STAR WARS: GALACTIC STARCRUISER Official Information & Questions Thread

[Spazz2k]

I call this one Fett in the rain...

 

[hnthomps]

Our trip is in a week! . Thanks for all the great info. Staying at SSR two nights prior - only going to Moonlight Magic at Epcot on Thursday night and gonna enjoy a resort day Friday. Therefore I will be able to take a phone call.

Does this mean my kiddos (two teens with cell phones, 1 kid without) won’t need their own devices? First I’ve heard of their being something else.

I believe in an earlier post you mentioned a day to decompress. We have 5 nights at that other FL theme park after this. How would handle this? Hurry over for a fullish park day or take it easy with a pool and explore day. We’ve actually never been there.

Our kids (8&10) are too little for phones, so they used the phones provided by GS. And then beause the person helping me led me astray, they had to give me one as well. And another adult in our party isn't allowed to install apps on the work-provided phone, so also got one.

I would DEFINITELY recommend setting up as much as you can in advance. We spent way too much time trouble shooting this. Make kid accounts for your kids, download the app on all devices that you can, do everything you can to be set up in advance. And at the first sign of trouble, head to guest services.

There wlil be more about this in my trip report, which is in process.

 

[Nice Work Pal]

Boba Wett

 

[CampbellzSoup]

The hype from watching these videos got to me so I pleaded my case with my other half and the response was we can do two seven disney cruises for two days here, no.

defeat is had… but I’ll live through you guys and your amazing trip reports! Are you guys buying the outfits available to you before you go?

 

[Primerz]

Got back on Thursday, at the end of a great trip that started with the Galactic Starcruiser. I'm going to mostly echo what I've seen here.

Thoughts:

• We drove, and the valet parking was smooth. I lost my ticket and it wasn't a problem, not even a delay.
• Agree the lounge is cool, but find time to make it work with your schedule, not the other way around.
• My kids (7 & 9) all thought this was the highlight of the trip. They are unafraid to insert themselves into social situations, so that helped.
  • The younger one wasn't into reading the datapad as much as the older, but still managed to follow along.
  • The older hasn't seen any Star Wars media, and wasn't deterred in the slightest.

Advice:

• I wish I had more pictures taken in the ship, so if I could do it again, I'd get the photo package. When you are in the story you are likely to forget that you should snap a pic.
• We went to Animal Kingdom the next day, but shouldn't have. We didn't make it a long day but the Starcruiser experience would have benefited from some time to reflect on all we had seen and done.
• Take pictures of the datapad conversations- you won't be able to access them again once you leave and I would have liked to have been able to review them and think on my choices.
• Get the kids Disney Play accounts in advance, it saves a lot of time and time is the currency of your limited stay.
  • Actual currency is, too, of course!
• Have fun, go with the flow, lean-in, and may the force be with you!

I am happy to provide any spoiler free answers to your questions, so ask away!

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

Got back on Thursday, at the end of a great trip that started with the Galactic Starcruiser. I'm going to mostly echo what I've seen here.

Thoughts:

• We drove, and the valet parking was smooth. I lost my ticket and it wasn't a problem, not even a delay.
• Agree the lounge is cool, but find time to make it work with your schedule, not the other way around.
• My kids (7 & 9) all thought this was the highlight of the trip. They are unafraid to insert themselves into social situations, so that helped.
  • The younger one wasn't into reading the datapad as much as the older, but still managed to follow along.
  • The older hasn't seen any Star Wars media, and wasn't deterred in the slightest.

Advice:

• I wish I had more pictures taken in the ship, so if I could do it again, I'd get the photo package. When you are in the story you are likely to forget that you should snap a pic.
• We went to Animal Kingdom the next day, but shouldn't have. We didn't make it a long day but the Starcruiser experience would have benefited from some time to reflect on all we had seen and done.
• Take pictures of the datapad conversations- you won't be able to access them again once you leave and I would have liked to have been able to review them and think on my choices.
• Get the kids Disney Play accounts in advance, it saves a lot of time and time is the currency of your limited stay.
  • Actual currency is, too, of course!
• Have fun, go with the flow, lean-in, and may the force be with you!

