Sunday, May 29, 2011

New Stuff! - Star Tours Sneak Preview

In my "Star Wars Days At Disneyland" post from last week, I included a few pics related to the new Star Tours, but at that time, I still had not experienced the new attraction. Well after several attempts, I finally caught a Sneak Preview/Soft Opening! Some of the images below will be similar to photos that have already been posted by my some of my fellow bloggers, but hopefully there will be some new ones for you too.



Once again, after several visits to the park, I finally encountered a sign that did not read, "Cast Members Only" or "Annual Passholders Only"



The Fastpass machines....now uncovered!



I didn't use this Fastpass because the line was only a 40 minute wait and it kept getting shorter each time I exited the attraction. When does that ever happen mid-day on the Friday of a holiday weekend?



Here is the "extended queue" area. This room was once the exit area for Adventure Thru Inner Space. The old PeopleMover/Rocket Rod track is now boarded up and has artwork painted on it....that's the area above the lit up Star Tours sign.



The artwork continues all the way around the room.



Now we're inside the main building. This was taken looking back towards the entrance, which has been altered a little. I can still remember walking through that doorway and down that same ramp to board Adventure Thru Inner Space!







Rex, the former pilot of the Starspeeders can be seen in the queue. Actually, it looked like there were three of him out on display and marked "DEFECTIVE!" Poor Rex! I wonder what happened to the fourth one?



In the past, there were posters at the exit to Star Tours advertising other potential "destinations" that Star Tours might take you. Now there really are other destinations. I was quite happy with the different versions that I experienced and I will definitely be wanting to go back and experience all of them.






There are a couple signs also located at the exit that have "changing" screens.






At the end of my post from last week, we saw a sign in the Esplanade with C-3PO encouraging guests to return to the park. This Darth Vader version hangs in the Mickey and Friends parking structure.



***The Little Mermaid attraction over at DCA also had a "soft opening" that same day. To see my post on that, click here: The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure.

3 comments:

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Great post, I didn't see half that stuff! Didn't even notice the mural surrounding the old People Mover track! Or the display screen at the exit!

As cool as it is, as soon as I enter the front door and see that curvy queue line I think of Adventure Thru Inner Space!!!

Major Pepperidge said...

Nice pix! I think I read that one of the "Rex" animatronics was claimed for the archives.

Dan Alexander said...

I'm happy to hear so many good things about this. Can't wait to try to experience all the destinations!