News Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

[Dustysage]

Star Tours officially opened today and Disneyland held one of their signature ride opening press events. Fishbulb was there and snapped a few photos for us on his iPhone which I'll share here. Later today, they'll be showing what's new and what's next at the Disneyland Resort and we'll start a discussion for that as well as it happens.

Again, these are just low resolution photos, we'll have more and higher quality photos for you later today.

The opening ceremonies of Star Tours are about to begin

Uh oh. Flight to tatooine with one seat left. Storm trooper and Jedi fight


Darth Vader wants the last spot (typical dark lord)


The dashing Tom Staggs (President of Disney Parks and Resorts) kicked Darth's butt and is now inviting all to take a flight


Star Tours officially opens to guests

And if you missed our video yesterday, the Disney folks filmed the MiceChat crew's ride on this fancy new attraction. There are lots of spoilers here, but it is also lots of fun. C3P0 is a great camera man!

Disney has released this video of Darth Vader opening Star Tours. SOOO funny!

[Dustysage]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Star Tours now has a 5 hour wait!

Wait a day and save yourself a whole lot of time in line!


From the hub looking toward Tomorrowland. Most of those folks are waiting for Star Tours, the rest are trying to figure out what is going on.

[flynnibus]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Star Tours now has a 5 hour wait!

Amazing - you'd think the people that were interested enough to wait in a line like this - would have been hitting all the soft openings/etc. Wow, I'm shocked considering how much open access these two rides had before opening.

I mean.. it's not even the weekend, so its not like you can say they didn't want to take off work, etc

Crazy

[tinkermonkey]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Read on Twitter that the line for Mermaid stretches all the way to Soarin' now too. Crazy people, Mermaid was easy enough to ride over the last week -- where were you then? Oh, they want to say they rode it on "opening day" I guess.

[WDWFigment]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

The photos coming out of the lines today are just ridiculous. That is some serious commitment from the DLR locals (although apparently not serious-enough to hit one of the many soft openings, for some reason).

Can't wait to see your coverage of the next event. Hopefully something new is announced, but I don't have my fingers crossed.

[Dustysage]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Can't wait to see your coverage of the next event. Hopefully something new is announced, but I don't have my fingers crossed.

Here's my guess. They'll mention ghiradelli coming to Pacific Wharf (if they were able to get the contract signed in time), show the press a view of the Cars Land construction from under the rock archway behind Pacific Wharf, talk about Goofy's Sky School and probably that's all. BUT, if we are VERY VERY lucky, they might make mention of a new E-ticket for Disneyland which will be the big project after Cars Land. But I'm not holding my breath for anything major. Some of this may have to wait for the D23 Expo or even after (if projects can't be greenlit in time).

[Mac Daddy]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Just got back from the park. When I arrived, they only had two tents open and there were MULTITUDES of people at the security area trying to get through. While I was there, they opened ALL of the tents, and the lines went down a bit. Once I made it in, the line for Star Tours went up to the candy shop on Main Street. By the time I left, they had taped in several switchbacks in front of the castle and the beginning of the line started in the hub. Not sure what time that line began...probably earlier than 9 AM even though that was the posted opening time. I saw a few fire marshals eying the crowd nervously. I was there for the opening of Nemo, but I think this may have been a bit bigger in terms of overall crowd and the wait time. I snagged a few shots from waaaay back in tomorrowland, but that was about it. I posted some crowd shots on my Twitter account, and I should have some other photos up later.

The line had gone down a bit when I left, or at least that's what it seemed like. In reality, I think they just opened up the full queue area in front of the ride. The full queue when i was there on Friday was about an hour, so add that to swtichbacks all up and down the entrance to Tomorrowland, all over in front of the Plaza Inn, then back in front of the castle multiple times.

That is one seriously long line. Glad I was able to get on last Friday.

[almandot]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Maybe they'll announce they're giving Dusty a lift on their X-Wing to get to gaydays in orlando

[JM Disneyland]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

That video was beyond cheesy, Why can't they make awesome videos rather than B-Cheesy ones.

[aashee]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Thanks for posting this Dusty. I was planning on going after work but now I'm in no hurry.

