Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is an immersive 2-night adventure that opened at Walt Disney World in March 2022. Disney calls Galactic Starcruiser the most immersive Star Wars story ever created, and it’s an accurate statement. This overnight experience combines elements of a cruise, a theme park, and an interactive stage show. Guests who board the Halcyon will truly feel as if they’ve stepped into a Star Wars story and will be fully immersed nonstop from beginning to end (it might sound like hyperbole but is quite an accurate statement, as you’ll find out in this episode). In this two-part podcast episode, I chat with Stephanie & Danny Shuster, owners of WDW Magazine, to learn about their experience aboard the Halcyon. In our previous episode (Part 1), we discuss their Disney media preview day, the booking process, arrival and departure, and dining. In this episode (part 2), we discuss the state rooms, merchandise, itinerary, story, and recommendations for guests considering Galactic Starcruiser. We also discuss who would find this experience most enjoyable and why if you’re a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World it might even be worth replacing one of your Walt Disney World vacations with this revolutionary journey. What questions or thoughts do you have about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser?
[Intro music plays Matt in and continues to play under him]
Matt: Hello and welcome to the Imagineer Podcast, your unofficial guide to all things Disney. I’m your host Matthew Krul and you’re listening to Episode 133 of the Imagineer Podcast. In this podcast episode we’re going to continue where we left off with our last podcast episode, which is our two part discussion all about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. If you didn’t get the chance to listen to part one, which is Episode 132. I of course encourage you to go back and listen to that before checking out this episode because we talk about the boarding process or the booking process, as well as the boarding process and the pre-arrival process for Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser we talk about day one, we talk about dining options, and there’s a lot of great information that shared about your experience aboard the Halcyon. In this episode, which is part two, we’re going to discuss the storytelling elements of your two night immersive adventure, the characters that you might interact with on board, some of the consequences of your actions and the decisions that you can make. While you’re a part of this adventure. We talk about your visits to Batuu at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge about merchandise about a few other aspects of your your state room while you’re aboard the Halcyon and some final thoughts regarding who this is best fit for if this is something you should consider for your next Walt Disney World vacation and some of the things you should keep in mind when thinking about whether or not this experience is right for you. As always, I do want to give a very special thanks before we get started to our sponsors WDW Magazine. We talk a little bit about them in this podcast episode. So I’ll just plug to listen to the ends they because our special guests for this two part episode are Steph and Danny Schuster who are the owners of WDW magazine and you can learn more about them of course by visiting WDWmagazine.com And I got a link for you in the description of this podcast episode. At the end of the episode, I’ll come back and tell you a little bit more about how you can connect with the Imagineer Podcast on all your favorite social media channels, and how you can help to inspire and create the future of this show. So grab some headphones, pull up your favorite armchair and enjoy this episode of The Imagineer Podcast.
[Music plays out and interview resumes from last episode]
Matt: I definitely want to talk about story sort of pivoting to go back to the storytelling elements. There is I know a big overarching story that connects all the events that happen as a part of your adventure. And it involves like anything else with Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge or the Star Wars universe the conflict between especially the how they place it in the Disney Parks between the First Order and the Resistance. How did you find the story unfolded around you and impacted anything that you did? And did you also find sort of a part two to that any of your personal actions on the ship had an impact in what happened with the story in the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance?
Stephanie: So absolutely your actions will impact what happens and it will also impact the things that you get to experience you cannot possibly experience every subplot, every secret meeting that happens in the course of a cruise. There are three big let’s call them big story moments. These are like full on theatrical show elements stunt shows that sort of thing. One happens to kick off the cruise right away 4pm muster drill. That is where you kind of get to know all of the characters they set up that you’re going to have this wonderful cruise then Lieutenant Croy boards and he’s like I’m gonna look for Resistance scum and ruin everybody’s cruise. So then you start to see, oh, who does the captain side with, who does a cruise director side with, what about the mechanic and you start to like wonder what’s going on and meet people and form allegiances. The first night they will, everybody will ask you nonstop how you feel about the first order being on board and depending on your answers both on your datapad when you’re getting messages from the characters, and when you have in person interactions with them. Like, depending on what happens you that will set up the course of what happens to you on Batuu the next day. At the end of the night, there’s a cruise director’s toast, which is just supposed to be a nice little moment. But something dramatic and evil again, happens with the First Order. And they they actually capture SK-620 who’s very important astromech droid on the ship. And everyone’s really upset because he’s an R2 style unit, right? Everybody loves R2. So you have your own R2 on the ship, basically. And now they’re doing horrible things to him. And it really sets up that action again, for tomorrow. You don’t get another massive story moment like that till the finale on the final night when all of the things that have been happening in the smaller ways the Resistance is doing things the First Order is doing things the smugglers are doing things. But it’s all about this light side, dark side overarching story. Finally, Rey and Kylo both end up on the ship. And there’s an epic battle that you get to witness. That turns out how you might expect it to turn out given that this is between episodes eight and nine,
Danny: Yup
Stephanie: Basically at a standstill and nobody wins. But nobody loses either, which is very important. And so those all play into each other and you can really see like the final night Lieutenant Croy gives a speech. And he actually calls out people who helped the First Order like by name. So there on our on our trip, there was a a a grandmother who
Danny: There was this very large family.
Stephanie: Yeah,
Danny: Like everybody went on this trip, like mom, dad, cousins.
Stephanie: And he was like, Nona, you helped me more than anyone’s ever helped me before. And like gave a whole speech about how wonderful she was. So that is super cool to see.
Danny: Yeah, the character actors, the main players. So I will say everyone on the ship, all the crew members, you know, your server at dinner, the people in the Sublight Lounge, the people in the gift shop, everybody has a backstory. Everybody will talk to you in-universe, and they’re great. And they all build the story. But the-
Stephanie: And they all have their own allegiance. So you
Danny: That’s true.
Stephanie: need to be very careful.
Danny: That is true.
Stephanie: Somebody kept saying that we supported the Resistance and we kept being told we should –
Danny: We shouldn’t be saying that so loudly
Stephanie: not be sharing that information.
