In 1987, George Lucas and the Disney Company decided that it was time to let fans enjoy the Star Wars universe with an incredible tour to Endor. Of course, anyone who has ridden the old Star Tours would know that you never really made it to Endor. With Pee Wee Herman as the voice of the pilot and R2D2 making most of the actual flight decisions, tourists got to fly through ice-like asteroids, get involved in a space battle with the Empire and the Rebellion ("Star Tours? What are you doing here?") and then eventually maneuver down the trench to help in blowing up the Death Star (how many of those things does the Empire actually have?).
For many years, George Lucas and Disney Imagineers have been wanting to update the ride system and the visuals that are offered to the riders. It took them a long time and now I can attest to the statement: It was worth the wait.
Joanna and I won tickets to a special sneak preview for Annual Passholders and sped down to Disneyland last night. We got our special boarding pass and headed into the ride (for those of you wondering what we did we our child, we were able to leave her with some friends of ours that got to go on the ride after we did).
The entry is very similar to the original ride, except that the spacecraft in the first room is painted a different color to match the new design of the ride. The second room is still similar as the first, though there is a window that shows shadows of passengers as they are headed to board (the cool thing is that it is shadows of familiar and unfamiliar creatures from the Star Wars universe).
Once you get to the gate, the video monitor shows C3PO speaking to R2D2 and asking him various questions regarding the ship's systems. He goes into the ship in order to check on one more system . . . and, to quote Han Solo in Episode IV, "Here's where the fun begins."
Now, I'm not going to spoil the ride for any of you, but I will say that it is definitely a lot better than the original Star Tours ride. I'm not saying that the original was bad, but the new ride was filmed specifically in Digital 3D, which makes every image even better. For those of you that don't know, there are actually 54 different options for the ride to take. One ride you might go to the Wookiee planet, Kashyyyk or to the desert planet, Tattooine, or the ice planet Hoth and the next time you ride, you could go to Coruscant. Who knows? Plus, there are other random options for the beginning of the adventure. We went twice and while one part was different for the planets, there were still several similarities. But we didn't care.
Until next time......
May the Force be with you.
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