Orlando, FL Disney World / Star Tours

Yakface.com reports yesterday that Star Tours may be getting a facelift. It's been a long time coming- I seem to remember rumors of a podrace ride 3 years ago, but their reader claims he was told on the Disney/MGM backlot tour that a "rehab" (update) is being worked on right now.
Any news from my fellow locals about this or any new Star Tours toys?
While I'm at it, anybody or everybody planning on making it to the Star Wars Weekends at MGM?

 

I don't know anything official, but they were auctioning off a lot of artwork and stuff from Star Tours on E-bay a while back.

While a podrace would be cool, if they are doing a rehab of the ride I hope they keep it spaceflight-themed. I need a place to get my dogfight fix every once in a while. And few things are as sweet as that trench run with Red 24 and Red 30 (or whatever insanely high designations those X-wings had).

I know I'll be at SW Weekends at least one time. Hopefully they'll keep it in May so I can just go completely overboard on Star Wars that whole month and go into June with a goofy smile plastered on my face and my eyes glazed over.

-Katie
Thumper

 

I'm going to the Star Wars weekends.

I haven't heard anything about them changing Star Tours, however they did turn the Endor Vendor into the Tatooine Traders.

Maybe Disney will change it so that each pair of simulators goes to a different place. They could keep the same moves, but just change the film.

Then, we could go to Hoth, Endor, Tatooine, and a few other places.

*shrugs* Just my idea.

JRose

 

When are Star Wars weekends? I have a FL resident pass, but I have not heard of these Weekends. There are even a few Disney Virgins in The Fandomenace, so Star Wars weekends would be a perfect time to introduce them to Disney World.

 

This will be the third installment of Star Wars Weekends. If tradition holds, they'll be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday each of the 4 weekends in May at MGM. They've had a couple of celebrities and lots of specially themed events/attractions each weekend.
You're right, Thumper, May's going to be Mad. We've got the weekends, the premiere of Ep2, the 25th Anniversary of Ep4, and for some of us Celebration 2 in Indy.
JediRose, I'd love multiple destinations for "Rex" or whatever-his-name-is to take us to, but the chances are unlikely since the production of those films, I think, is the most expensive part. One way or another, we need something that stands up to today's current rides.

 

I'll be there.

 

I heard there would only be one Starwars Weekend this year because of the decline in attendence...I'll try to find out for sure. I work at Disney.

 

My roommate works at Disney-MGM and was told that while they would be having a single Star Wars Weekend they will not be having any of the stars down. This may change or he may have been given bad info.

 

Nevermind.
Sadly, the Orlando Sentinal reports today that SW Weekends have been completely nixed this year. It wasn't just Disney's decision. Lucasfilm didn't have time to focus on them with the Celebration 2 and the E2 release.
The article (www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/orl-bizstarwars22022202feb22.story?coll=orl%2Dbusiness%2Dheadlines) also notes that Lucas agreed in 1998 to update the Star Tours film but this hasn't happened to date.
Sigh. Now I GOTTA get to Indianapolis!

 

Hey all. I went to DWWS today and while there I was wearing a SW shirt I got at disney a year ago at SW weekend when i went with my best friend. Anyhow, a couple of random disney employees asked me about the shirt and then told me there would be one weekend May 17-19th for SW Weekends. I went by the MGM ticket office and they had a sign posted in the ticket window that said the same thing. There was a disclamer about being subject to change and not official yet so I can't be sure of it but I asked and they said it was a go still. That's my bit of reporting.
Farmboy.

 

Alright, I got the scoop from work...there will be a starwars weekend and it will be on the weekend after the release of the movie. There will be over 20 star wars characters available for autographs...there will be face painting...basically the same as last year but without the celebs...this was in the weekly newsletter released for Cast Members. I would provide a scan but I'm not sure how to post a pic here. So that's the word from Disney...it's on...but only for one weekend.

 

Well, at least we've got that much going for us. And for the collectors among us, I'm told that there will be limited edition pins for the weekend as well.

 

hi,

we should all go that saturday.
ride "tower" and yell out star wars one-liners everytime the door opens
finish the "director" and "stunt actors" lines at indy
ride "star tours" and annoy people with one-liners from space battles' scene
and eat junk food all day

 

Ummm...... I can't eat Junk food.... to many carbs.

