Disney's Galactic Starcruiser: What It's Really Like Inside the Star Wars Hotel

Speaker 1: Here we go, going into my room. Speaker 2: Okay. Oh man. Speaker 1: Welcome to the gala galactic star cruiser. This is Disney's immersive hotel, live action, exp. This is something that they've never done before. For two days, we're gonna be living and breathing all things, star wars and being a part of this special story. They created [00:00:30] Disney invited us for an early preview to check out what it's all about before it opens officially on March 1st. There is a lot of this experience I am so curious us about, uh, are there gonna be actors just walking around in makeup? What's the food like? What's the story gonna be? What are the special effects we're gonna see? Well, we're gonna find out and we're gonna show you, but first let me show you the details of this room. When it comes to everything just has details. Everything's really plush and cool little shapes and triangles [00:01:00] and just half circles. Every wear cuz that's that's the star wars thing, uh, over here is where you're gonna have a little table. Uh, they have some chairs hidden under here, so you can sit. You can store things underneath in star wars. Yes, they have space trash and space recycle cans. Recycling is cannon. Look at this Speaker 3: Star wars remote control for your star wars TV. Can I watch star wars in star wars? I wanna know Speaker 1: This is gonna be your [00:01:30] main window to space. You can close it. It looks a lot better when the lights are turned down, but this is just gonna show you where you are. And I'm sure on our journey, the it's gonna change as we move along. But right now we're we're stationary right now know. Now behind this window is not just a flat screen playing a movie. There is a layered screen effect. It sort of looks like it curves depending on which angle you view it from. Uh, if you are wondering, I'm trapped on a ship with no windows, can I escape? Yes, you can escape. There is an emergency [00:02:00] exit in your room and it's a tell you what to do in case of an emergency. You would wait here and call 9 1 1. So yes, there is a door out. You're not trapped ladies and gentlemen, you can't leave the story if you need to. I kinda like that though. Who's watching TV here. I don't know. I don't know. Who's actually watching TV, but you could. And this is also giving you a whole map of where you're going in your journey so far, uh, is where you're gonna have your call center to communicate and talk to your joy. Who's obviously gonna have some sort of, uh, elements of your story as [00:02:30] you go along. Speaker 4: Hello and welcome aboard. Hello is now a good time to discuss your journey. Yes. Wonderful. My name is D 3 0 9. The logistic at the house in Speaker 1: Little, uh, little note, little tip, uh, be careful. Uh, this is like right at your face level. You already, already, I already hit myself. I know I'm a little clumsy. So everything is in weird shape. It's cool. Look at the floor over here. [00:03:00] They even have, it looks star wary in the border between the bathroom and the carpet. Just kind of crazy. When you walk in, uh, they give you water. It says it's able to be refilled at the atrium. A lot of fun to see how much detail they put into everything. And I appreciate that. And the fact that all doors kind of open in a sliding way, even the bathroom doors open this way. Sure. For space, but even these kind of give you that feel that you're on board Starship. It's [00:03:30] something different. They have here, uh, a different dispensers. So you don't get little star wars, soaps, and shampoos to take home. Speaker 1: It's all in a dispense, sir, because that is more, I guess, um, eco smart CSL. The, the star liners logo what's in here face clots, makeup removers, cuz they know you're probably wearing makeup, filming, bubble mask, columns and suit skin for all galactic species. The detail. Oh my [00:04:00] gosh. Foaming bubble mask. It's four of them here. Oh my gosh. We got towels with the star liner logo. Thermal blower. I mean, it's not as big as princess Vespas but it'll do, this is a really big box to hold the hair dryer space, toilet. Everything is very fun. And of course, because it is in space, it just can't be around one. No, it is a squareish one body wash, shampoo, [00:04:30] conditioner, all labeled for your cleaning enjoyment. It's pretty nice. It's it's the basic, it's basic. It does the job. I mean way the plugs look the way the Spencers of everything is special, but let's back up and let me tell you how we got here. Speaker 1: We start our journey in Florida where a big mysterious gray and white building is hidden away behind Disney's Hollywood studio theme park guests drive up to the entrance and everyone [00:05:00] is going to want a, a selfie by this sign. After checking in and dropping off my bags. I walked down a hallway where we got a quick welcome message with some