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Star Tours 2 Wrap Up
Hey all! Scarlett here. It's been a fun couple of months, but now Star Tours 2.0 is open on both coasts, Star Wars Weekends are over at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and we've all gotten back to everyday life. StarToursLive.com was an amazing project, and we just wanted to say a few things before we move on.
First of all, the StarToursLive team and I could not be more grateful for all of you who followed along, retweeted us, came to see us during #startourswatch, and kept us going through the whole thing. We had no idea that we would get such a fantasic response, and it really made everything worth it. Every sunburn, long day, all-nighter, bug bite, and Backlot Express hamburger was made more tolerable by all of you. Thank you so much for all that you did and all of your support.
Secondly, so many of the people we met doing this project commented on our fire for an attraction. Fans really seemed to love how aggressively we tackled an attraction opening. We all are used to having that kind of passion on our other sites TouringPlans.com and StudiosCentral.com.
TouringPlans.com is devoted to saving you and your family the most time in line possible. We want you to see as much as you can, as efficiently as you can, so that you can have the best vacation possible. To make all that happen, we have a team of researchers, statistitions, and many others who put in a ton of time developing the Crowd Calendar, Touring Plans, the Lines smartphone application, and lots more.
At StudiosCentral.com, they have information on anything you ever wanted to know about Disney's Hollywood Studios. Park hours, construction photos, show schedules, special event information, rumors, news...it's all there, along with forums and a great community. Matt and the team go to Hollywood Studios at least once a week to do updates, take pictures, and find out anything that you need to know to experience what they consider to be the best Disney theme park.
Third, we really want to apologize for how we handled the attraction opening at Disneyland. We know that we neglected the west coast. Please don't think this is any indication to how we feel about Disneyland or it's fans. The attraction was opening in Florida first, we figured it would be ready first, and we could focus on it first, and then jump to Disneyland. However, soft openings happened much later in Florida than we expected, and much earlier in California. There were lots of unexpected surprises, and quite frankly, we weren't prepared for them. Something had to give or we were all going to crumble. Unfortunately, it was the Disneyland coverage that went. That was totally our fault, and we sincerely apologize to all the Disneyland fans we disappointed. This was our first flight...and we're still getting used to our programming.
Lastly, I would like to get a bit personal. Because of all the time I spent on this project, and the countless hours spent sitting in front of a closed Star Tours, I feel very connected to StarToursLive.com. This became very personal for me, and there are some people I would like to thank. First, I would like to thank all the staff at StarToursLive.com. Henry Work, Matt Hochberg, Scott Barrett, Tom Bricker, and Darcie Vance all worked so hard to make this project great. I want to thank my friend Ben, who was with me for almost all of #startourswatch, helped me with so many technical questions I had, spent countless hours brainstorming, and really had a lot of the great ideas, but got none of the credit. I would have gone out of my mind by day 2 if it hadn't been for him. Thanks to Glenn Sonoda for answering every Star Wars question, listening to my crazy theories about the rides storyline, and putting up with my Star Wars fanaticism. Thank you to the amazing Disney Cast Members who became such an important part of our journey (I can't name them all, but they know who they are). Thanks to TheForce.net and ForceCast for taking us seriously and reporting so much of our news. Thank you to all the incredible unofficial Disney sites who worked with us. Again, thank you to all of you who followed along, this would have been nothing without you.
It's been a fun ride. But, it's time to get off. We'll still report any fun Star Tours news, and we'll keep you posted on what the next big project is (FantasylandLive?). Until then, May the Force be with you.
