Now that we are back from our space travels I wanted to take the time to tell all of you about our adventures. I will start with what I know will be the biggest question, is it worth the money? The answer will always be Yes! At least for us.
I won’t bog you guys down with tips and tricks, there are Facebook groups for that what I will tell you is about our own personal experience and why for us it was worth it. So many things about this trip made me so happy.
Spoiler Warning: From here on in I will be telling many spoilers so if you do not want to be spoiled don’t read on.
For starters, we lucked out as we were the first ones to arrive and first in line to board the ship. Just like on a regular cruise all our luggage was taken when we checked in to be sent to our stateroom. Although we had to wait in line for almost two hours before we were allowed into the terminal where we were in line was shaded and had fans so at no point did we ever overheat. Bottled water and cold towels were also provided as we waited.
Once the terminal opened we were taken to a pod that launched us to the Halcyon that was in orbit.
We entered the ship through the Atrium on deck 6 and marveled at the ingenuity of the Disney Imagineers, although the final product differs from the original concept designs it was still awe-inspiring. From Deck 6 we had access to the Atrium, the ships bridge, the Sublight Lounge, and the gift shop.
From there we were escorted to our stateroom on Deck 5, one of my worries is how we would deal with a room with no actual windows to the outside but a window that only shows you space. But I had no worries that we would feel claustrophobic at all, in fact, the space view window was so amazing we could have sat there and stared at it all day.
The reality was we would rarely spend any time in the room, all our bags were already there when entered the room and after taking a few minutes to check everything out the first thing we did was hit the gift shop for some shopping, we figured we would not have as much time later so we got that out of the way.
While everyone else was still in the process of checking in and boarding the ship we headed to the dining room to enjoy the first included meal which was a lunch buffet, the trays and the way the food was served is genius and the presentation made you believe the food was truly out of this world.
After a few trips to the buffet, we ended up trying just a little bit of everything (with the exception of seafood). After lunch, we spend some time exploring the ship and familiarizing ourselves with the layout. The Ship’s muster was in the afternoon and that’s when we finally got to meet some of the crew including the captain.
This is when the activities, missions, and role-playing really begin and we ended up so busy with activities and immersing ourselves in the story that it really begins to feel like it might just all be real after all. I will add this, the more you interact with the crew the more immersed in the story you will become. It really felt like a choose your own adventure story that has come to life.
Like a cruise, there were two seatings for dinner and my group was in the first. The first night we were granted a wonderful show from the Twi’Lek Gaya, the food was amazing, it started with some dumplings and salad and the main course consisted of Bantha (Beef) and Tip Yip (Chicken). The dessert was also nice.
The rest of the evening consisted of Bridge Ops training and even more, missions that we needed to complete, just when we thought we had wrapped up the tasks there was more in store for us. One of the things we did that most people did not was wear something more formal for dinner. We felt it just added to the experience.
After all the tasks and missions were done for the day we settled in for the night, only complaint I would have about the room is the mattresses on the bunk beds are extremely uncomfortable. I would suggest if you know you will be sleeping in one of the bunks or the murphy bed bring a nice mattress pad with you.
That was the end of Day 1, it was surprisingly pretty jammed packed with activities considering we only checked in and arrived at 1 pm.
Day 2 started early, we got up and dressed quickly and made it down to the dining room for breakfast, they had a lot of yummy things for breakfast, same trays and buffet-style as lunch but with yummy breakfast foods. They had these amazing mini Belgian waffles that I loved.
After breakfast, we took a pod and headed down to Battu, in Galaxy’s Edge we had even more missions and tasks to complete. We even had a reservation to go into Oga’s Cantina for drinks. The best part was there was hardly anyone in Battu that morning, our trip included lightning lane for Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers Run and we got on both rides with no waiting.
Although we had fun on Battu we did have some issues with completing missions, thankfully it did not impact our overall storyline. We spent a little more time walking around and getting pictures. So many people were noticing my Lekku and it made me feel like all the hard work I put in was worth it.
After we returned from Battu we met up with a photographer for our noon photo session that we were able to book. It was so much fun to do the photo shoot and it was totally worth it for the memories we made.
After the photoshoot we had lunch on the ship, we could have eaten on Battu but decided to try the food on the ship instead. Lunch food was different from the day before but still just as good, again we tried to eat a little bit of everything.
After lunch, we spent most of the afternoon doing more missions. About mid-afternoon we went to Lightsaber training which is one of the activities I have been looking forward to the most. We were having so much fun during the training that we never thought to even get any pictures or videos. Even with my tennis elbow, I felt like it was a good exercise for my arms. I was also really proud that I did so well. Maybe it’s because I was taking it so seriously.
After the training was more missions and then dinner at 5:30, again myself and my companions dressed up for the dinner. There was no show this time around as the food itself was the show, dinner consisted of tastes around the galaxy.
After dinner we decided to take a few pictures in our formal wear, I decided for that afternoon that I would take a break from my Lekku. My outfit consisted of a dress I found at the last minute and an elvan cloak I ordered months ago. I feel like it gave me a look found on Naboo. The best part was my husband’s look when he saw me, it made me feel so beautiful and special.
There was more bridge duty in the evening as the story is now starting to unfold and reach its climax. Role-playing is now ramping up, we were also beginning to feel a bit weary and I think each of us may have skipped at least one story element as we needed a little time to rest. We found that since most things were starting to unfold in the atrium that was where we needed to be.
Everything began to unfold around 7 pm and the story climax happened at about 9:30 pm and wrapped by 10. I will not talk about it too much as there would be quite a lot of spoilers and quite a lot to tell. I will say that it was epic and it was so great to see all the story elements come together into this one final epic showdown that was so amazing.
Even after that was over the trip was not over, there was still more to see and do and surprises in store. from 10 to 11 was a dessert event with lots of treats and afterward, we headed to the Sublight Lounge for drinks and appetizers. By the time we made it back to our room, we were super exhausted.
All in all, I can’t wait till we do it again, the trip did have its pros and cons but the pros greatly outweighed the cons. We are already thinking about the next trip hopefully in a few years.