real world talk, a video explained to guest what a real emergency looks like and what a fake star war story emergency on the ship looks like. So you know what to do if you really need help. And at that moment, our fantasy story begins To transport to the spaceship you have to of [00:05:30] course get on a shuttle. Now this thing moves a tad to feel like you're going up into space and the window above shows, you are leaving the planet. And then there it is the atrium where all the big action take. There's some time to take in the sites and explore the ship before the action starts. And it's also lunchtime and all the food on this voyage has a very unique presentation. There's a lot of cool things. I mean some stuff for adults, like, [00:06:00] you know, seafood and presented in really awesome ways. But even little kids like this is supposed to be grilled cheese and tomato. So, and it taste really good for like, you know, your basic grilled cheese look. They, they, they kept the body on it. Speaker 1: I mean, get that we're in space, but how am I supposed to eat this? Speaker 5: Do I eat it? Speaker 1: Am I supposed to just chomp into Speaker 5: It? What am I doing? I don't. Am I supposed to touch it? I don't know, Speaker 1: But that's, you know what sense of adventure? You better have a sense of adventure [00:06:30] while you're here, right? I'm making it up. Speaker 6: No, Speaker 5: I Speaker 1: Had a leg in there. Speaker 5: It's spreadsheet. It's scratchy. Speaker 1: We report to our must stations where our ship leaders tell us to come here in case the ship runs into trouble. And this is where we get to know our crew. Speaker 7: It is my honor to introduce to you captain Ola, Kean, Speaker 8: Thank you for your enthusiasm Speaker 7: [00:07:00] Welcome star cruiser. Speaker 1: So the captain and the cruise director are welcoming us and it's all pretty cool. And then suddenly you can tell something's up, uh, when you see some of the crew members like whisper Marine and walking around, like they're nervous, someone's suddenly on board. And of course it's the first order. Of course they suspect that they can't trust this ship for some reason and they're [00:07:30] gonna stay on the ship. And there was this news. I love the audience. It was like everyone's in on the IM improv. It was like, yeah, I all do this. You know, when you are like a, a Disney ride and they have that little intro sometimes, you know, to, so when we're about to go on, this was the intro. That was the intro moment to this whole journey. It set the story. It let us know who the bad guys are. Speaker 1: What is at stake and who the characters are here. So it's pretty cool, pretty cool. And they gave everyone a little bit of a lemonade drink to toast, to safe travels. [00:08:00] I wanted some fresh air and I headed first to the climate simulator, a small garden area where I entered my first storyline. So when we came out here just to check it out, comes a new character. Sandra telling us all about how he gave up everything at his home planet to come on it, to here on the ship, get a ticket, to see Gaia the performer tonight. And he also started playing some of GA's hits, which his story. He was really playing the bar. I loved it. [00:08:30] It kind of made me, I don't know, this is my first moment of a story. This is cool, but I wanna go where he was going now and see what else is gonna develop. Speaker 1: I feel like I have to keep following the, and I have to be curious to see what's next. So I don't wanna hang out here anymore, even though it's great and very relaxing. I wanna see what other actors and storylines you can find. The more you explore the ship and start talking to people. You start to realize there was a lot to uncover about what is really going on in this space cruise. And it's all tied [00:09:00] together with a phone app. You have to use here, they call your phone a data pad, and there's a special app that starts pinging you with messages from the crew. You use the app to talk to them. You'll get nudges on where to go next or help them with certain favors. You also have an R F I D wristband, which is called a data band and that records some of your activities and helps you unlock certain areas of the ship. I help them from getting the information off, SK The joy. I also ran into action just by being nosy and keeping [00:09:30] my eyes and ears open. Speaker 9: So everyone, when we get up in corner gonna make a blockade around two, make we give minutes, we're gonna be starting. You interested in, Speaker 1: In your room. You can communicate with the ships' droid. It lets you improvise conversations. Her answers depend on what you say to her. If you go beyond [00:10:00] the simple yes or no and get creative, she reacts pretty well back and forth. Oh, I think, I think this is a fantastic anniversary trip. I'm looking forward to it. Speaker 4: It is indeed how Speaker 1: The droid also talks about what you did in your day, based on the info that saved on your data band. Some of our conversations are 10 minutes long, so there's a lot of entertainment here and you better check in throughout your day for a real understanding of what's going on. We Speaker 4: Are going to convince this probe droid that you buck left the ship. [00:10:30] Are you in? Speaker 1: Yes. It's not all about actors and looking at screens. There's also fun of with the crew. Bartenders are gonna give you a thorough backstory on any drink you order. Speaker 10: Okay. That is going to be our ha icebreaker here. And let me see what she got going on here. Oh, but you have teeth. I just wanted to make sure because, um, I want you to break the ice, not your teeth, uh, whenever you have this drink. So I was just making sure, because not all species can handle it. All species can handle Speaker 1: [00:11:00] Everyone here gets really into it and you know what? That's pretty cool. Speaker 10: Nice. Speaker 11: That definitely looks like it's from hot. Sure is. Speaker 1: I played a little bit of Saba. That's the card game made famous by Han solos adventures. They use a holographic version at the table instead of real cards, which, um, you can sort of see if you lean your head in the right direction. We didn't play for real credits, but these rules are a little different from other [00:11:30] Sabbat card games you may already own. And I think I got a knack for it pretty quickly. And then there's the shopping. Yeah. There's lots to go geek out about. Speaker 2: Oh, I definitely. Speaker 1: So here we have a light saber that is exclusive to the SHR star line. The Hilts is what's unique about it and it's 170 credits Speaker 2: For earth dollars. Very cool. Speaker 1: [00:12:00] My data pad itinerary tells me to head to the bridge for training. Every station is different. Some controls are for shields, some fire blasters and others repair the ship. You have to work as a team to keep it together. Suddenly we are all in a massive scale button, mashing knob, turning switch, flicking arcade game. And it's not super easy, but uh, you know, even if you're awful, I'm sure the ship is still Speaker 12: Gonna be okay. Speaker 1: [00:12:30] Dinner is a multi-layered show. Everything's very customized. This is the evening with Gaia and the three course meal is set, but this is a reference of what we'll be getting. And we can order drinks to go with you. Food has some familiar taste with wild presentations, lots of ban. The meat is used. Sometimes the colors and tech sugars can throw you off and you can look at the menu to cheat on what you're eating, or you can get brave and just guess the flavors [00:13:00] it's, it's definitely like a sweet meat With like, um, like, like a puffy dumpling around it. This is kind of fun. Uh, I don't know what it Speaker 2: Is. Speaker 1: I like it. It's different, but there's how much time to eat when you wanna take in the awesome singing talent of Gaia. She's our guest star on the ship. Of course it's not gonna be star wars without some good music. And some far out instruments. Speaker 12: [00:13:30] I really like her personality. Speaker 1: I barely wanted to eat. There was so much happening. Heal soon realized that drama is going down during dinner, behind the scenes and you know what? They might need your help to distract our friend, Lieutenant Croix Speaker 12: In the first order, Speaker 1: Even though it's late, there is Speaker 12: Always more to do. Speaker 1: [00:14:00] This was a lot. I'm very tired. It is uh, 10 30. And I have no idea what's in store for tomorrow, but I feel like something's brewing. I am just absolutely impressed. Wow. By how many actors are on and nonstop. There are, there are layers of storylines. I feel both very fulfilled that I'm seeing things happen, but also I'm left going. But wait, did I get everything? [00:14:30] Cause I, I wanna see everything. This is like a video game when you're trying to talk to every character to make sure you understand what's going on, but I know what's going on. I feel like I'm getting a good chunk of the story, obviously, but I feel like I also don't wanna leave anything behind. I wanna capture every little nugget. This was delightful. And man, um, they put on a good show. They really do. But you know, if you're too excited to sleep, you can always check in with your room droid link [00:15:00] and uh, she can sing you a Speaker 13: Luva stars, light your way, throw out all your journeys, the stars light your way throughout all your days. Speaker 2: Oh Speaker 1: Man. Speaker 2: Welcome Speaker 14: Aboard the bar transport. I am J six F eight and I'll be [00:15:30] her pilot for this short journey. Speaker 1: Day two puts us in the theme park our excursion to the planet of be two. After our mission on the Falcon, we get more messages to find a secret camp that is the ride known as rise of the resistance. And this time I chose to help Lieutenant Croix. This is by