What a difference six months makes as it looks like the Star Tours 2 project has been delayed until 2011 according to an update at MiceAge from a few weeks ago. However, shortly after that article was posted, I was contacted by one of my sources who reported that the story about the delay was old news leftover from last summer. With everyone in fear of losing their jobs these days, I’m told that the Star Tours 2 project was brought back out of the closet and is being worked on once again to prove that the department staff is needed because they are still in the middle of a major project.
While there is no solid timeline set for it yet, there are some issues going on between Disneyland and Disney World management over this new attraction. Disneyland wants the full fledged, crank the knob up to 11, full of new in-cabin special effects version of Star Tours 2. Orlando on the other hand, always ready to snip away at attraction budgets, is asking for a more bare-bones, no-frills version, and to reuse as much of what’s already installed as possible version. The funny part is that in an effort to push this thing along, both may get their wish, with Orlando being willing to put in the low-budget version while Disneyland installs a version of many cool new effects. What could help or hurt the scheduling here however is just how willing the Oriental Land Company is to get involved in the project as well, providing additional cost-sharing capital to the project which would help them all move into production more quickly.