News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[MisterPenguin]

The key difference between a LARP and a Disney parks experience is this - in a LARP you play a character, in Disney you come as yourself.

Tell that to all the princesses who show up!

And by princesses, I mainly mean me.

 

[FoodRockz]

Have they replaced the Emma Watson impersonator voice they got off Craigslist yet?

Dang it, I gave it my best shot! They gave me TWO free butter beers for those recordings.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I'm wondering why Disney didn't build the Starcruiser within walking distance to Galaxy's Edge? Then the simulator transport up to the ship could have three exits (or two exits and a movable wall on the Earth/GE side to direct guests one way or the other). One leads into the Starcruiser, another leads back to check-in/Earth, and the other to Galaxy's Edge. Theme the exit similarly to what's being done for the trucks. Departures from the Starcruiser on Day 2 exit to GE. Day 1 and 3 exit to Earth. With this setup, Disney doesn't need to develop specialty ground transport or pay a driver. It's also simpler and cheaper than what's being implemented.

This would have been amazing but the land is probably all earmarked for future theme park expansion, ironic since they’ve managed to do park hotels at DLP and Tokyo which are both much smaller than WDW.

An hour of after hours access solely for hotel guests would also be incredible, a couple hundred people running wild for an hour might convince me it’s worth the price.

 

[MrPromey]

Tell that to all the princesses who show up!

And by princesses, I mainly mean me.

Now careful - you need to make clear to everyone that you're just 'bouding or you might get flagged for breaking the rules.

 

[Skywise]

Now careful - you need to make clear to everyone that you're just 'bouding or you might get flagged for breaking the rules.

It's like a bad Monty Python skit ... er... larp...
"I feel like bounding!"
"No no... there'll be no bounding here!"

 

[Casper Gutman]

The key difference between a LARP and a Disney parks experience is this - in a LARP you play a character, in Disney you come as yourself.

I’d have LARPed in GE if they’d included all the complex planned elements and systems that were meant to encourage and facilitate LARPing. But those got cut from the budget and the concept was stuck behind a five thousand dollar paywall.

They’ve had very cool, quite advanced systems ready to facilitate theme park LARPing ready to go for several years - centralized databases tracking guests choices in the story and character details that could be instantly transmitted to each CM so their interaction with guests could be custom tailored, for instance. It’s something the Magic Bands could actually have been used for to improve the guest experience. There have been repeated plans to implement the systems, and they have been cut each time. With its dedicated cast and small size, I’d be very surprised if they even show up in the Starcruiser.

 

[TP2000]

Isn't visiting a theme park at least a mild form of larping? Doesn't every land, ride, and meet and greet involve some amount of playing along?

Or do you all just walk beneath the sign, "HERE YOU LEAVE TODAY AND ENTER THE WORLD OF YESTERDAY, TOMORROW, AND FANTASY," cross your arms and say, "NOPE- it's all just a paved over swamp!"

Well, I've been visiting Disneyland and WDW for many decades now, so I'll bite at this interesting question...

Setting aside the current park rules that forbid customers from showing up in themed Disney costumes, or attracting too much attention from other customers...

As someone who had no idea what "LARP" meant until a month or so ago when I first visited this thread, I don't think a visit to Disneyland or WDW is anywhere near a LARP experience. Or at least how the park was designed to operate by Walt and his 1953-56 first generation Imagineers, or successive generations of Imagineers in other parks.

While Americans in the mid to late 20th century knew what was expected of the audience at a movie theater or stage play (you sat politely, you shared your popcorn with your date, you didn't smoke a smelly cigar), Walt was inviting the audience at Disneyland to take a step into the environment, but they weren't ever expected to become part of the environment. If that makes sense?

People don't flock to Disneyland or WDW expecting to dress up in period costumes, or be edutained as they would at our nation's finest living history museums like Colonial Williamsburg. It's a far more casual expectation from the Disney theme park paying audience. Can you find a fun, unique little moment once in awhile when Gaston play acts with your boyfriend over a pushup contest? Or when one of the Ugly Stepsisters flirts with your husband? Or when a particularly perky CM really gets into it by yelling "This way recruits!" as he loads his 78th shuttlecraft of the day? Sure.

But is a LARP type experience, even a dramatically minimized LARP experience, a part of the average expectation for the 75,000 people who stream into Disneyland or WDW's Magic Kingdom every day? I don't think so. Walt had invited them to step into a living movie set and let the CM's operate the show for them. Walt did not expect his paying guests to become an actor in that living show and pretend to help their Jungle Cruise Skipper fight off the attacking Hippo with a second Colt pistol from the back of the boat.

 

[SplashJacket]

Well, I've been visiting Disneyland and WDW for many decades now, so I'll bite at this interesting question...

Setting aside the current park rules that forbid customers from showing up in themed Disney costumes, or attracting too much attention from other customers...

