News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[pdude81]

As big of a fan that I am, i am actually surprised/embarrassed that I never saw this before. This is HORRIBLE. This looks All Star - Wars level dining hall. You're telling me that we all saw the concept art, and they released this? I know the star cruiser got good reviews from the people who were able to try it, but you're telling me they weren't underwhelmed when walking in to THIS cafeteria?!

The quotes you're referencing are a cynical take out of context.

The concept art shows this at night during a concert, and the photo shows it during a lunch buffet when you're actually supposed to be on Batuu. The decorations and set up were not an issue for guests at all during dinner.

 

[celluloid]

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.

One of the reasons Disney is hurting, and going back to sincerity is crucial....

is that audiences are quick to find what is completely genuine faster than ever. Sadly, I think your second point there is quite on the nose. He wanted to/was told to PR it up. But that's not a good practice in the current trends people like. The Imagineering video series just recently put out is closer on the mark. Polished, but more genuine. We don't need to keep hearing buzz words and such either.

 

[TP2000]

As big of a fan that I am, i am actually surprised/embarrassed that I never saw this before. This is HORRIBLE. This looks All Star - Wars level dining hall. You're telling me that we all saw the concept art, and they released this? I know the star cruiser got good reviews from the people who were able to try it, but you're telling me they weren't underwhelmed when walking in to THIS cafeteria?!

In its defense, this was their breakfast and luncheon service look. They just turned on the lights for those two meals and you sat there in this windowless room and ate. Are you not immersed?

The quotes you're referencing are a cynical take out of context.

The concept art shows this at night during a concert, and the photo shows it during a lunch buffet when you're actually supposed to be on Batuu.

Or you could also say... the photo shows it during the daily breakfast service and luncheon buffet that you paid for as part of your 3 meals per day that was included in your $1,200 per-night, per-person Galactic Starcruiser bill.

For their dinner service, when they would have the lounge singer perform, they dimmed the lights and had a tiny stage show with 2 or 3 performers. It looked like this below. It's still nothing like the concept art, and it was obviously cheaped out and cut way back by the time it opened to paying customers, but at least the lighting looked better at dinner.

 

[rd805]

Phew, my immersion is back ! ;o)

 

[TP2000]

I would love to see the list of names of Disney and Lucasfilm creates and executives that evaluated this project as it was being designed:

Column one = List of people who believed this idea was a great one and thought this hotel was going to be a smash hit using sequel trilogy characters. The people who refused to listen to the early warnings.

Column two - List of people who KNEW this was going to bomb and could see it in their crystal ball but were powerless to stop this from moving forward.

I'd give everybody in column two a promotion and a raise and I would have faith in THEIR decision ability on future Star Wars projects. These are the ones who are more in touch with Disney's customers and Star Wars fans.

That's a really good point on all this.

The Galactic Starcruiser was not just a small project using some petty cash to experiment with a new idea on the weekends. It didn't come out of some backwater skunkwerks team of college interns without approval and with no budget.

Instead, the Galactic Starcruiser was planned and tested for years (the months long LARP experiments they did in Disneyland circa 2013-2015 were the first play tests for it), it rolled through all levels of management and design and executive leadership from beginning to end, and it received a large multi-year budget for physical construction and marketing and staffing. It was all vetted and approved for years and years before it opened.

They made it on purpose, and no one had the sense or the authority to say "Uh, gang? Are we sure about this?".

That's a huge problem, especially if in hindsight their executive takeaway from that expensive product failure is that the customers were too stupid to understand it.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I would love to see the list of names of Disney and Lucasfilm creates and executives that evaluated this project as it was being designed:

Column one = List of people who believed this idea was a great one and thought this hotel was going to be a smash hit using sequel trilogy characters. The people who refused to listen to the early warnings.

Column two - List of people who KNEW this was going to bomb and could see it in their crystal ball but were powerless to stop this from moving forward.

