When news first broke three or four years ago that this hotel/event being planned for Walt Disney World, I was quite confident that we would want to do it. It opened at the perfect time, because our 12-going-on-13 year old armed with a love of Star Wars and his own cell phone but still some childlike sense of wonder was the perfect age. And because he loved it, we loved it. Don't get me wrong; we would have loved it as a couple. But it was even better seeing his adventures along the way.
Monday: all "cruises" are 2 days. We were scheduled to embark on Monday between 1-4 p.m. Disembarkation was Wednesday before 10 a.m. We did the morning in Hollywood Studios, and while we didn't get role play costumes for the Star Cruiser, we were wearing our matching baby Yoda shirts. That was enough right?! We were almost the only guests on board NOT wearing some sort of costume. William later picked a Jedi training shirt and light saber for his birthday gift, so that just left me and John in street clothes!
The hotel has roughly 100 rooms, so it's like a really small cruise ship where you see the same people over-and-over. We very much enjoyed the people watching! One family in full costume had actually been staying at Riviera and walked through the lobby to leave right as we were, so they were our first glimpse of how "into" character guests were going to be! We got checked in at the cruise terminal and "transported" to the Halcyon. Once onboard it really looked and functioned like a cruise ship in outer space. The "windows" all showed storyline appropriate space views, the atrium was the center of the action, the guest rooms looked just like cruise rooms except the port hole was into space.
Our first stop after dropping in at our room was the lunch buffet. Food was plentiful and tasty on the ship. Many standard fare options like chicken nuggets and mac 'n cheese, but with a much more elevated appearance. It was fun to guess what was what. I preferred the breakfast and lunch buffets to the family style plated dinners. The cocktails were not included, but we tried every single one to say we had! Out of the ~10, there were two that were great. That's about what I was expecting!
Perhaps the simplest explanation is that this is a 2 day dinner theatre where everyone stays in character. But there are heavy technology elements through communication on our "datapads" (i.e. phone app). We had a ton of fun on Monday exploring the ship and participating in the progression of the story line. But bedtime we were all clearly on the light or the dark side - or playing both!
Tuesday: the ship had tenders to do an excursion to the Planet Batuu (aka Galaxy's Edge in Hollywood Studios). I didn't try to peel back the magic too much, but I think it was a shuttle bus that drove us about 100 yards across the parking lot and into the backlot of the park. When we got off the shuttle, we walked through an area that took us right into the heart of Galaxy's Edge - popping out in an area tucked in the back of the land. There we had some game-specific tasks to do to advance the side of our cause. We also had Lightning Lane access to ride each of the rides - Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler's Run - which had some "extras" in the app compared to when we've ridden before. We spent about 3 hours on Batuu before shuttling back to the ship.
Back on board it was pretty quiet, so we took the opportunity to get some Photopass shots of all of us, but mostly William with his outfit and saber. The photographer got some awesome ones on the bridge of the ship! We already have Photopass included in our regular Disney annual pass, so this wasn't any extra. There was a photographer you could hire, and we watched several families on their mini shoots get pictures in the bridge area and in the Sublight Lounge, which had neat backgrounds. It was cool to watch while we were working through the snack and cocktail menu! There was also a Sabaac table in the lounge that William played but John and I didn't get a chance to use.
Also on board Tuesday we had light saber training, which complimented the bridge training from Monday. The other thing I took advantage of while it was quieter was to scan more codes around the ship. Some really funny hidden messages were revealed.
Tuesday evening was the culmination of the storyline, and we all lived happily ever after! Or something like that! There were a ton of characters on board on Tuesday night, but really throughout the voyage. I suppose you need to know something about Star Wars and have some sense of playing along with the storyline. But, the experience as a whole was really fun - it was the combination of the cast, the other guests, the facilities, the food. We just had a wonderful time.
Wednesday: similar to a cruise ship, it's everyone off at once, so it took a bit for our car to get pulled around. We seemed to be one of the last families off the ship after enjoying a leisurely breakfast and packing up our new treasures. As with the conclusion of any Disney "ride" there was another gift shop at the exit! I wanted a t-shirt but they didn't have any ladies shirts in my size. Since it was early, we just drove over to Hollywood Studios - still a short drive, but this time we used the regular parking lot and front gate! We enjoyed more rides and pictures and snacks before heading to the airport for the trip home.
