News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[TP2000]

Never seen a worse take on the Starcruiser than this. It was absolutely a premium product, not sure what you are on about.

We may have vastly different expectations for what "premium product" means.

I'm not seeing "premium" in anything related to the Starcruiser experience, at the similar price points of a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton premium experience. And for truly world-class premium corporate hospitality experiences like you would find at an Aman property or a Belmond experience?.... Heck no.

The Starcruiser experience was "premium" if you consider the concierge lounge in your average airport Hilton to be "premium". But if that's your standard for "premium", no wonder the Starcruiser failed so spectacularly with its audience who could afford it. They'd likely stayed at a Four Seaons before, or flown at least Business Class a few times on Air France or Singapore Airlines, and traveled overseas and done some expensive swanky things in cities like London or Tokyo, and thus knew what that price point actually should have gotten them for something labeled "premium".

But the most troublesome thing in that CNBC interview is that Josh didn't say that, and instead blamed his customers for not getting his team's failed vision of pricy mediocrity.

 

[TP2000]

Remember, as soon as they announced it was closing and people couldn't wait until they saved up enough money, it sold out with no more discounts until closure.

Not exactly. As soon as they announced it was closing, they went down to a 5 day per week operation and closed 2 days per week from June through September of '23. Then they limited the staffing to a one-seating dinner operation and cancelled the second dinner seating to limit the staff levels with the lowered part-time demand.

That's how it "sold out" for its final few months last summer; by immediately slashing operating days at 50% capacity.

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser reservations reopen for the final voyages ahead of its permanent closure

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser reservations reopen for the final voyages ahead of its permanent closure

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Nunu]

With even a nod to me at the bar with a martini in my hand.

 

[TP2000]

I agree with D'marro that the concept showed an ambitious side of Imagineering and some innovative ideas. I disagree that the problem was the public not getting the concept. The problem was that it was just waaaay too expensive for the average guest who isn't a die-hard Star Wars nerd. I think a lot of the concepts for Galatic Starcruiser would have been better suited for a Galaxy's Edge expansion.

Agreed.

I can be gracious and say that the physical facility was about 85% of the way there. The bridge needed some help so it looked less like it was built by Fisher Price. And the Crown of Corellia Dining Room needed to be plussed up desperately, with at least a couple of windows looking out into space and a more luxurious decor, but overall the ship was just about there from a physical set standpoint. And that stuff could have been easily fixed.

What was absolutely a cheap-out and example of tacky executive leadership was the lackluster training and management of the CM's, their downscale dental hygienist uniforms, the lack of detailing in presentations and aesthetics. The end result wasn't Star Wars, it was perky college program kids using 2020's American slang and phrasing to lead chintzy group activities that were jarringly contemporary instead of immersively fictional. And where were the roaming droids?

Just like Bob Chapek cancelling all the planned entertainment and characters and showmanship for Galaxy's Edge, and then telling us with a straight face that the 19 year old snack bar CM will be "pulling us into their story" instead and we'll like it just as much as professional entertainment.... the Galactic Starcruiser appeared to do the exact same visionless and cheap-butt thing and make the perky girl leading line dancing try to carry the Star Wars story without giving her proper training or proper front-line management or proper investment in her role to pull it off.

And now, Josh D'Amaro rewrites history and tells us it's our fault as customers for not getting it?!? Classic.

 

[TP2000]

View attachment 777935

Someone in Glendale has been spying on me. They should've just come over and introduced themselves, and I'd have bought them a drink.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

and the public didn't want to spend what that costs to do.

They could have priced it lower and still turned a profit, it just would have taken longer to do so. The pricing was outrageous.

 

[celluloid]

That’s one of the nicest looking retirement home cafeterias I have seen in a while.

Dining in the extended queue aesthetic of Body Wars.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I'm so glad this thread could be brought back so that people who didn't experience this can continue to judge it based on selective photos and videos taken out of context.

Yet again, ignoring the fact that guest feedback on this was actually positive.

 

[celluloid]

I'm so glad this thread could be brought back so that people who didn't experience this can continue to judge it based on selective photos and videos taken out of context.

Yet again, ignoring the fact that guest feedback on this was actually positive.

How do you take the lightly themed dining area out of context?

If people liked it, but not enough were booking under regular or discounted rates, why not lower the pricing?

At the end of the day, not enough people liked it or saw value in it.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I'm so glad this thread could be brought back so that people who didn't experience this can continue to judge it based on selective photos and videos taken out of context.

Yet again, ignoring the fact that guest feedback on this was actually positive.

This thing didn’t fail because it sucked (I agree, it didn’t, GSAT’s were good!) . This thing failed because the price point was outrageous. It entered a death spiral because Disney refused to lower the pricing (and extend the time it would take to make back it’s investment), and instead kept the pricing too high, which in turn caused less and less people to book it, which caused Disney to cancel cruises, until it finally died. It’s an object lesson in pure greed. Staff salaries (the largest ongoing expense) are just not so high that they couldn’t have accomplished this at a lower price point.

