Disney Cruise Review: Star Wars Day at Sea, Part 1

[cmash95]

i have learned a couple of things from someone who works entertainment for the cruiseline and wdw. the cantina band was supposed to show up in tube but when they checked out the costumes they were in such bad shape they couldn;t even salvage four of them. apparently they only have two sets of them. also it was hard finding cast to fit them. as far as celebrities went, the idea was to bring them onboard at cozumel and have them leave via castaway cay but the weather hasn;t cooperated at least with the first cruise . they were also having trouble with booking dates and none of the big names were going to show because of security issues. From what I have seen there is still lots of fun things to do and I do wish they could include more kids in the jedi training academy. At the studios they have a sign up where they go and get a time to show up so more kids can be part of it. They could have sign up in the kids club either the day before or even that morning.

 

[keaster]

Hey, there WAS a celebrity on this cruise! He had concierge but did eat amongst the "common folk" with his family a few times. Apparently my dining rotation but I never noticed d'oh! He was mostly left alone to be with his family, people were respectful. He wasn't Star Wars related though, he may have been more swarmed if he was. So yes, celebrities can be accommodated .

okay so now you have to tell us who it was! Don't leave us hanging lol!

 

[over50visits]

I was on this identical itinerary two years ago and the addition of the Star Wars stuff still sounds totally worth it to me. I am mostly disappointed that the cantina likely won't be what we hoped/expected it to be.

As to the expense, it takes a lot of time, effort and expense for Disney to put the whole thing together. Developing new shows, new fireworks, new costumes, new food, new menus, new activities, etc, for a limited run of cruises is not an insignificant thing for them to do. They can't spread the cost of that over 52 weeks a year like they can with the other entertainment they provide. They have to train their staff (who are already temporary employees) on new procedures and policies and they have to try to make it seamless and magical for us to enjoy. Seeing what I've seen so far is already enough to convince me that we made a good choice on this cruise and I'm totally excited about it.

I'm sure it is expensive and time consuming. Let's see...1250 staterooms. Don't know the premium for this cruise, but if it in fact did go up $1000 per stateroom, that's $1.25 million (over the fares they already get), per cruise, times 8 cruises, a cool $10 million extra just for the Star Wars theming and training, for one day of the cruise. Hmmm. At $1000 per family for a single themed day onboard ship (plus whatever on themed merchandise and whatever extra people drop on photo packages), what they could do should absolutely blow the guests away.

I am very sad to hear the poor reports. Whatever the excuses, it sounds like they could have done better. I'm sad for the kids who dreamed of an immersion with characters, shows, celebrities, costumes....I hope the reality isn't as bad as the few reviews I've read seem to imply.

 

[fab1976]

okay so now you have to tell us who it was! Don't leave us hanging lol!

I feel I should be discrete though! Even after knowing he tweeted about it while on the ship and before getting on. Except he tweeted about it...so really what's the secret? NPH mean anything? He helped host the opening of the Fantasy from what I saw on the video, once upon a time!

 

[valgal02]

Fab1976
Was he "legen ...wait for it....dary"?

 

[fab1976]

Fab1976
Was he "legen ...wait for it....dary"?

I tend to think of him as more Doogie than his later roles!

 

[Poohcandi]

Hey, there WAS a celebrity on this cruise! He had concierge but did eat amongst the "common folk" with his family a few times. Apparently my dining rotation but I never noticed d'oh! He was mostly left alone to be with his family, people were respectful. He wasn't Star Wars related though, he may have been more swarmed if he was. So yes, celebrities can be accommodated .

We too sae this celebrity and I thought it was awesome that everyone respected his space.

 

[Poohcandi]

On another note, I was under the impression that the SW Day at Sea merchandise was exclusive to the Star Wars cruises, however a friend of mine was on the Fantasy right after us on a regular cruise and said all of the merchandise was available on her cruise.

