Star Wars All-Inclusive "Star Ship" Resort?

[tk924]

The pricing isn't out of line with other offerings if you add up the huge amount of amenities. People pay $2000 for a good package at D23 and they sell out in minutes.

The pricing might not be out of line for you but it is for a lot of others who might want to enjoy this experience.
Still, I'd love to see it built even though I could probably never experience it.

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[flynnibus]

I'm confused on how the pricing would work. So, let's say it's $1,000 per person across the board. Does each person get their own room, even if they came with family? Or is it $1,000 per person regardless of how many people are staying in each room? Because technically, friends can normally all stay in one room to save on a trip under normal circumstances, and families pay the same rate for a room that a couple does. Does this make sense? With this deal, sounds like everyone could get their own room if they wanted - we could take up four rooms instead of one!

You're overthinking it. It's just like a cruise line. The room will cost you a minimum amount.. then you incrementally add based on the people assigned to the room.. and the room is capped at 4 people.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Hey, I was being sincere. I want more SW lands (that should have been the plan from the start) and a more standard SW hotel. If this LARP thingy is instead of one of those, I shake my fist impotently at it.

And over-milking (that sounds unpleasant) can be a problem if it turns your audience against a property - I think Frozen has hit that point. Managing one of these big franchises isn't easy, and if we exclude the theme parks (where they are oddly incompetent) Disney has been excellent at it with SW and particularly Marvel.

Disney largely is just giving people what they want. Think about it objectively. When Frozen's music comes on, does it NOT get cheers and screams from all the little girls that still love the movie and are hearing it for the millionth time?

Don't confuse you being sick of it with their target audience being sick of it.

As far as Star Wars, there had not been movie since Revenge of the Sith (Around 10 years ago) until Force Awakens. People are loving the Star Wars stuff or Disney would stop pushing it. It's working.

 

[flynnibus]

That's where I stopped reading.
Good grief. Every time I read something like this it brings to mind the quote from Jurassic Park:
"And we can charge anything we want, 2,000 a day, 10,000 a day, and people will pay it."
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A DCL 7 day cruise is more than 1k per person.

The point of things is you are paying for a total experience, not just a room, etc. The blog rip of the survey loses that presentation element

 

[Chef Mickey]

Nah, the rooms at those hotels are grossly overpriced by almost any metric.

Look at it this way - they were expensive but reasonable for what they were back in the 90s. Now - look how the prices have skyrocketed ahead of inflation and ask whether improvements in the MK (or in the hotels themselves) have warranted those price increases. The modern prices are insulting.

Now, the Universal hotels... nah, back to Star Wars.

What's gonna happen when people want to bring their own costumes? And are they going to get annoyed if I wear my Hufflepuff robes and keep looking for Voldemort? ("Sir, please stop asking that droid when Mr. Spock is going to show up with the One Ring")

I disagree. You may think location doesn't matter, but it does, particularly with current demand for Disney Parks. Back in the 90s, WDW didn't have the crowds of today. It's supply and demand. People pay current prices and they are still booked.

Disney is more popular than ever and they pretty much can do whatever they want with pricing. They are probably going to increase costs even more to control demand.

Arguing that the improvements have been lacking is a separate issue that I actually agree with almost entirely. It doesn't mean Disney World is awful now...but it means they could have improved a lot more than they have. However, I'm still perfectly happy to pay the prices of today.

 

[flynnibus]

I agree.

Also, several posters keep mentioning a cost benefit of it including a "DHS ticket". I'm very very doubtful this experience would include a "DHS day"- and why would anyone want it to? If you're paying for full immersion- does Disney (or do you) really want to leave Star Wars land to ride TSMM? Talk about a massive break in immersion.

The pitch is you top off your experience with a visit to the SWL with 'exclusive' extras that normal park goers don't get. So it's not about visiting SWL as part of the story, as much as your de-embarcation day thing, etc.

The idea is you get extra perks for SWL as part of your stay.

 

[flynnibus]

As far as Star Wars, there hasn't been movie since Revenge of the Sith (Around 10 years ago)

 

[Chef Mickey]

I clearly meant before Force Awakens. I'll edit so it's clearer.