 

[yensid67]

No, the PROBLEM is the clueless executives that are in charge of VITAL segments of the Disney Company!
How long will it be until we start stating up to Disney and say NO MORE!? If guests don't voice their concerns the Parks are taking...High ticket prices, Having to buy Genei+ once you paid an admission fee of $150-$200.00. If we don't start to take a stand and say no more and STOP GOING...they will get the message eventually...hopefully.
The way things are going, Disney Parks will be only achievable for the rich! I think even they will get bored with Disney at some point.

 

[Cliff]

OK,..two scenarios:

1.) Josh is lying. He KNOWS this entire project was a terrible idea built on a bad business model from day one. Josh knows "Disney" was the problem and that it just was NOT worth it for the price....something a zillion people screamed at Disney before this thing ever opened. Josh is only lying to save face and that is OK and understandable.

2.) Josh sincerely and honestly believes in his heart all the things he says.....which, if true?.....is horrifyingly out of touch with Disney's customers! Josh cannot be THAT oblivious and clueless to the market.

Talk about "over-believing" in yourself!!

I'm HOPING that Josh is lying and not being honest at all!...that would make me feel a lot better for the future. Scenerio #2 is just too scary.

 

[EeyoreFan#24]

I guess my dumb self with my stupid money unable to understand their marketing is a huge problem for me!

Oh wait that’s not it. I still have my dumb money and not a super smart giant star wars themed storage shed.

But in all seriousness, it’s not our job to try to understand your product. It theirs to make us understand it. I thought I saw a number of $6000 for a marketing campaign, which I have no way of verifying, but if that’s true their marketing effort was basically scraping up the loose change off the floor of the finance office in terms of corporate budgets. I’m guessing that figure is low, but whatever it was didn’t do the trick obviously.

And way too expensive to sustain.

 

[donaldtoo]

Josh D'Amaro just went on CNBC this weekend to explain that the reason Galactic Starcruiser was a giant failure was because the customers simply didn't understand it. We were all simply too stupid to understand their vision and their brilliance with the Galactic Starcruiser.

“It was difficult to explain to the public. I think it was incredibly brave for us to move into this space. And this, to me, says Imagineering is still at its best today.” - Josh D'Amaro discussing Galactic Starcruiser on CNBC, April 7th 2024

If only we understood it all. If only we listened to them, and rewatched the marketing videos with Ann Morrow and that young man from The Goldbergs several more times, we could have understood their brilliance and Imagineering prowess.

It's not them, it's us. We're the problem. Let's just hope that Mr. D'Amaro and the WDI team gives us all a second chance to redeem ourselves. Can all of us lifelong Disney fans please commit to trying harder? We owe it to them, apparently.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/07/disney-parks-are-its-top-money-maker-its-spending-to-keep-it-that-way.html

 

[donaldtoo]

had nothing to do with the cost, right Josh? lol

Josh is a “Guest Shamer”.

 

[donaldtoo]

Cool. Just like how we were all too stupid to understand Lightyear.

No dumb ideas, just dumb audiences, apparently.

Yes, us great, unwashed masses are too stupid to understand their grand brilliance.
I guess they need to dumb everything down for us, yet again.
Oh…..wait……. Never mind…

 

[donaldtoo]

He needs to go into D23 Expo this summer in Anaheim with guns blazing and bulldozers roaring and make it rain on high quality projects that are shovel ready. No more vague concept art for blue sky ideas that "may" or "might" be "considered" for an American park in "the future".

This interview with CNBC where he blames the customers for his own market failures isn't a good sign that he gets that.

Prove me wrong Mr. D'Amaro, or else just double down and tell us again that we're the problem and we just need to do more homework to understand your team's brilliant Parks concepts.

Simply put, good storytelling doesn’t require explaining or “homework”.

 

[donaldtoo]

Sure, Jan.

For more emphasis…!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

The original artwork and concept idea swung for the fences, I agree with that. With even a nod to me at the bar with a martini in my hand.

But then the reality was far less an over the fence home run, than it was a modest bunt and a single.

These people in the dining room clearly didn't watch the marketing videos with Ann Morrow enough to understand the sheer brilliance of this product. They didn't do their homework! Disney fans, try harder to love the product please.

“Why do we even provide that darn, pesky concept art for Guests to refer back to, dang-darn it…?!?!?! “

 

[donaldtoo]

View attachment 777893

Hopefully, this pic isn’t a foreshadowing of some sort of SSE rework overseen by him that us riff-raff won’t, yet again, get, no matter how hard we try to understand, and how much homework we do…