The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is something new that we’ve never seen before. Referred to by some as the “Star Wars hotel” it’s more like a separate theme park, but one that you get to live in for two nights, with an interactive story that you get to become a part of. It’s the most immersive themed entertainment experience available as it really makes you feel like you’re inside the galaxy far, far away. However, I have now had the illusion broken, and if you continue you may suffer the same fate.
Yesterday, it seems something went slightly haywire and the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser needed to be evacuated. The evacuation only lasted about 30 minutes before guests were let back inside, but one guest posted photos of the evacuation on Instagram, and it turns out the Halcyon is…just a building, with regular stairs? How will you ever be able to walk back inside now?
Of course the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is just a building, you don’t actually travel to space, but Walt Disney World does such a great job hiding that fact that seeing these pictures is actually a bit of a shock to the system. Most guests take a “transport shuttle” to the Starcruiser and the building itself is almost entirely indoors. There are no windows to the outside, just screens showing fields of stars. All that goes quite a long way to really making you feel you're on a starship.
If you’ve ever been on Space Mountain or some other attraction when the ride stopped working and the lights came on you’ve probably had a similar experience to looking at these pictures. Somehow what you create in your head of what it all looks like gets destroyed when the reality of it is revealed. And the problem is that next time you ride Space Mountain you can’t forget what you saw. For many it really does damage the overall experience.
I honestly wonder if those that experienced this evacuation that were really getting into the storytelling of the Starcruiser will be able to easily get back into that after having to evacuate and return to the “real world” for a period of time in the middle of their stay. Of course they knew the real world was out there, but now they’ve actually seen it.
In the end it shows just how great Walt Disney Imagineering is at their job. The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is really just a big grey building from the outside, but that much is hidden, allowing the story of Star Wars to come through and really allow you to embrace it. Now just pretend you never saw the reality.