Matt; [Laughs]
Danny: That was from the guy in the gift shop, you know, who was warning me there are stormtroopers around the corner, be cool, be cool. But the the sort of main the featured players, so the the captain, the cruise director, Gaya,
Stephanie: Raithe, Sammie,
Danny: They are so remarkable. The way they interact with the passengers. And you know, nobody’s perfect. They’re not going to remember everyone’s name, but they genuinely try, and the number of names that they learn by day two. And then so when you get to the evening, on day two, where we have this big finale, there’s an emergency that calls everybody into the atrium, and the characters are talking. And they reference not only the events that you’ve participated in, but like they’ll say, Stephanie, you smuggled in that crate for me, and it was such a big help. Danny, you were there to distract the storm troopers so that we could you know, get access to the cargo hold. Like,
Stephanie: Or they’ll they’ll make references to things like you might in your engineering session or your bridge training session. You might come up with like a code word for something and they’ll throw that in, but it might be different every cruise because they’re like, Oh no, what if Lieutenant Croy comes in? What should we say we’re talking about and the more like appetizers, and so then that becomes like a running joke with the people that 20 or 30 people you were doing that with on our first night the captain. So that’s the overarching storyline. But unlike a Star Wars movie, where all that focus is on Luke Skywalker or on Rey or on Anakin the the real story here is all the side characters all the B plots that you’re not seeing unfold with those brand name characters, right? So in this case, us helping Lenka or helping Captain Keevan we were sitting in the bar having a drink, and Captain Keevan comes in she’s like, Oh, I hope you have a very lovely cruise. How do you feel about the First Order being here? Oh, well, don’t worry about them. We’ll still make it nice. And two minutes later, she comes back. She sneaks in and snuggles into the bar next to us.
Danny: It was so smooth. It felt like we were in a movie scene. So like we’re in the Sublight lounge. We’re enjoying our drink. And then all of a sudden she just slides into the booth next to us and
Stephanie: [whispers] Like come in the cargo room at 7:45.
Danny: Yes, and this is an event so like this isn’t on the itinerary. This isn’t on any poster schedule
Stephanie: It doesn’t show up on my data pad. I like put it in my notes on my iPhone. So I didn’t forget. And then we went down and there were maybe a dozen or so people who showed up, she recognized us all by we didn’t have to tap in or anything, she knew who we were
Danny: No, she recognized our names and our faces. And so the captain is sympathetic to the Resistance. And so we were there to discuss Resistance matters. Another guest, they had decided their outfit, their costume was very similar to
Stephanie and Danny: Director Krennic
Danny: from Rogue One. So clearly a First Order officer
Stephanie: Technically Empire
Danny: Technically Empire sure. So he showed up a little bit late to this meeting. And she like stopped what we were talking about and politely but firmly had this guest leave because she couldn’t in good conscience continue talking about the Resistance with a clear enemy in the mix
Stephanie: And earlier he had been dressed differently. So she didn’t know that he was a a dark side sympathizer. So he showed up and that wasn’t going to happen.
Danny: Yeah
Stephanie: There are other things too, like any conversation that you have, whether it’s on your datapad or in person leads to another story moment and it and it might be it might be something to help the Resistance. It might be something to help the First Order. There’s a heist going on that Gaya is working on to return something to her home planet. Raithe has a whole thing where he’s working to working in cahoots with the captain to smuggle coaxium on the ship, which becomes a really important story element when the First Order try to take over.
Danny: That also ties directly into when you visit Batuu and do Smugglers Run that whole coaxium heist then becomes how you how well you perform in that ties back into this coaxium plotline on Starcruiser.
Matt: Wow
Stephanie: There, so that’s the smuggling. There’s a love story that happens between Gaya’s backup musicians. And there’s force things that happen too with the sajas on board. And some of these things are the captain whispering to you, or you getting a message on your datapad. Some are really like in in person things to like, we got a portion of a note snuck to us.
Danny: Yeah
Stephanie: And we had to find it’s part two of three, we had to find the people with part one and part three. So we could read the full message to find out what we were all supposed to help with.
Danny: What’s so cool about this, so like, it’s part of a message, it’s in English, but the back is. So when you go to your state room, you’ll get letters, you know, telling you about things happening on the ship, there’s one apologizing to you for the interruption of the First Order showing up. So we have this note, but on the backside, it’s actually the letter from the state room. And this note came from the captain. So she you know, grabbed a scrap of paper, wrote it on the back, ripped it up into thirds and sent them to trusted people on board the ship.
Matt: That’s impressive
Danny: It really, it is it’s very impressive.
Stephanie: And it’s not like you get locked into one story path, you’re doing bit lit little bits and pieces of all these different story paths that all lead towards, you’re probably going to lean towards the light side or towards the dark side or maybe towards the selfish side where you’re just doing whatever is going to get you ahead which is fine too.
Matt: [Laughs]
Stephanie: But you you can be a smuggler, you can help the love story you can help the Resistance and or you be a double agent it’s really up to you.
Danny: I it, It is up to you. I will say about double agents, I have heard reports from other players, that they had wanted to be a double agent and they weren’t ever successfully able to make the switch. Like they started you know, they’re like I’m gonna play for the First Order and then I’m going to be a double agent and go help the Resistance, but they I guess went past the tipping point. And there wasn’t really an opportunity to make that double agent switch your mileage may vary.
Matt: [Laughs] And it makes sense cause they have a lot of processes on the back end that help decide which how to categorize every individual and it involves a lot of you’re right once you pass the tipping point it becomes more too challenging
Danny: Yeah
Matt: for Disney to go back and adjust
Stephanie: And capacity too there are a lot of things where you know if everybody is helping the captain maybe there’s not enough so there’s all of these pre-finale events when you get back so first day you set up your story you make your connections you start to form alliances with people that sets up what you’re asked to do on Batuu you need to go to Batuu a lot of people are like I’m only on the ship for so many hours and I felt this way too. I was like why would I bother. If I hadn’t gone to Batuu and done these missions, I would have had no more story no more play time. Because depending on what you do night one, you get missions on Batuu. Depending on how you do those missions on Batuu, you will get more missions on board more story elements and what I will call like pre-finale events. So we were invited to two different pre-finale events that supported different characters stories, but they’re very small, they’re very intimate, there’s only so much space. So if every single person decides that they’re going to play towards the force, there’s no way that there’s enough space to do the force semi-finale pre-finale bit with 400 people on board. So I assume that that builds up at some point, and they’re like, Okay, everybody else, what other alliances do they have? And then you get sectioned off into these other things.
