Episode 1: Good we Hope? (September, 2022)
Back in 2022, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Disney World for a Trip on the Galactic Starcruiser. My mom and sister are big Disney people, and I joined onto a trip that they were taking. This is my diary of that trip (published years after, because I took my time).
Day 1: Travel to Orlando
Since we are land locked, we spent most of our first day travelling. I went through Denver and had plenty of time to grab a drink at the Coors Bar in Terminal C (which is one of my favorites). Basically, I went to the airport, and got on a four hour flight. I landed at 10:30pm and my sister picked me up from the airport and took me to their room at Wilderness Lodge. Wilderness Lodge is beautiful! I was super excited to be there and see the place. When I got to the room, I was able to see the fireworks from Magic Kingdom from the balcony.
Day 2: EPCOT and Animal Kingdom
After some sleep, we woke up rope dropped at Epcot. We went through and did the rides (soarin, of course, and test track), while we explored the park and waited on our Fast Passes for Guardians of the Galaxy. The Starbucks in Epcot is awesome, great location and some nice AC on a hot day. We went around the world showcase and did some shopping (I grabbed a MagicBand+ to try out some Bounty Hunting in BSO). Lunch was a great time at Space 220. We had wonderful food and fun atmosphere. Then we headed over to Animal Kingdom to take in Pandora at night. On the way, we rode Everest a couple of times, because I love that ride. Pandora is way the heck out there – just keep that in mind. We got some passes for Flight of Passage and Navi River Cruise. Both were super fun and the use of blacklights in the rides and land were super fun. I grabbed some food from the diner in AKL before we turned in for the night.
Day 3: Studios, Batuu, and Boarding the Halcyon
For this trip, it is going to be much easier to talk about the non-Halcyon and Halcyon parts separately. When we arrived at Studios in the morning, I wanted to rush over to Black Spire Outpost (BSO) which is on the planet Batuu. Well, it turns out that there are lots of other things closer to the entrance than BSO. We took some photos around the outside of the Resistance Encampment (which is the part closest to the entrance – and is where Vi sets up camp in the novel) and joined the Lighting Lane queue for Rise of the Resistance – the premier ride in Batuu. It was fantastic, seeing the characters come to life and the thrill of escaping a star destroyer with Finn and Poe is fantastic.
After making it down from the ride, we wandered through the market and the rest of the outpost. There were some really cool small details of the outpost. All of us did a bunch on the Star Wars Datapad, scanning doors, hacking terminals, and of course trying to eavesdrop on some first order communications. We had a 10:30am reservation at Oga’s so with some time to kill, we got into the queue for Smugglers Run (aboard the Millenium Falcon). Smugglers Run is one of my favorite rides – of all time. The interplay of a modern ride with Hondo and the Resistance story lines was just great to see. We did two runs and I scored as a marauder and pirate as the gunner.
After Smugglers, we went over to Ogas for drinks. Oga Garra is a ruthless crime lord on Batuu. She runs the local cantina. I had a Jet Fuel which is a spicy bourbon and had a Blue Bantha for desert (and it has a cookie on top). After Ogas we all wanted some actual food so went back to the market and got some Ronto Wraps and Tatooine Sunrises. We did Star Tours on the way out of the park at around noon and it seriously breaks the timeline. Our simulation had Kylo Ren as our evil villain and then we went through the battle of Coruscant (from the clone wars) it was not very immersive.
At 12:30pm, we went back out to the car and got ready to head over to the Starcruiser (which admits guests at 1pm). It took about ten minutes to drive over, but we spent almost an hour in traffic waiting to get dropped off. At about 1:45pm we were finally out of the car and we greeted immediately by staff. They tagged our baggage for delivery to our room, took pictures of us at the sign, presented us with our Chandrilla Star Line Magic Bands and ushered us into security for our boarding transit and briefing. The briefing is a short safety video and then they loaded us onto a transport to the ship.
When you first walk out on the Halycon, the experience is just breathtaking. The atrium is white and bright, with smiling passenger services crewmembers waiting to guide us around the ship and show us our rooms. We did a brief tour and went down to our room (we were staying on Deck 7 for this trip). We wandered around a bit, looking at the ship, seeing the Chandrilla Collection (shop) and Sublight Lounge (bar). Then we beelined it to lunch because we were all hungry. Lunch was a buffet, and we had a fantastic time choosing our food and taking it to a booth to eat. I had a ton of tip-yip and some wonderful PB&J choix buns with a big glass of blue milk.
