Star Tours Early Departure
This was a very unexpected trip to Disneyland on May 20, 2011. I entered a contest on the Disney Parks Blog for a chance to experience Star Tours several weeks before its opening on June 3, 2011. Well much to my surprise I recieved an e-mail saying my name was randomly selected and to verify my eligibility within 48 hours with my name and physical address and such. Well I sure didn't wait 48 hours, I think it was more like 10 minutes. Well, the next day I got a confirmation e-mail telling me I had been chosen and to be at the resort on Friday May 20th at 4:00 am to check in.
OK I need to take a couple of days off of work so we can drive down and I got online and booked a motel room and we were ready to go. So we drove down from Reno on Thursday and checked into the motel, tried to relax and get some sleep but we were pretty excited and really did not sleep much. Got up around 2:30 am and got dressd and ate breakfast and started our 2 block walk to the park.
Got to the park at about 4:10 am and there was already a fairly long line to check in but it was moving pretty quick. We showed our e-mail, turned in our affidavits and gor our wristbands. Then we had to wait in another line until they let us into the park. They gave us all a free one day one park pass while we were standing there, and there was also some entertainment.
Finally around 7:45 or so they escorted us into the park and we were lined up on main street for a little while. Everyone was taking some really cool pictures of an empty park. Then they let us start entering the queue for Star Tours. Around 9:00 they started sending groups in, we were very close to the front so we were on and done around 9:30 I think.
Now for the ride!! It was awesome. The first part of the queue is still basically the same except for the tremendous new video screen and the colors of the starspeeder. The second part of the queue is totally different. Instead of the repair droids and the overhead conveyer there is now a droid scanning luggage, which is very fun to watch. There are also some droids that look like Rex that say defective and ready to ship back to the factory. Then you come to a droid scanning the guests that are passing by and making very funny comments just before you pick up your 3D glasses.
While you are waiting to board the actual ride there is an all new safety video which shows how C3P0 ends up as your pilot. The interior of the ride looks pretty much the same until the panel drops and you see the realistic 3D view of the hangar that you are in. From that point on you can experience more than 50 differnent scenarios.
Our first trip we encountered the Stormtroopers looking for the Rebel Spy, then we went to Kashyyyk where we raced Imperial Scout troopers on speeder bikes through the forest and bumped into Chewbacca. When we left Kashyyyk we received a hologram transmission from Princess Leia who told us we were her only hope. From there we went to Naboo and dove under water where we met Jar Jar Binks and had to fend off some alien sea creatures.
So it was a very long day and an long wait for the ride, but it was so worth it. They also opened the ride to everyone later that day and the next day for "soft opening". We did ride it two more times while we were there and we got to see everything except Coruscant. I think Darth Vader - Hoth - Yoda - Naboo is the best combination. Flying around the ice planet of Hoth is very intense.