Danny: There must be some sort of, you know, Disney is very tight lipped about how they actually
Stephanie: Sure that’s their IP
Danny: Orchestrate this, no, but like, there’s some sort of master decision tree, and you get placed at a different point on this chart and how you play who you talk to what your answers are, you start forking down different paths. And then you know, so I’m sure so maybe you’ve gone all the way down one particular path, but there’s a capacity restriction or some other issue. So they’ll maybe go to, you know, what was your next most likely, and sort of funnel you through the story that way. There are, like Steph has mentioned, some of these events have very tight capacity limits, excuse me, there are some events where we had to tap our mband to get into the room to experience it. There are other story elements that are just happening. And if you’re walking through the hall, and you see Sammie the mechanic with a group of other passengers and they’re doing something you can just sort of say like I want to help or count me in and just kind of fold yourself into that group. You may not know exactly what they’re doing. But you know, in a lot of cases if you see something happening on the ship and you want to be involved all you have to do is just make yourself present and and they will try to incorporate you in
Matt: Amazing. You mentioned a couple of times now the the visit to Batuu so could you talk a little bit about what that experience was like including the infamous quote unquote box truck which I’m not a fan of that description but how was –
Stephanie: I am not a fan of that description either
Matt: [Laughs]
Stephanie: We never see the out- just like you actually never see the outside of the Halcyon in person you never
Matt: Right
Stephanie: See the outside of this transport to Batuu in person
Matt: [Laughs] Yeah
Danny: The inside is great fully themed it looks exactly like what you would expect a space transport ship to look like
Stephanie: There are seats you can also stand up there’s some mood lighting
Danny: Your pilot your pilot is it’s not DJ Rex from Oga’s but it is that same class of droid
Stephanie: There is not actually a droid that you can see though
Danny: No
Stephanie: It just talks to you and says he’s gonna put on the radio and
Danny: There’s like plaques and stuff you know saying your driver today is such and such droid that would have been a nice way to plus it if instead of it just being a voiceover on a PA system if it was either a screen or even an actual droid that was you know moving and stuff that would have been great that would have plussed the experience
Stephanie: But it’s like three minutes on this transport to get to Batuu and when you get there you go in this secret entrance that’s in the back it’s so well themed you walk out and you know immediately that you’re in Batuu it kind of looks like the marketplace there’s like fabric hanging on top of on top of the
Danny: Lots of like interesting yeah, there’s there’s like pipes and it’s got that same sort of you know, recycled
Stephanie: Repurposed
Danny: Repurposed vibe that the marketplace has
Stephanie: There’s concrete with scratches, I asked a cast member what happened and you know,
Danny: They said it was a Raftaar, a Raftaar got loose
Stephanie: Yeah a Raftaar got loose
Matt: [Laughs]
Stephanie: Yeah, there’s all the fabric hanging above which is great for the three suns of Batuu. So it’s not too hot in there, but it also looks good and brings you into the fold. And then there before you actually enter the land, there’s a nice little waiting area that you come back at any point in the day to rest or get a bottle of water or get help with your datapad and then you walk out and immediately you’re right across from Milk Bar. So or Milk Stand. So you the Tie Echelon is there, Stormtroopers are there and your datapad just starts to fill up with all these messages because you do tap your mband when you arrive so it knows when you’ve you’ve reached planet. And
Danny: Yeah, when you before you depart the ship you’re given this special Halcyon pin, which says, what is the pin called
Stephanie: Sigil of the Select
Danny: Sigil of the Select the language on the Halcyon they’re very deferential to you, you know, you’re you’re honored guests,
Stephanie; Yeah
Danny: You’re you know you’re all VIPs
Stephanie: They’ll they’ll bring you something they’ll say, Oh, here’s here’s your drink it is my honor.
Danny: Yeah. So you get this pin that says Sigil of the Select, and you put it on your clothes. And you know, like all things, the individual cast members, some are more into it than others. Some cast members noticed our pin and sort of, you know, added to our interaction, some didn’t really, you know, some were more excited than others.
Stephnie: You do get Lightning Lane access to Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. And I was really tempted to like run and take care of those and then do the missions. But I’m really glad we didn’t because.
Danny: Yeah these are special Lightning Lanes, they’re not time sensitive, you can just show up whenever you want.
Stephanie: I don’t know if it would have impacted our story if we did them first. But we did the missions first. And at certain points in the missions, we were given five totally different tasks for different characters to do. I think that everybody’s mileage may vary depending on what they did the day before. But at some point in those conversations, they were like, Captain Keevan said, Okay, now that you’ve done this, this and this for me, I need you to transmit that data to General Organa, you need to go find this Resistance Base. And she shows like a little, a little photo of the entrance to Rise of the Resistance and tap your mband so that we can send it to our satellite configuration. And so then you go do that. And it was very cool. I was like, Whoo, I’m actually doing something right now.
Danny: Yeah. You know, some of the activities on your datapad are similar. If you’ve done if you’ve played the datapad, just when you’re a regular park guest going to Batuu
Stephanie: Some scanning crates and that sort of thing
Danny: Some of the, yeah, you know you’re translating the language you’re tuning in frequencies, the gameplay is not exactly the same. And for people who are really into the datapad, any items like schematics or or relics and stuff that you find, they do stay in your datapad. And they’re color coded different. So like everything that I acquired during Starcruiser, shows up in my datapad was sort of a blue overlay, instead of the regular sort of gray look that normal datapad items have.
Stephanie: So for each mission, it’s not just like one thing, it’s a conversation. So it’s like, Oh, I see you’re on the planet. So the first thing I need you to do is go find this droid and scan him. And then you’ll go find this droid, you’ll scan it, and then it will give you another message and it will tell it’s kind of like a little scavenger hunt. You’ll it’ll tell you to go do something else like tune a satellite, or go over here. Walk up to somebody at Oga’s and flash this little symbol and they’ll know what to do. And then you get or you’re given
Danny: Oga’s is cool so you’re given a coaster looks like the regular Oga’s coaster. But there’s a secret QR code on the back that unlocks the next step of the mission.
Matt: Wow
Stephanie: And we didn’t need a reservation, we could just go to the person at the umbrella outside and we’re like, um, we were told to show you this and they’re like, ooh, don’t show that around.
Danny: Yeah that, that cast member was great.
Stephanie: But come over here, and then they like slid this coaster into our palms, like really carefully. And –
Danny: Yeah, he saw the buttons he picked up that we were Halcyon guests and he like was right into it. You know, we like went around the corner to a place out of the way he you know snuck the coaster to me very hush hush.
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: It was awesome. Again, it felt very, it was a story moment it felt cinematic.
Stephanie: Yeah, and then at some point you’ll they’ll be like, Okay, great. You’ve done that. I’ll see you back on the Halcyon and you know, you’ve kind of finished that story pass. So we did all five while we were there. And that we were given and enjoyed the rides at the appropriate time. And then we went back to spend more time on the ship that afternoon.
Danny: There’s a couple of nice sort of additional amenities so we mentioned when you enter Batuu you’re near the Tie Echelon near the Milk Stand. It’s a shaded area, there’s benches to rest. They’ve got chilled, they’ve got like Dasani water bottles
Stephanie: With the Aurebesh labels
Danny: Those are sitting in big ice buckets. That’s all there to you know, keep you comfortable. If you do want to go shopping, if you build a Droid or build a lightsaber, you can just drop those purchases off back there and they’ll send them back to your stateroom.
Stephanie: I actually heard that they’re not doing that anymore.
Danny: Oh really?
Stephanie: So I don’t know for sure. I haven’t seen a Disney announcement just in the fan groups that I’m in.
Danny: Well, okay, so your mileage may vary.
Matt: [Laughs]
Danny: They offered that service to us when we did it. And it’s even more than it’s in universe because they’re like we have we have an agreement with Ohnaka Transport Solutions. Anything you purchase on Batuu. You know, they’ll they’ve waived their delivery charges and we’ll have it back to your stateroom for you that kind of in universe language.
