Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Star Tours Farewell Tour

The virtual ride based on George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy, Star Tours, at Disney's Hollywood Studios is taking its last flight to Endor (and beyond) on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.  (Today!)  It will reopen sometime in 2011 after some much needed renovations are complete.  


By chance, we happened to stop by Hollywood Studios after checking out the famous Beaches & Cream restaurant located at the Beach Club Resort.  It's a 50's style diner with a world famous kitchen sink.  No, no, not a kitchen sink to wash vegetables and dishes, a dessert dubbed the kitchen sink.  Imagine eight scoops of decedent ice cream topped with the works--brownies, bundt cake, candy bars--an entire can of whipped cream, sprinkles, and cherries galore.  Jenna, Brian, Dexter, and I were going to attempt to conquer the Everest of ice cream sundaes, but by the time we got a table (3:30) we were all starving and decided to order some real food first and chickened out and got our own desserts.  I had the brownie a la mode and it was delicious.  And just like when we went to Germany, after lunch we were rolling in fatness.  Still not too fat for Hollywood, though.

We headed straight for Star Tours as the cast member loading the tram announced the general public only had a short two days to ride the old version.  And sadly, we probably won't be here for the grand opening of Star Tours 2.0.  Bummer.

Anyway, as usual with Disney, the line was awesome.  Totally decked out in Star Wars themed decorations.  We even bumped into C3PO and R2D2.  Imagine that.  After riding the ride--which we pretty much just got right onto sans a wait--we came to the consensus that Disney definitely needs to update their mode of transportation to the far corners of a galaxy far, far away.  And let's just say our driver wasn't that experienced and it wasn't a great ride to go on when you're stuffed to the brim with ice cream and brownies.

After Star Tours, we did Muppet Vision 3D, a cute 3D show based on...THE MUPPETS!  It was enjoyable, which is saying a lot.  Ever since I saw Honey, I Shrunk the Audience at Epcot in the mid-90's, I've hated 3D, as I may have mentioned before.  But I liked it.  It was funny.  And who can resist Kermit the Frog?  No one, I tell you!

Then we hopped on the Great Movie Ride, to complete the trio of new rides for me.  (I think I've done all three of those before, just not since I've been down here.)  I loved it!  I love movies, you know, I loved this ride.  I actually had only seen one of the movies--The Wizard of Oz--but most of them are on my Oscars list.  It was very cool and I'm slightly jealous that I don't get to do the spiel for that ride.  I would love, love, love it!

To top off the day, of course we ended on Tower of Terror.  I don't think any changes were made, I don't know if we were just on a different track, but it was different than when I rode it earlier this month, and a lot scarier.  But then again, Jenna did say, "Look at the eye.  There we are."  So I'm guessing it wasn't new, it's just different on each track.

So, farewell Star Tours, we'll catch the reunion on May 20, 2011.  It was fun while it lasted, but it's not me, it's you.

1 comment:

  1. in regards to your comments about Tower of Terror. the Tower sequence is completely randomized no two rides are ever the same so yes it might be scarier a second time then the first time. there are 2 elevator shafts while only one drop shaft so even if you did have a different track the 5th dimension and drop shaft were the same. as for the eye that you saw, your friend was correct that it is an image of the riders in the car, however it is not your car. it used to be that you could see yourself in the eye, however for the past few years it has been a recording of a car being played.

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