corran horn
Well-Known Member
She walks around the room. I know because I was there this past weekend. People seemed to enjoy it.
She also does an acoustic set in the atrium. Don't worry - no pillars.
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News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021
- Thread starter wdwmagic
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She walks around the room. I know because I was there this past weekend. People seemed to enjoy it.
She also does an acoustic set in the atrium. Don't worry - no pillars.
ehh
Member
I'm a lurker more than a poster, but thought I'd post my experience from a voyage in early May. An element of this will be how my opinion has shifted over time on the Starcruiser.
Lead up
Admittedly, I got very excited for this trip, more than normal. It was a trip where we were doing something outside of the norm, where there was a huge new thing at the end of our trip and it was going be much different than other trips where maybe we try some new restaurants or attractions but otherwise have an experience in the same ballpark as earlier WDW trips.
In the week lead up, we stayed at Bay Lake Tower (never again!) and did compromise our trip a bit to conserve energy for Starcruiser. While we had an excellent trip overall, there was a constant nervous excitement for the Starcruiser voyage at the end of our trip that took us out of the moment at WDW a bit.
Part of the nervous excitement might have been my attempt to avoid spoilers and not knowing really what to expect for 1.5 days of life. I knew there was a LARP story (and we had never LARPed before), I knew we picked sides/paths, I knew there was blue shrimp, I knew there was lightsaber training, I knew the datapad was important, I knew that there was merch (that there might be lines for), I had heard there was [a specific story piece], but that's basically all I knew.
I did try to come up with a backstory, but it was ultimately pointless. My wife is less of a fan of Star Wars and had me make a simple backstory for her; she enjoys the films and shows, but not as much as other films/shows, and generally doesn't spend any of her own time thinking about Star Wars.
Check-in
We arrived about an hour early and were able to join the second transport up to the Halcyon. Our outfits were moderately and simply themed to SW, not nearly as intricate as some of the groups ahead of us. I felt like we might be a little out of our element, but the groups behind us were generally even less themed than we were so this might have just been biased to arrival time.
The initial reveal of the lobby, especially with it being almost completely empty, was awesome.
After our transport up, we took some pictures in the Halcyon, stopped at our cabin briefly, then went straight to the store to get ahead of any lines. No lines ever appeared to materialize.
We went to Sublight lounge, which is fantastic, learned how to play Sabacc, and had a few drinks. The folks we played Sabacc with had very intricate backstories and were immediately in character. Again I felt like maybe we were out of our element and taking on more than we could chew as we didn't really know what we were doing.
The cabin
I booked a Galaxy Class Suite (the 1-bedroom variety) for my wife and me. It was only ~15% more expensive for 2x the space, so it seemed reasonable, but it didn't really add much as the bed was the same queen (which was way too soft). The biggest upgrade was the shower and the living room space. We did let our stuff/suitcases consume almost the entire living room, though, so we put the extra space to use.
I think we're split on whether we'd book the 1BR again, with my wife in favor of it and me leaning against it.
The cabin is cool and very well themed.
The story begins
Going in, I wish I had known more about how the mechanics of the story worked and how important face time was with characters. I had early, extended, incidental face time with a character on the other side, so it ultimately meant nothing. I thought more of the story would go through the datapad than what actually happened. We declared our side on the datapad early and thought the story would come flowing in, but it did not other than the basics.
I didn't have any face time with 'my' main character until well after dinner when I spotted them in the lobby and approached them. They got me setup to do more later, but until this point I felt a little lost, like I was missing something, and was honestly pretty underwhelmed. I had just been checking my datapad over and over for something new, but not much new came up.
We wandered aimlessly across the various rooms, waiting for something to happen. The key, as we know now, is talking to characters to enter story threads.
Dinner/Gaya
Gaya's performance was excellent, and the food was generally very good. We were lucky to book the captain's table ($30 extra per person) and it was borderline worth it. You get very little for the extra cost, but it also doesn't cost that much (less than Palo upcharge, for example).
Bridge training
This was excellent, a highlight.