Matt: Amazing. And, you know, there’s I’m so glad that they include that as part of the experience too. And that’s an area where they people talk a lot about Disney nickeling and diming. That’s another area where they could have said, You know what, it’s not included, but you can pay for your park ticket and go if you want to do it, and we’ll add it to your itinerary. It’s really great that it’s just included in there for you. And it is because I know it’s such a crucial part of the story experience and the mission that you’re on as well.
Stephanie: And it’s so good to be able to just walk into the land, you don’t have to go to the front gate, walk past everything else happening in Hollywood Studios get distracted with Buzz Lightyear, none of that you are allowed to go explore the park if you want to.
Danny: That’s true
Stephanie: But you know, we were dressed up we had like a Han and Leia Disney bound thing happening. And it was like very cool to just be there, we only did Batuu, it was amaizng
Danny: You arrive really fresh, you know like, you’re you’re in the air conditioned ship, you’re in the air conditioned transport. It’s a very short walk down this hallway. And then you’re right there. And especially for the guests who go full on with the costumes and people really do like screen accurate, full, you know, body paint and the the head pieces and armor and the whole bit. Arriving and being right in the action, I’m sure is a huge relief. You know if you’ve got an elaborate costume.
Matt: Yes, for sure. Let’s talk a little bit about a few other areas. The first thing I wanted to discuss is merchandise because I know that you mentioned there’s a shop on board the ship and I believe there is some exclusive merchandise that you can only purchase as a member of this adventure. So what was the merchandise like aboard the Halcyon?
Stephanie: It’s like Disney sort of, you know, there’s shirts and pins and patches and homewear
Stephanie: Keychains.
Danny: And it’s all exclusive.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Danny: And there’s sort of two levels of merchandise and this plays into the in universe or at Disney aspect. There’s the main gift shop inside the Halcyon it’s called the Chandrila collection actually pronounced
Stephanie: Chandrila [Shaun-dri-LAH] which I’m still trying to get used to because for years of just seeing Chandrila [SHAN-dri-lah] Starline I assume that’s how it was pronounced. So I’m rewiring my brain but Chandrila [Shaun-dri-LAH] collection
Danny: The Chandrila [Shaun-dri-LAH] collection everything so that’s inside the Halcyon it’s off the main atrium. Everything in the Chandrila collection is in universe so I’m right now wearing a Chandria t-shirt. It says Halcyon it’s in Aurebesh. It’s got a ship logo. It does not say Star Wars, nothing that you get inside the ship will say Star Wars or Galactic Starcruiser. Those are the Earth names.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Danny: There’s a secondary gift shop that only appears when you check out in that sort of waiting area outside when you’re back on the ground
Stephanie: Waiting for your luggage
Danny: And everything for sale in that shop says Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser it doesn’t say Chandrila Starline it doesn’t say Halcyon.
Stephanie: Again all exclusive, you can’t buy this stuff anywhere else.
Danny: Yeah there’s no you can’t just drive over to peek in the gift shop like,
Stephanie: No
Danny: It’s yeah.
Stephanie: In the Chandrila collection. There I mean apparel. It’s very much like being on a cruise like premium apparel, really expensive jewelry, and then some other like barware and other nice homewares. There’s a lot of merchandise around the characters. So SK-620. There’s a few different models of SK-620 that you can buy. Some of them you’ll recognize like we have one that is the droid factory style droid. There’s also a droid depot style remote control droid that you can buy. There are models of the Halcyon everything from a little tiny one to a huge I think it’s like a $200 light-up model of the Halcyon
Danny: Yeah it lights up, it comes with a display stand. It’s a whole you know,
Stephanie: There’s kind of like everyday clothes like a hoodie and t-shirts, that sort of thing. But then there is also what I’ll call costume more cinematic costume clothes, a cloak that’s inspired by one that Padme wears in the original trilogy, there’s also things inspired by the characters on board so like the kids can get a mechanic’s costume that looks like Sammie or a captain’s costume that looks like what Captain Keevan wears. And those are all very cool, all of the cinematic costumes. They actually went to the archives at Skywalker Ranch, and looked at the original patterns in the original fabrics to make some of those costume pieces really accurate to the movies.
Danny: Yeah, you can also buy things like so I picked up a deck of Sabacc cards and
Stephanie: That are different than the ones on Batuu.
Danny: Yeah, you can buy these on Batuu. But the set you get on Batuu is a little worn and roughed up. These ones are like they’re nicely foiled. The art is a little bit different on the inside,
Stephanie: I actually think it’s also a different game. So there’s different
Danny: It’s the same deck of cards, but it’s a different set of rules.
Stephanie: Yeah, this one is Corellian Spike?
Danny: Yeah.
Stephanie: And in Batuu, you pick up a set that’s based around Coruscant Shift gameplay.
Danny: Yeah, it comes with an instruction book that tells you a few different modes of how you play the game. One of my favorite things, and I love to tell this story about the gift shop. So we’re talking about how immersive Starcruiser is, and it extends all the way to the gift shop, not just the fact that the clothes are in universe and they’re from, you know the Halcyon collection. But there is secret merchandise that you can buy in the gift shop that ties into the story.
Stephanie: If you know how to ask for it
Danny: If you know how to ask for it, I got this tip from watching some YouTubes and some Reddit discussions. But if you go to the gift shop, try and pick a time when it’s a little bit empty or quiet,
Stephanie: Totally empty and quiet
Danny: And start up a conversation with the crew members there and sort of make it clear that you know you are not a fan of the First Order and you’re concerned about their presence on the ship
Stephanie: Without saying Resistance cause that draws unwanted attention.
Danny: And you know ask about any ancient relics,
Stephanie: Or ancient artifacts
Danny: And they’ll take you in the center of the store. There’s this display cabinet with the jewelry and the lightsaber and some other things. But there’s a hidden latch that you need a special magnet to open. And so they’ll you know look around check for storm troopers open this hidden latch and show you this pin that looks like a Disney pen. It’s got a Halcyon on it. But it has a secret little flap that you can flip over that exposes this bright orange Resistance sigil. And then you know, you say ignite the light the fire ignite the spark, you know you let it be clear that you’re a Resistance supporter, and then they’ll let you buy it. But again, this is all hush hush. So we were having this conversation with the store clerk. And once we confirmed we wanted to buy this pin. He switches the conversation and he goes, Oh yes, this screwdriver, you know, I’m very sorry to hear the door in your cabin was a little shaky. Let me get you a screwdriver that’ll fix that right up for you.
Stephanie: Just gonna put this screwdriver right in this gift bag for you. Thanks so much for coming by the shop today.
Danny: Yeah,
Matt: [Laughs]
Danny: And you know, so that level. That’s what we mean when we say this is immersive, you know when you can go and buy your souvenirs. But it still ties into the story about whether or not you support the resistance and you know how you define your allegiance, but like and it’s just it’s a Disney pin.
