A new permit was filed with the FDEP last week that contains some exciting new details about this hotel and answers some the hotly debated questions about its layout, number of rooms and how transportation will work. I wrote a little article about it, and I hope it's okay to link to it here. I'll also provide most of the interesting details so you don't have to leave WDWMagic to get the scoop:
https://www.californiacoasterkings.com/new-permit-reveals-star-wars-hotel-details/
The first thing to keep in mind is that these are 50% Design Development drawings from the Site Development package, so there's a good chance that things could change as the drawings are finalized - but they definitely paint a much clearer picture of the resort than we've seen before.
Another fun tidbit is that this is, I think, the first official reference to the "H" in Project H standing for "Hubble":
Starting with the arrival experience, it looks like you'll be processed through security as soon as you arrive. I'd imagine this whole area will be themed to futuristic type of airport/space port, so all the security can easily be heavily themed and explained away as part of the departure experience of leaving Earth. After security it looks like you'll go through a series of rooms with show elements including the "elevator" that takes you to the ship. It'll be interesting to see if the elevator takes guests staying on the second floor up one level and through a duplicate set of the post-elevator rooms, or if it'll just dump everyone out on the same level, à la the Hydrolators.
After that you're out in the ship. The first level contains a Table Service Restaurant, a Buffet, the Brig, an Engineering Room and a Dojo, as well as access to the Transportation Hall - more on that later. The Dojo has a mechanical room attached to it, so there's likely going to be some kind of show elements involved here, maybe something like The Jedi Training Academy? No idea what the Engineering room could be for, and I love the idea of the ship having a Brig - could be some fun storylines involving that!
The Cabin area is next, and according to these plans there are 34 cabins on the first level, with 32 of them being standard sized and 2 of them being larger 1st Class Cabins. If this same layout is mirrored on the second level, then this hotel might only have 68 guest rooms! Although, I'd imagine there will be more guest rooms on the second level occupying the space taken up by the arrival area and the large BOH F&B offices/kitchen on the first floor. But even at that, they'll probably only be able to squeeze in an additional 20-30 rooms, putting the possible total at under 100 rooms.
Last but not least is the Transportation area. It should come as no surprise that shuttle buses will be used to get guests to and from the park, but it looks like the boarding experience will at least be neat, with a jet bridge/gangway that attaches to the side of the shuttle. If guests staying at this resort will be allowed to venture off to any of the other parks during their Star Wars experience, it definitely won't be via this transportation area, as it looks like it'll only accommodate the special buses for this hotel.
Anyway, that's pretty much it for my commentary. I'm sure you all will dig through these images and find other cool stuff to talk and speculate about. I can't wait to see how this whole project pans out!
