Star Tours- The Adventures Continue

On January 9^th, 1987, Disneyland opened the doors to an attraction that by the magic of Disney Imagineering and George Lucas, allowed us to explore a galaxy far far away. After 23 years of never making it to the forest moon of Endor, galactic travels were temporarily closed in August of 2010 to begin construction on a total upgrade. Many mixed feelings about the evolution of this attraction stormed internet blogs and fan sites but the one commonality between Disney and Star Wars fans alike, was the over anxious anticipation of what the newly upgraded Star Tours would be like. Finally after 10 months, Star Tours- The Adventures Continue will unleash the force and start taking passengers to galaxies far way on June 3^rd, 2011.

TPS had the very appreciated opportunity to preview this attraction before the general public and I can reveal to you all that this upgraded journey is going to far exceed your expectations. In the last 10 months many fans and park patrons have been able to watch and follow the developments of the construction and refurbishments to the exterior attraction building. I’m sure like myself, you have all been wondering if the rumors floating around regarding new travel sequences and star character appearances are true. Well if you really want to know, then I invite you to read more and embark on a light speed virtual tour. 

NOTE: SPOILER ALERT!! IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPECIFIC DETAILS OF THIS ATTRACTION PLEASE DO NOT CHOOSE TO READ MORE!!!

All the magic begins once you enter the interior queue area of the attraction. You walk into a very shiny and bright room resembling a legit space terminal. It is a little tricky when you first enter because you see the same old Calamarians in the control room looking over the main queue area. Your first thoughts are, oh no same ole same ole. Then you observe that the line rails are finished stainless steel, which makes the whole room look so shiny. As you advance even further in the queue, BAM, BOOM, WHUH?!! You experience a massive mind slap as your captivated by the old departure screen now called, “Space Port Live Cam”. No more glitchy low-resolution big screen. This is now a full HD, crisp resolution window into space. The Space Port Live Cam shows a live, life like window into space, viewing the spaceport and all the arrivals and departures of spacecraft and Star speeders. It then periodically switches up to the departures screen like a real terminal. The board originally reads in an alien language then transitions to English. It displays all the new destinations and flight statuses. Like the old terminal screen it also features some very realistic promotions of all the destinations Star Tours has to offer such as, Hoth, Tattoine, Endor, Naboo and Coruscant to name a few. As anxious as you are to board, you will likely get a few commands from others in line to please move forward. Yes I was so busy looking at that huge screen that the line in front of me moved but I didn’t. The Star Speeder, R2D2 and C3PO scene is still there with more than a few upgrades. The Star Speeder is no longer the 3000 but 1000 now. Blue and white is so 23 years ago. The new Speeder is White with orange trim. R2 is still up top but neither he nor the Speeder is damaged anymore. They are extremely bright and shiny as is C3PO at his newly upgraded work, station. HD technology is definitely taken advantage of on this attraction. C3PO’s work screens are also HD and actually activate at his touch now. His movements are less robotic and spotty and the audio is clear and crisp as well. The malfunction scene is still included, which is caused by C3PO resulting in steam flushing out the end and top of the Speeder but luckily R2 still knows how to clean up C3PO’s mess.

The second, smaller queue room has so many newer additions that I’m afraid I may have missed a few little hidden gems. To the right side of the line are open Crates with old retired and or broken down droids inside. The more prominent character in this scene is our beloved Captain Rex, who is now labeled “DEFECTIVE”. I kind of wished I had a flower to lie down in front of him. My heart skipped a beat as I heard him reciting his old captains spiel only to become saddened to realize he was stuttering and malfunctioning in between lines. To the center of the room is the baggage X-ray station. There is an actual covered conveyer belt that moves luggage to a window allowing onlookers to see the X-rayed luggage. In the series of X-rayed Items I got to see, I spotted a few rumored Easter eggs. One was Stitch inside a suitcase. Another was Wall-e and a few others that I’ll leave as a surprise. Right before you exit this room to go into the loading area, there is a droid behind a workstation surrounded by one Thermal- projected screen up top and to his left. This thermal cam actually projects live feed video of people in line. There is a smaller screen directly in front of the droid that projects live feed video opposite of thermal detection. The droid interacts with the passengers in line, making random comments and advising what can and cant be taken on your journey. He’s rather comical and a little feisty but if you listen carefully you will recognized that familiar voice of Patrick Warburton.

