So, uh, Star Tours.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Star Tours is getting the upgrade. Finally.

I am kind of in a funk about it today, not because I don't think it needs an upgrade - quite the contrary. I've been waiting for this a long time...a long time.

We weren't able to be there when they closed it. We didn't have a themed meet, no last ride, no visit to the Jedi Academy to cheer on the 4 year old padawans, no spontaneous saber battles where Cosmic Waves was, no last photos of Threepio yelling at Artoo or that repair droid no one pays attention to anymore.

:( My cheese is as sad as cheese can be. (My cheese loves the Star Wars of my youth, and as nice as the upgrade could be, this ride is a huge chunk of my Star Wars youth.)

I have no idea what the upgrade entails because missing APness means I'd rather be out of the loop. In any case, what will be will be.

Bye bye, Star Tours. I remember waiting 3 hours for you...and it was worth it.

:cheers:

[CoasterMatt]

I loved the queue, I was never really impressed with the ride. But then again, I was bitter that Adventure Thru Innerspace got the boot, and not CircleVision.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I remember not getting in a last Inner Space ride when that upstart, mall-worthy Star Wars ride moved in, taking me by less-informed-geek surprise.


It would have been fun to have had a Star Tours meet. As a die-hard Star Wars fan, I have a warm spot for the ride - but truthfully have been on it but once or twice in the last five years or so.

Some of my Star Wars friends talked about giving it a proper send-off. Perhaps some of them did that yesterday, though I was never told about it.

It certainly wasn't one of the fave attractions among the LoT crowd. And if the sequel's going to be based on those godawful prequels, I can't say I'm really looking forward to the reopening. But that will be a fun event nontheless. I'm sure my Star Wars pals will make a deal of it - and it could be a fun day for the LoT crew as well.

[JWBear]

I miss both Circlevision and ATIS.

[flippyshark]

Hey, y'all still have time to fly out to Florida and visit our old school Star Tours. I don't know how long before ours goes down, but it's probably gonna be a while.

[Ghoulish Delight]

According to the OC Register, September.

[BarTopDancer]

I am so glad I took that final ride on the 17th. I had no idea it was glowing away forever until I heard on the news... but the Endor Express lasted an incredibly long time for not once making it to its final destination.

[flippyshark]

Scheduling my ceremonial last visit soon. I'd be delighted if any of you want to join me. :)

[innerSpaceman]

So now I find out thru facebook that a bunch of people I know DID go the Park last nite, and never made an effort to say that in advance. Perhaps if I'd gone to Comic Con ...

oh well.

[CoasterMatt]

I'll bet you could probably recreate a better Star Tours in a hotel room...

[innerSpaceman]

Heheh, I was going to bring my Artoo Detoo for the Tomorrowland Bathroom, but decided I wanted to stick with a decidedly old-school vibe in there.

[Ghoulish Delight]

1987 IS old school. Star Tours existed for nearly half of Disneyland's history.

[Kevy Baby]

I loved the queue, I was never really impressed with the ride.This ride makes me queasy (as do most motion simulators). I used to go through the queue with everyone and then just pass through to the other side to wait for everyone to go to Endor and back.

1987 IS old school. Star Tours existed for nearly half of Disneyland's history.Wow - that is an interesting statistic.

[Alex]

Star Tours is (for me) like every other motion simulator ride. Interesting to go on once and then I never need to go again. And since every motion simulator ride is just like every other motion simulator having been on any motion simulator once I never need go on one again.

So, having already been on Star Tours, I won't need to go on the new one either as I will have already have already been on it.

I do/did however, like the queue.

[Tref]

I loved the queue, I was never really impressed with the ride. But then again, I was bitter that Adventure Thru Innerspace got the boot, and not CircleVision.

I am still a little bitter. I was always hoping the powers that be would come to their collective senses and re-open AtIS after the Star Tours run ended.

Star Tours was nice, but I would not miss it if it went off to the great theme park under the sea.

(Pic unrelated)
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z1/Tref_foto/1279404281856.jpg

[innerSpaceman]

Yep, we need a fantastically better Inner Space ride, not another lame, barely repeatable movie-based attraction.


