Robert Silk
OK, I admit it. I haven’t seen “Star Wars: The Force
Awakens.”
In fact, even though I grew up in the 1980s and loved the
original “Star Wars” trilogy, I haven’t seen any installments in the series
since “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” way back in 1999.
But after a couple days at Disney World in Orlando this
week, I’m planning to change that.
My visit was part of the annual Awaken Summer media preview,
in which the press gets a look at the new things Disney World has in store for
the upcoming season. And, indeed, there’s plenty new in the offing.
At Epcot Center, the immersive film experience Soarin’ Over
California will get an upgrade when it’s replaced by Soarin’ Around the
World. Meanwhile, at Epcot’s Norway
Pavilion, the Frozen Ever After water ride attraction will make its debut along
with Royal Sommerhaus, which imagines the summer vacation retreat of Queen Elsa
and Princess Anna.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the park will begin staying open
at night for the first time, starting on Memorial Day weekend. That means
guests will be able to experience the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction in
semidarkness. Disney has even brought in some nocturnal animals, including
hyenas, to augment the nighttime safaris. Later in the summer, the evening
light show “Rivers of Light” will also premier.
Disney Springs, known until last September as Downtown
Disney, will also see a major enhancement when its fourth “neighborhood,”
called Town Center, opens in May. Built where a parking lot used to stand, Town
Center will have approximately 60 shops and restaurants set along and near the
body of water that gives Disney Springs its name.
All of these changes, of course, shouldn’t surprise anyone.
As Marisa Langford, a travel writer and blogger and a mother of four from Tampa reminded me this
week, Disney’s capacity for reinvention is very much a part of the company’s
mystique. Indeed, she said, that
constant process of invention and reinvention enables her children to feel like
they are in a new place every summer, when they make their Disney sojourns.
But for all the upcoming debuts at the other parks, it’s the
renewed emphasis on Star Wars at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that has convinced
me that I must catch up on the sci-fi series that was so much a part of my
youth. Last fall, the park opened the Star Wars Launch Bay, which along with a
short film highlighting the impact of the series on the popular imagination, is
also a sort of museum of Star Wars paraphernalia and costumes.
Then this winter, the beautifully choreographed fireworks
show “Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular,” was unveiled.
The Stormtrooper parade at Hollywood Studios. Photo Credit: Robert Silk
Most recently, Hollywood Studios began offering the daytime
stage show “Star Wars: A Galaxy Far Far Away.” Backed by video clips from the
"Star Wars" series, it features appearances from many of the franchise’s most
popular (and reviled) characters. Shortly after the show concludes, the dreaded
stormtroopers march military style from the Launch Bay to the front of the
stage, where they do a presentation of arms.
And Hollywood Studios isn’t done with Star Wars yet; not by
a long shot. This summer, the Star Wars fireworks show will get a new look,
enhanced by laser lights. Much more substantially, Disney will develop a
14-acre Star Wars land at Hollywood Studios. Groundbreaking for the sister Star
Wars land at Disneyland took place last week. Among the attractions at the Star
Wars lands will be one in which guests take control of the Millennium Falcon
spacecraft.
One day I might captain the Falcon myself. First, I need to
catch up on the Star Wars series.