The Void at Disney Springs was a fantastic experience that I wish was still there! I had the pleasure of experiencing it when it was open and wow – why don’t they do more stuff like this?
Below is my review of the experience:
The Void at Disney Springs might have been the best immersive experience available outside of the theme parks. This hyper-reality experience took virtual reality to a whole new level, and it was incredible!
Being a family of Star Wars fans, we knew that we had to try to get in to this virtual world. Since it was a vr experience, there were 2 in our group that thought it might be a bit much for them and they opted out. That left 4 of us to try it – my nephew, his two sons and myself which worked out well since the experience was in groups of 4. It’s important to note that guests had to be a minimum of 48 inches tall and at least 10 years of age to participate, and a waiver was signed before you entered.
We pre-booked tickets for $29.95 USD in advance and selected a time slot before our dinner at Art Smith’s. We had no idea what it would be like – but we were excited for what was to be an immersive Star Wars experience.
Once we checked in we were taken to a set-up room where we watched a short video and a cast member scanned our wrist bands. Then it was off to get our VR gear on – and that was interesting!
The full gear included a vest and a helmet (with microphone) that allowed you to talk to the other members of our group. In total I would say it all weighed about 10 pounds but didn’t feel uncomfortable. My vr headset made me feel pretty official in a Star Wars kind of way. When they took us in to the room and we pulled our visors down, we were laughing trying to talk to each other and realized we were now Storm Troopers. It was hysterical seeing the youngest one as a miniature Storm Trooper and when we stuck out our hands we could see that we had ‘on’ the full Trooper uniform!
The experience took us on a mission where we could interact with things and use levers on the wall to open doors. We knew then that we really had to work together to complete our mission. To say that it was ‘immersive’ would be an understatement – we were THERE. At one point there was a bridge to walk across, high up above boiling lava, and I can tell you that I literally felt like I could fall off of this bridge! The kids had to reach back and take my hand to guide me across.
The next thing I knew we were under attack in this Star Wars universe and I was on high alert. We had blasters in our hands and were shooting at Storm Troopers, feeling the recoil with our shots and ducking behind things for cover. We were shouting to each other to find a safe place to shoot from while one was trying to break the code to get us out of harms way. It was so much fun and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.
There was an additional experience at one point called Ralph Breaks VR that featured Wreck-It Ralph. While it was fun, it wasn’t as much fun as the Secrets of the Empire in my opinion.
Unfortunately the Void closed at Disney Springs and the official website has very little information. It appears that the immersive virtual reality experience is not available anywhere at the moment. It would be AMAZING if they could put something like this in to Galaxy’s Edge – but that might be wishful thinking.
Did you get a chance to try the Void when it was open?