Day 2 - Batuu
We were generally warned about making sure we were completing all tasks to get the most out of it--a big priority for us--so we went downstairs to depart to Batuu first thing that morning. We were on the 2nd transport, again, and only had to wait a few minutes once they got started.
We didn't have as much to do in Batuu as we hoped. We had a main and secondary story to pursue but still wished we had more. I think at this point we both still had the mentality of "let's have the datapad tell us what to do" that honestly probably caused us to miss some stuff because we hadn't been proactive with characters earlier.
While on Batuu, when the datapad tasks had all been completed, I realized [a specific story piece I alluded to above] was not something we were going to experience and got pretty disappointed.
Lightsaber training
I had seen the underwhelming D'Amaro video and was expecting a bad experience. It was actually pretty great!
Day 2 - Story conclusion
Fortunately I did manage to get onto the main thread of my chosen side and (I think) got the full-fat ending. The final escalation of the story was great and the overall conclusion was very good. I certainly have notes/feedback, but I'm not sure if this the time or place for them.
Day 2 - Wrap up
At this point I think both of us were really impressed, a little sad it was over, but also thinking we probably weren't ever going to do this again. It was an expensive but worthwhile one-time experience.
Day 3 - Checkout
Honestly, we had a really bad experience at checkout that almost resulted in us missing our flight. We would absolutely not ask them to hold our bags again while we went to the parks before our flights.
The month since
Our opinion has shifted from "worthwhile one-time experience" to "we want to do this again". Even my non-enthusiast wife got fully immersed and agrees; she thinks it was extremely cool.
Part of it is that it's been stuck in our minds way more than other Disney/non-Disney vacations have been in recent memory. At this point there's an itch that we think only Starcruiser can scratch. We don't feel an urgent need to scratch it, but it's there.
Part of this comes from the stuff we missed, but trying to piece things together we don't think we could have done everything we wanted to do in a single voyage, even if we knew everything in advance. So we want to experience elements we missed originally. It's fair to interpret this as a negative, but we don't see it this way. As frequent visitors to WDW, we're very used to not being able to do everything possible or even everything we want to do, and in this case we're to blame for missing out due to intentional, regrettable ignorance. I'd say it's more like wanting to play a video game again, but do things differently to have a different experience.
Part of it is that we have friends we occasionally travel with and we think they'd love it. We think it could make for a fun group trip for the 7 of us.
Overall
It's not a perfect experience, but it was incredible. It exceeded our expectations in a lot of ways and has us looking forward to this type of experience in the future.
Lead up
Admittedly, I got very excited for this trip, more than normal. It was a trip where we were doing something outside of the norm, where there was a huge new thing at the end of our trip and it was going be much different than other trips where maybe we try some new restaurants or attractions but otherwise have an experience in the same ballpark as earlier WDW trips.
In the week lead up, we stayed at Bay Lake Tower (never again!) and did compromise our trip a bit to conserve energy for Starcruiser. While we had an excellent trip overall, there was a constant nervous excitement for the Starcruiser voyage at the end of our trip that took us out of the moment at WDW a bit.
Part of the nervous excitement might have been my attempt to avoid spoilers and not knowing really what to expect for 1.5 days of life. I knew there was a LARP story (and we had never LARPed before), I knew we picked sides/paths, I knew there was blue shrimp, I knew there was lightsaber training, I knew the datapad was important, I knew that there was merch (that there might be lines for), I had heard there was [a specific story piece], but that's basically all I knew.
I did try to come up with a backstory, but it was ultimately pointless. My wife is less of a fan of Star Wars and had me make a simple backstory for her; she enjoys the films and shows, but not as much as other films/shows, and generally doesn't spend any of her own time thinking about Star Wars.
Check-in
We arrived about an hour early and were able to join the second transport up to the Halcyon. Our outfits were moderately and simply themed to SW, not nearly as intricate as some of the groups ahead of us. I felt like we might be a little out of our element, but the groups behind us were generally even less themed than we were so this might have just been biased to arrival time.
The initial reveal of the lobby, especially with it being almost completely empty, was awesome.
After our transport up, we took some pictures in the Halcyon, stopped at our cabin briefly, then went straight to the store to get ahead of any lines. No lines ever appeared to materialize.
