Star Tours Set to Return

If you're one of those Star Wars fans counting down the days till that awesome-looking blu-ray box set release this fall, or even if you're one of those poor souls clamoring for next year's 3D release of The Phantom Menace (seriously, I've been a Star Wars fan virtually since birth and even I'm not excited about that), you might want to start planning a trip to a Disney theme park this summer to get your Star Wars fix while you wait.

Orlando Attractions Magazine has some new details about the updated version of Star Tours, the popular Star Wars-themed motion simulator ride at the Disney parks that shut down last year for a much-needed upgrade.  I have to admit, I was a little sad to see the original ride (which I once rode 12 times during a single vacation) go.  Sure, it was getting old, and the 80s relic that was the ride's safety video had become almost laughable.  And all right, the Back to the Future, Spiderman, and Harry Potter simulator rides at Universal were making Star Tours look positively ancient.  But it was old-school Star Wars, and that still made it awesome.  For god's sake, it went down the Death Star trench!

But the new version of the ride, entitled Star Tours - The Adventures Continue does sound pretty damn amazing.  Where the original ride only had one version in which a flight to Endor takes a wrong turn into a comet storm, a Star Destroyer tractor beam, and a Death Star battle, the new ride will have 54 randomly chosen story combinations.  So even the most die-hard Star Wars fan will have a hard time riding the same version twice.  Although I'm sure some will try.  They're out there.

Since there have been, for better or for worse, a few new Star Wars films since the first incarnation of Star Tours opened in 1987, the update takes place between Episodes 3 and 4 of the Star Wars saga.  Gone is Captain Rex, the hapless robot captain (voiced by Paul Reubens) of the first Star Tours.  The new pilot?  C-3PO, who somehow ends up in the pilot's seat and with the help of R2-D2 frantically tries to guide the Starspeeder through anywhere from a Tatooine podrace, the waters of Naboo, a blizzard on Hoth, the Wookie planet Kashyyk, the cities of Coruscant, to the Death Star (yes!). 

There will also be some familiar faces to be found on Star Tours II, including Yoda, Boba Fett, Admiral "It's a trap!" Ackbar, Darth Vader, and "Skytroopers," the ride-centric version of stormtroopers.

This also should come as no surprise:  the new Star Tours will be in 3D.

You can check out a "travel package" video that will be playing in the queue area of the ride below, detailing some of the planets you can visit on your trip - although I'm not sure about that claim regarding Alderaan:

So the new ride sounds pretty cool.  Definitely better than having to sit through Phantom Menace in 3D next year, anyway.  Star Tours reopens at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida on May 20, and at Disneyland in California on June 3.