News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[EPCOT-O.G.]

There are a bunch of available dates, but there could be only one or two spots available on some of those dates.

With that said, there's no way this is performing the way Disney hoped. I know it's expensive (overly so), but they don't have very many rooms to fill. There are much larger regular Disney resorts that don't have any rooms available on some of those dates. They had to be hoping/expecting to see this thing fully sold out 6+ months in advance.

Virtually all of May is available right now. Want to know how bad this is? May the Fourth shows availability.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Virtually all of May is available right now. Want to know how bad this is? May the Fourth shows availability.

Yes, the majority of cruise dates in May have openings. But how many openings?

There are 15 cruise dates in May. That's 1,500 room reservations. How many of those 1,500 are now 'open'? We don't know. At least 12 rooms are free. We don't know how many more.

All the dates in March that had opened due to people backing out before they had to give a non-refundable full payment are now pretty much filled. Now the first half of April is under the gun to pay in full, and at least one reservation per cruise has backed out.

We'll see if that gets filled again like March did. It might not. But it's not the 'avalanche' that a certain unscrupulous blogger calls it. At least, not yet.

 

[jinx8402]

Yes, the majority of cruise dates in May have openings. But how many openings?

There are 15 cruise dates in May. That's 1,500 room reservations. How many of those 1,500 are now 'open'? We don't know. At least 12 rooms are free. We don't know how many more.

All the dates in March that had opened due to people backing out before they had to give a non-refundable full payment are now pretty much filled. Now the first half of April is under the gun to pay in full, and at least one reservation per cruise has backed out.

We'll see if that gets filled again like March did. It might not. But it's not the 'avalanche' that a certain unscrupulous blogger calls it. At least, not yet.

Yeah, i just saw a click bait article come across my Google feed with something a long the lines of 'star wars hotel is only 50% full for months'. And they based the whole article on the stupid availability calendar as if that tells us how many cabins are actually available. A few of us, including you, have repeatedly said we have no idea how many free rooms there are. There isn't a doubt that there are cancellations. There isn't a doubt many of those cancellations are because people don't like what they have seen so far (we have several posters on this board say that). It does seem most cancellations are coming in around 90 days where people have to make final payment.

I do think with how expensive this is, Disney will find it hard to get last minute reservations. this is likely why they want full payment or cancellation by 90 days. If it were the standard 30 days like a hotel, there would be very little chance of filling that cabin. I also don't think Disney would calculate ROI on 100% of rooms being sold. Yes, they probably expected it to be sold out for months, but it won't break them in the long run. As long as they deliver and have positive reviews and good word of mouth (previous promo videos aside, which were bad).

Again, not denying there have been cancellations which may be more than what even Disney expected. But no one has any idea of how full or empty these initial cruises will be except Disney. Anyone suggesting anything else is foolish.

 

[GimpYancIent]

If you listen to some on this thread the criticisms of this place are unwarranted and just complaining by a bunch of online posters. Those same people are not as vigorously defending this thing anymore.

Nah, the criticisms are completely warranted.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Virtually all of May is available right now. Want to know how bad this is? May the Fourth shows availability.

Not surprising.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Yes, the majority of cruise dates in May have openings. But how many openings?

There are 15 cruise dates in May. That's 1,500 room reservations. How many of those 1,500 are now 'open'? We don't know. At least 12 rooms are free. We don't know how many more.

All the dates in March that had opened due to people backing out before they had to give a non-refundable full payment are now pretty much filled. Now the first half of April is under the gun to pay in full, and at least one reservation per cruise has backed out.

We'll see if that gets filled again like March did. It might not. But it's not the 'avalanche' that a certain unscrupulous blogger calls it. At least, not yet.

With only 100 rooms the booking numbers for this venue are not particularly indicative of much right now. Come 1 March and the commencement of operations then a lot of things will come into play. It will be interesting to see how many guests will express buyer's remorse post experience.

 

[TikibirdLand]

With only 100 rooms the booking numbers for this venue are not particularly indicative of much right now. Come 1 March and the commencement of operations then a lot of things will come into play. It will be interesting to see how many guests will express buyer's remorse post experience.

The interesting part of this equation is how many of those are vloggers with complementary vouchers to experience this. I'm totally expecting them to faun over this experience. You've already seen that from the vloggers and "reporters" that got a "preview" earlier last year.

 

[durangojim]

I think one of Disney's big issues lately is that they over hype and under deliver. I love GE but Iger saying that all they need to do is tweet that "it's open" and the crowds will come was one example of Disney's hubris. Chapek's mention about this thing being booked solid for months is another. And the abysmal videos Disney's put out have just been the latest example of them saying how amazing something will be and then showing nothing remotely close. Disney brings a lot of this criticism on itself.

 

[durangojim]

With only 100 rooms the booking numbers for this venue are not particularly indicative of much right now. Come 1 March and the commencement of operations then a lot of things will come into play. It will be interesting to see how many guests will express buyer's remorse post experience.

It'll be more interesting to see how many are willing to express that remorse. If the experience is mediocre I'm guessing many people won't complain too much, but if it is as bad as many on this board think it will be, then I have a feeling we'll hear a lot about how poor it it was.

 

[Incomudro]

I think one of Disney's big issues lately is that they over hype and under deliver. I love GE but Iger saying that all they need to do is tweet that "it's open" and the crowds will come was one example of Disney's hubris. Chapek's mention about this thing being booked solid for months is another. And the abysmal videos Disney's put out have just been the latest example of them saying how amazing something will be and then showing nothing remotely close. Disney brings a lot of this criticism on itself.

They certainly haven't shown us anything that's looked amazing in the promos for the Starcruiser.
They've told us it's amazing.
But there's not a single visual of the actual product that they have provided, which looks amazing.

 

[orion54]

It'll be more interesting to see how many are willing to express that remorse. If the experience is mediocre I'm guessing many people won't complain too much, but if it is as bad as many on this board think it will be, then I have a feeling we'll hear a lot about how poor it it was.

The real question is how many vloggers and free comps did Disney give out for the first few months. The reviews from these vloggers will be "It was awesome!" so they don't lose their status with Disney. I don't expect honest reviews until these vloggers and comp reservations are cleared out. Maybe a April or May is my guess.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Yes, the majority of cruise dates in May have openings. But how many openings?

There are 15 cruise dates in May. That's 1,500 room reservations. How many of those 1,500 are now 'open'? We don't know. At least 12 rooms are free. We don't know how many more.

All the dates in March that had opened due to people backing out before they had to give a non-refundable full payment are now pretty much filled. Now the first half of April is under the gun to pay in full, and at least one reservation per cruise has backed out.

We'll see if that gets filled again like March did. It might not. But it's not the 'avalanche' that a certain unscrupulous blogger calls it. At least, not yet.

This is hair-splitting. The long and short of it that this is absolutely not the calendar Disney expected or wanted to see in January.

 

[GimpYancIent]

I wonder if the adverse reactions would be as intense as they are if the price point was not 6K+ but rather say 1-2K+?

 

[LovePop]

The real question is how many vloggers and free comps did Disney give out for the first few months. The reviews from these vloggers will be "It was awesome!" so they don't lose their status with Disney. I don't expect honest reviews until these vloggers and comp reservations are cleared out. Maybe a April or May is my guess.

I must disagree in the sense that if the vloggers show videos of real scenes of the Starcruiser, the people will see what it is and judge accordingly. The Disney deleted video was gushing about the Starcruiser, but the facts of what people saw was what mattered, nobody listened to the gushing at all, but rather looked at the facts.

 

[TikibirdLand]

I wonder if the adverse reactions would be as intense as they are if the price point was not 6K+ but rather say 1-2K+?

I think so. But, then, you'd be comparing to the Grand Floridian and complaining that there's no pool . I dare say the interiors shown so far really don't live up to even the toned-down GF expectations.

