Inside Galactic Starcruiser, Disney’s hotel where everyone becomes a Star Wars character

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I was prepared to be in Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. I was going to be a reformed smuggler named Garteenbar who was going on a cruise trip on the Halcyon.

Due to the compressed nature of the media preview, I spent most of my time aboard Disney's biggest bet in years.

This is not a review of the full experience of the Galactic Starcruiser. Guests will get a sample platter of what they will get over a two-day stay at the media preview I attended. I didn't get to sleep at the hotel, and my time on board was focused on seeing the major set pieces and interactive components in group settings.

This isn't an assessment of whether the whole package is worth $4,809, it's an assessment of whether the price is worth it.

I can't tell you everything about the minute-to-minute details of the branching, interactive storylines that Galactic Starcruiser is putting so much emphasis on, but I did get to travel aboard the Halcyon and see some of the greatest hits and unique elements of the experience.

It isn't just a creation for Disney theme parks. The desire to connect every element of media and story is a part of the Galactic Starcruiser experience, and Disney is already working to seed the luxury liner across decades of Star Wars history.

The Halcyon is a part of the ongoing High Republic multimedia storyline of books, and there is a comic book series that explains the back story of characters like Padme Amidala and Lando Calrissian. The Princess and the Scoundrel is a novel that will reveal the untold story of Han and Leia's honeymoon on the Halcyon. I would put odds on the ship appearing in an episode of a Disney Plus show before the year is out.

Establishing the Halcyon as a key part of Star Wars lore isn't just Disney building hype and marketing for its expensive hotel. A key part of the sales pitch to guests is the foundation. You don't just get to live in a Star Wars-ish story for a day or two; your time aboard the Halcyon is part of the Star Wars saga as much as any of the movies, video games, or books.

The idea of living in an interactive hotel experience has seen it draw a lot of comparisons to Westworld. There are a lot of similarities between the two, including a promise of total immersion in a fictional world, the idea that guests can forge their own stories within the setting, and the sky-high price tag. Although they're not as bad as those in Westworld, Galactic Starcruiser has its own artificial intelligence companions.

Westworld promises a place where you can do anything and be anyone in the Wild West. You won't be the one who helps sabotage the engine or rescue the Chewbacca if you choose to be a character. Guests will have some control over which storylines they participate in and which side they are on, but you are still just a side character and never really shaping them.

The experience begins at a spaceport where you can ride a transport Pod up to the Halcyon hotel.

The Halcyon'slobby is where you will run straight into guests and cast members milling around, ready to draw you into the plot. I met Gaya, her manager Raithe, and the ship's captain in a matter of moments. Everyone wanted to involve me in the story. I was thrown off balance at first, despite the costumes and setting. I had to take a few minutes to figure out how I would fit in.

• Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
• Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
• Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
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The ship is a little too clean and polished. Brad Schoeneberg, Disney's vice president of brand merchandising, said at a panel that it was inspired by Star Wars and the royal halls of Naboo. It seemed like the visual language was more focused on the ships of Star Trek than it was on the living-in style of Star Wars. There is a glossy plastic look that never lets you forget you are in a theme park ride.

The Halcyon is smaller than you might think. The main dining cabin is about the size of a medium-sized restaurant, while the bar has seating for a few dozen people. Only a single table! There are restricted spaces that can be used for story elements, like the cargo hold, brig, and engineering bay, but there are only two or three main public spaces to spend time in.

The rooms were small. There is space for a bed, a slide-out table, and bunk beds built into one of the walls. It looks like it leaned too far into emulating the designs of a cruise ship. I have never stayed in a hotel room costing more than $2,000 a night, but I would expect more.

Galactic Starcruiser is not a traditional luxury hotel. There isn't much in the way of normal amenities, except for a lack of natural light. To avoid breaking character, there is a single outdoor space called the Climate Simulator. You wouldn't go to a hotel for a regular experience, but the price is still amiss.

The food and drink are included in the ticket price, but specialty and alcoholic drinks are not. The presentation is meant to go beyond a standard hotel menu. Colorful blue shrimp and black lava-rock bread are examples of food that evoke a distant universe far away from our own.

The food at the Star Wars hotel is lore.

The same broad story arcs will be followed on each trip. The Halcyon is replicating its original voyage from Chandrila to Batuu for its 275th anniversary. Between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, the ship runs afoul of the First Order.

