courescant[/li][li]Second Ride: visited Hoth and Naboo[/li][li]Third Ride: visited Kashyyk and Tatooine[/li][/ul]
For each ride you’re given a mission. It’s the same mission each time: safely transport an important rebel spy to the rendezvous point (they flash a picture of the important rebel spy, it’s always one of the people on the ride with you- one time it was me!). Once (of my experiences) the mission was explained in a transmission from Yoda, twice it was a transmission from Leia. Two of the tree times we were confronted by Darth Vader and had to escape (the other time it was just Imperial Troops). Yoda and Leia sounded like themselves. Vader didn’t sound great.
Anyway, super cool experience. Don’t know if they have it up and running in Florida, we went to the park in California.
Today we’re going for a preview day for the new Little Mermaid ride that opens this weekend.
mmm, before I assume you are an ad [del]droid[/del] bot …
Can you tell if the rides are at random or one can choose the missions by the line one chooses? Otherwise it would be a little bit disappointed if the next time you try you get the same mission.
Is it in both Florida and California? I’ll likely be going to the Florida one next year, and it’ll be nice having something for daddy other than ogling Jasmine…
I caught mentions of this on other sites. Apparently there are like 50+ different sequences filmed, although that seems pretty high to me. Still, the randomization is a great gimmick.
I did see a couple videos about the ride, including one that went for the entire duration. Even with only watching it on screen and not being there in the motion machine, I still caught a thrill. I haven’t been to Disney in so long, I really miss Star Tours.
There are, I believe, four shuttles. There are definitely more than four possible variations. I share Bosstone’s skepticism at the report of 50 filmed sequences, but there’s enough to allow for plenty of variation. We rode in the same shuttle twice: completely different experiences.
I was there last week, albeit during a “Star Tours weekend” which I had no clue about… the ride was great… the grown men in full Star Wars pajamas/regalia, not so great!
I tend to get motion sickness in “simulators” but this one was very high-tech and fairly smooth… definitely on the “must ride” list at Disney.
That sounds awesome. We’re planning for a long weekend in November but were going to skip Hollywood Studios this time around. Might need to re-think that.
Hmmm. Hollywood Studios is my favorite park, but Star Tours is my least favorite attraction at DHS. We almost always skip it and when we have ridden it we always thought it was kinda lame. Now I can’t wait to give it another try.
I love the randomized drops on Tower of Terror, and was disappointed that Star Tours was down for refurbishing when I was there. Might have taken some of the riders off of the Toy Story ride (which is awesome).
Toy Story Mania might be the single greatest ride in the history of theme parks. But trying to get a ride is like trying to get a loaf of bread in 1984 Ethiopia.
I survived two rides on Disneyland’s Star Tours, 10 years apart, that was enough for me. I turned pale as a ghost, sweated profusely and experienced extreme nausea both times…for some reason I didn’t learn the first time! (and taking Dramamine beforehand didn’t help :p)
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