I am happy to provide any spoiler free answers to your questions, so ask away!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's so fun to read about everyones experience and keep the excitement up!

What time did you arrive to the Star Cruiser on the first day? Did you feel like it was a good time to get there?

Did you have ressies at Oga's? Was it worth the time? (We've been there before so I'm on the fence about doing it)

Did you dress in costume? Did you get into the role playing and create backstories for yourselves?

 

[lundve]

I got a phone call from a 407 number tonight, a nice guy named Kevin. We board on Saturday. He spent 45 minutes on the phone helping me set up all three of the devices my children will use on board. I put him on speaker phone with my teens and their phones nearby to help set them up. It took a few reset passwords and prompts by him, but finally everything worked perfectly. He did say there were a limited number of devices on the ship and that my 8 year old could probably use one, but we opted to use an iPhone we still have that is not currently attached to our cell phone plan. All 5 of us can now easily open the play Disney app and see our schedule and should be able to just open the app and go when we board! It felt like such a timesaver!

After that was finished, he asked if i had any other questions. I did ask him a question regarding food allergies, having not seen much about this. The little guy has those. We have done many Disney world and DCL trips in the past. He said the Starcruiser is modeled after DCL in this regard and that after we board I will be able to go to the lunch buffet and speak with the dining team (perhaps a chef) to confirm that he will eat safely.

One last thing he reiterated was to not arrive before 1pm - we can easily do this as we have our own car. He wanted to remind us that even though there were rumors circulating online you can get in early, they in fact would not be ready for guests before 1pm. It doesn’t bother us, because I understand the need to reset between voyages. I’m not sure what the solution is for those who have to check out and are homeless for a few hours but I do get the reasoning behind it.

 

[Spazz2k]

I got a phone call from a 407 number tonight, a nice guy named Kevin. We board on Saturday. He spent 45 minutes on the phone helping me set up all three of the devices my children will use on board. I put him on speaker phone with my teens and their phones nearby to help set them up. It took a few reset passwords and prompts by him, but finally everything worked perfectly. He did say there were a limited number of devices on the ship and that my 8 year old could probably use one, but we opted to use an iPhone we still have that is not currently attached to our cell phone plan. All 5 of us can now easily open the play Disney app and see our schedule and should be able to just open the app and go when we board! It felt like such a timesaver!

After that was finished, he asked if i had any other questions. I did ask him a question regarding food allergies, having not seen much about this. The little guy has those. We have done many Disney world and DCL trips in the past. He said the Starcruiser is modeled after DCL in this regard and that after we board I will be able to go to the lunch buffet and speak with the dining team (perhaps a chef) to confirm that he will eat safely.

One last thing he reiterated was to not arrive before 1pm - we can easily do this as we have our own car. He wanted to remind us that even though there were rumors circulating online you can get in early, they in fact would not be ready for guests before 1pm. It doesn’t bother us, because I understand the need to reset between voyages. I’m not sure what the solution is for those who have to check out and are homeless for a few hours but I do get the reasoning behind it.

I received a Disney call for different reasons last Saturday...the cast member who called told me to go early. He told me to come around 11:00 to 11:30 and we would have a much smoother check-in process and have our luggage in our room by 1:00 vs arriving around 1 and it being a little bit hectic. Also they would be offering busses to Disney Springs...which we are not doing.

Our voyage begins this morning!!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's so fun to read about everyones experience and keep the excitement up!

What time did you arrive to the Star Cruiser on the first day? Did you feel like it was a good time to get there?

Did you have ressies at Oga's? Was it worth the time? (We've been there before so I'm on the fence about doing it)

Did you dress in costume? Did you get into the role playing and create backstories for yourselves?

