Star Wars Day At Sea Cruise Tips

[ladyj0212]

So next year we will be going on our 7th Disney Cruise, but our very first SWDAS! I was wondering if any one who has cruised a SWDAS before has any tips that my family and I could use. TIA

 

[Lisa F]

I'd love to read this too!

 

[LambertLion]

We did one a couple years ago and it was a blast! Lots of Star Wars themed activities throughout the cruise even besides the actual Star Wars day! The troopers and characters were so fun. Going around the ship "interrogating" people. The photo ops all throughout the star wars day with so many characters. Make sure yo make your reservations for the big characters as soon as you can. Also, pop you head topside at noon and listen to horns which they have 2 that are star wars themes. So many people dress up and it's amazing the work they put into it. All the movies play all the time, in addition to others throughout the cruise, but swdas has star wars movies only all day. If you are a fan, you will have sooooo much fun!!! Enjoy!

 

[Marc D]

Do not hesitate to dress up. We did and we had a blast. There was a group photo of everyone in costumes. Also, be sure to hang around the atrium the evening before SW day. The fun starts a bit early...

 

[lklgoodman]

My dd did the Jedi training thing last year. We aren't SW fans, but she enjoyed it and I thought it was pretty cool, bring your camera! Make sure your kids aren't wearing flip flops if they do it. They made a dad go to their cabin to get tennis shoes for his kid. I didn't remember it saying that in the sign up info, but was glad my dd had on tennis shoes. We did the drawing class for BB8. It was somewhat tiring because of all the little details, I much prefer drawing Pluto, lol! We've done 2 SW cruises and have our 3rd booked for next year. Even if you aren't big SW fans, it is fun to see how different that day is from other cruise days.

 

[DWillowBay]

Great cruise! We did it in January of this year. There's more to do than you can accomplish, so decide your priorities and go with those. Characters were amazing. Definitely schedule Chewie, Darth and C3PO/ R2D2 pics. Otherwise, many other characters are walking around.... Stormtroopers, Imperial Guard, Boba and others. BB8 Races were fun to watch.

 

[NAB]

Go to the atrium the night before about 10-10:30 that is when it begins. One of the characters comes out , light go down quite dramatic.

 

[KantLose]

All of the above tips are great - definitely check out the atrium the evening before! The poolside character shows and fireworks were also incredible. Bring some extra trinkets with you for trading with Jawas if you see them around the ship. My daughter still talks about trading her lanyard with them. It has to be a trade so make sure you are okay with not getting the item back - they seemed to like character lanyards, pens, pins, hair barrettes - that sort of thing.

 

[Numtini]

Oh yeah, the Jawas were definitely a highlight. Fireworks are always fun, but I thought the show was kind of meh. The thing the night before, that was the real stuff, definitely not to be missed. FWIW Jedi training is the hardest thing to get, so sign in early and grab it. And go back regularly as the cruise gets closer if you didn't snag it. We got our daughters like three weeks before sailing?

 

[MomOTwins]

I've never been, but it occurs to me this year there will be probably be quite a few Galaxy's Edge tie-ins. So may a tip would be to go down a day early and visit Black Spire

 

[nenis]

Does anyone have a copy of a past itinerary?
What event is held the night before.that the shoot off fireworks? Pirate night?

 

[lklgoodman]

Does anyone have a copy of a past itinerary?
What event is held the night before.that the shoot off fireworks? Pirate night?

The ship transform the night before and they do stuff to get everyone ready for all the SW activities for the next day.(don't want to say what, in case someone else reading wants to be surprised). We've done 2 SW cruises. Pirate night was on Cozumel day on the WC and on Tortola day on the EC day. You will have fireworks on both pirate night, (but no pirate menu) and on SW day with a SW menu. This is how it was when we went in 2017 and 2019. We have another booked for next Jan, so will see if they do anything different.

 

[Lisa F]

Oh yeah, the Jawas were definitely a highlight. Fireworks are always fun, but I thought the show was kind of meh. The thing the night before, that was the real stuff, definitely not to be missed. FWIW Jedi training is the hardest thing to get, so sign in early and grab it. And go back regularly as the cruise gets closer if you didn't snag it. We got our daughters like three weeks before sailing?

are they still trading on the ships? I thought they were long since discontinued in the parks.

I'm hoping as CC gold I won't have too much trouble booking what I want to - seems like there is a ton more to book on SWDAS than my last cruise!

 

[Lisa F]

Does anyone have a copy of a past itinerary?
What event is held the night before.that the shoot off fireworks? Pirate night?

the disney cruise blog has navigators posted from several SWDAS.

The night before doesn't shoot off fireworks, that is pirate night which is a few days before. The night before they take over the ship and transform it to star wars, there is apparently a show in the atrium.

 

[Lisa F]

The ship transform the night before and they do stuff to get everyone ready for all the SW activities for the next day.(don't want to say what, in case someone else reading wants to be surprised). We've done 2 SW cruises. Pirate night was on Cozumel day on the WC and on Tortola day on the EC day. You will have fireworks on both pirate night, (but no pirate menu) and on SW day with a SW menu. This is how it was when we went in 2017 and 2019. We have another booked for next Jan, so will see if they do anything different.

I'm going in February and eagerly awaiting the January reports!!!

 

[lklgoodman]

I'm going in February and eagerly awaiting the January reports!!!

We go Jan. 18. I'm not booking any meets or the Jedi training this year since we've already done then. But can answer any questions you might have about other stuff once we get back. I'm assuming most stuff will be the same as previous years. Everything was pretty much the same from our 2017 and 2019 ones. You shouldn't have any problems with booking, we were able to get everything as silver last year. We're now gold, so pretty sure we'd be able to get stuff if wanted. Hopefully they will have the same cm doing Chewy, he was GREAT!!! And I'm not a SW fan, but he has been the best meet we've ever had. You're son is same age as my dd, he'll have a blast. The Jedi trading is well done and was offered many times. Bring your camera/video recorder. It has a lot of music/lights that go off and on. Not sure if that is something you will want to let him know about before hand. I think there was also some smoke/fog. It's not done in a scary way though. Same kind of way they use it in the evening shows. He'll have a great time and so will you watching it.

 

[KantLose]

are they still trading on the ships? I thought they were long since discontinued in the parks.

I'm hoping as CC gold I won't have too much trouble booking what I want to - seems like there is a ton more to book on SWDAS than my last cruise!

They were still doing trades on the ships when we went this past March.

 

[Lisa F]

Hope the OP doesn't mind me adding on but just wondering - for those who are repeat SWDAS cruisers - outside of the character greetings and jedi training (top two on my list) what are other not to be missed categories? I was thinking BB8 races for the kiddo... I know we can't do everything but what do people like best? We are subscribing to Disney+ so probably won't be watching the movies!

 

[lklgoodman]

They have a deck show that night with fireworks. We did the BB8 character drawing, I thought it was hard, I'm horrible at drawing though. It had A LOT of details, Pluto is a lot easier. They also had some furry character(porg maybe) drawing class, that we missed. They also have some type of scavenger hunt game, not exactly sure what it was but we saw a ton of people running around doing it. Trivia is all SW themed.

 

[KantLose]

The scavenger hunt was looking for Porgs. They are around the ship and have a secret code that spells out something if you find them all. Another thing that was fun was the informal character interactions around the pool deck and the main atrium. My kids were stopped by storm troopers asking them if they had seen any rebels.