Hello again, my favorite people in the Galaxy’s my readers, once again I am going to be talking about Star Wars Galaxy’s edge and some experiences I have recently had with Cast Members within this supposed- fully immersive land as well as something that I have noticed since I moved to Central Florida and became a regular visitor to Batuu.
As a fan of star wars and a Batuu bounder by every definition of the word, I have visited Galaxy’s Edge more than 50 times since moving to central florida in June of 2023. While my opinions on how small the land is still something that dwells on my mind everytime I visit my favorite part of the Parks, it is more noteworthy that since moving up here, i have began to notice some problems within the immersive land, that breaks immersion and at times bugs me.
I am a frequent patron of Oga’s Cantina and of Ohnaka Transport Solutions and the Cast Members there truly make things magical for me however, as I begin to converse with them, some topics have come up, where the cast members have broken my immersion within the land. I have had interactions with cast members not only in these two locations but across Batuu where Castmembers, had informed me that they had never seen a Star Wars Film, or I had overheard (or had) conversations with me that rubbed me the wrong way since Galaxy’s Edge is supposed to take place in the Star Wars Galaxy.
While this isn’t entirely Disney’s fault and my current readers know how I love providing creative criticism, I will try my best to discuss these issues and then provide a solution to solve each of these interactions that I have either witnessed or encountered first hand.
The Game Table Interaction:
As many of my readers know there is table (currently at the time of this article) that sells mandalorian merchandise, this table is also known to be one of the few places Guests can learn and play Sabacc in the Immersive land. Well on one of my recent visits I approached the table where the Cast Member had put away the Sabacc deck and only had the Tic Tac Toe out. Now its one thing when you approach as castmember and ask them if they were playing Sabacc, this one merely stated “ I don’t play Sabacc, only tic tac toe.” now as a fan who knows the simplicity of both versions of Sabacc sold and played in the Disney Parks Coruscant Shirt(Galactic Starcruiser) and Corellian Spike(Batuu Sabaac) I was shocked by this as Sabacc is a Star Wars staple and immersively vital to the life blood of Black Spire OutPost. Of course I played Tic Tac Toe with this Castmember it was later in the night and he was just standing there so I played to keep him busy. We were at a draw twice when he asked to make it more interesting stating “ if you win I will tell you something about Batuu if I win you tell me something about where you are from” I of course obliged him, as we started this round, however I stated “ I know alot about Batuu and Black Spire outpost from reading the Lore of the Galaxy,explaingin how I am sort of a Batuu and Galactic Historian''(which in larp terms means I am a big fan who has read all the lore I could on Galaxy’s Edge). He responded how interesting it was and we continued to play, as he won that game of Tic Tac Toe, and Asked where I was from and explained that I was a local Floridian, then continued asking what I knew so that he could try and provide me with a new fact to the many I have collected throughout the years and on my many visits to Batuu, and as a fan of Star Wars.
I told him multiple facts, and as i spoke he listened sub-intently until i stumped him with some knowledge provided to me by another cast member at the Toydarian toyshop a week or so earlier. He said he would have to double check on the facts, another cast member had given me in regards to Zabacca (the Toydarian Toymaker) and the Game of Sabacc, which I was told by another cast member was the creator of the game. The information I gave him also seemed to enthuse the cast member as he had no information aside from a single fact, that I already had known(such a well known fact about the outpost that I have already forgotten what the fact was as its general knowledge).
The point of this wasn’t that he didn’t know much about Batuu, but rather that he seemed disinterested in the knowledge I had shared with him from the expanded lore of Batuu and from other castmembers and had no knowledge of Sabacc and put it away because he was so disinterested in learning the game that is a star wars staple.
My solution is that Disney should train all Cast Members on how to Play Sabacc and Dejarik within Galaxy’s Edge, and by doing so they will never have the issue of a Cast Member not wanting or knowing how to play Sabacc in the future.
Smugglers with a lack of the history of the Millenium Falcon or their Galaxy.
As many of the cast members and few of my readers know, I am known by face as the man who has ridden smugglers run 17+ times in one night visiting Ohnaka Transport Solutions multiple times in the single rider line every weekend. Upon one of my interactions two or three days ago, I was getting in line when I noticed my brand new, newly purchased Bluetooth Comlink purchased at First Order Cargo, had fallen off while on the ride.
The cast members were amazing on how they rushed to find it and eventually succeeded but one cast member in particular the one who was assisting me, approached me and was confused by my outfit and I only recall her assisting me and asking about it briefly before she stated “I have actually never seen a single Star Wars Movie'' my heart sank. Everytime I hear this i think back to early 2020 and mid 2021 when I was applying to Disney to be a cast member and being declined entry(most likely due to my lack of experience and in my interviews the singular obsession I have with Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and the Galactic Star Cruiser) but the fact that she is working as a cast member for a Star Wars Attraction and has never seen a single film and broke my immersion, upset me in a way that only my friends who are also readers would know the extent of.