I know you weren't asking me, but I'll chime in in case helpful:

1) We purposely tried to time it so we were arriving just before 1pm. I've done enough Disney things to know many show up way early so I knew this would probably put us behind, but we wanted to try to stick to the published check-in time. We left GF at 12:45pm. Upon arrival, check-in traffic was backed up into the DHS CM parking area and it was a slow crawl to eventually make it to the security gate then the front entrance. I did find it somewhat ironic that here we were about to enter one of the most immersive/heavily themed environments of any Disney park and we're winding our way through clearly backstage areas. It's an interesting show choice, but not sure they really had any other options given the location. Anyway, they have a lot of CMs around helping facilitate the flow of cars/people, but it's just a lot for them to churn through so it's a slow process.

I wondered if they may need to try to tinker with specific timed entries just to spread people out, but I suspect people wouldn't follow it even if they did try something.

Anyway, from my pic timestamps, our car was unloaded and we were waiting in line under the front entryway at 1:12pm. We were just about at the security screening at 1:23pm. We were in the room (bags already there) at 1:41pm (we probably stopped in the atrium and did some other things before heading to the room, can't recall exactly).

That all may seem like a lot of time but it was fine - lots of travel adrenaline/excitement with our crew.

2) We purposely didn't do Oga's. There's some business you may need to do there but it can be done with the CMs out front. In retrospect I sort of wish we had made a mid-morning reservation just to spend a little more time on Batuu and probably had some fun interactions with fellow guests, but I'm probably 50/50 on that thought - definitely not critical, IMO.

3) We did costume light, general space travel themes. No role playing or specific backstories, but we met several fellow guests that did have rather elaborate stories. Frankly I had no clue people even did that kind of thing, but it definitely provided some inspiration for future voyages, if we were to ever do this again.

Hope that helps!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

After that was finished, he asked if i had any other questions. I did ask him a question regarding food allergies, having not seen much about this. The little guy has those. We have done many Disney world and DCL trips in the past. He said the Starcruiser is modeled after DCL in this regard and that after we board I will be able to go to the lunch buffet and speak with the dining team (perhaps a chef) to confirm that he will eat safely.

FWIW, no personal experience here, but I did witness this several times both at lunch and dinner - conversations with a chef and/or a manager, one time I saw them with the menu/ingredient list book. Seemed very accessible from the few situations I happened to see.

Enjoy your journey!

 

[sophy1996]

Our entry experience (first cruise) was very much like GADisneyDad14 describes. We left our hotel around 12:30ish, got caught in a long line of cars heading toward the terminal, (about 15-20 minutes waiting) and were getting out of car and starting check-in process around 1. Our luggage was in our room before we were, so not much time needed for that.

 

[Primerz]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's so fun to read about everyones experience and keep the excitement up!

What time did you arrive to the Star Cruiser on the first day? Did you feel like it was a good time to get there?

Did you have ressies at Oga's? Was it worth the time? (We've been there before so I'm on the fence about doing it)

Did you dress in costume? Did you get into the role playing and create backstories for yourselves?

Thanks!

We arrived at 12:45, waited in line just as GADisneyDad14 described. Short wait, but it felt a bit longer as it our anticipation was so high!

Having never been to Oga's before, we felt like it was necessary. We only stayed for one drink, but it was fun and worth sitting for a moment after running around all of Batuu trying to gather all the intel we needed. You can run around all of Batuu with your heads down in the data pad as you see fit, so sometimes it's good to pause if you lean that way. We sure did!

We all had backstories, but the trick is sticking to them. My kids never really responded when I yelled after them, "Elika and Walgr, where are you going?!" When my wife, who decided to come as a diplomat from the planet Pijal, was asked where she is from she replied "Earth." The real value of the role playing was building anticipation, I think.

We did dress up- got a Finn-type jacket and the formal vest from shopDisney.com (which I guess I will ebay now?), my kids got jedi robes off etsy, and my wife wore really beautiful, flowing dresses.

Thanks for the questions!

 

[BrandoMom]

A heads up for people who want a portrait session: Today was my 60 days so I called right at 7AM ET, was on hold for an hour, and got the last available session at 8PM on day 1. I'm not that excited about the time because it seems like it will be busy. Is my family going to be annoyed to have to pause to take pictures?

