Star Tours – The Adventures Continue officially opened May 20, 2011 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the Walt Disney World Resort. The event was attended by thousand of Disney and “Star Wars” fans, who turned out in "Force" to ride the attraction and attend the Star Tours grand opening ceremony.
Guest will feel the imagination and power of the Force of the creative combination of George Lucas and Disney’s new 3-D attraction that updates the original Star Tours. Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, or simply Star Tours for short, uses cutting-edge 3-D high-def digital filming, motion simulation technology, special on-ride sound and light effects and a dramatic musical score to place guest in the middle of the action.
As its name suggests Star Tours – The Adventures Continue takes guests on multiple destinations, and with different characters, within the “Star Wars” universe. Walt Disney Imagineering worked with Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic – the latter’s visual effects division – to develop the attraction.
Star Tour – The Adventures Continue creates different ride experiences
The highlight of Star Tours is its innovative use of multiple storylines in the immersive ride experience to offer a new experience on subsequent rides. More than 50 story combinations – offering different destinations, characters and scenarios presented at random– are possible.
The ride’s narrative is set, loosely, between the third and fourth “Star Wars” films. Tom Fitzgerald, Executive VP & Senior Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering said:
“In the end, after numerous discussions, we decided to place our storyline between the two sets of Star Wars trilogies, giving the project the working title ‘Star Tours 3.5.’ This time period gave our show team the ability to tap into the very best of the ‘Star Wars’ characters and adventures.”
Similar to the earlier Star Tours attraction, The Adventures Continue focuses on an unexpected twist for guests who board a leisure flight in the “Star Wars” on a StarSpeeder 1000. This time, though, the ride sends guests into different action-packed scenes, visit several familiar planets from the galaxy. The locations guests may visit include the icy planet of Hoth, the lush jungles of Kashyyyk and the underwater Gungan world of Naboo.
During their repeated ride adventures, guests will encounter Star Wars characters, among them Princess Leia, Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. “Skytroopers,” a legion of stormtroopers, may also appear and were created just for Star Tours.
Read more on the Star Tours storyline - destinations or the Star Tours ride queue (possible spoilers).
Smooth opening day for Star Tours
Guests camped out overnight at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to attend the first day of the 2011 Star Wars Weekends and to be among the first to ride Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. Star Tours had been in soft opening the week previous while Disney tested the attraction, and offered a media event Thursday night followed by a Star Tours midnight meet-up to a few hundred guests.
But Friday at park opening was the first day for all regular park guests to experience the attraction. After a brief preview window before the park officially opened at 8 a.m., Star Tours opened at noon after the 10:15 a.m. processional and dedication ceremony.
FASTPASS options are available for Star Tour. Steady lines formed throughout the day, with the longest wait right after the attraction opened. By late afternoon, however, standby wait times were well under an hour long.
Star Tours is now operating during regular park hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue will open at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, Calif., on June 3, 2011.
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