 

Hey, I'm in the Entertainment Dept. at MGM studios. I heard it from the horses mouth that yes, there will only be one weekend this year, the weekend after the movie is released. No celebs,however. Nor will there be any episode I or II characters, nor will there be the cute little jedi training camps and such.

Basically all it will be is about 20 characters (hopefully I'll be one of 'em) to take photos with and get autographs, as well as added characters in the SW portion of the current day parade, plus some merchandise.

So there you have it.

I/G.

 

I'm gonna be there. Not sure if I'll go Friday or Saturday yet. Does anyone know if Friday will be part of the festivities like it has been in the past?
And I'll eat a little junk food too.
Rebelscum.com reports yesterday with pictures of two exclusive droid action figures that have not been officially announced yet, but most likely will available at Tatooine Traders (the Star Tours gift shop). Since we're only now seeing the pictures I'd be surprised (happily) if they were available by May.

 

I'll be going too! There's no way I can get to Celebration 2, so I'll have to enjoy the Weekend.

HRH, if a group of us did go, where and when would we meet? I would be interested in meeting some fellow SW fans for this.

JRose

 

For what its worth, I rode on the Star Tours ride this weekend and was appauled at the moderate to pour quality of the ride. The film, seats, and soundtrack were all slightly out of sync. The film quality seems to either be deterioriating badly or seemed better to me when I originally saw this ride in 1994. The film content, adequate when they made it ten years ago, is obviously substandard now. When this ride came out it shined because nothing else used the tilting seats and forced perspective video concept (at least that I had seen) and the home computer games (X-wing and TIE fighter) were still concepts. Now, the theme parks are flooded with them and, sadly, Star Tours now has the lowest quality of the lot. Amazing how sophisticated we all become.

I like the idea of different destinations. I agree with Thumper that this should remain a space-based ride, although with different tracks in different rooms that wouldn't be a concern, although I'd widen the possibilities with something like (1) Flight against a trade federation ship, (2) Underwater setting, (3) Pod-race or speeder bike style chase, and (4) Asteroid field chase.

Just my spin on this -- not that Disney/MGM or Lucas has asked.


Sandy

 

Has anyone gone to this weekend's Star Wars events at MGM? Is it worth me playing hooky from my job to take in the final day?

I know they've got (some 30 or so) exclusive pins but has anyone gone to gimme details? Thanks.

ps- this is my first post to TOS.

 

I am heading over today to check it out.
Then going to see the 1:45 showing at PI.

Leko

 

So did anyone actually make it to this year's lone SW Weekend? I thought about it but heard that the 29 exclusive pins were the only items to commemorate the event (and don't even reference the event they commemorate) and there was nothing from Lucasfilm that I know of, and I'd just blown my wad on the merchandise and Celebration 2.

What did I miss? Anything? -Campbell

 

I went on Friday and the only thing I saw out of the ordinary was a couple of stormtroopers. No celebrity guests were scheduled.

I didn't see any pins, but wasn't looking for them either.

 

Well, being a Disney park fiend, I can tell you that the Podrace rumor's been going around for a long time. We're hearing the same thing about the Star Tours at Disneyland, in Anaheim. It's resurfaced a lot lately, I'm guessing because of the release of AOTC.

I for one don't want them to change it - I love it just the way it is! Heehee! I've been on it so many times I have it memorized - the line for it at Disneyland is always so short that it makes a great ride for when you're between FastPass times. I do understand that it's outdated and that theme parks place high value in newer rides, but I want to see it stay for sentimental reasons.

"Star Tours... what are you doing here? This is a combat zone, it's restricted."

-Kirsten

 

While in line at Pleasure Island for the midnight show, I hooked up with a "person who knows for sure" (figure it out yourself, I ain't tellin') and they said that the film for the ride has been in the can for almost 3 years now, but Disney (Eisner) was not willing to pay the money to license it for the ride and pay for the update to the software/hardware that runs the sims. Tourism was down for the past couple years.


Sad, but VERY true.

Seems they are being a bit more open now that AOTC is a hit, and they see the power that the Star Wars weekends have on tourist draw.

It'll happen... just a matter of when.

And yes, this is real information.

 

So here's a question... would you prefer:

A) A new ride based on Classic Trilogy (and perhaps EU) events?

B) A new ride based on Episode One Events?

C) A new ride based on Episode Two Events?

D) A ride based on a healthy mixture of all of them?