Friday, May 20, 2011

Star Tours - The Adventure Continues!

Star Tours has been under renovation for months and months now! It is slated for a June 3rd opening.

However, Disney recently did a contest on their blog and twitter which allowed guests to enter for a chance to view Star Tours early. Well, I wouldn't be writing this if I lost! I entered the contest with little hopes of winning, days letter I received an email that said to report to the Disneyland Resort between 4am and 7:30am. The ride was to start letting people in at 9am.

We parked in the Toy Story parking area and were shuttled over to see this huge line.

Check-In for the Early Preview of Star Tours.
Here we had to turn in signed releases that allowed Disney and/or the news to take pictures of us and use them.



My Girlfriend and I. :)
 They had this small photo-op booth set up for people to take pics.


There were several news agencies there. KCAL 9, NBC, ABC, etc.

 

The park was closed except for those of us that were going to see Star Tours early. I estimate we were near the middle of the line. You can't see the beginning of the line, there were so many people there.


The line wrapped up towards the beginning of the ride and back down towards the amazing corn dog stand and back up the side of Star Tours towards Space Mountain and back into Star Tours. It was a long wait.



Scattered around the outskirts of the line of people there were several corporate-looking Disney employees, photographers and videographers.

John Gregory of ABC7


One of the first in the galaxy. :)

The line wrapped around in front of the gift store exit and I happened to catch the first people exiting the ride. They were greeted by lots of cameras.

This guy was on ABC7's story they did on this Disney Event. I was right there! 

Now for the part you've been waiting for... almost.

The view when you first walk in to the inside of Star Tours
In the top of the window you can see 2 Mon Calamari that are overseeing the area.


And to the right is C-3P0 and R2-D2.



There is a large screen to the right of R2 as the line wraps down and around near him. The screen displays Arrivals, Departures and the Forecast on different systems. (Mustafar's forecast is Ash Clouds, for example, lol). My girlfriend took video of the screens, I will upload them to YouTube when I can.


The large screen also previews some of the destinations that you can visit. Pictured is Tatooine.


Large Star Tours Logo on the large screen.


This little guy was scanning baggage. When I was there a Storm Trooper helmet appeared in the scanner and he said, "You know what this means... Someone's going to be a Storm Trooper for Halloween!" and let it pass through security. He seemed to be pretty funny but the line started to move while we got here.


That person in the thermal image on the LCD screen taking the picture is ME! This is one of the coolest parts of the line. There is a camera pointing at the line that is "scanning" people. The droid in the picture also says lots of funny things. We recorded a video of this too and will upload it to YouTube when I can.


Sorry for the blurriness of this picture, I was really excited. After you grab your 3D glasses you are seconds away from being assigned to a shuttle. My girlfriend and I were placed here last minute. FYI if you get Row 5 you are in the very front of the shuttle, that is where we ended up sitting.

I didn't take any videos of the ride itself because I wanted to enjoy it, sorry. But its not like you could have enjoyed it anyways since the ride is in 3D, it would have looked weird. If you don't want to know about the details of the ride itself and any possible spoilers DO NOT CONTINUE.



WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!



The plot basically is on the ship that is departing someone is a hidden rebel spy. (A person is actually chosen from the group and their picture is flashed on the screen for everyone to see). When Star Tours departs from the hanger Darth Vader leads a charge against your shuttle along with a cadre of Storm Troopers and TIE fighters. This part was very epic.

When you ride the ride you visit 2 different destinations. We visited Hoth and flew around in the Battle of Hoth. Then we escaped to the asteroid belt of Geonosis and dueled out with what I thought was Boba Fett in Slave 1 but it could have been Jango. Now according to an employee I talked with later in the day, there are 54 different combinations of systems that you can visit on your tour. The person I talked with said they experienced Hoth and Kashyyk (Chewbacca's homeworld). Another person we talked to said the experienced Naboo and Kashyyk.

Let me just say, as a Star Wars fan, I was impressed and excited. The most exciting part was finding out which planet you initially land on. The graphics are smooth and the 3D looks crisp. Disney did a really good job revamping this ride.

If you are a Star Wars fan I can say that you likely won't be disappointed and as soon as you exit the ride you will get right back in it.

4 comments:

Inspector Clouseau said...

No need to "try" to be witty; let it occur naturally.

Nice work. I came across your blog while “blog surfing” using the Next Blog button on the blue Nav Bar located at the top of my blogger.com site. I frequently just travel around looking for other blogs which exist on the Internet, and the various, creative ways in which people express themselves. Thanks for sharing.

Kathy said...

Looks like you had a great time! I would've loved to be there~ You and your girlfriend sure look cute together ^^

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johny said...

its great blog i must agree

D.M. SOLIS said...

Solid write up. Nice review. I'm happy for you, that you were lucky enough to get to do this. Peace and continued good things for you.

Diane