We're saying the same thing..A lot of people book on shorter notice. An event which sells out fast is underpriced. Potential guests who might have booked 9 months in advance, at a lower price, are replaced by guests booking 4 months out at the higher price.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Patcheslee
Well-Known Member
With the booking and refund policy, I wouldn’t book a June reservation until last-minute because I don't want plans to change and be out a significant amount of money.
This seems unbugged...
...If you ignore that sometimes only the second day of a two day cruise is blacked out.
...If you ignore that sometimes only the second day of a two day cruise is blacked out.
March, April, and May are fully booked -- presumably, since they don't show up any more.
Last edited:
corran horn
Well-Known Member
And this is before I've bought my Halcyon towels and shirts and stuff but also does not take into account the dinnerware I plan to steal.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
So that's how you're gonna pay for it, eBay?
corran horn
Well-Known Member
I'm gonna look like an ebay puke with bags chocked full of 50th popcorn buckets.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Disney should be knocking down the walls between a bunch of steerage class rooms and make some more high-class suites!!
It seems the people who have the money to enjoy this... really have the money.
Which is not surprising considering Disney can sell so many deluxe rooms *starting* at $600/night.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
They wouldn't tell ricky the top price because if you have to ask you can't afford it
Incomudro
Well-Known Member
When you price a stay of that length at the rate that is, yes - it's automatically in the territory of people who really have the money.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
Sooo… some thoughts here."But nobody is interested in it", "It's going to be a complete failure", "Who'll book a hotel without a swimming pool" etc, etc
And I'm not even bothered about going myself so don't even have a dog in the fight (I'm not into animal cruelty by the way, in fact I'd happily castrate anyone caught dog-fighting and it's just a saying). I do struggle understanding the hatred and desire for this to seemingly fail by many on here though? For me personally this does nothing to affect me if I choose not to go. It's not really using valuable real estate, doesn't take anything away from me and if successful could even encourage more money being invested into the parks.
1) As has been said above, Starcruiser seems to many like a massive rip-off from a company that lately excels at massive rip-offs, and it’s success validates that behavior. Now, I understand that some folks think it is worth the price to them. I absolutely understand that. But just because something is “worth it” to me (or anyone) personally doesn’t mean it isn’t, more generally speaking, a rip-off. I frequently judge an experience “worth it” even though I understand I am being, more objectively, ripped off - for instance , when I spent several days at WDW recently, I knew I was paying a lot more then I should for the value I received, but I choose to do it anyway. So please understand my use of the term “rip-off” in that context.
All that said, the cruiser offers 20 hours of original content plus a (rather small) place to sleep and time in Batuu. For $5000 or so. The fact that that price point doesn't seem even MORE unreasonable is a testament to how much Disney's insane hotel prices have warped our perceptions.
2) Much more importantly, the Starcruiser is charging these mad prices for elements that were supposed to be included in Batuu before it was cut to the bone. A Star Wars sit-down restaurant? That was supposed to be in the park. Colorful characters walking around that you can interact with and that play out little scenes? That was supposed to be in the park. Storylines you could observe or interact with? That was supposed to be in the park. But WDW decided that guests who payed the already incredibly inflated prices for entry to MGM didn't deserve those (promised) elements. Instead, they are being plopped behind an even more massive paywall.
And the success of the Starcruiser validates that choice. If the Cruiser really takes off, so to speak, does anyone really think that Disney won't take away the lesson that premium content, the truly interactive elements, the stuff that used to be what made WDW special, needs to be locked away from the everyday guests and offered only to the big spenders? This is a resort in the process of monetizing rides that have been free (once through the gates) for decades. And all of this is a notable intensification of a trend that has been driving WDW for years under the current management - guests are aggressively stratified into the haves and have-nots, with the latter treated as decidedly second class. So no, Cruiser's success won't drive investment into the parks - quite the opposite. The parks will become advertisements for the REAL experience behind the multi-thousand-dollar gate.
I never thought the Cruiser would fail, certainly not quickly. Experience has shown there are no known limits to how much many will spend on a Disney fix. But as far as I can see, the success of the Cruiser is very, very bad for anyone who loves the parks.
corran horn
Well-Known Member
I don't disagree, but this has been happening with 'extra magic hours', private tours, and things like Club 33 for decades.
When we started DVC they included park tickets. They charged full freight for MGM when it was mostly construction walls and did that more recently for Epcot as well. Many park-related things have been declining by degrees. And I've said throughout this thread, 'worth it' is subjective between parties.
Disney owns Star Wars for now, and likely forevermore. And there's nothing I can do about that. If I want a cool Star Wars experience like this I can't 'go somewhere else'. It's not lost on me that when I was my kids' age there's no way my parents could've afforded this.
We could barely get in the door at WDW in 1989 when I first went. And there were many many others back then who couldn't. But we still went.
Last edited:
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Ehh, I think they identified a niche opportunity and have the resources to turn it into a cash whale. I don't think it is a ripoff but the people that do book think it has value.
No one knows if it does at this point, the salesman set the price and people are promising to pay it.
Yes they cut the land, I don't think they deferred the offerings to this experience. It is a very small thing like VIP tours, MK tours, weddings. Just another way to make a buck and it seems to be working well.
Anxiously waiting for first repots....
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
I don't think its that small. Disney has been working on tech to allow immersive, RPG-style experiences for years and years. It has long been intended for the park - in fact, I think its been cut fairly late in the development process a couple times. If the Cruiser is a hit, what motivation does Disney have to put something like that into the park rather then locking it behind a paywall? And this seems very likely to snowball - if WDW is going to put a lot of money into a stage show, why offer it for "free?" Why not monetize it directly? The Cruiser is an intensification of a trend, and I don't see why it would be the endpoint.
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
Clones, bring on the clones.....
eddie104
Well-Known Member
Exactly I don’t get the connect of this experience with whether or not Disney chooses to invest in WDW. They have nothing to do with each other. This is basically a hotel on steroids not a theme park in space.
Sometimes things don’t require elaborate theories on why they exist. It’s just simply to make money on a IP they know has staying power.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
I enjoyed reading your thoughts and there were valid points. I don't really agree with point 2) though which I've highlighted, at least not to the degree you've stated. I strongly suspect the actors being used for the hotel are going to be far more into it than the originally planned interactions in the park. Again I'm assuming here but I think the actors will be more like those at a murder mystery dinner show, where guests need to invest far longer periods of time to get anything from the performances than they would in a park. The concept for the hotel seems more role play than the type of interactions that you see in the parks which by nature have to be fairly quick.
You yourself have just described "Colorful characters walking around that you can interact with and that play out little scenes", to me that's not what I believe you'll get in the hotel. I think you'll get far more scripted and structured interactions, the type where you're committed to seeing it all the way through to get anything out of it. I could be wrong of course but that's genuinely how I think it's been marketed, it's a far more personal experience than watching a 'little scene' and hoping you're lucky enough to be picked for a quick back and forth with a roaming character. Personally I don't see what they'll do in the hotel being transferable to a park, elements of it yes but not the whole 'show' you're paying to see.
I do think that there could/should be more interactive elements in Galaxy's Edge with the characters (covid permitting obviously). They do roam around and interact as we had several funny interactions with talking storm troopers, along with an interaction with Chewie. I do agree that originally the way Disney described the character interaction doesn't quite reach the level we have, but I don't agree that they just took what was planned for the park and said "Nope, you have to go to the hotel for that now". I do think that a 'Citizens of Hollywood' type troupe would be a good idea for Galaxy's Edge though. You know a group of characters turning part of the path into a little 20 minute show like COH used to do, throw in a few laughs as well and you'll have that interaction that was originally stated. What we have now sometimes feels like characters that don't want to talk and just stand around at times, I do think that needs to improve a bit to get a better experience.
Last edited:
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
The Star Wars Galactic Cruiser is expensive, but, to proclaim it a success is premature. Folks that feel motivated to book and lock in the money now are doing so (May The Force be With Them). The success or failure of this experience hinges on the after experience reviews, comments and any desire to do it again by the guests that do it in the first 90 or so days. If the people that experience it deem it not worth the money I do not see it lasting long after.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
A bit like when you said the following then?
It seems to be doing better than you predicted prematurely?
A long term success or failure, who knows right now? However it seems to be booking alright beyond it's maiden voyage.