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Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

January 16, 2019 By Nancy 16 Comments

My family just returned from a 7-night cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy. This was our 7th cruise on DCL, our 3rd time on the Disney Fantasy, but our first cruise that had a Star Wars Day at Sea. (See my previous trip report on the Disney Wonder to Alaska).

Disney Cruise Line started offering special Star Wars cruises in January 2016. This year, the SWDAS cruises are only offered on the Disney Fantasy for sailings from January 5 through March 2, 2019. Star Wars activities only happen on one day of the cruise, and our special SWDAS was on Thursday, January 10.

This post only focuses on the Star Wars Day at Sea. For a glimpse into the rest of our cruise, see this video.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Star Wars Merchandise

A few months before our cruise, we pre-ordered some Star Wars merchandise from the DCL website to be delivered to our stateroom. We ordered the “DCL Glow in the Dark Star Wars™ Stateroom Experience (Includes Throw & Pillow)” for $67. My kids were very excited to walk into our stateroom with these Star Wars “extras”!

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

The decorations included a large window cling and door magnet as well as glow-in-the-dark decorations that hung from the ceiling (magnetic).

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy
Door magnet

We also got a fleece blanket and pillow along with a special photo frame. My kids fought over who would sleep with the pillow and blanket. I think the package was a great value for $67!

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

We also purchased a special Star Wars cooler with six bottles of water for $21. DCL was selling these as we got off the ship at Castaway Cay.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

One entire section of the front gift shop was dedicated to special Star Wars Day at Sea merchandise: T-shirts, jackets, blankets, toys, etc.

SWDAS Ambiance and Decorations

When we first boarded the cruise, the only hint of Star Wars was Han Solo in the atrium.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

The day before SWDAS, this photo background appeared in the atrium:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

But on the actual SWDAS, the ship transformed into a Star Wars fan’s dream! We noticed the difference as soon as we left our stateroom for breakfast. Instead of the usual Disney music in the hallways, we heard Star Wars music. Also, characters came on the speakers throughout the day to warn of a disturbance in the force.

Star Wars decorations were present throughout the ship.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

When we returned to our stateroom later in the morning, we found a special Star Wars runner across our beds.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Then later after dinner, our stateroom host created a special star blanket for the occasion.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Overall, the mood on the ship was full of excitement and anticipation for the day’s events.

Star Wars Movies

During the 7-night cruise, all of the Star Wars movies played in the on-board movie theater. That’s right, every single Star Wars movie. On the actual SWDAS, the funnel vision screen by the pool played Star Wars cartoons all day.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

My sons wanted to watch all of the movies in the theater that week, but some of them started very late. My oldest son managed to watch six Star Wars movies during our cruise.

I was happy to see that some non-Star Wars movies were also playing, as I really wanted to watch Marry Poppins Returns on our cruise.

Star Wars Food

DCL did a great job of adding Star Wars touches to the food on board. In the morning, this storm trooper appeared on my husband’s coffee from Cove Café:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Snacks at the Vista Café included shortbread cookies in the shape of the Death Star and storm troopers. The lunch buffet at Cabanas included a Darth Vader brownie:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Dinner in the main dining rooms was completely Star Wars themed. The servers wore imperial officer uniforms. The menu items all came from a galaxy far, far away.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

The kids’ menus doubled as masks:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

My son and I enjoyed Han Solo’s Frozen Carbonite Sundae for dessert:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Later in the evening, there was a special Star Wars buffet. Cabanas was all decked out with Star Wars decorations and food. The buffet included tacos, which we hadn’t seen on previous cruises. The chips and guacamole were surprisingly delicious!

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy
Star Wars buffet decorations

Activities on SWDAS

We received our navigators for SWDAS the night before, and the day was packed with special activities! My sons had a hard time choosing which activities to attend.

After breakfast, I did the Porgs on Board scavenger hunt with two of my kids. We picked up our porgs at the Port Adventures deck and proceeded to search the ship for clues. We did so much walking, it wiped me out! The reward for finding the answer was a large group selfie with Chewbacca and Ray later in the day.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy
Porgs on Board scavenger hunt (clues on reverse)

 

We watched some BB-8 races in the atrium. Families could sign up to control one of the BB-8s during different times of the day.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Later in the morning, I went to the open house in the Oceaneer Club and watched my daughter participate in BB-8 Recruitment. BB-8 was very interactive, and his handler was excellent.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

At noon, my husband and I went to the guest speaker series. On our cruise, the guest speaker was Troy Alders, who is an art director at Lucasfilms. He spoke for 45 minutes about how he landed his job and what he does at Lucasfilms. He showed us photos of Lucasfilms headquarters over the years and the Star Wars art he’s worked on. It was kind of like listening to a career day speaker, except for that he has a very interesting career.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

The only activity on SWDAS that was not worth my time was the “Celebrate the Saga” at 7:30 p.m. in the atrium. A large area on the floor was roped off, and everyone assumed that this would be some sort of show since so much space was blocked off. Lots of people were watching, and the railings on the two decks above were filled with people looking down into the atrium. It turned out to be sort of a cheer rally for Star Wars led by three enthusiastic people. “Who saw the original Star Wars movie in the theater in 1977? Yay! How many of you were excited when it was announced that The Force Awakens was coming out? Yay!” When it ended, people were confused. This would have been better as a pre-show to the “Summon the Force” deck show and fireworks instead of a separate event.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy
The crowd that gathered for Celebrate the Saga

We wanted to attend some of the Star Wars craft sessions, trivia games and drawing lessons, but we got caught up with some Star Wars characters instead.

