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More than 20 years after first launching, Star Tours closed its Starspeeder 3000 doors after a final flight at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. On Tuesday night, September 7, 2010, a select group of D23 fan club members and their guests became the last passengers to ride Star Tours one final time with the eternally-rookie RX-24 droid pilot, Captain Rex. It was a night of excitement and mixed emotions as a classic attraction shut down to pave the way for newer technologies to take guests further into the Star Wars universe when a new 3D experience premieres next year, dubbed “Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.”
To ensure an orderly night, Disney enlisted the help of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers to escort attending guests to and from the attraction – even riding inside the Starspeeders during the final flight. The event went off without a hitch and all left smiling, with fond memories of more than two decades of botched trips to Endor.
The Star Wars 6-film series is indeed an epic saga, so I thought it would only be appropriate to tell the tale of the final flight of Star Tours through an equally epic video. Embedded below is a 10-minute, 30-second recap of the Star Tours final flight event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which comprises an attempt to capture the emotions I felt throughout the night.
The video includes the approach to Star Tours, highlights of the queue (with several especially poignant lines of dialogue such as Threepio uttering to Artoo, “Get back to work before they deactivate you.“), a full final ride on Star Tours featuring binaural audio (wear your headphones for the best experience), and a few other surprises.
Please enjoy:
Now that you’ve vicariously experienced the night’s activities through the video above, here are some of the more exciting and amusing moments from the final flight aboard Star Tours:
Upon arrival, guests were given collectible boarding passes and a humorous Fastpasses (“””Another Fastpass“>Fastpass ticket will be available in 2011!”):
100 guests also received a “vintage” 2007 Star Wars coin set:
After a slow, Stormtrooper-escorted walk from the turnstiles to Star Tours, guests stopped to take pictures of the X-Wing and Rebel pilot parked outside the attraction:
Those who attended the Last Tour to Endor event a few weeks ago recognized the stubby X-Wing as part of the “Raiders of the Lost Jedi Temple of Doom” stunt show. Of course, name aside, that event wasn’t truly the final flight on Star Tours. This night marked that occasion.
Stormtroopers continued to entertain (and guard) guests as we traversed the Star Tours queue one last time:
The Stormtroopers were around every corner. I felt like I was back at Star Wars Celebration V all over again. They were there at the ride’s loading area and even joined each Starspeeer 3000 for the final flight:
After we safely returned from our last trip into these Star Wars galaxies, I used the time for a few unique photo opportunities, including a moment to relax and reflect in my own private Starspeeder 3000:
(Photo by Denise Preskitt of MouseSteps.com)
But the Stormtroopers didn’t want us sticking around for too long. The Starspeeder doors shut and we were prodded out by the blaster-weilding troop:
My attention-grabbing “O, Lando!” shirt from Celebration V (still available at StarWars.com) didn’t interest the Stormtroopers. They were all business.
(Photo by Denise Preskitt of MouseSteps.com)
Well, almost all business…
Just outside the now-closed Star Tours exit doors, a small duel broke out between a cast member and a Stormtrooper:
On the way out, guests had a chance to pose with light saber-armed Star Tours cast members:
(Photo by Denise Preskitt of MouseSteps.com)
The Stormtroopers assembled and posed outside the attraction alongside the X-Wing, Rebel pilot, and D23’s Barry Jacobson:
But it was time for the festivities to end, as the last straggling guests (myself included) were urged out of the park, nearly two hours after the event had begun:
It was over. Star Tours was closed. And without a Starspeeder to take them home, these cast members had to wait for a bus:
The Star Wars-based theme park attraction first premiered at Disneyland in California in 1987, expanding to Tokyo Disneyland, then Walt Disney World in Florida, and finally Disneyland Paris. The original “flight to Endor” story has now “powered down” in the United States parks. A new experience is on the way in 2011, promising more Star Wars locations, 3D visuals, and a different ride every time. But the classic Star Tours attraction will live on in the hearts of fans who always looked forward to the boisterous voice of Captain Rex exclaiming, “Welcome aboard!” We’ll still be welcome when the attraction reopens, but our flight destination will likely take us to an entirely different galaxy far, far away.
As one final editorial note, I am not a D23 member and I must thank Lee for bringing me as his guest to this event. But if D23 were to hold more inexpensive and extraordinarily fun events like this in Orlando, and fewer like the upcoming $85-$185 “Sip & Stroll” at Epcot, I would join in a heartbeat. But for now, I remain a non-member, happy to have still attended this one rare casual gathering.
More photos from the Star Tours final flight at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: