News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[Fido Chuckwagon]

It’s not all bad… The failure of this could prevent my precious splash mountain from getting a terrible, haphazard overlay

Honestly it makes it more likely. I’ve said forever that the overlay is going ot be little more then repainting the existing animatronics and changing the music. That seems more and more likely.

 

[Diamond Dot]

I love Star Wars, have done since the first movie came out, but, there is absolutely no way I'm forking out that kind of money for a two night stay, but, if you have the money and the inclination I'm not going to criticise anyone for doing it.

 

[GimpYancIent]

The Galactic Star Cruiser experience, sadly, has become / evolved into something that needs to fail in order to shake (shock) some sense into Disney management. The disconnect between Disney management and the realities of customer / guest / fan satisfaction is steadily growing. Not a good state of affairs for an entertainment conglomerate.

 

[LovePop]

The May 4th sailing not being sold out makes this a failure.

Disney can fix that problem by waiving the 90 day cancellation policy for the first 3 months. It's not reasonable to have such a strict cancellation policy for an experience that's sight unseen, in the midst of virus surge, with the promo pulled but not replaced. In fact, they are reducing the booking requirements for the regular Disney cruises right now, so why not the Starcruiser too?

 

[LovePop]

It’s not all bad… The failure of this could prevent my precious splash mountain from getting a terrible, haphazard overlay

Delay maybe, not prevent.

 

[LovePop]

I love Star Wars, have done since the first movie came out, but, there is absolutely no way I'm forking out that kind of money for a two night stay, but, if you have the money and the inclination I'm not going to criticise anyone for doing it.

It's not like criticize. More like warn: you sure this looks good to you? Once it opens and the reviews are out, there won't be any further need for warning. By then, anybody who books obviously think it looks worth 3K/night. There are a lot of expensive stuff in the world, and there's nothing wrong for anybody to buy them.

 

[DCBaker]

 

[Diamond Dot]

It's not like criticize. More like warn: you sure this looks good to you? Once it opens and the reviews are out, there won't be any further need for warning. By then, anybody who books obviously think it looks worth 3K/night. There are a lot of expensive stuff in the world, and there's nothing wrong for anybody to buy them.

If you read my post properly you would see I said exactly that, all I said was that it wasn't for me, but, all power to those who choose to. I just looked at the prices for the new Space restaurant and at $79 (+tax and tips) I'm half and half about doing dinner there, but, I may just treat myself once I see the reviews come in.

 

[LovePop]

The Galactic Star Cruiser experience, sadly, has become / evolved into something that needs to fail in order to shake (shock) some sense into Disney management. The disconnect between Disney management and the realities of customer / guest / fan satisfaction is steadily growing. Not a good state of affairs for an entertainment conglomerate.

What we the guests want Disney management to learn:

1. Bring back cut services such as the DME and fastpass and EMH.
2. Don't fix what ain't broke, such as Splash Mountain.
3. Hire more CMs when phone wait times goes beyond an hour or two.
4. Build a SW hotel that the average guest can afford, and big enough to hold more than the richest 1%.
5. Bring the OT into WDW, it has far more pull than the sequel stuff.


What Disney Management will actually learn from the failure of the Starcruiser:

1. People are not interested in a SW hotel.
2. People are not interested in role playing.
3. People are not interested in an all inclusive hotel in WDW.
4. Star Wars is no longer popular.
5. Star War fans are too toxic.

 

[LovePop]

If you read my post properly you would see I said exactly that, all I said was that it wasn't for me, but, all power to those who choose to. I just looked at the prices for the new Space restaurant and at $79 (+tax and tips) I'm half and half about doing dinner there, but, I may just treat myself once I see the reviews come in.

I wasn't saying you were criticizing. I just mean in general.

 

[LovePop]

This isn't a hotel, though, and it's only 100 rooms.

There is no way Disney would be okay with this being even at 90% occupancy. They designed and planned this to be sold out; that's part of the reason it's the size it is.

I don't think it's a big leap to say that if it's not sold out, then it hasn't sold enough -- especially in the first year or so of operations. Even as someone who's been down on the whole concept (mainly due to the price/value), I expected it to be completely sold out for at least the first 6-12 months.