 

[dreadpiraterose]

Hey, there WAS a celebrity on this cruise! He had concierge but did eat amongst the "common folk" with his family a few times. Apparently my dining rotation but I never noticed d'oh! He was mostly left alone to be with his family, people were respectful. He wasn't Star Wars related though, he may have been more swarmed if he was. So yes, celebrities can be accommodated .

Are you referring to Neil Patrick Harris?

 

[Kimartinez]

Awe... this was disappointing to me that you didn't have a good experience. When I heard about the Star Wars day at sea announcements, I REALLY wanted to get on that cruise, but we are going with the family in December instead. I feel bad that it wasn't as good as it was cracked up to be.
May the Force be with you

 

[Tasmen]

On another note, I was under the impression that the SW Day at Sea merchandise was exclusive to the Star Wars cruises, however a friend of mine was on the Fantasy right after us on a regular cruise and said all of the merchandise was available on her cruise.

From what I understand, some of it is only available on the cruising while other bits are available on the ship outside of the Star Wars cruise.

 

[funfam]

i have learned a couple of things from someone who works entertainment for the cruiseline and wdw. the cantina band was supposed to show up in tube but when they checked out the costumes they were in such bad shape they couldn;t even salvage four of them. apparently they only have two sets of them. also it was hard finding cast to fit them. as far as celebrities went, the idea was to bring them onboard at cozumel and have them leave via castaway cay but the weather hasn;t cooperated at least with the first cruise . they were also having trouble with booking dates and none of the big names were going to show because of security issues. From what I have seen there is still lots of fun things to do and I do wish they could include more kids in the jedi training academy. At the studios they have a sign up where they go and get a time to show up so more kids can be part of it. They could have sign up in the kids club either the day before or even that morning.

I'm sorry but that is no excuse. They announced SWDAS almost a year ago. They had more than enough time to check the costumes and do what was necessary before the first sailing. If what you say is correct, the head of entertainment for the ship and for DCL should be fired for gross incompetence.

 

[jxhide]

I'm sorry but that is no excuse. They announced SWDAS almost a year ago. They had more than enough time to check the costumes and do what was necessary before the first sailing. If what you say is correct, the head of entertainment for the ship and for DCL should be fired for gross incompetence.

I agree. It kinda sounds like they dropped the ball or just making up excuses.... I wish there were more adult related activities. Oh well..

 

[CampbellzSoup]

It just doesn't seem like they went out of their way to differentiate it...they should have had more deck shows, Star Wars musi everywhere - more backdrops and Star Wars backgrounds and mor decorations.

It just seemed like such a premium price for such little effort. I also would have liked my waiters as storm troopers or something

 

[hnthomps]

The second cruise is back now, right? Have there been any new reports?
(We're on a March one)

 

[Tasmen]

The second cruise is back now, right? Have there been any new reports?
(We're on a March one)

I haven't seen much about the 2nd cruise. We sail on Saturday so I've been looking pretty hard.

 

[hnthomps]

I haven't seen much about the 2nd cruise. We sail on Saturday so I've been looking pretty hard.

Thanks. Will you report back when you get back? Would love to hear what has changed, if anything.

 

[Tasmen]

Thanks. Will you report back when you get back? Would love to hear what has changed, if anything.

Absolutely! From what I've seen, they haven't really changed anything other than the messaging. The email we received last week omitted mention of the cantina area or celebrities/autographs. I don't know if that was intentional or not.

 

[fab1976]

The second cruise had an awesome guest speaker, Pablo Hidalgo, who is the creative executive with Lucas films. From Google and comments on the first SWDAS group, he is the resident Star Wars geek who makes sure the transition from Lucas films to Disney goes smoothly. Hopefully every other cruise has an awesome guest speaker!

 

[emilymad]

We were on the second cruise and our experience was extremely similar to the article. We didn't sail just for the SWDAS so it wasn't a big deal to us but I could see how people would be disappointed. The SWDAS dinner menu was the best out of the whole week.