Stephanie: You know, even in like the Sublight Lounge, everybody had their own backstory like one of our servers in Sublight lounge. She was like I’m a I’m a Sabacc addict, and I
Danny: Yeah so she
Stephanie: Can’t play anymore, but I can teach people to play. But everywhere
Danny: Her her story is is is tragic. She’s from Batuu. And she got into debt being a Sabacc gambler. And so she thought I’m going to get out of debt. I’m going to take this job on a cruise, a starcruiser that’s going to take me away from Batuu. And then isn’t it just her unfortunate luck that the itinerary brings her right back.
Stephanie: But you know, the more you talk to people, the more you get these immersive
Danny: Yeah
Stephanie: Bits of interaction.
Danny: She was great.
Matt: Fantastic.
Danny: I think her name was Kelly [KEL-lee] or
Stephanie and Danny: Kellee [KEEL-lee]
Danny: Kellee. If by chance she hears this you are awesome
Matt: [Laughs] I hope you’re listening Kellee I you know there’s we’re talking so much about the story elements of this and one of the things I did want to ask cause I think it probably comes up in in some people’s minds they might not think even about it consciously. But it seems like it there’s there’s minute to minute action which is and a lot of with some downtime which of course when you when you’re looking at an experience like this, you want that that nonstop immersive adventure. As someone personally who is an introvert, I find that there are times where sometimes it just gets overwhelming and I need a break and that could be if I’m at the parks it’s very easy. I go and find a quiet spot or I go back to the resort and relax in the room. So for someone who is feeling like this is amazing, but I just I need to take 30 minutes away from this
Stephanie: Yeah,
Matt: What sort of options are available to that person? And along the same lines, obviously, in order to have the energy for all this, you need to sleep. So what is it like sleeping on the Halcyon? And is there certain quiet hours where you know that you can just relax, there’s nothing that’s going to wake you up and need to go in and embark to the middle of the ship.
Stephanie: So for your first question, the easiest place that you can go and have full control over how quiet you want it to be how much stimulation there is, go to your cabin, unless you’re traveling with a ton of people, and they’re in there doing doing
Matt: Right [laughs]
Stephanie: Their own thing. But you can always go back to your cabin at, any,
Danny: The cabins
Stephanie: Point in time it’s you’re 30 seconds, from
Danny: Yeah they’re really
Stephanie: Your cabin, wherever you are,
Danny: They’re really close. They’re all right there, there’s no waiting for buses, and you know, you just walk
Stephanie: But also, the atrium is always open, and people will just sit around, hang out, have a cup of water, have a snack, whatever you might get kind of not even caught up in because in the atrium, unless you’re part of an actual mission that’s happening, something might be happening off in the corner. But if you’re okay to say I’m like sitting here and watching the world go by, that’s a pretty nice quiet spot. Sublight Lounge also can be a really nice quiet spot, especially in the like afternoon time. You can just go sit in there you don’t you can have a drink, if you want, you don’t have to have a drink. We ordered at iced coffees, one one afternoon, just kind of sat in there, no one else was in there. It’s very chill. It’s not like Oga’s, it’s not a party bar. It’s like, not sleepy, but it’s just
Danny: Atmosphere
Stephanie: very relaxing,
Danny: You can also go to the climate simulator
Stephanie: Oh the climate simulator
Danny: Which is a very Zen space. So the the climate simulator, you know, is accurately representing what it’s like on Batuu aka Central Florida. And it’s quite lovely. It’s very lush, they’ve got these living
Stephanie: There’s like a living wall.
Danny: Yeah.
Stephanie: And there’s a rock garden
Danny: It feels very zen like a meditation sort of spot.
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: So there’s definitely space to you know, unplug and collect yourself.
Stephanie: Also, at certain times of the day, there’s no activities happening in the bridge. And you can just walk in there and is very relaxing in there
Danny: That’s true
Stephanie: Big huge
Danny: Calm lighting.
Stephanie: Windows looking out at whatever planet you’re orbiting. There’s actually some seating in there that I think is for mobility access when you’re actually doing missions in there. But you could just sit back, relax and watch the stars go by, it’s pretty nice.
Danny: An important point about this experience for people who are introverted, you know, so you do need to talk to people. You’ll have a richer, fuller time on Starcruiser, if you get out of your comfort zone, go approach the characters, you know, throw yourself into it. That being said, you’ll still get missions, a lot of the communication happens via the datapad. So you don’t have to be face to face and you don’t have to be thinking of a spontaneous answer.
Stephanie: And you can choose how many of those messages that you answer we answered every single one of ours but I’ve read online, lots of people deciding to only answer messages from say Sammie.
Danny: Yeah
Stephanie: So it’s very choose your own adventure.
Danny: I also suspect again, I don’t know the technology that powers this. But I suspect that to a certain degree, it’s not so much which characters you interact with that you talk to, I think your physical proximity to the characters has an impact on your story path. We ended up on a lot of missions with Raithe Cole, that’s Gaya’s manager. We spoke to him a little bit on like the very first day, but not a ton. But I did notice that I often found myself standing near him in crowds, but like not interacting, just like he was there. And I you know, kind of gave him a nod and whatever. And I do suspect that there’s some sort of RFID or NFC or some near field technology between your magic band and the data pad that factors into your story progress.
Stephanie: Now your room is very relaxing, if you’re whether it’s at nighttime, or if you just need like a break in the middle of the day. So first of all, there’s a viewport in your room where you can see out into space and all the viewports on Halcyon are linked because you’re all in space together. So if you’re going into hyperspace, you’re going to see that wherever you are on the ship if you’re in an asteroid field or orbiting a planet you see that too. I found I actually you can close the viewport so it’s really dark in your room at night. I left it on all night long because I liked just waking up
Danny: It’s peaceful
Stephanie: In the middle of the night and seeing the stars floating by it was really really
Matt: Yeah
Stephanie: Nice. The cabins, more like a cruise ship, they’re small, they’re compact, they’re efficient uses of space. It’s not a like wide sweeping like two bedroom suite at the Riviera or something like that. But they’re very comfortable. The linens are nice. There is the best bathrobes I’ve ever had. I wish they sold those in the gift shop. They’re even better than the ones on Disney Cruise Line. There are all of the normal h2o products in the bathroom in addition to or an additionally, the ones that we talked about before which was like a luxury of bubbling yuzu-champagne facemask so like at night I just like get in my robe and do my face mask and feel lall ike cozy and fancy waterfall shower or like rain rain shower like it was it was beautiful and very chill
Danny: It is, yes, it’s very chill. It’s very calm. The rooms are another one of those things. You know, people saw the photos when they were first released. And they said, ‘Oh, you know, it’s a matchbox. It’s teeny tiny or like what’s up with the bunk beds? They look so it’s all
Stephanie: The bunk beds are awesome.
Danny: Yeah, it’s all fine. Everybody, like there was this insane knee jerk reaction, you know, and everybody wanted to say like, what are they doing? They don’t know,
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: They know, they tested these things.
