Having amassed so much trivia about the Walt Disney World theme park, Lou is able to share some of his favorite Star Tours hidden treasures, stories and incredible details that many Guests often overlook:
- At one point during the concept phase, Star Tours was planned to be a 15-20 minute attraction, which was later reduced to around 4 and a half minutes.
- It cost more than $33,000,000 to open the Disneyland version of Star Tours on January 9, 1987 -- which is almost twice the cost to open all of Disneyland in 1955 (approx. $17M).
- Before Star Tours opened, a TV special aired in 1986 promoting the new attraction called "Vacation in Space." It was hosted by Gil Gerard (who played Buck Rogers in the "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" TV series) and young martial artists Ernie Reyes, Jr. The special included appearances by Disney CEO Michael Eisner as well as C-3PO and R2-D2 performing a rap song. (Check out some photos here)
- In the queue for Star Tours, you will hear an overhead announcement stating "Would the owner of a landspeeder license THX1138 please move it, you are parked in a no hover zone." -- THX 1138 was the name of George Lucas' first major directorial debut in 1971, a full-length feature of his student film at USC
- George Lucas is paid homage to yet again in the queue, as an overhead page is made for "Departing Endor passenger Sacul, Mister Egroeg Sacul... please see the Star Tours agent at gate number three." Egroeg Sacul is George Lucas spelled backwards.
- The boxes circulating over you in the second part of the queue are stenciled with letters and numbers, such as "PAD 61257" and "KMS 81850" which represent the initials and birthdates of some of the Disney Imagineers who worked on the attraction.
- Your Starspeeder Captain, REX (RX-24), has a long red tag handing from him that says "Warning! Remove before Flight," which is a reference to tags put on airplane parts
- Star Tours in Walt Disney World was originally sponsored by M&M's and then Energizer, and currently has no corporate sponsor.
- The name of the Star Wars merchandise shop at the end of the Star Tours attraction in Walt Disney World was originally known as "Endor Vendors." The exterior of the shop resembled the bunker on the Endor moon in Return of the Jedi. In 1999, the shop reopened as Tatooine Traders with a new facade which looked like a structure from Mos Espa on Tatooine. Look carefully, and you will find the shop's name written in English, as well as Aurebesh, a writing system commonly used in the Star Wars universe.
Check out Lou's Walt Disney World trivia books (both volumes) as well as his audio tours of the park available here.
