News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[corran horn]

And when the discounts start.

It wouldn't be good to those signed up to pay $5.5K to see future cruises priced at $4K. They would probably have to be at the end of profitable booked cruises to start the discount.

I feel like Disney has done that before with other things and the previous guests just had to swallow it. It happens.

 

[LieutLaww]

Also to note that they are only advertising this for the US, I rang Disney to just enquire about pricing (i'm in the UK) and was told they are not currently pricing outside of the US.

 

[SplashJacket]

I think they would just pull back on the number of cruises first before offering discounts.

Or maybe offer the potential discount only to previous guests.

I hadn’t thought about it, but there’s really very little downside (other than reduced profit) to skip a random week during the year.

Cruise lines could theoretically do the same, but regardless of sailing guests, they still must maintain costly ship infrastructure and feed the crew.

They can literally just close it down and it costs nothing but potential revenue loss.

If bookings do actually slow enough and demand>supply, they can just shut it down for a week to lower costs, and push those people to surrounding cruises. Lot more profitable to have one star cruises with 100% occupancy than two with 50% occupancy.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Actual data:

The number of cruises that are fully booked has pretty much stopped increasing. Up until a few weeks ago, the number of fully booked rooms was increasing... slowly. But has now crawled to a stop.

Ran out of whales? Inflation? <shrug>

For the third week in a row, the number of sold out cruises has not increased.

 

[RoadiJeff]

For the third week in a row, the number of sold out cruises has not increased.

But the price of a gallon of gas sure has.

 

[Indy_UK]

Agreed, where thing like Gas and Groceries rising in price effects everyone, even trips on the Galatia Starcruiser will become a 2nd thought to quite a few

 

[MagicHappens1971]

The people who can afford to take a trip on the galactic Starcruiser are not worried about gas or grocery prices

 

[SplashJacket]

For the third week in a row, the number of sold out cruises has not increased.

Does that mean no cruises are becoming newly fully booked, or does that mean one new cruise is becoming booked every two days (duration of a cruise).

 

[MisterPenguin]

Does that mean no cruises are becoming newly fully booked, or does that mean one new cruise is becoming booked every two days (duration of a cruise).

The former.

The number of two day cruises being marked as fully booked slowed down last month and recently stopped increasing in number.

Theoretically, they could still be getting lots of new bookings, but they're all spread out. Or no one's booking the $8K grand suites and so the cruise is still technically not fully booked.

Or, they're just not getting new bookings like they used to.

 

[UNCgolf]

Or, they're just not getting new bookings like they used to.

If I was betting, this would be my bet. It always felt like something that would be sold out for the first few months and then start to taper off, even if it was an amazing experience (and it is apparently quite good). It has a relatively small customer base at the current price point -- people who can both afford it and also care enough about Star Wars to want to spend 2 days in a Star Wars LARP. There are a ton of Star Wars fans, but who knows what percentage of them both want that kind of experience and can actually afford it.

With that said, inflation, gas prices, etc. is certainly part of it too. People who may have been able to stretch their funds just because they desperately wanted the experience are probably unable to do so at the moment.

 

[GimpYancIent]

There never was, there isn't now and there will not be hordes of Star Wars fans queued up to have the Galactic Star Cruiser experience at the current pricing level. All reviews actually speak well of the experience except the pricing. Participating guests / travelers that have done the experience, regardless of how many times, continuously admit it is expensive. I say get rid of the ridiculous valet parking requirement and redo the pricing model to something actually reasonable. How about developing Star Wars vacation packages in conjunction with the various on property resorts where the 2-day experience is part of the overall stay at a particular resort? A good concept, good experience presented and advertised poorly, and way overpriced.

 

[corran horn]

If I was betting, this would be my bet. It always felt like something that would be sold out for the first few months and then start to taper off, even if it was an amazing experience (and it is apparently quite good). It has a relatively small customer base at the current price point -- people who can both afford it and also care enough about Star Wars to want to spend 2 days in a Star Wars LARP. There are a ton of Star Wars fans, but who knows what percentage of them both want that kind of experience and can actually afford it.

With that said, inflation, gas prices, etc. is certainly part of it too. People who may have been able to stretch their funds just because they desperately wanted the experience are probably unable to do so at the moment.

We had a great time but I can't see doing it again with the same storylines in place - instead of doing what came naturally we'd be cherry-picking things to do in storylines we hadn't yet done.

 

[UNCgolf]

We had a great time but I can't see doing it again with the same storylines in place - instead of doing what came naturally we'd be cherry-picking things to do storylines we hadn't yet done.

I've thought that would be a problem from the beginning -- that even if it's great it would probably struggle to get repeat customers unless they completely change the storylines.

That's certainly doable, but it would require a lot of work and I'm not sure Disney is interested. I think it's more likely they'll slash the price than come up with a whole new storyline that requires retraining a bunch of cast, potentially adding/changing effects, etc., but even then they'll eventually have to do something different.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Almost all of the cruises since opening have been at 90-99% capacity/occupancy. I get that the pricing is outrageous and I would never pay for it but to say it’s a failure is not only a exaggeration but it’s simply not the truth

 

[corran horn]

I've thought that would be a problem from the beginning -- that even if it's great it would probably struggle to get repeat customers unless they completely change the storylines.

That's certainly doable, but it would require a lot of work and I'm not sure Disney is interested. I think it's more likely they'll slash the price than come up with a whole new storyline that requires retraining a bunch of cast, potentially adding/changing effects, etc., but even then they'll eventually have to do something different.

I thought about this when there was a floated idea around changing the eras - what in terms of assets would need to be changed? Some datapad things and scannables, scripts and cast to a certain extent - changing some of the video assets to Empire from First Order - it wouldn't be impossible and I imagine it's why there, on the face of it, isn't TOO much tied into any particular era or storyline. It all could've been the Empire/Vader.

 

[jpinkc]

Vader is and always will be far scarier than EMO Ben. I like Adam Driver but man, I just did not care for Kylo Ren, low rent wanna be Vader. Never once felt he was as menacing or had the presence of Vader.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I thought about this when there was a floated idea around changing the eras - what in terms of assets would need to be changed? Some datapad things and scannables, scripts and cast to a certain extent - changing some of the video assets to Empire from First Order - it wouldn't be impossible and I imagine it's why there, on the face of it, isn't TOO much tied into any particular era or storyline. It all could've been the Empire/Vader.

I think as time goes on they will have no choice but to change the story. Although if you have done it you will know that it is nearly impossible to experience every storyline/ending/experience on one cruise. I’d give it at least another year or two before they invest money into completely changing to the story. Maybe plussing the existing story

 

[corran horn]

I think as time goes on they will have no choice but to change the story. Although if you have done it you will know that it is nearly impossible to experience every storyline/ending/experience on one cruise. I’d give it at least another year or two before they invest money into completely changing to the story. Maybe plussing the existing story

we would do it again in 2-3 years if they did that.

I'm aware of the storylines I missed (we spent no times with Sajas so the Jedi path wasn't gonna happen) but it'd feel like cheating if I cherrypicked it, to be honest.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

we would do it again in 2-3 years if they did that.

I'm aware of the storylines I missed (we spent no times with Sajas so the Jedi path wasn't gonna happen) but it'd feel like cheating if I cherrypicked it, to be honest.

Yea there’s several sub finales based on which path you took,

Spoiler: starcruiser story spoilers

One with Lenka in the engineering room
One with Lt Croy/Stormtroopers in the Engineering room
One with a Saja, Rey and the Yoda holocron in the Lightsaber training room
One with the Captain in the Bridge
I also think there may be one more that I may have missed, possibly Sandro in the climate simulator?

I agree with you though, cherry-picking would feel like cheating and it’s not the point of the experience

There are also little moments and things that you wouldn’t pick up on just one trip, not saying they warrant another booking but just as a statement

 

[corran horn]

Yea there’s several sub finales based on which path you took,
One with Lenka in the engineering room
One with Lt Croy/Stormtroopers in the Engineering room
One with a Saja, Rey and the Yoda holocron in the Lightsaber training room
One with the Captain in the Bridge
I also think there may be one more that I may have missed, possibly Sandro in the climate simulator?
I agree with you though, cherry-picking would feel like cheating and it’s not the point of the experience

There are also little moments and things that you wouldn’t pick up on just one trip, not saying they warrant another booking but just as a statement

Spoiler: story spoilers

I ended up with Gaia's Crew (Gaia, Raithe, and the heist) as well as the Coaxium Smuggler (Raithe on the bridge) and Starcruiser Engineer (Lenka in Engineering)