I don't. I expected it to be sold out the first month, that's it. And will never be sold out again. I said that a year ago, and then again several months ago. The cancellations now would have happened even if the promo videos hadn't been bad, even if the virus doesn't exist. People can't afford it. They are just jumping on the wagon when it first came out to be "part of the action", and then cancelling when Disney asks them for full payment.

If it's not a hotel, then what is it? It's not a ride, and it's especially not a cruise ship. It doesn't go anywhere on land or sea, let alone space. And it's not listed among the Disney cruises.

 

[LovePop]

At 90% capacity, Disney's going to have to cope with only a quarter million dollars a day revenue. Devastating.

It won't be 90%. More like 10% at the current price. And I'm being generous.

 

[OceanBlue]

How many times have you been to GE? I don’t think I have ever been to GE on either coast (thought to fair all my experience except 2 are in WDW) when I haven’t seen or interacted with characters. Storm troopers, Rey, chewie, Kilo Ren. Hell even in merchandise shops I have had CM’s not breaking character when selling items or soda grenades. Is it like being in a LARP, no, but those character interactions have occurred every time I was there.

Not sure how they can have droids running around when there's an over hour wait for a magic shot with the Millennium Falcon snaking through parts of the land and people 50 deep waiting to go into the Dok-ondars. That was my experience there in June 2021, which was way busier than when it first opened on first visit to land shortly after it opened (October 2019).

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Will you have to pay for your own boxes and bags if you buy something in the gift shop?

 

[JoeCamel]

Will you have to pay for your own boxes and bags if you buy something in the gift shop?

Yes, they tried a little while ago to make you think you had to buy a bag. It won't be long

 

[Animaniac93-98]

"Due to supply chain issues, your bed will not have pillows or blankets. However, they can be purchased for an additional $100/person."

 

[Cesar R M]

Of course not. It's like Antarctica. You have to take everything with you when you leave. All your garbage and even your bodily waste.

Poop cruise!

That's why we haven't seen photos or concept art of bathrooms in the cabins -- there aren't any. Ideally you'd hold it until you're on Batuu and can use a bathroom there, but if not, they will have waste bags available.

poop bags are probably an upcharge. Just like how they are claiming "shortage" for not giving bags with the expensive sabers now (while still selling them separately in other stores).

 

[TP2000]

We can only make inferences based on the evidence we have. The evidence we have shows increasing availability for previously sold out months, apparent wide open availability for the mid to late summer, and no public effort by Disney to sell people on this experience as presently offered.

Agreed.

While I doubt the failed marketing push of November/December caused 50% cancellations, it's obvious it caused some cancellations. Probably in a 15% to 25% range, if I were to bet a churro on it.

And even a 20% cancellation rate after they start showing highly curated glimpses of the product is catastrophic. Which is why I am convinced there was legitimate and full-scale panic in the halls of Burbank and WDI back in December. They are regrouping and attempting a relaunch strategy they hadn't planned on.

What's unknown is if they are solely blaming the (admittedly super cringey) Marketing Department for the December failure, or if they realize it's the actual product that is at fault. Bad marketing can cause injury to a product, but if the product itself is flawed all the marketing relaunches in the world can't save it.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Will you have to pay for your own boxes and bags if you buy something in the gift shop?

They’re hand crafted cargo containers from Kessel available for 29.99 gold-pressed bars of latinum credits.

 

[Incomudro]

I don't. I expected it to be sold out the first month, that's it. And will never be sold out again. I said that a year ago, and then again several months ago. The cancellations now would have happened even if the promo videos hadn't been bad, even if the virus doesn't exist. People can't afford it. They are just jumping on the wagon when it first came out to be "part of the action", and then cancelling when Disney asks them for full payment.

If it's not a hotel, then what is it? It's not a ride, and it's especially not a cruise ship. It doesn't go anywhere on land or sea, let alone space. And it's not listed among the Disney cruises.

It's a two day experience.
Think of it as a ride, one that you get to sleep, shower and eat in.