Down-Under Disney Fans Ride Them All!

How many of us can claim to have ridden ALL FOUR of the Star Tours rides? No, I don’t mean riding each individual simulator at the park closest to you… I mean riding in EACH of the four parks that host the ride (Anaheim, Tokyo, Orlando, and Paris)! Well, recently, seven dedicated Australian Disney buffs accomplished just that– and a little bit more– in just over one month!

According to an AP report filed by Sylvia Hui, the seven members of the Down Under Disneyana fan club spent $4,661 to travel the globe in 32 days, visiting every Disney theme park and riding every ride. In addition to timing their visits to take advantage of off-season periods for smaller crowds, and round-the-world airline prices, organizer Wayne Godfrey timed the trip so they would not only be in the newest park (Hong Kong) for its one-year anniversary on September 12th, but also in the oldest park (Anaheim) for the final day of its fiftieth Anniversary celebrations on September 30th.

The club members were most excited about visiting the Paris park, as none of them had ever been to the one in France. Hong Kong is the closest to Australia, and some members had visited the two American parks an average of eight times. But they pointed out that ALL the parks are so far away from Australia, they “can’t go every week”. At best they can average one trip per year… so this year they went all-out.

And best of all, now they’ve gotten to hear Captain Rex wish them “welcome aboard” in English, Japanese, AND French!

Alex Newborn
Alex is a lifelong fan of the Star Wars movies and everything Disney, so his obsession with Star Tours comes as no surprise. Born in 1970, Alex visited Walt Disney World for the first time in 1975, and saw the original Star Wars film in its first theatrical run in 1977. He returned to Disney in the 80’s and the 90’s… riding STAR TOURS (twice!) on one fateful day in 1991. He has yet to visit Disney in the new millennium, waiting for both his children to be the required 40″ tall to ride STAR TOURS. “What I’d really like to see is a Tour chartered for the planet New Bornalex,” says Alex with a smile. The planet, mentioned first in Cloak of Deception, is a Tuckerization of Alex’s name, an honor bestowed on him in print by author Jim Luceno. Alex is currently at work on a partial realisation of his childhood Disney-in-miniature wish– he is constructing a hyper-accurate 1:18 scale Star Tours diorama to showcase his collection of park-exclusive action figures. In the meantime, Alex is always on the lookout for more STAR TOURS video or audio files, and other STAR TOURS memoribilia. Alex also is our site’s researcher, and comes with never seen before goodies, for your entertainment. Give him a round of applause guys.