News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[MurphyJoe]

I wonder if they'll make it easy for tourists who typically stay on property to upgrade for 1 or 2 nights out of their 7-21 days. It's something I'd definitely do but as we book through travel agents, you book the whole package.

This is the reason why I'm expecting somesort of package bundle (not using deal this time as it can imply a discount). Disney could implement a time window, similar to restaurants and fastpasses, where only people who are booking a multinight stay can book at this experience. Everyone who's wanting to stay at the SW hotel without a WDW visit gets to book the remaining cabins, if there's any left.

 

[flynnibus]

They're good with cruise/hotel splits...I just wonder if the 1-3 night in the Star Wars hotel upgrade will be a 'thing' that is offered as standard.

Do they offer you a cruise as a standard upgrade?
This is not a simple hotel swap.. but visiting another Disney 'place' on your trip.

 

[flynnibus]

This is the reason why I'm expecting somesort of package bundle (not using deal this time as it can imply a discount). Disney could implement a time window, similar to restaurants and fastpasses, where only people who are booking a multinight stay can book at this experience. Everyone who's wanting to stay at the SW hotel without a WDW visit gets to book the remaining cabins, if there's any left.

Disney doesn't give land/sea bundles any preference today... I don't see why this would be any different. Disney won't have troubles booking this place.. so don't expect any favors for trying to book it.

 

[UpAllNight]

Do they offer you a cruise as a standard upgrade?
This is not a simple hotel swap.. but visiting another Disney 'place' on your trip.

It's not an upgrade no but it's a common booking that is offered with ease....often 7 days at Disney World, 7 day cruise....fly into Miami, cruise then Disney world...fly back from Orlando I believe.

 

[Master Yoda]

No, but they are going to want Johnny AP Holder to know what he's missing.
I'm envisioning the lobby and main gift shop being open to the general public, with enough theming on view to give people a taste of what's there and what the concept is. The immersive stuff will be behind checkpoints scanning magic bands.

It is going to be interesting to see how they deal with that. If I am dropping a grand or more a day, I would not be all that pleased with the resort being wall to wall lookey-loos.

I have a feeling they might do some sort of a common/preview area that is open to the public with an ADR only restaurant.

 

[Maeryk]

Yes, that's exactly the kinds of entertainment you can expect. But not sure what that has to do with the topic of free movement in and out of the place.. which is what we were talking about.

Two points:

1) I don't think it will be much like Adventurer's club. That was a theme bar, if I'm thinking of what you are talking about. This won't be little shows and vignettes you stop at. The whole shebang will be the vignette. Think locked room mystery night, but for two days, or whatever. Once you are inside whatever perimieter they have, it's all organic, themed, and seamless.

2) As far as the perimeter, I could see a check in kiosk where you get your band/key/whatever (or they verify it.. like they do for the pools), and then after that everything is themed. I suspect there will be plenty of multimedia information pumped out for people who want to know what it looks like, but at that cost.. I don't think you are going to be wandering past a gift shop and a traditional hotel lobby.

 

[Maeryk]

It is going to be interesting to see how they deal with that. If I am dropping a grand or more a day, I would not be all that pleased with the resort being wall to wall lookey-loos.

I have a feeling they might do some sort of a common/preview area that is open to the public with an ADR only restaurant.

With what they are charging, and as cynical as I tend to be about Disney.. I doubt you'll be able to get into the restaurant if you aren't staying at the hotel. It's already a super exclusive, super high rent experience. If people want to eat "star wars" they can pony up the dosh to head to the cantina in the park. I doubt anyone is getting into this place without room keys.

 

[habuma]

...it's the Magical Express / Disney Dining Plan model taken to the extreme.

The armchair imagineer in me took that comment and ran with it. What if, for guests arriving at MCO, you board a very Star Wars themed Magical Express bus, possibly wrapped to look like some sort of transport ship. Of course, the driver is also part of the show, dressed in "galaxy-appropriate" attire. The on-ride video and soundtrack suggests that you're on your way to some spaceport near [pick a known Star Wars universe location]. As you leave MCO and get closer to the resort, your windows start to darken (subtly at first) until what you're looking at is video showing that you've left Earth and are now traveling through space. (Obviously, the driver will need to have a clear view of the road, so that might break story...need to think on that some more.) Upon arrival at the resort, the bus pulls into a completely covered area where you disembark in a fully-themed shuttle bay and are escorted inside to check in to your experience by a CM who is wearing appropriately themed attire and may not even be human.

Or maybe you just ride the regular ME bus and get out in the hot Florida sun before entering the resort. Whichever is cheapest.

 

[UpAllNight]

With what they are charging, and as cynical as I tend to be about Disney.. I doubt you'll be able to get into the restaurant if you aren't staying at the hotel. It's already a super exclusive, super high rent experience. If people want to eat "star wars" they can pony up the dosh to head to the cantina in the park. I doubt anyone is getting into this place without room keys.

You can't even get in the Yacht and Beach Club pool without staying at that resort so I agree, there's not a chance Disney are letting anyone in here if they're not paying the dollar!

 

[Master Yoda]

With what they are charging, and as cynical as I tend to be about Disney.. I doubt you'll be able to get into the restaurant if you aren't staying at the hotel. It's already a super exclusive, super high rent experience. If people want to eat "star wars" they can pony up the dosh to head to the cantina in the park. I doubt anyone is getting into this place without room keys.

Disney tends to be non-confrontational turned up to 11 which has me doubting a 100% resort guest only policy for the entire resort. Restaurant...maybe, but I still doubt it.

 

[Maeryk]

You can't even get in the Yacht and Beach Club pool without staying at that resort so I agree, there's not a chance Disney are letting anyone in here if they're not paying the dollar!

You can't get in any of them anymore, without (theoretically) staying at that resort. They are just the only one that does the armbands all the time. Around holidays, Poly, for instance, does the armbands.. and does random band checks as well.

resort pools are for the guests of said resort. That has been the deal for a couple years now. And it's specifically to STOP places like poly, Y&B, GF from being inundated with people from ArtPop who want the nicer pools, without the resort upcharge.

 

[flynnibus]

Two points:

1) I don't think it will be much like Adventurer's club. That was a theme bar, if I'm thinking of what you are talking about. This won't be little shows and vignettes you stop at. The whole shebang will be the vignette. Think locked room mystery night, but for two days, or whatever. Once you are inside whatever perimieter they have, it's all organic, themed, and seamless.

2) As far as the perimeter, I could see a check in kiosk where you get your band/key/whatever (or they verify it.. like they do for the pools), and then after that everything is themed. I suspect there will be plenty of multimedia information pumped out for people who want to know what it looks like, but at that cost.. I don't think you are going to be wandering past a gift shop and a traditional hotel lobby.

For #1 - The adventurers club reference is to cover how the actors could interact and mingle with free moving guests within the space. The idea of entertainment, and adhoc 'shows', without it being a booked 'seat 3a at 3pm' type of thing. Imagine being at the cantina and while your family is enjoying your own drink.. at the far end of the bar and fight breaks out between some alien and a guy in a robe. In the commotion, imagine another actor runs up to your kid and passes them some secret material and tells them they need to complete some task. And in doing so, your family can partake in the action and unlock other experiences at a later time.

For #2 - This is supposed to be a starship. I don't see the areas people are using once 'inside' to be anywhere near the spaces where people enter the facility. There will have to be transitions and other schemes to support the story. Disney can sell the concept at 'base station' if need be or other places... but I don't see this mingling at all with people who are already on their 'journey'.

 

[Kamikaze]

i dont see why they'd MAKE you stay in there the entire time. They want people to spend their money all around the Disney World property.

Because thats what you're spending $500/night/person for. The entire experience. Thats why it starts with putting you in a costume. Obviously they aren't going to prevent you from leaving, but the intent is that you stay in the resort for the duration of your stay.

 

[Bairstow]

1) I don't think it will be much like Adventurer's club. That was a theme bar, if I'm thinking of what you are talking about. This won't be little shows and vignettes you stop at. The whole shebang will be the vignette. Think locked room mystery night, but for two days, or whatever. Once you are inside whatever perimieter they have, it's all organic, themed, and seamless.

My money's on a combination of large and small-scale vignettes and "show scenes", with the more elaborate elements clustered in the mid-afternoon and evening, near meal times. The experience will aim at seeming organic and spontaneous but there will have to be considerations made to staffing costs and schedules, as well as the way people tend to behave on vacation.

I'm envisioning a lot of the stuff available to guests all day being basically videogames- call them "simulators" or whatever. Gotta keep all those kids occupied between sets somehow.

 

[Kamikaze]

For #2 - This is supposed to be a starship. I don't see the areas people are using once 'inside' to be anywhere near the spaces where people enter the facility. There will have to be transitions and other schemes to support the story. Disney can sell the concept at 'base station' if need be or other places... but I don't see this mingling at all with people who are already on their 'journey'.

This is easily fixed with themed elevators a la DisneyQuest. The elevators are transporting you to the ship. When you go to the lobby you're back on the planet.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney tends to be non-confrontational turned up to 11 which has me doubting a 100% resort guest only policy for the entire resort. Restaurant...maybe, but I still doubt it.

This is because people can't get 'hotel' out of their head and are used to what a Disney resort is.. in terms of open shopping, dining, lobby, etc. Pretty much everything in this concept goes counter to those previous notions of what accessibility at a resort is.

Why is it hard to imagine that from the street, you could only goto a 'base station' and there is no freedom of public access beyond that structure?

 

[Maeryk]

For #1 - The adventurers club reference is to cover how the actors could interact and mingle with free moving guests within the space. The idea of entertainment, and adhoc 'shows', without it being a booked 'seat 3a at 3pm' type of thing. Imagine being at the cantina and while your family is enjoying your own drink.. at the far end of the bar and fight breaks out between some alien and a guy in a robe. In the commotion, imagine another actor runs up to your kid and passes them some secret material and tells them they need to complete some task. And in doing so, your family can partake in the action and unlock other experiences at a later time.

For #2 - This is supposed to be a starship. I don't see the areas people are using once 'inside' to be anywhere near the spaces where people enter the facility. There will have to be transitions and other schemes to support the story. Disney can sell the concept at 'base station' if need be or other places... but I don't see this mingling at all with people who are already on their 'journey'.

pulled completely from my 4th point of contact, but say it's a hyper shuttle hopping between places.. and you stage how often people enter the "starship". So every two hours it "stops" at a new "starport" (or whatever) and you get a new batch of travelers who are sent to their berths... and some others who are exiting at that "starport".

The staging also makes sense, as the blurb/info seems to indicate costuming of some sort is part of the experience, and they'd have to issue you/outfit you with your stuff.

I'm thinking like the staging room in a laser tag arena, more or less.

 

[flynnibus]

This is easily fixed with themed elevators a la DisneyQuest. The elevators are transporting you to the ship. When you go to the lobby you're back on the planet.

I know.. but that's kind of my point. The 'outside world' and 'inside world' are separated... not freely commingling or just looking across the lobby.

 

[Glasgow]

I'm guessing the standard rooms will be in the Trash Compactor.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Again.. simply look at the cruise lines.

Wait a sec. Are you saying that when I'm on a cruise ship out in the open sea I can't leave it? What if I want to go for a 15 mile run or eat at some non-ship restaurant? That's ridiculous!!!!!