News The future of Star Tours, Star Wars Launch Bay and Star Wars shows at Disney's Hollywood Studios

[raymusiccity]

I wonder how many people will ride Star Tours and leave thinking it was Star Wars land.

Probably the same people who are looking for Harry Potter and would like to know what time is the 3:00 parade down Main Street !

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

I say that when GE opens, to give the Studios somewhat of a break, they should start overhauling the Sunset Boulevard/Animation Courtyard area of the park. We already have the Lightning McQueen experience coming in, so it wouldn’t hurt to find a replacement for Launch Bay, possibly retheme RnR, and give the LONG needed, LONG wanted overhaul of Fantasmic!. Then, when all the focus is on GE and Epcot, they can wait a few years and turn the Star Tours Echo Lake area into an Indiana Jones land (especially if they do reboot the franchise within the next 4-5 years).

MMRR should have been built where Launch Bay currently sits and become the headliner for a revitalized Animation Courtyard. That would have allowed TGMR to remain and undergo extensive refurbishment and updating. Both of those attractions would have been completed summer 2019, preferably along with an update to one of the existing shows (take your pick between Mermaid, Beast, or Frozen). Some form of Launch Bay could have been moved to the flex space by RnRC before closing in 2020 to make way for Lightning McQueen, which would have opened as a 50th Anniversary offering.

All that, along with TSL, would have really helped to flesh out DHS leading up to and after the opening months of SWL in my opinion. But alas...

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

MMRR should have been built where Launch Bay currently sits and become the headliner for a revitalized Animation Courtyard. That would have allowed TGMR to remain and undergo extensive refurbishment and updating. Both of those attractions would have been completed summer 2019, preferably along with an update to one of the existing shows (take your pick between Mermaid, Beast, or Frozen). Some form of Launch Bay could have been moved to the flex space by RnRC before closing in 2020 to make way for Lightning McQueen, which would have opened as a 50th Anniversary offering.

All that, along with TSL, would have really helped to flesh out DHS leading up to and after the opening months of SWL in my opinion. But alas...

I liked the Hollywood golden age ambience and original concept of the park - even if they failed fo
Build it out properly...

Killing the movie ride - as opposed to reinventing it - is a big mistake to me.

Pity...because as you’ve said - they could have built the Mickey ride elsewhere and kept both.

 

[mikejs78]

I do agree...nothing would indicate to me that overall Philosophy at studios is gonna change from “limp along”....

On another note...
@mikejs78 ...what’s a matter, Boo Boo?
“You mad, bro?”

I quite like Star Tours and would rather see them keep it.

 

[erasure fan1]

Not if you're a kid riding it for the first time. It still has that wow factor.

Yup, 100%. My sons first ride was at 6 and he loved it, thought it was the greatest. Same thing with all my nieces and nephews. Its just too bad they couldn't have done something similar to wild arctic at sea world. You could either walk into galaxys edge or take star tours and have the exit take you to black spire.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

supposedly they are still adding a new scene to ST from the upcoming Ep 9 so I would expect ST to stick around for awhile

 

[jt04]

Star Tours could be turned down a notch so as to be accessible to all ages since Galaxy's Edge will have minimum heights. They should consider keeping it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Star Tours could be turned down a notch so as to be accessible to all ages since Galaxy's Edge will have minimum heights. They should consider keeping it.

How do you “ratchet down” something that is already tame with 1980’s “jerk” technology?

Just curious?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

supposedly they are still adding a new scene to ST from the upcoming Ep 9 so I would expect ST to stick around for awhile

I just hope they don’t put the scene where Newhart wakes up and it was all a dream in there...

 

[Notes from Neverland]

It'd be silly to close Star Tours ahead of the enormous crowds that are coming. Over the long-term, a theming change or a total overhaul seems like a guarantee.

 

[seascape]

I've been hoping for YEARS that Galaxy's Edge would trigger the removal of all Star Wars from the rest of the park. I understand why Star Tours needs to stay for a few years, but the stupid stage show, Launch Bay, and all the other miscellaneous Star Wars stuff should be removed on Galaxy's Edge opening day. The stage show bothers me the most though, because the stage is very ugly and Runaway Railway deserves to be the focal point when it opens without any distractions in front of it. And this "capacity issue" wouldn't have been as severe if they put Mickey in Launch Bay and overhauled GMR.

I think there will be an addition to SWGE announced within a year after full opening at HS. The crowds will be so large that the park can't handle them. So, I expect the addition to go into the parking lot and that one of the entrances would be from Star Tours. That way they can keep a needed attraction and use it in an interesting way. As for the other Stsr Wars stuff they should be moved to the new area.

A property done expanded HS should easily attract 20 million people a year. Even without any more changed I believe WDW will have a combined 4 park attendance of over 62 million in 2020. Adding the water parks and it will be over 65 million.

 

[DisneyJayL]

Launch Bay should go but keep Star Tours.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

Launch Bay and the stage shows should be refreshed to something else

 

[Casper Gutman]

Launch Bay will continue to stand with Little Mermaid and B&B as a monument to the slapdash, underwhelming nature of the Studio “makeover” and as an insult to anyone who misses GMR.

Star Tours staying is nice, though.

 

[HMF]

An Inside Out simulator ride would be kinda fun.

Inside Out should be in Epcot and yes I realize the irony of yours truly suggesting an IP belongs in Epcot.

 

[Jones14]

I know that they’re not gonna rip it all out at once, so I’d like to see them at least lose the stage show and the marches when they open up the land. Launch Bay can close in 2020 for a replacement, and Star Tours can ride through the 50th anniversary, especially since it’s about to get another refresh for IX.

As far as the Galactic Spectacular, I don’t mind it as long as Fantasmic! is still running, and I think the latter needs an overhaul way before they do anything else to the former.

 

[drod1985]

Inside Out should be in Epcot and yes I realize the irony of yours truly suggesting an IP belongs in Epcot.

It makes total sense though. Didn't the team from Cranium Command have some part in the creation of Inside Out?

 

[Launchpad McQuack]

With the influx of people they are about to get, they can't afford to close anything, especially with Galaxy's Edge only having one attraction when it opens. The crowds that will be coming to Galaxy's Edge will need other stuff to do, and let's be real, a large percentage of people going to DHS over the next couple of years will be there mostly for Star Wars, so giving them Star Wars and slowly phasing the non-Galaxy's Edge Star Wars stuff is probably the right move.

With Galaxy's Edge, Toy Story Land, Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Star Tours, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway (whenever that is), and all of the various shows, meet and greets, etc, DHS will be in a good place to take a rest from construction for a while so Epcot can take over as the "pardon our pixie dust" park for a while and maybe (JUST MAYBE) we can get the Yeti fixed over at DAK.

 

[mikejs78]

maybe (JUST MAYBE) we can get the Yeti fixed over at DAK

 

[jgrinstein]

Hollywood Studios could use a lot of replacements, but I hope that they add new attractions/shows rather than replace. Having said that,everything Star Wars beyond galaxys edge could be changed and replaced, but I think that shows like the voyage of the little mermaid, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, beauty and the beast and fantasmic may have more urgent refurbishments/replacements. The least they could do is update the costumes in beauty and the beast, and update the screens, carpets and seats in mermaid. It smells bad as soon as you enter the theater