News Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser coming to Walt Disney World 2021

[donaldtoo]

I was going to make a similar comment, sounds like he’s been talking to the motion picture side of the company, they blamed the audience for their failures also.

Imagine the arrogance required to blame the customers when the product you design fails.

Yea, I thought knowing your audience was a prerequisite for people in positions like his, not ignoring your audience, and then trying to tell them how stupid they are for not wanting what you think they should want, because your so much more brilliant than them. Where does this clown get off, already…?!?!?!

 

[donaldtoo]

View attachment 777935

Yep, I caught ‘im too…!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Agreed.

I can be gracious and say that the physical facility was about 85% of the way there. The bridge needed some help so it looked less like it was built by Fisher Price. And the Crown of Corellia Dining Room needed to be plussed up desperately, with at least a couple of windows looking out into space and a more luxurious decor, but overall the ship was just about there from a physical set standpoint. And that stuff could have been easily fixed.

What was absolutely a cheap-out and example of tacky executive leadership was the lackluster training and management of the CM's, their downscale dental hygienist uniforms, the lack of detailing in presentations and aesthetics. The end result wasn't Star Wars, it was perky college program kids using 2020's American slang and phrasing to lead chintzy group activities that were jarringly contemporary instead of immersively fictional. And where were the roaming droids?

Just like Bob Chapek cancelling all the planned entertainment and characters and showmanship for Galaxy's Edge, and then telling us with a straight face that the 19 year old snack bar CM will be "pulling us into their story" instead and we'll like it just as much as professional entertainment.... the Galactic Starcruiser appeared to do the exact same visionless and cheap-butt thing and make the perky girl leading line dancing try to carry the Star Wars story without giving her proper training or proper front-line management or proper investment in her role to pull it off.

And now, Josh D'Amaro rewrites history and tells us it's our fault as customers for not getting it?!? Classic.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Yes, us great, unwashed masses are too stupid to understand their grand brilliance.

I remember myself and others trying to explain over and over the concept to the people on these forums and they still said, "No pool?!"

So...

 

[MisterPenguin]

Simply put, good storytelling doesn’t require explaining or “homework”.

I'll go back in time and tell Walt to cool it with the "We call it EPCOT" or the "We call in Imagineering" nonsense. It should be self-explanatory.

 

[Mireille]

We may have vastly different expectations for what "premium product" means.

I'm not seeing "premium" in anything related to the Starcruiser experience, at the similar price points of a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton premium experience. And for truly world-class premium corporate hospitality experiences like you would find at an Aman property or a Belmond experience?.... Heck no.

The Starcruiser experience was "premium" if you consider the concierge lounge in your average airport Hilton to be "premium". But if that's your standard for "premium", no wonder the Starcruiser failed so spectacularly with its audience who could afford it. They'd likely stayed at a Four Seaons before, or flown at least Business Class a few times on Air France or Singapore Airlines, and traveled overseas and done some expensive swanky things in cities like London or Tokyo, and thus knew what that price point actually should have gotten them for something labeled "premium".

But the most troublesome thing in that CNBC interview is that Josh didn't say that, and instead blamed his customers for not getting his team's failed vision of pricy mediocrity.

Maybe premium is the wrong word, but comparing Starcruiser to a Four Seasons or Ritz does show that you don't understand what it was supposed to be. And that's not your fault, they absolutely didn't know how to advertise it. It wasn't until I listened to a podcast where a guest explained his experience that I really even understood it, and that was after they had announced the closure. On top of that, the number of people who would consider what they were offering worth the money was never going to keep it going for long. It seems it was made for theater kids and improv comics who are also huge Star Wars fans who also have $5k to drop on a 2-night experience. Not a huge number of those and a large percentage of those that exist were probably already working there.

In the end, I think it was a creative and risky attempt at a new experience that the business side just could not figure out how to market or price. But for all the people saying Disney plays it too safe and doesn't try new things, this was absolutely something new and the speed at which it failed showed it wasn't safe. They need to take the lessons from this failing and not let it deter them from taking more chances like this.

 

[donaldtoo]

I remember myself and others trying to explain over and over the concept to the people on these forums and they still said, "No pool?!"

So...