[IzzyInWonderland]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

This is insane! WHYYY do people do this to themselves? But I guess people could ask me the same question about why I waited overnight to see the Twilight cast at Comic-Con and why I waited hours to see all the movies.

[robinjh7]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

My niece is there with her husband's family, and they are reporting on facebook that the line is 7-8 hours long! (They all live 600+ miles away, and today is their last day in the park. They say they'll wait until next time to ride it--about two years from now! They were able to ride TLM, but never hit Star Tours at the right time for a soft opening the last few days.)

My cousin is there with his daughter. They're locals, and they're saying they are at the five-hour wait mark. They are INSANE (but not as insane as my 15-year-old who is gone to a water park to celebrate the end of school, and it's 55 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrr!)

[Tomorrowland_1967]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Star Tours now has a 5 hour wait!

Not surprised!

Space Mountain's opening back in '77 .... Captain EO in '86 ... Star Tours in '87 .. all had lines to almost to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Seems the extra queue is around the hub??

[Retrocool]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

I really enjoyed that video. In fact, I was really rather amazed by it. You obviously know somebody on the inside who can pull some strings to be able to get that kind of clearance for the actual ride footage. Most people would KILL to be able to make a YouTube video that looks that good!

As for the long lines - yeah, it's crazy, but the weather in Anaheim today is PERFECT, just an expected high of 74 degrees, and sunny. I'm dealing with temps in the 90s this week, just sweltering. Wouldn't want to stand in line for even 10 minutes today.

[Tomorrowland_1967]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

My niece is there with her husband's family, and they are reporting on facebook that the line is 7-8 hours long! (They all live 600+ miles away, and today is their last day in the park. They say they'll wait until next time to ride it--about two years from now! They were able to ride TLM, but never hit Star Tours at the right time for a soft opening the last few days.)

My cousin is there with his daughter. They're locals, and they're saying they are at the five-hour wait mark. They are INSANE (but not as insane as my 15-year-old who is gone to a water park to celebrate the end of school, and it's 55 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrr!)

BUT, BUT, BUT .... THIS IS WHAT THEY SHOULD DO (This is what I'm going to do to finally ride it):

If they are willing to stay up a bit late, perhaps get a coffee to stay awake.......... Wait until near park closing. The park closes at midnight. As long as anyone gets in line .. even up to 1 minute prior to park closing ... for any DLR ride ..... you're in!

At that point .... There will be NO Fastpass returns to slow the StandBy queue down .. So therefore ... the StandBy .. will operate like a normal line. And that "theoritical" day line ... will be cut in half or more!

And next Monday I intend to drop in line 5 minutes prior to closing - (I'm a "night owl" type anyway .. I won't need coffee ) ........ and I will have saved myself the 3-5 hour waits .. and not deal with a hot sun.

If you can contact them now ... give them my advice.

[aurorahermione]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

I got here at 7 am and got on pretty quickly. The line is really insane though

[Tomorrowland_1967]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Three nights in row (31st, 1st, and 2nd) ... Desperate Me ... tried to see if it was Soft Opened. NO DICE! Funny how Little Mermaid was soft open many times .. but not Star Tours.

Plus .. I wonder if it was ever soft opened to anyone in the last few days. According to front-line CMs ... it was never soft open to anyone. AP Lottery winners only.

Oh well ........ but I'm sticking with my plan of dropping line just before park closing.

TAKE MY ADVICE PEOPLE .. and avoid the day time insane waits ... with Fastpass to slow the StandBy to a crawl!

[BuenaVista28]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Im betting the lines will still be long this weekend but wont be as nuts as they are today.

[flynnibus]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

And next Monday I intend to drop in line 5 minutes prior to closing - (I'm a "night owl" type anyway .. I won't need coffee ) ........ and I will have saved myself the 3-5 hour waits .. and not deal with a hot sun

If they are still dealing with crazy lines - they will close the lines early. But late at night the line should be managable anyways.

[Mac Daddy]

Re: Live from the Star Tours Press Event at Disneyland

Makes you wonder where all of those people surrounding the hub are going to go about an hour before the fireworks begin. Soooooo glad I'm not in charge of this... inch: