From: MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF)
Subject: Re: Star Tours
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 09:39:07 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20

In <gretchen.716156162@betwixt> gretchen@betwixt.ugcs.caltech.edu writes:

> A couple of months ago I went to Disneyland with my brother.  We are both
> _huge_ Star Wars fans, so, of course, we had to go on Star Tours again and
> again and again!  What a ride!  Almost spiritual for a big fan...  Anyways,
> anyone know if Lucas and Disney are planning on adding different "trips"?
> Hoth, Dagobah?  Like on the "travel films" displayed in line?  Man, that would
> be great!!

Yup, Star Tours is great. I left Earth from Eurodisney near Paris. Should be
the same as in Anaheim - except for the annoying fact that C-3PO spoke 
*FRENCH* (sheer heresy, OK I know Eurodisney's in France but couldn't they have
left the American stuff like Frontierland and Tomorrowland alone and
compensated by giving Adventureland (=Caribbean pirates, French North Africa) 
and Fantasyland (=mainly European fairy tales) a 100% French outlook instead?!)
---
Apart from that, the only drawback is that it is too SHORT - just four and a
half minutes. You really think you are in space, it's a wonderful feeling when
they engage the hyperdrive - the stars turn into streaks of lights just as the
entire craft lurches(sp) backwards. All the sudden turns, vibrations etc.
create an illusion of movement that grows all the more powerful with the
excellent Star Wars spaceflight sequences shown on the huge viewscreen up 
front. 
     For those of you that haven't seen it, Star Tours is a passenger 
shuttle that takes visitors on guided tours through the SW galaxy. 
Unfortunately the pilot droid steering the craft is a bit inexperienced and 
incompetent (perhaps because of language problems - he too speaks French 
although Flight Control gives orders and instructions in English!) and 
immediately sends the shuttle flying through one-way traffic corridors on the 
spaceport - in the wrong direction!! After a short but rocky ride, the craft 
enters hyperspace, and ends up right in the middle of an Empire Strikes 
Back-style swarm of comets! Having navigated through this, the audience
suddenly finds itself right in the middle of a desperate space battle between 
the Imperials and the Rebel Alliance. This is exciting, the Death Star is
around of course and the shuttle passes through the same narrow trench that
Luke & co. flew through at the end of STAR WARS. After that, it's a quick dash
between the gun towers on the surface of the DS (same sequence as in RETURN OF
THE JEDI) - too bad we never enter the interior of it like the Rebel
starfighters did! Needless to say, it's all chaotic action around you. TIE
fighters coming right at you in swarms, then exploding or turning away in the
last second etc.. Then, an X-wing pilots offers to guide us back to the base
and the craft lands.
---
As great as Star Tours is, I have to agree with Gretchen that there could be
more variation. The shuttle never reaches its destinations (Hoth, Yavin, Bespin
etc.), it always ends up in the same space battle. If they added two more
viewscreen to the left and right of the audience, it would be even more
powerful. A "360'Vision" shuttle like Tomorrowland's time travel/Jules Verne
movie (also well worth seeing!) would be able to take the audience on a flight
over the ice fields of Hoth or through the forests of Endor in breathtaking
realism. They could also throw in a couple of more "relaxed" planetary 
encounter in between.
 
> Hopeful,
> 
> Gretchen :)

MARCU$
(PS: The local Disneyland staff didn't wear Star Wars uniforms either. 
Boohooo...)

> gretchen@to.ugcs.caltech.edu
> "Ski Hoth!"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars