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News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021
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nickys
Premium Member
When we went to Disney Quest, although there were things you had to pay for, I donāt recall a card we had to use for anything.
Our tickets included unlimited entry, so all we had to do was scan our KTTW cards, like at the parks. Maybe it was different for U.K. tickets though?
Our tickets included unlimited entry, so all we had to do was scan our KTTW cards, like at the parks. Maybe it was different for U.K. tickets though?
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
The original pricing model was short-lived.
When did you first go?
I went the first month it was open as an annual passholder to the parks. They offered a deal to entice us where we got double the cards (double the value to use inside but still for a single admission so it wasn't BOGO in the traditional sense) when we bought entry.
I don't remember when the change was made. Maybe a year after opening? 15 months?
We hadn't gone back for a while but when we did and saw it was changed, I asked what happened to the value on our existing cards and the girl at the ticket booth informed me that for every card with at least one credit left on it, they would exchange that card for a full value ticket.
Under normal circumstances, this was a deal because when they scrapped the pay-as-you-go feature, they increased admission.
For us, because we had two cards each*, that resulted in two entry tickets per-person with no expiration date.
Allegedly, the change was made because of a lawsuit brought on them and the vending partner providing the card system due to patents another company held on the technology. I don't know that to be fact, though.
There was a lot of discussion in fan circles (possibly even in old threads here about it - possibly with me writing way too much when I posted, even then) but that was like 20 years ago so my memory's a little eh on the whole thing.
It could just be that the confusing pricing structure was too hard to explain to casual guests so they were forced by market conditions to change it.
... Just did a quick search and near the bottom of this article, they discuss it briefly. They don't talk about why it was removed though and they say it lasted for a "few years":
https://disneythemeparks.fandom.com/wiki/DisneyQuest
I didn't think it lasted that long but we didn't hurry to go back after the first visit so it's possible two or more years had passed between the first and second visit.
It was way more fun when it became all-you-could-play because you weren't having to decide if Cyber Space Mountain was "worth" using credits to do twice or not anymore but the lines in that first month were non-existent and until its better days were clearly behind it, the lines with the newer pricing were a bummer.
*The whole card swipe concept was new to us on that first visit so we didn't pocket one card and use the other one up. Instead, we used both willy-nilly as we went along which in hindsight was careless but also worked out in our favor.
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nickys
Premium Member
I think it was 2006, or possibly 2007.
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Yeah, it had changed way before that.
In hindsight, it's hard to imagine Disney being anywhere near as generous today as they were then with that exchange.
I'm sure there would have been some calculated value we could have applied to new tickets based on the number of credits left but I can't even fathom modern Disney doing what they did back then.
If I were a newer fan/customer/guest, I'd probably even question the validity of that whole story.
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dmw
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
depends on who you ask
Yup. I'm sure it is making Disney boat loads of money. I am also sure they were hoping it made even more boat loads of money because increase of attendance (covid withstanding) is not where I think they expected it to be.
EeyoreFan#24
Well-Known Member
To play the what if gameā¦they are lucky they pulled the trigger when they did, imagine DHS numbers during COVID without GE open. Either still under construction or with the old shows still running (which probably would be shut down). Even marginal draw compared to expectations is probably successful now.
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
Well speaking for me, myself I and my nuclear family absolutely a success. Been there multiple times and plan to go more. Each time there I see substantial amounts of people roaming about, shopping and in various lines for rides, food and activities. So yes I definitely call it a success. That said, there is always room for more.
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
I am curious to see if guests will be allowed to wear Go Pros while experiencing a Galactic Cruiser voyage?
th
I wouldn't want another guest passively filming at an exclusive hotel at this price. In general the trend of filming at Disney makes me uncomfortable. Being in the background of someone's picture is expected, the random person taking artistic photos ok, but filming other people interacting with characters, or just experiencing their vacation etc and posting video of minor children without consent bothers me. Especially as a parent with people uploading these videos onto public platforms for profit.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
Success and enjoying it are two different things than again success as you allude to is subjective. Successful for you means enjoying it when you visit. Successful for Disney means making money and to a lesser degree guest satisfaction. A success compared to the hype though? Not a chance in my book. Theres not enough kenetic energy coupled with the wierd angle of "your own adventure " vs anything from any of the movies. Can one have fun there? Of course clearly you do. Is it the best themed land in florida? Nope. Is it the most immersive land in florida? Nope. The botched two phase opening also didn't really help things. To round it all out theres just far too many things that were supposed to happen that didn't. If i remodel your bathroom and show you how it will look and how much it will cost and what features it has and than i build it and cash your check but it dosen't have all the features and such? You might be upset. Obviously this is a theme park and there appealing to millions of people not just one person. However they could just not promise things on tape or more so just dont talk much about it until its done. Disney has a bad habbit of loving to milk the media crap out of things so they do little tours and imagineering interviews and all those tid bits as well as regular commercials and such and they say things and show things that get left on the cutting room floor. There would be ALOT less contention if they were more mum on things and just let it develope and than open and there was no misconceptions.
flynnibus
Premium Member
For anyone not already following this debate (and for those of you who are, why? Isn't your time worth more than mine apparently is, typing all of this?) I'd suggest you skip this post.
It won't bring anything meaningful to your life because now I'm just is a potty match with flynnibus that we're both probably too old for.
Anyway, you've been warned.
[catty voice]
I read this earlier and when I had time to sit down and reply now hours later, I noticed some things have changed.
Are you planning to make major edits to this post again or do you feel comfortable that you've cleared up some of the poor logic and contradictions to your own previous post that you originally published, now?
Either way, I won't bother addressing the points you decided to take back and/or change but I want you to know, I saw it.
That said, if you're having to put this much effort into following your own half of the conversation while telling me I'm dead wrong, why don't you just say you don't agree with me and call it a day?
With these examples you've tossed out and are standing behind, I now feel like I have to bother rebuking them - something I'm not going to bother doing with all of it because you've worn me down to just not caring anymore.
[/catty voice]
SMH - WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!
Where Did I say Disney should only ever market Star Wars things at mass market?
Where did I even imply that?
You really need to quit putting words in my mouth.
The only thing I'm saying here is that it doesn't make sense to me that Disney would be doing this the way they are doing it if they're seeing it as a worth-while profit opportunity in isolation (something I go into a lot more detail about below) - that's it!
I feel like it has to be a bigger play than that.
Just as a fun excursion, though, so you don't think I'm hand-waving all your points away, lets talk about one or two of the things you classified as "Premium" previously which you're comparing to this and claiming are themselves, not related to the parks, even though, the connections I was trying to make were not just to the theme parks.
I'd address them all but I'm not getting paid by the word to write this and nobody but you and me care about this debate at this point, anyway:
DisneyQuest?
I went opening month. If memory serves me, admission was somewhere around $30 and included a play card which was essentially an early version of the same kinds they now use in arcades and Chuck E. Cheese all over. When you got admission you got the card with that dollar amount on it that you used for stuff inside.
If you went over that amount in individual experiences (everything had it's own cost), there were stations where you could add value and if you came back another day, you had to pay another admission and get another full card but you could still use the value on the old card if you had anything left on it - you just couldn't use the old one to get in.
I guess it was sort of like an admission and digital version of the old ticket book strategy.
The history of why that changed is pretty easy to find online but when they closed a handful of years ago as an all-you-can-play arcade, the price was what? $45 or part of an add-on to resort stay packages?
Please tell me at what point that was - and I quote (emphasis yours) - a "PREMIUM priced" thing?
Now that we've established Disney Quest was not a premium product like you're saying it was, let's talk about when it opened.
In 1998 Disney did not own Star Wars, or Marvel... or Pixar. They'd only had ABC and ESPN for a little over 2 years and were just starting their maiden voyage of their own cruise line that same year.
They were a far cry from the media behemoth they are today and Comcast had not even attempted their hostile takeover yet.
Remember when Disney was small enough that Comcast almost ate them whole?
Back then, the whole concept behind Disney Quest was going to be a "virtual" theme park in a box that would be regional. They even called the concept an indoor interactive theme park... but yeah, as you say, it had nothing to do with theme parks.
Oh, and where did the first one open?
Wait, I remember - Walt Disney World.
Bonus question: which one did they keep open after they scrapped the concept?
Speaking of things that aren't premium pricing relative to the subject at hand, Disney cruise lines offers largely all-inclusive pricing that can start for around $200 a day per person for a 7 night cruse and only a little more per day on a 3 nighter - easily cheaper than a comparable trip with similar accommodations at WDWs regular resorts+parks+food.
The price can go up of course but it's still cheaper to go on an actual cruise ship that actually takes you somewhere than it is to stay here at WDW and go to theme parks and if your plan is to stay at WDW and do this experience instead - do I need to state the obvious?
Again to be clear, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that - just that your comparison makes no sense as a "PREMIUM" experience.
Ah, and where did they set up their original port to launch from?
That's right, the closest one to Walt Disney World.
And why did they expand? The surprise success of the west coast cruises they launched as a result of their tie into the 50th anniversary of Disneyland?
And what's Disneyland again? It's on the tip of my tongue but I just can't think of it. It's some kind of experiences... something people usually call a... I just can't nail that down right now gosh darn it!
(is this getting annoying yet?)
Again, none of this has anything to do with theme parks, though, right? All pure coincidence, I'm sure.
I wanted to call attention to this line specifically since you're arguing against, yet again, something else I never said. My "hypothesis" has nothing to do with testing price points for theme parks. You can read it again to verify but those are your words - not mine.
I'm not talking about testing anything. I'm talking about price anchoring. Anchoring as it pertains to the parks, the resorts, the cruise lines, Aulani - and probably more I can't think of right now.
I assume if you know what that is, you wouldn't have misread what I wrote. Again, I referenced an excellent book on the subject that goes into academic depth on the subject but the basics are pretty easy to Google.
I expect if you respond, you'll say you already knew about it, though.
Never said everything was. Never said this was (just) about theme parks but since so much of what you've brought up sure seems to be related to theme parks and because you're so insistent on saying none of these things are it's so fun to point out all the obvious ways theme parks clearly played a role.
I'm not sure which pitch meeting you were invited to sit on on or if by "pitched" you mean the rather vague details of what they started out saying they were doing but none of that actually matters because what was built and what is being offered absolutely has to be anchored to WDW since a major element of the core experience is tied directly to admission to a theme park there.
This is a limited (in exclusivity, pricing, and scope) experience that by it's very design has a cap of around, let's say $250 million a year in gross income - not net profit, just gross income - with zero opportunity to expand at the same "premium level" unless they want to start investing in stand-alone GE lands or want to build another one connected to another theme park (which would be only Disneyland, at the moment).
Funny how this thing that has almost no growth potential (maybe they can do a space cupcake party up-charge) by itself and as you say is "not about theme parks" is inextricably tied to one, isn't it?
For some people, $250 million sounds like a lot. It would be life-changing for you and me, of course but lets be real - you're not that naive.
Disney left more cash on the table by streaming the last two Pixar films included with Disney+ without theaters or Premier pricing to keep their yet-to-turn-a-profit service afloat while COVID threw a major wrench in the original content planned for it.
Black Widow grossed $264M over the first 10 days in worldwide theaters (despite Disney+ Premier access not being counted towards that) in the middle of a global pandemic and people are talking like it's a failure.
A number of nearly twice that is casually being batted around as the price tag for the latest-and-greatest e-ticket scheduled to open some day/year in Epcot and I've yet to see anyone argue that is a crazy exaggerated estimate.
Maybe it is but when people have said that, I haven't seen it challenged by anyone.
We don't know what they expect the annual net is going to be but it can't be anything close to $250m.
This is not going to be a lot of money on Disney's spreadsheets and I honestly think if their goal was to make this hold it's own on a piece of real estate in Reedy Creek, dollar-for-dollar, they'd have gone a very different way.
All that said, I could see the Disney of 1998 tying to pop this kind of experience up as a standalone (built to actually work standalone) in a few major areas across the country when they were the company that made most of their money on theme parks and un-vaulted animated movies.
It would have been a major potential growth opportunity for that Disney if it worked although I think even they would have gone a lot less ambitious with it and pricing would have been a lot less premium.
But this isn't that Disney and this isn't something this Disney has created with a clear path to expand in any direction.
Today's Disney Co. doesn't bother with standalone things like DisneyQuest, though - they just build more theme parks in other countries and use the cookie-cutter-attraction-they-can-clone-to-shave-costs approach they seemed to have worked out in their DisneyQuest attempt, instead.
After considering all of this, I stand by my belief that this can't be just about making money on this experience.
