[Spoiler Alert: Skip this article altogether if you who want to avoid spoilers from the newly revised Star Tours attraction.]
The Walt Disney World Resort hosted a preview of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue on Thursday night in advance of Friday’s public grand opening. Although the ride has already been open for cast member previews and a few “flight testing” periods, Thursday’s two-hour preview event marked the end of DIsney’s media embargo on queue photos and detailed ride information.
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue is now open at Disney Hollywood Studios. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Disney usually throws a great party, and this was no exception. The Star Wars universe offers a large cast of characters and a variety of colorful settings, and with Disney Hollywood Studios also playing host to Star Wars Weekends starting Friday, the props and set pieces from that event were put to use as backdrops for live television broadcasts and interviews. Ewoks and Jawas greeted guests entering the party, and Storm Troopers and characters like R2-D2 and Chewbacca roamed the crowd.
R2-D2 is a popular guest at the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue preview party. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Although the food and photo opportunities were enticing, the real goal of the evening was to see whether the revised Star Tours lived up to the hype. While I experienced just three of the 54 potential ride combinations, I think Walt Disney Imagineering has delivered on almost every level. The new storyline is immediately engaging, the ride film is bright and vivid, the 3-D effects are thrilling without being excessive, and the whole experience makes you want to get right back in line and ride again.
Stormtroopers watch the crowd at the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue preview party. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
First, you’ll need to walk through the queue, meeting a younger and shinier C-3PO (this ride is set earlier than the original Star Tours, so everything is newer and a bit less worn), and getting your first look at the Starspeeder 1000, the flagship of the Star Tours fleet. A brilliant high-definition screen displays advertisements for intergalactic destinations, and a departures board displays status of various flights. Star Tours fans will be happy to know that many of the announcements from the original ride queue are still played at intervals. The Starspeeder 1000 has a new crew member, a droid called IC360, who provides the rear-view imagery incorporated into the attraction.
R2-D2 and IC360 are onboard the Starspeeder 1000. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
As you enter the next room of the spaceport, you pass through Droid Customs and see crates of droids awaiting processing. The first droid of the bunch is RX-24, better known as Captain Rex, the pilot from the original Star Tours attraction. This RX-24 unit is marked “defective, return to factory.” If you ignore the chatter from the nearby security droid and listen very closely, you may hear Rex deliver some of his classic dialogue. This is one part of the queue where you’ll wish the line moved slower, just so you can hear his entire loop. Up ahead, what appears to be an opaque window onto a pedestrian corridor shows silhouettes of other “passengers” from the Star Wars universe as they hurry to their own flights.
The younger C-3PO looks a bit shinier in the ride queue. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
As you might expect, Star Tours passengers and their baggage must go through screening, and the next two scenes feature a G2-9T droid that monitors the baggage scanner, and a G2-4T that screens passengers as they near the boarding gate. A monitor at the baggage scanner was not working during our preview, and so we did not get to see the full effect. According to people who rode during the “soft-opening” dress rehearsal, the scans reveal all sorts of interesting items in checked luggage, often eliciting a sarcastic comment from the security droid. The second station displays a thermal image of the passengers immediately in front of the droid (go ahead, wave your arm and test it), and the droid may have a few jokes for you as you pass.
R2-D2 and IC360 onboard the Starspeeder 1000. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Then it’s on to the loading area, where you collect your “flight goggles,” (color-shift 3-D glasses), and move into your assigned row to watch the pre-boarding announcements and a “live” video feed from the hangar. In the video, C-3PO is seen sending our pilot AC-38, or Ace, off for a quick repair before the flight. There are some fun sight gags in this piece—keep an eye on the little droid after the Starspeeder platform is raised. The new safety video is packed with subtle and overt references to the original attraction, but this time features a group of passengers clothed entirely in clothing appropriate to the Star Wars universe.
A defective RX-24 unit sits in droid customs, waiting to be returned to the factory. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Once briefed, you enter the cabin and take a seat for your journey. It appears the opening sequence of each ride is the same. C-3PO is unwittingly thrust into the role of pilot when the automated flight system is activated before AC-38 can return. Of course Something goes terribly awry, and from here your journey begins to branch as the Starspeeder encounters one of two possible scenes. The first time I rode, we came face to face with Darth Vader, who claimed that we had a rebel spy onboard our Starspeeder and demanded that we allow the Skytroopers to board. This exchange was made even more compelling when Vader showed a photo of the accused spy—a photo of someone actually on our ride (much to the amusement of her companions). Vader used the Force to shake the Starspeeder up a bit, but we made our escape via a high-speed reverse out of the station, and immediately jumped into light speed.
Think of Star Tours 2 as a “choose your own adventure” construct. You emerge from light speed in one of three possible situations and locations: In a podrace on Tatooine, an AT-AT battle on Hoth, or a speeder chase on Kashyyyk, the Wookie planet. My first ride took us to Tatooine, and everyone in the cabin cheered as we finally experienced the scene that has played so prominently in the marketing campaign for the new ride.
After a thrilling finish, we jumped back to space, where we received an “incoming transmission” from Admiral Akbar, (the two alternates are Yoda and Princess Leia), asking for help in delivering the rebel spy safely to a secret location. C-3PO reluctantly agrees (in fact, I got the impression from the Princess Leia segment that R2 made the decision), and the Starspeeder again jumps to light speed.
The G2-9T unit scans luggage and cracks jokes. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
In April, Tom Fitzgerald, Executive VP & Senior Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering, revealed on a Disney Parks Blog entry that there would be six possible destinations for Star Tours, but it wasn’t until my first ride that I realized that you would visit more than one each trip. When your Starspeeder returns once more to normal space, you are in one of three destinations: Naboo, Coruscant, or the Death Star above Geonosis. My first ride ended in Naboo, which featured an underwater escape from a slobbering sea monster and a crash landing with a fantastic 3-D surprise.
Nobody seems inclined to opt out of the Star Tours full body scanners. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Your original confrontation, first destination, hologram character, and final destination are a random mix and match that yield 54 possible ride combinations, which, according to a cast member, can be neither forced into or predicted. The variables are:
- Confrontation – Vader | Stormtroopers
- Destination 1 – Tatooine | Hoth | Kashyyyk
- Hologram – Akbar | Yoda | Leia
- Destination 2 – Naboo | Coruscant | Death Star
While some people may be willing to invest the time to experience all 54 combinations, you won’t need to ride more than a few times to at least experience every scene. Although I didn’t visit Hoth, meet Master Yoda or go to Coruscant in my three trips, I saw every other possible show element.
After riding the new Star Tours, I spent a few moments with Tom Fitzgerald to discuss the ride improvements (which he called “15 years in the making”) and share some impressions.
Fitzgerald told me that the decision to add the Rex droid to the queue came about because of comments posted to the Disney Parks Blog that let him know just how beloved the character was. That level of respect for the ride and the rider is evident throughout the new attraction. Star Tours 2 isn’t better because it’s different; it’s better because it’s essentially the same: a fun story told with the best technology available to the Imagineers. Purists have nothing to fear, and new riders have so much to look forward to. For me, I’m looking forward to finally meeting Yoda.
Tom Fitzgerald, Executive VP & Senior Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering (right) with the author. MousePlanet photo.
Tip: Print out a translation key for the Aurebesh alphabet and bring it with you when you ride Star Tours, or download one onto your smart phone. There are many signs printed in Aurebesh in the Star Tours queue, and it might be fun to decode the text.