far Disney's best and being able to walk in and skip the long lines is a major perk of this voyage. Before we go back to the ship, there's yet another mission. We need to get some [00:16:00] Intel and drinks from Ogas Cantina. I gotta scan it. They really make you work for this Intel. We now have a lot of quests in the park that we need to use our app to accomplish like hacking droids and scanning codes. Speaker 2: Oh, Speaker 1: Access Deni Speaker 2: Strike key. Speaker 1: [00:16:30] Okay. Enough of this foolishness, it's time to get to some light saber training so Speaker 15: Way this forward. Take a deep breath in and engage Speaker 16: Your body. Okay. Block, block now move away. Yes. Just like that. Yes. Speaker 17: Okay. Speaker 1: So really wanted to go to my room because at a certain point you were just afraid of missing something. Sammy's Speaker 2: Got something up his sleeve [00:17:00] just whispered something to one of the kids. Speaker 1: Big things happen that are not on your data pad. Itinerary. What Speaker 2: Is happening Sammy? I don't like the looks of that. No, Speaker 18: No look, look, they're, they're forming a block, a around the entire ship Speaker 19: Effect immediately. The ship is under the control of the first order. Speaker 18: Deescalate this right now. Get it. Stall. Speaker 1: Things [00:17:30] can just happen to you spontaneously. If you're in the right place at the right time. At point I was asked to help rescue an ASEC droid with some kids. This made me so hungry to not miss out on anything that I started running into. Other groups of people that were heading to the bridge. And here I got caught up in another character's storyline to help the resistance. You never know what you're gonna see on the bridge. Maybe even famous heroes of the past, [00:18:00] Depending on how active you are. You could be called to the bridge in different ways by different characters on. I was specifically called to the bridge again, to help Lieutenant Croy with other first order loyalists Speaker 19: Destroy those loaders. Okay, Well [00:18:30] done. Oh, Speaker 1: Everyone is seeing how the story is unfolding from different angles. There were some quest prompts in my phone that I did not do and I can't help, but wonder what else I missed out on because I did another random mission on the spot. There's just no way to see it all, but enough drama for a moment, please. We have to get to dinner. And tonight we sat at the captain's table. It costs $30 per person extra. And we [00:19:00] get a few extra food items, some wine pairings and a chance to sit closer to the action, Speaker 20: But everyone's holding up well. Yeah, I'm glad to hear it. Speaker 1: Um, the room light change is with every dish inspired by different planets. And sometimes there are unique smells that fill the air. Speaker 21: We got our blue shrimp baby. Speaker 1: The food was pretty tasty, but the most satisfying part of the meal for me was when the characters interacted with us. Speaker 22: Oh, so how has everyone been enjoying the ship? Ever [00:19:30] since the first I've been having a wonderful time, Speaker 1: We all knew something big was about to happen. And it looks like we're about to find out warning. There's some big spoilers ahead. Speaker 19: The house is now under my and [00:20:00] the control of the first order though. I have to tell you I've had some help from some of your passengers, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, where are you? Savannah? Savannah yesterday became the first person to ever call me a mean old man [00:20:30] That fuels movements like the older in the first place. All of this is because of you. He's You talk on? [00:21:00] Yes. [00:21:30] You come to me, [00:22:00] Can't get this from me. It's mine. Don't make me take that OC from you, right Destroy. Speaker 7: [00:22:30] Now that that's settle, Get them off my ship Here to [00:23:00] the end of one extraordinary journey. And to the beginning of a thousand, Speaker 1: Every star wars movie needs to end on its John Williams fanfare. But instead of end credits, our story ends with a celebration in space. And now it's time to wake up from this collective dream [00:23:30] I'm full of adrenaline. I'm taking it all in. It was fun. I definitely am like feeling just like that was a fun show. Speaker 23: We hope that we have honored your journey and that will find you wherever you may go give passage and the stars light your way. Speaker 1: [00:24:00] All right, we're off the ship. I've had a little time to gather my thoughts and I have really experienced something that was extremely involved. You have this blend of Broadway level acting and improv woven together with some massive technology system that is taking all of our stories and coordinating it. I didn't really [00:24:30] expect how deep, how layered and involved this was gonna be. When you have characters that are, uh, invested in your name and your path, and