News Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to permanently close this fall

[Brad Bishop]

If someone wants to go and will enjoy it, that is a wonderful thing...A lot of people worked very hard on making it work...
I am sad for them that it was not successful... but that was sort of pre-determined by the direction management took...

I think one of the problems may have been that it was simply not viable. There's a point to where making it actually work, and work well, would take more than they could possibly charge for people staying and that's where it falls apart.

 

[Mike S]

One thing I think Universal would get right that this didn't would be having a grand enough setting to justify the price (having it take place in Hogwarts presumably). The interior of the Starcruiser was neither amazing enough to be impressive or Star Wars-y enough to make people book trips for the nostalgia factor.

Making it themed to a civilian space cruise ship, instead of something like an Imperial battle station or a Jedi Temple, was a mistake.

I don’t know if I’d pay thousands for it, but an immersive Hogwarts experience where you get to attend class and solve some kind of mystery would at least be tempting and make me wish I had the money for it.

 

[Brad Bishop]

Back when Solo movie released there was a massive thing about Lando being pansexual and feelings for a droid. The droid also wanted equal rights.

I think it’s just stuff people didn’t need throwing at them in a kids movie

There's also "I can do anything without any training at all because I'm a woman"-Rey.

In the last movie I watched (VIII) the Admiral (I don't remember her title) was quite belligerent and treated Finn and the other guy like dogs because they were men.

It's the whole "The Force is Female" bit.

If you look back at the original (IV, V, & VI) movies, Leia was an exceptionally strong character without being off-putting. She controlled the situations and spoke to people like they were actual people (not "lesser people"). Her character also evolved with the story.

Adding to that, sexualizing characters that don't need to be sexualized is an on-going problem in Hollywood. I don't need to know that Elliot (Pete's dragon) has a thing for other male dragons... It wouldn't add anything to the story (and would be forced)... Just let Elliot be the magical dragon he is. (they didn't do this - it's an example)

 

[Kingoglow]

As a former Starcruiser CP, I am heartbroken. This experience was truly one of a kind, and if you haven’t done it, you can’t understand how truly incredible it is.

Yes, it is very expensive, but it is one of the most unique ideas to come from WDI in recent times. The sheer creativity and manpower that went into designing this 48 hour non-stop show, with video game elements, Light Saber training, and truly unique character experiences is crazy.

Being able to feel a part of a universe many of ourselves have found a home in is so truly unique. I find it so unfortunate the amount of hatred this project got.

**** from Courscant hopes the Stars will Light Our Way

I hear ya, but I mean... if you hadn't worked there, would you have (or could you have) ever paid to go see it?

After the first voyage, the entire experience was spoiled online. Anyone that wanted to research what they were spending $5k on (and who wouldn't research what they were buying with that money) saw the entire schtick. None of the early videos showcased 'just' the design elements. They all showcased their entire experience; the entire show. And it was clear that the ending wasn't going to ever change, no matter how much effort the First Order guests put into it.

So the only real unknown that guests would experience for $5k would be, what exactly does a blue shrimp taste like?

And from an outside perspective, some of the experiences you mention do not look that great on camera. The lightsaber training experience looks cheap, like a knockoff of something great. Nothing like the hyper around D'Amaros extending/retracting lightsaber display that he made on stage. It looks sort of like early VR experiences in the 80s.

Also, to Disney, stop trying to hijack my personal phone for your experiences. It is less immersive when I have to use my personal device for your attractions.

 

[Mike S]

They didn’t, and guess what? George swallowed his pride and all but eliminated his character.

Unlike him, Disney continues to double down when many signs point to the concept that ST worlds and characters are just not that popular.

Love the user name.

 

[Andrew C]

Love the user name.

Oh, you still alive!?

 

[GimpYancIent]

You got the wrong Bob.

You guys all forget that this thing was green lit under Iger. As much as Chapek was a loathsome figurehead, a whole lot of current Disney failures can be traced directly back to Iger. Chapek wasn't there long enough with Iger completely separated from the company to do pretty much anything substantial, except reap the "rewards" of Iger's ego.

Both Bob's fumbled the ball.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

A bit ambivalent about this news.

I'm not into LARPing and only mildly interested in Star Wars, so if there was ever going to be a market for this it wasn't me. It's possible that if they tweaked some parts of the experience it would have survived, but I suspect the economics of the whole venture were such that it was just never going to work as you couldn't have too many guests without compromising the role playing aspect, you couldn't make the experience much grander without it being too expensive to build and run, and you couldn't charge much less without it becoming unprofitable.

