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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the latest expansion in Disney parks — but it’s not the only big Star Wars thing coming to Disney parks. Accompanying the land is the brand new Star Wars-themed hotel, an immersive experience that aims to bring guests to a galaxy far, far away.
At D23 this weekend, the hotel’s name was revealed: Star Wars: Galactic Star Cruiser. “In-universe” guests will hear the ship called the Halcyon, and it’s owned by a company called Chandrila Star Line. A scale model of the ship — as it is within the story, of course — reveals just how big it is.
Much like the Galaxy’s Edge theme park, the Galactic Star Cruiser is set to be an immersive experience, where guests will be “active participants in stories that unfold around them on their galactic journey.”
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Bob Chapek, chairman of Disney parks, experiences, and products, announced that the Halcyon experience is a two-night adventure in which participants “board and depart together.” The voyage begins at Walt Disney World. Upon check-in, visitors enter a launch pod that whisks them through the stars to the Halcyon. All the windows aboard the Halcyon have a view out into space. Concept art shows aliens — including Chewbacca — walking through the lobby.
Ann Morrow Johnson, executive producer and creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering, warned that the choices guests make in the immersive hotel experience may actually have an impact on the “story” of their stay, emphasizing Kylo Ren and the dark side’s influence. Those impactful activity choices also carry over to their “planet excursion, or port day on Batuu, the home of Galaxy’s Edge.”
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What are the activities? Johnson hinted at one: Kids and grown ups alike will get to face off against a training remote in a lightsaber training, just like Luke aboard the Millennium Falcon in the original film. “Reaching within and discovering any nascent connection to the Force could prove valuable,” Johnson said. There will also be hidden spaces on the ship to meet characters having secret conversations and planning sessions.
According to news out of D23, a cabin on the Star Cruiser, which sleeps five, starts at $3,300. Disney has yet to announce an official opening date for the hotel.
