Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – More Fun less Sick

Last week I was able to attend the Soft Opening of Star Tours – The Adventures Continue while at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and I have a few thoughts to share about the ride and the Star Wars Weekend for 2011. Let’s talk about the ride first. Since it was a preview I was only able to ride it one time, but let me tell you what I thought. First we have to go back to the first version that Disney had of the ride, it made me sick. Not get off the ride and throw up sick, but not feeling all that well after we got done with it. I rode it a few times over the years over the years though so I did have some background with it.

We waited in line for a few minutes and were walked through the new area before getting into the shuttle. I thought it was nicely done, but I was not able to really dissect it so much as the time just was not there. We wanted to get into the ride! It was the three of us as my wife stayed with the baby so the three “boys” got into the simulator. They were looking for a rebel spy! It was someone on the ship! Actually the storyline is pretty neat, someone on your ship is a spy and the Empire is trying to figure it out. Before they get to you off you go to try and get away. This is where the ride will take you on two different planets (areas) while you try to escape, so there are many combinations. I just wanted to make sure we got to Hoth and lucky that I was we were able to see Hoth and Naboo. We could have done without Jar Jar Binks though. Hoth was great as you follow some snow speeders as you try to escape and even get between some AT-ATs. Remember we now have High Def Screens and even 3-D glasses so it is super crisp. It was the closest you can get to being in the movie at this time. Not much 3-D though, only at the end of the ride if I remember.

The thing about the ship you are in is that it felt bigger, cooler and did not have as much motion. Just enough motion for me to feel like we were flying, but not enough to make me sick. Also from what I was told the syncing of the old ride to the screen was not as synced as the new one (I heard that towards the end of the life of the first ride it was even worse). So all of us gave it a super thumbs up, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue was a great ride!

When we had originally booked our trip we had no idea it was Star Wars Weekend 2011, but we were amazed as the first parade of the characters came into the park. We were also able to get some cool shirts and my sons got a picture with Jango Fett. The park though was way too packed to be any fun after we saw what we wanted of Star Wars. Overall a great ride though and we are glad we got the chance to experience it.