October 2025 Price Increases

[LittleBuford]

I was told that they knew on Day 1 that it would never be profitable at the prices they'd set. I'm not sure how much of that is "Hollywood Accounting" and how much of it is just paying for the sheer number of on-stage and on-call equity performers.

Remember this was in March 2022, so early post-COVID. I heard they had 2 sets of performers on-site and ready to go for any role. A third set was on-site but physically isolated from the primary 2 groups. And a fourth group was on-call at home. For every cruise. That's a LOT of overhead.

So why did it even open? A couple of ideas:

1. The accounting realization came too late to cancel and refund the bookings.
2. Nobody wanted to take the PR hit.
3. They thought they'd learn something for future concepts. I think I've said before they were play-testing the Haunted Mansion concept with real sets on a soundstage. The one I know of specifically was interacting with Madam Leota's crystal ball to solve a puzzle. I have a blurrycam image here somewhere, if I can remember which IMG_1234.JPG file it is.

Was lowering the cost really not an option they seriously considered? They still could have kept it very expensive, just not quite as expensive as it was.

 

[monothingie]

I was told that they knew on Day 1 that it would never be profitable at the prices they'd set. I'm not sure how much of that is "Hollywood Accounting" and how much of it is just paying for the sheer number of on-stage and on-call equity performers.

Remember this was in March 2022, so early post-COVID. I heard they had 2 sets of performers on-site and ready to go for any role. A third set was on-site but physically isolated from the primary 2 groups. And a fourth group was on-call at home. For every cruise. That's a LOT of overhead.

So why did it even open? A couple of ideas:

1. The accounting realization came too late to cancel and refund the bookings.
2. Nobody wanted to take the PR hit.
3. They thought they'd learn something for future concepts. I think I've said before they were play-testing the Haunted Mansion concept with real sets on a soundstage. The one I know of specifically was interacting with Madam Leota's crystal ball to solve a puzzle. I have a blurrycam image here somewhere, if I can remember which IMG_1234.JPG file it is.

4. Disney will never publicly admit or show they're wrong.

 

[monothingie]

I believe Disney when they say guests gave it the highest satisfaction scores in the history of WDW. I saw an internal memo that said more than 80% of guests rated it Excellent (or whatever the highest rating was). That number supposedly went up as it got closer to closing.

Small quantity of hardcore fans. They would probably rate it excellent if the entire experience was them thrown into real life Sarlacc Pit or had to spend the entire time with Jar-Jar Binks.

 

[lentesta]

Was lowering the cost really not an option they seriously considered? They still could have kept it very expensive, just not quite as expensive as it was.

Not sure. The number of rooms was fixed at 100 so lowering the price might not have helped enough.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Are you implying that ALL Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inns offer “Free” breakfast?

Just express as part of their “branding”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Small quantity of hardcore fans. They would probably rate it excellent if the entire experience was them thrown into real life Sarlacc Pit or had to spend the entire time with Jar-Jar Binks.

That’s the logical take on it

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not sure. The number of rooms was fixed at 100 so lowering the price might not have helped enough.

My guess is that they could neither lower nor raise the price…for different reasons…-and that’s why it got the hook like on the gong show

 

[Tom P.]

I will remain ever curious why there wasn't an attempt to rework the startcruiser dealliebobamajig. Although I admittedly don't have a clue what I'm talking about, in this case or any other, I think beyond the absurd price, it just took up too many precious vacation hours. I get it was meant to be incredibly immersive; there has to be a way to make immersion less time-consuming, which would allow Di$ to lower the operational costs and pass those savings on to consumers, as they're so well known for doing. To just walk away from that investment, leaving it abandoned for all intents and purposes seems irrational.

I wonder how much of a market there is for that level of "immersion" to begin with. I get that I was not the target market for this particular product, being a casual Star Wars fan and not a hardcore devotee, but the immersion actually made me less likely to do it. I want a nice, entertaining experience during the day and then I want to come back to my completely unrelated, non-immersive hotel at night and unwind. I don't want to be surrounded by people playing characters when I want to call the front desk for some extra towels. Being involved in a fantasy environment and storyline 24/7 during a trip just doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.

(For the record, I am a rabid Star Trek fan, and if this were Trek-themed and offering to spend three days, 24 hours a day aboard the Enterprise, I still wouldn't be interested.)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I was told that they knew on Day 1 that it would never be profitable at the prices they'd set. I'm not sure how much of that is "Hollywood Accounting" and how much of it is just paying for the sheer number of on-stage and on-call equity performers.