 

[larandtra]

I dont see them doing this if they already have not determined it is a win for them, as well as the guests to a smaller extent. I usually stay at Mods for longer trips and on weekend trips Ill use the AP specials and grab a deluxe resort just to try them out. I would probably be willing to add this to one of the longer stays at a Mod resort just to try it and see how much fun it is. It would not be a yearly thing, maybe once and if I like it every couple of years or so. But, since Ive got APs and am not buying park tickets all the time, for the number of days we go in a year, this economically would be doable now and then. ist sort of like we add at least one tour on each longer trip now because it is doable since we have APs. I know this is not feasible for everyone and as some have said, Disney doesnt build or create every experience and make it accessible to everyone. They cater to every price range as much as they can. I think this is actually a shot across the bow to universal that will have a ripple effect if they can pull it off well. With Pandora, Star Wars experience, Toy Story land ( which I hope evolves to Pixar land at some point), reimagine of Epcot, and fixes at MK, it seems the parks have finally become a priority now that the Movie Studios arm ( which is what the company is about anyway) are back to what they once were and making more money. Its more money to reinvest in another branch of the company to make it more successful.

 

[danlb_2000]

As far as Star Wars, there had not been movie since Revenge of the Sith (Around 10 years ago) until Force Awakens..

 

[flynnibus]

While this sort of thing doesn't appeal to me, I too, am thinking the price point is a bit low. $500/night/pp all-inclusive is a really good price if it is anywhere close to "luxury".

Based on the info I had... I think this is the extreme low end. Trust me, Disney was pushing people based on the idea of knowing your baseline is a Deluxe Property Stay, with Dining Plan, and Tickets. That was their STARTING point... now how much more would you pay for this SW experience? And the impression I got was... they were hoping people would be paying multiple thousands per person.

 

[flynnibus]

The more I read about this, the more skeptical I become. I'm not sure whether I'm skeptical of the rumor or if I believe the rumor but I'm skeptical of how it's going to work out.

It doesn't seem like this type of thing fits with a Walt Disney World vacation. It seems like this experience would be very intensive for two days, meaning there's not a lot of time to do anything else. What's Disney's plan to capture those guests for the rest of the week so this doesn't become a bunch of people downgrading from a six night trip to a two night trip? I don't think they can bank on people doing this PLUS another four nights at a "normal" resort to complete a week. I get that the margins are better on this "premium" experience, but even if they're getting a much higher per capita room rate, they're losing four days of food and beverage, merch, parking, and theme park tickets.

It's not a rumor at all. It's only a question of what Disney ultimately commits to executing on. The things in the blog post come directly from Disney's pitch. The ideas are pretty well developed and not just 'blue sky' 'what if...' kind of postulations. There is alot more concept art and media beyond what you see in that blog post.

This is not a 'every person does it' kind of experience. This is a high end, individualized experience. This is something you do INSTEAD of your normal WDW pattern for these days. That's why it's important for Disney to address exactly what you said... that they don't trade this FOR their WDW vacation.. and how this impacts your total visit to WDW.

The analogy to the Land&Sea cruises fits here very well.. and Disney does gangbusters with that.

 

[flynnibus]

Even then.

Animal Kingdom Lodge, 8 nights @ $500 per night = $4,000
Star Wars, 2 nights @ $1,000 per night plus Pop Century, 6 nights @ $175 per night = $3,050 PLUS they have to feed me for two nights

They don't win on this. They're going to cannibalize their own Deluxe Resort guests, and this analysis doesn't even consider the people who skip the rest of the trip entirely due to the high cost of the Star Wars experience. Incremental revenue would need to be made up with people who weren't going to visit at all but are drawn to Orlando specifically for the Star Wars thing, but Disney doesn't have anywhere to put those people. Resorts are at 90%+ occupancy, meaning there's no availability for the Star Wars guests to stay once their Star Wars experience is done.

.. and this is why people need to get the $500 number out of their mind... that isn't really what they are pitching.

 

[rushtest4echo]

Based on the info I had... I think this is the extreme low end. Trust me, Disney was pushing people based on the idea of knowing your baseline is a Deluxe Property Stay, with Dining Plan, and Tickets. That was their STARTING point... now how much more would you pay for this SW experience? And the impression I got was... they were hoping people would be paying multiple thousands per person.

Some people still don't seem to understand the concept that companies (ESPECIALLY IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY) will charge what the market will bear, and when there's massive pent up demand for something, not everyone will be able to afford such a limited supply offering.

WDW vacation in the first place is a limited supply offering. As is Harry Potter land. I've talked to so many people who said "I spent thousands to get to Orlando and see Potter land. I didn't ride anything else around either of the parks but I spent 2 or 3 days just doing Harry Potter stuff and it was the best experience of my life!" I'm pretty sure Disney can tap into those same guests for Star Wars (like they used to with the Weekends). There are plenty of people who will pay through the nose for this and not even visit other offerings around WDW.

It's not about making it palatable for everyone, or even most people. It's an exclusive experience that they'll have no trouble filling at the prices they're charging.

People seem fixated on "well the average family can't afford it" or "well I'm not paying that" or "that's too expensive". Does anyone here honestly believe that Disney can't fill a Star Wars hotel with 500 rooms for 187 "stays" (2 nights each)? If it's 3 to a room (which is typical) then they'll be serving about 1,500 people X 187 days, or 280,000 people. Magic Kingdom attracts 20 million visitors, so only 1.5% of those visits would be needed. Even if you count half of MK's visits as locals/AP's, that's still only 3% of the people needed to fill the hotel for the year. I can pretty much guarantee that they could get more than 3% of MK's daily attendance (50,000+) to pay those prices every single day to stay at a Star Wars hotel.

Quite honestly, I feel like plenty of people would be willing to drop close to $1000 a night to stay at a boutique Star Wars hotel with a 2 day story and interactive experiences without it being at WDW and attached to a Star Wars land.

 

[Kamikaze]

I just think this answers the wrong "problem." With current occupancy rates where they are, I think Disney needs volume, i.e. heads-in-beds.

This wouldn't be to answer that, though. This would be for Star Wars fans.
They can build other things for high occupancy.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Yourself.

There were 10 years between full motion Star Wars movies. Force Awakens is Episode 7, 10 years after Episode III.

That means 10 years between Star Wars crazed fans getting a movie.

 

[flynnibus]

yeah but they are creating a boutique experience...it is not aimed at the average family at all...but those with the income available to do something like this...

This x1000

The way people are introduced to this via the blog post is blowing this up in all the wrong directions because people are seeing bits and not seeing the whole story. It's ashame really... because if you all watched the actual pitch you'd be like..

And you'd figure out how to pay for it afterwards. Instead you all are comparing to your hotel stays, line item comparisons, etc.

This is going to be priced as a destination adventure... the variable is how many people are in your party and fitting into rooms that are a max of 4 people. The four people thing was interesting.. which almost made me think they were planning on reworking an existing value property. But the 4 people thing could also have just been a normalizing factor to make the pricing discussion more uniform in the survey.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

@flynnibus since you seem to know what's up... What's the feeling on how this would integrate kids? Would the whole thing be kid-friendly? Would there be different experiences for kids and adults?

 

[flynnibus]

It's not about making it palatable for everyone, or even most people. It's an exclusive experience that they'll have no trouble filling at the prices they're charging.

Yup.. and why I keep making analogies to things like DCL... Discovery Cove.. etc.

These are all "its pricey, but you'll get your value" propositions that are aimed at being dedicated experiences. This is not a hotel. This is not a dinner+show... this is "How would you like to go live in the SW universe for three days?"

 

[flynnibus]

@flynnibus since you seem to know what's up... What's the feeling on how this would integrate kids? Would the whole thing be kid-friendly? Would there be different experiences for kids and adults?

Kids were certainly covered. The pitch was inclusive of experiences that would cover both kid and family. Now, will there be LARPing for 30+ somethings that want to explore the dark side of the EU? I doubt that

I interpreted it as they wanted to include elements I would say are your dress-up boutiques like BBB in the parks.. self-paced exploration like you have with current examples like the Socorors/Muppet Detectives games... and role playing/interaction with live actors. But things like dinner theater are a options that typically are a bit more older focused

The pitch was not exclusive to a certain age demo, but looked to be inclusive. That was another one of my concerns... how to appeal to everyone without it just being 'watch my kid in the jedi academy show'