Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

 

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

 

A few weeks ago we were given the unbelievable opportunity to take a voyage on the Disney Dream, a truly jaw-dropping cruise ship that left us floored. But what made the trip really special was that it was right after the opening of the new Millennium Falcon space in the Oceaneer’s Club—the kids’ club on the ship. This new space, inspired by the iconic Star Wars spaceship (it can be seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opening on Friday) is a feast for the senses: everything moves and lights up, and the toggles actually, well, toggle.

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

The level of immersive detail is truly mind-boggling, as is its attention to nerdy specificity (there are hidden gags throughout the area, many of which we were instructed not to reveal). The space is spread out, revealing several rooms of the Millennium Falcon, and the cockpit is undoubtedly the coolest: if you flip the correct number of switches and push the right amount of buttons, the screen will illuminate and zoom you to a far flung (but probably familiar) planet. What’s more – these sequences come directly from Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the beloved attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. So, so cool.

What’s more,  we got shown around the space by Danny Handke, a lead creative designer at Walt Disney Imagineering. You can see our chat and read our interview below. May the Force be with you.

 

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

Where did the idea initially come from?
We knew we wanted to do Star Wars, early on. We started working on this idea last July. So we worked with Disney Cruise Line and asked them, “What sort of operational program would you want for something like this?” We knew that they had arts and crafts, had videogames, and stuff like that. And so we had all the basics and wanted to bring it all together. We thought, What Star Wars environment would there be where you can do all of these things? Then it came to us: the Millennium Falcon! We’re all kids at heart, right? Who wouldn’t want to fly the Millennium Falcon? That’s where we got the idea for the cockpit and having it interactive and having the common room be the arts and crafts area, and the engine room being the videogame area.

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

Let’s go through each room: The room on the left has consoles and motion control video games.
Yes, we call that the engine room. And the story there is that Chewbacca is doing a little engine work in that area – you can see his bowcaster and his bandolier. So you can help him out by playing those motion control video games.

The main room is obviously the Millennium Falcon cockpit.
Yes, the cockpit. What’s cool is that you can trigger jumps to lightspeed at different places in the Star Wars universe. Once in a while, it’s very rare, but you can do that Death Star trench run.

And some of these scenes are from Star Tours!
Yes, that’s correct.

The room to the right is where people do crafts and things, right?
Yeah, that’s the common room. So you might recognize it from Star Wars: Episode IV – that’s where Luke Skywalker practiced with his lightsaber and learned how to use the Force. So we actually have his training remote, and his blast shield, and his lightsaber hidden in this area, as well as the famous holo-chess table where you can do arts and crafts and hang out.

And throughout the area there are moments where kids can use the Force. Can you talk about what that is?
Yes, they’ll get Jedi training. We call it Experience the Force. And they’ll learn how to use the Force by moving objects and they’ll also learn how to do the Jedi mind trick.

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut

There’s also a full-sized R2-D2!
We always knew we wanted a character in there and I’m a huge fan of R2-D2. We thought it’d be great to have R2-D2 here to talk to the kids. We designed this mobile astro-droid repair tube; it’s something you don’t see in the films but it’s something we worked on with Lucasfilm so that it was very authentic and has a whole story behind it. So R2-D2 is there getting cleaned off and chatting up the kids.

What about the Millennium Falcon captures your imagination so much at Walt Disney Imagineering?
It’s so iconic and it’s so classic. It’s always a staple of the Star Wars universe. So, for us, it’s a huge opportunity to live that dream to board the Falcon, drive the Falcon, and see the characters. That’s very meaningful.

The Millennium Falcon room is currently a part of the Oceaneer’s Club on the Disney Dream. Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives in a galaxy near you on December 18.

Disney Dream’s Galactic Upgrade: Inside the Millennium Falcon’s Oceanic Debut