{"id":1855,"date":"2011-06-07T11:06:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T07:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/?page_id=1855"},"modified":"2011-06-07T11:06:45","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T07:06:45","slug":"star-tours-2011","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/blogs\/janelles-eye-view\/star-tours-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Tours 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was ten when Star Tours opened its doors for the first time.\u00a0 I remember only a few things; a REALLY long line, amazing robots talking to me who reminded me of Johnny 5, my feet in so much pain my toes were numb by the time I got to the front of the line and being barely tall enough to go on it.\u00a0 I remember feeling like such a grown up going on a grown up ride, because at the time, I wasn\u2019t really into Star Wars, in fact I hadn\u2019t even seen it and all the people who wanted to go were older than me.\u00a0 Star Wars itself was something I learned to appreciate much later in life and only secondary to Star Trek. Yes, that\u2019s right – first and foremost, I will always be a Trekie. \u00a0 Deal with it and let us move on now, yes?<\/p>\n

I remember going into \u201chyperspace\u201d for the first time and feeling like it was completely real- I believed I was going faster than the speed of\u00a0 light and it was amazing!\u00a0 I have a vague memory of the comet and actually being genuinely worried we were going to run into the fuel ship at the end.\u00a0 I honestly don\u2019t remember much else from that first experience, but I cannot count the number of times I\u2019ve been on it since throughout the last decade and I have scores of wonderful memories from going with family, boyfriends, grad night, the first time I went on it with my husband and now, a new memory of our first baby-switch experience the day after opening day of the refurbished Star Tours.<\/p>\n

My first impression was, \u201coooh shiny!\u201d everything is beautiful- brand new, painted, redone and pretty.\u00a0 Sort of.\u00a0 On the surface, that\u2019s true- the sign outside, the updated wait time counter, the fresh coat of paint on R2 and C3P0 inside, the grating all pretty and a better digital screen showing scenes of potential vacation spots you may visit.<\/p>\n

There were some changes in the line, robots, voices, tasks they are completing, and our dear Rex, now removed from the cockpit and placed in line, broken and outdated.\u00a0 Kind of sad, but an homage to the past and a nice touch for those who look for nostalgia like that.<\/p>\n

Our dear \u201ceyebrow\u201d lady telling us our safety tips has gone the way of many a hard working American and been replaced with a robot.\u00a0 Same speech, no eyebrows.\u00a0 They\u2019ve updated the video you watch entirely with new passengers and what not, but otherwise, identical.\u00a0 Again, all new and pretty \u2013 this area was a perfect replica of itself, but newer and less dated.\u00a0 Now, in another decade, we may not think so- but for now, it looks great.<\/p>\n

Getting in the shuttle-<\/p>\n

What I noticed was the pretty, shiny and new all seemed to stop once I got into the shuttle.\u00a0 The seats were obviously the same ones, the armrests were the same, lacking the feeling of new material and the seatbelts were the same, looking worn with chipped paint.\u00a0 I could tell everything had been cleaned to the point where I felt bad for whoever had the job of taking a wire toothbrush and bleach to each crevice making sure it was pristine.\u00a0 And that it was, but it was old and I had expected a complete referb.\u00a0 Not bad, just not what I had expected.<\/p>\n

Now the ride itself.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to spoil the experience by going into too much detail here and whatever my nit-picky opinion is, I still say- go on it yourself and decide on your own.\u00a0 What I will say is the overall experience felt nearly identical to the original.\u00a0 There were some great effects with sound, lighting, movement and 3D technology.\u00a0 I was impressed with the storytelling mix-and-match feature in which everyone got a different journey.\u00a0 Because we did the baby-switch, I got a different voyage than my husband.\u00a0 We were able to compare notes later and see what was different.\u00a0 They boast a total of 53 different possible outcomes in storyline but there are a few things that seem to be constant.\u00a0 I went to Hoth and he went to Tatooine.\u00a0 I got to survive a near-death experience on a mountain top after dodging almost being crushed by AT-AT\u2019s and he got to be in a pod race.\u00a0 We both almost got shot in an asteroid belt and fly through the Death Star, go into hyperspace and deliver a rebel spy unscathed to safety.\u00a0 Somehow, I feel like he got the much nicer version.\u00a0 Pod race vs. almost certain death… Hmm\u2026. does that seem fair??\u00a0 SO yeah. That\u2019s that, all in all, similar themes to the original and there were things I both liked and things I didn\u2019t so much. Overall my assessment is as follows:<\/p>\n