everyone's on different paths, you have to go into this knowing you're not gonna see everything, but you have to be on your toes to get the most of it. And that's key when we're talking about the price. This is an experience that for a typical cabin room, you're looking at about five grand for this two night stay. [00:25:00] And when you're spending that, you wanna make sure you're getting your values worth. Speaker 1: And I gotta say this isn't for everyone. You, you have to love star wars. You really, you really have to love nerding out. Also, this is for someone who loves theater because the energy of the actors and participating and talking to them and kind of wanting to be engaged with people. That is what made it fun. That is what made it more than just staring at my phone and going, okay. I completed a quest. Okay. I did something. I pulled a lever. Ooh. I went to [00:25:30] hyperspace. No, this is about engaging with the characters because when you do suddenly, this starts feeling real. That kind of energy is hard to always get across in a photo. Sure. It can look like, oh, that looks kind of Spacey. That looks a little star wary. Oh, your food looks blue. But the energy is what's hard to convey. Speaker 1: And there is no slow moment. So you also have to be someone who wants to play this video game. You wanna be able to hack it. You wanna be able to get everything [00:26:00] out of it because if you're just sitting back and watching it's possible, you'll be able to progress the story along. You'll you'll see what happens with else. You won't get the nuggets of fun. So who is this? Not for? I would say this is not for a family with really young kids. There is a lot for kids to do, but just keep in mind that that experience is gonna be different. You might not be able to do every single quest because kids are gonna be on their own path. So if you're a parent who wants to see it all, you might have to as a team to really get everything [00:26:30] out of it. Speaker 1: But I did love seeing how the characters were really engaging with the Padawans. If you will. Another thing we have to mention the pandemic. This is for someone who is okay with being really close with your fellow shipmates. I kind of went in not knowing what to expect, how I would feel about it, but you start to realize, Hey, I'm at dinner with everybody. We're all next to each other, singing and dancing without our mask on eating. But know this, the characters they're doing [00:27:00] things like coming close, let's gather around, you know, things like that. So go in knowing what your comfort level is when it comes to that, we're in a spaceship that doesn't have windows and we're all eating indoors. And you know, a certain point, I was like, okay, I'm in it. So if you're living a star wars movie, a video game, what is the story? Speaker 1: Well, this story has themes in it from the very beginning. It's about teamwork. You cannot do certain things unless you're working together. You have to talk with other people you have to [00:27:30] on the bridge, work together by pushing the levers and knobs. It's all about, uh, coming together, being brave, overcoming challenges and all that good feeling, empowerment stuff that you know, you always like to see you in a star wars movie right now there's a hunger for a new type of entertainment. Something that you can experience. Why just have VR at home when you can live it. And we did, we lived it. Uh, do not think of this as a hotel, [00:28:00] the amenities are not the same. This isn't even like the same as a cruise amenity though. It's kind of structured that way in the storyline. Uh, you are paying for living a video game movie. Speaker 1: You know, when we ended our, our space cruise voyage and we got off the ship, we ran in our little simulator and we got back to planet earth. I gotta say, I got emotional. I got emotional because I knew this is something that you can't just pop in and see again, you can't just duck in the next time you're in Orlando to check out everything. They [00:28:30] really make it. So you feel like this is something you might do once in many, many, many years, we talk about replayability. I think I wouldn't go do it again. Unless something massively changes in the story. Cuz I feel like I got like 70% of it. So I got, I got emotional knowing like this is one of those vacations do once in a long time, I'm maybe do it with different groups of friends, but it's not like a typical theme park entertainment for sure. [00:29:00] Well, we went really in depth into the star cruiser, but there's a lot more to see when you get to the planet. But two there's a cool ride rise of the resistance. It's my favorite thing. I have a whole video about it. And also if you wanna know about some of the tech on the ship, like Ray's light saber, that extends that's pretty cool. I have a whole video on that too. Thanks for geeking out with me until next time you may, the force be with you.