I'd give everybody in column two a promotion and a raise and I would have faith in THEIR decision ability on future Star Wars projects. These are the ones who are more in touch with Disney's customers and Star Wars fans.

Nobody can predict when something is going to be a huge hit or a bomb.

If anyone could do this, movies, theme park attractions, books, etc. would all be more successful on average.

It's easy to say "I told you so" from outside and with 20/20 hindsight.

This was an experience that, by all accounts, connected with those who participated in it.

I'd hate to see the lesson from this be, not to take any more risks with themed experiences.

The trick is to look at what works and find a way to deliver it in a way that is more accessible. Attract more guests, make it more affordable, etc.

The alternative is just playing it safe and delivering predictable and repetitive stuff.

 

[Cliff]

It is 100% clear to me that Disney does not understand what "Star Wars" is!

In fact, Disney and Lucasfilm DELIBERETELY hire creatives that are SPECIFICALLY "not" Star Wars fans! If you go for a Disney Lucasfilm creative position and you tell them you are a huge Star Wars fan?...they will kindly tell you that they don't want
"legacy" Star Wars fans in creative positions!

Disney is looking for creatives "outside" of the canon rule books and they don't want their creatives biased by legacy Star Wars!

This insane Disney policy is why Disney Star Wars....DOES NOT FEEL LIKE "Star Wars"!!!

Then Disney wonders why their Star Wars fails...

Josh implying that the hotel was too good for fans to understand...is a MASSIVE attitude problem in Burbank.

Amazing.....absolute hubris and arrogance on Disney's part. They need to get HUMBLE in Burbank....and fast!

 

[celluloid]

I'd hate to see the lesson from this be, not to take any more risks with themed experiences.

The trick is to look at what works and find a way to deliver it in a way that is more accessible. Attract more guests, make it more affordable, etc.

The alternative is just playing it safe and delivering predictable and repetitive stuff.

Well that is the issue. They did give up on it. Leadership saw it as not worth the effort.

 

[Rich Brownn]

You probably think Box office = critical acclaim

I hear that all the time, and I remind people the highest grossing film of 1955 was..... "Cinerama Holiday" LOL

 

[Cliff]

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.

Why is Hollywood culture doing this? There is a big trending belief that:

Our product is amazing, stunning and brave....and if you don't like what we make, the problem is YOU,...not us. YOU are not smart enough to understand it or you are just a bad person, immoral or negatively biased.

Hollywood always blames the "customers" for THEIR mistakes. Josh seems to have fallin' into this common thinking too.

Disney,...the hotel was a flop from the moment it was conceived. Gut HUMBLE and own it....and stop blaming your customers.

When Coca-Cola changed their time-tested formula of Coke and replaced it with "New Coke"...did the company blame their "customers" for hating it? No!,...they said: "Oh crap,...we are wrong and we screwed up. We didn't realize how LOVED our classic formula was BUT we are quickly reverting back to our classic taste...we are so sorry folks!" (not a literal quote)

Coca-Cola didn't say that their customer's taste buds weren't good enough to appreciate how amazing their new formula was. Coca-Cola got HUMBLE and I think Disney and Josh could learn from that kind of thinking.

Believing in yourself is great! But over-believing in yourself and being arrogant is not...

 

[TP2000]

Why is Hollywood culture doing this? There is a big trending belief that:

Our product is amazing, stunning and brave....and if you don't like what we make, the problem is YOU,...not us. YOU are not smart enough to understand it or you are just a bad person, immoral or negatively biased.

Hollywood always blames the "customers" for THEIR mistakes. Josh seems to have fallin' into this common thinking too.

Disney,...the hotel was a flop from the moment it was conceived. Gut HUMBLE and own it....and stop blaming your customers.

When Coca-Cola changed their time-tested formula of Coke and replaced it with "New Coke"...did the company blame their "customers" for hating it? No!,...they said: "Oh crap,...we are wrong and we screwed up. We didn't realize how LOVED our classic formula was BUT we are quickly reverting back to our classic taste...we are so sorry folks!" (not a literal quote)

Coca-Cola didn't say that their customer's taste buds weren't good enough to appreciate how amazing their new formula was. Coca-Cola got HUMBLE and I think Disney and Josh could learn from that kind of thinking.

Believing in yourself is great! But over-believing in yourself and being arrogant is not...

Great analogy with New Coke to Galactic Starcruiser. The Edsel division of Ford Motor Company also comes to mind.

But as you say, those marketplace failures were decades ago, and those companies back then did not blame their customers for their own product failures.

I would argue this new problem of blaming the customers for being morally inferior now goes far beyond Hollywood. This interview with Josh D'Amaro has a few parallels to Bud Light, and their Vice President, the now infamous Alissa Heinerscheid. She publicly stated she didn't like her current customers and wanted to sell her product to new customers who she deemed to be socially more acceptable to her and morally better than her longtime customers she described as "fratty and out of touch". So she hired Dylan Mulvaney to help with that demographic sales shift goal.

The result for Bud Light after Ms. Heinerscheid's executive decisions were about as successful as the Galactic Starcruiser.

It's not just Hollywood any more, it seems to be everywhere in corporate America now. I almost wouldn't be surprised if Boeing execs start blaming passengers from the Midwest instead of the Coasts as the reason their planes are falling apart in mid-air.

 

[pdude81]

Great analogy with New Coke to Galactic Starcruiser. The Edsel division of Ford Motor Company also comes to mind.

But as you say, those marketplace failures were decades ago, and those companies back then did not blame their customers for their own product failures.

I would argue this new problem of blaming the customers for being morally inferior now goes far beyond Hollywood. This interview with Josh D'Amaro has a few parallels to Bud Light, and their Vice President, the now infamous Alissa Heinerscheid. She publicly stated she didn't like her current customers and wanted to sell her product to new customers who she deemed to be socially more acceptable to her and morally better than her longtime customers she described as "fratty and out of touch". So she hired Dylan Mulvaney to help with that demographic sales shift goal.

The result for Bud Light after Ms. Heinerscheid's executive decisions were about as successful as the Galactic Starcruiser.

It's not just Hollywood any more, it seems to be everywhere in corporate America now. I almost wouldn't be surprised if Boeing execs start blaming passengers from the Midwest instead of the Coasts as the reason their planes are falling apart in mid-air.

You still don't get it. This was a niche product with a high cost that needed everything to fire correctly in order for it to exist in perpetuity. When the pricing was announced, many of the detractors said it wouldn't last 6 months. Then it was it wouldn't last a year. Then as soon as every sailing wasn't sold out it was a failure. Ultimately this hotel brought in over 100 million dollars in revenue in it's first year of operation with only 100 rooms.

And lots of people really liked new Coke. I enjoyed it quite a bit when they rebranded as Coke II. The problem was that they took away the product people liked and replaced it with something else. Nobody took away Animal Kingdom lodge and forced you to go on the Starcruiser instead.

New coke would be a great analogy if neither of you ever tried it but kept referencing it as terrible though. At least it would make sense in the context of this discussion.

 

[TP2000]

You still don't get it. This was a niche product with a high cost that needed everything to fire correctly in order for it to exist in perpetuity.

Which they clearely failed at. You can't unsee those perky line dancing lessons in the lobby, like it's an All Star resort.

When the pricing was announced, many of the detractors said it wouldn't last 6 months. Then it was it wouldn't last a year. Then as soon as every sailing wasn't sold out it was a failure. Ultimately this hotel brought in over 100 million dollars in revenue in it's first year of operation with only 100 rooms.

What was the net profit on that revenue? And how much did Disney Parks invest in designing, building, and launching the product since Fiscal Year 2018 for it to briefly exist?

And lots of people really liked new Coke. I enjoyed it quite a bit when they rebranded as Coke II. The problem was that they took away the product people liked and replaced it with something else. Nobody took away Animal Kingdom lodge and forced you to go on the Starcruiser instead.

New coke would be a great analogy if neither of you ever tried it but kept referencing it as terrible though. At least it would make sense in the context of this discussion.

I've mostly been a Pepsi man, although I rarely drink soft drinks anyway. You wanna try an Edsel analogy instead?

This topic resurrected because Josh D'Amaro went on record with a national business media network and said it was the customers who looked into the product but ultimately didn't buy it because they didn't understand the vision for the Galactic Starcruiser. That takes some cojones to blame the customer, but it also raises some serious red flags for what Josh D'Amaro is thinking about the future. It's troubling.

 

[crispy]

Universal's two hotels look more Star Wars than the Galactic Starcruiser. I feel like they are trolling WDW at this point.

 

[Communicora]

Maybe premium is the wrong word, but comparing Starcruiser to a Four Seasons or Ritz does show that you don't understand what it was supposed to be. And that's not your fault, they absolutely didn't know how to advertise it. It wasn't until I listened to a podcast where a guest explained his experience that I really even understood it, and that was after they had announced the closure. On top of that, the number of people who would consider what they were offering worth the money was never going to keep it going for long. It seems it was made for theater kids and improv comics who are also huge Star Wars fans who also have $5k to drop on a 2-night experience. Not a huge number of those and a large percentage of those that exist were probably already working there.

In the end, I think it was a creative and risky attempt at a new experience that the business side just could not figure out how to market or price. But for all the people saying Disney plays it too safe and doesn't try new things, this was absolutely something new and the speed at which it failed showed it wasn't safe. They need to take the lessons from this failing and not let it deter them from taking more chances like this.

Surely it was supposed to be a voyage on a luxury ship. I mean Princess Leia voyaged on it for her honeymoon.

To me, that was also one of the issues. When you think of yourself living in Star Wars you wouldn’t usually think of a luxury experience.

I am glad they tried it. I just wish they’d be more real about why it wasn’t a success.

 

[Cliff]

Surely it was supposed to be a voyage on a luxury ship. I mean Princess Leia voyaged on it for her honeymoon.

To me, that was also one of the issues. When you think of yourself living in Star Wars you wouldn’t usually think of a luxury experience.

I am glad they tried it. I just wish they’d be more real about why it wasn’t a success.

You will rarely see Disney ever admit they were wrong or made a mistake....it's just not in their corporate culture.

Y'know...for the longest time, Disney did not like to even admit that people die in the parks. If paramedics were rushing a body out of Walt Disney World, the company asked them to continue CPR on the body and only log the official time of death only "after" they left Disney property. This is how the company thinks and it's how they believe in themselves.

I strongly believe this strange Disney cult mentality is just as deep in executive management now as it is in the lowly fans.

Disney is hubris and arrogant to absolute extreme levels.

Disney does not fail....it's we, the fans that do.

This is the upper company's creative culture today.... It's FINALLY time for the company to learn how to get HUMBLE now.

 

[MisterPenguin]

“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.

When is "It was difficult to explain to the public"

The same thing as "The public had difficulty understanding"?

 

[TP2000]

When is "It was difficult to explain to the public"

The same thing as "The public had difficulty understanding"?

So you're saying there's a chance the Galactic Starcruiser will reopen, with new marketing?

 

[donaldtoo]

Y'know...for the longest time, Disney did not like to even admit that people die in the parks. If paramedics were rushing a body out of Walt Disney World, the company asked them to continue CPR on the body and only log the official time of death only "after" they left Disney property. This is how the company thinks and it's how they believe in themselves.

That’s it, I’m getting a DNR/DNR order - do not resuscitate/do not remove…until all dead. Chances are it won’t happen in a Disney Park, but it’s worth a shot to possibly become the first person to ever “die” in one…!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

So you're saying there's a chance the Galactic Starcruiser will reopen, with new marketing?