ORLANDO, Fla. — We knew this would be a different kind of Walt Disney World vacation when we bit the bullet and packed an extra suitcase … for costumes.
While Universal Orlando once used the tagline “ride the movies,” Walt Disney World’s new Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience (otherwise known as “the ‘Star Wars’ hotel”) lives up to that billing in a way an Incredible Hulk-branded roller coaster simply cannot.
A satisfying combination of dinner theater, larping (live action role playing) and video gaming, Galactic Starcruiser is really an interactive, cosplay experience.
During guests’ 45-hour stay, a troupe of Equity actors half-improvise and half-act out a complete “Star Wars” story that guests can take part in — and influence — by the choices they make early in their stay. You might choose to work for the Resistance (the good guys), the First Order (baddies) or just be a scoundrel who plays both sides.
“It is a place you sleep, that’s technically true,” said Anisha Deshmane, a creative producer at Walt Disney Imagineering who earned a master’s in entertainment technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. “But really it is a two-day, immersive story that you and all of the other passengers play a role in the outcome of this particular journey. It’s part-immersive theater, part-attraction, part-place-you-can-stay-and-sleep-and-eat-and-drink.”
A stay at Starcruiser is a chance to “play ‘Star Wars’ ” on a grand scale. It also comes with an out-of-this-world price tag.
Starting at $4,809 for two guests in a cabin ($6,000 for a family of four), including two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, a stay at Galactic Starcruiser is a big swing.
The high cost is related not only to the expense of building the setting for the physical experience, but also the number of people necessary to bring it to life, including eight to 12 Equity actors during each stay.
Is it worth it? As with many things, that will be an individual decision. As a lifelong “Star Wars” fan, Galactic Starcruiser exceeded my expectations that had been tempered by some uninspired marketing Disney released in recent months. In fairness, it is hard to fully describe without giving away the story, which I will try to avoid doing here.
The look of Starcruiser feels genuinely “Star Wars” but in a premium style glimpsed only briefly in the movies (Dryden Vos’ yacht in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Canto Bight’s casino in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”).
“We took a step back and said, ‘What does luxury, high-end ‘Star Wars’ feel like on a Starcruiser?’ ” said Bryce Schulte, an interior designer with Walt Disney Imagineering and project art director on Galactic Starcruiser. “We’ve really created a gorgeous interior design language for Chandrila Star Line and the Halcyon Starcruiser that guests are going to be able to look and see and touch and sleep in.”
Cabins feature a “window” that looks out into space (spaceships cruise by frequently), a queen bed and two bunk beds.
Disney’s attention-to-detail, often impressive, is off-the-charts at Starcruiser, from creating a brand for Chandrila Star Line that’s consistent throughout the ship to the labeled box that holds a “thermal blower” (hairdryer) in the cabin bathroom.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to getting into the swing of playing along with the story that unfolds during a Galactic Starcruiser stay is interaction with the actors who play the lead characters — blue-skinned Capt. Ryola Keevan; cruise director Lenka Mok, Twi’lek singer Gaya, First Order Lt. Harman Croy — because we’re accustomed to just watching characters, whether on stage at the Benedum Center or at Disney Studios’ “Beauty and the Beast” theme park show, not joining their story.
But at Galactic Starcruiser, guests are rewarded for talking to these characters and getting pulled into the story, which is set between “The Last Jedi” and “Rise of Skywalker.” One guest asked Lt. Croy if he had met Darth Vader. Croy, offended, snapped back, “I think I’m a bit young for that!”
“Just like in life, the longer we spend with each other, the deeper we relate,” said Cory Rouse, a creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering. “It’s OK to connect. It’s OK to go deeper. The more you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it.”
In addition to the professional actors, the rest of the Starcruiser crew — what you’d typically think of as front desk staff, restaurant servers, etc. — also are performing with fully-formed backstories of what “Star Wars” world they came from. They’re happy to share that with guests in monologues that are far more in-depth than the folks stationed at cash registers in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney Studios who often seem to be from the same Batuu fishing village.
Stephen Lim, guest experience manager for Starcruiser, notes service staff on Starcruiser are cross-trained in many areas, from passenger services (the front desk) to the gift shop, to the restaurant to hosting activities in the atrium, where much of the story unfolds.
“That creates connections in each part of the ship,” Lim said. “We’ve really talked to our crew members about creating a culture where our passengers feel known.”
The backstory created for Galactic Starcruiser is that this ship, the Halcyon, has been in service for 275 years — Princess Leia and Han Solo had their honeymoon aboard it in a bit of Disney-managed retroactive continuity — but the Halcyon was recently renovated. Keevan and Mok welcome passengers aboard the first afternoon of guests’ stay, and then the First Order arrives and the story takes off. Its themes of perseverance and working together resonate — particularly in a partisan-divided America — in a way that stirs emotions as “Star Wars” at its best can do (think: The Mandalorian’s relationship with Grogu) before devolving into a bit of bothsides-ism during the story’s finale, the second and final night of the experience.
Guests use “datapads” (initially provided; once technical kinks are worked out, guests will need to use their own phones, one for each member of their party if they want to play individually) and the Play Disney app to learn where they need to be (lightsaber training; bridge operations training, which is basically playing video games) and when. And they receive communications from the characters with questions that send them on missions (in the ship’s dingy engineering room or to unlock the ship’s cargo bay or brig) and down different story paths.
Deshmane worked as a narrative system designer on Starcruiser.
“You think about this connected story, all these pieces that integrate together — how the conversation you have with a live, performed character continues on your datapad — and the choices you make and the consequences they have. I was working on a lot of the game logic that brings that to life,” explained Deshmane, who before Disney worked in Pittsburgh at Schell Games, including on the Idlewild trolley ride refresh (“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” became “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”) that debuted in 2015. “I played a lot of make-believe as a kid — Fred Rogers taught me well — and this, to me, is the ultimate version of that. You are fully immersed in that story. The things that you do actually have an impact on the outcomes that you see.”
In addition to the datapad Q&As, guests also can interact with D3-O9, artificial intelligence that can be summoned by the push of a button in Starcruiser cabins. I expected this to be an Alexa-simple AI, but D3-O9, a computer-animated droid that appears on an in-cabin screen, was more responsive and understood more than I expected, sometimes asking my 11-year-old open-ended questions and not just questions with yes/no answers.
The story continues during the first night’s dinner in the Crown of Corelia dining room where futuristic-looking meals are served. This is not theme park fare but gourmet, three-course dinners (with breakfast and lunch buffets) made to look alien, from blue iced Felucian shrimp (shrimp cocktail) to whole-grain green pearberry toast (avocado toast).
Brian Piasecki, Walt Disney World culinary director, said the goal was to put a spin on common food items. For the avocado toast, Piasecki employs a spiral mold generally used for pastries — a mousse or frozen gelato — on a savory item.
“It kind of plays with your head a little bit, and it makes avocado toast look fancy and different, a little bit unique,” he said.
That aptly describes the entire Galactic Starcruiser experience where a busy two-and-a-half days and two nights race by like a jump into hyperspace.
“We designed this with the complexities of life in mind,” Disney Imagineering’s Rouse said, noting that no one guest is likely to see every bit of the story unfold. “Things continue even if you’re not looking at it. It’s not like a movie. In a movie, I get to see everything. This idea of continuous momentum means that things continue to unfold and things go deeper and deeper. You may be on one (story) track, but there are other paths going on that may impact the overall adventure.”
