Starcruiser Review

For my family of 4 the answer was undeniably YES! Amazing cast members, immersive and luxurious environment and activities, impeccable service and incredible food…what’s not to love. My 8 year old summed things up perfectly when she whispered to me in an awestruck voice “I feel like we are the special guests and the main characters in a Star Wars movie!” For a lifelong Star Wars fan like myself that experience was priceless, but even my husband who is not a fan of Star Wars loved his time on the Starcruiser and can’t wait to go back!

So let’s go through some of what makes this experience so special. **CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD! **

THE SHIP

Firstly, the main character in this experience, The Halcyon! The ship is beautiful. This isn’t some hunk of space junk. This is a luxury cruise ship! Plush red velvet, pristine whites and shimmering golds!

The aesthetic of the atrium when you board is impressive. Everything feels state of the art. The red velvet couches are a great place to sit and watch the action when you need a minute off your feet. Gaze into space, check out a model of the Halcyon and watch the advertisement and ship announcements on the two towering holoscreens.

The Bridge is fun! You will have opportunities to explore the bridge with the captain and get really hands on in running the ship. Standing here looking out over alien worlds you really feel like you are on a cruise through space. Our family was even invited into the bridge during the captain’s welcome speech to kick the ship into hyper drive!!! Such a blast!

The Sublight lounge is a great place to sit down and grab a drink or a snack. This lounge is much different than Oga’s Cantina. Upscale and refined you need to make some time to enjoy this space. The lounge also houses the Holo-sabacc table which is a great place to learn to play sabaac while sipping on a Hoth Icebreaker!

The Crown of Corellia dining room is a comfortable cafeteria for lunch and breakfast and transforms into an elegant dining room for dinner. Mainly this is done with mood lighting but the effect worked well for us! The seating was comfortable and the dinner entertainment was great! Gaia’s performance was a blast but even just watching the captain, Lenka Mok and Raithe mingle and Lt. Croy cause trouble was entertainment enough. But the real star of this stage is the food! (more on that later)

Many have said the cabins are small and I imagine that is the case more so when you are staying with a cabin full of adults, but for our family of four the room felt spacious enough. There is room to store suitcases under the bed, the shower was awesome and the bunk beds were fun and large enough for an adult to sleep comfortably. The view into space was fun but not the highlight I hoped for. The light around the window only goes off when you close the window so my dreams of sleeping under the glow of alien stars were not to be. Regardless of how much we liked our room we didn’t spend much time there. There are just too many places to explore and too many things to do!

The engineering room was a perfect place for kids to run a bit wild. This would have been my dream play place as a child and even as an adult I was crawling around on hands and knees and exploring every nook and cranny! There are buttons to push and levers to pull and things that bubble, smoke and light up!

The climate simulation chamber didn’t have much going on when we were there but it was a nice space to sit for a second and get some fresh air. The ship isn’t huge but it didn’t feel confined or restricted and we enjoyed just walking around and taking it all in too.

THE CAST

The cast is amazing. They are truly THE THING that makes this experience like no other. Every interaction we had was unbelievable. They are fun and engaging. Whether the character is brand new to you or an old favourite, interacting with the actors is going to make you feel like you are truly traveling through a galaxy far far away.

The alien Diva’s were a favourite of my daughters. my son was thrilled to meet Chewbacca and interact with Sami, Raith felt like an old friend by the end of two days and none of us could get enough of Lt. Croy! I honestly don’t know how they do it! I don’t know how they have the stamina and the adaptability to keep up these amazing interactions with guests but truly they made this experience what it is. Whether you’re on a mission to help Rei, getting harassed by Stormtroopers or high-fiving a droid, every moment spent engaging with cast was time well spent.

ACTIVITIES

There are so many things to do during your time on the Starcruiser both on ship and during your port excursion to Batuu. Some activities are scheduled ahead of time and will be booked for everyone, some are optional activities you can choose to do and some are additional add ons.

The bridge orientation and lightsaber training are two activities that are scheduled for all guests. Both were way more fun than I expected them to be and both will have unique story elements happening depending when you are scheduled to do them. There are endless activities that you can opt to join in on. Droid racing and sabacc tournaments to name a few.

There are also your missions that will be given to you by the characters you interact with and these alone will keep you busy and exploring the ship. These are mostly done through your datapad and having you exploring all over the ship, but can also be given verbally by the cast. If a cast member asks you to meet them somewhere you definitely want to do that. SOme of our most amazing interactions were by invite. (including a visit from a certain Green Master!) For an additional cost on board there is a cocktail making experience in the Sublight Lounge and you can book a photoshoot for your party. We didn't do either of these but I have heard many positive reviews from those that did.

On day 2 you will also have a port excursion to Batuu and this includes fast passes to both the millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. On both rides cast members noted our Halcyon pins and added a little extra magic to the experience. We also decided to add to the experience by opting to build lightsabers, droids and take a trip to Oga’s. All of this was great fun and also really fun to do while immersed in the star Wars experience and being in costume. The big bonus of the port excursion to batuu is getting to be the first in the park. Getting to roam through Batuu without the insane crowds was a real treat! Not to mention getting to take this amazing picture in front of the Millenium Falcon without strangers in the shot!

The transport to Batuu was great, it may just be a cargo truck decked out and decorated but it felt like a convincing shuttle for us. And the photo ops in the private area for Halcyon guests was also wonderful. We came back here a few times to just get out of the sun and have a cold drink. All of our activities didnt take us too long and we ended up back on ship just after noon to grab lunch. You will have a voucher to grab lunch at Docking Bay 7 or any quick service location but we loved the food onboard and opted to use our voucher on the day we checked out and eat in the Crown of Corellia again instead.

THE FOOD

You. Will. Not. Go. Hungry! The food…oh wow the food…I still dream of meteorite eggs! We loved the food. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style with a nice variety of small plates you can grab and blue and green milk on tap. Dinner both nights is a table service elegant affair with servers that are top notch. They also have grab and go breakfast options which can be nice if you just don’t want to take time out from the action to sit down for breakfast. The atrium will have snacks out in the afternoon and evening and this was great for my picky eater 8 year old. They had lots of familiar things like fruit, goldfish crackers and cookies.

The Sublight lounge offers cocktails. These were much better than the Oga’s cocktails (no offense Oga you are awesome too). Sublight cocktails are not pre mixed, less sweet and still really fun presentations. Sublight also offers snacks in the evening and those that we tried were amazing! Honestly, I wished I was able to try everything on board! All that I did try was amazing but we just were too full to sample everything!

THE SERVICE

impeccable! Every single person we interacted with was amazing. The servers in the Crown of Corellia dining room, the concierge staff in the atrium, the cleanliness in every corner of the ship! We were not left wanting by any aspect of it. And while they were all so wonderful the stand out for us was the young woman who spent hours in engineering with the younglings! Her energy was endless as was her enthusiasm! She and the gang of rebels spent hours restoring the ships systems! The Halcyon is 275 years old and with the help of our kids, she saved the day by restoring systems no less than 38 times!

The question of whether a stay on the Starcruiser is worth it will really depend on what your expectations are for a vacation. If you want to spend most of your time resting and relaxing by a pool this is not the vacation for you. The day we checked out we were tired! Like…REALLY tired. Sore muscles, hadn’t slept enough, and absolutely devastated to be leaving! This was an experience like no other and we can’t wait to be on board again.