BREAKING NEWS: Star Tours!!!

[lovebug33]

Thank goodness! My bro is going June 3-11 and told his boy that it would be closed, just to avoid the WDW Space Mtn. meltdown of 2009! He was hoping it would be open, but didn't want to get the boy upset! So, now it will be a nice surprise for him when he gets there and can ride it!

 

[NavyDad01]

So what Does soft opening mean ? Will it continue to operate through May ?

 

[ArchOwl]

So what Does soft opening mean ? Will it continue to operate through May ?

Soft opening means that in advance of the official opening, the park may at its discretion open and close the attraction at will. This is to help iron out any problems with the ride and take off the pressure on actual opening day.

By its very nature, soft openings are unpredictable and not guaranteed. Although, once Star Tours soft opened in WDW, I believe it soft opened at least once a day everyday until grand opening (someone correct me if wrong). However, the ride would open and close throughout the day.

Additionally, AP previews are being held now at Disneyland and that would affect the availability of soft openings, I would imagine. So that is a long answer of basically no one knows for sure!

 

[cyberjoek]

Stopped by DL tonight to try and get on and got there about 40min after they cut off the line (about 7pm). Asked a CM some questions and this is what they told me (with the warning that everything was subject to change):
-Soft Openings will be going on through June 3rd
-Primarily during the times of the AP Access Window
-The plan as far as she knew was that the AP winning got you FastPasses, everyone else got standby.
-Flights are subject to cancelation due to tech issues or just because they need some time to work on something
-As far as she knew Attraction Readmittance Passes won't work on the ride until after it opens.

How much of this information is true IDK but that's what the CM at Star Tours told me.
-Joe Kavanagh

 

[Armadillo4]

Yessss! We rode Star Tours today during the soft open. My twitter feed alerted me to the fact around 4:30pm. Our group was still in DCA at the time. We were a large, slow moving bunch and not everyone was excited about riding Star Tours (really!).

We entered the queue at 5:35pm and were getting on a Starspeeder at 7pm. I think the broken Starspeeder that oc_tony mentioned earlier definitely impacted our wait time as the line stopped moving for a good 20 minutes and took a while to get back up to speed. Perhaps more than one ride vehicle had problems. But that's part of what a soft open is all about. I'm glad we were there to help work out the kinks lol.

Oh, and I'll be back next weekend for sure, since I won the AP Preview for May 29. Woo-hoo!

 

[deann]

In line now at 8:40 am Sat. May 21st!

 

[oc_tony]

In line now at 8:40 am Sat. May 21st!

Hi Deann, hope you enjoy the ride. We really liked it! We certainly have something to discuss for the podcast this week.

 

[deann]

Hi Deann, hope you enjoy the ride. We really liked it! We certainly have something to discuss for the podcast this week.

Just got off. It was awesome! I thought my parents wouldn't enjoy it but they loved it! I can't wait to hear the podcast!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Well, that makes it a little anti-climactic to have won the AP contest to ride "first", doesn't it? I guess there's no real advantage of being a winner then, is there? Or...maybe the AP winners get a FastPass and the general public doesn't?

Right? My friend was one of the lucky AP winners, but had to be there at 6am yesterday morning. No bueno!

We showed up (non-winners) around 5pm and got on in about an hour, during the soft opening window. Kind of burst her "I'm first!" bubble.

We all loved it!

 

[deann]

At DCA now and saw Little Mermaid open! I thought maybe it was a soft opening. No luck, it is the CM preview.

 

[JH87]

I was there yesterday for the preview, and then later on in the afternoon, around 3, got in line and rode again for the soft open. It actually wasn't that crazy for me in that area. The wait was only 30 mins. When we walked by again later that night it was closed.
The new and improved Star Tours was FUN!!! I am so glad we got to ride it twice yesterday!

 

[GrandBob]

So, the old ST made both me and DW sick as a dog -- very bad motion sickness. We haven't been on in a decade. I'm assuming ST2 will do the same thing? Or did they do something that may make it better for us? Thanks.

 

[deann]

So, the old ST made both me and DW sick as a dog -- very bad motion sickness. We haven't been on in a decade. I'm assuming ST2 will do the same thing? Or did they do something that may make it better for us? Thanks.

I also used to feel sick on the old one. I would usually sit and wait for the rest of my party. I wanted
to at least go on the new one at least once. I took Bonine (I think that's how to spell it) and I was
fine. I think it is a lot smoother than before but that could be because I took the Bonine for motion sickness. Also my Dad went on it and I didn't think he would like it because of being too rough. He loved it and said it is now his favorite ride.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We too were at the preview yesterday and waited about 3 hours in line to ride it. Even now my legs are tired from all that standing. Love the ride. We were lucky enough to get Darth.

We were walking by at about 2:30 and I knew they were going to be opening it up soon. Personally, I was a little annoyed that after having to get up so darned early and stand in line for over 3 hours they were doing a soft opening. We didn't get in line for the soft opening as we were headed home. Getting up at 5 a.m. will do that to you.

I did ask when we were in line if we could get out and come back and get in the line and the end and was told no. So my DM who had my 2.5 y/o nephew with her didn't get to ride. I was, however, able to get both of them buttons.

Congrats to all of those who got to ride it without the wait. We'll be going again before 6-3 and will be checking out to see if it's open again.

 

[deann]

Just walked by and it is a 50 minute wait at 5:38pm.

 

[perlster]

Well, Disneydaz, I was at least happy that I wasn't there at 3 or 4 AM ... for all those hours ... and then to have folks who didn't "win" have much shorter waits in the afternoon.

(P.S. to Disney: next time, give out tickets that are actually useful)

There were some good photo-ops, though:

 

[oumagic]

I am glad for all of the people that got to ride it, but I am upset. I drove 6 1/2 hours (one-way), spent two nights in a hotel, and then got in line at 4:30 AM on Friday. We got off the ride at 9:19 AM and were told we would not be able to ride it again. I asked if they were going to let more people ride later and was told that unless we won the AP preview, we would not be able to ride again until June 3rd. We stayed at the park until 12:30 PM and then my 7 year old and I were ready for a nap (a 6+ hour ride and 5 hours in line will do that). We got back to the park at 6:30pm and hit Abe Lincoln and then walked over to see all of those people in line but the line had been cutoff.

Now, if they would have just given us a non-committal "we don't know" it would have been one thing. I probably would have just been a little upset that my bubble was burst when my son didn't get a 2nd ride. The problem is that the CM that handed us our button and one other we asked outside ended up lying to us. Things are black and white to a child. If a person of authority tells them something, they are to be believed. I had a hard time explaining that they didn't mean to tell us the wrong thing but that their boss just didn't tell them the right thing.

We still had a good time and will be back to Disneyland. However, it should never be the goal of Disneyland to cause a kid to cry. Telling a child that there is no way that they can ride again until June 3rd and then hours later have that child walk past and see other people riding did cause that to happen to my kid. We will be back in October for 5 days, but I just didn't like how the "special preview" turned into a needless 5 hour wait. We could have spent 1/3 of that, not woken up at 4 AM, and not had my son crying because he felt betrayed and still ended up letting him ride.

Now that it is out of my system, I will go back to being a fan.

Edited to add: it also didn't help that we were told at least 3 times, "I can't believe you waited 4 hours for the ride. I only waited an hour and thought that was too much." or something to that effect. No one likes to be made to feel they are stupid. Dads particularly don't like to have their kids think that they are stupid. My son is a little peeved and thinks dad is a doofus because we waited 4 hours to ride it once when we could have rode it 4 times because people told him they only waited an hour.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Well, Disneydaz, I was at least happy that I wasn't there at 3 or 4 AM ... for all those hours ... and then to have folks who didn't "win" have much shorter waits in the afternoon.

(P.S. to Disney: next time, give out tickets that are actually useful

I couldn't have said it better! I too was happy I wasn't there at 3:30. I sent them an email and based on the response I got I saw no reason to get up so early.

There were some good photo-ops, though:

BTW, you were very close to us in line, how do I know....because that's my DD11 in the turquoise Tink top. I am behind the woman with the backpack taking her picture . Here's the one I was taking.

oumagic-I totally agree. How stupid do we feel that we fell for that "special preview" bit? I think we were just there to be in the line so when John Gregory from ABC 7 was talking about it it would cause a buzz. BTW not once during his updates did he mention that the ride was not yet open. (I DVR'd it). We met a couple when we came back at 10 p.m. on the tram who were coming to ride ST2. I told them it wasn't open officially yet and since it wasn't open that late on Friday I'm sure they were disappointed.