Storylines will be developed organically over the two-day trip, based on how players interact and react to cast members and the actions they take along the way. There are multiple branching paths, only some of which I got to take part in, such as sneaking into the engine room to restart the ship's systems, but there were other plots that appeared at the finale event. A First Order-aligned guest might have had their own interactions to try to foil the Resistance plots, while someone else might have seen more of them.

It wouldn't be Star Wars without a lightsaber duel, one of the highlights of the live stage show finale.

Every cast member, waiter, room service attendant, and bartender is dressed up in costume, and elaborately costumed guests chat with you about their own lives to help draw you into the game. As you would expect from a Disney park experience, there is incredible attention to detail. The doors on the ship are sliding to fit in with the Star Wars universe.

Disney World has table stakes for that level of theater. Galactic Starcruiser is looking to draw in guests. Visitors are encouraged to dress up in full Star Wars cosplay for at least a day or two. Disney is happy to sell you Star Wars-themed attire if you already have it. The ability to participate in the adventure is the key differentiating factor.

The average movie is two hours long. You can watch two seasons of The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. Two days worth of Star Wars story is what the Galactic Starcruiser aims for. It means turning a lot of the ordinary parts of your day into something special and Star Wars-y.

The movies are a slice of life with all the boring cuts. That could be a comment from your server at the bar about the ongoings aboard the ship or a glimpse of a character like Rey gesturing at you from around a corner to help her with a mission.

Do you want to play Star Wars?

Ann Morrow Johnson, executive producer and creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, noted in a press panel that the word "invitation" is used for most of the Galactic Starcruiser.

A few members of my group were pulled aside by a crew member to assist in a jailbreak for a captured Resistance member. They were able to escape after we hacked a terminal, passed the brig override code across a room in a short game of telephone, and unlocked the door. If I wanted to aid the First Order, I wouldn't help.

A lot of its guests are asked. You are diving into a giant exercise with a lot of strangers. What you get out of the experience is largely what you put in. It was hard to shake the feeling that I was just going through the motions for the particular story track my group was assigned. The process might feel more organic if the smaller groups, added time, additional context, and more gradual pace of stories are included. At least part of the point is the guided nature that slots you into specific roles.

According to Sara Thacher, a senior R&D Imagineer and the creative director behind all the branching narrative choices on board, Galactic Starcruiser is intended so that you can show up and not have a character, not have to know any lines. She described it as a traditional video game in that players fall into a role from the game and can make choices, but still have a framework and guidance to have fun. My short time on board didn't give me the chance to make those decisions for myself.

Thacher explained that an important goal is making sure that when you make a decision to help someone or not, it will be clear what the broader outcome is.

Thacher says that real choice means he has to understand the stakes.

There are a few ride-like activities on the Halcyon, like the lightsaber training Pod or the bridge, and the overall vibe here is more cruise ship than theme park.

The lightsaber training was the best of them. Guests are given a lightsaber by a Jedi-like follower of the Force and given a chance to use it to block blaster bolts. You can feel the saber blocking each bolt as it flashes in the real world thanks to the effects and haptics here.

The bridge area is similar to the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride, with four different roles for guests to play. Bouncing across the different stations let me take a turn blocking asteroids, aligning the ship's sensors by matching buttons and switches, and more.

Those shipboard activities, in addition to offering entertainment, help serve as catalysts for drawing guests further into those story arcs. A bridge training exercise could end with the ship's captain on a rescue mission in an asteroid belt.

The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance will be available to ride in the Disney World proper park. Disney says the activities will tie into ongoing storylines when guests return to the ship.

The integration of narrative, traditional theme park rides, live entertainment, and a hotel stay make Galactic Starcruiser a blend of virtually every aspect of a Disney World trip all at once. It feels like the next step in the evolution of pop culture, a franchise that you can't just love, but live in.

It's important to remember that the first of the company's efforts here will be the parks, which will likely grow and change over time. Disney and its competitors will be thinking about how to bring this kind of first-hand fan experience to more properties in the future.

That experience comes at a very high price. When Disney first announced pricing, a two-night stay was starting at $4,814 for two adults, while a family of four was $5,999. The basic experience of the Galactic Starcruiser is only included. You're joining for your stay, and you'll get drinks, outfits, and experiences that fit into the Star Wars universe.

The grand fireworks show at Disney World is the same as the end of our Galactic Starcruiser trip. The fireworks are bright and colorful, with shapes and designs that are beyond what fireworks could do. They are digital illusions that are masked by the John Williams score and the heightened reality of the bridge.

Photography by Chaim Gartenberg.