As someone who had no idea what "LARP" meant until a month or so ago when I first visited this thread, I don't think a visit to Disneyland or WDW is anywhere near a LARP experience, or at least how the park was designed to operate by Walt and his 1953-56 first generation Imagineers, or successive generations of Imagineers in other parks.

While Americans in the mid to late 20th century knew what was expected of the audience at a movie theater or stage play (you sat politely, you shared your popcorn with your date, you didn't smoke a smelly cigar), Walt was inviting the audience at Disneyland to take a step into the environment, but they weren't ever expected to become part of the environment. If that makes sense?

People don't flock to Disneyland or WDW expecting to dress up in period costumes, or be edutained as they would at our nation's finest living history museums like Colonial Williamsburg. It's a far more casual expectation from the Disney theme park paying audience. Can you find a fun, unique little moment once in awhile when Gaston play acts with your boyfriend over a pushup contest? Or when one of the Ugly Stepsisters flirts with your husband? Or when a particularly perky CM really gets into it by yelling "This way recruits!" as he loads his 78th shuttlecraft of the day? Sure.

But is a LARP type experience, even a dramatically minimized LARP experience, a part of the average expectation for the 75,000 people who stream into Disneyland or WDW's Magic Kingdom every day? I don't think so. Walt had invited them to step into a living movie set and let the CM's operate the show for them. Walt did not expect his paying guests to become an actor in that living show and pretend to help their Jungle Cruise Skipper fight off the attacking Hippo with a second Colt pistol from the back of the boat.

I'd argue the most memorable moments are when those LARPing moments occur. When characters become characters and not just figures. My two favorite Disney moments were when First Order officers harassed my dad, and the other was when I was a little kid (maybe 5 or 6) and I was dressed up as Pinnochio. We went to the parks on multiple different days and met Pinnochio multiple times. Once at Magic Kingdom, once at Hollywood Studios, and once during the parade. At Hollywood Studios Pinnochio saw me, grabbed my hand, and paraded me around the animation building, hopping along as he did in the movie. At that moment, in that little boy, the magic was real to me. My most impactful moments to me at Disney were not actually riding Rise, or Shanghai Pirates, but essentially pretending to be someone else in a world of someone else, which for all intents and purposes, is LARPing.

 

[Mac Tonight]

LARPing is just the fancy adult word for “pretending”.

 

[fradz]

Well, I've been visiting Disneyland and WDW for many decades now, so I'll bite at this interesting question...

Setting aside the current park rules that forbid customers from showing up in themed Disney costumes, or attracting too much attention from other customers...

As someone who had no idea what "LARP" meant until a month or so ago when I first visited this thread, I don't think a visit to Disneyland or WDW is anywhere near a LARP experience. Or at least how the park was designed to operate by Walt and his 1953-56 first generation Imagineers, or successive generations of Imagineers in other parks.

While Americans in the mid to late 20th century knew what was expected of the audience at a movie theater or stage play (you sat politely, you shared your popcorn with your date, you didn't smoke a smelly cigar), Walt was inviting the audience at Disneyland to take a step into the environment, but they weren't ever expected to become part of the environment. If that makes sense?

People don't flock to Disneyland or WDW expecting to dress up in period costumes, or be edutained as they would at our nation's finest living history museums like Colonial Williamsburg. It's a far more casual expectation from the Disney theme park paying audience. Can you find a fun, unique little moment once in awhile when Gaston play acts with your boyfriend over a pushup contest? Or when one of the Ugly Stepsisters flirts with your husband? Or when a particularly perky CM really gets into it by yelling "This way recruits!" as he loads his 78th shuttlecraft of the day? Sure.

But is a LARP type experience, even a dramatically minimized LARP experience, a part of the average expectation for the 75,000 people who stream into Disneyland or WDW's Magic Kingdom every day? I don't think so. Walt had invited them to step into a living movie set and let the CM's operate the show for them. Walt did not expect his paying guests to become an actor in that living show and pretend to help their Jungle Cruise Skipper fight off the attacking Hippo with a second Colt pistol from the back of the boat.

I think he expected guests to have fun, reconnect with their loved ones, behave, dress in a "smart" attire and not disturb other guests' enjoyment with their bull. But maybe that's just me. (= I agree with you)

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I'd argue the most memorable moments are when those LARPing moments occur. When characters become characters and not just figures. My two favorite Disney moments were when First Order officers harassed my dad, and the other was when I was a little kid (maybe 5 or 6) and I was dressed up as Pinnochio. We went to the parks on multiple different days and met Pinnochio multiple times. Once at Magic Kingdom, once at Hollywood Studios, and once during the parade. At Hollywood Studios Pinnochio saw me, grabbed my hand, and paraded me around the animation building, hopping along as he did in the movie. At that moment, in that little boy, the magic was real to me. My most impactful moments to me at Disney were not actually riding Rise, or Shanghai Pirates, but essentially pretending to be someone else in a world of someone else, which for all intents and purposes, is LARPing.