In any event, relative age alone does not render something old school. No matter long Disneyland may survive, old school Tomorrowland will forever be 1967. :D



:iSm:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

(Pic unrelated)
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z1/Tref_foto/1279404281856.jpgI really tried to read your post but the unrelated pic is so damn cute...

[alphabassettgrrl]

A send-off would have been nice. I didn't realize it was so close to closing time.

[Snowflake]

Did Star Tours once, meh. I'd rather that ATIS be brought back in some form. The technology is so much better now and the Paul Frees narration is burned into my brain.

[€uroMeinke]

I saw some posts on Facebook and thought it would have been nice to also take a last ride. I mused more on the fact that I'm so far out of the Disney loop I miss things like that.

[Morrigoon]

I think we should have an event when it returns

[keith - SuPeR K!]

I think we should have an event when it returns

Agree. The LoT subs meet was superb!

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I mused more on the fact that I'm so far out of the Disney loop I miss things like that.

Just read my blog at Retroland, and you don't have to worry about being out of the loop! I talked about this back in May (http://www.retroland.com/retroblog/places/star-tours-ii/), preview trailer included free of charge. :)

[innerSpaceman]

I believe the Tiki Room was the only attraction that garnered both a closing AND re-opening LoT Meet. Subs got a re-opening. Pirates got a closing. Star Tours doesn't deserve both. :cool: A re-opening will be fine.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Star Tours doesn't deserve both. :cool: I would be mad, but your statement is too predictable for that. :p

The concept that ST was the last bit of Original Trilogy to be had before the Special Edition travesty is enough to give it a healthy status in the history of Disneyland, never mind that it was the first motion simulator that many of us ever rode, was completely immersive (the queue was part of the ride, IMO), featured multiple awesome AAs as well as the simulator, etc etc.

Yes, not the most repeatable ride, though I found it more repeatable than most other people did. Even in recent years I was able to squint my mind into the daydream that I was truly in the trenches with X-wings.

I totally understand that others don't feel the same way. I wish I could say I miss ATIS more...but I don't remember it, short of the dazzling queue.

I do hope the new one is awesome, and that Jedi Academy sticks around long enough for my little one to show off his saber skills.

[innerSpaceman]

The concept that ST was the last bit of Original Trilogy to be had before the Special Edition travesty is enough to give it a healthy status in the history of Disneyland.
I know you're young, but sigh.

Star Tours was the first attraction in Disneyland that completely took you out of anything created by Walt Disney or the imagineers and into a movie world you already knew from the real world, solidly plunking you down, imo, in that real world outside the berm.

The Jungle Cruise being influenced by The African Queen was not anything along the lines of Star Tours. Even the Fantasyland dark rides owed as much to the age-old fairytales and stories as to the Disney film versions of them. But certainly, Disney-based is in keeping with Disneyland.

Nope, to me, Star Tours was and always will be travesty enough to give it a black-eye in the history of Disneyland. It was the turning point. The Imagineers have not created a single world of their own since. Everything has been based on outside films, Disney films, or Pixar films. Not a single bit of true creation has happened, and it's a shame.



Still - I'm a major Star Wars geek, and I liked the ride well enough. If it had been a true attraction, and not a movie - it would have been on my must-ride list. But I can't get too worked up about the departure of a ride I barely ever bothered with.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Heh, I'd forgotten that take on it. I see the point, and though I could argue semantics, I won't.

Our generation gap is showing - but what do you expect from someone who was 10 years old when the ride opened? ;)

[innerSpaceman]

Absolutely forgiven because of your youth. Especially since that sad youth meant missing Star Wars in theaters on its initial run. A beautiful reason to be alive and of movie-going age in 1977.



Aside from the breaking of the fourth wall which I think Star Wars and Indiana Jones do explicitly, all movie attractions really need to be conceived and prepared with four or five different films. Soaring Over California is great, but became pretty boring after the first dozen rides. Star Tours lasted perhaps 15.

I can't explain why movies have less repeatability than a physical attraction I know every inch of, but it's a known phenomena not experienced by me alone.

It's already such a cheap short-cut to have a movie ride in the first place. Not having any alternate films, for decades no less, is adding insult to cheap shot.

[scaeagles]

I totally understand that others don't feel the same way. I wish I could say I miss ATIS more...but I don't remember it, short of the dazzling queue.

What I remember of ATIS was while in HS is was an amazing make out ride.

[innerSpaceman]

And a druggie ride. Drugs and Sex = best ride ever!

[Alex]

What I remember about ATIS is that it closed years before my first trip to Disneyland and so it just yet another piece of nostalgia that people wistfully wish would return even though that would eventually be the death of the park.

[CoasterMatt]

Even curmudgeons liked AtiS.

It was trippy and had great a/c.

[blueerica]

I was fortunate to have three family members employed at the park when I was very young, so I got to go to Disneyland with regularity (probably at least every other month until I moved, then it was at least 3x every summer). So, I got to go on ATIS many, many times before it closed; it shared a Top 3 spot with Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. ATIS really, truly amazed me. My little mind was blown away.

While I was young enough (9-ish) to accept Star Tours and be excited for all the new-ness of it, I felt the disappointment of missing the old ATIS queue for a number of years, until my child-like memory of it began to fade.

Come to think of it, I don't Star Tours was ever on my "must-do" list for Disneyland visits, whereas SM and PotC were.

[blueerica]

What I remember about ATIS is that it closed years before my first trip to Disneyland and so it just yet another piece of nostalgia that people wistfully wish would return even though that would eventually be the death of the park.

Zombie-ATIS.

Sometimes things just need to be left in the place where fond memories reside.

[innerSpaceman]

We were talking about Inner Space at Club 33 dinner on Disneyland Birthday, and meant to watch the DVD I'd brought along to the hotel of the computer recreation of ATIS when we got back to the Wrather Suite.

But, um, we forgot. And other shenanigans intervened. Too bad, that would have been fun.

[RStar]

We were talking about Inner Space at Club 33 dinner on Disneyland Birthday, and meant to watch the DVD I'd brought along to the hotel of the computer recreation of ATIS when we got back to the Wrather Suite.

I have a copy of that DVD. It's wrather good.....

:D

[Kevy Baby]

Star Tours was the first attraction in Disneyland that completely took you out of anything created by Walt Disney or the imagineers and into a movie world you already knew from the real world, solidly plunking you down, imo, in that real world outside the berm.You give Jungle Cruise a pass, but say that Star Tours takes you into "real world outside the berm?!?"

If anything, Star Tours does a BETTER job of removing one from reality. You are taken to a place that we can (at this point) only dream about. If I wanted to go on an African safari, I could do that right now (the cost and desire to actually want to aside). While space travel is indeed in our futures, it is far less accessible than a trip down a river. And I am far less likely to see a 747 flying overhead or hear the whistle of a steam locomotive on Start Tours than I am on Jungle Cruise.

While the ride is certainly showing its age and could stand for some new technology, I feel much more removed from reality on Star Tours than I do on many of the other attractions discussed.

[innerSpaceman]

No, I think you miss my point. If there had been a space fantasy motion simulator ride with worlds created by the Imagineers, I'd have no problem with it. But when I ride Star Tours, I think of Star Wars. Star Wars that's a movie series in the real world outside the berm. It's a little too famous not to have that effect on me.


(No one thinks of Third Man on the Mountain when riding the Matterhorn - but in any event, that's a Disney film).

Don't get me started on how even the most inept robot animals with constant rim-shot jokes told by boat guides are ten thousand times more realistic than two-dimensional images on a movie screen - whether or not it's more possible for me to go on safari than into imaginary realms of outer space.



The point is that the Jungle Cruise does NOT make me think of The African Queen, and the Haunted Mansion does not remind me of a movie I've seen, and Big Thunder Mountain doesn't bring up thoughts of some movie I own, and the only movies I was reminded of inside Disneyland before Star Tours broke down that beautiful wall were Disney movies - and even those brought up equal memories of real fairytales and children's stories.


Of course, YMMV, but that's how it is for me. I wouldn't be sorry if Star Tours disappeared from the Park forever. And it comforts me to know that, if the new version is based on the prequels, it will ultimately shake out to be one of those rides that no one ever goes on.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'm not debating, just continuing conversation...

It interests me that you, :iSm:, don't buy into the fantasy of Star Wars being enough to take out the reality of a movie franchise. I don't know if this is a generational thing or not, but for me, SW is a fantasy of mine, as palpable as any of Disneyland's other fantasies, and perhaps more so. I have been pretending to be Luke Skywalker for as long as I can remember pretending anything. Getting to ride Tours felt like a treat. It's a real shame that the repeat value was so low.

If it's the screen that takes you out of it, I admit it worked for me in that context. The Finding Nemo (Nemo? Nemo?) Subs shows just what a difference context makes. Now THERE'S a ride that takes you right out of the park and places you squarely in your living room watching a DVD for the hundredth time.

This conversation makes me think of the Star Trek Experience (RIP) that was in Vegas. I only got to ride it once - and only just before it closed - but it gave me the exact same stupid grin to be in the middle of the Trek universe (though I give it to the Experience for going a few clicks more immersive).

[alphabassettgrrl]

I loved the Star Trek experience. I'm sad it closed.

Star Tours wasn't immersive for me, in part because I also associate it with the movie. Great movie, yes, but still a movie. Part of why the new Nemo ride doesn't work for me. It's just the movie and I wanted something more.

[innerSpaceman]

The Star Wars universe IS a great fantasy realm that I love. But I'm also uber conscious of it as a movie franchise, product-generator, money machine.

I bet if Star Tours were an actual, Pirates-like attraction taking us through actual sets of Tatooine, and the Death Star and what-not, all my misgivings would have faded away. But a movie screen does not take me to a fantasy world at Disneyland - in fact it just reinforces that the world I'm experiencing exists only on film.


Weird, because when I watch an actual Star Wars movie, I'm transported. Same with almost any movie. But movie attractions don't do that for me. Star Tours was fun, but never made me feel like I was really fighinting the Death Star. It made me feel like I was really in the movie of fighting the Death Star, but that's not quite the same thing.

I don't really feel like I'm soarin' over California when I ride Soarin' Over California either. But I do feel like I'm soaring over a beautiful movie of a beautiful place. Not quite the same. Not that it's bad, it's just not as good as I've come to expect from Disneyland.

The lack of originality and imagination represented by choosing to go outside of Disney's world (or even outside worlds that Disney has purchased - *cough*Pixar*cough) is what killed it for me. Disneyland never felt it had to do that before. It was a precedent I've never liked. Fortunately, it was only repeated once.

I'm not pleased about Indiana Jones either, but I have a much more favorable reaction to that ride because it IS a physical attraction, and the situations depicted are reminiscent of the movies, not cribbed from them wholesale.

Star Tours failed on all those fronts, and I still had a lot of fun on it. I'm a big Star Wars fan, so how could I not? But I'll never believe it belongs in Disneyland, and imo it has nothing much more than America Sings had to do with Tomorrowland.

In Florida, it's perfectly positioned at the movie studio park. That's exactly where it belongs, and the type of attraction it is.


So we'll be getting another lame movie-simulator ride, but this time based on the Star Wars films everyone hates? Um, how is this progress?


Build us an E-Ticket Star Wars universe ride-thru spectacular, and I'll look past the stealing from outside sources. I'll ride it again and again, and squee every time. Motion-simulator? Ho-frickin-hum.

[Not Afraid]

Did Star Tours once, meh. I'd rather that ATIS be brought back in some form. The technology is so much better now and the Paul Frees narration is burned into my brain.


I would give up a cat to ride ATIS again.

[Snowflake]

I would give up a cat to ride ATIS again.

Wow, now that is sayin' something.

I was fascinated by ATIS as a kid, rode it often. I suspect my Mom wanted to ride it to cool off. Probably part of why I loved it, too. The mighty microscope was pretty damn cool, though.

[JWBear]

I would give up a cat to ride ATIS again.

Which one? :evil: