News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
That’s why CMs will be present…? To assist guests…? This… this isn’t hard.

No one needs to understand Larping rules, just the concept of taking your turn. And it’s Disney. Everyone waits to take their turn.

I’m sure if they don’t get to pull the light speed lever, there are alternative things that can be done/offered. Unless I missed all the people raging and throwing tantrums because they didn’t get into the Pilot position on Smuggler’s Run. Oh wait…that doesn’t happen. 🤨

I don’t know what the experience on the bridge will be like, but I just don’t expect a lot of fights there between guests about who does what when.
Ummm...

This isn't meant as a dig to anyone here, but...have you seen Disney guests lately? There are large numbers of Disney visitors who are either ultra-entitled or will make their family miserable trying to ensure they get their money's worth out of their trip. Where this is such an expensive stay, I'm willing to bet there will be at least a good number of the former on the Starcruiser.

Just one example...our last trip, our oldest was trying to pull the sword from the stone at MK, and when our youngest went to take his turn, another family walked up and their two children fell just short of shoving my son out of the way. The parents didn't say a word, and rather than cause a huge scene, we just reassured our son very loudly that we'd wait so that he could have his turn (the other parents obviously heard us and didn't give a crap). Fortunately, our youngest is generous to a fault even though he has moderate autism, and he didn't mind waiting, but this is FAR from the only experience we've ever had like this at Disney World.
 

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
Ummm...

This isn't meant as a dig to anyone here, but...have you seen Disney guests lately? There are large numbers of Disney visitors who are either ultra-entitled or will make their family miserable trying to ensure they get their money's worth out of their trip. Where this is such an expensive stay, I'm willing to bet there will be at least a good number of the former on the Starcruiser.

Just one example...our last trip, our oldest was trying to pull the sword from the stone at MK, and when our youngest went to take his turn, another family walked up and their two children fell just short of shoving my son out of the way. The parents didn't say a word, and rather than cause a huge scene, we just reassured our son very loudly that we'd wait so that he could have his turn (the other parents obviously heard us and didn't give a crap). Fortunately, our youngest is generous to a fault even though he has moderate autism, and he didn't mind waiting, but this is FAR from the only experience we've ever had like this at Disney World.
You make a fair point, as I too have encountered my share of entitled guests, but I would still say visitors as a whole are generally ok behaved. The bad apples always stand out.

How many times have you had neutral experiences with other guests? Or are you constantly bothered by the people around you? Probably not. Or you wouldn’t go.

We always remember the negative and positive extremes better. I don’t remember all those times I stood next to other families in line, with everyone doing their own thing in their own groups, but that’s the overall experience.

And it’s different, having a supervised group of say what, 500 max? than thousands+ in a park. I mean how many people will be on the bridge at any one given time? 10-30?

Much easier to diffuse any situations that might arise and much easier to make sure everyone gets a meaningful experience, even if it isn’t the *same* experience.
 
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ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
You make a fair point, as I too have encountered my share of entitled guests, but I would still say visitors as a whole are generally ok behaved. The bad apples always stand out.

How many times have you had neutral experiences with other guests? Or are you constantly bothered by the people we around you? Probably not. Or you wouldn’t go. We always remember the negatives and positive extremes better.

And it’s different, having a supervised group of say what, 500 max? than thousands+ in a park. I mean how many people will be on the bridge at anyone given time? 10-30?

Much easier to diffuse any situations that might arise and much easier to make sure everyone gets a meaningful experience, even if it isn’t the *same* experience.
Oh, I've definitely had some really great experiences with other guests. It just has been glaringly noticeable that the bad behavior and entitlement has become more and more frequent over the years, and social media has led to the death of many "magical" little extras because people began EXPECTING them and complaining when they didn't happen. (Towel animals, for a glaring example, and just the other day someone posted in one of the FB groups how disappointed she was that her TA didn't include a "first trip" gift basket for her daughter because she'd heard that some do that. Yes...she was complaining that a travel agent didn't shower her daughter with gifts paid for out of their own pocket.)

I just think that logistically, Disney is expecting to be able to deliver a particular kind of experience, but Disney's own guests are very likely going to force that experience to need to be way more organized and led than the guests really want because they just can't help themselves. I really hope I'm wrong, and that guests behave the way they should when involved in a LARP-like experience, but I have doubts. (For the record, I love any excuse to get into costume and roleplay...my first time going to a Renaissance Fair was in the 80s...to say I've dropped some cash on costume pieces would be putting it lightly.)
 

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
That is what I was thinking of when I said they should have just gone the VR way. They could have styled the vr headset to look like that (or the helmet used by Luke in ANH). Then, they wouldn't have to worry about the laser blast coming from a fixed point, because in VR it could come from anywhere. The lightsaber itself would just need to be the hilt with some sensors to track and provide rumble feedback.

The VR wouldn't even need to be highly detailed, since it is supposed to make you "blind" to attune with the force. They could do something like an adult/hard mode that it's basically black with a vague glimpse of where the blast is coming from, and as you do better it becomes more in focus and for a longer period of time, simulating that you are getting better with the force. Kid mode they could just make it so it's on the "final level" from the beginning.
I think the problem here is we are now talking major development investment for a relatively small project with limited earning potential due to the limited space available for guests. (and in the long run, probably pricing)

Disney is not, after all, a tech company so they don't necessarily have a lot of other avenues to readily spin the kind of investment they'd need to make for this sort of custom experience.

Disneyquest did have an early version of something like this but they were A) a very different company back then more willing to take risks and more willing to build projects like this to learn from them rather than to strictly profit/market and B) Disneyquest was supposed to be a national (global?) chain where the development costs would be easier to recover, though that never panned out. (which goes back to "a" and their willingness to try innovating in major ways without guaranteed success)

If they were going to incorporate it into the land where they could charge for it as an individual experience and offer it at Disneyland and possibly other parks in the future, too, then maybe they would make something like this but they can't do that because then it dilutes the value of the experience people are paying the big bucks for on the Starcruiser.

They can't even spin a lesser version into a home toy/game/vr experience to help make up development costs since they license out all their toy and gaming stuff to third parties who would be doing their own independent development, anyway.

That's of course, not a technical problem but one created by the way the company is structured. Just the same, I don't see them changing anytime soon since they enjoy making money on royalties without having to invest or risk losing money on failed products in the marketplace.

Something like this would not be worth disrupting that in Bob's eyes.

This to me, seems like one of the problems with these smaller more "premium" experiences for Disney. To make something really amazing they'd need to invest but it may be hard for them to justify investing the amount needed to make it something really amazing which is why, up until now, their "premium" experiences have largely been based on cupcakes and finding ways to make exclusive and charge for, things that were once available to all guests with the cost of admission where development cost has already been covered and it's mostly pure profit.

Disney seems all about the low hanging fruit these days and there's not a lot of that to be found in these from-scratch boutique experiences if they require major tech/infrastructure investment.

One could argue that a little investment like this sprinkled around without a direct payoff would still go a long ways at proving themselves as a premium tourist destination and may pay off on a larger scale with brand awareness ability to sort of justify price increases elsewhere ("we're premium!") but I think that kind of thinking is a little too subtle and long-game for current management to roll with.

They could still knock this whole project out of the park as a roll-playing experience for people who are really into that if they get the "live" aspects right but I think a lot of what we thought this was going to be in terms of innovative never-before-seen stuff from the tech/effects side (which they alluded to) is probably not going to work out the way we all were expecting.
 
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LovePop

Well-Known Member
The more I think about it, I realize something: the Galactic Starcruiser is to be taken for what it is: a hotel that simulates a Star Wars cruise. You get to be in a room with a simulation window to make it look like you are in space, you get a hotel decorated like a spacecraft, you get paid aliens walking around to increase the SW feel, you get food and drinks, you get a trip to Galaxy's Edge. There are also a few activities like building model ships, playing cards, a SW playground area for the kids, a simple lightsaber training game and a simulated bridge where you can press a few buttons to shoot things or get into hyperdrive, a demonstration of an extendable lightsaber, help hide Chewy from the First Order if you see him walking around.

You are supposed to come and soak in the environment and pretend that you are in a SW spaceship, enjoy the space windows, the ship decor, the paid characters, and the food for a couple of days. You are not supposed to expect the ship activities to be as much fun as doing rides in the parks: that's not possible, considering how much more it cost to build the parks compared to building this one hotel.

