Feb 26, 20224 min read

First Look at Disney's Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser

Last week, Disney invited influencers to a four-hour sneak peek aboard the much anticipated (and, due to cost, reviled) Galactic Starcruiser. In this week's article, we are sharing some of the most interesting tidbits from across the Galaxy.

In case you've been living under a rock, let's first recap what the Galactic Starcruiser is. Several years ago, Disney announced that they would be working on a "Star Wars hotel". That, alone, generated excitement. Such is the demand for Disney and all things Star Wars that had Disney left the concept at that and created a typical resort with a Star Wars theme, they would have done fine. But Disney, as Disney does, "plussed" this idea by later announcing that this would not be any ordinary hotel stay. Instead, they would turn the entire thing into an experience, akin to a cruise at sea, except a cruise amongst the galaxies, with interactive story elements and full immersion throughout the two night experience.

We've written about itineraries and prices here, and how the experience works in general here.

Now that you've been oriented to what the experience is, let's take a look at some of the snippets.

The Cabins

We love the Skytalkers podcast time-lapse of the viewport in their room on TikTok. Everything looks so much shinier and nicer than the concept art, which is surprising to us, but in the lighting provided, the cabins look much more "homey" than original art would indicate.

The Dining

We would be remiss if we did not address the blue shrimp. Yes, that's right. Just as anticipated, the dining does feature some strange galactic concoctions as shown in this TikTok from DisneyFoodBlog. And to answer their question, yes, I would eat the blue shrimp. If the kefta at Docking Bay 7 is any indication, Felucian cuisine is quite delicious.

This video from theshayspence on TikTok quickly discusses all aspects of the experience, but does provide more detail on the Sublight Lounge, and how the dining rotation works. TipYip Chicken Dumplings sound amazing to me as well! Dear Disney, in between "sailings", might you consider just letting people come aboard to dine in the dining room? I would pay a pretty penny for the sampler shown in Shay Spence's video!

And below is the Laughing Place's food tour on YouTube. Find their channel to see a really nice collection of videos from their experience.

Interactivity

Here there be spoilers!

Maybe.

It's hard to say when you don't have the full two-day story but we do know that stuff is going to get a little bit out of hand aboard the Starcruiser. I'm not sure who allowed Kylo and Rey on the same sailing, when they were in adversary mode, but yikes. They destroyed the ceiling!

But not all entertainment occurs on a stage. There are crew and guests from around the galaxy mingling with other guests throughout the experience.

The Full Experience

If you are clamoring for more details, there are several longer YouTube videos below that show the full preview experience. Again, beware - there may be spoilers!

Here is the Tim Tracker's full experience video, which comes in at an hour and a half, but is bound to be thorough:

And here is DIS Unplugged's video of their experience:

Some of our overall take-aways from the preview:

Many influencers, justifiably, recognize they what they experienced was free and that the question on many guests minds is whether the experience is worth the cost. They recognize that having not paid, they aren't yet able to say that. They are also recognizing that a four hour experience is a very small look at what a two-day experience would entail.
Many liken the experience to the Disney Cruise Line meets Rise of the Resistance, in that it takes elements of a cruise (itinerary, dining, entertainment) but injects immersive storytelling elements that truly only Cast Members can bring to life, which brings us to...
The Cast Members are exceptional. During the preview, they were on their A-game and if this remains the situation, they will have the power to make or break the experience for guests.
Some good news is that you don't always have to be on MyDisneyExperience for this experience. But before you sigh too deeply in relief that you don't have to be staring at your cell phone, keep in mind this is a screen heavy experience. All the "windows" are screens, your cabin will come with a personal assistant droid that is a screen (like an Echo Show on steroids), and if you really want to interact, you need to turn your phone into a datapad. And if you don't have a smartphone you can use at your datapad, apparently, they can also be acquired or rented, a particularly good consideration for children who might not have smartphones yet.

Overall, after seeing the prices, we must admit we were cooling on the idea of the Galactic Starcruiser, but the media event did exactly what it was intended to do, in our opinion. What do you think? Tell us in the comments or over on our Facebook page where you can follow us to see when new articles are posted each week. Until next time...