Disneyland Review: Star Tours - The Adventure Continues

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Good 3D brings this fun, upgraded simulator ride to life

Cons: RIP original Star Tours

The Bottom Line: 

Fun new trips await

As you travel through Star Wars

In simulator

Tour a Galaxy Far, Far Away on Star Tours as The Adventure Continues

After being a huge hit for over 20 years, Disneyland's classic ride Star Tours is getting a major upgrade and a trip back in time.  (Don't worry, it will all make sense.)  Now dubbed Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, it's just opened in Florida and a couple of weeks away from opening in California.  I was fortunate enough to ride it once in California thanks to a friend who is a cast member.  The magic of a galaxy far, far away is still there and possibly even better.

For those who have never been on the classic ride, it is a motion simulator ride.  Originally opening in the late 80's, it found us boarding a Starspeeder 3000 for a flight to the moon of Endor.  Our pilot, Rex, was on his first trip, and he was still getting used to his programming.  That meant we had some wild bumps along the way as we overshot the moon, dodged through comets, and then finally helped defeat the Death Star.  Lots of people had complained that the ride was very outdated.  Personally, I still loved it and made a point of going every time I was at the park.  Okay, so I rarely saw the line over 30 minutes anymore, and you could hit it at 5 minutes if you waited until 9PM on weekends.  Instead of closing down the attraction, the decision was made to upgrade it.  It's been closed for over a year as the work has been done.  The result is impressive.

The new ride is set in the days between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy.  Now we are boarding a Starspeeder 1000.  These Starspeeders are piloted by robots programed to fly safely, nick named Ace, and always get us to our destination on time.

The queue area is still laid out the same.  It's located just to the right as you pass through the main entrance to Tomorrowland from the Main Street Plaza.  There's a long line outside (yes, even during previews), but once you get inside, you'll pass through a room that feels like a waiting room in an airport.  You get weather forecasts and ads for destinations while C-3PO and R2-D2 work on fixing one of the Starspeeder 1000's.  The second room still has a maintenance droid spending more time talking to us than working, but along the way you pass a droid pick up area where you'll spot Rex, our pilot from the original in a cameo.  He's in a box labeled defective, and every so often, he starts to spit out one of his lines from the original script only to start sputtering and repeating the line at various speeds and pitches.  It's almost like Rex remixed.  Now why he would be there and saying those lines if this ride takes place before the original is a question that is never addressed.  Best to ignore that.  After all, it's a nice nod to the original, and as a fan of the classic version, I liked it.

When you reach the top of the ramp, you are spent to your individual Starspeeder for your adventure.  While you wait, a film still plays on monitors above the door.  This one shows some maintenance bots working on our ship.  As we wait, Ace finds C-3PO and gets him to work on something in the cockpit.  Then the safety video comes on.  It's the same spiel as before, but this time given by Aly San San, the spokesbot for Star Tours.

Finally, it's time to board the Starspeeder.  Each simulator seats about 40 people in 5 rows.  You get a seatbelt you'll definitely want to use.  And our tour is off - there's just one problem, Ace hasn't come back and C-3PO is behind the wheel.  He does his best to get us through whatever comes next.

And just what comes next?  Well, that's a very good question.  Instead of just one movie, the new ride has multiple stories, characters, and locations.  They can be mixed and matched to create 54 different rides.  I'm going to have to go back on this one a bunch of times.  I have a feeling I won't be alone, so I expect the line on this one to be long for quite a while again.

What are some of the possibilities?  Well, when I rode, we were just about to leave when Darth Vader showed up and tried to board us to capture a spy.  We escaped and went to light speed only to find ourselves on Kashyyk where some Wookiees are battling against Storm Troopers in planes.  Finally, Yoda showed up and gave us coordinates for a place to safely deliver the rebel.  But this is just one possible story.  We might have wound up on Tatooine, Coruscant, Hoth, Naboo, or outside the Death Star and seen Princess Leia, Chewbacca, or Admiral Ackbar.

The biggest change to the ride is the new 3D projection.  We're given flight glasses before being assigned to our Starspeeder, which are the glasses we'll need to see the effects.  This is not a ride with 3D jumping off the screen, which makes sense since we are supposed to be in a space ship watching stuff happening outside.  The picture looks amazing, however, and the 3D really brings the world outside the spaceship to vivid life.

They also upgraded the simulator system that rocks our ship all over the place.  Personally, I felt it was smoother than the original, although we still twist and turn all over the place since C-3PO doesn't know the controls and all kinds of stuff is happening around us.  It's fun, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Because of the simulator, this ride is a little on the rough side.  Kids must be 40 inches or taller to ride.  There is wheelchair access to the ride as well.  And they are gearing up for FastPass on this ride with booths across the way near the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride.

A part of me is still sad, however.  I loved Rex and our old adventure, and I will always miss it.  It's too bad one of the options couldn't be the original run, but it doesn't make sense given the new setting for the ride.  But that's just the nostalgic part of me speaking.

So, is Star Tours: The Adventures Continue fun?  Absolutely!  It will thrill Star Wars fans all over again and bring people back again and again to see all the different combinations.  I know I can't wait to see where else I can now go.