Originality:\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> Two light sabers.\u00a0 The story was different but the theme was the same.\u00a0 There was some running, chasing, following, dodging, Death Starring and that\u2019s all very well and good, but it\u2019s kind of like someone covering an old song.\u00a0 It might seem new, but it\u2019s really just a modern version of the same old thing.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Use of available technology: Three light sabers.\u00a0 I thought the use of 3D glasses was unnecessary considering you\u2019re supposed to be in a shuttle.\u00a0 In a shuttle, everything will appear outside your windows.\u00a0 In a shuttle, you don\u2019t have asteroids blasting out at you so there\u2019s no reason to make them 3D.\u00a0 I thought a better approach would be to have utilized the new 3D screens themselves, so those images of what\u2019s outside the windows actually felt three dimensional without taking away from the realism by giving people glasses to wear.\u00a0 I also felt the motion of the shuttle was a little lacking in realism.\u00a0 Going into hyperspace just wasn\u2019t as hyper as it used to be and left me wanting more.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Expression of available storyline: Only one light saber here- I felt they missed a tremendous opportunity to expand upon the vision using anything from the Clone Wars animated series, to video game storylines and beyond.\u00a0 There is literally, multiple universes out there they could have and for some reason chose not to explore and that made me sad.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Cleanliness: A whole five light sabers on this one.\u00a0 Pristine and perfect, just wish they\u2019d replaced the inside of the shuttle.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Line: \u00a0Two light sabers. With a fast past, it\u2019s a breeze by comparison, but half of the line is still outside with no covering. Just be sure to get there when the park opens to get your fast pass or you\u2019ll miss your chance.\u00a0 We got our\u2019s before 9am and there wasn\u2019t an available opening for fast past until 3:15.\u00a0 So get there early and plan on a long day. \u00a0We made it into the park only 30 minutes after it opened and the line was already 2 hours long.\u00a0 The line just to get a fast pass was 20 minutes.\u00a0 As for going on the ride without a fast pass; not much would be worth baking in the sun for over an hour and a half before you even get to the in-doors portion of the line.\u00a0 I ended up with a sun burn even with a fast pass.\u00a0 My advice, get to the park before they open and go straight there. \u00a0Or just wait until the novelty of the shiny new toy wears off and go when the line isn\u2019t so long.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Cast Member\/Magic experience: Out of a scale of five, I\u2019m only giving three, as I was underwhelmed by the cast members attending this ride.\u00a0 They seemed to be one of two things; hyper controlling jerks or unenthusiastic idiots. There were very few middle of the road people, and more who didn’t seem to know what was going on than did and things were disorganized.\u00a0 Guests would ask questions and instead of the answer or, even an \u201cI\u2019m not sure but let\u2019s find out for you\u201d it was \u201cum\u2026. Well, I don\u2019t know, sorry I can\u2019t help you, maybe the person at the front of the line can answer your question.\u201d The cast members attending the line were harsh and abrasive, telling people what to do rather than helping them have a good experience.\u00a0 I’ve seen this more times than not, and I admit, I’m biased.\u00a0 I was a cast member and I know how it’s done and I take personal offense when it’s done incorrectly.\u00a0\u00a0 I will not have my magic experience taken away just because you are a type A crazy person who needs to prove you are better than everyone else or let you get some power trip off of talking down to people. So there. I gave it three because there were a small few that were truly focused on providing an amazing guest experience and they were awesome.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Total average light sabers- \u00a0Three light sabers.\u00a0 To sum up; there are a lot of cool new features on top of the same old ride. \u00a0I liked it, don\u2019t get me wrong, I really did, but the whole experience left me wanting more. \u00a0Maybe I\u2019m too critical, but I feel they missed the mark in one too many places for me to really LOVE LOVE LOVE this new ride.\u00a0 I probably won\u2019t go on it again until the craze dies down and the line is back down to a respectable 35 minutes or less.<\/p>\n

Have you been on it yet?\u00a0 Do you agree or disagree?\u00a0 Your thoughts and opinions are welcome!<\/p>\n

Here are a few pictures I took:<\/p>\n

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          I was ten when Star Tours opened its doors for the first time.\u00a0 I remember only a few things; a REALLY long line, amazing robots talking to me who reminded me of Johnny 5, my feet in so much pain my toes were numb by the time I got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":573,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1855","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1opIU-tV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":573,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/blogs\/janelles-eye-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":0},"title":"Lessons From The Mother Ship","author":"Janelle","date":"February 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Janelle is a writer, singer, teacher and a mom. \u00a0She is a lover of comics, horror movies, zombies, ghost stories and sci-fi. \u00a0She brings to the table a unique perspective of the geek culture as both a woman and a mother and is not afraid to share her opinion and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":595,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/blogs\/janelles-eye-view\/oh-captain-my-captain-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":1},"title":"Oh Captain, My Captain… America?","author":"AJ","date":"February 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we\u2019re gonna talk about The First Avenger: Captain America. 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This week I would like to talk about my addiction to SG-U. And what an addiction it is. When I had first heard about the original series I had my doubts.\u00a0 I was a big fan of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4154,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/blogs\/andreas-gaming-lounge\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":4},"title":"Andrea’s Gaming Lounge","author":"AJ","date":"June 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Who the hell is Andrea?? My Love for The Guild HI,\u00a0My Name is\u00a0Andrea and I'm a Tech Addict Disney\u2019s BRAVE coming to a console near YOU G5 Entertainment's Line Up Review TRANSFORMERS: FALL OF CYBERTRON. Game Industry Interview with Josh LaBrot DOOM 3 BFG EDITION RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED Dawnguard \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":578,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/blogs\/janelles-eye-view\/caines-walk-is-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":1855,"position":5},"title":"Caine’s walk is over","author":"AJ","date":"February 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ok, so I don't have much time this morning to write out a big ol' thing on this but David Carradine was found dead in Bangkok yesterday. Now here's the thing. \u00a0I grew up watching him as an icon of strength and peaceful honor. \u00a0He was a childhood hero for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1855\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}