BTW, we met another couple as we were leaving around 3 who are coming back on Wed., the 25th for another"Sneak Preview". So if anyone reading this wants a chance to ride during a soft opening I would go next Wed. We can't since DD11 has a field trip to Knott's.

I took DD11 out of school Friday for the chance to ride. Luckily she gets straight A's and school work is basically over for the year.

It was nice that Disney provided coffee and hot chocolate for free to those waiting outside the park.However, it got really warm standing in that line from 7:30-10:10 (when we entered the building). It would have been nice to have some water to drink while waiting instead of being approached by CMs selling their just released SW merchandise. Also I was hoping for maybe a few characters around to take pix with. Would have been a nice touch.

Since we had our 2.5 y/o nephew with us who wasn't tall enough to ride(though we did waste the free ticket on him) I kept asking CMs along the way if my DM71 could ride after my DD11 and I did. They said if you got out of line you would not be let back in. So my DM left with him after the park opened at 9 and did a few rides while we waited in line. When we were done riding the line, and doors, were closed so she wouldn't have been able to do a child swap. For a park that is all about the family, this was a surprise to me. It took me asking about 5 CMs before I got an answer (from a lead) about how it was going to work-no getting out of line, only 1 ride per person, cutting of wristband, etc.

Finally, when I saw how long the line still was at 9 a.m. I sent DD with 3 of our tix to get FP for Space. She was gone for quite awhile and finally called my cell. A nice woman in line let her use her phone. She didn't go far enough down the line to find me and was in tears. Then when she gave me the FP only one was valid. Turns out the one day tickets they gave us when we entered hadn't been validated yet. The CM at the Space FM told her she couldn't use them since they hadn't been scanned (for some reason 1 did work). I let one of the suits doing crowd control know of the situation and she said she would check on it. After we rode we went to the Times board and spoke to the CM there. She said we had to go to City Hall or back to Star Tours to resolve it. We went to Star Tours and they sent us back to Space. Turns out this was where they were handling it but the first CM spoke to must not have known about the problem. Big Question here for Disney-How could you give us non-validated tickets to use to get FP that hadn't been entered in the system? Seems like a pretty big error to me! A very frustrating and time consuming to deal with. I think we were the first ones trying to get a FP with them.

When we got in a line a CM was counting off the guests. She said she was at about 1200 and they were expecting another 1200. I think there was maybe another 200-300 behind us. Oh, and they continued to let guest check in until a little after 8.

I'm still a fan of Disney but I won't be entering any more contests for "special access". Did I feel special? No, unless especially stupid counts!

The only redeeming benefit was the photo ops. Here's a few of mine.

Here's out buttons, I guess they made it all worth it

 

[oumagic]

Yeah, I failed to mention the part about us having a hard time getting back into the park. The tickets did not work. The person at the gate eventually called a lead over that saw our handstamp and did a system override to let us back in. You put it exactly right; I just feel stupid for having waited in the line to ride it once when we could have just slept in, entered the park and had fun and rode ST2 a few times that night. The fact that we were in line so long and so early caused us to take a LONG 4 hour nap that we would not have needed had we just done a normal Disney day. At least I am not like you and actually "had" to wait in line for the ticket into Disney. If I had an AP I would have been even more upset having sat in that line. My son was a trooper, though. He only really complained when he saw people in line after we were told we would not be allowed to ride a 2nd time (until 6/3). That and then having a number of people mock us in the Space Mountain line just put a damper on the experience.

 

[Dizneydaz]

We have AP so the tickets had no value to us except that once we got our free tickets validated and then entered DCA using our AP (making sure to get our handstamped so we could get our free tickets validated upon re-entry to DL) With our AP, our free tix, and our FP only tickets (given to us at Space Mountain) we had 11 tickets to get FP with. We grabbed a bunch of FP to use later that night. We have never left DLR and returned later in the evening since it's about a 60 mile round trip.

But we were exhausted and DD11 had a softball tournament game at 7:30. Unfortunately they lost that game (or is it fortunately?) so we didn't have to be back on the field at 8 a.m. That meant we could go back to DLR and use our FP. We were hoping to use our FP for WoC (haven't seen it yet) but we got there just at 10:15 (WoC showtime) so we still haven't seen it. If DD's game hadn't gone into an overtime tiebreaker we may have made it.

We did use a few of our FP but DD was so tired that we left a little before midnight, without using the FP in our pockets for Space.