Star Tours

Star Tours is a ride at Hollywood Studios in Disney World and also in Disneyland.  In the fall of 2011, the old Star Tours ride was shut down for refurbishment.  This is my grandson’s favorite ride.  This is a flight simulator ride and you do get jostled around in your seat as if you were really on a spaceship.  Originally it was based on the first Star Wars movie and you basically ended up flying through the Death Star just like Luke Skywalker, ending up blowing it up just like he did in the movie.  We were fortunate enough to visit Disney World in August 2011 and caught the ride in its final days of operation.

In May 2012 the new ride opened at both Disney World and Disneyland.   This version is based on the prequels of the Star Wars movies.  It is now a 3D ride with several different versions and 5 different planets that you may have an adventure on.   There are two scenes in every ride with varying characters that you encounter.  With all the different permutations possible, there is supposed to be about 50 different experiences.  The premise is that C3PO is in the cockpit doing some updating to the equipment while the pilot takes off on a break.   Unfortunately, the ship is scheduled to take off even as C3PO protests that he’s not the pilot.  Luckily, navigator R2D2 is aboard.  As you are leaving the hangar, you may get stopped by a Storm Trooper or Darth Vader looking for a Rebel spy.  A scanner comes up on the screen and scans the riders until it stops on one of them and their picture is shown on a screen to the side of the action.  It could be anyone on the ride.  My grandson was the rebel spy twice on our last trip.  How exciting!  The ship pushes past the guards and out of the hangar reaching warp speed and flying through to the first planet of the adventure.  It could be Hoth where you fly past the AT AT s and almost crash into the snow covered mountains, or Tatooine, or (my granddaughter’s least favorite place) Naboo where you are flying through an underwater city inhabited by Jarjar Binks and his ilk and almost get swallowed by a giant sea creature, or Kashyyyk where a Wookie shakes his fist at you for flying too low.  Once you leave that planet you may get a message from Princess Leia or General Akbar pleading with you to get the rebel spy to their headquarters, it’s very important.  On the way you fly to another planet, this time it could be the Death Star and then you finally reach your destination.  It’s an exciting and fun ride.  The kids usually come off the ride only to circle around to the entrance and ride it again 3 or 4 times.  Not even Tatooine Traders, the gift shop you exit into, holds their attention too long when there is another flight to experience.  We’ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes or so to get on this ride and it probably takes that long to walk from the entrance to the actual loading of the ride.

I miss the original ride.  I was so impressed with the experience the first time I rode it.  The new ride is more high tech and you never know which planets you'll get so it's a good experience as well.   My granddaughter seems to get Naboo almost every time and is usually frustrated to tears.  She is terrified of that giant fish that tries to eat the ship.  I told her she should start hoping for Naboo and maybe she won't get it so often.

If you ever get a chance to try it, I recommend it. 

Pop Century Resort

 

Wow!  I was reminded the other day by a co-worker (Hi James) that he was told that I had a blog about Disney World.  I can’t believe that I haven’t entered anything into the blog for over 3 years!  Sometimes life just gets in the way.  Although I haven’t written anything, I have of course continued to go to Disney World during this time.  In fact, I just looked at my room keys and have been to DW 6 times since my last blog entry!  The latest was just one month ago.

For most of those visits, we stayed at Pop Century Resort.  This was the newest value resort up until a few months ago when they opened the new Art of Animation Resort across the lake from Pop Century.  Art of Animation Resort looks interesting but is mostly family suites which run over $200 per night.  A good option if you have a large group and can split the cost.  Pop Century is a fun resort that the kids love and the adults can get nostalgic about.  The buildings are divided up into the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.  They are themed accordingly.  Large statues of Lady and the Tramp can be found outside the 50’s buildings.  Stairwells masked by giant Rubik’s Cube’s adorn the 80’s buildings.  Giant 8 track tapes are plastered to the side of the 70’s buildings.  You get the idea.  There are three swimming pools.  The main one is between the 60’s buildings and has a ‘flower power’ theme.  The 50’s building has a bowling pin shaped pool and the 80’s building has a computer themed pool complete with a stack of floppy disks in front of the pool.  We’ve stayed in the 50’s, 70’s, and 80’s buildings and I’ve never felt that we were excessively far away from the main building and bus stops.

My grandson’s favorite feature is the tie-dyed cupcakes in the food court.  Had to have one every night around 9 p.m.  They show Disney movies near the 60’s pool every evening if you’re so inclined.  The rooms are the usual set-up but now provide free refrigerators and wi-fi (however no coffeemakers).  As a matter of fact, there is wi-fi available all over the parks now as well.  This is new even since our visit in August of 2012.  They also now use RFID chips in the room cards.  So, instead of sliding the card in and out of a slot to unlock the door, you just hold the card up to the face of the lock and it opens.  More Disney Magic!  There is one area for buses in front of the multi-functional main building which houses the registration, food court, and gift shop.  The best thing about this bus area is there are clearly marked areas for each park bus and they have roped off queues for waiting.  Unlike other resort bus stops where there are no queues and everyone just bunches up and pushes their way onto the bus.  This also helps you get in practice for queuing up for those rides at the park.

There have been lots of changes over the last three years.  Next time: the new Star Tours ride!