He also asked if I wanted help setting up everyone's accounts over the phone. I said I would call back another time, but it sounds like you can proactively call and get everything set up rather than wait for a call. I would prefer to do it that way since we are doing GS at the end of our trip.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

not really, half the ship will be at dinner. It might not be an extremely busy time onboard.

 

[mousedroid]

Our entry experience (first cruise) was very much like GADisneyDad14 describes. We left our hotel around 12:30ish, got caught in a long line of cars heading toward the terminal, (about 15-20 minutes waiting) and were getting out of car and starting check-in process around 1. Our luggage was in our room before we were, so not much time needed for that.

How does luggage drop off work? Do you pull up and meet a bell-droid who has a luggage cart? We're probably going to have some costume pieces that we've ironed at our previous hotel on hangers rather than packed and I want to make sure they can handle that at check in.

 

[sophy1996]

How does luggage drop off work? Do you pull up and meet a bell-droid who has a luggage cart? We're probably going to have some costume pieces that we've ironed at our previous hotel on hangers rather than packed and I want to make sure they can handle that at check in.

They come to your car with a cart. They were so efficient that they had half the luggage out of the car before we were out.

 

[sophy1996]

A heads up for people who want a portrait session: Today was my 60 days so I called right at 7AM ET, was on hold for an hour, and got the last available session at 8PM on day 1. I'm not that excited about the time because it seems like it will be busy. Is my family going to be annoyed to have to pause to take pictures?

Not likely to be too busy. As stated, that’s during the second dinner seating. We had our lightsaber training around that time and we didn’t feel like we were missing out particularly. And the photos will be worth it. My DH was thrilled with his session.

 

[mousedroid]

They come to your car with a cart. They were so efficient that they had half the luggage out of the car before we were out.

Thanks. I guess if there's anyone who stresses the importance of efficiency in their underlings more than the Empire, it's the Mouse.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My husband and I had a blast on the StarCruiser this past weekend. We were exhausted at the end of the weekend but wow did we ever have a great time.
For us Friday night food (we were seated with a larger group who had whiny kids and the kids didn't care for the food at all) and both lunches were meh but we loved Saturday evenings dinner.

Thankfully they were able to move us to a different table the 2nd night. I asked a cast member if we could switch. This was our anniversary trip and we really didn't want to be seated with whiny kids again.

I would choose the late dining next time as well because I felt like we had to go to dinner right when we were busy with a mission.
Loved both breakfasts.

We left the window in the room open and I spent half the night watching the night sky with the ships. Loved, loved the theming on the StarCruiser. I wish we had been able to book the photo experience. By the time I'd found out about it, it was fully booked.

We are hoping to do it again in a couple of years.
For those who want to know - we arrived at the StarCruiser at 12:15pm and once they began boarding we were on the 2nd shuttle to it. That was the perfect time for us. We got to check out the room, eat lunch and get started on our adventures right away.

Also -make sure you don't have a multitool or pocket knife in your luggage. You need to pull them out if you do before they will take the luggage in. If you forget to remove it, they will remove it and throw it away. That is what we were told while they loaded our luggage onto the cart. Glad they said something since my husband had a pocket knife in his luggage.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I visited the lounge… with relative frequency over our voyage. Its location is very central so it’s hard to miss something. You can walk out with drinks so we did that most of the time as it was a little more fun to be out in the atrium or wherever, especially in the evenings.

BTW, I was really surprised how late the lounge stayed open - 1am on night one and 2am on night two. I really wanted to see who all was still patronizing the lounge at 2am, but no way I could hang that late!

To me Sublight Lounge worked well unplanned/impromptu at various points along the way.

Yeah - that was us. Yup we were in the lounge as late as possible. Who needs to sleep anyways? I had nearly every drink. We also worked it in when we could.
I don't want to post spoilers so I won't say much other than I had a great time in the lounge. But getting a chance at playing Sabac on the holotable was really difficult because kids were at it and not moving on to other things. The one time I did get to play one of the teens at the table taught me. LOL