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For Star Wars fans around the globe, launching into space, building your own lightsaber, enjoying a meal at the cantina, and racing droids once seemed like a far-off fantasy only attainable in a galaxy far, far away. Here on planet Earth, starting in 2022, however, those fans could live out their wildest Star Wars fantasies onboard the Halcyon as part of Disney World’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser attraction.

Though the experience was often referred to as “the Star Wars hotel,” the Halcyon was far more than just a hotel: it was an immersive entertainment experience that combined live-action roleplaying with the universe of Star Wars. In September 2023, the attraction set sail for the last time, leaving behind a devoted community of fans.

Among them is Illinois Tech Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies Carly Kocurek, who is a cultural historian specializing in the study of new media technologies and gaming. Determined to preserve the legacy of the Galactic Starcruiser, Kocurek is the producer and lead researcher for a new documentary titled , which traces the Halcyon’s short-lived production.

“I care about documentation of games. A lot of the work that I have done involves games that are hard to access for various reasons,” says Kocurek. “That kind of challenge is really interesting to me. But it also means that play becomes a kind of preservation. To me, this is an extension of that. You have this huge complex system, and there’s not actually a good way for people to access or understand it. There probably never will be again.”

Kocurek’s interest was piqued in May 2023 when she experienced the Halcyon in person for the first time. Going into the adventure not knowing what to expect, Kocurek was struck by how ambitious Disney was in creating such an immersive experience—only for it to be so short-lived.

“This is something I think about with games in general: they’re very ephemeral,” says Kocurek. “If the game can’t be played, the game is gone. I was like, ‘Man, nobody’s actually going to understand what this thing was.’”

It was at that point when Kocurek teamed up with director Carrie Coaplen to create the documentary. A four-time visitor to the Galactic Starcruiser, Coaplen made it a priority to focus on the bonds made among those who lived through the unique two-day voyage aboard the Halcyon.

“Carrie is absolutely a fan. She loved it, and she found it really transformative,” says Kocurek. “She wants to understand what about that experience transformed her from being kind of interested in Star Wars to being really obsessed.”

The scale of the Galactic Starcruiser experience is what set it apart from many other interactive experiences. From tabletop roleplaying games to live-action roleplaying games, interactive game experiences are far from new.

Disney’s ambition to create a two-day experience for hundreds of people at a time made it such a surreal experience.

The expensive price tag—the two-day voyages started at nearly $5,000—likely contributed to Galactic Starcruiser’s ultimate demise. Not included in that price and mostly not available were souvenir options for those who took the voyage, so fan art re-living the experience has spread throughout the Star Wars community, even after Galactic Starcruiser’s closure.

“You have a fan community that I don’t think would be this invested and vibrant if the thing was still running,” says Kocurek. “There’s a lot of like pent-up longing and desire left when something you loved is gone.” 

The documentary, which is currently in post-production, doesn’t yet have a release date. Kocurek expects to submit it to festivals in the summer and fall 2025. The team is in the middle of a final funding push on Kickstarter, fans interested in contributing can do so .

She hopes the Halcyon Daze documentary can inspire people who watch to be motivated to find new interactive experiences.

“It’s been a really collaborative and interesting project. I think this is exemplary of the kind of work that nobody can do alone,” says Kocurek. “I hope people that watch this are interested enough to seek out other immersive entertainment.”

Photo: Carly Kocurek at Halcy-Con, where she and her colleagues presented footage and held a panel about their upcoming documentary Halcyon Daze.