 

[orion54]

I must disagree in the sense that if the vloggers show videos of real scenes of the Starcruiser, the people will see what it is and judge accordingly. The Disney deleted video was gushing about the Starcruiser, but the facts of what people saw was what mattered, nobody listened to the gushing at all, but rather looked at the facts.

I'm not saying what the reaction of the viewers would be. I'm saying the vloggers will be gushing all over it. And I agree, if people see the actual inside or experiences, they can judge for themselves. I think that Disney is prohibiting videos and photos of anything inside though from guests.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

Yes, the majority of cruise dates in May have openings. But how many openings?

There are 15 cruise dates in May. That's 1,500 room reservations. How many of those 1,500 are now 'open'? We don't know. At least 12 rooms are free. We don't know how many more.

The first three+ months were completely sold out, no availability. Now, within that same window of time, a large majority of dates have completely open. There is wide open availability from June onward. What is a more reasonable assumption? That just one cancellation per "cruise" night has occurred? Or that overall reservations are cratering?

We'll see if that gets filled again like March did. It might not. But it's not the 'avalanche' that a certain unscrupulous blogger calls it. At least, not yet.

Try as you might to put the negative focus on one "unscrupulous blogger" all you want, but the reality of these cancellations have caught the attention of large media concerns:

Backlash grows after sneak peeks at Disney's Star Wars hotel

Sneak peeks have fans concerned the luxury Star Wars resort is the latest Disney dud.

www.sfgate.com

"Reservations booked up quickly when the hotel was announced but now, as the 90-day deadline to cancel approaches, people appear to be ducking out of their expensive commitments; a number of openings have begun popping up in March, April and June."

Disney parks were already facing heat from fans. Then an AWS outage came along

As Disney increasingly leans on apps for almost every facet of guest experience, tech problems have a wide-reaching impact on expensive days in the theme parks.

www.cnet.com

"Despite the sticker shock, the experience was fully booked for its first three months when reservations opened in October. But the pendulum started swinging the other way last week when Disney released a video peek at the resort, after which there was an uptick in cancellations. As of Friday, there were 13 voyages with cabins available."

Disney removes video for pricey ‘Star Wars’ hotel amid fan backlash

Disney quietly yanked a video for its new Star Wars-themed hotel that promised an immersive adventure — for more than $1,200 a night — after fans slammed the lodging as subpar and too e…

nypost.com

"Reservations booked up quickly when the hotel was announced, but now, as the 90-day deadline to cancel approaches, customers appear to be canceling their expensive commitments.

According to Disney’s website, a number of openings have begun popping up in March, April and June."

 

[Disstevefan1]

The real question is how many vloggers and free comps did Disney give out for the first few months. The reviews from these vloggers will be "It was awesome!" so they don't lose their status with Disney. I don't expect honest reviews until these vloggers and comp reservations are cleared out. Maybe a April or May is my guess.

Agreed, no matter what folks tell you, there are compensated Disney Influencers, there are told what to do including documented procedures. If you do not follow your orders, you are out, if you give a bad review, you are out, no more free stuff.

That said, I am looking forward to seeing these reviews. It’s the closest thing I am going to get to actually being in the Starcruiser.

 

[Incomudro]

I wonder if the adverse reactions would be as intense as they are if the price point was not 6K+ but rather say 1-2K+?

Less so, for sure.
But Disney has still failed to show us anything good.
Good may be there, I'm sure it is in some capacity. I hope there are amazing things we haven't been shown.
But, even if one were paying 1-2K, what have they shown us for that price?

 

[pdude81]

The first three+ months were completely sold out, no availability. Now, within that same window of time, a large majority of dates have completely open. There is wide open availability from June onward. What is a more reasonable assumption? That just one cancellation per "cruise" night has occurred? Or that overall reservations are cratering?

The more reasonable assumption is that 3-5 bookings are missing (out of 100) as opposed to any "cratering". Otherwise there would be very few sold out excursions.