We just returned from our journey, which was from July 23 until July 25. First and foremost, thank you all for the guidance you provided in this thread. I had not previously posted on this forum, but I read almost everything on here prior to booking and going.
My wife and I absolutely loved everything about Galactic Starcruiser. We chose to go without our girls, as they are not really Star Wars fans and may not have enjoyed having to interact with the cast and crew. And to be honest, my wife and I were nervous we wouldn't fit in because while we both love Star Wars, we definitely are far short of the super fans who have a seemingly limitless knowledge of the Star Wars universe.
I wanted to post just a few impressions in case they help anyone else in the future.
What I loved:
- For me, it was a complete Star Wars experience. It was as immersive as we wanted it to be (I ended up taking very few pictures because I was too focused on the game). By the end of the journey, I genuinely cared about the cast and how it would all pull together. The immersion never ended. The cast never came out for an ovation (as you would see at something like a musical or play). The journey just ends, as if it all truly happened.
- Interacting with other passengers. Maybe it was different for others, but for us, everyone - passengers included - remained immersed in the experience. People didn't seem to be sitting in the lounge and talking about their real lives, jobs, and what was going on in the rest of the world. It was all Star Wars all the time (other than maybe a few people asking questions about other rides to try at Hollywood Studios).
- The cast! Just incredible ability, including their ability to improvise. I enjoyed seeing how easily they managed to make everyone feel included.
- I absolutely want to go back to try for different stories and missions. I knew one spoiler going into this, and I ended up being a little bummed I did not end up on the path leading to that invitation. I would love to go back soon for more.
- I'm actually glad we decided to travel home as soon as our journey concluded (and did the Parks before we boarded). I feel like anything else at Disney would have been a letdown compared to our GS experience.
What I wish we would have done differently:
- We needed to be more proactive during the first couple of hours of our journey. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom (early park entry too) and decided to eat first thing once we boarded GS. Then we jumped into missions coming in from our data pads. I wish we would have taken one of the tours or otherwise forced ourselves to meet certain characters earlier.
- Next time we will spend more time planning our outfits ahead of time. We didn't know what to expect in terms of what type of outfits would be needed or what the conditions would be like on GS. We managed to improve our Day 2 looks after buying a few items in Batuu.
- We would probably opt for the first dinner service. We tend to eat later, but I think the flow of everything on Day 2 would have been better had we selected the first dinner service.
What I would like to see improved:
- Maybe this was just us and the choices we made during Day 1, but it seems like there should be more missions to do on Batuu. They give you all morning and until 4 pm to spend on Batuu, if you want it. We've been to Batuu three times previously, so some of the things there are things we wouldn't do again (e.g., build a droid). And the Star Wars standby lines were a little too long for us to go through again once we used our included Lightning Lanes (Rise actually had a 280 minute standby line at one point on Sunday). I may have also refused to leave Batuu so that we remained immersed in the story.... So perhaps some of the missions could build upon each other and multi-part fetch/quest missions. I had one (my wife didn't have one), but Disney could easily make more of them.
- Selfishly, it would be nice if GS passengers were given seat preferences on Smugglers Run. Based on the mission, I was excited we would finally get to be the pilots.... We ended up as the engineers yet again. I know, I know. I'm being petty.
- But to that point, I do wish there would be more of a special/custom experience on Batuu for us if other cast members recognize you are part of GS. Only one cast member (a First Order person on Rise) commented about GS and identified one of the characters by name. Yet just that one experience (hearing someone say Lt. Croy's name to us) made the two experiences tie together just that much more.
Anyhow, I loved it. I was initially skeptical and claimed we would likely never go to GS. Then I watched the initial videos and decided I was interested. The price is high, yes. Yet despite the price, there is enough possible variation to get me to go on a return journey.