Disney's Hollywood Studios · Echo Lake
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
A randomized 3D flight simulator through the Star Wars galaxy, with dozens of possible scene combinations so no two flights match.
Ride facts
- Type
- Simulator
- Height
- 40in (102cm)
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Motion sickness
- High motion risk
- Getting wet
- Stay dry
- Indoor / outdoor
- Indoor
- Air conditioned
- Yes
- Rider Switch
- Available
Last verified July 2026
What it is
Star Tours opened at this park in December 1989 as a straight simulator ride with one fixed film. In 2011 it was rebuilt from the ground up in 3D with a randomized structure, and that is the version you ride today. The ride computer assembles each flight from a pool of opening scenes, planet destinations, hologram messages and finales, which produces a very large number of possible combinations.
That randomization is the whole reason people ride it repeatedly. Regulars chase specific segments the way people chase songs at a concert, and the variety is why an attraction from 1989 still holds a real line in 2026. Disney has added new destinations over the years as new films arrived, so the pool keeps growing.
Mechanically it is a forty-passenger cabin on a motion base with a wraparound 3D screen, which means the motion is short-throw and sharp rather than sweeping. It is a genuinely rough ride for anyone prone to motion sickness, and considerably worse than Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run on that front.
What riding it is actually like
The queue is one of the better ones at this park and the reason to go standby rather than Lightning Lane at least once. A full-size droid works a luggage scanner, another runs the departures desk, and the announcements over the terminal PA are worth listening to. The pre-show room does a security screening bit that pays off later in the ride.
In the cabin, everyone is a passenger; there is no interactivity. The flight is roughly a bad takeoff, a hologram transmission, one planet sequence, a second transmission, a second planet sequence and a landing, cut together to about five minutes. The cabin lurches forward and back on impacts, and the seat harnesses stay loose, so you feel more movement than the machine is actually producing.
Sit in the middle rows if you can. The front row puts you close enough to the screen that the 3D separates badly at the edges, and the back rows amplify the pitch. Middle of the middle is the smoothest seat and the best-registered 3D image.
Is Star Tours: The Adventures Continue scary?
Nothing here is frightening in a horror sense, but the cabin pitches hard and the 3D screen fills your whole field of view, which is exactly the combination that makes people queasy. Villain segments are loud and confrontational, and the opening sequence includes a sudden hard drop of the cabin. Children who are fine on roller coasters sometimes hate this one and vice versa.
Scores are editorial, on a 1–5 scale, judged against what frightens a typical four- to seven-year-old rather than an adult.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair
- Must transfer to the ride vehicle
- Audio description
- Available
- Handheld captioning
- Available
- Assistive listening
- Available
- Sign language
- Not offered
- Service animals
- Must use a kennel or wait with a companion
You must transfer from a wheelchair or ECV into a standard simulator seat with a lap belt; the cabin floor is level with the load platform. A non-motion viewing option is not offered, so if the motion is the problem the answer is to skip it. Reflective 3D glasses fit over most prescription frames.
Tips that actually help
- The 40-inch requirement is measured strictly with shoes on. Borderline children get an all-day wristband at the first measurement so they are not re-measured at every ride.
- Ask a cast member at the load door for a specific starting planet and they cannot help you, but the ride does bias toward newer destinations at busier times of day. Riding twice in a row almost always produces two different flights.
- This is the single most reliable nausea trigger at the park. If you are the kind of person who cannot read in a car, ride it before you eat, not after.
- 3D glasses are recycled bins near the exit, and there is a stack of larger frames on request for anyone wearing glasses already.
- Repeat visitors: the pre-show scanner bit selects a rebel spy from the group standing in front of you, and standing directly beneath the scanner meaningfully raises your odds of being the one on screen.
Timing
- Best time to ride
- First hour after opening, or during the nighttime show when the Echo Lake side of the park empties.
- Typical wait
- 20 to 45 minutes for most of the day; walk-on levels late.
- Lightning Lane
- Lightning Lane Multi Pass
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue: common questions
What is the height requirement for Star Tours?
40 inches. It is measured with shoes on and hats off at the entrance, and a borderline guest who clears will be given a colored wristband so they do not get re-measured at other attractions that day.
Is Star Tours the same ride every time?
No. The film is assembled from a pool of opening scenes, planets, hologram messages and finales, so two consecutive rides will almost certainly differ. That is the main argument for riding it more than once.
Does Star Tours make people sick?
More than any other ride at this park. The combination of a hard-throw motion base and a full-field 3D screen affects a lot of people who have no trouble on coasters. Sit in a middle row, keep your eyes on the center of the screen, and do not ride straight after a heavy meal.
Is Star Tours scary for young children?
Not in a horror sense, but it is loud, dark and physically jolty, and villain characters confront the cabin directly. Children right at the 40-inch line often find it more intense than they expected. Runaway Railway is the gentler alternative in the same park.
Is there a single rider line?
No. Star Tours does not offer single rider. It does offer rider switch, so one adult can wait with a child under 40 inches and then ride without re-queueing.