And if it is about standalone revenue, why are the most interested people here who are ready to pay the announced pricing discussing ideas like how it would make more sense to tack this on to the beginning or end of their stay, visiting the parks before or after rather than this just being all they'd be coming to Florida to do?
Yeah, I'm sure this has nothing to do with theme parks or resorts the size of Manhattan. It could have gone anywhere. I'm sure Texas and NY were close contenders to WDW when they were deciding where to put this thing.
Anyway, done wasting my time - feel free to have the last word if you want and as you put it, tear this down, too.
Have fun!
*Understanding that concept makes a lot of things make more sense - like the initial launch of the Apple watch including a gold-alloy version starting at $10,000 that most of their stores didn't carry, which you had to make an appointment to even see, and which they scrapped once it had served its intended purpose.
In the case of WDW, and ways they already do this, the base single day ticket price is the perfect anchor for comparing a longer stay visiting a Disney park vs leaving and visiting their competition during a trip to Florida because Disney has Universal pricing their single day tickets to compete with Disney's single day tickets but if you've got a length of stay pass, you know where that tipping point is where the Disney park admission drops like a rock in comparison.
Such ticket price differences may not be enough to deter the average person here but at the same time, very few people on this forum pay single-day face value for their admission to WDW parks though it's seldom discussed.
edits were for fixing mobile typing mistakes genius.
you donāt say dcl is cheap or not by comparing it to star cruiser- but to itās peers. All of those products were launched at premium price points - even DQ. DQ failed - doesnāt change has it was positioned and launched.
as for your mass market point - what is it then? Whatās the point of bringing it up if you donāt think it is a source of conflict? Be it pricing or availability- just because it is a wildly appreciated brand doesnāt mean every offer needs to be broadly accessible.
and as for starcruiser having to be at wdwā¦ you are taking an outcome and with hindsight assuming that is the only way ā itās not. The excursion element is not the linch pin in it - it was even presented like a ābonusā. It was not the lead or the big hook in why one should do this kind of experience
the 360 immersive concept is not married to the theme parks. Sure there are benefits and synergies- but it is not what makes the concept worth pursuing.
this concept is more like a DQ or broadway production then a new movie or new attraction. It is disney branching into new entertainment concepts. That is why i said āits not all about theme parksā and why the pricing strategy really doesnāt belong in a conversation about theme park strategy or length of stays. The pricing is based on existing tolerance and baseline experiencesā¦. Not about future wdw resort interlocks
corran horn
Well-Known Member
All I know is it ain't like dustin' crops.
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
The Galactic Cruise has it's place, its biggest and most controversial fact is the price point. Some folks will spare no expense to partake of the experience. By all means enjoy! I believe Disney would do it self a huge favor by, in addition to the Galactic Cruise and the Black Spire outpost on Batuu an actual Star Wars themed Hotel / Resort was developed i.e. themed after Endor or go opulent with the Royal palace of Naboo. Such a well rounded set of offerings would compliment each other.
donsullivan
Premium Member
This is probably buried somewhere in this tread but I can't find it. I'm not likely to be the type who will want to spend the money on something like this but I will be curious how restrictive they are about access to those not staying there. I get the impression, if you are not a paying guest you will not be welcome to 'board' which will be a new and interesting twist to the whole thing.
I acknowledge this is a totally different and 'experimental' thing for Disney that comes with a lot of risks. I'm curious whether it attracts Star Wars fans who are not necessarily Disney World fans which seem who they are actually after. This is not built for the average WDW guest, nor were they ever expected to stay there. This was built for uber Star Wars fans who want to experience a Star Wars world not necessary go to Disney World.
I'd just like to be able to go on board to experience the restaurant even if I'm not staying for the whole experience but it sounds like the model will not support that.
I acknowledge this is a totally different and 'experimental' thing for Disney that comes with a lot of risks. I'm curious whether it attracts Star Wars fans who are not necessarily Disney World fans which seem who they are actually after. This is not built for the average WDW guest, nor were they ever expected to stay there. This was built for uber Star Wars fans who want to experience a Star Wars world not necessary go to Disney World.
I'd just like to be able to go on board to experience the restaurant even if I'm not staying for the whole experience but it sounds like the model will not support that.
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It was made clear just recently: No visitors.