As soon as we arrived, our datapads started pinging like crazy. All of us had a message from the cruise director, Lenka Mok, asking how we align ourselves. I told her that I was willing to help anyone for a price hoping to get on the smugglers path. As you walk around the ship, you will see that every deck has a scannable “terminal.” I scanned in and was asked to provide a passcode, which I did not have. As soon as I tried it, I was contacted by Raithe Kole, who is a smuggler and Gaya’s Manager. He asked if we could make a deal, he would give me access to engineering if I agreed to help him. I did and was able to access a terminal with the correct passcode to access engineering. Instead of heading straight there, we went to our rooms to change into more appropriate attire and then head to the atrium for the captain’s toast.
The toast is the first official event on the Halcyon and really kicks off the story line. Right after the toast, we went into the Sublight Lounge to play some Sabacc – I had dreams of playing in the Sabacc tournament and wanted to get a crash course in Corellian Spike Sabacc. It was really fun to play at the Holo-Sabacc table and see some characters come in and out. Right after that, we had to go to our bridge training time slot. We scanned onto the bridge and were greeted by Watch, the ship AI, and Lenka Mok who walked us through each station and trained us in it’s operation. In our training, we helped a certain Wookie get onto the ship. Right when training completed, we ran out to early seating at Dinner.
The first night dinner is essentially a Gaya concert. There was some singing and dancing as we had a bento box style dinner of steamed buns and sauces. I was able to call the Kids from dinner and show them some of the ship. Right after dinner we did our Saja Lightsaber training – which is a fun game where you learn to use the force to block blaster bolts.
After training, I asked a staff member to give me access to the Cargo Bay. He reluctantly gave me access and I walked over – another staff member (supervisor) asked how I had access and why I was headed that way, he very seriously told me not to go in (because it could break some interactions that are supposed to happen tomorrow). Then we went up to the lounge and took in the ship with very few people on it. I slept in the top bunk and had a nice but short night.
Day 4: Halcyon Excursion Day
The second day on the Halcyon is an excursion to the planet Batuu. Through the cruise director, you could book a number of special excursions to meet with Kimbe and his scavengers, Mubu and his droids, or even visit the famed cantina. We woke up bright and early to have a wonderful breakfast in the dining room in preparation for our big day. My hope was to be on one of the first transit pods to Batuu – hoping we could get an early and small line for Rise of the Resistance. Our breakfast was great and we were on the first transit pod at 8am. When we arrived, we found that the line for rise was already about an hour long. so we decided to take advantage of shorter lines and do smugglers run.
While traveling with the Chandrilla Star Line, each passenger is given a pin that signifies that they are on the Halcyon. That pin is recognized by the locals on Batuu and is complimented with a different DataPad to show the communications and records from our Halcyon journey. That datapad explodes on Batuu. We were asked to do a number of missions (scan some crates, pickup a forgery, help Hondo to steal some coaxium, and aid the resistance if possible. We were also told to find a secret message in Oga’s and talk with Kimbe. On rise, we helped Hondo and Chewie steal a shipment of Coaxium – that matters for the Halcyon story later. Since we had a fast pass, we decided to run over to rise and do our missions for the Resistance.
After riding everything, we were ready for a morning snack and picked up a ronto wrap for the road. We sat in the shade and completed a number of missions while enjoying our Ronto Wraps and waiting for our appointment with Kimbe. Since we were still waiting, I tried my hand at bounty hunting (I had done a couple of bounties the day before but really did another 10 in this session while waiting for Kimbe). Eventually, it was our time and Manda and I both joined the queue for Savi’s and went in to meet Kimbe and learn the story of scrap. We were visited by Master Yoda as we built our sabers (elemental nature with a purple kyber crystal for me, Manda went with peace and justice and green).
After meeting Kimbe, we decided to see what we could find at Oga’s and made our way over for our reservation. We found the secret message (on a coaster) and had a couple of drinks and food (I had the Blue Bantha again, it is so good). My mom wanted to try the provisions, and we ended up with this great jello plate. After Oga’s we had some time before the sabacc tournament at 3pm. My travel companions wanted a break in the AC of the Halcyon, and I decided to try and finish my Bounties – it was hot, but I managed it :-). The Halcyon docking port is the best thing! I was running around Black Spire Outpost completing my missions and could stop by the docking port any time for some shade, a bottle of water, and a cooling towel – it made it so much more bearable to be out in the heat.