Ahh, you and the other “enlightened ones” tried to ‘splain it to them, huh…?
Never mind that every modern, large, sea-going cruise ship has pools.
Maybe they all saw, or didn’t see, the movie “Passengers”…?!

 

[donaldtoo]

I'll go back in time and tell Walt to cool it with the "We call it EPCOT" or the "We call in Imagineering" nonsense. It should be self-explanatory.

Say “Hi!!!” to Walt for me.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Ahh, you and the other “enlightened ones” tried to ‘splain it to them, huh…?
Never mind that every modern, large, sea-going cruise ship has pools.
Maybe they all saw, or didn’t see, the movie “Passengers”…?!

View attachment 778079View attachment 778080

Have to admit it such effects were possible in actual (safe) application for an experience, wow.

 

[donaldtoo]

Have to admit it such effects were possible in actual (safe) application for an experience, wow.

Have you seen the movie…?
That last gif was when the ship lost gravity, and it was definitely NO fun for her…!!!!!

 

[Dutch Inn '76]

Maybe premium is the wrong word, but comparing Starcruiser to a Four Seasons or Ritz does show that you don't understand what it was supposed to be. And that's not your fault, they absolutely didn't know how to advertise it. It wasn't until I listened to a podcast where a guest explained his experience that I really even understood it, and that was after they had announced the closure. On top of that, the number of people who would consider what they were offering worth the money was never going to keep it going for long. It seems it was made for theater kids and improv comics who are also huge Star Wars fans who also have $5k to drop on a 2-night experience. Not a huge number of those and a large percentage of those that exist were probably already working there.

In the end, I think it was a creative and risky attempt at a new experience that the business side just could not figure out how to market or price. But for all the people saying Disney plays it too safe and doesn't try new things, this was absolutely something new and the speed at which it failed showed it wasn't safe. They need to take the lessons from this failing and not let it deter them from taking more chances like this.

You're right of course. But all this over-analysis is bewildering to me. We'll never know if it could have succeeded, because it was *doomed from the start* because of its price tag. Doomed because of two reasons:

1) *Their natural audience could not afford it.* When I first heard about the idea of the Starcruiser, I was really pumped about it. It seemed like a paid riff on the Adventurer's Club to me, and I *could not wait* to experience it! I was SO excited to try it out...but when the pricing structure was announced I knew it was something that was going to have to wait. "Maybe I can swing it in a couple years." Of course, it wasn't around that long to give me a chance.

2) The people that can afford it, expect a premium experience for a premium price. From all reports, that was not delivered. I guess that's what the Failed CEO was getting at when he said that "the customers didn't understand." Well dude, that's not your customers' fault.

All in all, it's a shame that The Mouse screwed up this *excellent, cutting edge idea.* Now they're going to be less likely to take this sort of risk again - and that is unfortunate.

 

[LSLS]

Josh D'Amaro just went on CNBC this weekend to explain that the reason Galactic Starcruiser was a giant failure was because the customers simply didn't understand it. We were all simply too stupid to understand their vision and their brilliance with the Galactic Starcruiser.

“It was difficult to explain to the public. I think it was incredibly brave for us to move into this space. And this, to me, says Imagineering is still at its best today.” - Josh D'Amaro discussing Galactic Starcruiser on CNBC, April 7th 2024

If only we understood it all. If only we listened to them, and rewatched the marketing videos with Ann Morrow and that young man from The Goldbergs several more times, we could have understood their brilliance and Imagineering prowess.

It's not them, it's us. We're the problem. Let's just hope that Mr. D'Amaro and the WDI team gives us all a second chance to redeem ourselves. Can all of us lifelong Disney fans please commit to trying harder? We owe it to them, apparently.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/07/disney-parks-are-its-top-money-maker-its-spending-to-keep-it-that-way.html

LOL, so Josh has been studying the Billy Corrigan school of excuses. "What I made was amazing, the people just don't understand how great my stuff is."

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Ahh, you and the other “enlightened ones” tried to ‘splain it to them, huh…?
Never mind that every modern, large, sea-going cruise ship has pools.
Maybe they all saw, or didn’t see, the movie “Passengers”…?!

You're proving his point. This wasn't supposed to be like a traditional hotel or cruise stay where you have a lot of downtime to just relax in a pool or on a deck chair or whatever.