We went to Sublight lounge, which is fantastic, learned how to play Sabacc, and had a few drinks. The folks we played Sabacc with had very intricate backstories and were immediately in character. Again I felt like maybe we were out of our element and taking on more than we could chew as we didn't really know what we were doing.
The cabin
I booked a Galaxy Class Suite (the 1-bedroom variety) for my wife and me. It was only ~15% more expensive for 2x the space, so it seemed reasonable, but it didn't really add much as the bed was the same queen (which was way too soft). The biggest upgrade was the shower and the living room space. We did let our stuff/suitcases consume almost the entire living room, though, so we put the extra space to use.
I think we're split on whether we'd book the 1BR again, with my wife in favor of it and me leaning against it.
The cabin is cool and very well themed.
The story begins
Going in, I wish I had known more about how the mechanics of the story worked and how important face time was with characters. I had early, extended, incidental face time with a character on the other side, so it ultimately meant nothing. I thought more of the story would go through the datapad than what actually happened. We declared our side on the datapad early and thought the story would come flowing in, but it did not other than the basics.
I didn't have any face time with 'my' main character until well after dinner when I spotted them in the lobby and approached them. They got me setup to do more later, but until this point I felt a little lost, like I was missing something, and was honestly pretty underwhelmed. I had just been checking my datapad over and over for something new, but not much new came up.
We wandered aimlessly across the various rooms, waiting for something to happen. The key, as we know now, is talking to characters to enter story threads.
Dinner/Gaya
Gaya's performance was excellent, and the food was generally very good. We were lucky to book the captain's table ($30 extra per person) and it was borderline worth it. You get very little for the extra cost, but it also doesn't cost that much (less than Palo upcharge, for example).
Bridge training
This was excellent, a highlight.
Day 2 - Batuu
We were generally warned about making sure we were completing all tasks to get the most out of it--a big priority for us--so we went downstairs to depart to Batuu first thing that morning. We were on the 2nd transport, again, and only had to wait a few minutes once they got started.
We didn't have as much to do in Batuu as we hoped. We had a main and secondary story to pursue but still wished we had more. I think at this point we both still had the mentality of "let's have the datapad tell us what to do" that honestly probably caused us to miss some stuff because we hadn't been proactive with characters earlier.
While on Batuu, when the datapad tasks had all been completed, I realized [a specific story piece I alluded to above] was not something we were going to experience and got pretty disappointed.
Lightsaber training
I had seen the underwhelming D'Amaro video and was expecting a bad experience. It was actually pretty great!
Day 2 - Story conclusion
Fortunately I did manage to get onto the main thread of my chosen side and (I think) got the full-fat ending. The final escalation of the story was great and the overall conclusion was very good. I certainly have notes/feedback, but I'm not sure if this the time or place for them.
Day 2 - Wrap up
At this point I think both of us were really impressed, a little sad it was over, but also thinking we probably weren't ever going to do this again. It was an expensive but worthwhile one-time experience.
Day 3 - Checkout
Honestly, we had a really bad experience at checkout that almost resulted in us missing our flight. We would absolutely not ask them to hold our bags again while we went to the parks before our flights.
The month since
Our opinion has shifted from "worthwhile one-time experience" to "we want to do this again". Even my non-enthusiast wife got fully immersed and agrees; she thinks it was extremely cool.
Part of it is that it's been stuck in our minds way more than other Disney/non-Disney vacations have been in recent memory. At this point there's an itch that we think only Starcruiser can scratch. We don't feel an urgent need to scratch it, but it's there.
Part of this comes from the stuff we missed, but trying to piece things together we don't think we could have done everything we wanted to do in a single voyage, even if we knew everything in advance. So we want to experience elements we missed originally. It's fair to interpret this as a negative, but we don't see it this way. As frequent visitors to WDW, we're very used to not being able to do everything possible or even everything we want to do, and in this case we're to blame for missing out due to intentional, regrettable ignorance. I'd say it's more like wanting to play a video game again, but do things differently to have a different experience.
Part of it is that we have friends we occasionally travel with and we think they'd love it. We think it could make for a fun group trip for the 7 of us.