At least I hope their takeaway from this is that they're better off building experiences for the masses of people who want to have an enjoyable vacation at their parks and resorts. One element of this is Disney's recent trend toward putting increasing elements of that experience behind various paywalls, making the vacation experience both less enjoyable and more expensive. In a perfect world, their takeaway would be that they would have been better off just incorporating elements of this experience into Galaxy's Edge and making money hand over fist from a new deluxe restaurant rather than sinking $1 billion or so into something that almost certainly lost money during the brief time it was running.

As for repurposing the actual building, I can't see how it's worthwhile for Disney. I know that it looks like a waste to most people, but for Disney's it's likely more efficient to just write it off, strip it for theming elements to be used elsewhere, and eventually demolish it than to throw millions more into trying to eek out a small profit. From their point of view, using some of the R&D elsewhere probably counts as salvaging something from the project.

 

[monothingie]

I don't know how this is going to affect the Haunted Mansion concept. The last I heard was that testing of in-game rooms was progressing earlier this year, in full-size mockups on the soundstage.

Can they make it work at a price point that gives you a decent experience but still is profitable?

If they couldn't do it with something as popular as STAR WARS, what gives a different lesser known IP a better chance.

 

[Mike S]

Oh, you still alive!?

Yes I just got busy and lost interest in keeping up here for a few years lol

 

[lentesta]

Can they make it work at a price point that gives you a decent experience but still is profitable?

If they couldn't do it with something as popular as STAR WARS, what gives a different lesser known IP a better chance.

I think the idea (which I agree with) is that "Haunted Mansion" has broader appeal than Star Wars.

 

[Lirael]

Wild that they're scrapping the whole thing. Could have just removed the overpriced Larping and run it like a regular hotel. I'm sure they'd make a profit fast

 

[MaximumEd]

This may have been answered, but this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up…..around 15 pages ago, I think it was Len said the concept for this approached 1 billion. How the heck do you spend a billion dollars on a concept? Where does that money go?

 

[JoeCamel]

Wild that they're scrapping the whole thing. Could have just removed the overpriced Larping and run it like a regular hotel. I'm sure they'd make a profit fast

Problem is it lacks amenities of a regular hotel

 

[GrumpyFan]

I think the idea (which I agree with) is that "Haunted Mansion" has broader appeal than Star Wars.

Maybe, but with Star Wars they have (or had) many more story lines and characters they could have played from many of which are well known when you consider all of the different movies, shows, and books even that exist.
With Haunted Mansion, they just seem a lot more limited to a couple of stories and a few characters.

 

[JoeCamel]

This may have been answered, but this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up…..around 15 pages ago, I think it was Len said the concept for this approached 1 billion. How the heck do you spend a billion dollars on a concept? Where does that money go?

SpaceX rides......

 

[lazyboy97o]

This may have been answered, but this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up…..around 15 pages ago, I think it was Len said the concept for this approached 1 billion. How the heck do you spend a billion dollars on a concept? Where does that money go?

I don’t think it was a billion just on the project alone but the result of one billion in different projects over the years that found their way into the project. Story Engine, which powers the whole thing, was being developed over a decade ago. A decade of work is going to cost money. Large scale tests, including public tests at Disneyland, are going to cost money.

 

[MagicRat]

In case you missed it

Remember kids, reading is FUNdamental.

Reading comprehension is something I take pride in, but given how I kept repeating the same comment every time, you either must be either AI or someone without a sense of humor. I was going to repeat it again but here is another way;

Misa, Misa get me outa here!

 

[monothingie]

I think the idea (which I agree with) is that "Haunted Mansion" has broader appeal than Star Wars.

Broader appeal to who? HM is a niche target. If the new movie underperforms or gets buried by TMNT (Releases the week after) why even bother?

They had the biggest movie franchise in history (STAR WARS) and still messed it up.

 

[GrumpyFan]

This may have been answered, but this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up…..around 15 pages ago, I think it was Len said the concept for this approached 1 billion. How the heck do you spend a billion dollars on a concept? Where does that money go?

From what I've seen or heard, they spent a lot of time and money researching this and creating the story.

I think they should have spent more money on marketing and sales to make this work.