Star Tours update at Disney web site

[skier_pete]

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ne...ined/?CMP=NLC-WDWFY11Q2Mar2011WDWDomEnews0024

Biggest news - confirms the already hypothesized multiple-ride paths, and also indicates that C3PO will play a heavy role.

Anyone else think this is going to siphon a lot of the rope-drop / Fast-pass crowd from Toy Story Mania? I am soooo excited for this. (And I haven't been excited for anything Star Wars since Episode 1 stunk.)

Hyperspace…Here We Come!
The Star Tours attraction gets revamped for 2011!
March 1, 2011 Print Of all the attractions at the Walt Disney World® Resort, Star Tours® has always been a Guest favorite—with many of its most fervent fans clamoring for more. Well, they must have used their capabilities with the Force, because the all-new adventures of Star Tours—The Adventures Continue is set to begin on May 20, 2011, taking Guests even further into the Star Wars" universe!

Star Tours wouldn't be, well, Star Tours if there weren't a few surprises. And Walt Disney Imagineers made sure it was full of them. In fact, with all-new adventures, you'll never know where the Force might take you! You'll also find new-but-classic characters, plus Force-filled special effects…now in 3D! So you can experience a galaxy far, far away like never before.

An Ace of a Pilot. And Who's That Guy in Black?

Making an attraction even better, especially one that's as popular as this one, is no easy task. But early in development, Imagineers thought to infuse more characters into the story. Timewise, they decided to set the story between Episode III and Episode IV, so classic characters could be brought into the attraction—along with a few new ones!

Among the characters who populate the space pod is a spokesbot named Aly San San, voiced by Allison Janney! Plus, there's a surprise waiting for everyone on takeoff, as the pilot seat will now be occupied by none other than C-3PO!

As Tom Fitzgerald, Executive VP and Senior Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, told us, "Since Rex (the original pilot in Star Tours) wouldn't be the pilot in our new version, we kept wondering who might occupy the cockpit. During our reviews with George Lucas, it became apparent to me that George wanted the pilot to be in the same character area as Rex—one that was still nervous, high-strung and one that would allow a lot of comedy to be gained from that. We had one of those 'aha' moments one day when we decided that we already had this character…C-3PO!"

"Anthony Daniels even reprised his role and voiced the character," said Tom. "Using C-3PO wasn't in our original plans, but the story evolved and it was one of the highlights. In this way, the Guest is actually with one of the favorite characters from both trilogies."

In the latest re-imagining of Star Tours, C-3PO joins his famous counterpart, R2-D2, in some pretty Wookiee-size, hair-raising adventures, but they will zip you through the galaxy safely. Well, somewhat safely.

Along with the duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO, you might also get the chance to see Darth Vader! But you'd better be careful, because everyone's favorite baddy with a heavy breathing problem could always decide to go after your Starspeeder!


Pack the Sunscreen. And Maybe a Parka.

On the newly re-imagined Star Tours, Guests can look forward to traveling to such varied Star Wars locales as Tatooine and Coruscant, plus more famous locations throughout the universe! Working with George Lucas, and with the direction of Bill George at Industrial Light & Magic, Imagineers were able to bring Star Tours to new worlds that we thought we'd never be able to travel to!

"When George was working on Episode I, we went to him and we developed an entire storyboard for the Star Tours show around the Pod race," said Tom. "We almost went into production with that, but then we wanted to wait and see what they might do for Episode II. Then, we waited again to see what they were going to do for Episode III. At the end, we stepped back and said that if we're trying to create the ultimate Star Wars adventure, then why do we have to use just one?

"With the technology we have today, it doesn't have to be just one adventure. We could do multiple adventures and have fun in different worlds. We know that our Guests come back again and again to the attraction."

Liftoff: May 20, 2011.

Don't miss your chance to experience the Force like never before…Star Tours—The Adventures Continue. Flights will be departing daily at Disney's Hollywood Studios®!

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[Figment632]

Anyone else as underwhelmed by thus refurb as I am?

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Yep. Totally underwhelmed.

I have a spin-off question. Why isn't Disney opening ST on May 4th? It's Star Wars Day, for goodness sake.

 

[ChrisFL]

Anyone else as underwhelmed by thus refurb as I am?

I think it depends on how many places you can randomly go...Hopefully it will make the re-rideability much higher.

 

[Figment632]

I think it depends on how many places you can randomly go...Hopefully it will make the re-rideability much higher.

I'm pretty sure there is only 6 variations.

 

[Faldred]

I thought I had read somewhere that the plan was to have 3 "swappable" segments, each of which had 3 possibilities, for a total of 27 different possible ride combinations.

On the whole, I like the idea of rides that make use of technology to offer more variability in rides. Tower of Terror, of course, already does this to some extent -- while certain aspects of the ride are always there, you never know the exact sequence or timing until you're experiencing it.

Ride systems like Star Tours or Soarin' are comparatively easy to do in this respect, as you just have to have a computer system match the ride movements to the projected A/V "snippets" that are strung together to make the ride. A small number of "branch points" with just a few options per point still makes for a large number of possible paths.

 

[Figment632]

^^^

This will never happen I bet within a year most ofwhen Star Tours first opened it was advertised ad how easy it would be to update, look how long it took. TSM they said would get regular updates and holiday overlays so far we got one update for TS3. And Soarin is still the same old Soarin I could easily see these upgrades going that way.

 

[skier_pete]

Yep. Totally underwhelmed.