Overall
It's not a perfect experience, but it was incredible. It exceeded our expectations in a lot of ways and has us looking forward to this type of experience in the future.
corran horn
Well-Known Member
Great review! Thanks for posting. It inspired to get off my duff and do my own based on our experiences the weekend before this last.
I may put in some spoiler stuff but I'll mark it as such. The long and the short of it is we had a great time. We felt it was worth the money. Like you we're thinking about doing it again. (with a caveat) I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, to be honest.
To address directly some things that've been asked-after and argued throughout this thread, all opinions my own subject to my own error or misunderstanding.
- The ship isn't constantly going into hyperspace every time you look out your window. For one reason, there isn't bridge training every hour on the hour. Much of the time there was nobody in there and nothing was actively functional. I did see hyperspace jump outside our cabin window once.
- Some ships do make a 'whoosh' sound as they go past the bridge window and your stateroom window.
- If you sleep with your stateroom window open the lights surrounding it are pretty bright. I wish they could've been dimmed. There's also an annoying beep as you open and close, making it awkward to do it in the middle of the night if others are sleeping and you want it closed.
- The bathroom is fine - counter space is spare (we had a standard room with the queen, flip down (which we ended up using to put souvenir and suitcases on eventually) The shower (rain and jet) is huge.
- The two bunks were fine for my kids (11m and 15f) and they found perfectly roomy. Each bunk has an accent light for reading. There's only one USB slot for charging which was unfortunate but we brought power plugs and such anyway.
- There's a subtle hum throughout the ship, not sure if it was the AC or something they pumped it. It was effective either way.
- I never saw the emersion broken by somebody opening a door to the outside or anything. 'backstage' when glimpsed (barely, as like a housekeeping utility closet) was perfectly fine and acceptable.
- Our cabin (7-320) didn't hear the outside at all, but somebody on the same floor on reddit but across the hall said they could hear sirens at once point. I never heard anything of the outside.
- The food was great, plentiful, and not as oddly exotic as I'd feared. My son ate fine, even if we did have to ask for the lunch mac & cheese to replace his captain's table meal the second night. They were perfectly accommodating all throughout.
- There were some people who were a little aggressively socially awkward (not sure how to phrase it) and the cast (characters and ship personnel) handled them perfectly, often giving them separate 'jobs' so they'd be satiated and not disruptive to others.
- There is some crowding around characters at times, but this can be good if you're at a loss w/r/t your storyline and trying to get something going. Kids were prioritized. For example, a kid jumped us to hyperspace during our bridge training session.
- Events (popping to your datapad) and scheduled things (bridge training, lightsaber training which can be anywhere between the two days) are staggered to keep from overcrowding (as far as I know) and each is effected by where the overall ship is in its storyline. What day they're done can also affect your personal storylines (more on that in spoilers).
- As mentioned, Gaya goes around the room during both shows. I don't know that there's a 'bad' seat. At the Captain's table we got good seating for story moments and 'coin' type souvenirs that I was surprised we got to keep.
- The green and blue milk flows freely in the dining room during breakfast and lunch.
- We did the photo session really early Sunday morning and that ended up being great as most ship areas were totally bare of people.
- I never saw anybody, characters or ship personnel, wink and nod at any point. They treated it like it was all real.
- I'd say anywhere from 30-40% of the people there dressed in-universe.
- I never saw anybody smoking in the climate simulator. It was closed briefly on Sunday when it was raining. It servers as a spillover briefing area for the Batuu excursion as well. (shuttle lines were long going, short coming back)
- The drive-up is as discussed, you can see backstage. It's not very glamorous.
- There's no Disney transpo to GS. I guess there used to be. We had to take a cab from Boardwalk. We paid for it but I guess there could've been some voucher. It was like $10 and by then there were other things on my mind.
- On our cruise there was one teenage kid there who was dressed out like a First Order officer, straight up. You can guess his alignment.
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Echoing others not even storyline just pops into your datapad automatically. I don't want to get too deep but there's something you can do that kicks off a storyline at one of the ship's terminals.
[*]Our Raithe was great. Simply great. Lt Croy was as well. I got him to laugh at one point.