Remember this was in March 2022, so early post-COVID. I heard they had 2 sets of performers on-site and ready to go for any role. A third set was on-site but physically isolated from the primary 2 groups. And a fourth group was on-call at home. For every cruise. That's a LOT of overhead.

So why did it even open? A couple of ideas:

1. The accounting realization came too late to cancel and refund the bookings.
2. Nobody wanted to take the PR hit.
3. They thought they'd learn something for future concepts. I think I've said before they were play-testing the Haunted Mansion concept with real sets on a soundstage. The one I know of specifically was interacting with Madam Leota's crystal ball to solve a puzzle. I have a blurrycam image here somewhere, if I can remember which IMG_1234.JPG file it is.

Well allow me to adjust my tinfoil on this one…

Could they have run this as a loss leader? Absolutely…just to instill their “brand supremacy”

So why didn’t they? I bet this was a disaster control move in the C suite…and it wasn’t about money.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Small quantity of hardcore fans. They would probably rate it excellent if the entire experience was them thrown into real life Sarlacc Pit or had to spend the entire time with Jar-Jar Binks.

Heard a “Trash Compactor Experience” was in the original plans. They could’ve solved the overflowing garbage can problem in the parks and transported it by box truck space transport.

 

[Tom P.]

So why didn’t they? I bet this was a disaster control move in the C suite…and it wasn’t about money.

What was it about?

 

[monothingie]

Heard a “Trash Compactor Experience” was in the original plans. They could’ve solved the overflowing garbage can problem in the parks and transported it by box truck space transport.

You had me at Bob at squeezing the money out of people.

 

[monothingie]

Well allow me to adjust my tinfoil on this one…

Could they have run this as a loss leader? Absolutely…just to instill their “brand supremacy”

So why didn’t they? I bet this was a disaster control move in the C suite…and it wasn’t about money.

They couldn’t even fill it at the end with discounts.

In actuality the way the Star Wars brand has crashed and burned in the past three years, closing this thing was probably the best foresight either knowingly or unknowingly that the brain trust in Burbank ever had.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

They couldn’t even fill it at the end with discounts.

In actuality the way, the Star Wars brand has crashed and burned in the past three years, closing this thing was probably the best foresight either knowingly or unknowingly that the brain trust in Burbank ever had.

You know what’s really telling? That after it closed nobody even thought about sneaking in. The way they would a River Country or Discovery Island. It was like: “Nah. We’re good”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What was it about?

I think it would have been completely empty…which is was undoubtedly trending to…and been the embodiment of how they all but destroyed the Appeal of IP genius bobs “masterpiece” $4,000,000,000 buy…

Every day…spun in SM and the source of scorn and ridicule. They couldn’t allow that to happen. So that’s why it was shut so fast. Smart move…in a way the only smart one here. They should have razed it though…huge mistake.

But anyway…been watching this Star Wars phenomenon for a bit…since it’s book of genesis…
And though I don’t think about it as much now (that’s a problem)…I think they might be looking at Waterloo with this Mandolorian thing? It best be better than that awful trailer or this may be the their final shot at regaining relevancy.

And though I tend to be a harbinger of destruction in everything…Star Wars was one of the weird exceptions

I never would have said that when Disney bought…10 years ago…or even 5 ago after they brutally and obviously tanked the sequels (most anticipated in Hollywood history)…

Something really seems different now…finality on the horizon? For the first time ever I doubt Star Wars resiliency…which has always been right up there with its parent corp’s now.

They might be at the edge…

Does that seem logical? As our Vulcan friend would ask?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Heard a “Trash Compactor Experience” was in the original plans. They could’ve solved the overflowing garbage can problem in the parks and transported it by box truck space transport.

Do you seriously doubt more of the diehards would have shelled out for that as opposed to the blue lady line dancing?

I don’t at all

 

[MrPromey]

Are you implying that ALL Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inns offer “Free” breakfast?

I retract my previous statement about you.

You may be a scholar but you, sir, are no gentleman.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

They couldn’t even fill it at the end with discounts.

In actuality the way, the Star Wars brand has crashed and burned in the past three years, closing this thing was probably the best foresight either knowingly or unknowingly that the brain trust in Burbank ever had.

Exactly my point…

This embarrassment is just the trailer before the real disaster that has unfolded

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Do you seriously doubt more of the diehards would have shelled out for that as opposed to the blue lady line dancing?

I don’t at all

Once Obi Wan D’Amaro made his entrance I knew things were about to get interesting.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Once Obi Wan D’Amaro made his entrance I knew things were about to get interesting.

Standard big shot Bobby puppet with no future