Our kids (8&10) are too little for phones, so they used the phones provided by GS. And then beause the person helping me led me astray, they had to give me one as well. And another adult in our party isn't allowed to install apps on the work-provided phone, so also got one.Our trip is in a week! . Thanks for all the great info. Staying at SSR two nights prior - only going to Moonlight Magic at Epcot on Thursday night and gonna enjoy a resort day Friday. Therefore I will be able to take a phone call.
Does this mean my kiddos (two teens with cell phones, 1 kid without) won’t need their own devices? First I’ve heard of their being something else.
I believe in an earlier post you mentioned a day to decompress. We have 5 nights at that other FL theme park after this. How would handle this? Hurry over for a fullish park day or take it easy with a pool and explore day. We’ve actually never been there.
Got back on Thursday, at the end of a great trip that started with the Galactic Starcruiser. I'm going to mostly echo what I've seen here.
Thoughts:
Advice:
- We drove, and the valet parking was smooth. I lost my ticket and it wasn't a problem, not even a delay.
- Agree the lounge is cool, but find time to make it work with your schedule, not the other way around.
- My kids (7 & 9) all thought this was the highlight of the trip. They are unafraid to insert themselves into social situations, so that helped.
- The younger one wasn't into reading the datapad as much as the older, but still managed to follow along.
- The older hasn't seen any Star Wars media, and wasn't deterred in the slightest.
I am happy to provide any spoiler free answers to your questions, so ask away!
- I wish I had more pictures taken in the ship, so if I could do it again, I'd get the photo package. When you are in the story you are likely to forget that you should snap a pic.
- We went to Animal Kingdom the next day, but shouldn't have. We didn't make it a long day but the Starcruiser experience would have benefited from some time to reflect on all we had seen and done.
- Take pictures of the datapad conversations- you won't be able to access them again once you leave and I would have liked to have been able to review them and think on my choices.
- Get the kids Disney Play accounts in advance, it saves a lot of time and time is the currency of your limited stay.
- Actual currency is, too, of course!
- Have fun, go with the flow, lean-in, and may the force be with you!
I got a phone call from a 407 number tonight, a nice guy named Kevin. We board on Saturday. He spent 45 minutes on the phone helping me set up all three of the devices my children will use on board. I put him on speaker phone with my teens and their phones nearby to help set them up. It took a few reset passwords and prompts by him, but finally everything worked perfectly. He did say there were a limited number of devices on the ship and that my 8 year old could probably use one, but we opted to use an iPhone we still have that is not currently attached to our cell phone plan. All 5 of us can now easily open the play Disney app and see our schedule and should be able to just open the app and go when we board! It felt like such a timesaver!
After that was finished, he asked if i had any other questions. I did ask him a question regarding food allergies, having not seen much about this. The little guy has those. We have done many Disney world and DCL trips in the past. He said the Starcruiser is modeled after DCL in this regard and that after we board I will be able to go to the lunch buffet and speak with the dining team (perhaps a chef) to confirm that he will eat safely.
One last thing he reiterated was to not arrive before 1pm - we can easily do this as we have our own car. He wanted to remind us that even though there were rumors circulating online you can get in early, they in fact would not be ready for guests before 1pm. It doesn’t bother us, because I understand the need to reset between voyages. I’m not sure what the solution is for those who have to check out and are homeless for a few hours but I do get the reasoning behind it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's so fun to read about everyones experience and keep the excitement up!
What time did you arrive to the Star Cruiser on the first day? Did you feel like it was a good time to get there?
Did you have ressies at Oga's? Was it worth the time? (We've been there before so I'm on the fence about doing it)
Did you dress in costume? Did you get into the role playing and create backstories for yourselves?
After that was finished, he asked if i had any other questions. I did ask him a question regarding food allergies, having not seen much about this. The little guy has those. We have done many Disney world and DCL trips in the past. He said the Starcruiser is modeled after DCL in this regard and that after we board I will be able to go to the lunch buffet and speak with the dining team (perhaps a chef) to confirm that he will eat safely.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's so fun to read about everyones experience and keep the excitement up!
What time did you arrive to the Star Cruiser on the first day? Did you feel like it was a good time to get there?
Did you have ressies at Oga's? Was it worth the time? (We've been there before so I'm on the fence about doing it)
Did you dress in costume? Did you get into the role playing and create backstories for yourselves?
How does luggage drop off work? Do you pull up and meet a bell-droid who has a luggage cart? We're probably going to have some costume pieces that we've ironed at our previous hotel on hangers rather than packed and I want to make sure they can handle that at check in.Our entry experience (first cruise) was very much like GADisneyDad14 describes. We left our hotel around 12:30ish, got caught in a long line of cars heading toward the terminal, (about 15-20 minutes waiting) and were getting out of car and starting check-in process around 1. Our luggage was in our room before we were, so not much time needed for that.
How does luggage drop off work? Do you pull up and meet a bell-droid who has a luggage cart? We're probably going to have some costume pieces that we've ironed at our previous hotel on hangers rather than packed and I want to make sure they can handle that at check in.
A heads up for people who want a portrait session: Today was my 60 days so I called right at 7AM ET, was on hold for an hour, and got the last available session at 8PM on day 1. I'm not that excited about the time because it seems like it will be busy. Is my family going to be annoyed to have to pause to take pictures?
Thanks. I guess if there's anyone who stresses the importance of efficiency in their underlings more than the Empire, it's the Mouse.They come to your car with a cart. They were so efficient that they had half the luggage out of the car before we were out.
I visited the lounge… with relative frequency over our voyage. Its location is very central so it’s hard to miss something. You can walk out with drinks so we did that most of the time as it was a little more fun to be out in the atrium or wherever, especially in the evenings.
BTW, I was really surprised how late the lounge stayed open - 1am on night one and 2am on night two. I really wanted to see who all was still patronizing the lounge at 2am, but no way I could hang that late!
To me Sublight Lounge worked well unplanned/impromptu at various points along the way.