That's a great memory - but can I ask you to clarify something? Is the joy of that memory that you got to become Pinocchio that day, or that you got to be FRIENDS with Pinocchio that day? Not insisting, genuinely asking, because there's a core difference between those two.

In a LARP, everyone's in on the gig, and you're an active participant in conjuring and keeping the vibe intact for everyone else. They play their part and you play yours - It is part of your responsibility to make that magic real for you and others, and to not be the one to break it.

At Disney, you show up as yourself and get to have the magic made real for you, by people who worked very hard to create circumstances where you could believe it, despite all your prior lived experiences. If any part of you wasn't sure you could ever skip along with Pinocchio, that day it was made clear you could. But that's less like LARPing and more like seeing a magic trick, done by convincing magicians.

There's a difference between 'Pinocchio taking you along on an adventure' and 'strolling into the Magic Kingdom and telling everyone you are Pinocchio today, and expecting them to play into it' - the second one is more like LARPing.

All this to say, I wonder the extent to which Galactic Star Cruiser guests will be encouraged to, say, develop a character for the journey, vs. just showing up as themselves and experiencing the unfolding events.

 

[Married5Times]

I'm wondering why Disney didn't build the Starcruiser within walking distance to Galaxy's Edge?

I see you and raise you........

once I heard about the prospects of a themed hotel I just assumed it would have been built attached directly to or actually inside 'Star Wars Land"

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The difference is people have experienced the AKL and it's on youtube etc, the Starcruiser isn't. Some are showing genuine concerns based solely on what's been shown during marketing, even though that's not very much at all. Nobody has any idea what the actors will be like, how much participation is required or how good or bad the experience will be. Depending on whether you're going for 2 days of luxury over 2 days of fun 'playing Star Wars' will also dictate the vale for the asking price.

This hasn't stopped some declaring it a flop from practically day 1, much like 'Avatarland'. Remember that, "The land nobody wants or will go to because everyone hates the movie". Even though the movie made more than most other movies people still insisted that "Everyone hated it though". Always seems packed when I visit the land and guests seem to love at least one of the attractions, big style. Sometimes guessing how bad something is doesn't always work.

I have booked a room at DAKL many times and enjoyed everything there…and saw what went into building the facility and amenities prior to opening. It was great…done seen it wit my own eyes…but it is a consumer relationship. I BUY x and they provide y.

a colonoscopy is an “experience”…totally different ball game.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm wondering why Disney didn't build the Starcruiser within walking distance to Galaxy's Edge? Then the simulator transport up to the ship could have three exits (or two exits and a movable wall on the Earth/GE side to direct guests one way or the other). One leads into the Starcruiser, another leads back to check-in/Earth, and the other to Galaxy's Edge. Theme the exit similarly to what's being done for the trucks. Departures from the Starcruiser on Day 2 exit to GE. Day 1 and 3 exit to Earth. With this setup, Disney doesn't need to develop specialty ground transport or pay a driver. It's also simpler and cheaper than what's being implemented.

The easy answer: because it would create a scenario where they would have to run the park to service it. Money.

I’m open to any other suggestions?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

We're all here posting daily on a fan site.

Welcome to the cult.

I give you a C- on this assignment. You turned it in…but you didn’t formulate your argument correctly

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What HWE really is, deep down to its core, is a cash grab to pull money out of Potter fans to make them pay the extra for a hopper ticket, because, that's the only way you can 'ride' it.

I agree…it’s also was built on a core part of the story - books and then companion franchise - to deliver what a fan would want.

that just might matter?

 

[correcaminos]

I don't even see this as truly LARPing myself. That's usually what I associate with game playing. This is somewhere between LARPing and Cosplay to me. Granted some are using LARPing because you are creating your own immersive character but unlike real LARP you don't really have to. You don't have to dress up if you don't want to. You can be on the sidelines watching and making this a themed cruise if you want to. Will some be more like full blown LARPing? Sure. Will some be more like cosplay? Absolutely. Will some be neither? Yep.

No matter what this isn't the same at all as doing parks.

 

[SWGalaxys_Edge]

All of you complaining about the $6,000+ price tag - I assume you are not going to the Superbowl either?
Lots of other people are and will pay these prices for 3 hours.

• No Food included
• No rooms included
• No transportation included

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

All of you complaining about the $6,000+ price tag - I assume you are not going to the Superbowl either?
Lots of other people are and will pay these prices for 3 hours.

• No Food included
• No rooms included
• No transportation included

View attachment 618484

…somebody else want to take this one?

 

[Disneyhead'71]

When talking about pricing and things like the SW hotel and Superbowls, market value goes out the window and you get "Passion Pricing". Which is ridiculous prices that the average Joe will balk at, but to some will be totally worth it they love what ever it is, and they have the expendable income to indulge their passion.