I of course broke character and told her a watch order to watch the films to assist her, as I always want to expand the knowledge of Castmembers in Galaxy’s Edge especially the non-expert ones, but this fault sits on Disney World management shoulders. How in the world can you have cast members with thousands of employees and have cast members who don’t know the source material working in an immersive land like Galaxy’s Edge. now many of you may disagree, claiming that Disney perhaps has a lack of Cast Members who are interested in Star Wars, but that is something I would disagree with. I had quite a good conversation with a Bus Boy at Woody’s Lunch Box, who played trivia with me because he saw my outfit and loved it, and he knew more about Star Wars than most Cast Members working in Galaxy’s Edge do. He was just put into the wrong position and I left a review and a comment stating that he belongs in Galaxy’s Edge sent directly to Disney through the my Disney Experience App, because of this.
So how can Disney fix this? My thought is that it should be in the hiring process, or in the placement process, if cast members in Management positions in the parks know that they have employees under their guidance who are star wars enthusiast and are working in other parts of the park, make guests happier and make the cast member happier by moving them to Galaxy’s edge to make magic there, rather than in places where their Star Wars Fandom and Knowledge is being wasted, and vice versa remove the Cast Members who don’t know star wars and move them to other jobs that may be in their wheelhouse of knowledge. Further it should be a requirement for all Cast Members working in these immersive lands: PANDORA, STAR WARS GALAXY’S EDGE, TOY STORY LAND,etc. To know their source material in order to work in these immersive lands and experiences.
The Castmembers Breaking Immersion Should Return to The Rabbit Hole Rather than Continuing to Break Down Walls of Immersion
For those of you who don’t know, Oga's Cantina is a “BAR” in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and their Cast Members are some of the best LARPer’s at times during the experience. I go to Oga’s once or twice a month and always enjoy the atmosphere and while a new article will be coming out reviewing and discussing Oga’s and some critiques I have on the Cantina within the next few months, I thought I’d tell a story focusing on a particular Castmember who I had an interaction with while LARPing at Oga’s on one of my first visits to the Cantina since moving to Central Florida. The castmember who brought me to the Standing room area of the bar was amazing and I stood there waiting for a while looking over the menu before my “chemist” eventually approached me. He was nice and very friendly unlike most Oga’s Cantina’s Bartenders who i have had in the past and as he approached he took my drink order, when the Song “ Moulee-Rah” came on from DJ Rex( The Bar’s Animatronic Droid DJ). He noticed i liked the song and we had a brief conversation. Where I mentioned Fytee and RB Snootles the musical Artist within the Star Wars Galaxy who are featured on the song, he miss heard me and thought I was saying it tastes like “Arby’s” which I initially laughed at until he went off tangent when I explained it was the song’s artist and then told me about how Disneyland has new music that we don’t get on the East Coast( a fact that is not true as now both lands have all the music) and then told me how one song is “Its a Small World” but remixed and “Grim Grinning Ghost” but Remixed, now this is amazing knowledge to learn and have(despite my research finding nothing to prove this) , and its fine to give this information out, however he broke immersion and it seems that when a Castmember breaks immersion they already know they had and then will continue to break immersion because they already had, and while in a normal bar in Disney, this would be acceptable, however in Galaxy’s Edge everything I’d argue should be on another level of standard, information behind the scenes should be reserved for places like the Baseline Tap House or Brown Derby Lounge, in Hollywood Studios, not in Galaxy’s Edge which should be a living breathing real feeling environment.
Am I attributing that this could be a slip up by the Cast Member, yes, but if they do slip up breaking immersion, giving behind the scenes facts, shouldn’t be allowed and further breaking immersion shouldn’t be allowed. Cast Members rather than breaking immersion should go back and revisit the galaxy, play back their accidental breaks of immersion instead returning to the galaxy rather than breaking walls to bring guests further and further down the rabbit hole that they just escaped from. This would increase experience value with limited effort by cast members even if they do know these behind the scenes facts. These have no place in an immersive land, like Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
Concluding Statements.
While these are few experiences, witnessed first hand by myself, I am sure many guests had experienced other breaks in immersion from Cast Members, I know for a fact on a few visits Galaxy’s Edge Castmembers made comments on Guests Sports wear and such but this shouldn’t be acceptable in Galaxy’s Edge, despite it being nice and very Disney-esque to do, as it breaks the immersion of the land. All Castmembers in Galaxy’s Edge Work really hard and while they do break immersion by doing these small (possibly nitpicky) things, Galaxy’s Edge should be held to a higher standard than the rest of the Disney Parks, they should receive training in Star Wars Immersion not only in Cast Member training to work in this land( according to one of my sources they do but it is super limited and not to the scale that Guests Expect from Disney as a company). Personally as many of you know I would love to teach a Class on Star Wars and Work for Disney as a Trainer in Star Wars Immersion and LARP to boost Guest experience in this land, but for now I will settle for Kembay in Savi’s Workshop who is always the best and most immersive Cast Member in all of Galaxy’s Edge
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