I boarded the ship at 2:30pm with just enough time to change and head off to the tournament. My companions were in the room, cooling down when I arrived, and I was out as quickly as I could. I went down to the Crown of Corellia dining room and crushed the first table – and because we were a small group, there was only one table. In the physical sabacc, there were only five chips per player (as opposed to the hundreds of credits on holo-Sabacc in the lounge). It was easy to bet high, and I closed the table in two hands. Me and the second highest scoring player advanced to the final at 4pm at the holo-sabacc table. I messaged Mom and Manda and made my way to the atrium to wait for the tournament.
At the final, I sat down and won the first two hands and simply had enough credits that I could have folded each hand and won the tournament. Each player starts with 80 credits, and it was a four-player final, so a total of 320 possible points on the table. I finished the tournament with 218 chips. As soon as the tournament ended, we ran off to complete a couple of missions at 4:30pm and off to dinner. The second night dinner is a taste around the galaxy which is a plated multi-course meal. The story continues through dinner and then immediately after.
I was summoned to join the Saja to unpack some Jedi artifacts, and we were all summoned to the bridge to assist Lenka with an important mission. Our bridge mission was to help Hondo bring in the stolen Coaxium – which was fun. Manda had a mission to go down to Engineering and help the resistance. We all came together as the muster alarm went off and we watched the finale in awe.
After the finale, I wandered around a bit and took in the storage room and the mostly empty ship. The storage room was cool, it had a lot of star wars memorabilia and a bunch of scannable crates. Then off to bed for our second and final night on the Halcyon.
Day 5: Departing the Halcyon, Magic Kingdom, and Flights
It is a bittersweet day. We woke up and packed our bags to have them out for passenger services by 8am. When our bags were stowed, we went out to get breakfast in the dining room – our last meal on the ship. I really loved the food and had a couple of glasses of blue milk before we had to leave. After breakfast we boarded our departure pod and said goodbye to the Halcyon. There is a small exit store that we did some shopping at and then headed off to visit Magic Kingdom (and by the way, we were all exhausted).
We parked and did a few things at the Kingdom. It was a bit of letdown after the Halcyon. We did all the classics, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Dwarfs Mine. I dropped my Magic Band + on the Dwarfs Mine cart, and we found it as the ride kept taking pictures of a car, so we looked in that car and found my Magic Band :-). We did all the things but it was hot and we were all tired, so we headed back to the airport around 1pm.
Overall Experience on the Halcyon
I was blown away by the Halcyon experience, but I think I was lucky. Throughout the first day, we missed large portions of the story. We decided to explore a lot on our own and did not really interact with any of the characters after the first meeting in the atrium – that was a bad call. We ran from training to training to dinner that first night and it didn’t really lend itself to the story elements.
Then, on day two, we missed a couple of missions on the ship because of how much time I spent on Batuu doing bounties. We also missed an entire part of the main storyline as I was winning the sabacc tournament and then getting some snacks in the Sublight. We really lucked into some amazing finales that the app helped place us in. That is truly the danger of going in cold – we had not done any research in advance and did not know what to expect. We even watched some TV in the room – looking back, it is hard to believe that we had time.
I really loved it. My love of Star Wars grew tremendously, and I was just awestruck by the integration of Yoda into the storyline (with Kimbe, with the Holocron, and of course in the Finale). The food was also just excellent. When we left on the last day, I left feeling sad and feeling like I had missed out on something – that there must have been more to the story that I just didn’t see.
Bonus Trip: Disneyland the next week!
As luck would have it, the next week, I was sent to Anaheim for a work trip. I had a couple of days at a conference but was able to take a full day in Disneyland (or Batuu West). I was really stewing on our trip on the Halcyon and loaded up my work suitcase with a MagicBand+ and was ready for the day. Just full disclosure, we departed the Halcyon on a Wednesday and I was back in Batuu the following Tuesday.
While I enjoyed Disneyland, I did a handful of rides and really spent most of my time in Batuu. I rope dropped the park and went on splash mountain first (because it is on the way). I did smugglers run no less than a dozen times, rise of the resistance twice, and hacked every terminal, scanned every crate, and listened to every conversation in the park. On one of my runs of Smugglers, I was a single rider at a lull in the crowd. They pulled me into a cockpit as the solo pilot. I was able to sit in one chair and control both sticks, making it a much smoother flight.
I ate a wonderful Ronto Wrap with a Meiloorun Juice (only available at West). I also paid another visit to Kimbe and built my second custom saber, again, elemental nature because they had different scrap at west. I also paid a visit to the Cantina and had a Jedi Mind Trick – I walked in as a party of one and was able to find a table. I also tried a carafe of Blue Milk from the Milk Stall (it was frozen and delicious). I ended up only doing a couple of bounties – after a conference and the Halcyon the week before, I turned in early after eating another Ronto Wrap for dinner.