So finally you exit the queue area and go through the turnstiles, where the new 3D glasses are distributed. The glasses are a hard plastic, not the flimsy park 3D glasses given at EO or Tough to be a Bug. They kind of look like a pair of Oakley’s. Here’s a cool lil tid-bit, the glasses fit comfortably and securely over prescription glasses. After given our glasses we are directed to our designated Star Speeder to await boarding. The boarding screens above are also HD, where we get to watch a funny scene of our star speeder getting maintenance and ready for our departure. Droids are doing their busy work cleaning and doing final little adjustments. C3PO comes into the picture ready to do his diagnostic rounds inside the speeder. He hurriedly shoos the captain out of his terminal asking him to remove himself from the cock pit so he can prepare flight plan and equipment check. A robotic flight attendant comes onto to the screen to give the safety and boarding instruction. The video showing how to board the speeder includes a cameo of Chewbacca, a Calamarian and the original flight attendant from the old safety video. The safety spiel then recites instructions in Spanish flawlessly. Green light comes on to board and passengers then take their seats. The inside of the speeder is much cleaner and brighter. The seats seem a little wider than the old ones and the AC is blowing efficiently now and still has that new speeder smell. After fastened and checked, our departure sequence begins.

There are rumored to be 50 different sequences of adventures you could possible embark on. For this ride, we got the Tattoine Pod Racer sequence. I believe that each ride begins with the same scenario, which is set up during the boarding video. C3PO does not complete diagnostics in time and departure begins with him at the helm. He of course is flabbergasted that such a mistake could be made and we witness the typical anxiety stricken character that we all know and love. Although he begs R2 to kill engines, R2 does not obey and goes on while beeping and booping. I would like to add that the HD, 3D screen is phenomenal. It does well to appear that you are really looking out a window into a real life scene. As we gradually coast up towards the launch pad exit into space, Star Troopers approach the scene commanding us to stop for inspection. Again R2 continues to inch towards the launch area. In the midst of commotion you hear the troopers saying that the craft needs to be inspected for a rebel spy stowing away on our speeder. Suddenly a small flying droid attaches it self to the speeder window and does a laser type scan throughout the craft. An alert is given that the rebel spy is confirmed to be one of the passengers and a full picture of a random actual passenger is projected. Against C3PO’s commands, R2 picks up speed. While we dodge other craft to flee the troopers and small flying security androids, the Millennium Falcon makes a cameo appearance, assisting us in our escape.  We finally shoot out of the spaceport and almost immediately go into light speed. The light speed in HD 3D is unreal!  The other notable difference is the smooth ride that the simulator now has. It’s forceful but not as jerky and turbulent as before. We then enter through Tattoine’s atmosphere and right into a pod race. Our speeder wins the pod race, barely missing the crowds in the stands as we quickly ascend up and out of the planet.

Once in space above Tattoine a transmission comes through of Admiral Akbar who is projected in the cabin via hologram. He advises that we are being pursued because we have a rebel spy on board. He commands Captain C3PO to safely deliver the spy to a secured location on the planet of Coruscant. The messaged is concluded and the speeder once again goes into light speed to its final destination. The light speed coarse plummets our craft right into a galactic battle above Coruscant, which results in some pretty professional style piloting, weaving us in and out of space debris and other star ships. The speeder takes a hit and engines fail. R2’s beeping and booping go into hyper drive as he attempts to get the engines back online. C3PO is having a typical hissy fit freaking out as our decent comes closer and closer to the planets surface. At the very last possible moment, R2 gets the engines back up but now we have oncoming traffic and buildings to dodge and fly through. Finally after much zigging and zagging through the city, C3PO spots a landing pad and we land safe and sound, ready to deliver our top-secret rebel spy.

So ends our galactic journey, in applause and cheers of joy. I would have loved to load this article up with pictures but the no pictures rule was highly enforced during our preview. SO although I have given you a full description of the attraction, you can still read this only knowing the details of one possible sequence. Inasmuch as I tried to color a full picture of all there is to see, words just can’t describe what an awesome upgrade Disney did with this attraction. I can guarantee you that I missed a ton of little hidden treasures but rest assured I will definitely be attending as many previews as I am offered and this ride will be a must 2 -5 times each park visit after it opens. I think the best way to end this review is to say that as far as Star Tours- The Adventures Continue goes, the forces is definitely strong with this one!

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