Wow is the only word that comes to mind after flying down to Orlando over the weekend to see the new attraction and I have to say I was impressed. Having rode the original Star Tours many times, this just gives so much new life to the attraction, while keeping the spirit of the old.
The show starts out in the redesigned queue line where what used to look more like a Star Speeder garage is now a very busy spaceport with a large screen that tells of the many different destinations available throughout the galaxy with R2D2 and C3PO in charge, with their usual banter. As you progress through the line, you come to another room that has various droids doing different tasks in order to get the flights ready like customs and such. We also see various characters on screens going by as they try to manage their luggage, but only in silhouettes which makes it fun to figure out which ones they are while you are waiting. But perhaps the funniest gag of all is the parody of the TSA. In this case, a droid who can’t seem to keep his opinions to himself, “scans” you using a thermal camera to see if you have any contraband. The thermal picture is then put up on a screen beside him to show that yes, tourists are sweaty. At least there is no patdowns or radiation. Another cool part of this room is that Rex (Rx-24) is still around. The old pilot, played by Paul Reubens, is now there as a defective robot that is supposed to be returned for maintenance. He spouts a lot of his old lines, but he’s hard to hear with the louder TSA droid. And finally we get to the boarding area where there is a short film with last minute instructions and safety tips before being ushered into our StarSpeeder 1000.
The cabin hasn’t changed much, except for the fact that C3PO now is at the helm, and doing his usual panicking and complaining about having to fly this thing. We get settled down with our 3D glasses on, which don’t look like the ones found in other attractions like MuppetVision 4D, but a heavy duty goggles type with a rainbow effect on the glass, which gives them a more sci-fi look. And off we go.
The flight is then divided into four parts which can be randomized to make up to 50 different experiences according to Disney, which is impressive. One thing that we found was kind of cool, although typical Disney, was the spy bit. In the first section, we are told by Darth Vader or others that there is a spy among us and his troops will now search the cabin, at which time he shows exactly who he is looking for, which happened to be a person in our row, much to the enjoyment of his friends. Anyway, we escaped after Vader tried to shake us up with the force and wound up at the AT-AT battle on Hoth. We then got a distress call from Princess Leia, but our hesitant pilot didn’t sound like he wanted to go, but he finally decided with some ribbing from R2D2. And so we were off again, which we wound up oddly enough in Naboo which we managed to escape an underwater sea monster, but crash landed anyway. The ride, as we were to find out from a couple tries was basically structured the same way each time with differences based on a random ride decision, rather than our own choice.
Of course, the ride lets out into a gift shop as it always had, where you can buy the new merchandise such as traveler or spaceport personnel sets.
All in all, we loved it. We had our doubts that the length of time from even the new trilogy would already make it dated, but since Star Wars is timeless, we remembered every minute of it. Just wish we’d gotten the one with the pod race just once, but next time.