Matt: [Laughs]
Danny: They thought about it, you know, I’m about six foot one, a fairly large guy. I didn’t sleep in the bunk beds, but I climbed up into them to have a feel for it. And like it’s
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: Totally fine. And your kids are going to go crazy for those bunk beds.
Stephanie: If you were traveling with your family members or with a group of friends. I think the way that the bed bunk beds are actually done gives you a lot more privacy, there’s no like curtain or anything that you pull over. But they’re very, very spacious inside. And you kind of feel like your own little world in there. And I would have loved that like as a teenager going from my parents and needing needing a minute to myself, it would have felt more like a minute to myself then sitting on the bed next to them at the Pop Century or something along those lines. The rooms are very quiet, we didn’t hear any noise outside. Your door actually slides instead of a normal, open and shut door, which is very cool.
Danny: We spoke to some of the Imagineers and architects on this project. And apparently one of the hallmarks of Star Wars design language is that doors are not mounted on hinges, they don’t swing outwards all doors in the Star Wars universe, either from the ceiling or from the left or right side, but they slide into place.
Stephanie: Yeah, that
Matt: That’s so true
Stephanie: Was Greg Ashton, that we talked to about that. There are quiet hours, though, to your point. So the first day really the action that is happening is between four and ten. We did have some outstanding messages from people that were like ‘Oh, tap into this terminal and enter this code when you when you want’ to that we had at the end of the night that we chose to do before we went to bed that night to make sure we were kind of all caught up. But that’s because we were go go go go going before the big first night finale. And then the next day your missions on Batuu are your are really your actions. So whenever you go to Batuu is when that mission when that action’s happening, if you sleep in and don’t go until 11, the whole morning, you’re just chilling out. And then the action doesn’t really start again until between three and four. I think the main action starts at four but we had bridge training, I think at 3:30 or something so it started a little earlier for us. And it goes till 10, when there, when that final climactic moment happens, there’s a small bit of action after that if you choose to go to the concert and the
Danny: Dessert party
Stephanie: Dessert party, but you know Sublight Lounge is open ’til one on the first night ’til two on the second night. So you got a few hours there where you could just go chill, have a drink, chill out have a tiny flatbread and nothing’s happening. There’s no characters coming in. Unless you choose to place sabacc with a stranger or something. No one’s gonna bug you. So there’s a lot of hours, it is go go go. But there’s also a lot of hours for peace.
Danny: Yeah.
Matt: That’s great. I know that that’s important for a lot of people and it’s also just important to you want the immersion you want the adventure, like I said, but sometimes you just need to step back and not feel like you’re missing something so it’s good that they have that time really built in there. Sort of sort of coming to some to some wrap up questions. The last specific question I have is regarding the the departure process and you talked a little bit about the pain point of rideshare might not be the most convenient way to to disembark from the Halcyon but what was the the sort of the last few hours of your, your departure day like?
Stephanie: So we woke up in the morning and we showered and made sure our bags were packed, much like on Disney Cruise Line. You can actually put your luggage outside your door that morning on Disney Cruise Line, it’s the night before in the morning, as long as you have it out before 9am, you don’t have to take your bags down yourself, they’ll do that you can pick it up when you get off the launch pod, which is really nice. We
Danny: All the story elements are fully done, you’ll get some wrap up messages from characters sort of thanking you for your support and wishing you good journeys and that sort of
Stephanie: And you want to read those before you get off the ship. Because once you get off the ship
Danny: Once you disembark
Stephanie: There, you cannot access any of your messages anymore. So I actually wondered if that was going to be the case. And I took screenshots and screen recordings of all my messages so I could go back and look at them later. But I would have been really disappointed if I hadn’t done that. You go for breakfast
Danny: You go for breakfast, it’s that same all you can enjoy buffet style. They also have little to-go pastry boxes, if you just want to grab something and be on your way
Stephanie: Some people are going to the park that morning,
Danny: Yep, you can hang out in the atrium important to note that the gift shop is closed. So you have to have done your souvenir shopping before then I think that’s why they open up that secondary gift shop outside of the ship. And you know, it’s at your own pace. But they are politely
Stephanie: Very similar to Disney Cruise Line. They’re like okay, you need to go now
Danny: They are politely pushing you towards the door.
Matt: [Laughs]
Danny: One thing that I really loved so the night before, when you have the big climactic finale, the lightsaber fight between Kylo Ren and Rey, it causes damage to the atrium. And that
Stephanie: Visible damage
Danny: Damage is still there. The next morning, there’s a big light fixture in the ceiling that sort of comes part-way down. And you know, what was once this beautiful, pristine atrium, when you boarded two days ago, has shown the signs of the story that you’ve lived through. As you’re making your exit.
Matt: Wow
Stephanie: Then you get on the launch pod and you go down, it’s kind of the reverse thing, you you detach from the Halcyon, you go through a little bit of a jump and you arrive back in Florida. You walk out that concrete hallway and then you pick up your bags, you either get your valet car, or you can ask them to call you a taxi which for us again, they offered to comp us on you might have a bit of a wait though. So for anyone who doesn’t want to wait most people are trying to maximize their time on the ship. There’s no story elements. There’s no missions that last morning, but you’ve paid a lot to be there, I was like I’m gonna get my money’s worth and stay around for as long as possible. So maybe like 9, 9:15, you have to be off by 10 that we got on the launch pod and we went down so there was a bit of a wait to get like a 30 or 40 minute wait for a taxi because again, they can only let a certain amount of cars in at a time. But that’s that’s it then you’re back in Florida man
Danny: You need a bit of time to decompress. So we were extending our vacation we were transferring to another Disney Resort we had a few more days on property before flying home. And like we needed time to process you know, we we had so many thoughts we kept you know talking over each other remember when this happened or what did you think about that. But then you also needed like some reflection and some processing and a little bit of decompression because it’s such an all encompassing experience.
Matt: So if I would probably if I were in your shoes be doing the same thing I would probably front end or back end or both
Stephanie: Yeah
Matt: Sort of bookend my trip
Danny: Yeah
Matt: With a Walt Disney World day and I think it’s also just because selfishly taking a plane ride there and a plane ride back.
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: Yes, exactly
Matt: I want to maximize my time there. Is there any advice you would offer for someone who’s considering this especially I’ll say for those who know this might be a trip that replaces another trip because there is a pretty significant expense.
Stephanie: Yeah
Matt: Let’s be honest,
Danny: Yep
Matt: That comes with this two night
Stephanie: Yeah
Matt: Adventure. So what advice would you offer for someone like who is this best fit for? Is there anyone who might not? It might not be worth it for them?
Stephanie: So if it is worth it for you, you’re a big Star Wars fan and you’re going but it is replacing a Disney trip, if I would not and you’re flying in if you’re driving in and you have more control or you live in the area, it’s fine. But if you’re flying in, I really think you need to fly in the day before. There’s so much that can happen with airlines, especially these days, traffic coming in from the airport, any number of things you do not want to miss your time on the Halcyon you don’t want to get delayed by a snowstorm and not arrive ’til six or seven the first night. So I would recommend really getting in the day before even if you stay off site at a more affordable hotel or something, get a value resort on property, so that you can be really fresh in the morning get in your costume and totally enjoy your day, flying home totally fine, get a get a flight at noon or later so that you can take your time in the morning and leave. If you don’t, I don’t think that you have to be a huge Star Wars fan in the sense that you know, all the
Danny: Yeah you don’t
Stephanie: Different armor of the storm troopers if it, or if it’s like High Republic era or like Rey’s era or whatever, you don’t need to know all that you should have seen some Star Wars, you should know that there’s a light side and a dark side, you should know who Chewbacca is, like, those kinds of basic things. If you don’t like any of that, I don’t know why you would want to go on this unless you’re supporting family members who really love it.
Danny: I think there’s enough to enjoy, you know, especially in that scenario where you’re traveling as a family and you know, maybe one spouse or the kids or whoever they love Star Wars but somebody else in the party is only lukewarm on it. You know the story, it’s pretty easy to identify the good guys
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: From the bad guys. It’s a heist, there’s an adventure like,
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: You know, there’s still fun to be had and enjoyment in seeing the others in your party, really get into it.
Stephanie: And if you are the person who’s going to get in, even though you’re not a Star Wars person, but you want to play with your kids play with your spouse really get into it, maybe you like role playing games, maybe you like LARPing, I think you’d still have a really good time. I think someone who’s not a good candidate for this would be someone like my mom, she hates Star Wars. She’s very introverted, and she’s very social person, but she’s very introverted about like role playing kind of stuff. And I think she would just end up sitting by herself having a drink in the Sublight Lounge not playing and not really interacting the whole time and missing us because we would be off having an adventure. In those kinds of cases. I say bring mom along, but like send her to different hotel
Danny: Yeah check her
Stephanie And like go to the spa for a couple days or something
Danny: Yeah check her into the Grand Floridian, you know, to go to the spa and do whatever
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: While, you go to Starcruiser that sounds right
Stephanie: Especially if it’s a longer family trip, you’re there for a week, two days, somebody in the in the family goes off and does their own thing two other days or while you’re doing that. And then the rest of the time you could be together as a family, that would probably work really well.
Danny: You mentioned the price. And obviously the price is a big consideration. You know, a lot of people balked at the sticker price when they first saw it. Is it worth it? I think it is. I don’t know how Disney could offer this experience at a lower price point. And I think that if they didn’t offer it to this level, it wouldn’t be worth doing.
Stephanie: No
Danny: You know, obviously, everyone’s financial position is different. And you know how much you dedicate to vacation spending. And those are all personal factors. I do think in terms of value for dollars, I am glad to have spent the money to have had this experience.
Stephanie: I think a lot of people see it, and they’re like, ‘oh, it’s a hotel room and you get some meals and you’re one day of park admission,’ All true. But I don’t think you’re I don’t think those people are considering that you have a dozen actors who are interacting with you for eight plus hours a day, stage managers, lighting directors, all that kind of stuff behind the scenes, that you’re not seeing. Many, many, many chefs, all of those kinds of things that happen and and the people who are running the datapad stuff. It’s all secret and behind the scenes so that you’re not thinking about it. So you have a seamless experience, but I can really understand why it costs what it costs. And I agree with Danny, I think it is definitely worth it. I think that families with small children, I know you have a little one of your own. I’ve been asked this question a lot, what age is the right age to bring your kids to Starcruisers rather than to Starcruiser rather than leaving them at home with grandma. So you can go have an adult we can I think it’s fine, leave them at home with grandma have an adult weekend, cool. But I think that your kids need to be old enough to have seen Star Wars to be tangentially familiar, I think they need to be able to stay up ’til 10 or 11 at night because otherwise you’re gonna miss out on the action because you need to take them to bed. And I think that they need to be able to not be too shy. They need to play confidently with strangers. Essentially, whether it’s other kids doing Loth-Cat Crew stuff, whether it’s your family and another family that you’ve never met before end up on the same mission together and you have to help each other out in the engineering room. If they’re not settled and confident enough to do that kind of thing. They’re just going to be cowering in a corner, afraid and shy and not knowing what’s going on. So that’s a different age for every kid. It could be four, it could be seven, it could be 14, like who knows but
Danny: Yes exactly
Stephanie: That’s the requirements. I think
Danny: I I agree with Steph’s assessment. We did see all ages on our cruise we saw there was this adorable elderly retired couple
Stephanie: Yep
Danny: In matching X-wing flight suits.
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: They were having a great time. We saw families with babes in arms. You know, toddlers, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 year olds.
Stephanie: There was one kid who was probably about five and he was dressed as Chewbacca. So when the storm troopers were
Danny: He was having the best
Stephanie: Looking for Chewbacca, just he was just like trolling them and being like, it’s me. I’m the wookie and it was so funny.
Matt: [Laughs]
Danny: He was having the best time. You know, like, kids, really, you know, it’s hard to pin a number
Stephanie: Yeah
Danny: To the age but I think Steph’s advice makes a lot of sense.
Stephanie: It’s also hard to pin if it’s going to be worth it for you or not. I think for a lot of people, they go to Disney World or Disneyland all the time. And then I think the question in the past has become, do I try something different? And try a Disney Cruise? Yes, I think you should try a Disney Cruise. It’s awesome. But if your annual Disney vacation, you’ve done the same thing for a lot of years, you want to try something different. I think that this can fall into that category too. Like, let’s do something totally different. Where I think this I don’t I haven’t seen anybody else talk about it. But one of the reasons that I love Disney so much actually is from my childhood, my dad worked a ton to provide for my family. He like left before I got up in the morning, he came home at dinner and then went back to work. And I appreciate that so much. I learned so much work ethic from him. But it was not until our annual or every two year trip to Disney for a few days, that he there was no smartphones and in the 90s like he put everything away. And he’d pay nonstop attention to me for five days while we were at Disneyland, and we would talk and play and eat candy for breakfast. And he’d asked about my favorite color and my favorite movie and stuff. If you want that time to connect with your spouse or your kids or your family or your friends. I don’t think there’s a better way to do that than all going on this epic adventure together to like restore balance to the galaxy.
Danny: Yeah.
Matt: Well put. I I think that’s a great testament and overview and providing advice for who this fits with and who it might not be a good fit for. I’m glad you brought up the idea of I actually don’t call this a hotel.
Stephanie: No
Danny: No, like you know it does. Bed, it has a room where you sleep. You know, it’s a disservice to call this a Star Wars hotel, because it’s so much more than that.
Stephanie: Yeah
Matt: It’s like calling Disneyland a carnival.
Danny: Exactly
Stephanie: Yeah
Matt: It’s not, it’s not quite the same thing. Now, you know, to to wrap us up, I know. Of course you’re you’re here representing WDW Magazine as well. And that’s part of the reason I brought you on here. So this if you’re if you’re watching at home live or if you’re listening to the podcast episode, this is live the beginning of May of 2022. So for those who are just day one watching or listening, what can folks look forward to when it comes to Galactic Starcruiser coverage from WDW Magazine? Or perhaps you discover this page like six months or a year from now? What can people do to go back and enjoy that content?
Stephanie: Well, our June 2022 issue is going to have a huge I think it’s gonna be 12 pages spread on Starcruiser that talks about our experience integrates interviews with Imagineers, and people from Lucasfilm that we were able to talk to, and that’s kind of our first big piece that will be available in our print magazine, whether you’re a subscriber or whether you buy a back issue a collectible back issue in our shop. But it will always be available in digital format with our digital edition, which you can have a subscription to or you can buy one-off issues with our app that’s on iOS or Android, our digital edition is available in our shop. But our app edition, which is the same content, just in a different format is available on your iPhone or your Android device.
Danny: You can also make sure that you’re following us on Instagram @WDWMagazine. There were some stories and posts from when we did this experience in March that have been bottled and saved. But we’ll always be posting new updates about our Starcruiser voyage.
Stephanie: We also have a bunch of videos that we’re working on right now that will be on YouTube, eventually. We’re WDW Magazine on YouTube and on all our socials as well. Later this year in November, we’re doing an an issue. All of our issues are themed and we’re doing this issue, our June one is Imagineering so it fits in perfectly. And in November of 2022, we’re doing an issue that’s all kind of like sci-fi and fantasy world things. So we’re going to be talking a bit more about Starcruiser elements at that time. And I’m sure we’ll continue to talk about it as the process evolves as the storylines may be evolved. Who knows what’s going to happen? But next winter, I can’t tell you exactly what it is but next winter, winter 2023 something special and Star Wars-y is coming from WDW Magazine.
Matt: I’m excited to find out what it is as well. I’ll make sure all those links are in the description of this episode so people have no problem going to find it no matter when you’re listening to or watching this podcast episode. But Steph, Danny thank you for spending two hours with me to talk about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser which didn’t even feel long enough.
Stephanie: It was our honor.
Danny: Yes, we could’ve talked for two more you know,
Matt: I believe it, we’ll have to have you back again at some point to discuss something else.
Danny: We would love that.
Matt: Yeah, but until then ’til the spire as they say on Galaxy’s Edge
Danny: Yes
Stephanie: May the stars light your way
Matt: There we go
Danny: Best of journey is what they would say aboard the Halcyon
Matt: I need to get with the the updated language to be in universe for Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser.
[Music plays them out, as their conversation becomes in audible and continues under Matt]
Matt: And with that we close out episode 133 and our two part discussion all about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. I really hope you enjoyed this in depth discussion this rational discussion about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser some of the highlights some of the things to consider and I hope you found this discussion to be informative and helpful when you consider whether or not this experience is worth it for you. And of course I do want to give a special thanks once again to Steph and Danny from WDW Magazine. As always, I encourage you to check out their articles their magazine, I not only subscribe to their print and digital editions, but I also contribute monthly articles all about Walt Disney Imagineering so just an extra reason to check them out. Of course I want to turn this conversation over to you and hear what other questions or thoughts you might have about Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, you can send me your answers and feedback as always in so many different ways. I would encourage you to reach out on social media on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn @Imagineerpodcast, on Twitter @Imagineernews. And you’ve heard me talk before about our Facebook group, which we’ve really been ramping up and providing a lot more valuable content. You can find our Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/imagineerpodcast or you’re doing it the the mobile way. You just go into the app search under groups for Imagineer Podcast, and you’ll find it there. Plus, I got a link in the description of this episode, which is always helpful as well. Also brand new, I talked about this in Episode 132. You can also subscribe on YouTube. I’ve had a YouTube channel for a few years, but I haven’t really been doing much with it. And I have heard time and time again that YouTube is a place that you all want to go to enjoy more. Imagineer Podcast content. I listened. I thought about how to do it the best I possibly could. And so you can not only listen to this episode, but watch our discussion over at youtube.com/imagineerpodcast you can see firsthand some of the merchandise that Steph and Danny were mentioning and some of the other details that were part of their storytelling experience their adventure aboard the Halcyon so I really encourage you to check it out, subscribe to YouTube, and let me know what other content you would like to see there. I promise there’s more to come not just with podcast episodes that you can watch, but even more great content coming to our YouTube channel. Of course, if you don’t subscribe to Imagineer Podcast, the podcast. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, if you’re listening to the show here, you’ve probably already subscribed but make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button. And if you have a moment to leave us a rating and a review in Apple Podcasts and in Spotify, great places to help the show out and to let others know what they can expect when they listen to an Imagineer Podcast episode. I also would encourage you to check out our Patreon group over at patreon.com/imagineerpodcast, I’ve got a link for you in the episode in the description of this podcast episode. It’s a great way to support the show and get bonus content that’s just exclusive to Patreon members we do bonus events we have a lot of great content to enjoy, you can join the more than 110 members of our Patreon community again at patreon.com/imagineerpodcast. Thanks as always to all of our amazing Patreon members in that group. And if you’re ready to book a trip to hey, Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, or any other Disney destination could just be a regular Walt Disney World vacation or Disneyland or Disney Cruise Line any Disney destination I really encourage you to look into our travel partners including Magical Park Vacations, who can help you to plan out and book your vacation they’ll wait on hold for you. They’ll make all the specific reservations and provide a great level of service that’s complimentary to you, and helps to not only discover how to save time in booking your Disney vacation, but making the most of your next Disney vacation, you can learn more about them at MagicalParkVacations.com. And if you want a little bit of an extra personal support work with a concierge service at their sister company WDW Park Planners, which you can learn more about at WDWParkPlanners.com. I’ve got links to both those places, as always in the description of this episode, but they take that planning process to the next level. They’ll have a one-on-one consultation with your family and come up with a personalized itinerary for your Disney vacation day-by-day, help to make theme park reservations, dining reservations, work through any extra activities you want to do, truly an amazing concierge service and can help to maximize all that time that you have and provide on vacation support. You can reach out to their concierge planners at any time on your vacation. If you have questions or needs to change plans, they really provide such a world class experience. If you want a little bit of an extra personal touch in planning out your Disney Vacation again, you can check them out at WDWParkPlanners.com. Last but not least, I want to encourage you as I always do to go after your hopes, your dreams, your goals; take that first step today to making your dreams a reality. And remember, as always that inspiring quote from Horizons if you can dream it, you can do it. Thank you so much for listening to the show and we’ll see you again in a future episode of The Imagineer Podcast.
[Music plays show out]
[Star Tours music plays in]
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[Star Tours music pays out]