Characters on SWDAS

Throughout the morning, we interacted with characters on decks 3, 4 and 5. These creatures stayed in character all day. The imperial officers were quite stern:

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

These jawas wandered around and traded scraps with other guests. You could hand them almost anything, and they would dig in their satchels and give you something in return. I saw a kid try to trade in his mom’s cell phone, but thankfully the jawas did not accept it.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

One thing to note about these roaming characters is that many of them don’t stop for posed photos. As soon as someone stopped for a photo, many other guests would try to line up behind them, and then the characters would take off. So it was a bit more informal than the character interactions we are used to on the ship.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Many guests also dressed up in character, and at times it was hard to tell which ones were the professional DCL characters.

Boba Fett was protecting the pool area on Deck 11.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

In the afternoon, my family went to some pre-booked character photo ops with Chewbacca, Darth Vader and R2-D2/C-3PO. These encounters are free, but you must book a time slot in advance.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Summon the Force Deck Show and Fireworks

SWDAS culminated with an outdoor deck show. People who sat on the covered pool were required to sit for the show. I felt bad for this older couple in front of us who had trouble sitting down. You can stand on the sides or stand on the deck above and look down.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

The deck show featured many characters and was just the right amount of time. There was lots of energy and fan enthusiasm at this show.

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

After the show, the fireworks were blasted to Star Wars music for about 10 minutes. Woohoo! (Note: This cruise also featured fireworks during pirate night earlier in the cruise).

Review: Star Wars Day at Sea (SWDAS) on the Disney Fantasy

Then, a DJ started spinning music and the whole deck turned into a big dance party! At this point, my family decided to head to the special Star Wars buffet since it was almost 11 p.m.

Overall Thoughts on SWDAS

My family thoroughly enjoyed this special Star Wars Day at Sea. Since my husband and boys are bigger Star Wars fans than my daughter and me, they probably enjoyed it more than we did. But even though I’m not a super-fan, I still thought the day was very unique and entertaining. DCL put a lot of effort into inserting the Star Wars theme into everything on the ship. My favorite things were the themed food and the roaming characters.

I talked to a few repeat SWDAS cruisers who said they thought that previous cruises had more Star Wars activities. But for us as SWDAS newbies, the day seemed packed to the gills with something for everyone.

If you absolutely hate Star Wars, I don’t recommend a SWDAS cruise. There really is almost nothing to do or see that isn’t Star Wars themed on that day with the exception of the spa. But, the Star Wars stuff is limited to just the one day, and the rest of the cruise is very normal.

Will we do a SWDAS cruise again? Probably not, unless our school vacation dates line up perfectly. But, since the dates lined up this year, we are very glad we were able to experience this special Star Wars themed cruise.

Author: Nancy

Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.

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Comments

  1. Nick says

    July 20, 2019 at 8:26 am

    Well written article, was sad to see Stars wars was only one day, but if only have two sea days I guess it makes sense. Thank you for sharing, again well written.

    Reply
    • Nancy says

      July 20, 2019 at 9:00 am

      Thanks, Nick. There were some non-fans of Star Wars on board, so I think more than one day would have been too much.

      Reply
  2. u says

    January 16, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    Thanks for the review! Do you, by any chance, have the navigators? We’re going on the same cruise in a few days and would love to have an idea of what’s offered. Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Nancy says

      January 16, 2019 at 4:25 pm

      @U Unfortunately, I didn’t keep all of the day’s navigators (except for the SWDAS which I linked above) and the weekly overview. Entertainment in the Walt Disney theater was as follows: Saturday Nick Paul (magician), Sunday Wishes, Monday Taylor Mason (ventriloquist), Tuesday Aladdin, Wednesday Ricky Kalmon (magician/hypnotist), Thursday Star Wars The Force Awakens, Friday Believe. Another comedian, Max Winfrey, also did a few smaller shows.

      Reply
      • Anonymous says

        January 16, 2019 at 5:33 pm

        Thanks for the reply Nancy!

  3. Stephanie says

    January 16, 2019 at 12:06 pm

    That cruise looks amazing. Good thing we have Disneyland passes or my kids would be begging me to book this cruise. My son thinks he’s going to Disneyland on opening day of the new Stars Wars Land; he said he doesn’t care if the lines are 5 hours long. Crazy kids!

    Reply
    • Nancy says

      January 16, 2019 at 4:19 pm

      @Stephanie The parks are going to be so crazy crowded when the Star Wars land opens! I’m hoping to avoid the new section until 2020. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Leana says

    January 16, 2019 at 7:58 am

    Looks incredible! My husband is a big Star Wars fan as well, and would totally approve. Were the kids off school for the first two weeks of the year?

    Reply
    • Nancy says

      January 16, 2019 at 8:34 am

      My kids had a later start this year, school didn’t start until Jan 8 so they didn’t have to miss the full week. Plus since it was the start of a new semester, they didn’t miss any tests or big assignments yet.

      Reply

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