I have a spin-off question. Why isn't Disney opening ST on May 4th? It's Star Wars Day, for goodness sake.

There opening it for Star Wars Weekends...Why is May 4th Star Wars Day? The movies all opened in late May...around may 22nd I think.

I'm pretty sure there is only 6 variations.

You could be right - but I would be surprised if there were only 6 variations. If they were going to make it changable, why would you limit it to that many variations.

I thought I had read somewhere that the plan was to have 3 "swappable" segments, each of which had 3 possibilities, for a total of 27 different possible ride combinations.

On the whole, I like the idea of rides that make use of technology to offer more variability in rides. Tower of Terror, of course, already does this to some extent -- while certain aspects of the ride are always there, you never know the exact sequence or timing until you're experiencing it.

Ride systems like Star Tours or Soarin' are comparatively easy to do in this respect, as you just have to have a computer system match the ride movements to the projected A/V "snippets" that are strung together to make the ride. A small number of "branch points" with just a few options per point still makes for a large number of possible paths.

It's funny, 6 sounds too low, but 27 sounds too high. I would think they would want to vary it just enough to make it seem like it's different every time...but no more than they actually HAVE to. I'm thinking around 12-15 different combinations. (I believe I read somewhere that ToT uses something like 8-10 different combinations in is "random" drops.)

And also Soarin' would be MUCH, MUCH harder to vary I think. I believe because of the screen size they don't use a digital projector, but because of the special Omnimax film it is indeed a "film" and thus changing it out is not an easy task.

And to those that are underwhelmed, gee, sorry that Disney didn't want to spend $150 million to give you a new Star Wars ride. While I would agree it was about 10 years too late in coming, I think updating the ride with a better film, 3-D technology, and hopefully an expanded screen size will make for a fun experience.

 

[skier_pete]

^^^

This will never happen I bet within a year most ofwhen Star Tours first opened it was advertised ad how easy it would be to update, look how long it took. TSM they said would get regular updates and holiday overlays so far we got one update for TS3. And Soarin is still the same old Soarin I could easily see these upgrades going that way.

Yet ToT received 3 upgrades in the first 7 years of operation, so it does happen. However, I agree with you here - I don't think frequent upgrades will happen in this case.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

skier_pete: "May the 4th" be with you... lol. I don't know how it originated, but its' pretty claever. In that dorky kind of way!

 

[Figment632]

Yet ToT received 3 upgrades in the first 7 years of operation, so it does happen. However, I agree with you here - I don't think frequent upgrades will happen in this case.

Ageed wich boggles my mind because a TSM change would be far more simple than TOT.

 

[skier_pete]

Ageed wich boggles my mind because a TSM change would be far more simple than TOT.

But what motivation is there for them to frequently change TSM. Its only been 2.5 years, and lines haven't waned at all. I think if lines start to drop, that's when you'll see them make some changes there.

 

[Figment632]

But what motivation is there for them to frequently change TSM. Its only been 2.5 years, and lines haven't waned at all. I think if lines start to drop, that's when you'll see them make some changes there.

They mainly said for Christmas and Halloween but they said it would be so easy that they could due it for smaller holidays like St pattys, Valentines, and 4th of July.

 

[skiingfast]

Yep. Totally underwhelmed.

I have a spin-off question. Why isn't Disney opening ST on May 4th? It's Star Wars Day, for goodness sake.

The Star Tours attraction is getting a more extensive overhaul and was expected to take longer than DHS's version.

DL does not have Star Wars weekend to comarket the attraction opening with.

Also DL experiences more extensive changes between seasons and it is being used along with other new attractions to start summer when the majority of DLR visits take place.

 

[DizCaptain]

I'm bitterly excited myself. Excited for the new tech they're introducing and the ride itself, but bitter about the loss of nostalgia and good ole fashioned cheesiness. I hate the fact that they're tying in anything from the prequel trilogy, its such garbage...yet I won't make a right out call until I ride it myself.

 

[doconeill]

I believe I was the one who worked out the variations. This has NOT been confirmed by Disney, but is based on information I have, math, and logic (the latter not necessarily being a Disney trait sometimes... )

Disney confirmed the multipath variations months ago, and stated there would be 54 variations, and also did that more recently when they announced the opening date.

Note: this is NOT 54 possible locations. This is 54 combinations of different scenes. Several different scenes will flow into each other.

To get the 54 combinations with the fewest possible elements, there will be main four segments to the ride. Three of them will consist of three separate scenes...say the first scene could be one of either Tatooine (pod race), Hoth, or Cimino. The second scene could be the Death Star trench, the Asteroid field, or Endor, etc. This creates 27 possibilities.

The fourth segment (which could be the start, the end, or possible matched "bookends") would have 2 possibilities. This makes the total 54.

Now, this isn't necessarily how it will be done. But it is the most logical for the rather odd number of 54 that Disney has stated several times.

I think the re-rideability will be high, as it could take a while to see all the scenes. I don't think it will mean people will need to ride 54 times - once you've seen a scene, you've seen it - but it will take at least three rides, and probably several more as you'll likely get some duplicates.

I'm betting that first weekend we'll have enough data to come up with the ride pattern and scenes.

 

[MJMcBride]

I'm pretty sure there is only 6 variations.

i heard there was to be over 50 possible combos

 

[doconeill]

i heard there was to be over 50 possible combos

See my PP - Disney has stated several times there are 54 combinations.

 

[MJMcBride]

See my PP - Disney has stated several times there are 54 combinations.

of course I saw that right after I click post