Above: The classic Starjets ride at Tokyo Disneyland as it stood in mid-2017 just prior to its closure. Tokyo Disneyland was the last park to feature the space shuttle variation of the ride.

Back in 2017, when construction on the Beauty & the Beast area began, Starjets was one of Tomorrowland’s attractions that had to be removed to make way for it. That and the one churro stand that served the “blue”-flavored churros. I still haven’t forgiven OLC for that.

That year, Tokyo Disneyland held a “sayonara” campaign for Starjets so guests could say farewell and ride one last time. These are the pictures I took a couple of months before it was closed:

Starjets at Tokyo Disneyland, as seen from the ground near the entrance of Toon Town.

The sign for Starjets at Tokyo Disneyland, sponsored by Japan Airlines.

The sign for the wait time for Starjets, showing that it will be approximately 40 minutes from that point.
Pretty sure I only waited for about 15 minutes.

The elevated boarding area of Starjets just before the ride starts, other people are boarding their cars.
Standing on the platform, and even more so when you raised your car to the highest setting, you were given a great view of the initial construction of Beast’s Castle (As well as the rest of the park).

A handheld ice cream sundae featuring an edible card that reads "Starjets: The Last Mission".
The snack stand that was built into the base of Starjets served a special sundae that commemorated the end of the ride.

Hilariously, the land that Starjets occupied was used for a building that houses the FastPass ticket machines for the Beauty & the Beast ride… ticket machines that were never used because COVID ended FastPass throughout the resort just before that area was suppose to open to the public. Now express ticketing is done exclusively through the TDR app, so those machines have been abandoned in place for half a decade now. The building is designed to look like Maurice’s workshop from the animated movie, which is nice… I guess. It has a moving watermill.

  • @aeronmelonOPM
    link
    13 months ago

    Would rather they had just kept Starjets. Not that I’m bitter or anything.