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Disney announces closing date for Star Wars rides at Disneyland, Disney World

by Leigh Caldwell (RSS feed) on May 14th 2010 at 8:30AM

Disney Parks is overhauling the Star Wars-themed Star Tours rides at Disneyland and Walt Disney World later this year, and now Star Wars fans know when they can get that last ride on the original.

Star Tours will close at Disneyland on July 27 and at Walt Disney World on Sept. 8.

The original Star Tours ride puts riders in the passenger seat of a StarSpeeder 3000 spacecraft, under the pilot of a droid named Rex. The ship is supposed to be headed to the Moon of Endor, but a few wrong turns lead it into the middle of a battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Death Star.

It's a motion simulator ride that was on the cutting edge when it launched about 20 years ago. But now, it's a 20-year-old ride in need of an overhaul -- that's a "re-imagining" in Disney-speak.

The "new" Star Tours will be a 3-D affair, with riders joining in a high-speed pod race on Tatooine. It is expected to re-open at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in May 2011.

Walt Disney World and the fan convention Star Wars Celebration V are holding a "Last Tour to Endor" party on Aug. 14 at Disney's Hollywood Studios. A special event ticket is required; a regular park ticket won't get you in. The party will include Star Wars shows, a "Death Star Disco" and Star Wars-themed fireworks.

Tickets are on sale now for $75.

Filed under: Festivals and Events, North America, United States

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David May 15th 2010 8:06AM

I do love that ride. It is very nostalgic for me. I do have to admit the ride is so awful and out of date. Thanks Mr. Lucas for updating it. The timeless movie needs a timeless ride!

ashleigh May 15th 2010 4:05PM

Mr George Lucas of Star Wars and Lucas Films and Industrial Light & Magic is NOT a Disney Imagineer or employee -- so I'm pretty sure it will be Disney, and not Lucas, who will be updating this ride, but he's sure to give film footage to the Imagineers to use, so in that way Lucas would be "involved" ...

What I don't understand, though, is why they need to close Star Tours for nearly a year -- it's a movie screen, so they could use the old Star Tours, until the new Star Tours is ready. Once the new one is ready, they could then totallly close the attraction so they can work on the new seat hydraulics and motion sensors of the seats to correlate with what's happening on screen -- that shouldn't require more than 90 days to do that part of it...

So I'm bummed that 7/27 is it, until May of 2011... I LOVE Star Tours!

dan May 16th 2010 7:01PM

Well, I would imagine they're probably going to renovate the entire building that it's housed in to go along with the new ride, which is why it will take so long. As it is now, you're supposed to be waiting in a space port to travel to other planets. That wouldn't tie in with the whole pod racing theme. They're going to have to do a lot more work than just throwing up a new video and recalibrating the hydraulics to match it.

Cathy May 15th 2010 9:31AM

I love this ride and bet the new version will be as good if not better than the original. Movies are being shown in 3-D, why not amusement park rides? Times they are a changing.

Larry May 15th 2010 12:35PM

3-D? Cool. Pod race? Blah! They should just turn it into a kid's coaster and call it "Mr. Jar Jar's Wild Ride".

Richard Ott May 15th 2010 4:29PM

By May, 2011, I hope I can attend the re-opening of the Star Tours
rides, and quite possibly meet R2-D2, C-3PO & Yoda amoung
the cast of Star Wars, depending on the date of the re-opening,
or if the entire Star Wars cast is at Disneyland, or Walt Disney
World, whichever location comes first. I'm not even scared of
Darth Vader, because I know he's really James Earl Jones in
that black suit. and I have a soft spot for him. James really should've
narrated Disney's Oceans, but I think he'll be the narrator for their
fourthcoming movie, "The Wild African Cats" coming next Earth Day.
Anyway, I'm still scared of heights, so when Star Tours reopens,
it will give me a chance to hop on the flight simulater, just to get
the feel of being on a roller coaster, again.

MoonChild02 May 17th 2010 5:30AM

Actually, it's David Prowse who was in the Darth Vader suit, except in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where Vader is played by Hayden Christiansen, and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, when Luke takes the helmet off of him, the person who plays Anakin at that point is Sebastian Shaw.

James Earl Jones is the voice of Darth Vader, he was never in the suit.

The actors who played the other characters mentioned:
C-3PO - Anthony Daniels
R2-D2 - Kenny Baker
Yoda - Frank Oz (voice in the movies, puppeteer most of the time except parts of RotJ), Mike Quinn (puppeteer in parts of RotJ), and Tom Kane (Clone Wars). Wendy Froud (then Wendy Midener) built/designed Yoda.