The point was to participate in a story during the limited time onboard. When you remove the time spent in Galaxy's Edge it's just over a full day of activity I believe.

Spending the money on this thing in order to go swimming would be a waste and very much misses the point.

Presumably most people would do this as part of a longer WDW stay. They could hit a pool or waterpark after they check out.

 

[donaldtoo]

You're proving his point. This wasn't supposed to be like a traditional hotel or cruise stay where you have a lot of downtime to just relax in a pool or on a deck chair or whatever.

The point was to participate in a story during the limited time onboard. When you remove the time spent in Galaxy's Edge it's just over a full day of activity I believe.

Spending the money on this thing in order to go swimming would be a waste and very much misses the point.

Presumably most people would do this as part of a longer WDW stay. They could hit a pool or waterpark after they check out.

I get all that, but that’s probably part of the reason it failed.
Many, many folks can only afford a vacation once a year, and aren’t going to spend that kind of money to “work” during it, especially for only 2 days. They’re trying to escape work, and relax.
And most, even if they could scrape up the cash for the short stay, then wouldn’t have extra money to extend their stay on property to relax by the pool, etc.

Maybe they could have had a pool with “immersive” ( ) activities and characters, and extended the stay by a day.
You know, they could have had Han in a Speedo, Princess Leia in her bikini, etc.…!!!!!

 

[GimpYancIent]

Have you seen the movie…?
That last gif was when the ship lost gravity, and it was definitely NO fun for her…!!!!!

Yes, I have seen the movie. No, it was not fun for her. However! If such an effect (maybe virtual reality) could be achieved in an entertainment experience it would be a wow. Hey, people ride roller coasters that put high degrees of stresses on the body, mess up equilibrium and balance already.

 

[donaldtoo]

Yes, I have seen the movie. No, it was not fun for her. However! If such an effect (maybe virtual reality) could be achieved in an entertainment experience it would be a wow. Hey, people ride roller coasters that put high degrees of stresses on the body, mess up equilibrium and balance already.

Yes, I wasn’t disagreeing with you, I was just curious if you saw the movie.
The special effects in that scene were pretty crazy.

 

[HoustonHorn]

2) The people that can afford it, expect a premium experience for a premium price. From all reports, that was not delivered. I guess that's what the Failed CEO was getting at when he said that "the customers didn't understand." Well dude, that's not your customers' fault.

I hate to wade back into this discussion, but I feel like I have to correct the record on one point.

The highlighted statement above is untethered from reality based on my personal experience as well as the experience of nearly every poster on this board who actually experienced the Starcruiser.

I understand the gripes of those who thought it looked cheap or dumb or who mocked the admittedly cringe marketing videos.

However, there is no reality where "all reports" showed that this was not a premium experience.

 

[donaldtoo]

I hate to wade back into this discussion, but I feel like I have to correct the record on one point.

The highlighted statement above is untethered from reality based on my personal experience as well as the experience of nearly every poster on this board who actually experienced the Starcruiser.

I understand the gripes of those who thought it looked cheap or dumb or who mocked the admittedly cringe marketing videos.

However, there is no reality where "all reports" showed that this was not a premium experience.

Yea, “From all reports, that was not delivered” just plain isn’t true.

 

[Cliff]

I would love to see the list of names of Disney and Lucasfilm creates and executives that evaluated this project as it was being designed:

Column one = List of people who believed this idea was a great one and thought this hotel was going to be a smash hit using sequel trilogy characters. The people who refused to listen to the early warnings.

Column two - List of people who KNEW this was going to bomb and could see it in their crystal ball but were powerless to stop this from moving forward.

I'd give everybody in column two a promotion and a raise and I would have faith in THEIR decision ability on future Star Wars projects. These are the ones who are more in touch with Disney's customers and Star Wars fans.

 

[rd805]

As big of a fan that I am, i am actually surprised/embarrassed that I never saw this before. This is HORRIBLE. This looks All Star - Wars level dining hall. You're telling me that we all saw the concept art, and they released this? I know the star cruiser got good reviews from the people who were able to try it, but you're telling me they weren't underwhelmed when walking in to THIS cafeteria?!