[*]Our lightsaber training was late on the second night so we didn't spend a lot of time with the saja(s) and I think that kept us from the Jedi path.
[*]After getting some spare events I noticed Raithe was hanging around after dinner the first night and I struck up a conversation with him based on something Gaya had said during her performance. This led us into a big storyline all the way to the endgame.
[*]I talked to Lenka when the First Order shows up as she was in the atrium, mentioning how when I was a kid (our backstory was we were from Lothal, from Rebels) the empire had caused trouble on Lothal and eventually were chased away, and I didn't want my kids to have to live through that with the First Order and she keyed in on that and that started another storyline with us
[*]My son loved Engineering. He always wanted to go there. That ended up working out well for one storyline.
[*]The characters have their own ways in and out of rooms to push story actions. Gaya exited the cargo bay when we were by the only (visible) exit. The Captain also showed up at an inopportune time from the lounge to the Atrium and I'm pretty sure she didn't use the regular exit.
[*]Good luck unlocking the brig from any other console other than the one right outside. To get there fast enough I had to wait until nobody was around and hoof it.
[*]Not every room was immediately accessible (cargo bay, engineering) but eventually through work and contacts you'll get there.
[*]I talked my way into the 'secret' pin at the store. How they reveal it was pretty great.
[*]We had 6 tasks on Batuu that tied into storylines. I guess you used to have to go into the cantina for one, but they've stationed someone outside to keep you from having to go in/get a reservation.
[*]One of our scannables we needed on Batuu had moved because it had been near the area that was walled-off for the new Magic Band 2.0 bounty hunter game, but it'd simply been moved. We found it eventually.
[*]There's areas on the ship with 'secret' magicband readers for you to scan and be involved in various things.
[*]one negative, the Batuu shuttle is pretty clearly what it is in reality. I wish they could've made it more immersive. The inside and visuals are fine, but the path taken and the 'feeling' reveal what it really is.
[*]my daughter loved the in-room droid comms. Great voice recognition. She wanted to keep checking for messages.
[*]On Sunday after returning from Batuu and all those tasks and the two rides and Droid Depot we had 4 events (2 popped to datapad, 2 characters saying 'meet me in the X at Y o'clock) - by dinner we were exhausted.
- Talk to people as others have said. What've you got to lose?
- Batuu may be hot during your stay. The ship was perfectly temperate though I don't think the in-room AC goes below 72F. They provide water at boarding line, the Batuu shuttle line back and forth, and there's dispensers in the Atrium.
- Lightning Lane for RotR and SR was very nice. Both tie-in to storylines on the ship.
- If you just want to hang out, sit in the Atrium. Things will happen and characters will be wandering around. They know the setup isn't easy for everybody so they'll try to get you involved.
- You don't need to have a backstory, but characters will often ask your name. Whether that's for 'tagging' you in the system to storylines (or the magicband does it somehow) I don't know.
Overall:
This was a wonderful experience. We'd love to do it again in a few years. I presume they will change some storylines. Doing it again without that would feel like I was simply reaching out purposefully for things I hadn't done and it wouldn't be organic.
I can't say enough about the professionalism of the characters and staff. It MADE the experience. Raithe, Gaya, Lenka, the Captain, Lt. Croy, Sammy. Wonderful. Service was impeccable.
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MagicHappens1971
Well-Known Member
They’re supposed to reimburse you for the cab
Awesome review. It's interesting to read everyone saying that they kept thinking about the experience for days/weeks after leaving. The same was absolutely true with us.
I left your spoiler tags in place, but that is 100% the best way to get involved in the story. You don't really need a developed character at all, you just need to express your allegiance to the different characters and they will get you on the path(s). The datapad questionaires are more or less there to reinforce those allegiances and/or give you a bare minimum experience, but at its heart it's a LARP -- it's going to require interacting with the characters to get the most out of it.
re: brig -- If you convert it into numbers (1-6), you can do it remotely with a partner via text, but it's still hard. They should probably bump the refresh time up by 5 or 10 seconds. There were a lot of people who didn't even realize it was changing at all and were baffled as to why they couldn't get in. We helped as many as we could.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
Why Did the Star Wars Hotel Flop? Disney Is Desperate To Find Out
Disney is looking to understand why their first fully immersive hotel experience, the Star Wars Galatic Starcruiser, was so divisive.
corran horn
Well-Known Member
I'm just hoping to get $175 to tell them how much I like it. (if this is real at all)Why Did the Star Wars Hotel Flop? Disney Is Desperate To Find Out
Disney is looking to understand why their first fully immersive hotel experience, the Star Wars Galatic Starcruiser, was so divisive.www.fatherly.com
There's no new info here behind the survey and presumptions for its purpose.
