Bright suns, Starcruiser fans! Word went around the interwebs recently about the event on July 4 where all guests were briefly evacuated from Galactic Starcruiser, and here are my thoughts on it.
First up, although I cannot put into words how much I dislike the term “Star Wars Hotel” when discussing Starcruiser, in the end it IS subject to all the same laws, safety regulations, operational issues, etc as any standard hotel. Over the years I’ve personally been in three different hotels during guest evacuation events, so these things can and do happen. (I was a contributing factor in only one of these events, but that’s a different story.) Quite often it’s simply a guest pulling a fire alarm as a prank, other times it’s something legitimately hazardous. Since I don’t think it’s likely that Disney will publicly give a reason why the evacuation took place, I’m most interested in looking at how the Cast Members and guests handled the situation.
And by most accounts both the Cast Members and guests handled this situation very well. The entire evacuation event lasted only 30 minutes before everyone was back on board. Now, being pulled out of the incredible immersive environment on Starcruiser and walking down a bunch of stairs and standing around in the hot sun is really unfortunate, there’s no getting around that. It’s even more so for guests in full costume and makeup! But some important takeaways from this event include:
- It was nice to see that Disney has a set plan in place for emergencies and that it worked as intended!
- The CMs kept control of the situation and brought out water for guests who (for the most part) took this short break in the action in stride.
- The posted pictures of the emergency stairs and exterior facade of the show building were fascinating! When you are “onboard” you really do feel like you are on a luxury starcruiser in space and to get a behind -the-scenes peek at the very industrial-looking exterior of the show building where all the magic happens was really interesting.
Many of us have been on theme park attractions when they have a malfunction and had to evacuate via the secret CM staircases and walkways, and those glitches are sometimes even more memorable than times when the attraction worked perfectly! But since this experience is notably more expensive than a regular theme park day, it’s good that the entire interruption was only around 30 minutes.
In the end, both guest and Cast Member safety must always take priority over the show.
To sum it up, I’m very glad that no one was injured and that everyone was returned to their adventure quickly. In the end, both guest and Cast Member safety must always take priority over the show. We at Heroes of the Halcyon thank all the incredible Galactic Starcruiser Cast Members for keeping cool under pressure and making sure everyone was returned safely to the Halcyon. Ta’bu e tay!