If you ask, so I'm paying 5K for this? Yes, and that's not unfair, because it costs that much money to put in all the decor, the virtual windows and so on, to the point that the hotel costs 4 times per room to build than the average 5 star hotel, and 5K might not be enough to turn a decent profit.

I think it's a good idea that the video came out to give people a dose of reality check. This is the best Disney (or anybody) can do in building a SW cruise ship, and it's the only way for anyone to experience a SW space cruise.

This is not something I can enjoy that well. Like when I stay at AKL or GF or YC, I walk in the room and it's really nice, everything looks beautiful. And I enjoy it for a few moments, feeling impressed. But then I'm done and I want to get out and go somewhere and do something that's more than stare at the phone, push buttons, play cards or build model ships; I can do that stuff at home. If I get stuck in the hotel because of a storm, which has happened, I get bored and restless, the beautiful room is no longer exciting as a continuous source of entertainment, and I feel like I'm not enjoying my vacation to the fullest.

But there are people who can just check in to a club level hotel room and sit around to enjoy it all day long, eating and drinking, soaking it all in. That's the kind of people SWGS is built for.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Oh, I've definitely had some really great experiences with other guests. It just has been glaringly noticeable that the bad behavior and entitlement has become more and more frequent over the years, and social media has led to the death of many "magical" little extras because people began EXPECTING them and complaining when they didn't happen. (Towel animals, for a glaring example, and just the other day someone posted in one of the FB groups how disappointed she was that her TA didn't include a "first trip" gift basket for her daughter because she'd heard that some do that. Yes...she was complaining that a travel agent didn't shower her daughter with gifts paid for out of their own pocket.)

I just think that logistically, Disney is expecting to be able to deliver a particular kind of experience, but Disney's own guests are very likely going to force that experience to need to be way more organized and led than the guests really want because they just can't help themselves. I really hope I'm wrong, and that guests behave the way they should when involved in a LARP-like experience, but I have doubts. (For the record, I love any excuse to get into costume and roleplay...my first time going to a Renaissance Fair was in the 80s...to say I've dropped some cash on costume pieces would be putting it lightly.)
I'd honestly mark these persons to never receive any gifts.
If they feel entitled to have them, they are not worth giving gifts nor surprises worth sharing.
 
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GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
for kids it will all be about what they had to watch vs what they got to do.
50 / 50 on kids because the spectrum of attention, curiosity and imagination spans are soooo broad. Adults (grow out of) forget what seeing and experiencing things as a child is. One thing is for sure that parents / grandparents that drop serious credits for this experience will not be pleased by anything Disney does if the littles are disappointed and unhappy. The word will get out, a voluminous chunk of fans / guests will go elsewhere to get their SW fix and the Halcyon will detonate like the Death Star.
 

Communicora

Premium Member
Why are we getting bent out of shape about a scenario we don't even know will happen? This all started out of worries that kids would be making the jump to hyperspace all day and night and now people are upset that only one kid will get to do it and every other kid will melt down.
 

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
Why are we getting bent out of shape about a scenario we don't even know will happen? This all started out of worries that kids would be making the jump to hyperspace all day and night and now people are upset that only one kid will get to do it and every other kid will melt down.
If you'd read my post, it's NOT the kids I'm worried about. There's a large portion of adult Disney guests that are a special kind of entitled.
 

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
Why are we getting bent out of shape about a scenario we don't even know will happen? This all started out of worries that kids would be making the jump to hyperspace all day and night and now people are upset that only one kid will get to do it and every other kid will melt down.
Because making mountains out of molehills is something we are very good at doing on these threads 😎
 

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
Because making mountains out of molehills is something we are very good at doing on these threads 😎
1637773309164.png
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
The more I think about it, I realize something: the Galactic Starcruiser is to be taken for what it is: a hotel that simulates a Star Wars cruise.

You're still trying to force this...

Does everything you list still happen the same if it were a one day thing you didn't stay over in? YES Stop trying to make the tail wag the dog.

This is a multi-day Star Wars experience that includes lodging and dining. It's a cruise that doesn't go anywhere... just like a riverboat casino isn't a boat that simulates a casino... it's a casino on a boat. This is a star wars overnight experience in a box that pretends to be a starship.
 

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