This is a big ol' lie:Why Did the Star Wars Hotel Flop? Disney Is Desperate To Find Out
Disney is looking to understand why their first fully immersive hotel experience, the Star Wars Galatic Starcruiser, was so divisive.
According to Disneyland News, the company is looking to understand why their first fully immersive hotel experience was so bad that no one wanted to book a stay.
Just click the link to the source. Disneyland News did not say in any way that the purpose of the survey was to find out why no one wanted to stay. What a piece of garbage this article is.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I love articles that cite a source.. and then completely contradict what the source actually says.Why Did the Star Wars Hotel Flop? Disney Is Desperate To Find Out
Disney is looking to understand why their first fully immersive hotel experience, the Star Wars Galatic Starcruiser, was so divisive.
The source doesn't say anything about the survey being about things wrong/bad with the hotel.
People that publish crap like this should be flogged.
Actual data:
The number of cruises that are fully booked has pretty much stopped increasing. Up until a few weeks ago, the number of fully booked rooms was increasing... slowly. But has now crawled to a stop.
Ran out of whales? Inflation? <shrug>
The number of cruises that are fully booked has pretty much stopped increasing. Up until a few weeks ago, the number of fully booked rooms was increasing... slowly. But has now crawled to a stop.
Ran out of whales? Inflation? <shrug>
RoadiJeff
Well-Known Member
Gas prices and runaway inflation would be my guess.
After reading these stories of people who did the cruise, I really want to do it someday. My work and some family matters currently keep me from doing this. My wife seems to have absolutely no interest in going, so I'll have to recruit some friends since I don't want to foot the whole bill.
HoustonHorn
Premium Member
I was invited and filled out the survey. If chosen to participate, I will report back (assuming no NDA issues). This Fatherly "article" was complete garbage; the source made no judgment or supposition as to the purpose (surprising, all things considered).
Also, FYI, I did get a follow-up email after a day or two correcting the subject line of the email - it should have said Disney World, not Disneyland.
There just aren't that many whales in the sea--you have to be a big Star Wars nerd who is also a huge fan of Disney Parks entertainment and has a spare $6k lying around. Most of the big Star Wars fans who are in the income range are older dudes (and some dude-ettes) who like to collect stuff and game but aren't so much into sustained face to face larping. It does seem to work for most of those who go, but there just aren't that many who are comfortable with the concept. (A 1 hour, $200 Jedi/Sith training where you can get a picture of your costumed kid doing Padawan exercises with you would drive this audience CRAZY, though. Just a thought...)
That and the economic circumstances mean that it's not a great idea to tell people you're going to a $6k, 2 night experience unless you are in a Make a Wish situation. When times are good, you might get some funny looks, but right now your peers will either think you're wasteful or that you're tacky. If you're the kind of person who chooses a vacation trip based on what your Instagram followers will think... Perhaps a local beach or park and a tasteful Airbnb this year, even if you technically have the resources to do otherwise. Or at least do trip abroad to show off your cultured soul... the $6k Disney experience isn't going to be it for those who might otherwise go simply to show they have the cash.
mightynine
Well-Known Member
Now it's just a question of how full this thing needs to be to make money.
And when the discounts start.
It wouldn't be good to those signed up to pay $5.5K to see future cruises priced at $4K. They would probably have to be at the end of profitable booked cruises to start the discount.
mightynine
Well-Known Member
I think they would just pull back on the number of cruises first before offering discounts.
Or maybe offer the potential discount only to previous guests.
Also, I did notice some advertising for the Halcyon on TV a few weeks ago...